R.I.P. Kirby Morrow. Ninjago will never be the same.

"Mail's here!" Hermes called. He set the pile of envelopes down and a package on the kitchen table. Almost everyone made their way into the kitchen.

"Who's that for?" Libby asked as she dug through the pile.

"Maya."

"Ooh." Maya took her package and worked on opening it. Wu watched her carefully.

"Oh, not this guy again," Ice said as he picked up an envelope.

"The guy begging for your help?" Libby asked.

"Yeah. I keep telling him I'm not taking on new clients. Besides, he needs a defense lawyer, not a tax lawyer."

"Are lawyers not lawyers?" Hermes asked.

"No. Prosecutors try to put you in jail, defense lawyers try to keep you out of jail, and I follow the money. I cannot remember the last time I set foot in a courtroom. But this guy is saying a coworker has framed him for stealing company secrets and siphoning money into an offshore account and she's trying to steal his intellectual property and it's a giant mess. He needs a good defense lawyer who would then contact someone like me to assist in finding the money, " Ice explained as he folded the envelope and placed it in his back pocket.

"Ah. Oh, this is yours too."

"My boss. Lovely." Ice took the envelope and sighed. As he read the letter, his eyes got wide. He jumped up from the table and ran to his bedroom. When he emerged with his bag, he pulled Wu aside.

"There's an emergency back home. I don't know when I'll return or even if I'll return. Libby can stay here if she wants, this doesn't involve her," Ice explained.

"What doesn't involve me?" Libby asked.

"Nothing. I can handle it."

"You sure?"

"Yes." Ice headed for the door and Libby followed him. He ran through the courtyard where Maya was showing Ray how to throw her new dirk knife with deadly accuracy.

"Ice? Where are you going?" Ray asked.

"I have to go home. My ex-girlfriend is trying to bankrupt me again," Ice explained.

The first thing Ice did when he returned to his yellow townhouse was head to his office and scoured his files for anything suspicious. He dug through months' worth of bank statements, invoices, and other various forms, but nothing raised a red flag. It was nearly two in the morning when he decided to call it a night.

As he walked up the stairs, he looked at the pictures of Libby when she was a child that were hanging on the wall. When he passed by her bedroom, he had to remind himself that she was married and wasn't coming back with him when the War was over.

The next morning, Ice used his key to get into the office to start digging around there. He was flipping through a ledger when his boss came in.

"Horatio?"

"Hey, Frank. Got your letter," Ice said.

"I see that."

"So what exactly is she trying to do? I checked all of my bank statements and nothing stood out to me."

"I'm not sure, but I put a bunch of your documents in the safe for right now."

"Thanks." Ice followed Frank into his office where the safe was.

"Any chance you're coming back soon?" Frank asked as he unlocked the safe.

"I don't know. Depending on what happens, I might actually retire when all is said and done."

"Retire?"

"I don't need the money, and Libby's married now, so there's really nothing keeping me here at the moment."

"Well, read this and see how you feel." Frank handed Ice a stack of papers.

"Interesting," Ice mumbled as he flipped through the papers.

"What?"

"Well, apparently I'm married now and I wasn't even invited to the wedding. Libby will be upset she missed it." Ice placed a marriage certificate on Frank's desk.

"Dang."

"Yeah. I need to go deal with this. I'll see you around, Frank."

"Good luck."

Ice decided his first stop shouldn't be the back or the office of vital records. Instead, he made his way to a familiar neighborhood until he stopped at the blue house on the corner. He stormed up the steps and pounded on the door. A woman with jet black hair opened the door.

"Hey! What a surprise!"

"Is it, Monica?" Ice asked. He pushed his way past her into the house.

"I mean, I wasn't expecting you."

Ice put the marriage certificate on the coffee table.

"Oh that. It's not registered or anything. I was just trying to get your attention," Monica said.

"Well, you have my attention now."

Monica sat down on the couch. She patted the seat next to her, but Ice crossed his arms.

"What happened between us?" Monica asked.

"You tried to hack into my bank account, that's what happened."

"You're not still upset about that, are you?"

"Just a bit, yeah."

"Horatio, darling, that was so long ago. Things have changed."

"I don't feel like they have."

"Sure they have. We're both older, more mature…"

"Just tell me what you want, Monica."

"Fine. A few weeks ago, I realized I wasn't happy with my life and that I hadn't been happy in a really long time. I thought about it and realized that the last time I was really happy was when I was with you. I know I made some mistakes before, but all I'm asking is for a second chance."

