REST IN PEACE KIRBY MORROW

August 28, 1973 – November 18, 2020

I know that I've already posted a message about this devastating tragedy on Wattpad but I just wanted to say I am so sorry for his family's loss and I wish I had the right words, I just hope they know we care. I don't know how you all feel about this tragedy, but know that the Ninjago Community is grieving as well and we are here to help each other in any way we can. Kirby Morrow, you and your loved ones will be in my thoughts and prayers.

Now I know that everyone is worried about the future of Ninjago but I implore you all to have some consideration for his grieving family.

When the show's creators and Kirby's fellow cast members wish to talk about the future of Ninjago they will so please don't go on their social media to harass them for answers. I have also heard about people making jokes about how Cole's reflection came true. I don't know if you meant any harm but please think of his family and friends. Please have some respect and think before we do things like this.

I know people will say that time is a great healer, but I'll let you in on a little secret; it's not.

You just have to learn to live with the new 'normal'. But when I was growing up I was taught that there are worst things than dying. Being forgotten by the cruelty of time is a fate worse than death in my opinion. So it's up to all of us to ensure that Kirby Morrow and any members of the Ninjago team are never forgotten and their works and legacy live on.

"Ninja Never Quit and Ninja Will Never Be Forgotten"

Chapter 15: Desperate Measures

Lloyd and his friends all groaned as they walked down the school hallways. Normally this would be torture enough, but ever since Harumi had won the election, she had been making changes to the school. Thankfully the school board had stopped her from making any significant changes, but they didn't stop the lead cheerleaders from decorating to hallways with bright pink, sparkling decorations.

"She's been president for five minutes and already everything's pink." Cole chuckled as he dodged a dangling streamer. They all laughed and joked about Harumi's changes until they reached their lockers. Their laughter died down, however, when they saw a desperate-looking Skylor furiously rooting through Pixel's open locker with a glare, throwing books and papers all over the floor.

"What are you doing?!" Kai exclaimed as they approached her.

"Where's your laptop?" Skylor snapped at their human friend.

"What?" She asked in confusion.

"I'm getting rid of it." The wild girl snarled before she finally pulled the laptop out, only to growl when Jay snatched the laptop away from her and out of reach. She tried to lunge for the device, but Lloyd managed to hold her back.

"Take it easy you guys!" Nya hissed as a few passing students gave them odd looks.

"She can not just break into my locker! Pixel cried.

"As long as she's got dirt on us, we're in danger!" Skylor exclaimed. "We can't just do nothing!"

"That's it, let's go!" Morro growled as he grabbed the red-haired girl's arm and dragged her away with Lloyd following close behind. They walked until they were certain they were alone before Morro finally let her go and he and Lloyd backed her into a corner.

"I told you, we trust Pixel." Lloyd glared.

"No, YOU trust Pixel!" She argued. "All that proof she's hiding will destroy us if we don't destroy it first and you all know I'm right!" She snarled before the bell suddenly rang and she pushed past them to go to her first lesson...

Later that day, during a study period, the Ninjago teen pack was gathered in the library. They were split into two groups at either side of the silent library with Zane and Jay talking to Pixel and the others tried to reason with Skylor.

"Skylor broke into my locker." Pixel said when Zane asked her what was wrong.

"What?" He gasped in shock.

"Yeah, she was after her laptop," Jay replied.

"I just can't believe she'd do that!" Cried Pixel.

"She's scared, Pix," Jay said softly. "Your data is a risk."

"I've already explained, it's to protect all of you." She sighed and turned to her boyfriend. "I thought you were on my side?"

"I'm not on anybody's side! I just want my friends to be safe."

"So do I." She glared and Jay sighed as he looked to the others, hoping they were having better luck with Skylor. Unfortunately, the red-haired girl was more stubborn than Kai when it came to Pixel and her werewolf research.

"This has got to stop." Cole glared at the wild girl.

"Not while she's got those files." She snarled.

"We'll talk to her," Kai reassured.

