Lulloyd and Over stood a few feet from Oni. The one warrior they had barely seen before, yet seen the power he held, was simply carving. The dull, growing blue light of the morning was starting to reach across the waves. The dull water around him almost made it hard to distinguish Oni from the water at which the end of the canal he sat on. The glow of the Slow Blade sat beside him. A small gust of wind caused several of the shavings of his carving to be blown up and towards Lulloyd and Over.

Then, Oni stood up. The two immediately tensed, readying to attack. Oni reached down, taking hold of the Slow Blade in one hand, and his carving in the other. He kept his back to them for a few moments, his face hidden from them.

"Greetings, Lulloyd, Over," Oni spoke up, "I knew that some of you would come. The two of you in particular, I did not expect. But I suppose it does not matter. You are after this thing, yes?" Oni held the blade up.

"Yes," Over frowned, "Will you keep it from us?"

Oni said nothing. The being turned around, facing them. Once more, Lulloyd caught a look into those eyes. Those eyes that were so dull, so lacking in feeling, he swore they were almost dead. Oni made no moves, almost like he was a statue, staring at them. Lulloyd felt the urge to draw his sword growing further and further inside of him.

Then, Oni reared his arm back and tossed the Slow Blade at them. Lulloyd, stunned, leapt into the air on instinct and caught it. As shock and confusion filled him, he looked up to Oni by rotating his hips. Oni simply turned around, sitting back down and going back to his carving.

"I have no urge to fight you," Oni declared, "Take it. I do not have need of it."

Lulloyd looked down at the blade in confusion. He could feel that it was the real thing. Not just the sensation of it being as heavy and weighty as the others, but that it was pulsing with power. Power that was as easy to use as just thinking as what he wanted to do. Over looked over at him, eying him for a moment. Lulloyd blinked to indicate it was genuine.

"Why?" Over frowned, "Why would you not fight us?"

Oni didn't respond for a long while. He just went about his carving. He carved small pieces off, flakes that they couldn't even see. Then, when he had finished working on the unpainted eye, he pulled out a vial of paint from his hip and slowly poured it over. Taking the tip of the chisel, he guided the paint along until the green swirl for the eye was completely, a perfect mirror of the other side. Lulloyd was almost transfixed by it, unsure why but enamored with it. It wasn't until he looked around to see another ship was coming into the port that he realized how much time had passed watching it. Over had just waited, a neutral expression on his face.

"Do not misunderstand my actions, I will fight you when the time comes, but not now," Oni informed them, "I am working to replace the mask that you broke during our first encounter, and the one Monty stole from me."

"Oh really now?" Over quirked an eyebrow up. Lulloyd gave another blink to tell him it was true.

"Yes," Oni shook his head, "The masks of the Oni are ones of great power. But they require time. I have worked on this one the longest. It will be ready soon. But until then, I wish to have my time to carve. This place here, close to the ocean, it calms me. It is unlike the loud noises of the city."

"If that is your conviction," Over narrowed his eyes, "Then what is your purpose in fighting us, if you will not even question why we want this?"

"Because it is not apart of the balance that I am here to fix," Oni responded, "If your plan would throw it apart, then perhaps I will act. But now, I have no reason to."

"You… you mentioned balance last time too," Lulloyd found his curiosity overruling his fear, "What, what is that about?"

Oni carved again. This time, he was silent for a long while. He didn't make any moves other than his hand guiding paint down the mask to continue the swirl. The deep navy mask looked as though it would fit right in with the previous ones. As though made by the same craftsman. They were silent for the longest time. And when Lulloyd swore he was finally about to ignore them, he leaned his head up. Such a small motion made Lulloyd jump up slightly.

"The First Master created humanity in his image," Oni leaned his head up to look towards the dawn sky, "This was an image born of Oni, and Dragon. In a way, those two species, in a war eternal, were the purest form of balance. Light and darkness, battling each other. Yet the First Master would throw that balance apart by claiming Ninjago as a place of light. Humanity, therefore, was born out of a balance that was never to be. Despite claims of destiny, stating that those who live in Ninjago would balance it, the world would forever remain imbalanced so long as humanity was present."

"And where does that leave you?" Over asked skeptically, "To claim you are born of the balance is arrogance, isn't it?"

"Naturally, I purged myself of humanity to return to balance," Oni exhaled, "I had hoped you would understand that. Of all of you, you, dark one, you came closest to that truth, given you are fused to a being that is one in the same with it."

"You know nothing of balance then," The Overlord's voice came from Over's lips, the deep and almost feral growl coming from him, "I was born of it. You adopted it."

"Perhaps but you do not fully understand yourself, do you?" Oni shook his head, "You are not but a newborn of darkness, never allowed to grow and flourish. I had hoped you would understand in the way that a child comes to know of right and wrong."

The Overlord gave a massive snarl. Oni didn't react to it. Lulloyd wasn't sure what to make of it all .He thought for a moment about it. Oni had, purged himself of humanity? Then, what was he now?

