On the deck of the Destiny's Bounty, Over stood. His eyes were drawn to the water that was rippling underneath the ship. He had expected it to be made of bricks, after seeing such a backwards world as this being made of hte things. Instead, he saw only his own reflection atop the twin dragon heads adorning the front of the ship. Just the sight of it looked odd and misplaced, like a children's drawing scrawled against a finely crafted painting. He was filled with curves, sleekness and life. This world was plasticy, full of edges and rigid. At least until they decided to defy that rigidness and create something anew.

"Something anew?" The Overlord spoke up from the dark being's lips, "Your thoughts are drifting far today."

"We share the same thoughts," Overlloyd hissed back, "What purpose does it serve to bring them up?"

"We both are angry about what happened," The Overlord responded, "Hiding that fact is pointless."

"I hide nothing from you, as you do nothing from me," Overlloyd spat, "This is a waste of time."

Over sat down, letting his legs dangle over the side of the Bounty. Slowly, he inhaled, causing his form to begin to melt into shadows. Those shadows released back into him as a two-armed being, one that wore not the proud battle armor of the Emperor, but the bare chest of a defeated warrior. He summoned forth two of his blades into his lap, pulling them from his palms to begin sharpening them.

"Our injuries have almost healed," Overlord sighed, "I have known pain before, yet that was perhaps the worst I have endured."

"We pushed our body to its limit and then beyond," Overlloyd groaned as he worked on the blades, "I think we got off easy compared to what could have happened."

"I doubt that we are able to die, at least in the way those of true flesh do," Overlord mused, "You were a mortal being tainted with immortal essence. I am a being born of darkness itself. I do not know what would have happened, but death is beyond us, I imagine."

"That does not stop us from feeling pain," Overlloyd held one of his blades up to inspect it, "Something you would do well to remember."

There was a silence from his other half. Overlloyd said nothing, simply waiting for a response. When none came, he went about finishing the two blades he had out, then exchanged them for the other two. They had sustained a number of scrapes and nicks from his use of them, an unsightly look for a being such as he. He stood up, looking around the ship for some source of bladeworks. When he realized there were none, he scowled at the thought.

"Yes, returning to him would be an ordeal," Overlord chuckled, "One I am happy to witness."

"He is nothing like the man we knew, in either of our lifetimes," Overlloyd gripped his fist, "He is nothing more than a glutton for combat and blind to the feelings of those around him. It is only by circumstance he has been allowed to flourish when such flaws bereft his character."

"Yet he is far better than the man we fought," Overlord replied.

"In what way?" Overlloyd scoffed, "He is a fool and simple-minded in far too many ways."

"He had Lloyd," Overlord mused.

That line was enough to make Over fully go quiet. He slid his blades back into his body, returning them to Dark Matter. Since he had arrived here, his power had been diminished. His strength in his empire had been from the darkness he cast. His Dark Matter empowered him, enriching the bond he was able to maintain with the land. Without it, he could feel much of his overwhelming force gone. What he had managed against that mech had been all his body had to give. His dark power was at least halved by his loss of connection to his world. Only Shadow Control was at its true strength, and that ability was one that relied upon the presence of shadow on the battlefield, a fleeting resource at best.

Slowly, the once proud Emperor moved to focus his power into his back. Small dragon wings formed from them, allowing him to begin to gently flap his way into the air. He moved until he was standing at the very top of the Bounty's main mast, specifically perched on one foot on what he had heard Lulloyd name an 'antistud.' He cared not for its meaning. He simply wished to survey this world, to see what it had for him.

Ninjago City. It was nothing like the one he ruled. With his knowledge of the future, he'd allowed Borg to develop the city as he would have in any other timeline. His parallel slide into a world that had no recollection of him had been the only means of staving away oblivion. Thus, it had been his goal to ensure that the world that he created was one that would last to time. It had been his goal, his drive, to ensure that the world he had under his control was the best that he could allow it to be.

And now, it was gone. The thought was one that Over had refused his mind to allow. It was something simply far too large for the mind to comprehend. An entire universe, countless living and breathing beings that had all had their own aspirations and place within it were now no more. In his heart, he had already felt that there was no returning from what had occured. It was not something that could be reversed. A world, all of the time that had ever been touched by it, all of the things that had been and yet to be, were gone. Most of all… the one that he had made into his rival was gone.

