He couldn't remember how it started, it was still so fuzzy. All he'd wanted was a cool drink of punch. How it escalated from there, he might never know. He hasn't meant for things to get so out of hand.

They were just running security for the ambassador's arrival party. The mission was supposed to be simple. Easy.

Jay should've known he'd screw it all up somehow.

"Anyone have eyes on the ambassador?"

Cole's voice echoed through his ear. A bit too loudly, actually. Jay scanned the room as he turned down his earpiece.

Bingo.

"I do," he replied. "He's fine."

"For now." That was Kai. Jay would know that cynical tone anywhere.

"Come on," Nya said, her voice crackling a bit, "nothing is going to happen. This is just routine because someone out there is paranoid."

"If nothing's gonna happen," Kai countered, "then why are we here?"

"I just told you—You know what? Never mind."

"What do you mean, never mind?"

"There's just no reasoning with a complainer."

Jay swallowed a chuckle at the siblings' antics as he drifted toward the refreshment table.

"I'm not a—"

"Guys," Lloyd butted in, "can we keep this line clear? We have a job to do, remember?"

"And it's been proven that engaging in frivolous conversation reduces concentration by fifteen percent."

"Thanks, Zane." Jay could almost see Kai's eye roll. "Real helpful."

Despite Lloyd's warning, Nya wasn't finished. "At least you get to be inside where it's warm. It's freezing out here! I think this is discrimination against women."

"I thought you wanted to be treated like an equal," came Kai's crafty reply. Jay heard Cole snort. "Besides, we put Zane out there, too."

"The nindroid who can regulate his temperature. Great. Thanks a bunch."

"I'm out here, too, guys."

"Thank you, Lloyd. At least there are some people who know how to suffer well with their team."

"Now who's complaining?"

With a grin, Jay poured himself a glass of punch, tuning out the sibling rivalry. For now.

At least he got to be stationed on the main floor. With Cole handling the second floor balcony overlooking the event and the rest scouring the outside perimeter, Jay and Kai were left to take care of the ground level.

And that was just as well. "Too many people," Cole had declared with a twist of his face. "I'll be the bird's eye view."

For Jay, however, people had never been a problem. He thrived on the rush of the crowd and the dozens of new faces shuffling past every minute. He was pretty sure Kai felt the same.

Smirking to himself, he wandered through the room. But Kai doesn't get to work so close to the snacks. After drawing straws, Kai had been stuck with the front half of the room, keeping an eye on who came in and who went out.

Jay downed the rest of his drink and tipped his head to a nearby lady, who smiled back. To the party guests, he and Kai were just part of the crowd, and Cole was the wallflower who stared at everyone from above.

Sorta weird, but no one seemed to be having an issue with it. They were too busy standing in line to shake Ambassador Veneir's hand. It was about time the worlds of Ninjago and Shintaro collided.

Cole was just upset that the ambassador wasn't Princess Vania. Maybe that's why he looks so moody and brooding up there.

Shaking off the thought, Jay scanned the crowd. All appeared to be well. So far.

Checking out the happenings at the refreshment table seemed like a good option. You were literally just there. Jay simply rolled his eyes at the voice in his head, not stopping to question why it sounded so much like Kai.

Halfway through pouring a glass of water—because maybe it was time to lay off the punch… for now—he heard someone approach from behind. Stepping out of the way was instinctive and Jay surveyed the crowd once more, lost in his mission.

Until he realized someone was talking to him, and it wasn't someone on his earpiece.

"This is a delightful party, isn't it?" The man filling his glass was tall so Jay straightened. That was also instinctive. Guys like this reminded Jay why he hated being short. Never mind that the man was at least a decade older than him.

"Sure is," was all Jay could think to say.

"How do you know the ambassador?"

And this guy wasn't done.

"He's a close friend." Which wasn't entirely true, but it wasn't false either.

"Jay, who are you talking to?" Cole's sudden question tickled his ear. Great. Fine time to ask a question, Cole.

Without breaking his cover, Jay adjusted the sleeves of his navy blue suit and smiled. "How do you know the ambassador?"

"Stop being so paranoid, Cole," Kai said. "You want him to break cover?"

"No, but…"

Jay tuned his friends out again, focusing on the fancy man in front of him.

"I'm also a close personal friend." The man smiled. "It's wonderful to have connections with Shintaro now, isn't it? Their kind never would've come to Ninjago under the rule of King Vangelis."