"Wait, if you're, one of the balance then why are you helping the Twins?" Lulloyd blinked.

"I am not helping the Twins. I'm helping the balance," Oni informed him, "Perhaps I may explain it like this for you. Nature is the purest form of balance. The world itself is created of it. Events may happen that appear to throw everything out of balance. A disaster, a freak accident, an extinction. But balance will always return one way, or another. Therefore, it is important to follow nature when one wishes to make a choice. To follow the balance, one must try to become impartial in attempting to make choices. The most simple choice, the one that requires the least thought when emotion is put aside, is that in which is most simple. For example…"

Oni held his mask up, inspecting it in the low light, "I have had the chance to take you all out, many times. I have been following all of you since the moment that your world fell, Over. Specifically, when you visited Mage's world, I had the thought to attack you there. But I decided against it. At the time, you were perfectly balanced against Prime and Ophiod. Your battle was fully in flux. Neither of you could overcome the other. It was only when you proved you were able to overcome that balance that I stepped in."

"But, you didn't help us!" Lulloyd stepped forward, "You, I mean your logic is, weird but I think you at least know why we're in the right!"

"When you are attuned to nature, as much as I have allowed myself to be, you realize that destruction does not just affect those it touches," Oni explained plainly, "You do not understand. The loss of Over's world has created a vacuum in the void. One that will only grow, fester. It will soon become more than any of us could have anticipated. The Twins have promised me the ability to use their abilities to create another world to replace it. There must be creation in order to offset destruction."

"How can you trust them, though?!" Lulloyd stepped forward, "They're murderers!"

"So is your ally there," Oni informed him, "Yet you stand beside him."

Lulloyd looked over to Over. Over's face didn't change. He slowly reached up, instead, to rub his forehead, as though exasperated with what he heard from Oni.

"If you claim impartiality, then you must know that to oppose anyone is to declare a stance," Over frowned, "Does that not register to you?"

"That is the reason I am giving you that blade," Oni informed him, "My battle with you is when you will stand to make a move to unbalance the fight again. But I do not have any reason to look into why you are taking that thing."

"...But, you, went and attacked Lloyd and Harumi!" Lulloyd protested, "The whole reason we're here is because of you!"

"That is because at the time, we had reason to believe you were planning something," Oni looked towards Lulloyd, "I told them if they stopped, I would not attack them. They were the ones that prompted the fight. Did you not come here anticipating to fight me?"

"Your logic falls apart with each word you use," Over spat, "You still fought them. And attempted to kill them. This entire idea of balance is flawed. It's hypocritical!"

"What is hypocritical is the way you sit here despite the sadness you hold inside," Oni looked forward, "While you attempt to help others from their own."

Over snarled. Lulloyd wanted to press on the topic, but didn't know what it would lead to. Oni went back to his carving again, now working on making the shape of the outside symmetrical. This time, it truly did make Over twitch as he prepared to wonder if he needed to attack Oni now. He slowly stepped forward, about to say something, only for Oni to raise his hand and stop him.

"Then let me make you this promise," Oni turned his head, "If you do not attempt to track down the Twins, or attempt to track me, I will not attack you. I am working with Prime and Ophiod, but I am not beholden to their mission. I came here on Prime's request. I did not come here to fight you. Only to see what that signature he was scanning was… and I have found it."

"I… I see?" Lulloyd blinked. Oni looked up towards the sky, then nodded again.

"Go," Oni commanded, "I wish to carve in peace. I will tell Prime that you left with the blade. But the next time that I fight with you, I will do so at full force. And it will be at a time you force my hand to. I will not stand in your way any longer than I must… but when I do, I will be the iron wall."

"One last thing," Lulloyd asked, much to Over's confusion, "Why… did you try to take the Sword of Sanctuary from Monty?"

That one left Oni thinking. He didn't move to carve, instead just thought. Hearing that was enough that Lulloyd thought he'd hit a nerve or something. Then, Oni just went back to it.

"Because someone like him, a stain that was left behind, does not deserve something as pure and worthwhile as that graceful weapon," Oni informed them, "That is all. I am one that deserves to wield it, as I have taken the time to truly find its worth. I know what that sword can do. I know the power of Sanctuary. To think someone like him would ever dare to touch it, it sickens me. In a way that I thought I had purged long ago. But it seems not," Oni shook his head, "But that is all. I am feeling angry now. So leave. Let me carve in peace."

Lulloyd wanted to ask more, but Over reached out and touched his shoulder. It was one that told him it was time to go. Slowly, Lulloyd turned around and hefted his mechdragon brick out. The beast unfolded out with a roar, and the two slowly mounted it. They both watched as Oni didn't even acknowledge their exit. Just worked on his carving. Paying them as little mind as he did the waves of the ocean he sat at the cusp at.

"We… we got the blade," Lullyod held the Slow Blade up, passing it to Over. Over let his shadowy body slide the Pause Blade out form inside, holding them both.