His mind drifted to thoughts of this Ninjago City. Would it be worth conquering? The only threats he could see in front of him was Garmadon and the ninja he was training. In an ideal scenario, it would not be that difficult to ensure Garmadon was out of the picture. The man seemed to only care for one-on-one conflict; thus, sneak attacks would likely be effective. Simply seizing control of the Shark Army through this method would ensure that this town was his own. The more he thought of it, the task could be simple if done right.

Yet… he found no taste for it in his mind. For some reason, he could not bring himself to even begin to find the idea of ruling this place to his liking. Nothing about this place, or any place, would appeal to him. No matter where he went, he would be a stranger, and outlier in this place. He would be nothing more than an outsider, enforcing his will upon this world.

"Was that not what we were to begin with?" Overlord asked, articulating the next thought he had. Overlloyd said nothing to that. It was far more true than he wished to admit. He was nothing more than a failed timeline that had branched back into the main one. He had torn the destiny of the world apart, and then simply slid in within the cracks he left. The force of doing so had broken the Iron Doom down, then rendered it useless after using it to save Morro from his eventual fate. His presence in that world was a paradox barely sustained by a being of power comparable to the world's creator. He was an anomaly... and to do so here would not change anything about it.

Without an empire, Over was nothing. He was nothing more than someone with powers of darkness and energies that had kept him moving far past the limits of a mortal. But he was an outsider otherwise. In a world like this, in his reflection in the water, that was only highlighting. Without his world, his true being was on display. His true nature was there… as ugly, blackened and twisted as it was.

"Hey! Over!" Mage's voice caused Over to look down towards the deck. Standing there, shaking off from a waterspout he'd just emerged from, was the child. Over moved to jump down, but Mage quickly shook his head and turned his eyes copper. Within moments, the boy was standing on the smaller mast on the bow of the ship, close enough for the two to converse on their perches.

"Do you have need of me?" Over asked.

"I just saw you up here and thought you could use someone to talk to," Mage smiled at him, "You've been avoiding the others!"

"Do you not know why I have?" Over curtly replied.

"No, I do," Mage shook his head, "I mean… I think I'm really the only one here other than Lulloyd that doesn't have some sort of history with this Overlord guy so…"

"Well then," Over rolled his eyes, "I suppose they would say you were lucky for that."

"Well, lucky or not, I was wondering," Mage leaned forward, "Why are you fused to him like that?"

"What?" Over scoffed, "Child. You have shown yourself far more aware than those your age. You were there when I explained my past. If not, then it is a failing on your part."

"Nonononono," Mage shook his head rapidly, "I know why you are, but… I mean, there's a difference between joining someone for something you want, and staying with them. I want to know why you're with him like that."

"As in, why I have chosen to stay with him?" Over narrowed his gaze, "Other than the paradox that would likely swallow my existence if I attempted to leave him?"

"Yeah!" Mage nodded. Over wasn't quite sure if the boy was simply being overly naive, or simply willing to push him further than most would to a stranger. Either way, he was little more than a child, one that had just barely gotten his first taste of adulthood. To speak to him earnestly would lose him nothing… not that he had anything to lose to begin with.

"The two of us are similar," Over articulated with a flourish of his hand at his chest, "Coupled hearts that beat as one. It is said fate enjoys pairs, and the two of us are joined by it. Both of us are beings that were meant to be swallowed in darkness, left behind by those that cling so desperately to the light."

"So both of you were abandoned," Mage nodded his head, "I know what that's like." His thoughts drifted to a certain red haired girl, one that was left behind by the people that she wished so badly to rebuild, "But, how was the Overlord left behind?"

"By the man that created me, then left me to rot!" Overlord hissed out, "That vile man created light, thinking there was nothing left of darkness. Yet when I came to him as an equal, there was no room for it. The people would fear me, he said! They would despise me. And then he sealed me away, on an island that I would never leave, fated to eventually drown away any memory of my-!"

Over shook his head, his voice returning to normal, "Apologies. We feel rather strongly about this. But yes, as he said. It was the actions of the First Weapon Master, the man that set in place our destines, that left him behind. With how I had altered the world, he was fated never to be brought to light ever again. Therefore, he was abandoned, as much as I was when I attempted to remedy the world of its greatest tragedy."

"Greatest tragedy…" Mage tried to think of what he was referring to, "As in… your destiny?"

"No, my father," Over paused, "Or rather, the man that was once my father. My efforts to remedy time seemed to have erased that fact."

"Oh… right," Mage paused, "But, that was your fault that you, did that though, right?"

"Yes," Over stated plainly.

