"I'm- my name is Jesse," Jesse uttered, a bit startled still. Sheesh, she could still feel her heart pounding away in her chest.

"I'm supposed to meet up with Petra, not with whatever you're supposed to be!" the man snapped at her, dark blue eyes that matched the stone on his belt narrowing at her, "give me one good reason why I shouldn't just walk out right now!"

Jesse took a deep breath to calm herself down. It didn't really work. "I'm with- Petra," she said, a bit awkwardly. She didn't really know what else to say.

"My deal's with her, not her partner! ... but, as long as we're here... do you have the skull?" he demanded. Sheesh, bossy much...

"Petra has it, and she'll be back any second now," Jesse hurriedly tried to calm down the rather angry man.

He glared at her for another minute before crossing his arms. "Well... as long as she's coming... I suppose it won't kill me to wait a minute longer," he said, rather calmly.

Jesse let out a breath, and she realized that she'd been holding her breath. No wonder she was starting to feel a little lightheaded.

An awkward silence settled over the alley, until Petra's voice rang out in the small space clearly. "Ivor!" she called, cutting through the awkward silence.

"Ah," the man said, his scowl clearing, "here she is."

"Sorry for being late," Petra said quietly ('technically HE was late, but whatever', Jesse thought), "but... good things are waiting for. I've got what you asked for."

The man sneered at Jesse, who gave him a deadpan look right back. "You didn't mention you had a partner. And I don't like surprises. Perhaps we should just call the whole thing off!"

"Where in the world are you going to find someone else who's willing to get you a Wither Skull on such short notice?" Jesse pointed out, suddenly. The thought had just struck her out of nowhere, but from the way he scowled at her she realized she'd just called his bluff.

She backpedaled- pissing off Petra's buyer was going to do her no favors. "Buuut, I'm cool if he's cool," she piped up.

Petra looked at Jesse, mouthed 'thank you' so quickly Jesse almost didn't realize she'd even mouthed it, and turned back to Ivor with a smile. "It's settled then- you're both cool."

"Proceed, then," Ivor said, in a rather silky tone. For some reason, the way he said those two words struck Jesse as particularly ominous.

Petra reached into her pocket and pulled out the Wither Skull, holding it out in his direction. Ivor took it and began scrutinizing it, a pleased look coming into his eyes. "I'll take my diamond now," Petra added.

Ivor glanced away from the skull. "Take it. You've earned it," he responded, and the two girls looked at the chest.

Jesse reached out and shoved it open, eyes widening as she stared. "Um- that's not a diamond!" she blurted, as Petra's deadpan look turned to one of anger. "No- it's lapis!" she reached in and pulled out the lapis. Both of them looked at where Ivor had been a second earlier, but he was gone.

Jesse glanced at Petra, whose eyes were filled with fire- literally. "Um, Petra," and she pointed at the now-slightly-smoking glove. She was pretty sure spontaneous combustion was not the way Petra wanted to get her anger out.

Petra looked down at her glove and patted the smoking part out, relaxing a little. The fire was still in her eyes, though, evident by the way her jaw was clenched tighter than a bear trap and the fact that her fists were clenched, nearly breaking the lapis that was still in her hand.

"Of all the rotten, dirty-" she snarled softly.

Jesse got up. "We gotta go after him!" she said, and Petra nodded, stuffing the lapis in her pocket, and racing after Ivor. Jesse, who'd never been the FASTEST runner, found herself keeping pace with Petra with relative ease. "Either I'm getting that diamond, or I'm getting my skull back!" Petra snapped.

"Either that, or we'll beat the tar out of him," Jesse added.

"EXACTLY," Petra growled, and the two of them burst back onto the main street. "Where did he go?!"

Jesse felt angry and rather disappointed as she said, a bit hollowly, "We lost him!"

"Then we'll just have to find him again," Petra said, gold eyes practically flaming, before pointing at one of the streets. "I'll head this way, you go that way!"

"Fine by me!" Jesse agreed, and both of them rushed towards the respective crowds.

Once reaching the crowd, Jesse slowed down and started trotting through the crowd at a decent clip. Judging from the buzz of the crowds, she'd just missed Gabriel the Warrior. Usually, she would've been terribly disappointed, but she was more fixed upon Ivor's cheating Petra out of her diamond. And Reuben.

Her heart sank. She'd actually forgotten about Reuben for a minute, in the heat of the moment. What kind of person was she?

"Hey."

Jesse started back a step, looking up from her thoughts, and her eyes locked with the blue (and what seemed slightly green) eyes of Lukas. "Oh- h-hey Lukas," she eked out.

"'Sup with you?"

"N-nothing. 'Sup with you?"

"Nothing. 'Sup with you?"

"I just said," Jesse said, relaxing a bit from the silliness of the whole thing, "nothing."

Lukas blushed a bit. "Oh. Oh yeah. You did. ... so, um... congrats on the win." And he smiled at her nervously, his hair seeming to twitch but probably just the lighting. "I mean, I still think our beacon was... amazing, but, good job. I mean, I thought the monster thing was plenty cool, but... fireworks too?"