"No. You burned that bridge when you nearly got Libby sent back into the foster system."

"I didn't think social services would actually investigate."

"It's their job to investigate!"

"I said I was sorry. Please, just give me a second chance."

"That was your second chance, and this marriage certificate ruined any third chance you had."

"I told you, it's not registered. It's not even real. We have some really neat things at work that let you do all sorts of fun stuff," Monica grinned.

"I thought you worked in robotics."

"The future is more than just robots. Though I will say, we are working on an AI that might just change the world. Actually, not to brag, but I am the one who came up with the idea to make about the power supply that makes the AI actually work. One day half the people of Ninjago will be robots and they will look, feel, and act just like regular people."

"That's never going to happen."

"Never say never, Horatio."

"Monica, the chances of you making robots that can pass as people are about as slim as you and I getting back together. It's not going to happen, so stop trying to make it happen."

"Wait! Please don't go!"

"It's over, Monica." Ice slammed the door behind him.

Since he didn't know when he would be back, Ice decided to use this opportunity to really clean his house. Most of the house was already clean, but the one area he wasn't looking forward to was his office. It was a mess, he knew it was a mess, and he knew he should try to keep it neater, but for the past fifteen years, he struggled to keep that room clean.

As he sorted through the piles of paperwork, he found an old letter from the guy who had been writing him. Ice guessed it was the first letter. He didn't know why he opened it since it said the same thing all of the other letters had said: his coworker was trying to steal his intellectual property and ruin his career. He was about to throw the letter away when he noticed the logo at the bottom of the page that had the initials SJWT. Ice didn't know what they stood for, but he knew Monica worked for the same company.

The next morning, Ice decided to pay the company a visit. It took a while, but eventually, the receptionist was able to get the owner to talk to him.

"Hello. I'm Stephan Wilks."

"Horatio DiNapoli. I was wondering if I could speak to one of your workers."

"Are you a cop?"

"Lawyer. I'm trying to follow up on something."

"I see. Yeah, you can talk to whoever you need to. I will tell you, we had a break-in last night and we're still trying to figure out what was stolen. So far, nothing's missing. Who did you need to speak to?"

"Uh, Dr. Felix Julien," Ice said, referring to the note in his hand.

"Felix? Sure. Great guy, though he has been acting weird lately. Not sure why a lawyer would want to speak to him."

"I'm afraid I can't tell you that."

Ice followed Stephan down the hall to a lab.

"I can't let you go into the lab. Safety regulations and all that," Stephan said.

"I understand."

"Could you ask Felix to come out here?" Stephan asked a passing worker.

"Felix isn't here."

"What? First Monica now Felix? Is everybody sick or something?"

"I don't know, sir, but no No one knows where he is. I don't think he called out either."

"Well, that's just great. Have you figured out what's been taken yet?"

"The Battery, sir."

"Anything else?"

"Blueprints for the Model Z. We're still looking to make sure nothing else was taken." The worker ran back into the lab.

"Well, this complicates things," Stephan said.

"How so?" Ice asked.

"Felix created The Battery. It's a power supply that hypothetically speaking doesn't need to be recharged or replaced. But in its current condition, it's highly unstable. Whoever took it needs to be careful before they blow up half of Ninjago."

"I thought this place dealt with robots."

"We handle all sorts of technologies. The first electric oven came from our labs fifteen years ago. But androids are our bread and butter. Model Z could be the first fully functional android with an AI comparable to the human brain. Ideally, we will be able to use The Battery to run our androids so they never have to spend time charging. We were hoping to test The Battery in the Model Z by the end of the month."

"Why androids?"

"To help people of course. Make life easier for everyone."

"At the cost of an arm, a leg, and your firstborn child?" Ice asked sarcastically.

"Just until the technology becomes widely available and the costs go down. Felix needs to get his butt in here to help. It was all him. The Battery, the AI, even Model Z, he came up with it all and found ways to make them all work. It's just a matter of figuring out how to put the three together. If the thief got the program for the AI, then there's no way for us to recover."

"I see. Well, if you see Dr. Julien, will you please tell him to call me?" Ice handed Stephan his card.

"Of course. Can you find your way out? I need to deal with the theft. Hopefully, the police will be here soon."

"Yes." Ice left the building and decided to head over to Dr. Julien's house.