"...But, that doesn't bother you when I say it?" Mage asked, "Whenever Chen would taunt me about how what was happening was my fault, I would-"

"I was abandoned by my own actions, however righteous they were," Over cut him off, "I hold no regrets for my past. The world moved on without me, that is not the fault of the world for turning to the new day. I was able to find my place in the world, and therefore I am not bitter."

"Oh… well," Mage paused, "You know, you don't have to hide things from me."

"Hide what from you?" Over asked him, sighing as he moved to perch up on one foot to survey the ocean.

"The fact you're hurting," Mage frowned, "I know, the others are too scared of you to say it but, you're in pain. Your world is gone and, you've hardly even mentioned it. I mean, you got upset when you first went through the portal but, after that you haven't acted like you're upset. I'm, here to say you don't have to hide that from me, Over."

"Boy," Overlloyd raised his voice, "The troubles on my mind are not yours to ponder. The world that I desired it gone, and it is my own burden to bear. You can do nothing more for me than any other. Therefore, your efforts would be futile to even attempt. However pure your intentions are, I do not suggest you try anymore than the others. Which is to say," Over's expression darkened, "You should worry nothing of it."

"...I don't believe you," Mage floated his way over to be right in front of Over, "You're just trying to push me out. Over, I've had to deal with someone that felt the same way you did. She was just as angry and alone as you are. I know you have Overlord but, I mean. You shouldn't try to hold this in. It'll just twist you up."

"And do what?" Over's expression remained unchanged, "Cry over souls that no longer exist? Attempt to break the claws of existential dread that now lay sunken into my heart? Rage at an uncaring void to the beings that bested me when I allowed my arrogance to overcome judgement? What do you think a child that has barely known the world's cruelties can do to speak to one that has lost everything?"

"...The same thing I did for Skylar," Mage sighed, then steeled his gaze, "To tell you that even if you've lost everything, that doesn't mean you have nothing else you can lose."

"And what, pray tell, do I even still have?" Over scowled.

"You," Mage stated solemnly, "You can still lose who you are."

There was a sincerity to Mage's words. Over could feel that Mage had spoken these words before, and to one that had as much pain as he had. There was no hint of Mage trying to talk down to him, or trying to say something simply to make him feel better. For better or worse, his words were what he truly felt Over needed to hear.

"All I have ever had is who I am," Over spoke quietly, "I am not about to lose it now."

"Good," Mage smiled, "You can't do something right when you aren't sure of who you are!"

You can do nothing you see as right when you know not who you are!

Over's body suddenly felt frozen. He looked towards Mage, who just smiled at him and then moved to float away. As the boy left his sight, Over looked down towards him as he disappeared, his breath still cold in his lips. Before he could stop himself, he let out the whisper of a single name: "Sun…"

Then, he shook his head. He wouldn't allow that to sink into his head. He had no need to worry about what the boy said. His mind was slightly rattled, but it was nothing he could brush off. He stared off into the distance, attempting to calm the loud cachaphony that was his thoughts.

"Do I really have to come with you to this?" Monty asked with a long sigh.

"Lloyd said, we have to be in pairs in case those weird guys show up," Lulloyd smiled awkwardly, "That's why she sent Mage to go and find Over."

"Right, that guy," Monty sighed, "That whole persona of his he's got going on is insufferable."

"I uh, I think maybe you could try, not to judge him so much?" Lulloyd asked, "I mean… a-and this is from your friend but, you're, uhm, not the easiest to get along with."

"You are," Monty pointed out, sighing as he put his hands behind his head and leaned against them, "So clearly I'm not as bad as you're saying."

"Right…" Lulloyd sighed, "Look I just. I haven't gotten a chance to meet them yet. And. I, really need to."

Lulloyd and Monty had walked their way to the edge of the Ninjago City Docks. Specifically, he was now in front of his favorite arcade. It was a small corner shop, one he thought used to be an old candy store before it was converted into one. Most kids had moved on to the larger ones downtown, but the older machines here were ones Lulloyd had spent far too many hours on. It was likely his patronage that kept the place afloat, the more he thought about it. He wasn't here to play games, though. He was here to meet up with friends he hadn't seen in far too long.

Once the group had arrived, Lulloyd had tried to meet up with his team. After the events of everything, he still hadn't given them back their elemental powers the Twins stole from them. Apparently, his dad had sent them on some wild goose chase far, far away from here, and they'd just gotten back that morning. Lulloyd had changed out of his ninja robes into his far more familiar green hoodie and black pants. In the large pocket, he had the crystal containing the swirling mass of their powers. But it was for far more reasons than that he wanted to see them.