"Yes… let us return to Base then," Over responded. This time, there was no need for them to respond. There was nothing to say. And so the two flew off, off into the distance, to see more of what was going to happen now that they had succeeded in their mission.

"No, I don't want any of that!" Monty spat from Aly's body, pushing away yet another person trying to peddle some accessory onto her.

Mage was currently waiting outside of a store. Monty stormed out in Aly's body, reaching up and rubbing the bridge of her nose. Mage quickly followed after him, walking out to the edge of the glass layer they were on. The fifth floor of this strange arch-shaped building seemed to be mainly for darker clothing and, chains for some reason. Why, Mage couldn't tell. But Monty seemed to be having none of it.

"Uh… so, what's you see?" Mage asked.

"Nothing, other than edgy angst and monetary regret," Monty grumbled, "You'd think since I'm possessing a girl people would be more careful about trying to sell me things. Apparently salesmen haven't been taken over by robots yet."

"Yeah…" Mage looked around the massive place, still seeing people milling about on the group far below them now, "I'm… still trying to figure out this place."

"What's there to figure out?" Monty frowned, "It's a mall. I hate these places. They opened one in Ninjago City. Horrible place. Had to go there on a bounty once. Guy ended up making us chase him all through the place. I crashed through a food stand before I managed to finally take him down. And then the cops tried to bill us for property damage!" Monty grumbled, "Not like we weren't already doing their jobs. Last time we ever took a job from the city."

"...Well uh, I was just thinking about how long it would take to, build something like this," Mage informed him, "...Or is that too boring?"

"Go ahead," Monty waved Aly's hand flippantly, "I don't care."

"Well… so, I'm guessing that you'd likely be making this place out of metal, right? Or, well that would be the easiest way to do it," Mage rubbed his chin, "It'd probably take the Metal Tribe… if they hit a good vein, four months to mine all this? Then another three to refine it. Then add one another one to get it all shipped out to wherever it was going. Then you'd need to get the Earth Tribe to come out and make the land for it suitable, since it'd be incredibly heavy. When we built the Summit, it took almost two weeks of just, uh, I think they said 'refining' the ground to be strong enough for it. And then, you'd need people from other tribes to come in. The Poison and Form Tribes would do all the interior stuff… so another few months of supplies. And then, if you wanted to do anything fancy, you'd need the Fire Tribe to come in and help. They're the best at doing buildings, like, they did a ton for the Time Tribe when they built Tempus. And, after all that you'd need probably a year to convince merchants to settle down in the stores and stay there, and a stable supply line for food and crops and… yeah."

Monty was silent for a moment, then he sighed, "You know, sometimes I forget for a kid you have a freaky amount of knowledge of infrastructure."

"I helped make the Summit and create an entire alliance between all our tribes!" Mage protested, "I had to learn! I told them I wanted to learn! Dad helped me get good tutors to teach me what I needed to know. I don't know all the details but I did a lot of learning for it!"

"Just goes to show that only most kids are stupid," Monty pushed Aly's body upright, "Alright. Enough rambling. We need to keep looking. Nobody has said anything. It might end up being inside of a maintenance area or something. Which just means more breaking and entering. I don't know where all the security cameras or any main station would be, so we'll have to do this the old fashioned way."

"As in… sneaking around?" Mage asked.

"You know, it's so dang good to have someone around that actually has a brain on them," Monty began walking again, "Come on, there might be a few more stores we should check."

Mage had learned by now that while Monty didn't wait up for anyone, he also wasn't purposefully walking faster than Mage could keep up with. Once he figured that out, it wasn't hard to just briskly stride along and keep page with Monty. All the while, Mage just hummed a bit to himself, focusing on making sure that he was looking around for anything unusual. Given that this entire place was a mess of colors and confusing sights, though, figuring out what to put his focus on often ended up in him just following Monty again.

You should be kinder to him, The SoS spoke in Monty's ear again, A true wielder of me would know that it's not worth antagonizing your allies.

Monty didn't respond. Trying to argue with the thing would just end up with him drawing attention. Why a sword like this couldn't read his thoughts was beyond him. The three began to round the layer, going towards the other side of the arch. More stores had people in gaudy outfits attempting to sell things. The light of the dome was still blue with the exploding colors on them, making it hard to even look up.

You're still upset that they didn't listen to you, aren't you? The SoS continued in a lazy tone, And now you're trying to take it out on a child. Or, you're holding back because he's one. Well, if you are, you're doing a horrible job at it.

Aly bit her lip angrily. Monty stuffed her hands deeper into the pockets she had. Thankfully, she had them. Having possessed enough people in his day, realizing that women's clothing often didn't have pockets had become something he'd use to at least try to relate to girls. Well, on the off chance he was forced to talk to one. Given that Stiix was primarily a bunch of male criminals, though, that wasn't very often.

Maybe if you would listen to me, and you had me under your belt for real, Master, they'd have listened, The SoS continued to taunt, You should listen to me. I have centuries of experience. I have seen wars and-

"Let's try here," Monty turned towards a random store, selling what looked like jewelry. He turned to Mage, then gestured at the edge of the layer, "Go and keep watch."

