Authors Notes: Welcome back everyone. This is part 3 of book 3. If you haven't read the first Book it starts at Unready Guardian.

Cover Art by Grumpy-Zane

Zareth belongs to Grumpy-Zane, Inky and Danny belong to me.

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Gold Fields

Fragmented Code

Chapter 16

Sweat

Four Months Later

The sun was barely peeking through the curtains in the only window within the small room Inky and her family shared together. There was a very small kitchen with pots hanging on the wall, two burners, a very tiny oven and a very tiny sink they also had to use to brush their teeth. There was a very small three chair table in the middle of the room. A large shelf with books, and the bunk beds they slept on. It was all they could afford living in a port city like this.

Dareth had his back against the wall and his arm around Inky on the bottom bunk. His light snores are what filled her ears as she began to wake up. He was so warm and the very tiny apartment was incredibly cold. She almost didn't want to leave her warm spot with her adopted father. If she didn't she'd be out of work. Delivering the paper at the crack of dawn was what she did.

Swinging her leg over the side she padded her way to the bathroom. After getting ready she walked out and fished through the basket that was there cabinet/fridge since they had neither. She put a very small cheese roll, grapes, and some bread into a small tin with a bottle of milk before running for the door.

"Inky?" Dareth tiredly turned over. His hand ran over the spot where she had been before. His tired eyes searched the apartment and they locked onto her. He gave her a small smile. Inky walked back over to him and kissed his cheek.

"I'm leaving now."

"Have a good day Punkin."

"Love you dad." She ran toward the door again.

"Love you too." Dareth rolled back over. He didn't have to be up for a few more hours luckily and he and her Uncle Zane had hard jobs. They always came home tired.

Climbing onto her bike she left there hiding spot. A mill out in the middle of a wheatfield. Although at the very moment the field was bare. Soft white patches on the ground. It snowed a little in the night. It wasn't enough to make a snowman. But then again if she really wanted to she could always ask her Uncle Zane.

It was almost like she didn't have time to be a kid. She got up in the morning, Delivered newspapers, came home made lunches for her dad and Uncle and watch them leave for work right afterwards. Her uncle would leave her with assignments to do out of a book he leaves on the table. She wasn't ever aloud to leave the apartment otherwise.

One more thing too. She wasn't Inky at the newspaper place. She was Trevor, she had to hide herself among the town that way no one knew it was her. Her hair was cut short, and stuffed under a hat. Which she didn't mind really. She wasn't one for looking for compliments on the way she looked. Specially when she almost lost her life to…

The fact that she hadn't seem either of her Uncles in months really hurt her. She had trusted them with her life and they tried to kill her. How dare Gaya do that to them. They weren't human, and they weren't really her Uncles but they were everything to her.

Inky stopped just outside the press and gathered a bag full of newspapers and got back onto her bike and road out toward the residential areas she had been throwing newspapers to since she started.

(0)

Dareth had on his thickest cloths, and even a leather suit on over it. A pair of raw gloves on his hands and a pair of goggles. Bringing another white hot rivet over to the plane and held it in place with a long pair of tongs. He pulled back when the first hit struck. He pushed the tongs into a large bucket of water and picked up a cup of water drinking deeply from it.

With Ninjago City in ruins it needed to get as many planes back up in the air.

"You know from how many times that city's been attacked. You figure everyone would move away." Someone said behind Dareth. Dareth turned a little listening in as he picked up the tongs again and fitted again rivet in place.

"Yeah there's not much left to it anyways right Greg?"

"Nah there's still tons there Stu. It's the profit that gets people to stay. You see. We sit here for hours upon hours just for a bit of gold. Barely scraping by. While in the city there's loads more profitable jobs."

"Then what we doing here Greg? We should go to the city." A third guy yelled out and threw down his hammer.

"Because Clyde...I like breathing." He picked up his hammer laughing with the others.

"It's loads more peace and quiet here anyways." Dareth told them.

"What you live there Tony?" A name he used while there.

"Yeah its where my boy was born. Lost my wife there too. Figured if my boy was gonna survive I needed to bring him up somewhere safer." Dareth said.

"I hear ya." They all agreed. They all knew that Inky was his. Although they all thought Inky was a boy.

"But Tony...don't it disappoint you to make so little? Your boy gotta work too." His accent made his wording weird sounding. A very very old dialect.

"He learns an honest days work. It puts food on the table, and a roof over our heads. He'll learn." Dareth said. The guys nodded and heard the horn over there heads marking another day done.

(0)

The air was salty and it stunk like dead fish. Zanes shirt was forgotten off to the side. He had on his human disguise and he tried to make himself look like the other guys as well. Which meant if they took off their shirts so did he. His eyes went from one side of the port to the other. Pushing the piece of metal onto the side of the ship with a few other guys and another set hammered in the rivets. He pulled back and did it all over again. It was an easy job. Far more easier than working as a ninja and a bit more rewarding. Specially when he got a few calls from Pixal over the microwave mobile line so it's untraceable. Plus he got to talk to her in his head still so no one actually hear there conversations.

"So she's about to turn 15 and you don't know what to get her? I'd suggest a lovely dress but I've never seen her wear one." Pixal said. Zane sighed and shook his head.

"Was thinking of some paints...but she never uses them"

"Yo Gibson! Get back to work!" Zane was shoved from behind and landed hard on the railing. He felt his knee bow in and pop.

"Zane...what was that?"

"Oh nothing to be of concern. Talk to you later Pixal. Love you." He hung up with her protesting. He turned over and looked at his pant leg. Oil leaking from it. "Shit…"