Sorry for the long delay for this chapter, but I've been busy recently! Sorry guys, I know, I'm a terrible human being! *holds up hands in mock surrender* Anyway, let's go!

Previously on "Help her!":

Nya got dropped from the monastery and she fell over the edge of the mountain. PIXAL followed her, but couldn't find her. Skylor, Kai, Jay and PIXAL are all freaking out and mourning her. Lloyd thinks they can follow her beacon to find her, but that gets turned down.

Yeah.

Now, onto the chapter!

Chapter 10

Skylor can't sleep. Kai holds her close for the second night in a row, and his head rests next to hers. She stares at the ceiling, not seeing anything. The shadows of the room close in on her, and her breathing speeds up. Why didn't you do anything? You could have helped her, stopped her from falling. You were close enough. All you had to do was reach out to grab her. You could have jumped over the edge with the other ninja. Then you would have had the extra distance you needed to reach her. To save her. But no. You just let her fall. Skylor tries to pull through the thoughts, to save herself, and Kai's eyes flick open as she flings herself upright in the bed. He gently lays his hand on her shoulder. Skylor flinches at the contact, and Kai instinctively pulls his hand back. Noticing it's just Kai, not some nightmarish mix between her 'sister' and Claire's boyfriend, Skylor's breathing slows and she relaxes slightly.

"It's okay Sky." Kai whispers to her, trying to calm her down. "I'm here. You're gonna be okay. She's not here." That's the problem. She's not here. Skylor tried to hold back fresh tears, but a few spill from her eyes. Kai's brow knits with worry and sympathy, and he pulls his girlfriend into a tight embrace. She sobs into his shoulder for a few minutes, and Kai shushes her to help her calm down. Neither of them sleep from then, and they wait for dawn to break.

Once the sun finally peeks over the horizon, the two rise from the bed and Skylor leaves Kai's room for her own to change. Five minutes later, they enters the kitchen. The clocks chime seven in the main building of the monastery, and Skylor looks up expectantly, before remembering that Nya's gone. Forever. Lloyd soon enters the kitchen, nodding to Kai and Skylor as he gets a bowl from the cupboard, pouring himself cereal. Even without her, his schedule hasn't changed. It's like he's hardly noticed she's gone. Seemingly knowing what she's thinking, Kai wraps his arm around Skylor's shoulders, gently gripping her arm comfortingly. She smiles at him weakly, and Kai returns the gesture. By ten, all of the ninja are awake and training except Jay, who still hasn't emerged from his room. Worried, the ninja send Cole in to check on his best friend. Within five minutes, he returns to the training ground with a concerned look on his face.

"He won't talk to me." Cole shakes his head as he speaks before his eyes land on Skylor. "But he wants to talk to you." Skylor's anxiety immediately rises, and she slowly walks into the monastery. Her thoughts cloud over with fear and confusion as she steps closer to Jay's room. She arrives before long, and she knocks, heart in her mouth.

"Come in." Jay's weak voice just makes it through the door, and Skylor guesses that he hadn't slept either, instead spending the night crying for his fallen yang. She gently pushes the door open to find the boy-in-blue sitting cross-legged on the edge of his bed. He quickly wipes tears from his eyes as he looks up at Skylor. He sighs, seeming a bit more relaxed now that he knows that it's only her. "Thank the First Spinjitzu Master. It's you." Skylor nods, but keeps her facial expression blank as she approaches him. She crosses her own legs as she sits on the floor by his feet, looking up at Jay, who shuffles uncomfortably across his duvet. Skylor cocks her head to the side questioningly, a new subconscious action she's picked up from Nya. Crap. Jay's eyes fog up again as he watches Skylor's action, and she immediately feels worse.

"What's wrong Jay?" Skylor can't take it any further. Just cut to the chase already! Go ahead, knock me out or something for indirectly killing your yang. I deserve it. Jay sighs, and mumbles something under his breath. After Skylor asks him to repeat his statement, Jay's voice gets weaker.

"Why did Claire take her? I thought she would have aimed for you out of all of us." Of course, he wanted to know why she was dropped. Crap.

"She did." Skylor's response causes Jay to knit his eyebrows together from confusion. It's her turn to sigh before explaining. "Claire tried to grab my arm. Nya jumped inbetween us. I don't think she planned on getting grabbed though." Jay's eyebrows instantly drop, and Skylor can feel her own eyes filling with tears, hear her voice quavering. Jay nods slowly, sadly, thoughtfully.

"Yeah."

"So, is there anything else bothering you?" Skylor tries to keep her impatience under cover, and succeeds when Jay nods, surprise taking over. "Well, what is it?"

"It's just..." Jay begins, moving his hands in a constant circular motion when he stops, unable to think of how to word his worry. He's been doing that a lot lately. A new habit maybe? Probably one from

Nya. "It's just... why can't we find her?" Skylor's head snaps up to look at Jay when he finishes his question, and she realises just how much they've tried but failed to find Nya.

"I... I don't know..." Skylor stutters, racking her memory to find an idea she may have had but which was discarded. She couldn't find one. "We've searched the whole area, PIXAL's checked the base of the cliff, the sea, the lake and the forest, we've tried to locate her beacon but her bracelet must have broke when she fell. That is where her beacon reaches right?" Jay nods. "Great. So that must have broke. What other options are there?" Jay shakes his head and shrugs.

"Nothing." he replies. Skylor sighs and drops her gaze to the floor again. "All we can really do is put up missing posters for her around Ninjago or something. And then just hope for the best." Realising it's the last resort, Skylor nods.

