The days following that evening felt foreboding, like the air had become a rigid stale weight, hanging over their heads in an unrelenting fashion. And at their feet, a nervous buzz to the world, as if the ground itself were anticipating chaos to compound on itself, creating a spiral of certain calamity.

It would be lying to say that this cloud of uncertainty did not seem to feed itself off of Lloyd. The boy had become impressively stoic and quiet, as if the fate of his father weighed heavy not only on his shoulders, but his lips as well. Lloyd's dark crimson eyes (a side-effect from Garmadon's infection by the Great Devourer's venom) had always held such a stark reminder of who his father was. And yet, Lloyd's smiles had always seemed to lighten the color to a rosy red, lessening the resemblance. But now, there were no smiles. Now, the shade of his eyes was indistinguishable from the memory of Lord Garmadon.

It could have been assumed that Lloyd should have been used to carrying the burden of Garmadon's fate with every breath he took. For the majority of his life, Lloyd's destiny had been constantly intertwined with his father's, and it seemed destiny was not yet done weaving their woven tale. Things were clearly not meant to go back to normal, despite the eradication of the venom in Garmadon's veins.

This might have been why Lloyd rarely muttered a word in the days that followed, why he carried himself like a repenting monk. Lloyd had been, for a moment, promised a normal life with his mother and father, only to have that quickly ripped away by complications. In some ways, he was grieving the loss of his happy ending; a happy ending he had most likely dreamt about since he could remember.

Of course, it hadn't helped that between the few days that had passed, Lloyd and Garmadon had fought. Zane really didn't try to eavesdrop, but then again, he hadn't needed to, seeing as how the whole monastery had heard the biting words exchanged in the courtyard.

"I want to be there! I might even need to be there! I saved the whole city, my word could count for something!" Lloyd had yelled, distress clear in his voice.

"No, Lloyd! I've put you through hell enough, and I'm not going to do it again!" Garmadon had shouted back. And although he sounded nothing like what he used to, the tainted echo that he used to have long gone with the venom, the anger in Garmadon's voice had been familiar.

"But Dad-"

"NO! I don't want you to be there, especially if something goes wrong!"

"I'm not a kid!"

"Yes you-" Garmadon had begun, before Lloyd swiftly interrupted him.

"NO, I'M NOT, AND YOU MADE SURE OF THAT!"

A silence had followed this, a silence in which Zane was sure Garmadon felt profoundly. After all, it hadn't been Lloyd's choice to become an adult, in both physical and mental capacities.

"Lloyd, please-" Misako's soft voice had rung in the courtyard, sounding frail and brittle.

"No. Don't you dare try to comfort me. Dad has more a right to do that than you! He wasn't the one to abandon me, by choice!"

A silence had washed over the monastery yet again, and Lloyd had left the courtyard soon after that, stomping along wood boards towards his room. They had yet to be seen talking to each other after that fight. But Zane had caught peaks of Garmadon around the monastery, dark circles under his eyes, sporting an unkempt stubble from two days of neglect.

It was hard for Zane to understand how he was supposed to feel about Lord Garmadon. Should he feel sympathy for the man? Should grudges still be held? Not less than a week ago, the man had been their enemy, a threat to their lives. But now he was a simple mortal man, with family problems, regrets, and stubble.

Of course, Dr. Julien hadn't had any guidance to impart onto Zane.

"I have no respect for the man he was. I have sympathy for the man he is now. He must feel as though he's lived his life in the passenger seat, with someone else behind the wheel. I can't imagine what that feels like. But does he deserve my sympathy? I don't know." Dr. Julien had said, shrugging while tinkering with a few gears in his hands.

And so, it was with undecided emotions that Zane watched the family pull out of the driveway the fated evening of the hearing, Lloyd having secured a seat for himself in the back after talking with his uncle. Garmadon had not commented on his son's attendance to his hearing, but kept his eyes to the driveway as they all strapped themselves in.

