Disclaimer: Sadly, I don't own Ninjago. Just the story idea and the ocs.

Hello everybody! I'm so happy! I got some reviews, some favorites on my story, and I finally got the title cover art done! I hope you guys like it, it's much better than what I originally planned. To be honest, it was really plain at first, but I added some detail to it.

Now on with the show!

Chapter 6: Scars Of The Past

After the battle with the oni, the ninja slept sorely and roughly got four hours of sleep. Of all the ninja, Lloyd had the most uncomfortable night due to the cut he had on his back. When Kai had saved him and Nya, he landed on his back on some fallen branches, resulting in a cut that would have everyone babying him. He tried keeping it secret, but failed in trying to find time to clean it alone and unnoticed. Lloyd just suffered through the pain and almost got a perfect four hours when…..

BEEP,BEEP,BEEP! BEEP,BEEP,BEEP!

The fire alarm went off. Normally he would have run and do all the fire safety tips Zane lectured them about in a three hour discussion, but he remembered to first check to see if Cole was cooking breakfast before he called the fire department and the paramedics. He shuffled down the hall half asleep and slid open the dining room door. The second he did so, his stomach turned inside out.

The table was covered with miscolored food that was also either really burnt or really raw. It looked like the work of the ghost ninja all right, until the kitchen door opened.

"Oh, good morning, Lloyd! Glad to see you're up!" Maria called out, while carrying a plate of burnt bacon and pancakes oozing with raw batter and black syrup, pinned down by a fork.

"Maria?! You made all of this….food, I think ?"

"Yeah! Sensei told me we all take turns cooking the meals and today is my turn, but I've never cooked before. So I went to Cole and he gave me his recipe book that he made. It even had a recipe for homemade syrup!" She pulled out the fork that was in the pancakes, cut out a slice and held it up to Lloyd's face. "Here, try some."

"Oh…um…well you see, Maria, I don't really like pancakes," his voice trailed off on that last part as Maria's smile melted into a frown. Her big eyes drooped and started to look moist.

"Then again, it's fun to try something new!" And with that he quickly shoved the food in his mouth and forced a toothy, syrup stained smile on his face, all while trying to keep it from falling into his stomach.

She regained her happy face and turned back to the kitchen to hopefully turn off the fire alarm. Lloyd took the opportunity to spit out the food in a nearby potted plant, at that moment the rest of the team had walked in and got a good look at the scene. They gawked at their leader that leaned over the plant with food residue dripping from his face, finally Cole broke the silence.

"Oh I get it. Maria made some of my recipes, right? Don't worry, buddy, I messed up a little too when I first made some of the stuff in there. It gets better."

"If that is the result of a little mess up," Jay said while pointing at Lloyd, " I'm scared to eat the perfected version of whatever Lloyd ate."

"Well too bad, Maria made breakfast and we're gonna eat whether we like it or not," he commanded as he wiped his face off.

Lloyd's demand got a chorus of groans and looks of fear from the team. He could tell Maria had a bit of a sensitive spot and he didn't want to test it. She was still adjusting to her new life and he'd personally feel guilty if he made her feel more uncomfortable that she probably was. His thoughts stopped as his mom and uncle Wu, who was holding a flat box, walked in.

"Good morning pupils. Do you know where Maria is?"

"Here I am!" She popped her head out of the kitchen door right on cue and came out with plate of dried, yet greasy looking eggs. "Nice to see everyone up. Did you need me Sensei?"

"Yes, I finally finished your welcoming present." He held out the box which she took and excitedly ripped it open. In it was a simple pink gi with purple trim, it had a purple belt and ties around the knees on the pants part of it. It came with a pink hood and a white undershirt. Maria smiled even bigger than before.

"Oh Sensei, thank you! This is so nice, I'll put on before we get training. But, it doesn't have armor like the other gis, (A/N I looked it up,it can be spelled gis) are you sure it'll protect me?"

Zane leaned in and gave the gi a quick scan. "P.I.X.A.L and I can verify that it'll protect you, it's made of a light breathable material that is also fire proof."

"Uh..who's P.I.X.A.L?

"She's my compatible other and the voice inside my head."

Maria just stared and slowly backed away from the nindroid, she was stopped by Nya who got ahold of her arm. After clearing that confusion up, they sat down and ate their "breakfast," with Lloyd being the only one to actually swallow down everything that was on his plate.

The ninja, excluding Lloyd who had to "freshen up" in the bathroom, had just finished their daily exercises. It was no big deal, but Maria on the other hand, the poor girl had never taken part in such a vigorous exercise and currently had her hands on her knees while she took deep, hard breaths. It took her a while to stand up straight and breathe normally.

Kai clasped his hands together. "Okay Maria, ready to get punching and kicking?" She gave a shy nod. "Great! Now first things first, punch me in the gut."

