(A/N) Hello again! So, I'm sorry I didn't update as much as I thought I would. My family went on a surprise vacation and we were almost always at the beach and I didn't have time to update. To make up for it, I'm giving you a double update. Differences in this chapter include a new scene and expansion on the old stuff. Happy New Year!

Chapter 3

The Monastery

Lex straightened his tie to be completely vertical. The team was dressed to look like runaways from an orphanage: the boys wore grey sweaters with white shirts underneath, black ties, and black pants, while Gretta wore the same top and tie with a black skirt and white leggings. Ted, Drew and Gretta were complaining about how sweaty they were in their uniforms, and Mark was hiding the motorcycle in the trees, yelling at them to shut up. They had reached the forested valley thirty minutes ago, and had stopped when the monastery was in sight to change and to organize themselves. Lex covered his ears from the racket of his teammates around him. Clearly, they were anything but organized. He crept away from the noise so as to think more clearly.

Lex found his way to the edge of the woods and settled himself down in the shade of a tree. He found a small stick and began to work out a square root equation that had just popped into his head. He was just about to finish the problem when suddenly...

"What are you doing?"

Lex looked up from his work to see a small girl at least four years younger than him sitting on the ground across from him. Her reddish-brown hair was pulled back into a tight ponytail, and she wore a light blue dress with little white stripes on it. She was holding a dandelion in her hand, and was looking down at Lex's equation with curious brown eyes. Without much more than a quick glance at her, Lex got back to work. I am not talking to her, Lex thought to himself. I wish she would just go away.

"What are you doing?" she asked again. Lex narrowed his eyes at her, irritated by the repetition of the question. Why couldn't she just leave?! She stared innocently back. He tried to get back to his problem, but he realized he'd lost his place. When she asked a third time, Lex simply got up and walked further away from the trees and into the field. To his dread, the girl followed.

"You look like you are in a school uniform. Did you run away from school? You should never run away from school. My daddy's friend says when he ran away from school, he missed out on finding out he could dance. My daddy's friend is a good dancer. Can you dance? What were you drawing in the dirt? I can draw a house. Can you draw a house?" The girl kept up this constant stream of words as she tailed him through the meadow. Lex covered his ears. He would never understand why anyone would think that they needed to talk so much to him. He wanted her to be quiet and go away, but because he was selectively mute, he just couldn't get himself to talk to other people except for Drew.

Suddenly there was a shout from the direction of the monastery. "Katie? Katie, where are you? Recess is over! Katie?"

"Violet! Violet!" The little girl suddenly grabbed Lex by the wrist and began dragging him in the direction of the voice. "Violet! I found a boy who ran away from his school!" Lex tried to twist his arm free, but the little girl had an iron grip. He stumbled as she led him up the hill. When they reached the top, they were met with another girl. This one was much older; she looked about Drew's age. Her raven hair was pulled back into a tight ponytail, and her emerald eyes bored straight through him. The part that Lex was really worried about was what she was wearing: a black and purple gi.

This girl was a ninja.

She raised an eyebrow at him. "You look too small to have run too far. You must be from nearby. Brooksberry Boarding School? Or maybe Taft Academy? Let me get a better look at your uniform."

Lex ripped his arm free and began sprinting down the hill. He didn't get far, however, before he was violently flipped upside-down in the air. It felt like he was being held by one leg, and there was a large purple sphere encasing him. Then he saw the older girl striding down the hill towards him. She had one arm high in the air, a purple glow surrounding her hand. "You're pretty fast, for a little guy. You're coming with us."

In hindsight, leaving the group was not one of Lex's more ingenious ideas.

"Alright everyone, good lesson! Class dismissed!"

Lloyd watched the students file out of the room, chatting about what cool moves they had just learned and boasting about how well they did on the kick. Slowly, the lesson room emptied, and Lloyd was alone. He let the mask of cheerfulness melt into the gloomy face that expressed the true feelings of his weary soul.

Lloyd didn't like being alone.