"When are they coming?" Monty sighed, "I don't want to wait long."

"They'll, be here any minute!" Lulloyd smiled, "You'll uhm, you'll normally hear Nya first cause-"

Off in the distance, the sound of stock-audio screaming rang out, followed by the rev of a motorcycle. Lulloyd quickly rushed over to the railing, looking over it to see a sight that made him smile wide. Nya's bike was revving its way right up the side of a large stone walkway over one of the many intets of Ninjago Sea. Behind her, four brightly dressed teenagers were running after her, desperate to catch up. Nya went flying over the top of the bridge, seeing a massive cart of chickens below. Just as the cart pusher shouted in fear, Nya jumped off her bike and struck it, breaking it into the pieces of its chassis and frame. She went soaring right over the cart, her foot gently brushing the top of it. Just before she landed, she slammed the pieces back together to slide down onto the bike and land behind it, skidding to a stop in a massive circle. The cart pusher quickly shouted and ran the other direction, hitting the side of the bridge and throwing him over into the water as his chickens went scattering in all directions.

"Boom!" Nya laughed, leather jacket shining as she leaned back on the bike, "Did you guys see that?! I was a total highway star!"

"Calm… down… sis!" Kai gasped out, bending over to catch his breath, "Gotta… get… closer… before…"

"Pedestrian laws violated: fourteen," Zane droned out, then blinked, "Oh. I mean. Hah. Hah." He bent over, weakly imitating Kai, "I am tired from running such a long distance. Hah. Hah."

"Uhm… you guys know that stamina training is like, one of our biggest lessons?" Jay, seemingly unwinded, rotated his head in a shake, "Fire isn't good if it burns out!"

"Right on," Cole, also seemingly not winded, hefted his boombox up on his shoulder, hitting a beat to cause a funky track to punctuate Jay's words.

"Move your butts!" Nya gripped the handlebars on her bike, "We're gonna be late!"

"...I uhm, I better stop her before she destroys something else," Lulloyd sighed. He looked around, then saw a large pig balloon on top of the arcade. He quickly jumped up and struck it, breaking it into pieces. Using the guardrails, he created a makeshift platform and turned the balloon into a large flower. Lulloyd offered his hand to Monty, who simply stared at him. Lulloyd stuck the flower to the platform and then gave it a spin, sending him up into the air in a spiral. The flower began to float him down towards the group, the sight of a massive pink flower catching their attention.

"LLOYD!" His friends shouted as soon as they saw him. Lulloyd let go of the flower to let it go spinning up into the air and away, landing right in front of his friends.

"Hey, guys!" Lulloyd smiled awkwardly, "I'm uhm…. I'm back!"

Almost instantly, the five of them had all run forward and hugged him wherever they could get a purchase. Lulloyd gasped as their collective strength, specifically Zane crushing his left side.

"G-Guys!" Lulloyd gasped out, "O-One at a time!"

"At what interval of time do you speak of?" Zane asked him. The others ignored him for now, hugging him as hard as they could.

"We missed you!" Jay spoke out, "We thought you were, like, gone!"

"You were gone for so long, it was like you were never here!" Kai followed up, "You know?"

"I also have felt worry over your disappearance," Zane added.

"Glad to see you in one piece," Cole spoke up.

"We were worried you weren't ever coming back!" Nya finished off, "You know how long you've been gone?!"

"W-Way too long, I-I know!" Lulloyd gasped out, "I-In my defense, I-I was kinda stranded in another world for a long time!"

"You were stranded?!" The five asked all at once. Lulloyd began to feel woozy from the hugging. Seeing this, they moved to back off and let him breathe. Lulloyd smiled gratefully at them.

"Uhm… yeah, I was," Lulloyd paused, "But uhm, the nice thing is… I got these back."

Lulloyd produced the massive crystal shard from his hoodie, holding it up for them. Upon seeing it, the five of them collectively gasped as they felt their energies resonating with it.

"Are those our powers?!" Jay smiled warmly, "I can't wait to toast toast without my toaster again! My electric bill is gonna be so low!"

"So uh, what do we do with this?" Kai asked, "Do we smash it?"

"Only one way to find out!" Nya grabbed the crystal and grinned. The others looked at her in confusion, then shock as she turned, winded up a throw, and smashed it down on the ground. All at once, the energies inside the crystal shot up, dividing into five trails of plates that snaked and moved through the air until they shot over to their respective users. The plate trail sunk into them, causing their eyes to glow the corresponding colors.