"Well, what now?" Nya asked, after they had all stopped waving at the disappearing van and walked back inside, "I can't remember the last time we had nothing to do."

Kai snorted in agreement, yet his eyes were unfocused on a wall, his thoughts worlds away. They all cared about Lloyd, of course, but Kai had always been the one to be a stand-in parent, protecting Lloyd with his life. Zane could only wonder how worried the fire elemental must be.

"We should do something tonight," Jay suggested, "I feel like I've been carrying around someone's dark family secret ever since they had that fight, and I would love to shake that feeling off."

"Maybe a bar?" Nya said, Kai's eyes quickly refocusing at the word, "I could go with a drink or two."

"Gods yeah, that sounds perfect." Cole sighed with a tired smile.

Zane had never really understood the draw of alcohol, or why it ever seemed like a good idea. Getting rid of one's own critical thinking and common sense didn't sound like an exciting action to partake in. But for some reason, humans loved the chance to get rid of their inhibitions. Of course, Zane's understanding of it was muddled, seeing as how drinks never affected him or his ability to stand straight. Of course, it made sense that he was built immune to alcohol and its affects; he couldn't do much protecting inebriated.

"I'll be designated driver." Zane chimed in, earning a clap on the back from Jay, in what he could only interpret as gratitude. Of course, Zane was always designated driver. But his friends never ceased to thank him anyway.

"Wait, Zane, are you sure?" Cole asked, emerald eyes boring into Zane, "Wouldn't you like to do something you enjoy too?"

Clearly, Cole had forgotten all about Zane's relationship with alcohol. It was silly how often the earth elemental forgot about the wires inside him.

Zane gave a shrug, "Who said watching Kai becoming intoxicated isn't fun?"

Cole gave a crooked smile Zane's way as Nya laughed heartily, and Zane quickly had to switch his attention somewhere else. For what reason, he did not know, but Cole's crooked smirk always seemed too private, like it was reserved for someone else.

Very soon after, having all changed their clothes into something more flattering (Jay had given Zane a thumbs up to his rolled-up sleeves of his favorite blue button up and casual, formfitting jeans), they were all buckled into the second car leant to them by the monastery; also a mini-van, a pale green color with slight rust around the wheels. Nya commented with a scoff that the monks "clearly didn't have much taste" as she placed her hands on the worn, flaking wheel.

Their drive to the city was much more familiar now, than their morning drive a few days prior. There were more cars along the road, most likely families slowly trickling back in to see the wreckage on their homes. Not nearly the amount of break lights that they were used to seeing on the long desert road, but there were enough to feel safe in the assumption that, at some point, things would go back to normal.

They decided on one of Jay's favorite bars, no one in the mood to handle the places Kai liked to frequent (much to the fire elemental's dismay). It was on the outskirts of the city, appearing just before the dense forest of tall gray buildings. The street parking was somewhat crowded, but the foot traffic on the sidewalks was sparse. Zane could only imagine how many issues the city would run into when it came to parking, since some of the major, multi-tiered garages had been destroyed in the battle.

Neon signs blinked at the group from behind the bar's windows, and the worn red door was propped open to let the evening summer breeze in. The walls inside were painted a dark, warm red, decorated with records, pictures of famous past patrons (Zane couldn't help noticing Cliff Gordon being amongst them, hung above a refurbished jukebox), and some more neon signs. In a corner near the bathrooms, two blinking pinball machines sat, waiting for someone to try their hand at them.

There was booth seating near the door, and stools all along the bar, but the majority of the room was occupied by a large, white-and-black checkered dance floor. There were a few patrons already dancing underneath the warm lighting, most of them clearly having already had a drink or two. Zane couldn't blame them. After the events a week ago, he would guess alcohol would be in high demand.

"You guys wanna sit at the bar?" Kai shouted over the loud music. Zane could feel the bass of the song thrumming in his stomach and occasionally traveling to his throat.

"Sure!" Jay shot back, and the group sat down along the bar. The bartender raised an eyebrow in expectance, and they quickly gave him their orders.