When he was alone, there was nothing to distract him from the pain of the past. It hurt to remember all the time he'd spent at Darkly's Boarding School for Bad Boys, how he'd had to be mean just to fit in, how he'd had to pretend that he was someone else for so long that he almost believed it himself.

After his uncle had taken him in, his life seemed to be taking a turn for the better, until he'd been taken hostage by the Serpentine. When Kai finally saved him, he'd only been home on the Bounty for less than ten minutes when he was suddenly no longer a normal kid, he was a prophesied hero: the green ninja.

At first it had seemed cool to be someone foretold by destiny, but it quickly became clear that being the green ninja meant he wouldn't have a normal childhood. He couldn't play with other kids or read comic books or spend an entire weekend watching TV and playing video games. No, he had to train, train, train all day, every day, having no fun. Not to mention the fact that being the green ninja also meant that he had to face and defeat his own father...

It was even more painful to remember how he'd been literally stripped of his childhood, turned into a teenager, and as a result had suddenly found himself even more pressured with fulfilling the prophesy.

It had ultimately been easier for Lloyd to face his father in the end, because Garmadon had been possessed by the Overlord Dragon at the time; Lloyd didn't have to look at his father's pitiful face as he fought him, because his father was dormant inside the Overlord, no longer able to reach out to his son. Once it was all over, and his father was cleansed, their family was finally reunited, and Lloyd could be truly happy for once in his life.

But, sadly, it didn't last, and only two years later, Lloyd found himself on the run from the Digital Overlord, this time with his now-benign father at his side. It was nice to spend some time with his dad, but the constant need to keep moving in order to evade capture always loomed over their heads.

And once he did get caught, he was immediately thrown in an extraction chamber to be drained of his golden power in an excruciating deprivation process. At that point his golden power had become a vital factor in his survival and being deprived of it could potentially kill him. He had barely gotten out of that place alive. Lloyd had been claustrophobic ever since.

After the ninja had erased the Overlord from the system, he'd realized that he couldn't keep all of his power, and had to give it away to his friends, keeping just enough for himself to stay alive.

Of course, then one of his friends died... then suddenly came back...

When they had gone to Chen's Island to find Zane, Lloyd finally wasn't the only one who was a target, they were all in danger. That wasn't exactly a good thing, but at least he wasn't alone.

Then he'd found out that his father was a liar, sending to Lloyd's mother a stolen love letter that he didn't even have the right to see, because Wu had been the one who wrote it, not Garmadon. Suddenly Lloyd was the result of a lie... what could be more painful than that?

Unbelievably, it did get more painful. Only a few days later, his father-

Stop.

Lloyd tried to yank himself out of his memories. He had to stop reliving his past before he got to the time Morro possessed him-

Stop.

Lloyd used to know how to break down his pain. He used to be very good at hiding it.

That all changed seven years ago.

Stop.

It was his most agonizing memory.

Stop!

The night that would haunt him forever, that would never let him be happy again.

STOP.

The night Lloyd lost one of the two most important people in his life.

"Stop!"

Lloyd whirled around and stared at the door. That hadn't come from his head; someone else had yelled in the hallway. He stood frozen, waiting to see if someone was coming in. Then he heard the voice again.

"Stop, Violet! You're hurting his arm!"

"I'm hurting his arm? Katie, you looked like you were cutting off the circulation to his hand when you dragged him over to me!"

The door slid open, revealing two girls, one of them pulling a small boy by the arm that Lloyd didn't recognize. He couldn't have been more than seven, had a pale skin tone, and blonde hair. He also seemed to be wearing a school uniform. A runaway?

"Violet," Lloyd began patiently. He knew harsh tones did not work on his daughter. It was one more way to get into a shouting match with her. "Let go of the poor boy. He looks terrified." She did as she was told. "Thank you.