"Oh… yeah! I feel it!" Kai twisted his hands, "I'm feeling the fire! ...I forgot how to use it!"

"Don't think about it," Cole smiled. He leaned one foot up, then struck the ground with it. The bridge behind them suddenly was sent upwards into the air by a pillar of earth rising up to blast it up into the sky, then send it right back down twisted around. A nearby repair worker blinked at this, then decided to quit his job and walk away.

"I am feeling ice right now," Zane's hands frosted over, "That was a pun on my refound power."

"Lloyd, this is like, so cool!" Kai managed to light a flame in his hand, "You got it back for us! That is so ninja!"

"It, was kinda the least I could do, you know?" Lullyod rotated his arm back to rub his head, "I mean… I uhm, was kinda the reason they got taken in the first place. Now I'm, giving them back to you! And… uhm, I wanna ask now, if you guys will forgive me for, letting this happen in the first place. I'm your team leader and, I, let you down."

"Forgive you?" Nya scoffed, "Why would we do that?" Lulloyd tensed.

"Yeah, like, there's nothing to forgive you for," Jay smiled, "We're all together now! C'mon, let's take a selfie!"

The group immediately moved to grab Lulloyd and pull him into a massive group hug. Jay produced a selfie stick and plopped his phone on the stud, holding it out for them all to be included in it. Lulloyd rapidly blinked in confusion as he saw the face of all of his friends reflected in the camera screen.

"G-Guys?" Lulloyd blinked.

"Say cheese slope!" Jay beamed.

"CHEESE SLOPE!" The others all parroted. Jay snapped several pictures, each of which made Lulloyd blink as the flash went off. Once finished, they quickly all rushed around to see the outcome. Jay sent the photos to each of their phones.

"Awh, sweet!" Nya pumped her fist, "Definitely saving these."

"These turned out good!" Jay turned to Lulloyd, "Do you have your phone on you?"

"Uh… no, it's uhm, back at the apartment," Lulloyd sighed, "I was charging it when I went and, uhm, left. Which… how long can you leave a phone plugged in?"

"Variance depends on the model," Zane affirmed, "However, it is a myth that leaving a phone plugged in overnight will damage the battery."

"Oh… good," Lulloyd smiled, "Uhm… remind me to get my phone later, guys."

"Course," Nya waggled her phone, "No idea how I could even go a day without this thing!"

"We could go at least three days before Garmadon would hunt us down for missing training," Jay pointed out.

"Totally," Cole affirmed.

His friends quickly devolved into a long chatter, one that Lulloyd suddenly felt a strange wave of nostalgia for. He wasn't sure why he felt that way; it'd barely been four months since he had left, and yet somehow he felt as though he'd been missing this sort of thing for far too long. It was something that he had barely thought about. Now, he felt guilty for not doing so.

"...Oh no," Kai suddenly perked up, "Guys, guys. Does she know he's back yet?"

"...You're right!" Jay gasped, "Lulloyd, you need to hide!"

"Huh?" Lulloyd blinked, "Why?"

"Detecting massive signatures of rainbows and energy from the southwest," Zane suddenly stiffened up, "Approaching location. 10,000 studs."

"You need to run!" Kai leaned forward and grabbed Lulloyd's shoulders, "When she heard you were missing, it got crazy!"

"8,000 studs," Zane droned out, "6,000 studs."

"How is she moving that fast?!" Nya looked down at her bike, "Even this can't go that fast!"

"4,000 studs," Zane continued, "3,000 studs. 1,000 studs. 800 studs. 600 studs. 200 studs. 0 studs."

Suddenly, a massive pink blur shot straight through the group. The force of wind was enough to knock everyone over other than Lulloyd. The blur went right beside Lulloyd, punching right into the brick wall behind him. A massive rainbow-shaped hole was left inside, stretching almost ten studs inside. From that hole, a bricky figure emerged. Lulloyd slowly turned around to face the creature. They were completely red with a massive fuzzy tail sticking straight up. A red horn sat on top of a large rectangular head. Flames began to pour out from around her, washing over the ground as they slowly jumped their way forward.

"I SENSE HIM!" The red being shouted, "WHERE IS HE?! DON'T THINK YOU CAN HIDE HIM FROM ME!"

Lulloyd took a deep breath, steeled himself, then took a step towards the red mass, "I'm uhm… right here, Unikitty."