"She'll just win you over like always!" She snapped. "Secrets have a way of getting out."

"I know, but this is Pixel's thing," Lloyd replied.

"It makes her feel special, it makes her feel like she's part of things, so we're not going to let you throw it away." Morro glared at his friend.

"She'd still know." She hissed. "So really, we wouldn't be taking anything away, would we?"

"Maybe we could try persuading her?" Nya suggested.

"You think she'll just give us her laptop if we ask nicely?" Cole scoffed.

"You got a better idea?" His boyfriend.

"Yeah, we stop asking and we do something!" Skylor growled.

"All this stuff... if it gets out, it's over, for all of us." Lloyd warned them all, not just Skylor. "So we need to keep our heads and work through this together as a pack."...

Pixel sighed heavily as she walked alone to gather some textbooks for her History class from her locker, but her mind was too focused on what was going on with her friends. It seemed that when she made peace with one of her friends she fell out with another. She could only hope that the others could get Skylor to see why she gathered all that research on them. If Nya could accept her reasons, then so could Skylor. As Pixel approached her locker, she frowned when she saw something was wrong.

Her locker was slightly opened and it looked like the lock was broken.

Green eyes wide in panic, the human opened her locker and was horrified to see her laptop was missing from its usual place. That panic soon turned to anger, however, and she went looking for the one person she knew was responsible for this. She charged down the hallway until she found Skylor casually talking to Lloyd and Nya.

"Where is it?!" Pixel angrily demanded, shocking everyone present.

"Where's what?" Skylor asked in confusion.

"My laptop!" She snapped. "Give it back now!"

"I didn't take it!"

"Er, Pixel?" Nya warned as the fight started to attract some unwanted attention by passing students.

"She broke into my locker and stole my laptop!"

"I never took your fucking laptop!" The wild girl snarled and Pixel saw red. She lunged at the red-haired teen and they both started wrestling on the floor while the crowd of students chanted 'Fight' over again. Nya and Lloyd tried to break up the fight but they pushed away by the crowd.

"That's enough!" Miss. Koko suddenly shouted as she burst through the crowd and pulled Pixel off Skylor while Nya and Lloyd held the wild girl back. "Both of you go straight to the Principal's office and I'll see you in lunchtime detention as well." She demanded and turned her attention to the other students. "The rest of you, back to class."...

"Are you all right, Pixel?" Zane asked as he met up with his girlfriend and they began to walk to their next lesson. He had heard what had happened between the human and Skylor but he was just relieved that his girlfriend was unharmed. Ever since she left the detention, however, he could tell she was still fuming over her missing laptop.

"It is just so sneaky." She seethed. "Even for her."

"I will get Morro to talk to her." He sighed. "Skylor would never come clean to me or the others, but you are sure it was Skylor?"

"Zane, I know you think this is just part of my obsession, but who else could it be?"

"It's just... I overheard the others talking about your research."

"Saying what?"

"That they agree with her, about your laptop and research, said they wanted to do something...maybe..." He gulped nervously as her eyes widened in realization. "All I am saying is maybe it is not just Skylor you should be suspicious of."

"You can't tell them, you can not let them know I am on to them." She warned.

"OK, but what are you going to do?"

"I'm going to get my laptop back." She stated before rushing away, leaving a confused and worried Zane behind. She waited until the bell rang and all the students were in class, leaving the hallways empty before she made her move. Acting quickly, Pixel ran to the werewolf teens' lockers and used a paper clip to pick the locks so she could get inside. Unfortunately, it was a waste of time. Her laptop wasn't in any of her friends' lockers.

She even checked Zane's but there wasn't anything remotely suspicious in any of them...

Pixel wasn't the only one in a bad mood, Skylor had spent the entire lunch hour sat in detention alone with Pixel, who wouldn't stop glaring daggers at her the entire time. The others were also walking on eggshells since they found out about the fight between Pixel and Skylor and about how Pixel's laptop going missing. They could only hope that Skylor didn't do anything stupid with the laptop. That hope vanished when they found all their lockers opened and a quick sniff revealed Pixel's scent.