Zane didn't pay much attention to what his friends ordered, and instead turned his eyes to the dance floor. Dancing had always been such a foreign thing to him, as with many things humans did for that matter. Sure, he could dance well. Zane could do anything well that had any base in technicalities and instruction. Any how-to video on a dance move, and Zane would immediately be able to replicate it flawlessly, as if he had been dancing for years. But being able to do something, and being able to feel the emotions that went with an activity, were very different things. The act of wanting to dance with someone, and finding doing so gratifying, was an alien concept to him.

Zane turned his attention back to his friends along the bar, just in time to watch Kai down his shot glass in one swallow, to the cheers of Jay and Nya. Kai spluttered and coughed, wincing as the liquid went harshly down his throat. However, he soon emerged with a manic smile and a proverbial fire in his eyes, ordering another glass without a moment's hesitation.

Out of the corner of his eye, Zane saw a woman, most likely in her earlier twenties, looking their way from one of the booths. Upon further inspection, he observed her clear focus was on Kai's back, smiling as he whooped and jeered. As it always seemed to go in their bar outings, Kai would be the first to be parting from the group. Kai's swallowing of shots and cheers from the pain never ceased to draw in a dance partner, a phenomenon Zane couldn't, and certainly wouldn't, ever understand.

And sure enough, a few drinks later, just as the beginings of a sloppy smile started to appear on Kai's face, the woman walked over and put a hand on his shoulder, asking for some time together on the dance floor. Kai quickly left the bar stool and his empty glass behind, his parting punctuated by the teasing sniggering of Jay and Nya.

Again, Zane watched on as the silent observer, keeping his eyes on his three tipsy friends at the bar and his one on the dance floor. Kai was certainly having a good time, and the couple at the bar seemed to be feeling the same, if their stolen glances at each other in between Cole's laughter was anything to go by. After a time, Cole began to notice these glances too, and soon forced Jay and Nya off the stools, telling them they "couldn't come back until they'd gotten some dancing and kissing out of their systems". But the two hadn't payed much attention to what Cole shouted after them, both entranced in the other's presence. The pair disappeared into the growing crowd of bodies, in which Kai had been lost to a few minutes before.

Cole chuckled to himself, taking a sip of his drink before his emerald eyes finally fell to Zane. The Earth elemental seemed more brightly-eyed than usual, and there was a very slight flush to his skin. But the lopsided smile was un-sloppy, perfect, and Zane had to look away to the jukebox for a reason he wasn't privy to.

"Are you having fun?" Cole asked, a soft slur to his words, "I can never tell when we go out. But you're extra quiet tonight."

Damn it, but he was always observant. It was true, Zane was quieter than usual. Maybe it was because he couldn't feel the emotion in dancing. Or maybe it was the leftover unease of meeting Cyrus Borg. Maybe it was the fact that, during times like this, watching humans enjoy things that he would never, made him contemplate what the world would look like if he were a human himself. What things would feel like, if he were human. Would his senses be more elevated than they were now? Or, were human senses duller than his artificial ones? Would the music suddenly make sense, would he suddenly want to dance? Would he realize he had a preference for orchestra, instead of the pop songs that blasted over the sound system?

But these were thoughts that Zane had never voiced before, and he certainly wouldn't be voicing them in a loud bar. These thoughts always seemed so taboo in a way, as if it were sinful to daydream on mortality. It was a sort of rebellion, to think on such things. To think on possibilities that were to never happen, to be selfishly unproductive with his thoughts. It was his secret to wish upon a humanity that could never be gifted to him, and this secret would stay as such.

"Bars are simply not my scene. My enjoyment is in the observation, nothing more," Zane responded. But those emerald eyes bore in to Zane's icy blues, and he knew there was nothing he could hide from his friend.

"Okay, sure, but you're not even smiling. What's bothering you?" Cole pressed, looking at Zane over the rim of his glass as he took another sip. The ice elemental sighed, glancing over his shoulder once more to look at the crowd of thrumming bodies.