Dr. Julien lived about an hour away in a small house set far back from the road. Unfortunately, no one was home when Ice knocked on the door. Ice peered in through the window saw the furniture was still inside, but the bookcase was completely empty. Ice sighed and started the long trek back to his house. Along the way, he had to remind himself that he wasn't supposed to be doing work right now and decided to let a coworker take over this case for him so he could focus on making sure Monica couldn't get into his accounts again. He decided the first place to go for that was the office of vital records.

"Welcome back," Wu said.

"Eh." Ice poured himself a cup of coffee. He had gotten in well past midnight the night before and only had about three hours of sleep before Wu woke everyone up. Everyone else was outside for morning exercises.

"How was your trip?"

"Eh. Hopefully, she doesn't try this stunt again."

"When did you get in?"

"I don't even know. It was late. I woke Ray up, but Ray's so skittish he might've already been awake for all I know."

"Ray is a light sleeper. Don't worry about waking him up."

"Yeah. At least he didn't try to threaten me with that dagger he keeps under his pillow, though he did think about it. Why does he keep that under there?"

"He feels safer with it close to him."

"I'm waiting for the day when he remembers he's the Master of Fire and burns this place down because someone scares him."

"He is getting better."

"If you say so." Ice grabbed his coffee and the newspaper and sat down at the table. As he flipped through the paper, the headline "Scientist burns down his own house" caught his eye. According to the article, Dr. Julien stole a bunch of blueprints and various experiments from SJWT, he stole almost half a million bucks from SJWT, and he burned down his house in an attempt to fake his death. Now he was missing and considered dangerous and possibly armed.

A week later, everyone was sparring as a part of their training under Garmadon's watchful eye. Ice had just blocked a blow from Hermes's mace with his sword when he noticed something out of the corner of his eye. He turned toward the door of the courtyard and glared. Hermes stopped and turned to look.

"Who's that?" Hermes asked.

"Someone who made a mistake in coming here," Ice grumbled.

"You! What are you doing here? Haven't you tried to ruin my life enough times already?!" Libby stormed over to the door where Monica stood.

"I'm not here for you, girl. You and your fellow freaks can keep doing whatever it is you do in this circus."

"Excuse me, who are you calling a freak?" Garmadon asked.

"I'm here to see Horatio," Monica said, ignoring Garmadon looming over her.

"Who's Horatio?" Acronix asked.

"Me. You didn't think my name was actually Ice, did you?" Ice walked over to Monica.

"Alone," Monica demanded.

"No," Libby said.

"Libby, it's fine. I'll handle it." Ice walked out of the monastery and started down the stairs. He turned down the path heading towards the forge.

"Who decided to build a monastery at the top of a mountain?" Monica asked as she followed Ice.

"No idea. Why are you here?."

"I just wanted to give you one last chance to reconsider."

"No. Shouldn't you be at work?"

"I took some time off."

"Really? They let you take time off after the break-in?"

"Y-You know about that?" Monica asked nervously.

"Yes. I went there last week to talk to someone and they were in panic mode because of it. Actually, come to think of it, you weren't there when I visited."

"I was sick that day."

"Ah. So you wouldn't know if they've caught the guy or not?"

"They haven't. The police are still looking for him. He burned down his own house, you know. Crazy, right?"

"Why do you think he did that?"

"Probably because he had blueprints or experiments there he needed to hide."

"So why not take them with him? That's what I would've done," Ice said.

"They were probably too big."

"See, something's been bothering me about this case for a while now. I just can't put my finger on it."

"What?"

Ice shook his head and started to pace. He was deep in thought with his back to Monica when he heard her scream. He whipped around and saw her lying on the ground, twitching. There was a knife next to her. Libby was a little ways down the path.

"That. That's what's been bothering me," Ice said.

"Y-Y-Y-" Monica sputtered.

"Did you honestly think I wouldn't check the validity of that marriage certificate?"

"And you didn't even invite me to the wedding," Libby added as she came closer.

"Plus, somehow, my will has been altered and everything that was going to go to Libby now goes to you should I die."

"Now that's just rude."

Ice stepped on the knife before Monica could grab it.

"I… Just…" Monica gasped.

"Save it. I'm sure the police would love to hear your story."

Monica tried to run, but Libby blasted her again. The police arrived within an hour to haul Monica off to the newly built Kryptarium Prison. She eventually confessed to burning down Dr. Julien's house, but she insisted she did not steal The Battery or the missing blueprints.