"But I don't wanna hurt you."

He put his hands on his hips. "It'll be fine, I got a six pack under here. It's just a test to see how strong you are already, now hit me with your best shot!"

She wound up a fast punch, and SMACK! Landed it right on his abs and stayed there, she then quickly withdrew it and held it a little with a look of confusion on her face.

"Why couldn't I have just punched a board or something like that?"

"Well if you did that you probably would've broken you-oof!" Jay was cut off as Nya had elbowed him in the gut.

"What he meant is, it's easier to see how strong you are against an opponent by practicing it on a real person," she explained. Nya then stepped forward in front of the pink ninja. "Now kick me in the gut."

This time, she did so without hesitation in a slower fashion, and withdrew it quicker and held it tighter compared to her fist. The others grouped together to discuss as Lloyd, carrying a huge duffel bag, had finally come up on deck and walked towards the group just as it dispersed.

"Based on our observations, it seems your upper body strength and agility compared to your lower body body strength and agility, has our hypothetical ratio proven wrong."

Everyone, except Jay, had a blank stare on their face until he translated. "He means you slug better than you kick, for a beginner."

"OHH!"

"What's in the bag, Green machine?"

"This," Lloyd opened it up and revealed an variety of weapons inside, " is just a little boost to get you on the battlefield faster. We haven't seen a trace of your powers, plus it's uncertain if you can do spinjitzu or airjitzu, or even summon an elemental dragon! But there may be a time when we need you or you'll be forced to defend yourself alone, we have to get you ready for that."

Maria just looked at the ground and spoke softly. "So, you want me to protect myself?"

"Well, I-I didn't mean…"

"OKAY!" she shouted and started rummaging through the bag, pulling out an armful of weapons. "Let's get training!"

"Lloyd, are you sure we should start her off with that weapon?"

"Yeah, now stop whining and put the apple back on your head!"

For Maria's first choice of a weapon, she picked out an old fashioned bow, and was currently aiming at an apple on Jay's head. It took her while to keep the arrow on the bowstring and pull it back, but she insisted that she had it. Finally, after a tense five minutes for Jay, she let it fly! It was going, going and… she missed. She got the direction right, the problem? It hit the metal part of the mast above Jay and ricocheted back toward them. Everyone was quick to duck, except for Sensei Wu who just came up deck for his afternoon tea. It got him right on his hat, his eyes went big as he felt it being ripped off.

"What's the meaning of this?!" he demanded.

"Hey, Lloyd? Maybe we should skip training with the rest of the projectile weapons."

Her second weapon was a whip, it had a similar attacking method to a scythe, so Cole was the lucky contestant to train her. He had his own scythe on hand and began demonstrating on some training dummies.

"Okay Maria, when you're going to attack an enemy you pull back," he demonstrated in an exaggerated way, " and let loose!" He succeeded in getting all the dummies sliced in half.

The rest of the team applauded from behind a wide wooden shield that they constructed from some spare boards in case of an, accident. Cole set up a fresh pair of dummies, then sidestepped to give her room to try. She pulled back, let it loose and…it was gone. Her hand came out empty, they looked over the side and saw the whip falling all the way down. Everyone looked at her and she gave a sheepish smile.

"So…what next?"

As her final choice for the day, hopefully, Maria pulled out a pair of nunchucks. That meant Jay had to teach her how they work, before he started he whispered to Lloyd. "Maybe things are going too fast for her."

"It's fine, I know she's not going to get all of this in one day. We just gotta cover all the areas of fighting and defense at least. Until then we follow Wu's orders, we protect her at all costs."

Unknown to them, Maria had heard their conversation and cringed at that last part. 'No, they can't get hurt because of me! I have to be get this done fast before our next fight!'

Just like that, she started swinging the nunchucks wildly and tried to figure out how they work on her own. Her actions drew the attention of the others and they shouted at her to stop, she kept trying to convince them that she knew what she was doing, only she didn't as they got out of control. They kept spinning and spinning until flew out of her hands and flung behind her. All she heard before she turned was the clatter of them falling and a scream. Maria turned and saw Lloyd on the ground hold his back with one hand, the others gathered around him until he broke the crowd by running down below deck. She put her hands to her mouth and started crying.

'No! This is what I didn't want to happen! I did it again, I hurt my friend again!'

Lloyd tried hard not to scream all the way to his room, he finally got in, flopped down his bed and screamed in his pillow. He was lucky he avoided the nunchucks, but he had lost his footing and accidentally bumped into the railing behind, right on his cut. He really should have checked it before training, but he didn't have time nor could he find a decent first aid kit without being questioned. He got up and went into his bathroom, took off his gi, and almost fainted at his reflection in the mirror.