"That." Zane said, gesturing to dancing behind them. Cole swiveled in his stool, back leaning against the bar counter to look at whatever Zane was talking about. His gaze shifted around the scene, clearly looking for something that would bother Zane. Seeing nothing out of the ordinary, Cole took another sip of the amber liquid, contemplating.

"What, the people?" Cole guessed after a beat.

"What they're doing," Zane clarified, "I don't understand it."

"Dancing? What do you mean you don't understand it? When we were dancing for that fang blade, my dad thought you were a better dancer than all the rest of us combined." Cole pointed out, eyebrows furrowed.

"I can go through the steps," Zane said, waving his hand about in dismissal, "but that's all it is. Steps. The happiness that dancing produces? That is what does not compute."

Cole hummed in thought, absently watching the crowd. His gaze flicked to Zane as he placed his glass down on the counter behind him.

"What else doesn't make sense? I mean, I'm just curious, you don't have to talk about it," Cole quickly added, looking slightly nervous behind the haze of his drink.

"No, it's fine," Zane said before swiveling in his chair. They both now had their backs to the bartender, the dancing humans unaware of the two men watching.

There were many things Zane didn't understand about the scene before them, too many things to cover in their current conversation. The happiness, the drinking, the grinding, the music; an endless list of things to forever stay a mystery.

"Okay," Zane began, deciding on a topic that wouldn't directly give away his self-indulgent thoughts, "Here's one. I don't understand Jay and Nya."

Coles eyebrows furrowed even deeper than before, quickly asking, "How so?"

"Well, I understand, in the crude sense, attraction and emotions and why humans have them. Strictly scientific. But outside of science's explanation…" Zane trailed off, catching a peak of the dancing couple as he did so. The way they gazed at one another, as if the two of them were the answer to the meaning of life, as if dancing together in that moment was more important than any battle they could ever win. It was such an enchantment, an "obsession" over each other, that baffled Zane.

Another silence hung between the two, both waiting as Cole's slightly addled brain made sense of what Zane was saying.

"You don't feel love?" Cole questioned, clearly attempting to hide shock in his tone. Sober, he would have been able to do just that, but in the bar, his surprise was clearly heard.

"Correction," Zane quickly said, "I feel love for my father. But apparently that's different."

"Just a bit," Cole said with a snort, his laughter ending quickly after a withering look from Zane, "What, you mean you've never… I dunno, had a crush? Thought someone's lips looked nice?"

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"I don't know, Zane! Some people, just… some people have nice lips!" Cole exclaimed, waving a hand in the general area of Zane's face before his hand fell, defeated, into his lap.

"Why are you gesturing to me? Do you think I have nice lips?" Zane snickered.

Cole spluttered, mouth agape as if he had been accused of doing something, without an alibi prepared. His floundering for words quickly ended, however, when he saw Zane's mischievous smile.

"Oh, shut it!" Cole laughed, giving Zane a good-natured, light punch to his shoulder. After a few seconds of laughter, he continued, "I guess what I mean is, you've never wanted to kiss anyone? Is that something you don't understand?"

Zane nodded, "I wasn't built to feel those types of things. I was built to protect those who cannot protect themselves, and subjects such a romance could hinder my ability to do so."

Cole looked deep in thought, humming once more in contemplation before finally speaking, "I guess I don't know why I assumed you understood those types of things… But programming can learn, right?"

Zane smiled softly at Cole. It was one of the things Zane always appreciated about him, his ability to constantly forget his more-than-human status.

"Well, I'm not sure, I don't know if Father programmed me to learn-"

"Jay always talks about how AI can learn from inputting information, and with the right amount of tinkering, you could teach it to learn any-" Cole abruptly stopped his train of thought at the look on Zane's face.

"I don't need tinkering to learn things. If I am meant to learn emotions, then I am. Though I know I am not, so there's no point in entertaining what could be." And yes, Zane might have said this with an anger unfairly directed towards Cole. But as it were, romance was the last thing Zane wanted to add to the list of "what-ifs", and he did not need Cole's misguided hope to think that such feelings could be achieved.