"Thanks," Jesse said, a bit taken aback. Lukas usually didn't even speak to her... at all, really. And now he was complimenting her build. "Your- rainbow beacon wasn't too shabby," and she grinned to show she meant no harm.

"You don't have to do that, okay?" And he smiled at her again. "You guys won, fair and square."

"Your friend hurt my pig," Jesse pointed out, quietly.

Lukas' face went a little deadpan. "Yeah. I know. But I swear, I had nothing to do with that."

"No, no... I believe you. Aiden's just... kind of a jerk," Jesse crossed her arms and looked down at the ground, her voice even quieter than before. "He's still missing, you know."

Lukas's face went a bit more solemn. "Is that why you were looking all sad a minute ago?"

Jesse looked down at her feet. "Yeah..."

"I'm sorry about that."

"It's- it's not your fault." Admittedly, this conversation was pretty nice. Even though she was conversing with someone who was her rival.

Jesse hesitated, before shoving her hands in her pockets. "Um, did you see this kinda creepy looking guy... with a beard and this weird belt? About yea tall?" She motioned with her hands.

Lukas thought for a minute. "Umm, I don't think so," he said, "why?"

"He kinda scammed Petra out of a diamond earlier," Jesse said, taking her hands back out and fidgeting with the threads on her overalls.

Lukas's eyes widened. "Whoa- everyone knows you don't mess with Petra. Not if you know what's good for you."

"I know, right?" Jesse chuckled a bit, and he chuckled a little too. It felt... familiar, somehow.

Suddenly, a splitting pain hit her head, and Jesse grabbed her forehead. "Ahh!"

Lukas's hand had flown to his forehead as well, and his eyes were squinted shut.


"What are you doing?"

The ocelot hybrid lay on his stomach in the white room, bluish green eyes dull with boredom. "Being bored," he said hollowly. It was evident that he'd already sharpened his claws from the claw marks in front of him.

The spider hybrid hesitated, before going over to the ocelot and sitting next to him, before starting to rub his head, being careful not to rub his hair the wrong way.

For a minute he didn't seem to notice, except for his eyes flicking up to the spider hybrid. "What are you doing?" he asked at length, tail flicking a little, though in agitation or pleasure it was hard to tell.

"I'm petting you. Cats like to be petted, right?"

He opened his mouth, and then a funny look came into his eyes and he relaxed, eyes going a bit bigger. "That-" he purred a bit in the middle of his sentence. "That feels... really good..."

The spider hybrid kept petting him, and soon the ocelot was full-out purring, the blue and green irises of his eyes the size of golf balls. "Ooohhh, this feels nice," he purred.

"Hehe, who says experimenting with cats is a bad idea?" the spider hybrid joked, and the two young children chuckled. And for quite a long time, the two of them sat there (or, lay there, in the case of the ocelot), a peaceful silence over the room.


Jesse felt the headache pass, and straightened up. Lukas blinked and straightened up, both of them staring at one another in surprise.

Finally, Lukas broke the awkward silence. "Um... so... I'll keep an eye out."

"Thanks, Lukas," and Jesse smiled, but the smile was no longer comfortable, but a bit awkward.

"... um... so... we're cool?" Lukas asked, a bit nervously.

"We're cool," Jesse agreed.

"Cool, cool," Lukas responded.

Jesse had to think of a response. "Cool beans," she said finally.

"Cool-o-rama," Lukas shot back, cracking the slightest smile.

Jesse had to laugh a bit at that, making some of the awkwardness go away. "Ha! See ya, Lukas," and she strolled away, almost missing his slightly late, echoed, "Yeah, see ya." She glanced back for a second to wave, to see his smile having faded to a rather confused look.

She was a bit confused herself. Where had THAT flashback come from?

As Jesse walked past him, she spotted Axel, watching a bunch of chickens in a chicken machine and clearly enjoying himself. She rolled her eyes, a tiny smile on her face. Same old Axel.

He caught her eye after a minute and mouthed, "I'll find the weird guy in a minute or two."

Petra must've already come through here, then.

Jesse rolled her eyes at him with a slight grin and mouthed back, "Sure." His already pretty big grin grew to gargantuan proportions, making Jesse giggle to herself, and continue moving on. As she glanced away, she spotted someone wearing brownish-green robes with long black hair walking through the crowd.

She crossed her arms. For some reason, the clothes seemed a bit off, but it was the first lead she'd had the whole time.

So, she started after the robed figure.

A/N: Annnnd another cliffhanger!

Haha, sorry. I'm evil, I know :)

Jesse and Lukas have another flashback, this time of Jesse petting Lukas xD It was a pretty fun idea I've been having for a while now.

Wow, longest chapter so far. Hope ya like.

MMM: I won't write until I regain interest (so, in a couple months) because otherwise it turns out to be pretty crappy. Also, please don't comment on other stories that have nothing to do with Ninjago about Ninjago.

DemonCatLady: Nope; most of them are monsters. I just thought it'd be perfect if Lukas was an ocelot.

NinjaCat: I actually am! So, good for you guys (thumbs up)

x.X. A.L. X.x