The sword huffed, but decided not to pester Monty any further. Mage, meanwhile, just walked back over to the edge of the layer, looking down towards the crowds again. Monty walked inside the store, walking around to try to see if there was any sign of the Time Blade, or anyone talking about something strange. As he waded through listening in on mundane conversations, Mage took his time to scan around for people, and for anything like the blade itself. He wasn't sure which one they were looking for, but it didn't matter. He just had to find it.

It was by chance that Mage's eyes were drawn to a large fountain. He had no idea that fountains were a common sight in malls. This one was a simple one, carved to look like a simple stone arch bubbling water down. Projectors were set up to set lights and images against it. It was there, however, that Mage saw the sight of someone sitting there, someone important.

"Pr-" Mage shook his head, opening up the power of Mind and calling out, Monty!

What? Monty asked, not the least bit stunned by it.

Prime, Prime is here! Mage frowned, His mech isn't here, though!

Almost immediately, Monty rushed Aly out of the store to stand beside Mage. The two looked down together at the fountain. As soon as Monty laid eyes on him, he let out a long grumble from Aly's throat.

"Alright," Monty frowned, "Looks like we need to figure out if he knows why we're here. The fact he's out of his mech means he's not looking to pick a fight yet."

"Then let's go, I can get him to-" Mage started, but Monty held out Aly's arm.

"No, even if you changed form he'd be able to recognize you, or at least feel something is off," Monty turned to Mage, "I'll take the elevator down to him. You keep watch on him and tell me where he goes. I'm going to go talk to him."

"What, why?" Mage asked, but Monty was already walking away. Instead, Mage tried to use Mind again, You shouldn't go and try to-

If he's here for us, then he'll say it, if not then we're okay. Plus, guys will talk to girls, Monty shot back at him instantly, Just keep an eye on him.

Mage grumbled, but went to watch Prime as he was told to. Prime was just sitting there on the fountain, Mage watched him, then realized it wasn't a good idea to. He began to slowly walk with the flow of traffic, getting himself in and out of the crowd while walking along. When he was starting to get towards the elevators, he turned back around and walked again.

He's getting up! Mage shouted mentally to Monty, He's going towards the giant weird glowing arch thing!

There was no response. Instead, Mage saw Monty in Aly's body walking out of the elevator tube and towards Prime. Prime was going towards a large glowing door that would lead out to one of the other three sections of the mall. Monty walked towards him casually, not doing much. Mage made his way over towards the elevator to find stairs he could use to go down, hoping to try to get closer to see what was happening.

When Monty neared Prime, he moved Aly to walk alongside Prime. Prime was still in his jumpsuit, and walking around with a simple, unbroken smile on his face. Right before they were about to get to the entrance, Monty walked Aly a little closer. Prime was forced towards the edge of the door. When he tried to move back in front, Monty didn't move, and Prime bumped abruptly into her. Aly went down to the ground.

"Owh!" Monty dramatically grunted out, "Hey! Watch-" When Aly looked up, Prime had his hand extended to her.

"So sorry," Prime continued to smile at her, "Let me help you up."

Monty hesitantly reached out, then took Prime's hand. Prime immediately helped her up with a single, firm grasp, and once she was fully on her feet he gave a small jerk to help her balance. Prime then let go and nodded at her.

"This place is a little crowded," Prime chuckled, "Forgive me, I was a bit too close."

"Well... " Aly sighed, "It's… fine. Yeah. I guess it is packed," Aly reached down and rubbed her hip, "Owh…"

"You took a fall, didn't you?" Prime looked around, settling back at the fountain, "Why don't you sit down? It might hurt a lot more if you don't rest."

"Ugh… yeah you might be right," Aly groaned out to Prime. Prime smirked at her and slowly helped her back through the crowd and towards the fountain. By the time the two sat down, Mage had already managed to get down to ground level and found a small spot in front of a store selling scarves and hats and the like to look at them more closely.

Once Aly sat down, Prime looked around again, then moved to sit next to her. Internally, Monty was somewhat glad he didn't need to play it up any further to get him to talk. In fact, Prime leaned back on one hand and looked up a bit as Monty made Aly stretch a bit.

"What's with the getup?" Aly waved her hand at Prime.

"What, do I look that out of place?" Prime smirked, looking around at the various people of the mall. Monty had to admit that he had a point.

"Just wondering, jumpsuits were in last year. Now it's all weird," Aly rolled her eyes, "But it looks good on you."

"Well thank you," Prime chuckled, "I don't tend to pay that much attention to fashion, though. You could say that I'm not from around here. Ninjago City doesn't sit very well with me, I guess."

"Does it with anyone?" Aly shrugged, "It's all weird here. What brings you here?"

"Ah, just looking for some friends, but I can't seem to find them," Prime shrugged, "But I'll find them soon enough. I have a good eye for that sort of thing."

