Hey guys! Sorry I didn't update for like a hundred years. I was gonna wait to finish watching the Sons of Garmadon season before I kept writing this in case anything that happens in SOG affect my plotline, character, etc. I like to keep things as canon as possible. Anyway, Season 8 isn't over yet but I have so many ideas and nothing from the season is affecting anything that happens in this chapter, so I got excited and decided to write it. Once Season 8 is over I'll probably go back and edit some of my previous chapters to go along with the new season. The basic plotline won't change though. I'm just gonna revise some conversations or add some characters in certain places (hopefully I won't have to remove any!) Anyway, sorry for making you wait so long for a new chapter, and I hope you enjoy!

Chapter 10: A Family Divided

"I did spinjitzu...I did spinjitzu. I DID SPINJITZU!"

"We get it Laynie, you did spinjitzu, now can you please be quiet I'm trying to work here." Cliff was putting the final touches on the robot he'd been building for months.

"Okay, sorry." Laynie tried to sit quietly on a chair in the garage where he was working, but after a moment she smiled. "I did spinjitzu!" She whispered.

Cliff set his screwdriver down. "Alright then." he said, annoyed. "I'm done here."

"Wait, why?"

"Because 1) this stupid screw won't fit, and 2) you're being obnoxious."

"Oh," Laynie hopped up from the chair. "Maybe I can help." She grabbed the screwdriver out of his hand.

"It's okay Lay, you don't have to-" He stopped when he realized his sister was screwing the bolt in just fine.

"How did you do that?"

"Easy." Laynie said. "The screw won't fit because you had the wires blocking the hole from the inside. I moved the wires to make space for the screw." She handed Cliff the tool. "You always gotta plan ahead when building this kind of stuff."

Cliff rolled his eyes, but with affection. "Nerd."

Laynie laughed. "Hey, at least this nerd can do spinjitzu."

"Oh whatever!" Cliff chuckled and shook his head as he began to put his tools away. He wheeled his robot into a closet. "Let's go inside and grab the remote before Mom remembers it's her turn to pick tonight's movie."

The kids ran inside the house and jumped on the couch in the massive game/movie room. Laynie snatched up a small black remote and turned on the giant flat screen TV. Jay and Nya came in.

"No movie tonight." Jay said.

"What, why?" Cliff asked.

Nya stepped in front of the screen. "If my memory serves me correctly you two are still grounded. Besides, ninja don't just sit around in front of the TV. They have to train."

"But we spent all afternoon training with Lloyd!" Laynie whined.

"And that's great, but Lloyd is only teaching you how to control your powers. We wanna teach you how to actually use them, for good." Nya added.

"Can we do it tomorrow?" Cliff asked, resting his head on a throw pillow and closing his eyes. "I'm really tired."

Jay leaned over the couch and snatched the pillow out from under his son's head. "No sleeping for you!" Then he grabbed the the remote from Laynie's hands. "Evil doesn't watch Netflix and neither should you!" He turned the TV off.

Cliff and Laynie sighed and stood up. Nya smiled. "Okay Cliff, you and I are gonna go outside to the pool. You two stay here." Cliff shook his head as he followed his mother out the back door. Jay turned to his daughter. "Okay now that they're gone, we can actually have some fun." He said jokingly. Laynie giggled. "What are we gonna do?"

Jay jogged across the room to a panel of switches on the wall. He pressed numerous buttons until he found the ones that turned off all the lights in the TV room. He also unplugged every device he could find. Soon the room was pitch black.

"Laynie?"

"Yeah?"

"Can you see me?"

"No."

"Good, I want you to turn the light on."

"Um, okay…" Laynie began fumbling across the room using the sofa for support.

"No, no, no." Jay said. "Use your powers!"

Laynie stumbled on a cushion that had fallen on the floor. "How do I do that?"

"It's easy!" She could hear Jay's footsteps coming closer to her. "Just zap the lightbulbs. But you have to make sure you use the right voltage. Too much lightning could electrocute the house and kill your mom and brother, please don't do that, but too little's not gonna do anything."

"That's scary." Laynie told him.

"It's fine!" Jay reassured. "Just give it a go."

