Lloyd *absently making an energy beam shoot out of his finger like a laser pointer for Yuki.*

Kai:...Lloyd, stop abusing your powers.

So, you know how I said this would be a double update? 0-0. Might be a few days late. Sorry bout that, loves. But hey, at least this is a nice long chapter, right?

Wojira-sized Thank yous to Seleine16, FrozenSoapbubble, and Skittybug for dropping a comment:) You guys are awesome!

Enjoy!

Time skip two weeks

In all fairness, Yuki really didn't mean to sleep through the prophesied green ninja's destiny about stopping the end of the world, but the Bounty was just so peaceful for once and with a perfect view of the city from Yuki's window seat. The ninjas were many things. Quiet wasn't one of them, despite their profession. It wasn't until a blinding flash of light, accompanied by a power surge crackling through the air that Yuki was thrown rudely from his warm spot in the sunshine. (Well, it was sunny at one point. Where did all those storm clouds come from?)

Wrenched suddenly from his peaceful doze, Yuki struggled to his feet where he had been knocked against the wall and shook himself, confused as heck as to what just happened. He looked around the room. Aside from a few objects not heavy enough, such as a lamp or random weapon someone had left around, everything had gone back to the lazy tranquility from before.

Shaking himself once more for good measure, Yuki jumped up and peered out the window. The city was uncharacteristically quiet, even from this altitude. No car horns honking. No electricity humming. No white noise of people's lives. Dead quiet.

Nervousness prodded Yuki, making him twitch his tail. Almost too far away to make out in the mid-day haze (strange how quickly those storm clouds had dissipated), one of the tallest buildings had disappeared, literally vanished from the city skyline. Well, that's weird.

He began to pace the cabin, suddenly wishing for his humans to get back. He wanted to make sure they were alright. For once he wished he could go up on deck to get a better view.

He definitely wasn't expecting certain people to walk through that door. He scurried to his hiding place and watched.

This was Garmadon?

This was Lloyd's father, the monster who had been the terror of Ninjago for nearly a year?

Huh. He smelled like old people.

Yuki was expecting some sort of demon who had escaped the Cursed Realm or something, sharp teeth and claws to match, against all odds the parent of one of the sweetest kids the world had never deserved. Not the quiet old man who shared a certain obsession with his brother over tea and cryptic metaphors.

At first, he acted skittish, almost as if he feared if he let his guard down, the venom would return and he would lose himself again. But as time wore on he relaxed into the unfamiliar rhythm of being surrounded by his family.

Since the moment the ninja had bought Garmadon home to the Bounty, Lloyd had stuck to him like a baby foal sticking to its mom. He proudly showed his father every inch of their home, to which Garmadon, seeing everything for the first time, nodded and hummed in distracted agreement, more focused on lightly touching every available surface to concrete his reality.

Lloyd's mother, Misako, was… interesting. Most of the time, she stood off to the side watching her husband and son, fingers fiddling with her green neckerchief. Her face seemed to be in a constant battle between unadulterated relief and regretful sadness.

Master Wu had accompanied the large colorful group, but he seemed to perpetually hold an expression of incredulous disbelief on his face. Every time he looked in his brother's direction he smiled a little wider, slowly accepting the happiness of finally having his brother home after so long.

The rest of the ninja seemed just slightly cautious of the new and improved Garmadon, especially Kai, who shadowed Lloyd around when he thought he couldn't notice. But like the former dark lord, they realized that whatever evil coursed through his veins truly was eradicated.

"You don't have four arms anymore?" Jay sounded almost disappointed, resting his head on his arms at the dinner table.

Garmadon chuckled, carding a hand through his hair, "Sorry to disappoint. I can't say I'll be missing them any time soon." He took a bite of food and his eyes glimmered, now being able to taste something other than Condensed Evil.

"Yeah, or sunning yourself during a thunderstorm," Lloyd quipped, scooting closer.

"Or sharpen your fangs with a file."

Everyone laughed, including Garmadon. "I suppose no one will miss my morning routines. I'm just glad now I have a chance to choose goodness now." He glanced almost sheepishly at his younger brother. The wrinkles around Wu's eyes crinkled as he smiled at him.

"So am I, Garmadon. I-eep!" The sensei jumped as he dropped the teapot he was pouring, a tiny green snake slithering out the spout. His wide eyes stared at it exploring the table with its forked tongue before Lloyd reached over and picked it up with a badly contained grin. It curled around his fingers. Just a harmless Garter snake.