All at once, the red being of flame and rage suddenly turned pink. Unikitty stood right in front of them, blinking her eyes at Lulloyd. Her light blue horn shone for a few moments, then began to sparkle rapidly as she laid eyes on him. All at once, she let out a massive shout and lunged right at him.

"LLLLOOOYYYYDDDDDD!" Unikitty gasped. Lulloyd braced himself right as the pink furred princess rocketed straight into him. Her body turned to wrap around him, sealing his arms to his sides as she clung to him. Lulloyd just smiled at her as he worked to disentangle himself from her.

"Where have you been?!" Unikitty gasped out as he took to bouncing around him like a blur, "You've been gone for so long! Bad long!"

"I know," Lulloyd sighed.

"Nobody would tell me anything! I'd tell them I wanted to know where my Lloydie was and they kept ignoring me! And that made me very, very angry!"

"I know."

"And then when I got angry, I told them they weren't being very nice! And then your dad told me nice doesn't get you anywhere! And so I told him I don't want to have to get angry with him! He acted like you were gone for good!"

"I'm sorry."

"And then he kept lying to me! And that lying was very, very, VERY, unfriendly!"

"He's like that."

"They kept telling me to wait on you! But I waited and waited and I kept getting sadder! I couldn't get rid of the sad! All the happy felt awful without you!"

"I'm sorry, I'm really, really sorry."

"I got so sad I felt like I was going to break open like a cloud and have to put myself together again!" Unikitty finished her rant, "Where were you?!"

"I… I got hurt by some bad people," Lulloyd sighed, "And, I had to go after them. I didn't mean to leave you behind. I… I had to. And, it wasn't right of me to leave you like that. I, I wasn't thinking at the time. I should have waited to tell you."

"Somebody… hurt you?" Flames trickled into Unikitty's eyes, "Someone… hurt… my Lloydie?"

"...Uh…" Lulloyd suddenly realized he'd just stepped on dangerous waters, "I-It's okay! I-I uhm, I worked to stop them! And… and they got away, b-but it's okay! I-I got back my power they stole from me!"

"They hurt you and took away your powers?!" Unikitty gasped. Her body started to turn red.

"I-It's really okay, I'm fine!" Lulloyd thought fast, "I-I'll get them back, don't worry! I-I'm with friends here, I-I made new friends! They've been keeping me safe!"

The flames on Unikitty weren't subsiding. Lulloyd looked around nervously, then moved to put his hand on her horn. He moved to immediately scratch her ears, causing the red to instantly fade and her body to go back to its warm pink. Lulloyd looked to see his friends had gotten up and immediately moved to hide behind the lip of the river behind them. Seeing Unikitty calming down, they each moved up to slowly approach him.

"That… that wasn't as bad as I thought it would be," Jay looked around, "I thought there would be more explosions."

"Last time she trashed an entire wing of the volcano," Kai blinked, "It was awesome, but scary."

"I am glad to have averted a crisis," Zane paused, "It would have made us late to our lunch reservation."

"Oh yeah, I forgot!" Kai perked up, "Lloyd, we got seats at the one place! That one seafood place! The one you like!"

"The rooftop one?" Lulloyd asked. The others smirked. Normally, it would be a nice surprise, but after having gone so long without food from his own universe, it suddenly sounded like five star cuisine, "...I want it."

"Then we should get going!" Nya moved to hop back on her bike, "We only got ten minutes to get there!"

"What?!" Kai gasped, "we gotta run! Like, fast!"

"We will need to move at approximately ten studs per second," Zane rotated his body in the direction of the place, "We should begin accelerating now."

"Let's go!" Nya started her bike up and skidded in a circle to take off. The others quickly began to run after her.

"Come on, Uni," Lulloyd smiled, taking his hand off her head, "Let's go eat lunch."

"Mrrow…. Lunch?" Unikity opened her eyes gently, "My tummy is a little rumbly…"

"We better catch up then!" Lulloyd pointed to his rapidly disappearing friends. Unikitty smiled warmly at him, then nodded and quickly began to give chase. From the expression that Kai and Jay wore as they saw her approaching, Lulloyd could figure how well this had gone when he was gone.

"Really?" Monty suddenly asked as he walked up behind Lulloyd, "I was wondering if you had a girl but, really?"

"GAH! Monty!" Lulloyd gasped out, "Where have you been?!"

"Listening, not wanting to get involved in all that," Monty looked at Unikitty's wagging tail, "I never pegged you as someone that weird. Guess it just manifests in different ways from your dad."