"That's… an interesting way of phrasing it, but yeah, Princess Vania is going to do great things for her kingdom. And ours," Jay added with a grin.

The man's smile never wavered as he offered Jay one of his cups. "Have you tried the punch yet?"

"Yeah, super good." Is that really all you can say? Jay knew he sounded like a cardboard box, but he couldn't concentrate on talking to this guy and listen for updates from his team and keep an eye out for evildoers all at the same time. At least, he couldn't do it well.

"Can I offer you another cup, then?" The man let out a slightly embarrassed chuckle. "I guess I poured one too many."

How do you accidentally pour too many glasses of punch? Jay shook his head and lifted his own cup. "No thanks, I've got this."

Yay. His brain intoned. Water. Super fun.

Jay's unwelcome companion apparently had the same thought. "Water? At a party like this? You've got to be kidding."

"Hey, it's good!"

"Sure, kid." The man studied Jay. "You don't go out much, do you?"

"Seriously, Jay." Cole's voice was no more than a whisper in his ear now as Jay eyed the man. "Cut the convo. We've got a job to do."

"I go out," Jay shot back. "I've been to lots of parties like this!"

Why he felt he had to justify himself, he couldn't figure, but when the man raised a skeptical brow, Jay snatched the glass of punch and downed half of it.

Why this was even an issue, he might never know, and looking back, he couldn't pinpoint exactly why his dignity had felt threatened by a tall man with two punch cups.

In the end, it turned out to be his first mistake.

He flashed the man with a look that said, "See? I know how to party, so there."

Another chuckle wasn't what he'd been expecting, but he didn't have much time to dwell on the man's amusement.

Because dang, that punch was good.

"Wow," he breathed, glancing up at the man. "Where'd you get this?"

It was by far the best fruit punch he'd ever tasted. Though iced, it gave him a nice warm feeling unlike any he'd ever felt. And it felt good.

The man cocked a brow and nodded toward the bowl. "Over there. I thought you said you had it already."

"Yeah, but—" Jay paused to down the rest of his drink. "I don't know. It's really good. Is it a different flavor?"

The man just shrugged, a small smile tugging at the corner of his lips. One Jay couldn't quite place.

But that was fine. He was done with this conversation anyway—and he was tired of Cole chirping in his ear, telling him to knock it off. All he had to do was refill his cup and he'd be on his way again.

Oh, after he filled one for Kai, too, because…

… "You just have to try this!"

The Master of Fire scrunched his nose as Jay joined him at the front of the room, where the crowd was just as thick. "Fruit punch?"

"Trust me," Jay said, shoving the cup into Kai's hand. "I bet you've never tasted anything like it."

"Bet I have." But Kai took a sip nonetheless. "Yep, that's fruit punch." Then, he took another. "Okay, yeah, it's good. Like really good, but we didn't come here to snack."

"Hey!" Jay immediately went on the defensive, finishing off his own drink with one final gulp. "I've been doing my job. Can't I quench my thirst every now and then?"

"No, you've been chatting it up with the guests at the drink table. Gosh, do you know how annoying that was? I could barely concentrate!"

"Yeah? Well, I couldn't concentrate with you and Nya bickering back and forth, back and forth."

"And I can't concentrate with you two whining like children," came Nya's take-charge tone. "Now knock it off!"

Kai and Jay exchanged glares for a brief moment before mumbling apologies to the Water Master.

"Thank you."

"Are you gonna drink that?" Jay asked after a minute, to which Kai replied by clutching his cup to his chest in a protective gesture.

Perhaps a little too protective. The contents went flying into his shirt as someone brushed past him.

"You've got to be kidding me!" Kai cried, doing his best to brush the offending liquid off his suit. "This outfit was expensive, too!"

Jay held back an eyeroll. "It's not like you paid for it."

At that, Kai shot him a glare.

"Heh heh, I'll just, uh…" Jay had already launched into a full-on retreat from Kai's infamous wrath. "… get you another glass… Be right back!"

Only a few guests dotted the area around the refreshment table, seeing as most were still trying to make their way over to the ambassador in hopes of shaking his hand.

Jay filled Kai a glass, then refilled his own, taking a moment to consider the dozens of germs that were probably crawling all over the ambassador's hand by now.

Well, glancing around the room, he let the cool drink slide down his throat and warm his insides once more, I'm definitely not shaking his hand.