His cut had taken an appearance of a bruise, and stung very badly if he tried to touch it or stretch his arm back, in other words it had to be infected. Not good. Suddenly there was a knock at the door, a quivering voice called out. " L-Lloyd? Are you ok? I'm so sorry for w-what happened at training."

Maria! This girl had bad timing. He struggled to get his gi back on and lock the door before she came in, all without screaming his heart out. But he was too late, she already barged in with a first aid kit in hand, her face was still wet with tears.

"Lloyd, I'm so sorry! I brought you a first aid in case it's that bad, and I have the paramedics on speed dial in case you have to go to the hospital. I'm willing to wait on you hand and foot since I hurt you in the first place and I'm really sorry and I'm sorry I acted so stupid and careless and-mph!"

"Maria, you worry too much!"

Lloyd had to put a hand over her mouth to get her to stop, she was almost a motormouth like Jay! The poor girl went through all this trouble though to fix something she didn't cause, might as well tell her the truth. He sighed and looked her in the eye.

"Maria, if I tell you the real reason why I'm in pain, will you keep it a secret and calm down a lil?" She gave a short nod with a muffled yes. " Ok, well yesterday with the oni, when Nya and I fell to the ground, I fell on my back in a pile of branches. Now I have a cut on my back that I didn't get a chance to tend to, and I lost my footing when I was avoiding the nunchucks so now it hurts more. It's my fault because I kept this a secret, ok?"

She nodded her head once more and he uncovered her mouth. She stared at him in confusion. "Why didn't you tell anyone? We could have helped you if it's that bad."

"Do you think anyone would not scream if they saw this?" He quickly turned and showed her his scar, when he turned back to face her, she was pale and was likely to faint. Lloyd was not good at handling fainting people, he quickly took her hand and sat her down on his bed next to him, if she did faint then she wouldn't get hurt. He could still feel that stinging sensation when he sat up, if it hurt that much just by doing that, then that left him with only one choice.

"Maria, I need you to help clean my cut."

"WHAT!?"

"I can't reach all of it if I do it myself, plus it stings if I try to move my arms too far back. Just do as I say and it'll be fine."

Reluctantly she opened up the first aid kit and laid out the products inside. She took a shaky deep breath followed by a big gulp. She pulled her hair back with her purple scarf and prepared herself.

"Okay, I'm ready."

"Ya know, that wasn't as hard as I thought!"

Maria, with Lloyd's instructions, was able to clean the cut and decently bind it up. It took a few tries since she was unsure how to place the band aids, resulting in her fussing over them and ripping them off slowly to readjust them. Lloyd got up and walked to his closet to find another shirt to put on, his gi was kinda tight and he feared it would mess up the bandaging, he really didn't want another readjustment on them. He picked out his classic green shirt, the one that had the hot chocolate stain on it from when he bumped into Maria, and put it on.

"You didn't wash it?"

He turned and smiled at her. "No way! I couldn't. How else am I gonna remember how I met my new friend?"

She laughed at his reference to how she kept weird mementos herself, suddenly she stopped and looked at the ground. She stayed quiet for a while and took a deep breath.

"Lloyd, you're my friend, right? And friends do what's best for their friends but also make each other happy, right?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, why do you ask?"

"Well…I want you to… I don't want you to protect me! You're just gonna end up hating me because I couldn't stand up for myself!"

"Woah, what?! I'm not gonna hate you, and if not protecting you is what you think is best for you and would make you happy, then I can't promise that! Why are you acting up so much about all this, Maria?"

She clenched her fists and spoke slowly, " Well…everyone casted me out, even the outcasts. Some of the teachers didn't care too much for me either, I only had my mom and finally, one friend my age. She was so bold and brave, she was always there to protect me, so I never fought. One day, some bullies were picking on her and I was watching, I wanted to help but…I couldn't move because I was scared that they would just hurt me again."

She paused after that sentence, then she pointed at a small scar beneath her chin as an example.

"Afterwards she grabbed me and yelled at me ' I don't want to be friends with a selfish coward! I should've dumped you when I first met you!' Then I never saw her again."

Lloyd was on the verge of tears hearing this. He remembered that feeling of being pushed aside by the whole world just because you were different, because you were you, and that wasn't good enough for all those people who just had to say something. She didn't want to be protected because she was convinced that in the end, she wouldn't be brave enough to fend for herself, or anyone she cared for. The poor girl was scarred for life because of how they treated her, and he just knew that she didn't ask for it nor deserve it.

"Maria, I…"

SSSSssssSSCCRReeeeEEEECH!

The loud speaker turned on with a chorus of feedback, Sensei Wu's voice was then heard with an alarming tone.

"Ninja, suit up and prepare for take off! Borg Industries has just been robbed!"

And cut! So I added some more humor along with some backstory in this chapter, plus I have a review question for you guys, what do you think Maria's weapon will be?

Until then, God is good, all the time. All the time, God is good.