"Really?" Aly asked, while internally Monty groaned in exasperation, "Well, that's gonna be hard. This mall is a huge place."

"So it is a mall, I was wondering," Prime smirked, "Back home, they only had one for a little while. Then it got torn down." Knowing what he was talking about, Monty half wanted to call him out for being so dodgy with it.

Mage wasn't sure what was going on. He took his time in walking around the crowd, trying to remain out of Prime's gaze. Once or twice, Prime would look around and see him, but Mage make sure there were people between him and that gaze. Prime wasn't going to suspect anything with him, not yet. He had other things that needed to happen first.

"Well, I think you should be alright soon," Prime stood up, giving her a sweet, charismatic grin, "Do you think you'll be alright?"

"Y-Yeah…" Monty had Aly rub the side of her head. Just as Prime turned to leave, she blurted out, "D-Do you have a girlfriend?!"

Prime froze. Monty was taking a gamble with this. He knew this wasn't important to this mission, but whoever Prime was in love with was the one that was driving him to do all of this. The one that was making him do it all. He wanted to know more. And Aly was young enough a blurt like this would be passable.

"No," Prime sighed, "But, I'm not sure I'm looking. I… had a harsh end with my last one."

"R-Really?" Aly rubbed her head again, "Sorry, that wasn't right of me. I guess, you just look so new I thought I might not get another chance, you know?"

"Heh, isn't that life though?" Prime turned his head to her and sighed, "You're a very pretty woman, and to say that I would enjoy making you smile would be a lie. But I don't think I have it in me to do that without more work on myself."

"You seem like a great guy, really," Aly shook her head, "Most guys would just leave a girl down like that. I can't imagine that someone would leave you."

Prime's gaze became distant for a moment. Then, he suddenly moved to leap up onto the edge of the fountain that Aly was sitting on. Monty turned her head to watch him closely, trying to see if he was figuring something out. Instead, Prime held his hands out and began to walk around the outside of the fountain, balancing on the edges of his feet.

"I still haven't been able to myself," Prime admitted, "She was an incredible girl. When she smiled, the stars had to stop shining since they couldn't compete. And when she growled, oh the entire earth rumbled. Every time I saw her, she made me want to be better not because I deserved her, but because I knew that I would always have to work to keep up with her. She had everything in front of her. Everything possible. And that wasn't to say anything about how smart she was. But, even then, she was driven beyond everything else. If she decided to touch the stars, she would work everyday until she could. That's the reality of who she was. That… that was my Akita…"

Prime leapt up again, this time onto the top of the spewing arch of water. He balanced perfectly on one foot, the water spray less than an inch from soaking his jumpsuit. He looked up towards the glowing and colorful sky of the dome, watching the artificial lights dance on them. When Monty looked at him, he almost looked like some sort of part of the statue himself. How he could even balance there was beyond him.

"And even if she isn't here anymore, I can't imagine a life with someone until I live up to the image that she set for me! I'll do everything to do that!" Prime stuck one hand up in the air, pointing to the sky, "I'll be everything she needed me to be. She was my love, my everything, so I'll become everything! I'll put on my smile for all to see, and for them all to know that whenever someone is covered in darkness, the light of Prime will shine to pick them up!"

Prime suddenly leapt up from the top of the fountain, doing several summersaults until he landed right in front of Aly. Monty was about to speak, when Prime reached out and grabbed hold of her hood on the hoodie. With a single flip, the hilt of the SoS was exposed. Prime smirked, reaching up to wrap his fingers around it and lean forward towards Aly, putting their faces close together.

"Is that all you wanted to hear, Monty?" Prime smirked.

With a single snap of Aly's wrist, Monty had grabbed Prime's arm and thrown Aly's knee up to strike him in the gut. Prime yanked himself away and did a backflip, landing elegantly away from him. The crowd around them began to gasp, holding up their watches to record the event. Monty stood up in Aly's body, spreading her legs out to strengthen her stance.

"You really shouldn't be walking around with a sword-shaped bump in your hoodie…" Prime smirked at Monty, "But that was a nice trick. I knew you could possess people, but I didn't think you'd be bold enough to possess a girl."

"Yeah, well," Monty's voice leaked out of Aly's lips, "Some of us don't have to have standards."

"Quite," Prime laughed.

"Hey, you two!" A mall security guard, wearing a deep blue outfit and flanked by two robots from the plaza, pointed at them, "What's going on here?"

Monty reached down and threw Aly's hoodie up and off his head, yanking Ebony and Ivory out.. In two clean shots, both of the robots went down. The sound of gunfire caused the crowd to panic and begin to flee. The guard moved to pull out a taser, only for Monty to reach out and shoot the thing out of their hand. The security officer put their hands up and ran off. A moment later, an alarm began to sound. The blue lights of the dome turned a pure white, as if the projection had been shut down. The dull dark light of the mall was suddenly a plain yellow. As the crowds began to flee under the alarm, Monty eyed Prime up.

