Hey everyone and welcome to my very first chapter of my very first fanfiction! I hope you enjoy and please respect the story and my feelings. Don't be judgy, constructive criticism only. Drive safe, hang up your coat, tuck your kids into bed and don't leave the fridge open. Enjoy! :)

At seven o'clock in the morning in Ninjago City, there weren't many people up who weren't hurrying to work in order to keep the kids fed, or had just been let out of the drunk tank. Yet, one figure fitted into neither of these categories. This figure was a young man with thick black hair, pale hazel eyes and a fixed stony expression. He wore a plain black hoodie and jeans. To an outsider, he may appear to be a normal man. But this man was far from normal. His name was Cole Brookestone, and he was the Master of Earth.

Cole wasn't tired this early in the morning, despite the fact he had been up all night, tossing and turning, thinking about today. He had left early as well, after giving a brief check in on each of his fellow ninja. Zane had been doing some early morning meditating, Harumi about to take one of her early morning baths which Cole knew from experience would take a while, Lloyd had been in the garage, still teaching himself the electric guitar. He had been so absorbed he hadn't even noticed when Cole stuck his head around the door and watched him for a moment. Jay and Nya had still been asleep, curled around each other in the bed they shared, sparking a small spark of jealousy in Cole's chest. Kai had been sleeping also, lying like a starfish on his front in only a pair of boxers, his blanket just covering his ankles. The only reason Cole hadn't taken a picture was that he wasn't in a joking mood. Not today.

The street Cole hurried down was a familiar one, it belonged to the district he had grown up in. But he wasn't paying a friendly visit home. He was going to the less friendly place at the end of the street. The cemetery.

The grave was still smooth and neat, Cole had kept it this way. At the bottom, a small rose sat in an empty jam jar. Cole allowed himself a slight smile. Dad, he thought. He looked at the grave itself. The words engraved upon it. Ruth Brookestone. Loving Wife, Caring Mother. Sorely Missed. Cole looked at down at his mother's grave cleared his throat.

"Hey mum." He said. "It's me, Cole. Your son." He instantly cursed himself. Of course his mother knew who Cole was.

"Erm, Happy Birthday." Cole said, shuffling from one foot to another, like he did every year. "Things are going well up at headquarters." He continued. "We haven't found Master Wu yet, but we'll never stop looking because ninja never quit." He allowed himself a tiny smile, the sort Jay had on his face when he wasn't in the best of moods but was trying not to show it.

"You know Princess Harumi, right?" He asked. "We she lives with us now, and Lloyd has a thing for her. We can all tell." That was good, Cole thought. Tell her all the gossip, like this was a normal conversation. "He's trying to teach himself guitar, but frankly, he's not very good."

Cole gave a sigh as a mood descended on him, blacker than his kimono. "I can't say I don't miss you." He sighed, kneeling down and placing a hand on the gravestone. "I wish I could see you every time I came home to visit dad. You'd be sat at the kitchen table, brewing one of your famous stews, smiling... just..." Tears poured out of Cole's pale hazel eyes as his words gave way to sobs. He gripped the gravestone so tightly he feared cracking it, but he couldn't control his shoulders shaking as more tears poured out of his eyes. He didn't want to think about it, but he couldn't stop himself, it was coming back to him...

"Daddy sound's good, doesn't he?" His mother asked as she and her nine-year old son watched his father's concert from the other side of the road they were about to cross. Cole was too short to see his father properly, but he could hear him.

"He wants me to be a performer, just like him." Cole told his mother. She turned and knelt down in front of him.

"Well then Coley, what do you want to be?" She asked, looking deep into his eyes.

"I don't think I'm very good at singing." His mother laughed.

"Of course not! You've inherited my singing voice." She muttered something Cole couldn't quite catch, which sounded like: 'that's not the only thing you've inherited'.

"I want to be a good person." Cole told her.

"You mean, like in the stories?" Cole gave a small nod.

"Yeah, I want to be a hero." His mother smiled. It was a beautiful smile, and her pale hazel eyes shone out of it like sunbeams.

"Well then, you be a hero." She said. "And you can make me proud." She stood up and took her son's hand, as they stepped out onto the road.

Cole didn't want to remember the rest. The roar of an engine, her gasp, the screech of breaks, and the last time she ever touched him, shoving him roughly to the pavement. Cole took several deep breaths, trying to contain his tears. He wiped his eyes. Slowly, he stood up. "I'm going to make you proud, mum." He told her, and, with a whispered goodbye, turned to leave.

Only then did Cole realise he was not alone in the cemetery. He blushed at the thought of a stranger seeing him cry, and wiped his face as much as he could. The other person didn't seen to have noticed him, thank goodness, but Cole frowned in curiosity as he observed them. They wore a baggy grey hoodie so he couldn't see their hair or body shape, and from this angle, he couldn't see their face either. They carried a large bunch of roses and appeared to be placing one in front of every grave. Cole felt disappointed that the rose hadn't been from his father, but that begged the question, who had it been from?

"Err, excuse me?" Cole called over, making the figure jump so they dropped the roses. "Oh, I'm sorry." He hurried over and helped to gather the flowers up.

"Thanks." The figure said as they drew down their hood. Cole gave a small gasp. The figure was a girl, about his own age, with dark green eyes and thick, wavy hair, dyed violette with a blue streak down the right side. She smiled at Cole.

"Thank you." She said. "I like to come here some days, and give everyone a rose. Everyone deserves a rose, don't you think?"

"Err, yeah." Cole said. "I saw you put one on my mother, thanks."

"No problem." The girl told him. "I'm Seliel."

"Cole." He told her. Seliel smiled again. It was a beautiful smile, reminded Cole of his mother's. Full of kindness in the exact same way.

"Do you want to help me place the rest?" Seliel asked.

"Yeah, I-" Cole absentmindedly looked at his watch. "Crap, I have to get back!"

"That's fine." Seliel told him. "Can I see you here again?"

"No, not here, I only come here once a year." Cole said. "But there's a great little coffee shop down the road, I could meet you there Saturday, I mean" He rubbed the back of his neck. "It's OK if you don't want to."

"No, I want to. Sounds great." Seliel said, and went back to placing the roses on the gravestones. Cole turned to leave, smiling a great smile to say he had been in tears two minutes ago. As he reached the gates, he stopped and turned back. His mother's grave was just visible. Cole thought of his jealousy of the others, Jay and Nya's happiness, Kai's frequent dates with Skylor, Zane's constant phone calls to Cyrus Borg to check on PIXAL's body manufacturing project, Lloyd's attempts to impress Harumi. He thought of his mother, watching him from above and, like an angel, sending him a chance for all that.

"Thanks mum." Cole whispered, as he left the cemetary.