It was then they knew they needed to fix this before it got out of hand, but they didn't know how to confront either girl.

"Oh, come on, this is stupid." Cole finally sighed in frustration.

"Yeah, let's just go talk to Skylor." Jay agreed and with a nod, they went to find the red-haired girl. They found her glaring at Harumi and her gang laughing about something and before she could react, they grabbed her and dragged around the corner so they could talk in private.

"What's going on?" She asked when they let her go.

"Pixel's gone and broken into our lockers!" Kai growled.

"Why?"

"'Cause she thinks we took it!" Lloyd glared.

"Took what!?"

"The laptop!" They all screamed at her.

"Didn't you?" She asked in confusion.

"What?" Morro gasped. "We thought you took it!"

"Of course, we didn't!" Nya cried. "You took it!"

"No, I didn't." She replied just as Pixel rounded the corner, a worried Zane following close behind her.

"Alright, which one of you stole my laptop?!" She screeched, causing all the werewolves' to flinch due to their advanced hearing.

"First, did you break into our lockers?!" Cole snapped.

"Yes!" She admitted. "I was looking for my laptop!"

"We didn't take your laptop!" Jay exclaimed.

"Y-You didn't?"

"No!" They all shouted.

"But Skylor was going through my locker and Zane heard you all talking!" She shouted and everyone glared at Zane, but the white-haired teen gasped when he was hit with a horrifying realization.

"So no-one here has actually stolen anything?" He asked and they all nodded. "Then someone out there has got hold of Pixel's laptop." He muttered and they all finally saw the real problem was. Someone had stolen Pixel's laptop with all the werewolf research on it. They also knew Pixel didn't have a password on it so all the thief would have to do was turn it on and click on the right file and see all their secrets.

"I told you!" Skylor screamed. "I told you this would happen!"

"What are we going to do?" Kai panicked.

"Find out who actually stole the laptop," Lloyd stated, trying not to show his fears.

"Someone could be going through everything now!" Skylor snarled. "All our secrets!"

"Then a useful idea would be helpful, Skylor!" Morro snapped.

"I've got one!" Pixel suddenly cried as she pulled out her phone. "I just remembered I have GPS on my laptop, it is linked to my phone."

"So you can track it?" Nya asked and Pixel nodded.

"You just decided to tell us this now?" Cole glared.

"I'm sorry but I wasn't exactly short on leads until now." She hissed before she loaded up the GPS app and they all breathed a sigh of relief when it revealed the laptop's location.

Thankfully it was still somewhere in the school. Knowing that they might now have much time before the thief found out their secrets, they all followed their human friend as she tracked the signal. They ended up walking out the back entrance of the school and around to where students and teachers parked their vehicles. Pixel's GPS started beeping signally that who stole her laptop was somewhere in this parking lot. As they split up to search the area, Skylor suddenly caught the scent of an unfamiliar human.

Letting a low growl, she bolted towards the source and found someone with a blue hoodie hiding their face.

They were sat on the ground behind a yellow car with Pixel's opened laptop on their lap as they scrolled through her un-opened files. Without thinking, the wild girl lunged forward, getting a high-pitched yelp from the thief. The others quickly arrived and pulled Skylor off the thief while Pixel checked her laptop. Thankfully it was undamaged and the file with all the werewolf research was un-opened. It was then they all got a good look at the laptop thief.

"YOU?!"...

Chad's cousin, Brad Tudabone, blushed a bright red as he sat in an empty classroom with Lloyd and his friends lecturing him on the wrongs of stealing. They could somewhat understand why the boy did what he did, however. He explained how Chad and his gang were threatening him for money or else and they all knew Chad well enough to know he would go through with the threat, cousin or not. But that did not excuse him for stealing Pixel's laptop.

"If Chad was threatening you for cash, you should've said something." Jay scolded.

