Pixal had been pretty much walking on air since she got back from the Shrine visit.
Seeing the words carved under the ice on the statue gave her a renewed sense of hope, and her meeting with Phoenix went amazingly – she never would've guessed he was an elemental master, let alone be able to heal her sickly pet penguin. Peach and Cherry had noticed a marked difference in the Shogun over the passing days. Even now, as they assisted her in changing into something a little more moveable, they noted how she appeared to be pleasantly humming a lovestruck tune.
One of them brushed out her hair, as the other rifled through a garment rail.
"Your Highness," Cherry said as she ran her brush through the long silky tresses. "we are most surprised to hear you humming, you are usually so quiet."
"Oh Cherry," Pixal sighed. "I cannot help myself… there are going to be big changes soon, and I am excited."
"May we ask what has put you in such an exuberant mood?" Peach asked, holding a purple furisode.
"You may, dear Peach," Pixal smiled. "there are signs that Kura-okami will be returning."
They both gasped and dropped what they were holding.
"Surely not," Cherry whispered. "he perished almost six years ago!"
"These signs must be something pretty amazing." Peach determined.
"Tell me, have you ever seen ice do this?" Pixal grinned, showing the two girls a photo of the ice-coated statue.
"Not intentionally," Cherry looked at Peach. "perhaps we should consult the cards."
"Permission, Your Highness?" Peach queried.
"Granted."
Cherry retrieved a piece of chalk from her pocket and drew a summoning circle on the tiled floor of the dressing area, paying special attention to the kanji at the centre of it. Peach pulled a tarot deck from her pocket and the two of them sat on opposite sides of the circle. She shuffled the cards several times, then spread them out in her hands – picture side down – and offered them to Pixal.
"Please select three, be sure not to look," Peach requested. "and tell the cards what you wish to know."
"I wish to know if Kura-okami will return soon." Pixal said hopefully and blindly picked out three cards.
Peach took the cards she had chosen and placed them face down on the floor. She picked up the first card.
"The Tower," She revealed the card. "indicative of a revelation, and upheaval."
Peach picked up the second card, and put it face up.
"The Wheel of Fortune," She spoke. "a sign of good luck, destiny, and a turning point."
She picked up the final card and smiled.
"The Lovers, meaning love, harmony and unity," Peach beamed. "based on these three alone, you could be looking at a revelation in your personal relationships, with destiny intervening."
"That could mean anything!" Cherry sneered. "For all we know, it could mean Her Highness has a new, previously unknown, admirer – do it again!"
"Ever the critic, aren't you? Why suggest tarot cards when you so enjoy picking it apart?" Peach frowned, collecting the cards together and shuffling them.
"One has to be critical when the cards are this vague." Cherry asserted.
She offered the cards to Pixal again, and again, three cards were selected.
"Three of swords; you have a heavy heart, do you not?" Peach empathised as she observed the first card. "You suffer daily from the grief and heartbreak of losing Kura-okami."
She turned over the next card.
"The World, but it is upside down," She announced. "in this position, The World card embodies the desire to obtain personal closure."
"After nearly six years of grieving, I'm not surprised." Cherry nodded.
And the third card was turned.
"Nine of cups…" Peach tilted her head. "a card of contentment, of personal wishes coming true."
"A strange card to appear beside those two…" Cherry dismissed.
"Not at all!" Peach dissented. "Grief, personal closure, wishes coming true – it's as clear as day to me!"
"Try one more time." Cherry waved her hand insistently.
Peach snorted in frustration, shuffling the cards one more time. Pixal, who at this point was silently absorbing these predictions, absentmindedly chose three more cards. Peach lifted the first card.
"The High Priestess – you need to listen to your intuition, there is something in your subconscious mind that may not have made itself known."
The second card was revealed.
"Four of Wands," Peach grinned happily. "a card of celebration, joy and homecoming."
Pixal's eyes lit up as Peach picked up the third card, but Peach's expression changed. She glanced at Pixal, and then at Cherry, and pulled a concerned face as she divulged the final card.