"Now," Lloyd said, addressing the boy with a smile. "What might your name be?" The boy said nothing. Lloyd tried again. "My name is Lloyd, but the children here call me Sensei. Could you tell me yours?" Still the boy gave no response. "Hey. You can talk to me. I don't bite." He laid a hand on the small boy's shoulder.

That was the wrong thing to do.

In an instant, Lloyd was on his back, having been knocked over by a move that was too fast for him to react to. Violet helped him up, but the boy was already gone. Lloyd was shocked. He tried to think of what could have just happened. How could a scrawny little boy flip the green ninja up and over his shoulder as easily as if he were tossing a coin?

"No one does that to my dad!" Violet yelled. She pulled her hood over her head and raced out of the room. Lloyd stood up and followed, trying to ignore the pain in his back.

"I think I found something!"

Ted was using the computer he'd installed in his glasses to search the area's environment for any signs of what may have happened to Lex. He was quite proud of his glasses. He'd invented them himself when he was only nine. Sensors lined the frames, and the lenses were tiny screens that had five modes: x/y graph mode, x-ray mode, environmental analysis mode, zooming mode, and normal mode. He had it on environmental analysis mode now, and he tapped a tiny button near the hinge as he bent down for a closer look at a patch of dirt. The rest of the team crowded around Ted as he inspected the spot.

Gretta snorted. "Whoever drew that piece of trash has never taken an art lesson."

"It's not a drawing. It's a square root equation," Ted corrected her, pointing at the square root containing 4x plus 3.

Mark picked up a nearby stick. "The tip is covered with mud. It must be the stick that was used," he observed with his keen tracking skills.

Ted looked up at it. After a moment, he said, "I've analyzed the fingerprints with my glasses. They're Lex's, alright."

"But where is he now?" Drew cried, kicking a stone into the bushes. Ted looked up at his friend with a little bit of pity. Drew always got upset whenever Lex was in trouble. They were as close as brothers.

"Calm down, Drew. We'll find him." Ted stood up and looked around the meadow. Suddenly, he saw something. The grass had been parted in a trail that snaked through the field and up and over a hill. "Actually, I think we may have already found him."

The team ran to the top of the hill and found themselves looking down at a tall monastery. It was just like the one they saw in the photo they were given at the island. A waterfall cascaded down the cliff into a small pond behind the building that ran into a waterwheel. A stone wall surrounded the place and the small cottages around it. Inside the front gates of the monastery itself was a large outdoor training course. The four agents hurried through the village and down the cobblestone path to the open front gates. When they reached the grand doors, they pulled them open, shedding sunlight on the scene they had been afraid they would find. There was Lex, pinned to a column by two figures. One wore a purple gi, and the other wore black robes and held a bamboo staff in his hand. That's not good, Ted thought, knowing exactly what would happen next.

Drew snapped into protective sibling mode. "You let go of my little brother!" he shouted, and in the blink of an eye he had crossed the distance between them. In two swift moves, both of Lex's captors were on the floor, gasping from the seemingly split-second attack. "You okay, buddy?" Drew asked Lex, concerned.

Suddenly, the foe in the purple gi jumped up and ran at Drew. "Look out, Drew! He's coming back!" Ted warned.

Drew turned and got in position for a fight, but the purple ninja skidded to a stop five feet from him and turned toward Ted. "Excuse me?For your information, I'm a she."

"What? Wait, take off your hood," Drew told her. The ninja did as she was told. A pale face with green eyes and freckles scowled down at him. Drew took a sharp intake of breath. "You?!" he gasped.

She raised an eyebrow. "Have we met before?" she asked suspiciously.

"No," Drew answered perhaps a little too quickly. There was an awkward silence that was suddenly broken by a loud crash. Gretta had apparently gotten bored, and in an effort to amuse herself, had knocked over a vase sitting on the window sill, shattering it on the ground. Everyone stared in shock.

"Somebody broke that," she said flatly.

The man with the bamboo staff stormed over. "What. In. The. Name. Of. Ninjago-" he sputtered at her. Ted's heart sank lower and lower. The plan was already failing. He couldn't even imagine the Black Dragons' faces when the team would return home with no progress at all-

"Lloyd!"