Clearly, he had been too harsh, for Cole quickly flushed and broke eye contact, looking everywhere but the man next to him.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to snap… I don't like thinking about being tinkered on." Zane apologized. This was a good-enough apology for Cole, who pat him on the shoulder in response. All his friends knew Zane hated talk about rewiring and poking around, at least, so it was a simple lie that was believable enough. But with the awkward air that still hung around them, he knew a subject change was to be in order.

"I'm assuming you understand such emotions as love, then?" Zane questioned, with a fake air of innocence. The tips of Cole's ears quickly flushed, and the earth elemental grabbed his glass, taking a large gulp of the burning liquid to the tune of Zane's laughter.

"Uh, yeah. I do." Cole said when he had resurfaced, eyes trained on the dancing crowd, and not anywhere near his friend sitting next to him. Clearly, Cole didn't want to give any indication that there was more to say on the subject than a simple admission.

"Well? Do tell. I've never had the pleasure to hear thrilling stories about your love life." Zane said with a smirk. Cole scowled in the nindroid's direction, before changing his focus to the scuffed ground, worn from generations of drunk patrons and wobbly dancers.

"Well, you know, we all had lives before we met Sensei Wu," Cole said, to which Zane nodded, "And in that- I guess you could call it past life- I dated this girl. She was nice, pretty; I was lucky. At least, that's what my friends told me. But it just… didn't feel right, and I ended it. Haven't dated since."

Zane waited for Cole to continue, for surely there was more to be shared. But Cole looked up from the floor, signifying the end of the story-telling.

"Didn't feel right?" Zane echoed, now his turn to furrow his brows in confusion. It was a relatively short and uneventful story, and he had a suspicion there was more to it than Cole was letting on. And this suspicion was right, if the uncomfortable shift Cole made in his seat was anything to go by.

"It just didn't feel right. I dunno what to tell you," Cole snapped, before muttering a sorry and sighing, "I haven't thought about her in ages. Or really thought about dating in general. We've been so busy with all of this 'saving the world' stuff, it just doesn't feel like there's enough time to even consider that type of thing."

Zane nodded in understanding as Cole finally made eye contact, "Fair enough. But now that the world knows peace, maybe you'll have time now?"

Cole shrugged at this loosely, a sloppy motion aided by his drink, "Yeah, maybe. I've been out of it for so long though, I bet I've forgotten how to flirt. My punching bag would make a better date than me."

For a second, Zane thought Cole surely was joking, but the glum expression playing on the earth elemental's face did not break into a goofy grin. The man truly believed his own words.

"Well that's not true!" Zane exclaimed, slapping a hand on Coles thigh and leaving it there, hoping to startle Cole out of his wallowing, "You should see the way those workers at the construction site look at you! You haven't lost your touch at all. I think you've just lost touch in your observation skills." He jeered with a wink.

But Cole hadn't seemed to hear a single thing Zane had said. For during the time Zane had been counselling his friend, Cole had been looking down at the hand on his thigh with wide eyes, as if the hand was an alien with a seemingly infinite number of eyes.

Slowly, Cole lifted his gaze until they were looking into each other's eyes. Zane tried to make sense of what was going on in the man's mind, tried to read his thoughts as Cole always seemed to be able to do with him. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't detect the foreign emotions and feelings floating in Cole's expression.

"Oh…" Cole muttered, before his face suddenly flushed for an unknown reason, eyes losing their haze as if he had just been slapped back into reality, "OH!"

Cole jumped off the stool as if it had suddenly caught on fire. On a quick glanced inspection, Zane confirmed that there were no flames emitting from the bar seat. And yet, Cole was staring at Zane in shock, as if the nindroid had done something to him so blasphemous, so unprecedented, that he could do nothing but be cast into a speechless state of disbelief.

"Cole? Are you okay?" Zane questioned, worry clear in each word.