Laynie raised her hands toward where she assumed the lightbulb was positioned. She hesitated, then shot two jolts of lightning. She could see it collide with the lightbulb and ducked down covering her head with her hands in case it exploded or something. After a few seconds, the bulbs sparked to life, illuminating the room. Laynie looked up to see Jay beaming, clearly from pride. "Laynie you did it!" He jumped up on the couch. Getting married and becoming a father had not dulled the childish side of him. If anything, it brought it out more. Laynie laughed and jumped on the couch with him. "Yeah, I did!"

"Do it again!" Jay yelled. "Turn on the TV!" Laynie blasted it to life. Jay clapped his hands. "The radio!" ZAP! "The video game console!" ZAP! "The alarm clock!" ZAP! "MY PHONE!" Jay held up his dead BorgPhone. Laynie shot it with her electrical charge and it promptly lit up the screen. They collapsed onto the couch laughing from pure excitement and delight.

Nya and Cliff were a different story. Nya was trying to teach Cliff how to reverse the flow of the water in the backyard pool, but Cliff only succeeded in frustrating himself and her. She tried to help him, but he wouldn't listen.

"I can figure it out by myself!"

"No, you can't." Nya was sitting on the edge of the hot tub watching him. "That's the point of being on a team. You can't do everything on your own. Sometimes you need the help of others."

"Yeah well right now isn't one of those times." Cliff turned his back to her. He looked in through the window and saw his father and sister jumping up and down on the couch zapping their hearts out. "Of course she's doing it perfectly." He muttered.

"What?" Nya asked.

"Nothing." Cliff faced the pool again.

Nya hopped up. "Okay, you see how this water flows from the hot tub into the big pool?"

Cliff nodded.

"I want you to reverse it." The water ninja commanded. "I wanna see water coming up out of the pool into the hot tub."

"That's impossible." Cliff said.

"Not if you try hard enough. Watch." Nya closed her eyes and lifted her hands slowly. The small waterfall stopped moving, then changed it's direction. Nya opened her eyes and smiled. "Like that."

Cliff rolled his eyes and tried to copy his mother. The waterfall, which had reset itself back to normal, stopped flowing once again. Cliff squeezed his eyes shut and lifted his hands. He could hear the water moving. Did I do it? He opened one eye to see and...the water sprayed him in the face.

"Ugh, this is stupid!" Cliff shook his head to get water out of his hair. "I'm done!"

"You're gonna give up, just like that?" Nya crossed her arms over her chest. "That doesn't sound like a ninja to me."

"Well, I'm not like you, okay? I'm not your 'perfect son' who inherited your elemental crap and now we're gonna fight skeletons together with the power of 'love' and 'family' so just go inside and tell your 'perfect daughter' that her brother's a loser who can't do spinjitzu."

Nya was stunned into silence for a moment by this sudden outburst. Then her brow furrowed. "Do you wanna call my water powers that I so generously passed on to you, elemental crap, again?"

Cliff raised an eyebrow. Do you really wanna do this Cliff? Get her angry and risk getting into even more trouble? "Elemental crap." Oh frick, I just did that.

Nya was angry, but she didn't yell. Instead, she said slowly and cooly. "Cliff Ray Walker, go inside right now."

"But I thought we were training." I'm already in trouble so there's no point in giving in now.

"Go inside right now." Nya pointed to the door. Cliff spun around and headed inside, Nya following. As he entered the house, he saw Jay and Laynie on the couch watching TV.

"Hey! What happened to being grounded?"

Laynie jumped up. "Cliff! Cliff! Cliff! I used lightning to turn the lights on!" She smiled, excited to share this information with her brother. She giggled. "You're all wet."

"Oh well good for you then." Cliff said sarcastically. "Just another thing you can be better than me at."

Laynie's smile faded. "What?"

"Hey Cliff, what's going on?" Jay muted the flat screen.

Cliff entered the room. "What's going on is little miss 'I'm so much better than Cliff cause I get good grades and do spinjitzu and can control my powers' thinks she can just smile and giggle her way out of everything."

"Cliff! Tell your sister sorry right now!" Jay wasn't used to yelling at his kids so this command came out a little awkwardly.

Cliff smirked. "Of course you'd take her side. She's always been your favorite."

Jay was confused. "I don't have a favorite."

"Oh yeah? Then explain why she goes to school, literally electrocutes a kid then gets to just come home and watch TV while I get sent up to my room."

Nya put a hand on her hip. "But you made Darren slip Cliff, so you helped." She looked at her husband. "I do agree though, that Laynie shouldn't have been allowed to watch."