Suddenly, six people burst into the room. All wore ninja gis - blue, red, silver, orange, black, dark red - and all looked ready for a fight, brandishing a wide range of weapons. The one wearing blue crossed his arms. "Gaah! Lloyd, I thought you said there was only one kid. I see five!"

Another ninja that was - translucent, Ted observed with wonder- said, "One, five, whatever it may be, we have to get rid of them!"

"Wait!" Mark shouted, throwing his hands in the air. "I'm sure we can sort this out without a fight!" The agents waited, holding their breath while the ninja looked at eachother, apparently making a silent agreement. The one wearing orange stepped forward.

"Alright," she said. "Let's start with what you guys are here for in the first place."

Drew sat down on the bed in the room that the ninja had designated as his and reflected on the night's events.

The ninja had sat down with the team. Mark had told them the alibi: he, Gretta, Ted, Drew, and Lex were runaways from a school where they had been mistreated by their teachers and peers. They had heard of Garmadon's old monastery that was now being run by the Ninja and decided to go there and ask if they could join. It was a sappy sob story, but Lloyd had taken pity on them and allowed them to stay.

So now Drew and the rest of his team were students at Lloyd Garmadon's Ninja Academy. They had been shown around the monastery and taken to their new rooms to get settled in. Drew had already unpacked and gotten his pajamas on. He couldn't get to sleep though, even though it was already dark outside. He walked over to the window and stuck his head out. A cool breeze was in the air. Suddenly there was a flash in his vision, and he collapsed on the floor. He was younger, and he wasn't in the same room anymore. He felt alone and helpless as a night from seven years ago began to replay itself in his head.

I remember it well. It was a cold, late autumn night. The sky was covered with clouds so that not one star shone. Even the moonlight was blotted out. The wind howled eerily outside the monastery.

"Drew! Drew! Can you hear me?"

...Then someone screamed downstairs. Everyone, teachers and students, ran toward the cry. When we reached the front hall, we were terrified at the scene before us.

"No, Drew! You're not in danger! There's no one here who will hurt you!"

...They took us out of the vehicle and onto the dock of an unfamiliar island. The night was even colder and darker there than at home. I was afraid.

"Drew! You're in Sensei Lloyd's monastery! Drew! Wake up!"

Drew suddenly awoke, gasping for breath. He was covered in sweat. He looked up. Mark, Gretta, Ted and Sensei Lloyd were all looking down at him with concern. They helped him sit up. He tensed up a bit, since he hated being touched. "What happened?" the teacher asked. Lloyd tried to put a hand on his shoulder, but Drew shrunk away.

"Dozed off," Drew panted.

Gretta crossed her arms. "Don't lie Drew. We all know you were having a flashback. Dozed off - please. You were screaming!"

Sensei Lloyd looked at Ted. "Has this happened before?" he asked.

Ted helped Drew up onto the bed, despite the latter's protests. "Oh, quit being such a baby when it comes to people touching you, Drew!" Ted reprimanded. Then he turned to answer the teacher's question. "It used to happen all the time. But he hasn't had a flashback in - how long has it been, Drew?"

"Three years," Drew reminded, wiping his brow and still shaking. Drew was dumbfounded. He couldn't believe that he'd had a PTSD attack. It had been so long since his last episode; he thought he had gotten over it.

"What caused it?" Mark asked. He could be a strict leader, but all leaders must have concern for their teammates.

"I stuck my head out the window, and it's a cold, breezy night."

"Are you gonna be okay if we leave now?"

"Yeah, I think so."

"Okay. You know where our rooms are." And one by one, they all filed out of the room.

Drew lied back on his bed. He was exhausted, but he didn't know if he'd be able to sleep now...

Nya stepped quietly down the hallway with a candle, careful not to wake any sleeping students. She descended the staircase to the first floor, and exited through the back door into the garden. The flame flickered, so she shielded the candle with her hand so that it would not blow out. She walked across the bridge over the pond that the waterfall emptied into, and climbed the small hill to the temple on the other side. Nya bowed before entering the place.