"Uh. Yeah. I, uh…" Cole attempted, waving his hands feebly, eyes wide and cheeks flushed. He was staring at the him as if Zane, instead of his hand, was the multi-eyed alien, "I- I feel sick, gotta go!"

And without another word, without an explanation of his symptoms or how this sudden issue of wellness had come about, Cole bolted for the bathroom, door swinging open wildly before slamming shut behind him, a sound covered by the booming music.

Zane could only imagine what had happened. Had the sickness been a sudden flare up of the odd "cold" that Cole had mentioned often in the past days? Or, instead, had the sickness been a side effect of alcohol being consumed too heavily? He had been watching his friend's drinks throughout the evening, and he swore Cole had not been drinking enough to warrant any side-effect quite yet.

But he was to get no answer from the empty bar stool beside him. And so, Zane was left alone at the bar for the majority of the night, wondering what in the world had happened.

It was extremely late by the time Zane was able to coax everyone into the car. Each of his friends were stumbling and giggling. Even Cole had been dissolved to a wobbly mess, having decided to double down on drinks when finally emerging from the bathroom in the last thirty minutes before eleven o'clock. Clearly, he had forgotten about the incident in the midst of heavy drinking, now hanging on to Zane, calloused hands floundering all over his body in what seemed to be a search for a stable grip; the complete opposite of the shocked Cole from a few hours before.

The ride was smooth, as the desert road was empty in the darkness. No traffic to impede their travels, no honks from impatient cars to alarm Nya and Jay, mid-makeout in the back seat. Cole and Kai were blissfully unaware of the couple in the back seat, instead giggling at the cacti on the side of the road that, according to their drunken minds, bore a resemblance that was phallic in nature. Zane wasn't quite sure they could even see the cacti on the side of the road, seeing as how dark it was outside, but he didn't have the heart to point this detail out.

It was a task to get them all into bed, especially Nya and Jay, who put up a fight in their separation. Once everyone was asleep, Zane could finally sigh in relief, curling up in the comfy chair in the corner, book in hand, making sure to stay up for a while longer in case any of his friends got sick.

It was in this chair, becoming engrossed in a book, where he heard the front door open, voices echoing in the halls. It sounded as if the Garmadon family had just returned home from the hearing.

"… go?"

"Up to…best idea… unsure."

Zane strained to hear the words that were being said, but soon found he didn't need to. The two people holding the conversation stopped right outside the men's room.

"I just wish the council could have sent them somewhere nearby. I know that the monastery is probably the best place to go, far from the city and all of that. It's the best outcome we could have hoped for. I just wish they would be closer so I could visit more often." Lloyd said to someone.

Clearly, the hearing had gone, in Lloyd's opinion, as well as it could have. But Zane hadn't the slightest clue what it all meant. Leaving for a monastery? Who was leaving? It sounded like Lloyd was alluding to more than one person.

"Do you wish to go with them?" Sensei Wu asked, "I know your family was only just reunited. But as per the court's orders, your mother has to go with him. We would all understand if you wanted to be with them."

There was a pause, in which Zane dared not breath, holding his book still in his hands.

"So much of their life has been led by me. Every decision they made, right or wrong, was because of me. I think they need time to figure things out without me around. And after they figure their things out, then maybe I'll be able to talk about the things I need to say. I don't think they're ready to have that conversation yet. Not until they've worked through their own problems." Lloyd said, and there seemed to be a relief in his tone.

"You are wise, nephew. I know someday, they'll be ready to talk to you about all of the things that hurt you. Not now, but someday." Wu said.

Lloyd said his goodnight to his Uncle, and slid the door to the room open. Zane quickly fumbled with his book, realizing it would look suspicious for his book to be in his lap and his head turned towards the door.

Lloyd entered the room as quietly as possible, head quickly snapping to Zane in his peripheral, whose nose was deep in a book. An upside-down book, which Zane seemed yet to notice.