"Well she did really well with her training, so I thought we could celebrate." Jay looked at his daughter. "Right, Laynie?"

Laynie didn't answer. She looked up at Cliff. "I'm not perfect."

Cliff rolled his eyes. "You don't have to play baby, Laynie."

"I'm not playing baby. You are."

"What?"

"You want them to feel bad for being 'horrible parents'-no offense-so they'll run to you crying saying they're sorry."

Jay nodded to himself. "That's probably what would happen." Nya shot him a look.

"You think your life is so hard cause you ruin science projects and get water everywhere, but you're not the only one who has bad days okay? Just because I smile and laugh all the time doesn't mean I'm always having the best day ever!" Laynie was surprised at herself for sounding so mean.

"Heh, you could fool me." Cliff rolled his eyes. "Everything's always great in Laynie Land. Everyone loves it in Laynie Land."

"Cliff go upstairs." Nya ordered through clenched teeth. Cliff ignored her.

Laynie had had enough. "You know, Mom and Dad probably do love me more than you! I wouldn't be surprised if they did, considering I'm not a selfish brat who thinks he deserves more than anybody else! The reason I get good grades and am not failing all my classes like some people is because I actually work hard and study! You struggle so much building your robots because you don't have an understanding of the math and science behind it-"

"Would both of you just shut your mouths and go upstairs!" Nya shouted.

"Hey, how about we-" Jay was interrupted by Nya.

"If you guys thought you were in trouble before-"

Neither Cliff or Laynie were listening. They both exploded shouting insults at each other. Jay kept trying to say something, but each time he was overpowered by his children's fight. Nya joined in, yelling at them to stop.

"Take that back!" Laynie responded to something Cliff had said.

"Never!" Cliff was defiant. "It's true."

Laynie screamed and threw herself at Cliff knocking him on the ground. She began to hit him, not particularly hard, but enough to hurt a little.

"Bet you wish you could do spinjitzu now, huh?"

"Laynie…" Nya warned.

Cliff struggled to fight back. Laynie was a lot stronger than he realized. "No, what I wish is-" He paused, wondering if he was really gonna say it.

"Laynie get off your brother!" Nya reached for her daughter but Laynie shrugged her off.

"I wish…"

Jay's eyes flashed between Laynie, Cliff, and Nya. He felt like he needed to stop this, but he didn't know how.

"YOU WISH?" Laynie was furious.

"I WISH YOU WEREN'T MY SISTER! I WISH YOU WOULD JUST GO AWAY AND NEVER COME BACK! "

"ENOUGH!" The lightning flashed outside and a loud roll of thunder was heard, as Jay jumped between his kids and pulled them apart. Laynie was flung onto the ground and burst into tears. The lights in the house flickered.

"You both are acting worse than Kruncha and Nukal fighting over a donut!" He yelled. "Well guess what, the donut is actually a rock so this whole thing is pointless!" For a moment, all anger and hatred was forgotten, as the siblings exchanged a confused look.

"Go upstairs to your rooms and I don't wanna see or hear either of you until the morning, do you understand me?"

Laynie and Cliff were stunned into silence. Their father had never even raised his voice at them before let alone YELLED at them.

"DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?"

Laynie ran, crying up the stairs and slammed her bedroom door shut. Loud sobs could be heard from above them. Cliff glared at Jay, who glared back. Cliff turned to Nya with a small look of "I'm sorry" in his eyes, hoping she'll defend him and get him out of trouble, but she folded her arms and stared at him sternly. Cliff sighed and stomped up to his room. Another door slam.

Jay and Nya were quiet for a minute, thinking about the scene they just witnessed. Nya leaned against the wall. "I didn't know you had that in you."

Jay sat back down on the couch. "I didn't know I did either." Nya sat next to him.

"I don't like it." Jay told her. "Yelling at them. Punishing them."

"Nobody does Jay." Nya said. "But we have to. Otherwise, they don't learn."

"What happened outside to get Cliff all riled up?"

Nya sighed. "He just got upset cause he couldn't do what I asked him to. But he didn't want my help either. He wants to do everything by himself and he gets frustrated when he thinks he's gonna fail."

Jay gave a small smile. "Remind you of anyone?"

Nya rolled her eyes and elbowed him. "You know I wasn't that bad." Jay raised an eyebrow. Nya giggled and laid her head on his shoulder. "Okay, okay, I was pretty bad. But I still don't know how to get him to understand. How'd you get Laynie figuring it out so quickly?"

