Chapter 22

Movie Ninjago

"So, let me get this straight, True Potential is when you get over a mental handicap and become stronger from it," said Skylor as the twins led her into their apartment building. "As in literally stronger?"

It had taken longer than it should have to explain the concept to her. Kai had initially tried to explain it but kept tripping over his words trying to make it sound cool, and Nya was too amused by his fumbling to step in. Finally, the Water Ninja saw how hopelessly confused the redhead was and took pity on her to explain it more clearly.

"Well, not so much get over as not let it rule you anymore," said Nya thoughtfully. "I think, at least. Jay still gets scared at times during missions, and sometimes it makes him freeze up or panic like before, but he works to find his courage anyway."

"Yeah," agreed Kai as they stepped into the elevator and hit the button for their floor. "It's not an instant fix for your issues. Just the first step to resolve to fix them."

"And neither of you have found yours yet?" asked Skylor curiously.

"No," Nya sighed. "That's kind of the hardest part of True Potential. From what I've seen, most people don't even realize what they're doing is a problem for them until they confront it. Neither of us has figured it out yet."

"Most people? You know others who've done it?" asked Skylor.

"Yeah," said Kai, not seeing any reason to keep that secret. "Lloyd got his after he forgave his father. We could all see he had issues with his dad from a mile away, but our bro was in pretty deep denial. Our cousin Spike got his too. I think it was when he realized he couldn't always be the center of attention."

"Spike?" asked Skylor.

"Cousin Red's older brother," Nya explained and elbowed her brother. "And it was when he realized his duty to protect Lil'-er-Montgomery was more important than his desire for glory."

"I'm not hearing much of a difference," said Kai with a shrug.

Nya rolled her eyes.

"So Spike knows Montgomery too?" asked Skylor.

"Yeah. He works in a tea shop run by Montgomery's father and uncle," Nya said to avoid mentioning anything ninja related. "He's basically adopted the kid."

"Anyone who spends five minutes with that kid will basically adopt him," said Kai jokingly.

Skylor had to laugh at that. "I guess he's more like Lloyd than just his looks. Don't know why everyone thought he was evil. I haven't known him long, but from what I've seen he's like a cute puppy I just want to protect."

Skylor had no idea why Nya sent her brother a pointed look at that remark, or why Kai looked so approving.

With a 'ding' the elevator let them off on the twins' floor, and they headed for their apartment with Skylor trailing behind.

The redhead couldn't help but wonder what would await her when she entered that door. The last time she had been there, it had only been Kai, Nya and Red home, and she had yet to meet the twins' parents.

She'd be lying if she said she wasn't scared about it.

Twenty minutes later, Skylor found she had nothing to worry about.

As it was, she was sitting on the couch next to the twins' mother as she showed her Kai and Nya's baby pictures while their father asked her what her favorite meal was so he could cook it for her.

It was honestly much more pleasant than anything her father would ever do, even if Kai looked mortified and Nya was laughing at his expense. Skylor wasn't sure if they were putting on a show for her or not, but so far the entire thing had been surprisingly nice.

"Mom, Skylor doesn't need to hear about the mud fight Nya and I had when we were three," Kai complained as his mother, Maya, showed her a picture of mud-covered toddlers.

"Oh, but you were so cute," said Maya in a tone that said she knew exactly how much she was embarrassing her son and was enjoying the heck it.

Kai just shot her a dirty look and grumbled that his mother was as bad as Nya.

Somewhat taking pity on Kai, Maya skipped past the rest of the baby pictures and showed Skylor a page showing Kai and Nya looking about six or seven years old alongside a kid who looked remarkably like Montgomery but with a different haircut.

"Is that Lloyd?" Skylor asked. "I knew he and Montgomery look alike, but wow! You sure he's not a clone."

"Very sure," Maya said. "This is when Kai and Nya met Lloyd for the first time." She then gave Skylor a mischievous wink. "Or, should I say, when they first time they tried to kidnap him."

"What?" asked Skylor in surprise.

"Mom!" Kai complained, and next to him Nya looked sheepish.

"Why would you try to kidnap Lloyd?" Skylor asked, feeling bewildered.

"We weren't kidnapping him, we were rescuing him!" Kai protested.