"Seven of swords…" She sighed. "meaning betrayal or deception."
"Another strange trio," Cherry acknowledged. "what do you think it means?"
Peach looked at Pixal with a deadpan expression, as she spoke words so serious that her face fell with them.
"Your Highness, although there is joy and celebration here, there is also deception," Peach began. "someone is not who they say they are, and you must use your intuition to determine who is the wolf in sheep's clothing."
"What a bring down," Cherry complained. "I'm so sorry, Your Highness, I did not mean to ruin your good mood."
Pixal remained silent.
"Your Highness?" Peach quietly asked. "Are you quite alright?"
"Of course," Pixal replied with a smile. "I am merely considering my next move, but first I must get changed for my meeting with Master Lloyd."
"Oh yes, silly me, I was in the middle of choosing something for you!" Peach chuckled as she put her tarot deck back and returned to the wardrobe.
As Peach selected some items, and Cherry neatly swept away the chalk circle, the results of the tarot session swirled around Pixal's mind. Every reading had something good and something bad, but that last one really stuck with her. Theoretically, anyone on her council could have been hiding something, but her immediate thoughts were of Zander. He was new to them, and there was much about him that they didn't know. At the same time, he was strong, skilled, and just as loyal as any of her other Lords and Ladies – she had never met anyone with such impeccable manners.
Well… she had, but he was gone now, and had been for nearly six years.
Perhaps it was time to send Kiku on a special mission... Ideally, she should also enlist a second investigator, but the sixth anniversary of the Overlord's defeat was but a few days away, and as such, everyone was busy preparing for the victory festival this week and the Christmas party next week. In hindsight, perhaps Zander's Lord celebration could've been postponed to overlap with the festival itself, but doing so would've been sacrilegious to Kura-okami. The timing was inconvenient, certainly – having three major events so close together was putting a lot of pressure on her staff – but regardless of what happened day to day, the anniversary had to be treated as sacrosanct.
In between plotting where she should start her investigations, Pixal made a mental note to double everyone's Christmas bonus this year.
"Master Lloyd," Pixal smiled. "thank you for coming at such short notice."
"My pleasure, Your Highness," Lloyd bowed as he entered the council meeting room. "I'm so sorry I could not get here in time for the shrine visit this morning; had I known, I would've left the temple with Jay and Nya."
"No need for apologies, I know it is a long distance for you to travel," Pixal nodded. "do shut the door behind you, I wish to have a private word in your ear."
Lloyd closed the door and sat before Pixal.
"How may I be of service?" He bowed again.
"I think we can forgo the formality for now," She smiled again. "please, address me as your friend."
"Of course," He agreed. "so, Pixal, how can I help you?"
"Lloyd, what do you make of Lord Zander?"
"I'm not sure what you mean," He said. "what I think of him personally or what my official opinion is?"
"Both." She replied.
"Officially, he's an outstanding individual; well mannered, dignified, eager to please," He began. "personally, he reminds me of Kura-okami."
"You mean Zane," Pixal beamed as she poured him a drink. "you may say his name, I will not explode – I am in far too good a mood to be set off."
"I've never known anyone as Zane-like in my entire life," Lloyd sighed, relieved that Pixal was not triggered. "his conduct and mannerisms are identical to Zane's, he's positively enamoured of you, and he's definitely made quite an impression on the court."
"He's made quite an impression on me too," Pixal said. "but I don't want to put all my files in one folder, and if he is another imposter-"
"I doubt it," Lloyd shook his head. "no fake has ever gotten this far – Miru always has them weeded out on day one."
Pixal paused and touched her chest. She concentrated on the pulsing within her; she treasured the half a heart that once belonged to Zane more than anything and had done some awful things to protect it from antagonistic forces. Lloyd could see the pain in her eye, and the build-up of fluid loitering around it.
"Can I ask what's brought all this on?" He wondered, sensing her melancholy. "This can't have just come out of nowhere."