"I don't know. It just kind of clicked with her I guess. Some people just take control of their powers easier than others."

They were silent a moment before Nya said, "You know, I can kinda see where Cliff was coming from."

"What do you mean?"

Nya lifted her head. "When he said we love Laynie more than him. I know we don't, but lately, you have been spending a lot more time with Laynie and paying attention to her more. I don't know if you've realized it or not, but I can understand why Cliff might feel that way."

"Wait, you're saying I've been ignoring him?" Jay removed his arm from around her shoulders. "What about you?"

"What about me?"

"This can't just be my fault. He was angry at both of us. And I haven't been treating Laynie any better than him. Or at least I haven't tried to. You've been just as disclusive of him as me." Jay defended himself.

"What are you talking about?" Nya asked, beginning to get upset.

"Well," Jay scooted to the edge of the sofa. "You're not really home much anymore. You leave early in the morning to teach at the school, you stay after to school to clean up, then you meet us for training, then go home to bed. Then the next day it's the same thing. It's hard for me to be there for both of them when you're not here to help me. So yeah, maybe I have to focus on one kid at a time and I'm sorry if it seems like I focus on Laynie more but that's how it is." He tried to read her face for a reaction to this statement. He knew it sounded accusing, but it was something he'd been wanting to say for a while. Nya's face was blank. She stared at him emotionlessly. "And, I miss you." Jay reached for her hand. She pulled it away.

"Fine." She stood up. "I'm sorry I'm such a horrible mother." She began to stalk out of the room.

"Nya, no honey, that's not what I meant-"

"No, I get it." She turned around and threw her hands up sarcastically. "I should stop working and making money for our family cause you can't handle two teenage kids who barely even do anything for a few hours every day."

"Nya-"

"You know, I'll quit teaching robotics, like one of the things I love most in the world, so you can go build your heart away for Cyrus Borg. And I will stay here, at home, alone, with nothing to do, just waiting for you to come home so I can make you dinner. Is that what you want?"

Jay was distraught. He didn't know she would take it this hard. "Nya you know I never-"

Nya was not going to let her husband speak. "Oh wait, since I quit my job, there is no food so looks like we'll just all starve!"

"Nya I make a lot of money from working at Borg Industries. Like, a lot." Jay was starting to get irritated. "Plus, we have my father's money to last us a lifetime. I don't really think we're in any desperate need of-"

"So you do want me to quit?"

"No!"

"Then what are you saying?"

"I don't even know what either of us are saying right now!" Just then Laynie's quieting sobs intensified. Nya gave Jay a look of "Now look what you did" Jay sighed and stood up to go comfort his daughter.

"No!" Nya stuck her arm in front of him. " You are going to stay in here, on the couch. In fact, why don't you stay there all night!" They paused and stared at each other a moment. Were they really fighting?

Jay and Nya had had their fair share of disagreements, but they'd never truly fought like this before. Not since that day years ago that only they can remember. That day the ninja were being chased by paparazzi, and they tried to hide on the roof of the hospital. But since Nya couldn't use airjitzu to get up on the billboard, she was exposed to the cameras. Jay offered his hand to her, and she rejected it, wanting to take care of herself, and not seem like the "damsel in distress." Kind of the way she was acting now. Of course, that timeline was erased due to Jay's final wish, to save Nya's life, and the alternate ending of that situation was a lot happier.

Jay could see some tears spring in the corners of his wife's eyes. She turned away. "I am going upstairs, to check on my daughter, like the good mother that I am!" She stomped out of the room and up the stairs.

Jay was frozen for a moment. Then, he slowly sat back down on the couch. He couldn't believe that just happened. He and Nya had a full out argument. Over something stupid like favoritizing one of their children. He hadn't meant to hurt her feelings. He only wanted to let her know how he felt. He really did miss coming home to her every day and he was sure the kids missed her as well. I should go apologize. He thought. Nah, I'll wait until morning. Better give her some time to herself. He sighed and began making himself a bed on the couch when suddenly he heard Nya scream "JAY!"

Jay dropped what he was doing and bolted up the stairs and found Nya in the hallway. "Nya, what's wrong?"

"Laynie's gone!"

Jay peered inside his daughter's bedroom. The bed was empty and the window hung wide open.