Suddenly Garmadon dissolved into a fit of laughter, making everyone except Lloyd start in shock. It was the first real laugh they had heard out of him. When he looked at Wu's incredulous expression he rolled his eyes, clutching his side and smiling a smile that was eerily similar to his son's. "Come now, Wu, you can't expect me to become a saint that quickly. I have to have some fun once in a while."

Wu continued to blink at his brother, hand over his thumping heart. "You are going to be the death of me," he finally muttered and poured himself a fresh cup of tea with a thoroughly unamused expression.

It seemed hard to believe the prophecy was fulfilled. Even harder to believe was how perfectly it had played out. Lloyd defeated the Dark Lord, eradicated the venom of the Great Devourer, and saved his father all in one day. Not to mention they had all miraculously survived despite all odds. That was always a miracle where the ninja were concerned.

Now, what were they to do? The ninja had trained for the prophecy since the day Master Wu had recruited them. Now they had time-something the ninja weren't used to-and choices-also something they weren't used to.

The first thing the ninja did was spend time with their families. Lloyd, obviously, spent much overdue time with his parents at Garmadon's new monastery. Cole stayed with his father for a period of time, also catching up on lost time. Jay went back to his junkyard to stay with his ma and pa and Nikko. The Smith siblings at first, not wanting to impose on anyone, thought to hold down the fort on the Bounty. Lloyd, however, would hear none of it and demanded his honorary siblings live with him. Zane and Dr. Julien had both agreed that the treehouse was no longer a place either of them wanted to live in, given how far away it was from everyone else, and soon found a new place to call home.

Dr. Julien's new house was a distance from the growing city, further south than Birchwood Forrest, and nestled snuggly on a cliff overlooking the ocean. At first, Zane had offered to rent him a house with a different view, considering he had spent nearly twelve years trapped in an island lighthouse surrounded by the sea, but Dr. Julien had just chuckled and explained that after hearing the waves crash against the rocks for so long, it would be more disconcerting to move away from them than it would be to stay. It was one of the only things he had grown fond of in his time spent there.

So the ninja, Master Wu, and the Garmadons had all chipped in to rent out the fairly cheap cottage for Dr. Julien to live in, which he was eternally grateful for.

Zane, obviously, bought Yuki with them to their new home (again. These kids really needed to find a permanent home). Dr. Julien and Yuki were mutually delighted with their new roommate status and had instantly formed an unbreakable bond over shared food and long naps.

In the evenings the older man would often leave, when Zane asked where he went Dr. Julien would give a small smile, saying he was working on a project with a friend from the city.

However, one morning at breakfast Dr. Julien seemed troubled, fingering the table cloth as Zane stood at the stove with some scrambled eggs. Yuki sat in his lap waiting for the inevitable table scrap.

Zane seemed to notice when he laid a plate of food in front of him. "Father? Is there something wrong?"

Dr. Julien started out of his thoughts, immediately giving a smile that wasn't really reassuring. "Just thinking about past regrets, son."

Zane frowned and took a seat beside him, taking off his apron and hanging it on his chair, "please tell me whatever is bothering you, father. I will always be there to listen to you."

A pained expression flashed across Dr. Julien's face, quickly replaced by a grateful look, "Hm," he chuckled, "what did I do to deserve you, Zane," he mumbled.

Zane blinked a little at the compliment but gave a small bashful smile, "There's no need for that, father. Please tell me what's wrong. Perhaps I can help."

Dr. Julien took a breath, "When I… passed away, I thought that by taking away your memory of pain, you would be better off. I thought that if you didn't have the capacity to remember the loss, you would be none the wiser and carry on with your life easier."

Yuki felt Zane stiffen at the memory but nodded for his father to continue, looking intently at his father with bated breath. . "But being locked up in a lighthouse for how many years gave me a chance to reflect on… a lot of things."

"I realized that pain and loss are inevitable for everyone, no matter how hard they try to avoid it. But while you cannot escape it, neither can you avoid joy, or love, or peace, or friendship. They too will come at some point in life. All these things, good and bad, and their memory, make life worth living. It means you are alive." At this, he took both Zane's hands in his and squeezed them as hard as his aged hands could manage. "And... I had no right to take that from you, my son."

Yuki watched the two lock eyes, icy blue and tired grey. He heard Dr. Julien whisper in a thick voice, "There are so many things I regret, and I'm not willing to forgive myself any time soon. I just hope one day you'll find it in yourself to forgive me."

It only took about point-eight seconds of Zane sitting slightly dumbstruck for him to dive into a tight embrace, which the older man gladly reciprocated.

Dr. Julien sniffed and chuckled, "Zane, you don't have to be so gentle with me, for heaven sakes, I'm not about to fall apart. Let's have a real hug, hmm?"