"What other choice do we have?"

Chapter 11

"That's the least effective plan by statistics. In any given situation, be it in a movie, TV series, book or even real life, 'missing person' posters have never been that useful in a search for someone. In fact, most of the time, the person simply shows up again or some far-fetched event befalls them and everyone involved in the story, causing them all to reunite again."

"Yeah, but what other choice do we have?"

"It's a bad idea, to be honest."

"It's the best bad idea we have!"

The monastery is full of noise, with ninja arguing over the plan laid out before them. Kai, Skylor, Jay and PIXAL all support the idea of the missing posters, while Lloyd, Cole and Zane doubt it. Eventually, after a few minutes (which feel like centuries to Skylor), Lloyd, Cole, and Zane give in, and agree to post about Nya's disappearance. Each ninja travels in a pair with another. Cole accompanies Jay, Kai goes with Skylor, Zane takes PIXAL, and Lloyd ventures out on his own. Dareth and Ronin soon join them, taking posters from one of the pairs and sticking them around together. By the time the team all return to the monastery, Dareth and Ronin included, Sensei Wu and Misako have left to inquire at the police station about the water ninja. Lunch time rolls around, and Wu enters the building, leaving Misako alone in the courtyard. Cautious about Claire's possible return to taunt the ninja about their missing member or to continue to fight, Skylor immediately leaves the building, joining the old woman in the courtyard, looking over at the murals on one wall. The same wall she was looking at. Skylor's stomach churns uncomfortably, and she fears that she may lose her lunch. Instead, Skylor tries to focus on something else. Noticing the girl's discomfort, Misako speaks up.

"So, this is where Claire showed up?" Not trusting herself to speak, Skylor nods silently, though she doesn't look back at Misako. "Of course..." Misako mutters under her breath, drawing Skylor's attention. The girl sees the old woman leave the yard, heading into one of the rooms beside the main monastery building. Curious, Skylor follows, finding herself in a small square room lined with books of all different colours, sizes and topics. Misako has plucked a scroll from its hole in the wall, and is now standing at a small pedestal. The book rests upon its flat surface, and the old woman scans the parchment intently.

"Of course!" she exclaims quietly, alerting Skylor. Misako tells her to get the other ninja, so Skylor finds herself tearing through the monastery as fast as she can carry herself, telling whoever she passes to meet Misako in the library. She returns to the room five minutes later with Cole behind her, finding everyone crowded around Misako. After checking that everyone is present, Misako starts to read the scroll in her hands.

"Determined to best her,

The worse will challenge the better,

Who will have her brothers,

While the other has the traitors.

One will prevail, after many fights,

And several sleepless nights,

And Ninjago will survive,

Though different from before."

It all means nothing to Skylor, but Zane and PIXAL shoot terrified looks at each other. Of course they know what it means. They're Nindroids...

"What?" Kai breaks the stunned silence. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"It means," Misako explains, "that Skylor will have to face her sister..." there is an uncomfortable pause. "Without Nya." Of course... with her brothers... The room echoes gasps as everyone interprets the sentence differently. Everyone knew the big fight was coming, but no one thought that Nya would be gone for it. They all expected to find her before then. While the other has the traitors...

"While the other has the traitors..." Skylor mumbles, not sure of where she is taking this until she says it. "What if Nya's one of them?" There is a flurry of noise, and Skylor's hands fly up to defend herself from any oncoming blows that she is so used to receiving after this level of noise. Calm down, it's been years, he's dead. Thank the First Spinjitzu Master. "Okay, okay, I take it back! It was just the heat of the moment! Besides, she never really liked me anyway..."

"Nonsense." Kai cuts her off. "Nya loved you like a sister! Like a team mate! In any case, if we can't find Nya, why should they be able to and have her on their side?"

"That's the thing!" Skylor exclaims. "What if we can't find her beacon's signal because she's been taken? That way, it wouldn't be giving off any signal. I bet their hide-out is underground as well, so that would cut off much contact with us. And you told me that you weren't getting anything back on the earpieces. Being underground or out of Ninjago would cause that, so... wait, what if they've gone back to—"

"Chen's Island!" All of the ninja come to the same conclusion at the same time, and fresh panic surges through the team. Skylor nods, her mouth as dry as the Sea of Sand. No one has fond memories of the island, since the Tournament of Elements revealed a lot of things to each ninja about each other, not to mention who they were competing against. All of them remember discovering Zane's newly-rebuilt titanium form, Kai's corruption from the Staff of Elements, Skylor's reveal, Kai's apparent betrayal of the ninja, Chen's plan, and finally, possibly the most effective thing from that tournament, Garmadon's sacrifice. Looking back, no one is entirely sure how Zane's death fighting the Overlord led to Garmadon sacrificing himself to the Cursed Realm, but everyone knows that it did happen. Somehow. Sensei Wu then enters the library, inquiring about their discovery. Misako relays the information to him as Skylor leaves, followed by PIXAL and the ninja. The party-of-seven stay outside in the yard for half an hour, discussing theories on Nya's disappearance and the 'prophecy' why just heard until one of them suggests to go in for lunch, gaining nods and mumbles of agreement from everyone. This is going to be a long day.

A/N: so that's that. I'm sorry I took so long to get these out, and chapter 11 is soooo much longer than I was expecting... oh gosh. Anyway, I should have a new entry out soon, maybe today, maybe tomorrow, maybe overmorrow (day after tomorrow), I don't know, but it will be out soon. I think. See you guys soon.

LunaPikazard