"I-It's not weird!" Lulloyd frowned, "Y-You should see Batman! He's dating Queen Watevera Wanabi!"

"Of course," Monty nodded, "And you're dating a cat. Clearly it's the same thing."

"She's not just a cat!" Lulloyd protested, "She's… she's something far more than that! She's special!"

"I'm sure she is," Monty nodded his head again, "In probably way more ways than one. Especially where it counts."

"...Listen," Lulloyd gulped, "I, was gonna tell the others, but, I'm not sure how they'll take it. Can you do me a favor and… and just let me tell them on my own time?"

"Maybe," Monty paused, "If you'd be willing to help me with something later."

"Help you with what?" Lulloyd asked. Monty shook his head.

"You'll see," Monty turned his head to look into the gleam of the SoS on his back, "But that's for later. Go enjoy yourself. I'm going to try to find something normal about this messed up place."

"But Harumi said-" Lulloyd started.

"You have your friends, and I can't die," Monty turned his back, "So it checks out." He gathered wind in his hand and shot up into the sky. A trail of blue spiraling studs trailed him off as Monty went flying off into the distance. Lulloyd looked down for a moment, then sighed and turned towards his friends.

"Llllooyyddd!" Unikitty called, "Aren't you coming?"

"Y-Yeah, I'm coming!" Lulloyd smiled. He gave one last look back towards Monty before he quickly rushed after his friends, ready to spend what might be his last night with them for a long time.

"Lloyd?" Harumi slowly knocked on the door to one of the many bedrooms inside the volcano, "Can I come in?"

Lloyd slowly sat up from the planning table, a feeling that was sadly far too familiar to him by now. Harumi opened the door and entered, looking around the room to what Lloyd currently had planned out. When she saw very little papers on the table, she grimaced and went to take a seat on the opposite side of the large brick table.

"How are you holding up?" Harumi asked him, her voice quiet.

"I'm keeping it together," Lloyd told her, "The nice thing is this world is kinda, too crazy for you not to at least get a little lost in it." He gestured to the table, namely how that it was laid out and set up to look like a massive aerial view of Ninjago City. When he hit a button, he caused the volcano to start spewing red tiles that spread out to turn the 'ocean' red, "I mean, especially Lulloyd's dad."

"Yeah…" Harumi smiled, "He's got a good one."

The two fell into silence. There was far too much weighing on their minds. While the others had gone to try and clear their heads, the two of them had been mired in their own failure. Wtihout plans, information or something to grab onto, they were stuck. Stuck in the ways that were far, far too damaging to their already frayed nerves. They'd lost the battle, and now they needed a way back into the war.

"Overlloyd told me something," Harumi produced the small chip from her outfit, "I… I might have a chance to. To bring Olive back. I did some analysis and… this is her base program. It's, not complete but… but it's got enough here, I might be able to at least undo something the Twins did."

"Really?" Lloyd perked up hearing that, "He… did that for yhou?"

"He said Borg figured it out," Harumi grimaced, "It's kinda weird knowing that the borg that did it was, kinda messed up when it came to his whole, everything. But, it's huge what he did for me. This means I might be able to, get her back when this is all over."

"All over?" Lloyd felt his spirits fall, "I don't see how this is going to be all over anytime soon."

"I don't either," Harumi admitted, "But I have to keep my head up a bit. I have to imagine that, there's a goal in all of this."

"Mhm," Lloyd inhaled, "We just have to keep fighting. The more we fight, the more we make our way forward. And, soon we'll find our way to where it ends."

There was a moment of silence. Then, Harumi giggled. Lloyd was stunned by it, as such a mirthful noise cutting through the atmosphere the two had created was far more jarring than he thought. When he looked at Harumi in confusion, she just put a hand on her face and tried to hold back another laugh.

"Sorry, sorry, it's just… sometimes it's like looking at an old video of my dad," Harumi sighed, "Not exactly, though. But, sometimes you sound just like him. It's a bit comforting to know that, even if he isn't here with me… there are other people out there that carry his spirit."

"Uh… I don't know about that," Lloyd turned towards the table, "I'll never get the chance to become him after what happened in my world. Do you really think I'm anything like him?"

"Not on the surface," Harumi leaned forward, "He was far more… mature, I guess? But I think that was just experience. Talking to him sometimes felt like talking to a hero right out of the holobooks. But whenever he started talking to his team, well, that's where you start to sound like him. I guess some things just don't change as you grow up."

"That's easy for you to say," Lloyd rolled his eyes, "I grew up a lot faster than the other kids."