"He told us his dad was Garmadon, who was, you know, evil at the time and we thought just by taking him home with us we could adopt him," Nya explained.

"You do know adoption doesn't work like that," said Skylor in amusement.

"They do now," Ray called over from the kitchen.

Kai scowled and slumped in a chair. "It worked for Mr. Nakamura's dog," he grumbled. "We were seven, sue us."

Skylor giggled into her hands.

"They've always been like this," Maya said fondly. "Finding people who need them and making them family, whether the object of their adoption plans wants them to or not."

The twins exchanged bewildered looks. "What are you talking about, Mom?" asked Nya.

"You really haven't noticed?" called Ray. "You two adopt almost every sad kid you come across. Like Lloyd."

"And Jay," agreed Maya.

"And Zane."

"Cole."

"Lil… Montgomery."

"And Spike and Red," finished Maya. "How many of them have you adopted and declared them your brother or sister."

Kai and Nya exchanged another glance, and in unison said, "Huh. Never noticed before."

Ray let out a laugh in the kitchen. "You kids call all of them 'bro' or 'sis', how did you not know?"

"It just felt natural," said Nya with a shrug.

Skylor grinned at their antics, but her smile hid a bittersweet feeling inside. Her initial worries about them putting on an act of being the perfect family had subsided. All this was too... genuine. She hasn't thought families like this existed outside of TV shows. Being taken into a family like this sounded like a dream come true. Not that something like that would ever happen to her.

Then Maya's voice cut through her thoughts. "And now you're adopting another stray, aren't you?" she teased while patting Skylor on the shoulder.

Wait, WHAT?

The looks on Kai and Nya's faces made it clear that this was indeed the case, even if the two were only just realizing it themselves.

Skylor was… speechless.

When she started this mission it was just supposed to be another job. More of her doing her father's dirty work. She gets close, copies their powers and ideally learns their secrets and weaknesses, and then get out so her father's plan would go unimpeded.

She wasn't supposed to get attached. And even when she knew she was starting to like them, she had no idea she'd get this attached.

Kai and Nya regained themselves enough to chatter about this new realization, but Skylor barely heard it. She suddenly felt the overwhelming urge to warn them. To tell them of her mission and admit to everything that was coming. No matter what they thought of her afterward, she wanted to tell them the truth.

Skylor opened her mouth to speak, but before she could utter a word, the mental image of both the twins lying dead at her feet flashed before her eyes with her father and Clouse leering at her over them.

Her mouth snapped back shut, and she kept silent. If she told them and they attempted to stop her father's plan at this stage, he would kill them without hesitation. It was only by staying in his good graces and completing her mission that Skylor had any hope of swaying him to spare their lives once it was all over.

As the warm, inviting family chatted around her, Skylor faked a smile and kept up her act, forcing down the ache to tell them the truth. She had a mission to complete.

At least now she had a lead as to why the power of Green wasn't responding to her.

If Lloyd could use it fully with his True Potential, then perhaps it was time she found hers.


Lil'Loyd's eye cautiously cracked open.

Around him, Luh-Loyd, Zane, and Echo remained asleep in their beds and futons.

With a mischievous grin, Lil'Loyd climbed out of his futon and tip-toed out of the room.

He was still pretty miffed at Luh-Loyd and Zane's insistence they actually follow the bedtime his mom had set. It was even earlier than when he usually went to bed! This was a sleepover! Sleepovers were supposed to be fun and sleep be minimal.

So Lil'Loyd decided to show his frustrations in the way he knew best.

Pranks.

Let's see how Luh-Loyd and Zane felt about actually sleeping at sleepovers when they woke up with whip cream mustaches and beards.

Using his ninja training (which was great for committing pranks), Lil'Loyd crept into the kitchen, opened the refrigerator and grabbed the can of whipped cream from inside.

Suddenly, a loud screeching sound behind him cause Lil'Loyd to jump and spin around.

Sitting on the kitchen table was one of the weird computer screens that Zane and Echo called 'Mom', and it was currently making loud dial-up noises at him.

Fearing being caught, Lil'Loyd quickly put the can back in the refrigerator and hurried over to the screen to try and find the mute button.

"Shh, shhh, you'll get me caught," Lil'Loyd hissed as he scrambled to find a way to stop the noise.