"Peach performed a tarot reading when I got back from the shrine." Pixal admitted.
Lloyd's face became marred by the enormity of this new information.
"Is that a problem?" Pixal innocently asked. "She offered, and I wanted to know if Zane was coming back."
"Her readings may be cryptic, but they've never been wrong!" He declared with certainty. "What did she say?"
"She did three readings, the first one was general in nature and did not reveal much," Pixal recalled. "the second one entailed closure of grief and personal wishes coming true."
"And the third?"
"Intuition, homecoming, and betrayal," Pixal said. "Peach interpreted the cards as a double-edge sword; that there was joy and celebration, but also deception, that someone is not who they say they are."
"Ah…" Lloyd nodded. "so, naturally your first thought was Zander."
"Everyone else on my council is known to me, Zander is the only new face, and we know so little about him," Pixal reasoned. "I have sent Kiku to discretely follow him and report to me if she hears anything useful, but with the festival so close, I cannot redirect anyone from the preparations."
"It would be a relief to see Zane returned to us," Lloyd mentioned. "and I can only imagine how happy you'll be."
"If he truly is who I think he is, then it is the day I have waited for," She breathed. "but what if he is not? I cannot handle any more heartbreak."
"I've seen the way he looks at you, and you at him," Lloyd added. "I'm leaning towards a positive outcome, although if it is him, he possibly suffers from some memory loss."
"And therein lies the problem, I do not know; I need proof!" She slammed her hand on the floor. "We cannot be so naïve as to simply ask him, we must determine by external means."
"Do you mean…?" Lloyd baited.
"His ice powers," Pixal stated, picking up a tablet and flicking through the pictures on it. "on reviewing the footage of the shrine, there is no discernible explanation for the statue being turned into a glacier, but no one else owned such power."
"And he did not have time to name a successor before he…"
"I know," Pixal interrupted. "neither has anyone come forward claiming that they or someone they know has inherited his powers."
"I'm not surprised, not after what you did to Chamille for impersonating him," Lloyd noted. "to say nothing of the two conmen who followed."
"Those were impostors; anyone who has legitimately gained ice powers will have nothing to fear if they can prove themselves – which is what I'm doing for Zander," Pixal elaborated. "I am hoping that by giving him a compatible heart that he will regain control over his element."
Lloyd once again found himself spitting out his drink.
"Pixal… tell me that you didn't…" Lloyd asked worriedly.
"I did," She responded, knowing what he was referring to. "the power source we found at Zane's father's home, is now inside Zander."
"Your Highness!" Lloyd gasped, drifting back into formality for a moment. "I'm sorry, but what the hell possessed you to do that?"
"Secretly, I hoped… I wanted…" Pixal paused for a moment. "no, I knew… in that moment when he protected me from your attack, that this could be him."
"I won't question your judgement," Lloyd started, still ashamed of his misstep in the throne room fight. "but I agree that we need proof, the question is how to go about getting it."
"My original plan was to sit on my hands until the festival, to see if Miru's vision would come true," Pixal clarified. "but I have since decided that is not enough – I need someone to do a swift but thorough investigation of him."
"I can certainly do that for you," Lloyd bowed. "I will find out who he really is, where he truly came from, what his intentions are."
"Before the day of the festival?" She queried.
"Before the day of the festival." He confirmed.
"Thank you," She sighed. "I need solid evidence before I can even consider approaching him."
"That went well." Nya smiled as they walked into the Airjitzu temple.
"Thank you for telling Pixal," Jay said, giving her a kiss on the cheek. "if I told her, she'd probably think I was joking."
"She was thrilled to pieces." Nya added.
"Did she react the way you thought?"
"Yep, lost her mind over it," Nya giggled. "she spun me around and started asking loads of questions."
Jay laughed at the idea. Pixal, in her role as the shogun, was very prim and proper, but she was a romantic at heart. News of an engagement or wedding always triggered an extremely emotive response from her.