Yuki purred in amusement when a breathless wheeze escaped Dr. Julien.

...

However, peaceful times were inevitably temporary. With no new villains plotting nefarious schemes in the city, Wu called into attention the issue of Lloyd's previous boarding school: Darkly's. He claimed it was about time the curriculum for the villainous school was altered into something half-resembling a decent education.

"I would like to make a proposition to you all," He stated during his meeting of all the ninjas and samurai on the Bounty one night. "My nephew's boarding school, as you know, attempted to ah, learn the error of their ways and change to a more typical school system. However, the teachers there were ill-prepared in dealing with such an alteration and many of them have quit for better job opportunities elsewhere, which leaves the children remaining with shortened staff and limited options for exploring the good side of academia. I would like to recruit you five to act as substitute teachers until I find permanent replacements for my school."

"Your school?" Cole asked, arms folded behind his head.

"That's correct. I bought Darkly's a while back." Wu poured himself another cup of tea and blew on its rim.

"Wait, why just the five of us?" Lloyd looked around the table to make sure he was counting right.

"Lloyd must stay and watch over Ninjago as the Ultimate Spinjitsu master. He has responsibilities now that cannot be ignored."

"Lucky," Kai muttered under his breath. He returned Lloyd's smug look with gusto. Wu sent them both a sharp look.

"Ooh, ooh!" Jay volunteered, raising his arm high like he was in class himself, "I call creative writing! I could do mechanics too if you want."

"Thank you, Jay," Wu nodded in approval and sipped his tea, turning to the others, "Anyone else has a preference they would like to teach?"

"I'm pretty good at geography," Cole shrugged, "or an art class."

"And I could teach literature," Zane raised his hand tentatively.

"Excellent." Wu looked at them all proudly and stroked his beard, pausing before eyeing Kai and Nya. "Is there anything you two would like to teach?"

Kai and Nya glanced at each other, "Uh, we'll have to think about that one. Can we get back to you on that, Sensei?" Nya took the opportunity to snatch Master Wu's teapot and help herself to a cup, eliciting a hum of protest from the sensei, but effectively distracting him from their question-dodging.

Zane, meanwhile, lost in thought, began a rare babbling session. "I believe I should begin with the classics," he mused, "Dostoyevsky is always a hit, as is Mikhail Lermontov. Oh, can't forget about Tolstoy. There's also—"

"—Zane?" Cole interrupted him with a concerned look. "They're middle-schoolers, m'kay? How 'bout something a little more age-appropriate?"

"But War and Peace is quintessential to Russian literature-"

"Zane..." Jay shook his head.

"Oh alright, fine." The ice master threw his hands in the air. "How about The Chronicles of Narnia. Happy?"

He stopped and frowned when he caught the Smith siblings sharing a silent conversation with each other, one Kai did not look happy about. When Nya caught his gaze she paused and rose from her seat, grabbing Kai by the arm and dragging him up with a startled squawk. "Thanks, sensei, for everything. We're gonna hit the hay if that's ok. 'Night everyone." She waved at the group and tugged Kai to follow.

"Oookay then. Not sure what that was about, but I'm gonna head to bed too." Jay rose and rolled his shoulders, yawning and running a hand through his curls. "Night, sensei."

"You guys can go too, I'm gonna stay up for a while," Cole thrummed his knuckles on the table and nodded to the remaining Zane and Master Wu.

"Enjoy the rest of the cake, Cole, and Lloyd," Zane acknowledged knowingly before following his sibling. He heard Cole's chuckle and Lloyd's snicker behind him.

Since it was still relatively early and not wanting to head to Dr. Julien's right away, Zane lay on his stomach on his bed with a book, happily skimming while petting Yuki curled up under his chin. Sensing a presence, Zane glanced up from his book and started slightly to see the Smith siblings standing in front of his bunk, sporting almost twin expressions that could have been interpreted as angry if Zane hadn't known them for so long.

"Um, may I help you?" He asked politely, absently coiling Yuki's tail around his finger like a furry spring. He did his best to ignore the reddening of Nya's ears and the tiny heat waves curling off Kai's head. Nya, just behind her brother, cleared her throat and nudged him forward with her elbow.

"We uh, we wanted to ask a favor of you," Kai practically ground out, Yuki could see his knuckles whitening at his sides.

"Oh?"

"Yeah," Nya seemed to forcibly shove down her pride to get the words out, "we want you to, um totutorus."

"I'm sorry, what?"

"Tutor us," Kai annunciated, "You know when we took over our parents' forge, we had to drop out of school to keep it going and make sure we had enough money. But now that we have to substitute at Darkly's, we thought it would be helpful to, you know, know more than the middle-schoolers we're teaching?"