"Are you really going to drag an innocent girl into all of this?" Monty hissed through Aly's lips again.

"I don't know, are you planning to use her on me?" Prime taunted. He reached over towards his wrist.

The moment Prime moved, Monty fired his pistols. Prime dropped to the ground, almost like some sort of fluid machine. Monty re-centered his aim and fired, but Prime slid across the ground and did a roll to go behind the fountain. As the bullets churned up chunks of the rock and created small puffs of rock, Prime did another roll and successfully hit his wrist.

Prime turned his head just in time to see a series of decorative chains fly out from a store front and towards him. He gripped the edge of the fountain, pushed himself up onto his butt, then brought his knees up to leap off the fountain and over them. He hit the ground in a roll and then slid backwards, one arm up behind him in the air. He turned to see Mage dropping his disguise, his eyes gunmetal from manipulating metal.

"There's always more than one of you," Prime smirked, "I would have preferred Over, but anyone who would help him is just as guilty. I suppose you two will do!"

Monty took several more shots at Prime, his tracking near flawless. Prime, however, was just faster. It seemed out of his mech, he was nimble, agile and insanely fast. It was almost like Lulloyd, but without the jerky motions and strange combos. Giving up on the guns, Monty traded Ivory for the SoS, then blasted forward with wind from Aly's feet to go right towards Prime. Prime leapt up onto a small digital map-terminal, then leapt down the other side just as the SoS impaled through it. Prime reached out and tapped the tip of the sword as he ran away.

"Not fast enough, Monty!" Prime shook his head, "And it looks like you can't shoot as well as you think you can!"

Monty yanked the SoS out of the now glitching terminal, and instead blasted across the ground. Just to prove it to Prime, the wind once more let him skate across the ground. He accelerated him by blasting wind from the SoS, then stuck it out to slice across the ground to guide his motion in an arc right at Prime. Prime turned his head to see this, and stopped dead in his tracks to face Monty. Monty thrust the SoS out at Prime. Prime waited, then twisted his body to the side. The sword slashed just an inch from his chest. Prime then threw his weight backwards, bringing his feet up into Aly's corporeal form to knock her off balance and onto the ground. Prime landed the balls of his hands and feet, pushing off them to leap back upright.

Mage held his hand out, causing a sword of ice to form out of it. In the other hand, he called upon the chains from earlier and twisted them together into a hardened stick, then coated the thing in poison. With metal, poison and ice, he raced forward towards Prime, aiming to paralyze him with a swipe of poison. Prime dodged each slash with a timed slide of his foot. Mage threw the sword of ice at him, and when Prime dodged it shattered on impact.

With Prime occupied, Monty dragged Aly back up. Just as he did, he looked up as he heard something. A moment later, there was a massive crash as the dome above them was shattered apart. Invictus came flying down from the hole it created, arms crossed as it descended from a hole of the distant hovercars and tall buildings. Monty leapt straight out of Aly's body, picked her up in a cone of wind, and sent her flying off and away from the massive falling shards. Mage raced with speed to take cover inside of a store. Prime, however, walked calmly over into a spot in front of the fountain. Invictus crashed down right behind him, its feet spread out just far enough to not touch the fountain, and its crossed arms shielding him from the falling glass-metal shards. The impact of the mech touching down caused Aly, waking up from her possession, to race for an exit with a scream.

"Now, we can actually get started!" Prime shouted. Monty raised his pistol, but Prime began to rapidly flip and jump up the leg of his mech. The gunshots didn't even touch him as he made his way to the opening core and slid inside. The moment he did, the eyes of the mech began to glow as power was sent hurtling through it. The mech opened its arms up, drawing its combat knives and blasting them with power to extend them to the energy swords.

"Mage, go find that stupid blade, now!" Monty spat, "NOW!"

"But, I don't know where it is!" Mage gasped out.

"FIND IT!" Monty screamed. Mage nervously nodded his head.

Seeing the mech bore down on them, Mage decided it was time to draw his own swore. Suddenly, Mage's shadow began to extend out behind him. He held his hand back, and the shadows began to bubble. Slowly, Aevum rose up from them. The sword soon was in his hand and he fully pulled it from his shadow. He'd gotten the idea from Over, and after thinking about how to combine smoke and shadow, he'd figure it out. Monty was going to comment on how this could have been avoided if Mage had offered, but decided against it. At least for now.

Invictus rose its sword up, turning them down in a plunging attack. Mage raced to one side with speed, and Monty blasted up into the air to the other with wind. The swords struck down, carving into the ground with a sizzling hiss. Mage leapt up through the air onto the first floor of the mall, while Monty just landed back on the ground and held the SoS out.

I wouldn't use me against that thing, The sword sighed to him, I don't think you could withstand the force.

"Tell me something I don't know," Monty growled, "You wanna help or not?"

You seem to be doing fine so far, so by all means, The sword went silent. Monty just huffed.