"Lord Zander also got quite emotional when I told him." Jay mentioned.
Nya glanced at Jay with a raised eyebrow.
"What do you make of that?" She wondered.
"Let's just say that now I can see where Lloyd and Kai are coming from," He replied. "Zander reacted to the news the way a close friend would; I'd be lying if I said I didn't think it was odd."
"What was odd?" A male voice piped up.
Jay and Nya looked to their left, where they saw Cole and Jasper coming out of Sensei Wu's meditation room.
"Hey guys," Nya said cheerily. "how did it go?"
"Great," Cole replied, squeezing Jasper's hand. "Sensei Wu agreed to give me time off three days a week to visit Jasper in the city."
"I'm so happy for you both!" Nya grinned and turned to Jasper. "Hopefully, we'll get to see more of you now."
"Thanks," Jasper smiled. "I can't tell you how relieved I am."
"Do you have time for a bit of girl talk before you go?" Nya asked.
"Um, sure." Jasper answered.
Nya took Jasper's free hand and led her into the living room. Jay and Cole looked at each other, and Cole opted to repeat his question, now that it was just the two of them.
"So, what was odd?" Cole said.
"Lord Zander's reaction to finding out that Nya and I are getting married," Jay explained. "he got pretty emotional about it, and I couldn't help but wonder why."
"You mean, why would he get so emotional about the engagement of two people who are strangers to him?" Cole surmised.
"Exactly," Jay agreed. "his reaction was the kind of thing I would expect from-"
Jay paused.
He had become so accustomed to not saying his fallen teammate's name out loud, that he automatically stopped himself before finishing his sentence. Cole understood that feeling. After Pixal's first explosion, the ninja had agreed never to say his name unless it was completely safe.
"So… what do you think?" Cole wondered.
"I'm not sure, how about you?" Jay countered.
"We gotta play the long game, that much I do know," Cole said. "and no one's gonna say anything until there's some kinda proof."
"Where's Lloyd, by the way?"
"Lady Borg summoned for him," Sensei Wu replied as he approached them. "I'm not sure what for, but I suspect it has something to do with the memorial statue."
Jay and Cole exchanged a knowing glance.
"I thought you were escorting Jasper home?" Wu looked around, confused.
"I am, Sensei, but Nya wanted to speak to her first." Cole stated.
The two young ladies soon appeared, giggling away like a pair of schoolgirls.
"How nice it is to hear laughter." Wu smiled.
"Thank you for agreeing to meet with me, sir," Jasper bowed to him. "I'm thrilled that you approve of me."
"It was a pleasure," He said. "I am glad that my student found such a charming partner."
"Come on Jasper," Cole beamed. "we better get you back to the city before your co-workers start gossiping."
He opened the door for her, and just as he was about to follow, Sensei Wu tapped him on the shoulder. Cole looked at him with mild concern.
"You may take your time returning, if you like." Wu grinned.
"Thank you, Sensei." Cole bowed and left the temple, closing the door behind him.
The sound of a revving motorbike engine was heard – loudly at first, but swiftly getting quieter until it dissipated, indicating that Cole and Jasper were already on their way back to New Ninjago.
"So, how did it go at the shrine?" Wu asked Jay and Nya. "Did you manage to speak with the head priest?"
"We did," Jay nodded. "he's happy to perform the ceremony, he just needs a date so he can see if he's available."
"Any ideas on that yet?" Wu probed.
"We were thinking about either next spring or the following fall," Nya replied as Jay took her hand. "but nothing solid has been decided."
Sensei Wu opened his mouth to speak, only to be interrupted by the strumming of a harp. He reached into his pocket to turn off the sound, which was coming from his cell phone.
"Ah," He said, reading the message on the screen. "it appears that I have forgotten about a prior appointment, I'd better go."
He retrieved his wooden staff and walked out the door without another word.
"Hey Nya."
"Yes Jay?"
"We're all alone now…" Jay sang, pulling her close to him.