"Oh, yeah, sure." Brad scoffed.

"Yes, sure." Kai glared and the thief looked away in shame at his actions.

"OK, let's go." Lloyd sighed and the others nodded, seeing that Brad had seen the error of his ways.

"What? That's it?!" Skylor cried out in rage.

"We got it back, that's all that matters." Replied Morro.

"But we can't just let him go!" She snarled.

"What do you want to do, arrest him?" Nya frowned.

"He just made a stupid mistake," Zane added.

"Thanks, and, um...sorry, Pixel," Brad muttered as he slowly stood up and nervously grabbed her bag. "Really, sorry."

"We won't say anything," Pixel reassured, only to fix him with a glare. "But if you ever do anything like that again..."

"I won't, I swear." He nodded and made to leave, only to stop at the door and turn back to her. "Hey, Pix, what was that wolf stuff?" He asked at the teens all felt their stomachs drop in cold fear.

"W-What?" She asked.

"You had a folder, think it was called 'Wolf Data'?" He explained and Skylor sent the pale girl with an enraged glare while the others internally panicked.

"Oh... just a p-project thing." She smiled shakily. This answered seemed to satisfy Brad and he quickly left without another word. Everyone just stood there in silence, trying to process what had just happened. Zane looked to each of his friends and the look they were all giving him said everything. With a heavy sigh, he reluctantly nodded and they all left, leaving Zane and Pixel alone in the classroom to talk, but her boyfriend still had yet to look at her.

It was a few minutes before anyone said anything.

"We almost lost everything." He muttered.

"I'll get a hard drive." She mumbled, instantly knowing where the conversation was going.

"You know that's not the point."

"I promise this won't happen again."

"How can you make promises like that, Pixel?" He asked as he faced her with a blank expression. "We trusted you with our lives! Our secrets! Everything!" He exclaimed, his anger starting to rise and boil. "You were supposed to keep us safe!"

"That's what I've been doing!" She cried desperately. "I didn't know Brad would-"

"None of us did!" He snapped. "You can't protect us from something you can't see coming, Pixel!"

"But I can try." She whimpered, feeling tears welling up in her eyes. "Zane, please...don't ask me to..."

"Pixel..." He sighed as he knelt down next to her. "I know it's difficult."

"No, Zane, you don't know!" She shouted. "For years after the beast in the forest, everyone thought there was something wrong with me." She started sobbing as she clutched her laptop close to her chest. "This research, it's... it's... it's proof that all those horrible things people said to me no longer matter; it is proof that I never have to doubt myself ever again." She pleaded and for a brief moment, Zane felt his heartbreak for the girl he loved.

Unfortunately, this was too close a call for them to just overlook.

"Pixel, the real proof is right in front of you; me, and our friends." He said, placing a comforting hand over hers. "How are a few photos and videos going to change that? You can keep your research or you can keep us safe; today's proved you really can't do both." He explained, but Pixel didn't say anything. She didn't even look at him. With a heavy sigh, Zane stood up and made to leave.

"Wait." She suddenly said just before he reached the door. He turned around and watched as she reluctantly opened the laptop and with a shaky breath, deleted all the research and evidence she had collected on her werewolf friends. After it was done, she closed the laptop and just sat there in silence, almost as if she was in a form of shock. "Ever since I was a child, looking for the beast has been my life." She finally said in a monotone voice.

"I know."

"Then it was all about you, guys." She chuckled bitterly and turned to look at her boyfriend in the eye. "What am I supposed to do with all this free time?"

"There's more to you than just Pixel the Beast-hunter."

"Like what?"

"If you wanted to, you could reinvent yourself, or you could just keep on being you; wonderful, loyal, clever you." He smiled lovingly, only to jump in shock when she suddenly rushed forward and pulled him into a tight, loving hug. He stood in shock for a moment before returning the hug and they slowly sunk to the floor, completely uncaring to the world around them...

REST IN PEACE KIRBY MORROW