Lloyd had not intended on helping out or being involved with the Ninja ever again. Not after they had actually had the audacity to make Morro their new sensei. Even though the guy couldn't do Spinjitzu. And had been a really bad person and had almost caused the end of the world. Letting him onto the team had been one thing, but now he also had some kind of authority over them as their new sensei. How backwards was that?!

But, unfortunately for Lloyd, there were two problems with that plan:

The first was that in the back of his head, he knew he still owed it to Uncle Wu, to help the Ninja at least once. The Realm Crystal thing did not count, because Lloyd had not done so intentionally. It had been chance that he'd ended up being helpful. And whatever had happened in Jay's forgotten timeline didn't count either, because if Lloyd couldn't remember what had happened, it hadn't happened.

The second was that Harumi was a really big fan of the Ninja. Like, really big. She knew way more about the Ninja than the average Ninjago citizen, things most people probably shouldn't know. She was the one that had told Lloyd all about the prophecy of the Green Ninja, how she had once hoped to be that ninja, why green was her favorite color. Lloyd bet that if she asked him to help them… He wouldn't say no (albeit he would only agree under a lot of pressure).

Thankfully, sometime after turning fifteen, Lloyd was finally absolved of his debt to Uncle Wu. Some bad guys, the Time Twins, had turned up to ruin the Ninja's day. And Lloyd had happened to be there just as it started. Well, actually, a little after it had already started, but still pretty close to the beginning!

The point was that Lloyd had seen an opportunity to finally pay back what he owed to Uncle Wu and he had taken it. It was actually thanks to Dareth that Lloyd had even had the chance. So... Yeah, Lloyd needed to remember to be extra nice to him.

Dareth had enthusiastically dragged Lloyd to see the product debut of the brand new BorgWatch at the BorgStore. Lloyd didn't think of himself as being particularly close to Dareth, but he had kind of learned to accept free meals wherever they came from and Dareth happened to offer him a lot of free meals. Even now, Dareth had promised Lloyd a trip to Chen's afterwards, if he tagged along with him to the product debut.

It had been a little troublesome to tag along, because Dareth (having a big personality) had naturally ended up on TV and by one hair, Lloyd had almost been seen together with him in public. It wasn't that he didn't want to be seen with Dareth (although Dareth could be very embarrassing at times), but even Brad didn't know about his "grand sensei". Mostly because then Lloyd would have to explain why he needed the dojo, which would then lead to the training, then the Spinjitzu…

Basically, Lloyd was glad he had been able to duck out of the way in time. After the interview, it was back to listening to Dareth talk excitedly about the BorgWatch and other BorgProducts, which was eventually followed by listening to Cyrus Borg talk about how he had come to invent the BorgWatch and other Borg-gadgets and by this point, Lloyd was beginning to question his life choices. He could be at the comic bookstore right now, reading the latest issue of Starfarer, but no, he was here…

Curse you, free meals…

Something glinted in the light.

"What…" Lloyd murmured, looking up sharply. Something had caught his eye… A sword. It flashed again, glinting in the store's artificial light. It was all Lloyd needed for his fight-or-flight instincts to trigger. Without hesitation, he grabbed Dareth by the back of his collar and forcefully dragged him out of the store. They got out just before all hell broke loose.

He pulled Dareth behind a nearby parked car, where the panicked crowd wouldn't run them over or trample them to death. "Did you see what that was?" Lloyd asked Dareth, unable to hide his alarm. He hadn't managed to get a good look at the attacker; his priority had been getting Dareth to safety.

"It looked like… Some kind of snake samurai…" Dareth stuttered out, sounding dazed. "You got us out…"

"Come on, we're leaving."

"What? We can't leave! People are in danger!" Dareth protested. "If anything, it sounds like a good time for the Brown Ninja to step up and protect the good people of Ninjago." He took out a brown hood that Lloyd had never seen before. Had… Dareth always had that? Lloyd didn't know what to say, so he just blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

"Are you seriously going after that thing?" he demanded, pointing at the snake monstrosity tearing the store apart with ferocious thoroughness.

"You bet I am, little guy. I'm the Brown Ninja. It is my sworn duty to protect all the little guys out there and the little Borg-Gizmos too. Such is the way of the ninja."

"You- what- You're not a ninja! The Ninja don't even know who you are!" Lloyd all but shrieked, his voice cracking. He could guess why Dareth was suddenly interested in the Ninja. Harumi and her stupid ninja obsession... Of course it was going to rub off on Dareth, he loved tales of heroism, especially if he could insert himself into those stories.

"I don't need to be known, to do what is right," Dareth dramatically replied, then somehow managed to run into the store before Lloyd could grab him and hold him back. Dareth only rarely ever outmaneuvered Lloyd, but every time he did, Lloyd found himself completely bewildered by how. With not much in the way of choice, Lloyd let out a frustrated groan, then ran after him, entering the empty store. He could hear Dareth addressing the warrior.

"Hey! You messed with the wrong purveyor of high-quality consumer goods, hombre. 'Cause this BorgStore is friends with me! The Brown Ninja! Drop the laptop!"

Predictably, the creature dropped it, the laptop breaking on impact.

"You animal! I didn't mean literally!"

Distracted by the broken laptop, Dareth didn't notice the warrior rapidly approaching him. Luckily, Lloyd had his back. Vaulting over counters, Lloyd lept at full speed towards the warrior, landing a solid kick along its jaw and forcing it away from Dareth. Lloyd must have kicked much harder than he had expected though, because the kick sent the snake creature flying back, with enough force that… when it crashed into the wall, it fell apart into a lot of snakes. Like… a lot of snakes.