It was a small, square-shaped temple, only the about the size of the main dojo in the monastery. There were no windows, and there was no door in the arched entryway. The floor was made of marble, and the walls of stone. Nya walked to the center of the room, where a large stone statue of the First Spinjitzu Master sat cross-legged on the floor. In his hands was a bowl of incense. It had gone out since Nya's last nightly visit. She used her candle to relight it, then bowed low. She then proceeded to relight the other candles around the room. Each one stood in front of a small statue. There were dozens, because there was one for every deceased ancestor, relative, and close friend of the ninja. She started with the most ancient ones on the left of the doorway, and made her way around the room clockwise. She did this nightly routine not because it was a job or responsibility of hers, but because she wanted to.

When she got to the more recent losses, she took extra time for the statues of those she had been especially close to, such as her parents, Sensei Wu, Garmadon, and Misako. Then she came to the statue of the four lost students. But the candle wouldn't light. Nya tried again. Same result. No matter how long she let the candlewicks touch, it just refused to catch fire.

"They return..." a deep, echoing voice uttered.

"What?" Nya gasped, almost dropping the candle. "Who's there?" She turned to see the statue of the First Spinjitzu Master emitting a golden aura. She rushed over to it as it continued to communicate from beyond the grave.

"They return...one sees truth...the others see lies..." The aura flickered with every word the voice spoke.

"Return? Truth? Lies? What are you talking about?"

"Beware...they know not who they are..."

"Beware?"

"Darkness is coming...and you cannot stop them..."

"What do you mean?" Nya cried, falling on her knees. Suddenly, a cold wind rushed around the room and blew out all the candles, including her own.

"The light will be forced to hide...the land will be consumed by darkness...and the darkness will be consumed by an evil shadow within the light..."

"What?!"

"The evil shadow will usher in a new dark age...an age of great danger for the light..."

"When? Please, explain yourself! What do I do?"

"Nya, Master of Water...prepare...for they will return..."

The golden glow around the statue faded into nothingness, and the only light was the moon shining through the doorway. Nya ran out of the temple and back to the monastery. She had to tell the other teachers about this. Whatever this meant, it couldn't be anything good...

(A/N) You're right, Nya, it can't be anything good. That's foreshadowing there, so don't ignore it! I added that scene mainly because I needed to have more of the canon characters in the fic.

Also, I have done my research on the mental disorders I have chosen for the characters and I hope I have not offended anyone if anything has been inaccurate. If there is something I can improve upon, please say so in the reviews. PLEASE do not leave me in the dark.

By the way, you may have noticed that all the agents seem to have very quick reflexes. That's actually just the Black Dragon fighting style. It's characterized by super-quick movements so as to stay one step ahead of your opponent. It's one more thing that makes them so dangerous.

WARNING: RANT AHEAD. You don't have to read this. I just had to get this out in writing.

I know I sort of implied this in the chapter, but I absolutely hate how Lloyd is portrayed as emotionally invincible. I am extremely relieved that in season five (possession) they finally showed that he does have some weakness (he can't bear to lose people), but you'd think that after all the horrible things that have happened to him, he'd at least have some sort of emotional scarring done. I mean, he was put into a capsule to have the life drained out of him, for crying out loud! I know it's a kids' show but they've pulled off risky, border-line things like that before. I'll list a few: Garmadon's visibly painful metamorphosis into the Overlord in season 2, Zane's visibly painful death scene in season 3, all the times Chen sucked elemental powers from the elemental fighters in season 4 in a visibly painful draining ceremony, the visibly painful transformation into anacondrai, oh, and let's not forget about Lloyd being possessed by a ghost. There is no way he has not been emotionally affected by all this. And yet Lego still makes him impenetrable.

That's why I decided I would have to put something in his story that would make him

finally

break.

Review!