I realise now I probably should have warned you guys that this would include an OC, and I'm sorry for not doing so. Also, I apologise for my crappy time table for uploading these new chapters, but like I mentioned in my Author's Note at the end of Together (my newest one shot if you wanna go check that out if you haven't already), my schedule has been really busy with no sign of slowing down. I should have some time tomorrow, though, so hopefully there'll be a new instalment soon enough. Anyway, enough of me talking, you didn't come here for that. Enjoy the next chapters.

Chapter 4

Skylor can barely walk through New Ninjago City these days without people staring at her out of the corners of their eyes. She tries her hardest to ignore it, but sometimes stuff like that will break down your barriers around yourself and they will pierce your mind like knives through skin. Skylor has never had strong barriers, and things like this always seem to get to her. She doesn't know what she'd do without the ninja, and is grateful to have Kai at her side wherever she goes. Kai seems to have gotten gentler recently, and though she hates to take credit for his change, Skylor has to believe it's because of her recent pain. And it is.

Skylor has been adjusting to her scabbed wrists, and tests her limits often, annoying Kai and putting all the other ninja on guard. Since she's only recently left the hospital after her ambush, her wrists are still aching, occasionally sending pangs of pain up her arms and paralysing her. One day, Skylor will be able to complete a move, the next day she'll be rendered useless by the pain it's caused her wrists to ignite. These attacks have caused all of the ninja to pay more attention to what Skylor is doing at all times, and they all watch her train, taking it in turns to do so. Kai often volunteers himself to watch her or to train with her, and the other ninja, knowing his fondness for her, let him, strengthening the bond between the couple and the team.

One morning, Skylor and Kai are training in the grounds of the newly rebuilt monastery when one of Skylor's attacks happens. As if an alarm had been triggered inside the building, all of the other ninja rush over to their side, trying to help Skylor pull through the pain in her arms. She succeeds, but doesn't seem as relieved as the ninja are. Instead, she walks away silently, not answering anyone's questions about if she's okay. She heads to the spare room that she's staying in, and shuts the door behind her the second after she steps in. She collapses onto her bed, and nearly passes out before a light tap on the door shakes her back into the World of the Awake. Skylor slowly lifts her head as Kai steps into the room, and she sighs, glad that it's only him, none of the other ninja behind him. Kai shuts the door and sits down next to Skylor on her bed, wrapping his arm around her shoulders. It's a few minutes before either of them speak.

"What's wrong?" Kai can't keep his curiosity quiet any longer, though he tries to credit it to his care for Skylor. Curiosity killed the cat and all that. Skylor silently curses Kai's bluntness before sighing again.

"Nothing." Skylor replies. Why does she always do that? Every time someone tries to talk to you, to check on you, you just block them out. Why can't you ever open up to someone about how you're feeling? Kai isn't convinced by her empty answer, and presses on. He repeats his question but with a little more force. Skylor has no choice. Again.

"I just..." she begins, but she soon finds it to be harder than she had expected to open up to someone. Now I get why I can't do this. "I hate being the weak one. I had being the centre of attention just because of my wrists. I didn't even do this, so why am I being coddled and treated like a child all of time? I've pushed my limits before, I had no choice when I worked for my father, and now I'm being told not to do things I know I can do, and I'm sick of it." Skylor can't stop the flow of words and emotions, and she doesn't register the tears rolling down her cheeks until Kai reaches to wipe them away, which she lets him do. Kai sighs quietly and softly.

"I understand how you feel." Skylor looks at Kai suddenly, confused about why he'd ever feel that he's the weak one of the team. She voices her thought, and Kai shrugs.

"Back when Pythor was trying to get all of the Fangblades to unleash the Great Devourer, we all unlocked our true potentials." Skylor nods - she knew this much. Everyone did in New Ninjago City. Kai continues. "Well, I was the last one to get mine, and until then, I felt so, I don't know, minor and insignificant compared to the others. They had all found out what was holding them back, and they had overcome the problems. I still hadn't. And that made me desperate to prove myself. To prove I wasn't the weak one." Kai takes a few deep breaths before continuing. "When I found out what was keeping me back, though, I realised that I was just as strong as the others, but I was only strong in different areas of my personality. I knew who I was, I was comfortable being myself, and I had decent relationships with those around me. Those were what had been holding the others back, and I had something different keeping me from being as good as I could be. I wasn't over not being the green ninja." Skylor raises her eyebrows after Kai's story, and gazes down at her lap. After a minute or so, she looks back at Kai and smiles weakly.

"You're right." she mumbles. "I just need to..." What she needs to do, however, is drowned out by the sounds of running feet and blaring sirens. Nya charges into Skylor's room and tells Kai and Skylor about the reports of an emergency in New Ninjago City. Both of them spring up from the bed and race after Nya to the Destiny's Bounty, the ninjas' flying ship.

The journey to the city is short, and the ninja arrive in less than five minutes. PIXAL soon drops down in her Samurai X mech to help the ninja, but there is no sign of the threat. Until a large mech, twice the size of PIXAL's drops down from a nearby rooftop, shaking the ground and making most of the ninja and friends fall over. Chaos ensues as Nya, Jay, Cole, Zane, Lloyd and PIXAL all leap into action, firing water, lightning, earth, ice, green energy and missiles at the large metal suit of armour, which goes soaring up into the air, flying over the whole group and landing on its feet behind us. Kai is slower to react, and Skylor seems paralysed in one spot. Trying to shake her back into their current situation, Kai prods her arm gently. She soon snaps back into reality, and shoots fire from her hands. Kai mimicks her, and each attack is elemental from that point on, except PIXAL's occasional missile from her mech. Using her wide arsenal of powers, Skylor appears and disappears frequently before slamming into the mech a different power, including Karloff's metal to cover her body, making her stronger with a bigger impact, to Jay's lightning to Neuro's mind power to try to identify who the person controlling the mech is.