"Take it from someone who went the long way around," Harumi smirked, "You turned out a lot better than you could have."

"Is that meant to make me feel better?" Lloyd smirked back at her.

"No, but if it helps, he wasn't the best at doing the complicated planning stuff," Harumi looked down at the table nostalgically, "He always had Auntie Pixal to do that for him."

"You're really not helping with the comparisons here," Lloyd joked, looking down at the table himself, "...Is there a reason that you wanted to talk to me?"

"Yeah, actually," Harumi sighed, "Was kinda trying to avoid it, but I guess there isn't much point in it. I have a bit of a plan for how we can start actually making a plan."

Lloyd perked up as soon as he heard that. Harumi looked down at her watch and pulled up a document, then projected it onto the table in a hologram. It was long and complicated, with several bullet point lists that had indents over halfway across the page. What looked like scrawling by a pen highlighted and crossed out certain areas as well. Lloyd was soon lost trying to follow it, making Harumi just shake her head.

"Basically, we have three main objectives here," Harumi explained, "First, find out more about Prime and Ophiod. We can't make any moves unless we know why they're fighting us. Two, elaborate on our method of universal travel. Right now, having to both go to Dareth's -as great as that is- and relying on Monty puts us at a massive disadvantage. Third, locate the Time Twins. We aren't chasing them linearly anymore, and Ophiod and Prime will stop us if we get close. We need to locate them this time, instead of just following them."

"Okay…" Lloyd was still scrolling through the text, "So… how do we do this?"

"Right now, our biggest issue is Ophiod and Prime," Harumi explained, "So we need to focus on that first objective. And to do that, we're going to have to do something risky."

"We've been doing risky things since we started this trip," Lloyd pointed out, "Can we even get riskier?"

"Good point," Harumi affirmed, "The biggest thing with information is knowing your enemy. Until now, we've been getting that information by just, being in the world. We learned everything we needed to about our friends by being there. I don't see any reason to do that now."

"But whenever we've gone into a new world, we've just followed the new path through the void that the Time Twins made," Lloyd pointed out, "And Monty said he couldn't find any new paths for us to follow. If the Twins are somewhere else, how are they hiding their presence?"

"We need to worry about that later," Harumi pointed out, "Right now, objective one. Ophiod and Prime. The easiest way for us to figure out who they are and what's going on with them is to go and see where they live. And if we're going to do that, we need to open up the paths."

"Okay… but, how do we do that?" Lloyd asked in confusion.

"Most of this is all me conjecturing about how our travel works… I still don't get it," Harumi frowned, "But, I know that when the Time Twins travel into a new world, they take on a bit of that world's signature. Remember how they were using powers from Lulloyd's world?"

"Yeah…" Lloyd blinked, "That, feels like it was a really long time ago, actually."

"I know, and that got me thinking, what if each universe has a different energy to it?" Harumi scrolled down to hit a particular paragraph, "When we make a path between universes, we have to link something, right? What if we're not just carving a path, but instead linking the energy of each world together? Something has to sustain the path through the void."

"I, think I follow, but I'm not really seeing how you figured this out," Lloyd admitted.

"Like I said, it's all just conjecture," She shook her head, "But, whenever we move into a new world, we have to have something to tell us where to go. The multiverse is, literally infinite. Something has to be the lighthouse in the raging sea, right?" She leaned over the table, "It has to be something unique. Dimensional signatures, are just me reading background radiation around you. Like, stuff on the electromagnetic spectrum, which all comes back to energy. If each world has a particular energy to it, then that would mean I can apply some theories of energy to all of this. If we were to have something of the same energy, in theory in a space of nothing, it would be attracted to energy that was similar to it. Like a magnet being attracted to the strongest pole."

"So… you're saying if we get something that has the same energy as those two, we can… use it to make a path through the void, right?" Lloyd asked.

"Exactly!" Harumi placed hands on the table, "And I have a way that we can kill two birds with one stone. It's risky, but I think it might just work."

"Whatever the plan is, I'm in," Lloyd stood up fully, "What do we do?"

"We do what a Warlord would do to feel out a tough enemy," Harumi grimaced, "Tell the others we need to get ready. We're waving the white flag."

Author's Note:

I believe I mentioned this in an earlier note, but to reiterate: I use Overlloyd and Overlord only when the two of them and talking to each other. Otherwise, I refer to them as Over, since he is the fusion of both of them together!

For anyone wondering why those two in particular, all I can say is study their VAs a bit! You'll find something interesting…