The punch was strangely addicting and he glanced down at his now empty glass. One more refill would do the trick, then he was off through the crowd again, searching for Kai. Because Kai was… Jay squinted as the room tilted ever-so-slightly.

Where was Kai again? The… The front door. Wait, outside the door or inside…?

Shaking his head did nothing to clear it and before Jay could think any more about Kai, he found himself moving in slow motion.

In his cup, the punch swayed and swirled, so he finished it off so it wouldn't spill. First his glass, then Kai's, and—

Kai. Where was Kai?

"S'rry," he said, after bumping into the fourth person in a row. Only, his voice didn't really sound like his voice. It sounded… wrong. Everything sounded wrong. The crowd, the music, the—

Music? He didn't remember there being music earlier… When did they strike up the band?

"Jay?" That sounded like Cole. And yet, it didn't sound like Cole. The voice was loud and fuzzy—almost distant, but still loud.

Yeah, he wasn't quite sure how that made sense…

Jay shook his head. He had to go faster. Had to find Kai.

He felt himself stumble, moving slower than jello.

How slow does jello move, anyway?

Not very fast at all, he was sure.

"Jay!"

"Hmm?"

"Do you have your volume turned down or what?" Cole again. If everyone would stop shouting gibberish in his ears, that would be great. Thanks. "Kai said he noticed some suspicious activity off to the upper left corner. He went to check it out and wants you to take his place by the door. Did you get any of that?"

"Sure thing," Jay replied with a small salute to no one in particular. Somewhere along the line, he'd lost his cups. Hopefully they weren't smashed somewhere on the floor.

Don't wanna be a litterbug…

"Jay? You okay?"

So, maybe Cole thought his voice sounded weird, too. Jay couldn't think about what to think about that, though… Not now. Not…

That warmth that had been his best friend earlier was turning into his worst nightmare. The room spun and that stupid warmth was doing its best to shove his eyelids shut.

"Fine, Cole," he slurred as the world began spinning its circles again. "Fine, fine, fine, I'm just…"

"Jay?" Even the warmth couldn't keep him from hearing the concern lacing his brother's voice.

"I…" Jay squeezed his eyes shut for a moment. Whatever he thought that would do, it didn't, and the dizziness struck tenfold when he opened them back up. "I don' feel so good. Cole, I… I don'—"

His second stumble would've sent him crashing to the floor had those strong arms not wrapped around him.

"Hey, are you all right?" There was something familiar about that voice… Jay just couldn't put his finger on it, and he hurt his brain trying.

"Jay?"

"You don't look so good, kid," the voice went on. "Why don't you come sit down for a second."

"No, I… I've got to… got to…" What? He had some sort of job, didn't he?

The voice began guiding him through the crowd before Jay could decide whether he even wanted to go or not.

"Jay, who are you talking to? Jay?"

"Come on, kid, I'll find you a nice quiet place to lie down."

That sounded nice, truly, but something inside Jay rebelled against the idea. He just couldn't figure out why.

"No, I've got to… to…"

"What's happening?" That sounded a bit like Nya.

Nya… Gosh, how he loved her.

"Something's wrong with Jay. Kai? Are you still down there? I need you to go find Jay."

Nothing.

Where was Kai, anyway…?

With legs of jello, Jay tried his best to remain standing, but somewhere along the line, he felt his arm sling around the man's shoulder. That's about when his knees gave out.

Something was wrong. Something was…

"Kai, do you copy?"

Jay blinked, forcing his eyes to stay open.

"What's going on?"

"It's all right, kid." One moment, he was slumped against his mysterious savior—captor?—and the next he was lying on the comfiest couch known to man. "Next time, lay off the punch. It's not good for you."

"Kai! Jay, are you still with me?"

Through slitted eyes, Jay saw that smile again. He knew that smile from… somewhere.

Stupid brain. Doesn't even work properly.

Finger's tickled his ear and Jay shivered. All that distracting chatter from his friends suddenly stopped. It was like when Master Wu came in and unplugged the TV…

"I'll just take that now." The man chuckled again and Jay felt a strong hand ruffle his hair. "Really, kid, you made that too easy. Sleep tight."

Had Jay not been so confused—so exhausted—he would've been furious. Did the guy even know how long it had taken to slick all those curls down?

Gonna get you for that…

The sharp click of a lock turning pricked at the edge of his mind.

Yeah… Jay's eyes fluttered closed, and this time, he couldn't pry them open again. I'll get you for that…