Lloyd looked around the room to the ninja, all sprawled in their beds, sleeping above their covers. This alone would not have been incriminating, if not for the fact that they were all still fully dressed.

"Did they get sloshed?" Lloyd asked with a grin.

"Absolutely." Zane responded, not looking up from the book in his hands.

"Goodnight, Zane."

"Goodnight, Lloyd. Sleep well."

Around the table during breakfast the next morning, they were all told the wonderful news, Zane feigning surprise to it all.

"The council said they wouldn't punish him, as long as he took some time away in a far-off monastery! I think they want to give him some therapy or something, but that's way better than some of the other stuff they were talking about." Lloyd explained to them over toast and scrambled eggs. Lloyd's eyes turned a dark shade at the mention of "other stuff", and Zane wasn't sure if he wanted to know the other things that had been discussed.

"That's great news, Lloyd!" Kai exclaimed, clearly happy to see Lloyd feeling good for the first time in days. There was no sign of what had occurred last night on any of the elemental's faces. Being elemental masters, and therefore somewhat more-than-human, hangovers rarely seemed to be a problem.

"Of course, I have to say goodbye to both of them for who knows how long. But I think it'll be good for the both of them." Lloyd said, with a wide grin on his face.

Cole looked to Zane across the table, sharing a lopsided grin at the good news. Zane had to look away, as he always did when Cole looked at him like that.

To be truthful, Zane was surprised to feel a touch of disappointment that the earth elemental did not remember what happened the night before at the bar, but as to what he wished Cole had remembered, he had no idea.

They left for a quick morning of work at the Borg construction site, not before saying their goodbyes and giving hugs to Garmadon and Misako. Only Wu and Lloyd were the ones to give Garmadon a hug of course, but the ninja gave Garmadon head nods nonetheless.

It was a happy day at work, life seemingly going their way. Zane stood under the shade of the tent with his cups of water, Cole visited much too frequently, and Lloyd seemed to have a new spring in his step. When their lunch break arrived, there were cheers to be had over the takeaway; Chen's Noodle House. They all tucked in to the wonderfully greasy noodles and the meaty fried dumplings with vigor. And afterwards, full of good food, they all sat around laughing as they each stuck their chopsticks into their mouths, pretending to be walruses and fight each other with their "tusks".

In the middle of their laughter, Cole's cell phone rang, making him jump in surprise at the sudden loud noise coming from his pocket. The others kept knocking each other's chopsticks out of their mouths, paying the earth elemental no mind as he got up from the table. Cole faced the construction site after walking a few paces away from the picnic table, frowning at the number calling him before answering the phone, putting it to his ear.

Zane did not join back in on the laughter, instead too curious as to who could have been calling Cole at that moment. For a fleeting second, he wondered if Cole had gotten back into contact with the girl he had mentioned the night before.

"Yeah?" Cole asked into the phone, staring off at the metal skeleton of the growing skyscraper. Someone replied on the other end, and if Zane focused hard enough, manually increasing his hearing sensitivity, he could hear the person on the other end of the phone.

"-is Cole, right?" A voice asked, sounding panicked in the worst way possible.

"Yeah. Can I ask who this is?" Cole questioned.

"Garmadon!"

"Aren't you supposed to be on your way to the monastery? And how do you have my n-" Cole began to question, before he was interrupted.

"Lloyd gave it to me for emergencies, but that's not important right now!" Garmadon barked. Cole's eyebrows furrowed at the urgency in the man's voice.

"Did something happen?" Cole asked, a grave and serious weight to his words. The others stopped joking around as soon as they heard Cole's change in tone. They all looked to Cole, which could have been a funny picture, all of them with a chopstick or two hanging out of their mouths, if not for the dread that Zane was beginning to inexplicably feel.

"Well…" Garmadon paused, taking a deep breath before continuing. Zane's breath hitched in his throat as the words were spoken, as the world began to spin underneath the bench. Zane's vision faded to black, with only one sentence repeating, over and over in his mind:

"It's Doctor Julien."