Zane's face softened as he watched the siblings shift uncomfortably, knowing full well how difficult it must have been to come to him. It was kind of touching really. He smiled and sat up on his bed, closing his book. "I would be happy to. Is there anything you are particularly interested in?"

The perked up a little, "I always thought biochemical engineering was neat." Nya offered.

"Oh," Zane swallowed. "Well, perhaps we should start small, baby steps, right? How about biology?" Nya cracked a smile and nodded. Zane turned to her brother. "And you, Kai?"

"Um, I like history." He shrugged.

Zane raised his eyebrows, slightly surprised at the answer but nodded. "Of course. Excellent choice. When would you like to begin?"

"Tonight!" Nya hopped on his bed, making Yuki bounce once or twice on the springs before Zane rescued him.

"Tonight? Oh, um," wait, wasn't Zane supposed to be home soon? Yuki looked up at his torn face. He was supposed to be at Dr. Julien's, but the look of eagerness on the two faces in front of him apparently made him consider spending the night on the Bounty. It certainly wouldn't be the first time, and it would be nice to all be under the same roof again like old times.

He supposed just this once. "Then let's begin."

Zane hopped neatly off his motorcycle, letting Yuki out of his knapsack and knocking lightly on Dr. Julien's front door after trying to open it. It wasn't unusual for the scientist to accidentally lock Zane out, or to forget to replace the spare keys above the doorframe, but Dr. Julien was rarely out so early in the morning, so the ice master knew he must be home.

When no one answered, even when Zane knocked again a little louder, his eyebrows furrowed slightly and he peered through the window beside the door. "The lights are all on, that's odd," Zane mumbled, half to himself.

A shrill screech pierced the air high above the chirp of seagulls. Zane shaded his eyes as he spotted the silhouette of a large bird of prey circling down to greet them. On instinct Yuki's little heart began to hammer as he dove to the safety of the space between Zane's feet, just daring to peek out at the approaching predator. The ice master, however, broke into a smile in recognition.

"Falcon!" He greeted warmly as the bird swooped up last minute and landed daintily on his forearm. "And how are you, my friend?" He stroked its throat.

The falcon chirped cheerfully and cleaned a wing feather, stopping to cock its head curiously and the kitten crouched beneath it. Instead of pouncing, as Yuki was convinced it was about to do, its amber eyes cut back to Zane questioningly.

The white ninja chuckled. "He's a friend of mine. Not food, mind you," he gave it a stern look, "now do you know where Dr. Julien is?"

The falcon looked at him for a long moment before hopping off his arm and onto the flower-covered window sill and tapping on the glass with its razor beak.

Zane frowned but scooped Yuki up and looked once more through the windowpane, the falcon scooting to the side for him. Now that Yuki could also see inside, he saw the small nook where Dr. Julien's chair and book collection lived, exactly in their right place, save the lights indeed being on in the middle of the day.

Then the smell hit him.

Like a snake, the subtle tendril wormed its way up Yuki's nose without his consent. The smell Yuki hated.

The smell of death.

Yuki sprung out of Zane's grasp and climbed frantically up the ivy-coated brick up to the second-floor windows.

"Yuki! Come down from there!" Zane called after him, anxiousness threading into his voice now. Ignoring him, Yuki balanced along the gable until he found a window just a crack ajar. That was all he needed. Squeezing through was easy, he jumped down into Dr. Julien's workroom and scampered along the short hallway and down the stairs. Only when he saw Dr. Julien himself did he freeze.

He looked like he was sleeping, only his glasses were on the floor instead perched on the bridge of his nose and he wasn't snoring. Cautiously, Yuki crept forward, sniffing his curled-up hand. Dr. Julien lay on the floor next to the stove, two teacups filled with now cold tea as if he had been expecting someone.

A sharp thud made Yuki jump and though he didn't turn around, he knew Zane was just behind him. For a minute the only sound was the ticking clock in the living room. Then Yuki crawled over and snuggled up in the crook of Dr. Julien's neck and shoulder. He wasn't sure what it would do. Warm him up? He was so cold.

Only then did Yuki see Zane's face. A draft from the kicked-down door carded through his hair as he stood frozen in place, breathing as if he couldn't catch his breath. "No…" he shook, "no I…I just got you back, I-please…" He hiccupped as he fell to the ground and felt the coldness on his father's cheek. When he finally noticed the two teacups, what was left of the color in his face evaporated. He seemed to realize Dr. Julien had died hours ago. Last night if he had to guess. He had been expecting his son.