Prime turned his attention in the mech to see Mage running along and away from him. He raised his sword, ready to cleave both Mage and the entire building apart. Monty looked around and saw a stand for watch accessories. With a swirling funnel of wind, he gave it a hard thrust and flung the stand right up at Invictus. It struck the mech's torso harmlessly, but Prime diverted his attention to Monty nonetheless.

"You're that eager, aren't you?" Prime raised his arm, and thus Invictus', at him, "Then why don't you take your turn now?!"

Monty blasted up into the air with wind just as the sword came down. Monty flew right towards it, then extended his arms out. The sword flew right through his body, and his entire vision went blue for the second it did. The SoS, safely out of range, glistened as Monty then rocked towards Prime in the cockpit. He drove the SoS in a jab into a small gap in the metal plating on the mech. It bounced right off, even as Prime turned his head in the cockpit to where Monty had jabbed.

"Nice try," Prime laughed, "But Invictus was made to withstand the entire force of a building! A single sword won't do anything!"

Monty blasted away just in time for Prime to cause the mech to electricity, trying to attack Monty that way. Monty instead drew Ebony and fired the massive rounds into the hull of the mech, flying up and around the thing to try to make a dent in it. Even the rounds hard enough to penetrate the armor weren't able to go deep enough to do any damage. Monty flew back and forth around invictus, attempting to blast any joint, any gap, anything. But the bullets wouldn't go through. Monty even sheathed the SoS to pair the two pistols together and fire away, but neither of them could do anything.

Instead, Prime just laughed inside the cockpit and deactivated one sword, instead drawing his own gun and holding it up at Monty. Monty actually went to dodge as rounds the size of his forearms were sent out towards him, either flying through his body or off behind him to shatter the dome around the part of the mall even further. More and more of the outside world was revealed as shards fell to the ground and shattered apart, each one a thunderous impact that echoed less and less as more holes were opened up.

"You can't hurt me, Monty!" Prime shouted, "Not even Over could hurt me! Even that thing you used earlier won't dent me now! I've upgraded Invictus! I am Invictus, and Invictus is me! The two of us will never be taken down!"

"Oh will you just shut up?!" Monty shouted back at him, "Go suck on a drill!"

Monty shot back towards the ground, landing and avoiding a massive blast of the arm cannon of Invictus. Prime hefted both the gun and the cannon to fire two consecutive rounds of fire, attempting to hit him. While Monty wanted to stand still just to spite him, the blasts were large enough to destroy his pistols. So instead he just continued to dodge, drawing fire away from Mage.

Eventually, Monty rolled along the ground to hide behind a pillar, supporting the first floor of the stores. Prime stopped his fire, and instead let silence fill the space. Monty took a moment to assess himself, then reload his clips. No damages so far. He looked around the pillar, eying where the mech was standing. Just the breadth of its feet took up a good deal of the walkway. The fountain had been blown apart in the scuffle, leaking water out the side into a growing puddle on the floor.

"Where did you go, Monty?" Prime taunted, "Are you already running scared? I thought the dead didn't have anything to fear!"

How humiliating for you, Master, to hide from a foe like this… The sword added to it, Perhaps if you stopped being so-

"I do not need you weighing in on my current predicament!" Monty hissed at the sword, "If I did, I would bring Ronin with me."

Monty looked up again. Invictus was waiting for him. So far, so good. As long as it wasn't going after Mage, he didn't care. He couldn't quite scrap the thing just by fighting it like this. He had to be smarter. He needed to draw it out. The mech was still standing, after all. Which meant it could fall. And most people didn't like it when they broke their nose after one. The mech's feet, though, were right by the founta, now spewing water. Monty thought for a moment. He couldn't get close anymore. Not without something to protect himself.

"Come out, Monty…" Prime growled, twisting Invictus' head around. Just that noise caused a whirling mechanical drone to fill the air, "You know it isn't like you to-"

Monty's wind yanked a rack of clothes from a store and out into the open. Instantly, Prime leveled his cannon over and blasted it to pieces. Monty ran forward out from the pillar and into the open, hiding behind a small piece of concrete decoration. He peaked up and hefted his guns up, then fired at Invictus. Just as he planned, Prime once more shot at him, blasting his cover apart. But Monty had already run again. He shot towards the entrance to the dome, sending a blast of wind backwards in a cone right towards the mech. Prime went to aim at him, but the wind was timed to hit the mech's leg just enough so the blast arced up and blasted apart the dome above the entrance instead. Seeing Monty was going for the underground entrance, Prime leapt forward in his mech. The sound of the feet crashing on the floor would have thrown a corporeal person to the ground.

Monty inhaled, then thrust his guns forward and fired. Instead of bullets, he compressed his wind inside of them, and the force of which shot him backwards as a high speed. Combined with his feet once more sending wind to skate across the ground, and he went right towards Invictus. The action was fast enough that Monty was able to reach Invictus' legs and slide right between them. Prime stopped to attack, but by then Monty had raised his hands up and inhaled. He threw his hands down, and a massive rush of wind funneled up around both of Invictus' feet. When Prime twisted the mech, the mech's balance was shot. Monty skated away just in time for Invictus to fall forward onto its knee. The impact shook the foundation of the entire building.