"Whoever they are," she calls out after prodding into their mind a few times, "they know how to guard their mind well! I can't tell who it is!" Alarmed, the other ninja try even harder to take the mech down. PIXAL soon jumps back in, and tackles the larger mech. The person inside squeezes themself out of the machine. Hoping to get to look a their face, Skylor leaps onto the person, trying to tear the mask they wear off their face. As she reaches out, Skylor's wrists burst into pain, and she screams from the impact. The masked person then slams their fist into her chest, flinging her backwards. Her head smacks into the concrete ground, send flashing lights into her vision. Everything goes dark.

When she opens her eyes, Skylor doesn't recognise her surroundings. All she knows is she's in another alleyway. Once again, the ninja are crowded around her. Kai kneels beside her, holding her hand.

"What happened back there?" she asks groggily, shaking her head in an attempt to clear it. Kai sighs.

"They got away. We didn't stand a chance against them. Even Pix couldn't take them on. Whoever they were, they're good. I'll give them that."

"So you still don't know who it was?" Kai shakes his head. Footsteps in the alleyway announce someone's arrival, and every head turns in that direction. A masked figure appears, the one from the street fight. Behind them, another set of steps can be heard. From the shadows of the alley, out steps a young girl.

Chapter 5

Every ninja pulls their weapon of choice from their holders on their backs and waists, and all of them are aimed at the two figures. The person from the street fight has more of a masculine build than the girl behind them, leading everyone to believe that they are a male. The girl, however, gets the most attention. She is about Nya's age, with brown hair pulled into a ponytail closely resembling Skylor's. She is dressed in deep purple. Her eyes are hazel, like Skylor's left one. Skylor glares at the girl, who stares daggers back at her.

"Claire." Skylor raises her voice at the girl, who remains silent. "What do you want?" The girl, who the other ninja assume is Claire, shrugs her shoulders.

"I'm surprised you need to ask, to be honest." her response confuses the ninja and Samurai X, but Skylor seems unfazed by it. Instead, she only stares harder at Claire, who folds her arms. Claire pushes on. "Do you remember the last things we said to each other before you betrayed our father and joined the ninja?"

"First off," Skylor puts one finger up and taps it with two fingers with her other hand. "He wasn't our father, only mine. Second, yes. I remember." Claire grinned now, an evil smirk that resembled Chen's. Kai stares furiously at the girl too, enraged and fueled by his memories given to him by the evil cult leader.

"What were they then?" Claire demands, and Skylor's eyes harden. She takes a deep breath before replying.

"You said that no matter what, you'd get me. You'd get me back for whatever I did to Chen. And I told you what I knew about..." Skylor pauses. Claire flinches as Skylor names her father, and quickly starts to speak over Skylor.

"How dare you refer to him by name! Have you no shame, no respect?" Skylor ignores Claire's outburst, and ploughs on.

"I told you that I knew you wanted me dead, and how you were dating my boyfriend behind my back." Now it's Kai's turn to flinch - he wasn't the first? Then who was? Claire grins again, sending shivers down the ninjas' spines. Even Zane seems disturbed by the girl's smirk, which just proves to the other ninja how bad she is.

"You know, Skylor," Claire's voice is sly, but her words are clear and ring out through the alleyway, reverberating against the walls and in the ninjas' ears. "What with the way the media is portraying you at the moment, it looks like we both have murder on our minds, just in different ways..." Skylor gasps, and lunges at her sister, eyebrows raised, eyes wide and bright.

"It was you!" She exclaims, glaring at Claire. "You tried to kill me and make it look like an attempted suicide!" Claire chuckles, a deep, maniacal laugh that echoes down the alley. Jay, Nya, Kai and Lloyd all shiver again at the sound. Skylor holds Claire by the neck against one of the walls of the alleyway, chocking her. The masked figure from the street fight launches himself forward, igniting Kai's passion, which in turn sparks the fire on his hands. Kai flies towards the masked man, desperate to protect his girl. He slams into the other male, who backsteps. Cole jumps into the fight, landing behind the guy in the mask. He is closely followed by Jay, Nya, Lloyd, PIXAL and Zane, who all land around the masked fighter. He laughs evilly, before a flame lights up his back, shooting him into the sky like a rocket, his chuckle ringing in everyone's ears as he disappears into the sky. Claire takes her chance to kick out at her sister, freeing herself from being pinned against the wall any longer. She flings herself at Skylor, who doesn't have time to react before being slammed into the wall behind her. The impact makes a thud that can be heard all through the town centre, reverberating off walls, windows and people alike. As Skylor's vision clouds over, the last thing she sees is Claire sprinting out of the alley before being grabbed by the wrists by the large mech from the street fight, still laughing like a maniac. The world then went black.

A/N: So boom. There you go. Two more chapters to think over. Thank you all for your comments and reviews, and I hope you're all enjoying this story. Again, sorry for not uploading much for this story recently, but I've also my oneshots for you guys to read in the meantime. If anyone has any ideas for a one shot for me to write about, let me know. See you guys in the next chapter or one shot! Also, who do you guys think the masked dude could be? Let me know who you think it is! Finally, thanks to Dyphen and Dr. Fluffmuffin for the reviews on Together. Go check that out if you haven't already, and go read some of Dyhpen's stuff, she's great. ;)

LunaPikazard, signing off for however long it's gonna be until I post again.