A/N: Anything in parenthesis after foreign words is just the translation so that you guys don't have to do it yourselves. Thought I'd make it easy on you.
Chapter Eighteen: Conspiracies 101... Ninja Style!
Ahsoka clasped her hands behind her back as she stood in front of Duchess Satine. "Hello. I am Padawan Ahsoka Tano. I was instructed to help instruct your young on conspiracies."
Duchess Satine nodded in confirmation, before gesturing behind her. "These are four of your students. My nephew Korkie, and his friends. Amis, Lagos, and Soinee." They each nodded when their name was mentioned.
"Please to meet you." Ahsoka greeted the young teens, before gesturing behind her where Zane and Kai were standing. "This is Zane and Kai. Master Yoda wants them to join this class since they are new to the galaxy."
"I see. It is my pleasure to welcome you to Sundrai, our capitol city." Duchess Satine swept her arms out to indicate the bustling city that they were standing in the middle of. "I am Duchess Satine... ruler of Mandalore.'
"Until someone kicks you off of the throne for whatever reason." Kai muttered under his breath, rolling his eyes skyward.
Zane nudged him hard, eyes flashing as he stared down the slightly younger teen. "Kai... behave."
"Fine icicle." Kai rolled his eyes, clearly not impressed with that warning for some reason.
"Allow me to show you were you will be staying, as well as the classroom you will be using." Duchess Satine turned to lead the way, the others following in line behind her.
Kai and Zane glanced at each other, even as Falcon took flight above them. This was going to be interesting...
Zane shifted as he listened to Ahsoka's lesson on conspiracies. While part of him wanted to point out that this was a different culture than what he was used to dealing with, he still kind of wished that she had the forethought to explain the importance of getting the conspirators point of view of things. After all, it could be that there was something wrong inside of the government that meant change was necessary. That was what had happened with Scales and Faith after all... even the SOGs just wanted change. Harumi just wanted to make Ninjago a safer place to live... without the ninjas or their enemies to ruin things. All in all, the more the government was willing to change to keep up with the times, the better it was for everyone.
"Yes Kai?" Oh no... Zane snapped his eyes over to where Kai sat across the room from him. Sure enough, he had raised his hand in the air, an almost bored look on his face. Well, for Kai it was a bored look, for everyone else he looked angry about needing to be here.
Kai smirked, before steepling his fingers together. "So... if your ruler is a tyrant, would you report the conspiracy or would you try to convince if your ruler to change how things are done?"
"What kind of question is that?" Lagos blurted out, confusion creasing her brow.
Ahsoka blinked slowly, bewilderment flashing through her eyes briefly. "I agree with Lagos... what kind of question is that? Conspiracies are not good for the government or the people."
Zane shook his head, catching onto what Kai was referring to. "Before Scales was King of the Serpentine, it was Pythor... who by chance was a tyrant. He treated all those under his command as inferior. No one was allowed to so much as think for themselves while he was on the throne. Conspiracies flooded into the Serpentine Society, with the simple goal of dethroning him. Scales was, surprisingly enough, one of the first ones to start work on a conspiracy... going as far as contacting the Ninjas, their own sworn enemy, to make an alliance with them. One that is still intact years after he rose to the throne."
Murmurs of surprise rippled through the group, as students leaned together, whispering about that revelation. Ahsoka blinked rapidly, vaguely wondering how she was supposed to respond to that. That was when she registered something that he had mentioned. "Wait... Ninja? I thought your home planet only had four sentient species?"
Both of the ninjas slapped their faces at that, groans escaping them. Kai huffed loudly, before clarifying the one thing that they never bother with clarifying due to their popularity. "The Ninjas aren't a species. It is a peace keeping organization that all those with Chikara are strongly recommended to join since the Chikara helps with missions." Kai paused, gesturing quickly to himself and Zane. "We're both fully trained ninja... in fact Sensei is a Ninja term, and the belt system is something that mainly Ninjas use, though various martial art instructors have adopted it as well to keep track of their students progress, making it more universal."
Ahsoka suddenly wondered if these ninjas apparently was their own version of the Jedi. "Okay... now that is out of the way, let's get back to the lesson..."
Kai pulled himself up, using the top bunk to do chin ups as Zane mediated on the bottom bunk across from him. Pulling his knees to his chest, he quickly flipped upside, his feet dangling in the air above him as his blood rushed to his head. "Do you think we should have explained the training we had to undergo? Or do you think that my explanation will be good enough?"
"I believe that you did a good job pointing out that nothing is black and white. We always had the hardest time with our missions when we refused to look at the gray, only seeing things in black and white." Zane opened his eyes, calmly staring straight at his brother. "Falcon has found a conspirator and is following him in hopes of discovering his identity. However, young Korkie and his friends stumbled upon the conspiracy and appear to be heading towards the Duchess to report it."
"Hmm.. what was the conspiracy?"
"Black Market by the looks of things. I should know more by morning." Pausing, Zane gave Kai a look. "It is late and we should get to bed if we want to get up at a reasonable hour."
"K." Kai released his grip on the top bunk, falling straight to the ground headfirst... flipping at the last second, he landed smoothly on his feet, without making a single noise. "Night Z."
A/N: Nightshade123: Here you go! Hope you enjoyed this chapter!
.Hyuse: Thank you!