If anything, his words made it screech louder.

Just as Lloyd was about to bolt back to bed, a voice called out behind him.

"Lil'Loyd, what pray tell, are you doing?"

Busted!

Turning around quickly, Lil'Loyd gave Prof. Julien his most innocent smile. "Oh, I was just thirsty and came to get a drink of water."

The computer screeched again behind him, and Lil'Loyd had to fight not to cover his ears.

Prof. Julien, however, frowned as he listened to the sound, before fixing Lil'Loyd with a stern look. "Really? Then why does she," he asked, nodding to the computer, "tell me you were taking the whipped cream out of the refrigerator?"

Double busted!

Despite that, Lil'Loyd couldn't help but look over at the computer screen curiously. He'd never actually believed it was actually Zane's Mom or anything other than a weird computer, but… how else would Prof. Julien know what he was really doing? "How'd you know?" he asked.

"She told me," Prof. Julien said, gesturing to the computer, which gave an agreeing chirp. Seeing Lil'Loyd's continued confusion, he explained. "She is actually my first A.I. program. I developed her together with a friend. Machine learning Original Module. M.O.M. for short. Without her, creating Nindroids like Zane and Echo would not have been possible, and that, along with her name, is why those two consider her their mother."

"But it-she doesn't talk," Lil'Loyd said. "She just makes that noise."

The computer let out an irritated sounding buzz.

"Just because you cannot understand what she is saying, doesn't mean she is not speaking clearly," said Prof. Julien in amusement. "She only speaks in binary, I'm afraid. The language of machines and computers. To the untrained ear, it merely sounds like noise."

Lil'Loyd's eyes lit up in interest. "So it's like a secret language?" he asked. "That's so cool!"

Zane's Mom let out a flustered sounding warble.

"And you can understand it?" asked Lil'Loyd.

"That I can," said Prof. Julien, patting the computer screen fondly. "Mom has definitely been a great help in raising Zane and Echo, and I couldn't do it nearly as well without being able to understand her." He then sent Lil'Loyd a wink. "She's also good at sending secret messages. No one but me or my sons could understand them."

"Cool!" Lil'Loyd said again, looking at the computer with new eyes.

Said computer then gave another screech, to which Prof. Julien nodded and turned back to Lil'Loyd. "Right now, no more dodging the question, why were you after the whipped cream?" he asked.

Oh yeah, he was still busted.

Lil'Loyd hung his head sheepishly, and admitted, "I was, uh, gonna give Luh-Loyd and Zane funny mustaches and beards… maybe eyebrows too."

There was a beat of silence before Prof. Julien snorted with laughter, and Zane's mom let out a chattering sound Lil'Loyd could only assume was giggling.

Lil'Loyd could only pout in indignation in response.

"As amusing as that would look," Prof. Julien said when he recovered from his laughter, "I'm afraid we can't let you do that." He then moved to the door and waved for Lil'Loyd to follow. "Come on, young one, back to bed with you."

Lil'Loyd sighed in disappointment but dutifully followed behind him, stifling a yawn as he did so. All that excitement had made him sleepy.

Seeing the yawn regardless, Prof. Julien smiled and said, "Get some rest. From what Zane's told me, it sounds like you'll need it."

Tucked back into his futon, Lil'Loyd allowed himself to drift off to sleep.

Tomorrow was going to be a big day.


A/N Welp, Skylor's guilt is growing by the day. She almost spilled everything to them, but fear of what Chen would do kept her quiet. She's still banking on her getting enough pull with her father that he'll reward her with her friends' lives rather than kill them off as part of his scheme. It's not a great plan, but it's currently all she's got. To clarify, in the bit about Prof. Julien making M.O.M. with a friend, that friend was Borg. The two of them send secret messages to each other using binary to keep in touch, but not too often to avoid being caught.

Massive thanks to Kay Hau for helping with this chapter. The part with Lil'Loyd pranking the others and learning more about M.O.M. was her idea. It was originally going to be a Greener Pastures chapter, but she thought it'd be a good fit here. She also was a great help in planning the Skylor half of the chapter.

Next Time: With the Ultra Dragon still a no show, the Show Ninja take the initiative to start combating the Nindroids without Lloyd, only to run into a nasty surprise.

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