Ninjago City, Unknown Building, 9:20 pm.
Alex walked down the hall of the building, exhausted after disposing of Xavier's body somewhere far from Ninjago. No one but the possible citizens of that land would find it, and Alex would never get caught. The master of Psion smiled to himself as he took off his bloodied hoodie, making sure the white undershirt underneath it wasn't stained. Yeah, I'll actually get off scot-free this time. They'll probably suspect some of the bigger criminals like Soto or maybe even Marléne. That ought to get the old hag off my tail.
He went to his quarters and changed into a crisp white shirt and black pants. Owning no other footwear, he had to stick with his now bloodied leather boots. He pulled his fiery orange hair into a small ponytail, checking himself out in the mirror afterwards. After striking a few poses and rubbing the medium-sized bandage on his cheek, Alex exited the room, preparing himself for whatever stupid thing Marléne had to say to him today.
He met Marléne in the hallway outside a locked room. She looked pretty peeved, and glared in his direction.
"What?" Alex asked as he approached her. She placed both hands on her hips and tapped her foot impatiently.
"You were supposed to exterminate Xavier discreetly! The media's all over the blood in the alleyway now!" she shouted angrily. Alex sighed, annoyed.
"Listen, as long as I'm not caught, I'll be fine," he told her. Marléne huffed.
"You know, with the new technology that Cyrus Borg loser gave the detective agency, they'll be able to trace DNA from your shoeprints somehow. It's how they almost arrested Seok about a year ago," she reminded him. Alex shrugged. Marléne proceeded to sigh again.
"Might as well get on with what I wanted to tell you," she started, catching Alex's attention, "I...am thinking of going a separate way."
The master of Psion was first shocked, then proceeded to break into laughter. Marléne gave a look of confusion, bewildered as to why he was laughing.
"What's so funny!?" she questioned him as he continued to laugh. The master of Psion took a moment to breathe and calm down, then he cleared his throat.
"Marl, I am the only thing keeping you out of the big house right now. If it weren't for me, you'd still be rotting away in there, probably getting makeshift tattoos on your arms from some random prisoner," Alex claimed as Marléne gave an offended look, "What makes you want to part anyway?"
"Oh, I dunno, maybe because you do everything your way and not take any opinions from me!? When am I going to get to do something!?" Marléne answered.
"In time. You just need to learn how to be patient," Alex told her as he turned towards the button that would open the door. Before he could press it, Marléne grabbed his head and slammed it into the button. The door opened almost immediately, but Alex stepped back, rubbing his head.
"What the hell!?" he asked, enraged. Marléne shrugged casually.
"I thought your brain wasn't functioning correctly so I thought I'd help you out," she smiled, "It's too bad your stupidity is permanent." Alex glared at her.
"I'll have you know I came up with a lot of plans for Sebastian! He even had me eliminate Misaki!" he argued as he walked over to the door. Marléne rolled her eyes.
"That first one is a huge lie and you know it, and you were trembling when he gave you the gun to shoot her," she reminded him. Alex stomped his foot.
"Yeah, trembling with excitement!" he claimed, hiding the truth. Marléne sighed.
"Alex, I hope you know Sebastian only kept you around for your powers," she told him. The master of psion's head turned in her direction almost immediately, anger evident in his eyes.
"Shut up!" he shouted at her, "He treated me like a son and you know it! I was worth much more than just my powers on his team!"
"Just keep believing your fantasy, Alex. It blinds you from the reality," Marléne said, walking into the room. Alex followed her, flashbacks of the past playing in his mind. What did she mean I was only used for my powers? I did lots of things to impress Sebastian.
Though, Alex remembered that Sebastian only noticed two of the things the young man did. Well, I did create machines and stuff, and Sebastian really cared about me! He treated me like a son!
Then, Alex's thoughts recalled all the times that Sebastian only really looked like he cared. All of which happened during times Alex's powers were needed for use. He then recalled all of the machines he created, none if which were used. Only Marléne's machines were used.
The master of psion resisted the urge to throw something, though, the small lamp on the other side of the room started to move by itself. Just forget it. He's dead. You're the one in charge now. You can use all of your inventions!
Alex smiled to himself and the lamp stopped moving. Yeah, that's right! He started to walk faster to the cage in the middle of the room. I can be a better person than Sebastian.
He stopped a few feet from the cage, gazing at his prisoner. The prisoner at on the floor, cross legged, his once spiked hair was now flattened and it fell over his eyes. His clothes were slightly dirty from the dust from the floor and his hands were bruised from trying to break the bars. Alex was satisfied to see that his powers didn't melt the bars either, showing that the flame resistant formula he used to make the metal bars worked.
The prisoner's head tilted upward a bit, acknowledging Alex and Marléne's presence.
"Haven't managed to melt the bars yet flame boy? What a pity," Alex said, tapping on the bars. The prisoner scowled.
"What do you want now, Debbie?" he asked, obviously not too pleased with the master of psion. Alex grumbled at the nickname.
"Just came to check on you. Make sure you're not dying, since you're especially useful to us," he replied.
"How?" the prisoner asked. A smirk came to Alex's face.
"Well, I've got this little project and your flames are quite useful, as well as your friends' powers...well, except for that blonde one. I only need the crystal from her hand. Other than that she can die in a hole for all I care," he informed him. The prisoner stood up immediately.