Zane snaked an arm around his stomach as if he were going to be sick as he sat next to his father. Yuki could feel his trembling intensify in sync with the plummeting temperature as the minutes crept by. He shivered against the body till the ice master struggled to his feet and stumbled back, bracing himself against the window for support. He jumped when frost swirled across the pane before it shattered completely.

Yuki rushed to Zane to make sure the glass hadn't cut him when a scrap of paper sticking out of an open book on the table caught his eye. He hopped onto the chair and batted it to get the white ninja's attention, somehow certain of its importance. It worked.

With a trembling hand, he pulled it out of its place and smoothed it out to read his father's terrible handwriting. Zane, I don't know why I'm writing this, I'm just going to tell you when you get back. You're probably with your brothers and sister right now, as you should be. I'm probably just a bored old man passing the time. But I wanted to tell you that I've been working on something, you know what I'm talking about. I just want to get it right. We are a family, but we're not complete, not yet. You were not made to be alone, you never were. I've been working on a project that I hope will-

The note ended there with a couple of ink blotches. Zane stared at it till his knuckles turned white and the paper crinkled.

He tore out of the house. Yuki followed.

The ninja were still on the Bounty, some getting ready to leave while others planned to stay for the day with sensei.

They all stopped what they were doing when Zane opened the door to the main cabin with a ghost-white face.

"Zane, are you alright?" Sensei stood in front of him and put a hand on the ice master's shoulder, concern emanating from his student's usual peaceful demeanor. Zane just stared blankly ahead, seeing but not really seeing. The master's other students hovered behind him in shared concern.

"Zane?" Only when his master gave him a gentle shake did the white ninja blink out of his daze and look around himself.

"My father... he mumbled, anguish bleeding into his features.

"What's wrong with Dr. Julien?" Wu asked though something told him he already knew the answer. He guided Zane toward a chair and let him sink into it numbly.

After taking a shuttering breath, he rasped, "he, he... died." The last word crawled out of his mouth painfully slow, making his siblings gasp and immediately crowd around him. It seemed to open the floodgates, before he knew it words he didn't want to say were pouring out of him, "I-he wrote a note for me and, and he was so cold-did I make him cold-? I didn't know what to do when Yuki found him, What, what am I going to do? I c-can't-" He buried his face in his hands.

His siblings looked at one another in dismay. They had all grown fond of the old scientist, it seemed wrong he should be taken so soon. Jay was sniffling himself and wiped his eyes on his sleeve. "Is there anything we can do, Zane? Anything at all?" For once he seemed quiet.

Zane looked up and gave him a grateful look but shook his head sadly, already beginning to compose himself back into the polite calm Zane everyone was used to. No one was really buying it though. They all squished him in one big crushing hug, sensei included. Zane eventually let his head rest on Kai and Lloyd's shoulders with another shuttering breath.

When they pulled away again Zane looked a little better, tears still ran down his face but his smile was more real than before. "Thank you." He still sounded a little hoarse.

"Who was that Yuki you mentioned?" Wu suddenly asked, brows furrowing, "Is he a friend of yours?"

While the other ninja flinched Zane just sighed and opened his knapsack without even blinking, too tired to keep secrets from his master anymore. He pulled Yuki out and cradled him to his chest where sensei could see, not bothering to meet his eye.

Master Wu cleared his throat, "ah, that em, explains some things. Well, we shall discuss the cat at a separate time. In the meantime, perhaps you would like to lay down for a while. I will make dinner tonight if you would prefer to be alone."

Zane nodded and started to make his way to the bedroom when Kai grabbed him by the sleeve and pulled him to the side. He looked at the ice master in concern, "Are you sure you're ok, buddy?"

The white ninja hummed in affirmation, eyeing the bedroom door distractedly. Kai rubbed the back of his neck, obviously not sure what words would consol his friend and hating himself for it. "Did he, did he say anything to you before he passed?"

Zane looked like he was about to say something but stopped himself. His grip on Yuki tightened slightly. "He said that...he loved me and, and everyone... and that he was ready to go."

At first, Yuki cocked his head in confusion as to why Zane lied. Then he realized, that if Zane hadn't agreed to help the Smith sibling last night, he would have been able to be with his father during his last hours. If he had told the truth, Kai and Nya would realize that too. They would be devastated, guilt eating away at them like termites, and Zane wanted to spare them that. So he lied.

"I'm sure that was a big comfort to the both of you."

Only Yuki saw the dagger being twisted into Zane's heart by Kai's words, but Zane just nodded tightly, a drained smile at his brother before stealing away to his bunk.

Once locked in the safety of his own room, Zane sank to the floor, hugging his knees and leaning against the door. He stayed there for a long time.

Poor Zane:(

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