With his attack of opportunity completed, Monty was ready to attack again. Instead, Prime twisted the mech's arm around and flung the sword it still had towards him. While Monty dodged, the sword lodged right down into the remains of the fountain, breaking it apart. The impact caused a massive blast of water and concrete to come flying in all direction. Monty's eyes widened as he moved his hand up, attempting to summon a shield of wind in front of him. Even as he moved his hand, he knew it wouldn't be fast enough. Time seemed to flash by in slow motion as he saw the splash of water coming right towards him.

The entire area in front of him turned blue. Mage landed in front of Monty, his arms stopping from a complete swing of his sword. A blue ribbon of slowed time in front of Monty caught the water and chunks of rocks, even as those around the two hit the ground and water pooled across it. Monty didn't waste another moment, blasting up into the air and towards the third floor of store.s Mage turned to see Invictus getting up and did the same with gravity, swinging Aevum around in and elegantly sheathing Aevum back on his hip. When he landed with Monty, Mage pointed to his right.

"This way!" Mage shouted. Monty followed after him quickly. Prime got up in his mech, shaking himself off and quickly racing forward to yank the sword out of the ground. By then, the two were already racing away from him as the mech went to go for them.

"Where?!" Monty hissed once he saw Invictus after them.

"I found the blade!" Mage called back, "It's over here!"

"Then why didn't you get it?!" Monty shouted.

"Because I saw you needed help," Mage responded, "You're welcome!"

Monty turned back to see Invictus chasing after him, the remaining water on its sword vaporizing from the intense heat of the energy on it. Monty turned his head back around and slowly muttered, "...Thank you." Mage blinked in shock, but by then he'd rounded the side of the building was on his way.

So you can show gratitude… The sword on Monty's back mused, Perhaps you're making progress after all. Monty just snorted in response.

Mage raced until they came to one of the holes in the dome that Prime had created. He pointed forward, and Monty squinted his eyes. At the top of one of the other mall structures, right at the very top, was a faint green glow. Just seeing it told Monty why they hadn't found it. The domes were only see-through from the outside, and anyone from above wouldn't see such a faint sight. He turned to Mage and nodded.

"So, how do we get it?" Mage turned, seeing Invictus hurtling towards them, "With him on us?"

"We race for it," Monty hissed, "Let's go!"

Monty bent forward, holding his guns behind him. Wind began to gather and pulse around him, as though preparing for a dash. When the wind built up enough, he fired his guns, and with a flash he shot straight out of the hole at blinding speeds. Mage simply applied gravity and speed together, causing him to accelerate faster than gravity's pull could, rocketing after him. For a moment, the two shot into the noisy skies of Ninjago City, the hovercars above them still on their traffic as normal. The only thing to show something was going on was the crowd of people watching from the layers on nearby buildings.

Then, the dome they shot from broke open as Invictus shot after them, the jets in its legs blasting to propel it towards them. The beautiful white, green and blue blend of Invictus beamed as Prime moved to raise the mech's arms and charge the cannons. Monty and Mage split off from one another as he fired, sending the shots arcing off into the distance. The dome in front of them was shot, causing it to break open and reveal the lights inside of it was set up like a sunny, warm day like an outdoor strip mall. Monty and Mage arced around the shots through the air as the dome they were racing towards was broken apart just like the first.

Just from the short flight, Mage knew that Prime was gaining. Monty and Mage both shot down through the hole in the sunny dome that Prime created, flying off into a similar section of the mall seemingly more focused on household items and toys. It didn't give them much time, though, as Prime came crashing through this one as well. He landed hard enough that the mech's ankle struck the building, causing it to begin to crumble. Mage directed himself right towards the top of the building, along with Monty. There, the two could see the glowing Forward Blade.

"You won't get away!" Prime shouted. He raised the mech's cannon again, ready to fire. Monty and Mage both shot out towards the blade. Reaching out for it. The cannon fired at them, the blast enough to engulf them both. The two grasped the blade hard, and in that moment, Monty made a split second decision. The blade flared up with power then activated, causing them to blink ahead in time. The blast of the cannon incinerated the top of the mall structure, burning away several stores as Invictus lowered it's arm.

Prime waited for a few moments, then looked to where the two had stood. Then he looked down to his screen to see nobody was there. And once he did, he slowly began to smirk. On his screen, he'd recorded the entire fight. And the screen was frozen at the end, showing the trailing green lines from them activating the blade. And with it, Prime laughed.

"So that's why you were here…" Prime mused, "...That's, oh so interesting…" Prime reached down and tapped his screen, "Ophiod? Are you there?"

A moment later and Ophiod responded, "I'm here. What is it?"

"I think I know what they're all after now…" Prime smirked, "Break off your attack. It's time to get the Twins involved in this."