"For now, at least," Nya chuckled. "Lloyd could be back any minute."
"Maybe Pixal will keep him busy for a few more hours," Jay said hopefully. "last time she called for him, he was gone all day."
"So, what do you suggest we do in the meantime?" Nya asked flirtatiously as she slid her arms around his waist.
"I can think of a few things…" He bit his lip and jostled his eyebrows suggestively.
"You're getting very bold these days," She said, kissing him softly. "it suits you."
"Can I help it if I love you so much, that I want you in my arms all the time?" He flashed his very best smile at her, which made her blush and start giggling.
"I love you too," She purred. "come on, let's get out of the hallway."
Nya pulled away from him and drifted toward the living area. Jay couldn't help but watch as she walked away, admiring the view as she went. He also couldn't believe his luck, given how long he'd had a thing for her. It was amazing enough when she became his girlfriend – now they were engaged, it was like all his dreams had come true.
He took a detour into the kitchen to get them both a drink. He opened the fridge, grabbed two cans of soda, then closed it, before strolling into the living room and sitting beside her on the couch.
"Thanks." She smiled as he handed her one of the cans.
Jay sighed contentedly and gently leaned against Nya.
"You okay?" She asked.
"Couldn't be happier." He responded, nuzzling her cheek.
"Me too," Nya agreed. "this is nice."
The two of them sat together in the peace and quiet of the empty temple. Moments like this were rare – they led such busy lives, there was always the comings and goings of their teammates – and it was difficult to get time alone.
Kai no longer lived there, but Cole was forever in and out, and Lloyd seemed to up and leave at any given moment (and return suddenly, without much notice). Sensei Wu had been spending more time at the temple than he used to; in the early days, he was forever going on days-long excursions, but those had become far and few between. Jay and Nya had training and chores and missions of their own to go on. So much so that they quickly learned to treasure days like this.
"You're so warm." Nya purred.
"Would you like some more warmth?" Jay murmured as he put down his drink.
He put one arm around her, and he noticed that because of how she was sitting, her leg was ever-so-slightly exposed by the movement of her kimono. Jay, still feeling bold because of their situation, softly stroked Nya's thigh.
"Eep! Your hands are cold!" She squeaked, laughing a little.
"Well, you know what they say," He whispered. "cold hands, warm heart."
Nya laughed even more as Jay put both arms around her and nuzzled his face against hers, whispering sweet nothings in her ear. Her laughter was like music to him; a soft giggle that developed into a deep, raucous laugh, interspersed with an adorable hitch when she breathed in every few seconds. Nya wiggled in his grasp, still laughing from the tickle of his breath on her skin, and before they knew where they were, she found herself practically lying underneath him. Only when he stopped tickling her did he realise the dominating position he was in.
They looked at each other for a moment, partly shocked, partly intrigued. He loomed over her like the shadow of a hawk over its prey. She was so beautiful, and as she lay there on the couch – dark, sparkling eyes, raven hair flowing freely, glistening ruby red lips – he could feel his heart going ninety miles an hour. Nya blushed as Jay stared down at her; he looked as hot as she felt, and his eyes were glassy, yet intently focused on hers. As he got closer, all she could hear was her own heartbeat thumping.
"Nya…" Jay growled.
"Yes, Jay?" She replied quietly.
He said nothing, but his hot breath added to her own temperature increase.
Jay was a very gentle individual, the epitome of the 'cinnamon roll' personality type, but when situation called for it, he was hot-blooded and fierce. He pressed his lips to hers, and as she kissed him back, he became engulfed in passion, kissing her hungrily and licking her lips.
Nya grabbed the collar of his gi and tugged on it, parting her lips while pressing them hard against his, as they indulged in the sweetest French kiss. Jay ran his hand through her long hair and lightly stroked the back of her neck. She shuddered and broke their kiss to moan aloud.
"We should stop…" Nya panted.
"I don't know if I can…" Jay muttered, his eyes full of frantic desire. "I want you so badly..."