"No one is dying. Not on my watch," he claimed. Alex chuckled.
"Really? Is that so? Because, if I recall right, your clone is going to be taking care of that real soon," he said. The prisoner brushed his hair away from his face, revealing angry, sleep deprived brown eyes. Alex could now see the jagged scar that ran across the prisoner's right eye.
"What clone?" he asked in a angered voice. The master of psion smiled again.
"Oh! I forgot to tell you! We took a strand of your hair while you were unconscious a while ago and used it to make a whole new you. A better version of you. He's with your teammates right now. He even got me this," Alex informed him, pulling the Realm Crystal from his back pocket. The prisoner's eyes widened. "What a gentleman," the master of psion continued to admire the Crystal.
"How did he get that to you!? Sensei told me someone watches over it twenty four seven!" the prisoner said, shocked. Alex rubbed his chin.
"Well, your double did say he fought someone...some blonde girl...oh yeah, your dear girlfriend. The one with the crystal embedded in her hand," he told him. The prisoner's eyes widened then he stepped closer to the bars.
"Did he hurt her?" he asked. Alex shrugged.
"All I can tell ya is that she's alive," he said. The master of psion could see what looked like smoke coming from his prisoner's hands, which were wrapped around the metal bars. So his body heat does rise when angered, Alex thought to himself.
"Well, Keith, I must be on my way. I have important things to do, like checking on what your double is doing," he said. Kai stomped his foot in anger.
"It's Kai you idiot! And what kind of things would he even be doing!?" he shouted. Alex shrugged.
"Oh, I don't know. He could be doing tons of things to your friends, your girlfriend, and hey, maybe even your sister," he smirked. He could see more smoke rising from Kai's hands. Alex's smile grew wider, seeing that he angered the master of fire.
"Let me out of here!" Kai shouted as Alex and Marléne left the room. Once the door shut behind them, Alex broke into laughter. This was great! If he can generate this much heat, he could power the machines! I just need one more person now! Then, not only Ninjago, but the world shall be mine!
Alex smiled to himself. Yes, soon.
Steep Wisdom, 8:30 am
I struggled to not run out of breath as I jogged down the pathway nearby Steep Wisdom with Lilly and Lloyd. My lack of sleep was making me lose focus, and now I could barely even stay awake for anything.
"Karma, are you sure you don't need to stop for a break?" I heard Lloyd ask. I shook my head in response as I continued to jog.
"Are you sure? I don't want you to push yourself too hard," Lloyd said, a bit of worry in his voice. I looked over at him and gave a smile of reassurance.
"I'll be fine, okay? I'm just a little off my game today," I told him. The boy hesitated for a moment, then nodded, a bit of worry still in his expression. What's he so worried about? I'm fine. Why did he even ask if I needed a break? He knows I can run without stopping for a long time, I thought.
I suppose he must have noticed that I looked tired or something and decided to be polite. It's quite nice of him...but I'm fine. The only thing that was bothering me was Xavier's death and the questions that remained on what would happen to Yamikani, but I didn't bring them up for Lilly's sake. She looked pretty torn up over the news last night, but none of us have seen her cry or even talk about it yet. She's probably keeping everything to herself or something, like she usually does.
I looked over to see her looking around for moment, then saying "Uh, guys, can I talk about something?"
Both of us nodded in response. Before she spoke, she looked around again cautiously, as if she were afraid someone was spying on us.
"Listen," she whispered, "something's not right."
"What is it?" I asked.
"Someone's really odd...like trés mal odd," she said. I raised an eyebrow in confusion.
"Lilly, we don't speak French," Lloyd reminded her. Lilly started to look nervous.
"Like, I don't...I think they are-" mid-sentence, Kai ran up and cut her off with a kiss on the lips. In almost an instant, Lilly's face turned as red as the skin of a tomato. Once he pulled away, he smiled.
"Hey, Misako said she needed you back at the tea shop. She said something about needing help," he informed her. I noticed that Lilly wasn't smiling back. In fact, she even looked a bit frightened. What's the deal with that?
"O-Okay," her voice trembled. She followed Kai to the tea shop as he turned back and waved at us. Both Lloyd and I looked at each other, both of us confused by Lilly's expression. Why did she look so scared?
We sat down in the grass by the pathway, taking a break from our jog.
"Did you see her expression?" Lloyd asked me. I nodded.
"She could have been caught off guard by Kai's actions, but she would have recovered quickly...I wonder what that was all about," I said.
"Maybe there's something going on between them?" the green ninja asked. I shrugged.
"I don't know, but whatever it is, it's changed her. Didn't you notice how weird she was acting when she was trying to tell us something?" I asked. Lloyd nodded.
"Yeah, definitely odd," he commented, rubbing his chin.
"I want to ask her about it...but at the same time I don't know if I should. I mean, if there is something bad going on between them, they definitely need talked to, but I feel like I'm overreacting," I admitted. Lloyd shook his head.
"No, you're not. If it looks serious enough that they need talked to, ask her. See if she's alright. Though, something bad between them would be out of character for both of them," he said, stating at the path as he tried to think. I nodded. It would indeed be odd for the both of them. Something weird was definitely going on, and there was only one way to find out what was actually going on.
I was going to ask Lilly about it. Though, I had to find a time when she is alone. It shouldn't be too hard, but that's what I thought.