Lloyd was actually really fond of snakes, but even he felt squeamish seeing so many of them writhing there.

"What the…" Lloyd managed to gasp out in shock. Dareth looked similarly horrified. The moment didn't last long. Something glinting in the light caught Lloyd's attention again. He looked up and saw that the light was harmlessly reflecting off the glasses of Cyrus Borg. Not a threat.

Borg was looking straight back at him though. Scared. Cowering in the corner. He had no means of escape, not in that wheelchair. He was trapped. Something tugged at Lloyd to help, but he had spent his entire life at Darkley's, and while Darkley's had been unable to completely break him, it had successfully made Lloyd care for no one but his family and friends. Even seeing Cyrus Borg so frightened and helpless was not enough to soften him.

So, not even breaking eye contact with Cyrus Borg, Lloyd dragged Dareth out of a side-entrance to safety, abandoning the inventor inside the store. Lloyd didn't care that he might well be abandoning a man to his death. His priority was himself, Dareth and no one else. Dareth weakly protested but was still too terrified of the snake samurai to actually resist.

Once they were out, Lloyd let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. "We're not going in again. We're going home," Lloyd insisted.

"But we almost had him!"

"Him? Had?" Lloyd repeated disbelievingly. "Didn't you see it? That thing was forming back into a samurai snake… monster! We did not have that thing! This, this is definitely a Ninja problem and not an us problem. We're leaving."

"But Mr. Borg…"

"And look. Look Dareth. Here come the Ninja now," Lloyd continued, pointing to the main street from their alleyway. The two peeked around the corner. There, in front of the BorgStore, stood the five ninja, ready for a fight.

Wait. Five? Why was it only five? Where was Morro? Their sensei was oddly absent, but… None of the ninjas seemed worried about it. Maybe Morro had simply not come along? Weird…

Then something stranger happened. The Ninja seemed to discuss something among each other, before Kai went in. Alone. Without even his sword.

"Why are they going in one at a time?" Lloyd asked, frowning.

"I'm, uh, sure they have their reasons," Dareth defended, but Lloyd didn't really hear him.

"There goes Kai…" Lloyd muttered, watching Kai fly out of the building. That looked… painful. Seemed Lloyd must have got lucky with that surprise kick then. If the samurai had seen him coming and been given the chance to grab him… Lloyd shuddered at the thought. They watched Zane go in next and the results were the same. Out Zane came, flying. He got a worse landing than even Kai. "Oh, that looked really painful…" Lloyd couldn't help but admit in sympathy.

"Aw, look at them. How are they gonna get anything done without the Brown Ninja to aid and guide them against this slithering menace? Come on Lloyd, we need to help," Dareth insisted, and Lloyd had to wonder if this man had ever lived in reality.

"I don't think so," he replied, preparing to hold Dareth back if necessary. He then went back to observing the Ninja. "Huh. Looks like they're splitting up. That's never a good idea… Why is it Zane alone?"

"I don't know. Why? You think someone should go with him?" Dareth asked and Lloyd foolishly answered "Yeah," without thinking.

"Great! Glad you're finally onboard with the showstopper that is the Brown Ninja show. Ok, so here's the game plan: I'll go help the Ninja fight off the snake samurai and you go and help Zane," Dareth decided, believing Lloyd would be safer running away from the scene of battle with Zane.

"No, wait, that's not-" Lloyd spluttered out, realizing his mistake, but Dareth was already running off again.

"Go, ninja, go!" Dareth yelled.

"We're not ninjas!" Lloyd called after him, but Dareth had already charged into the store and out of sight. Lloyd groaned into his hands. You would think out of the two of them, Dareth was the irresponsible minor and not the other way around. At least the Ninja would be around to protect Dareth, so he didn't need to be too worried about him.

This was actually fine, Lloyd decided. He still owed the Ninja a favor and Dareth wanted to help, so this was a win-win situation. No cameras were around either, so lending a hand shouldn't make its way back to Darkley's…

Making up his mind, Lloyd ran after Zane.

Had to split Hands of Time into two parts too. Then we get the epilogue on the 7th of May and after that, the story's all done! :)

Note to Harumi: I didn't mention it last chapter, but part of the reason she's an explorer in this AU, is because... well. In her (canon) childhood she was playing with a green ninja doll. When Lloyd had only just been revealed as the green ninja to a SMALL group of people. Considering that none of the Ninja knew about the green ninja before reading an ancient scroll, I'm assuming the legend wasn't common knowledge in Ninjago until after the battle with the Overlord. So why was Harumi (as a little girl) already playing with a green ninja doll? There wouldn't have been merch, no one had even heard of a green ninja before, let alone seen one...

The obvious answer is that it's simply a case of continuity inconsistency (Ninjago is kinda filled with those...). Another explanation is that she made the dolls herself and she made one green because it was (at the time) simply a colour she liked. But I'm going to go with my personal headcanon: Harumi had a natural interest in myths and legends and discovered the legend of the green ninja early. The loss of her parents made her develop an obsession with Garmadon instead of the ninja: she continues pursuing her interest in myths and legends, but now focused on dark things: The Oni masks, dark magic, etc. It just fits.

Or maybe I'm just trying to make Harumi way more competent than she canonically was, lol. I mean, apparently, she was only in a position to do anything because she was also a princess. Don't know how much luck she would have had without that status and the accompanying resources.