I just realized when I went to sit down and talk about this, but I forgot that Kai and Nya's parents were even involved in all of this.
When I first met Kai, I assumed that he had parents somewhere like Jay. It wasn't until later that I learned that they'd basically disappeared. Kai told me about how he was forced to basically learn how to raise Nya and take over doing the blacksmithing shop too. At first, some friends of the family would watch over them and try to help them out (one of which must have gotten them babysitters), but eventually help dried up and Kai was forced to learn to grow up for his sister's sake. The reason that it took so long for me to realize was because Kai never really did talk about it, saying that it was something that he had to deal with and I didn't need to worry about.
Now, remember how I said that Krux was spat out of the Time Vortex just after he jumped back in? Apparently, his plan to take over Ninjago started then. He spent time developing his persona of Dr. Saunders, researching ways to get back at Wu. This eventually led him to discovering the Vermillion. In order to make his army, he'd need people that could outfit his soldiers with powerful armor. So, after he'd introduced himself to Kai's parents, he built up a friendship with them before revealing that he was Krux to them and threatening to hurt Kai and Nya if they didn't come and help him. This explained why they simply vanished, since Krux locked them away in the swamp and started forcing them to make armor and work on his plan.
Come to think of it, I'm not sure how Krux made his plan in the first place. Kai said that his dad told him Krux saw the same message Wu saw in the Time Vortex and knew when Acronix would return, but I don't think he could have known about the Time Blades returning when they did. So, I'm pretty sure that his plan of going back in time to destroy Wu and the Elemental Alliance in the past was one he came up with after Acronix returned. But, then again Kai's dad was the one that made the design for Iron Doom. There were way too many Vermillion to have just started after the Great Devourer was destroyed… or at least, I think so. I don't know the lifespan of a snake like that. He was breeding them for a long time, at least. So, maybe? But, I'm pretty sure his plan with the Iron Doom was there from the start, and the time travel thing came later. His original plan had to be to make the Vermillion, since he needed those two for that. But, I guess I'm not quite sure how he figured out the Time Blade stuff.
But, anyways, back to Kai's parents. So, during the fight at the Borgstore, Kai found that each helmet was stamped with a mark that he found familiar, so he kept spending all his free time figuring out what it was. This all started when Kai fought Krux at the museum and first found out about him, when Krux messed with Kai by telling him that his parents were traitors to Wu and the alliance. After we fought them again to get the slow blade, he found out that each warrior had the stamp and that Wu recognized it. Wu was captured before he could tell Kai what it meant, but Kai remembered it. It turned out each stamp of Vermillion armor had the mark of his father's blacksmith shop on it, and he even went back home to prove it. This led him to thinking that his parents were traitors and that they had to still be alive.
The reason that I haven't mentioned them is that they… didn't, really do anything. Like, I know that they did things for Kai and Nya, but I didn't even meet them until this was all over. From what I understand, while we were working to try to stop the Twins, Kai found his parent's blacksmithing shop in the swamp, found out the truth, and then he, Nya and his parents were captured by the Twins and forced to go get a Time Blade that had been hidden away all this time. The most I can say about his parents was that they seemed like nice people, but that's it. Given that they just… disappeared after we beat the Twins (or, Kai and Nya did), I didn't even get to know them that much. Honestly, thinking about them, they kinda just… didn't feel important to the whole Time Twins thing. We didn't know about Kai's struggle since he didn't say anything, so other than this recap I can't say anything else.
So, I've normally split up talking about the end of a lot of these adventures into multiple chapters, but since I wasn't even involved in a lot of what happened here with the final fight against the Twins, I'm going to combine it all into one chapter instead. I know it sounds kinda weird to do that, but here's the thing: I didn't beat the Time Twins.
From the moment that we found the swamp to when Kai and Nya joined back up with up is somewhat a big blur to me. A lot of what happens blends together for me. It's all very… odd. I think to understand why, I need to explain what happened from the start. Maybe I can get across why this all felt so weird when I'm done?
Okay, so we had just found the swamp, and I made us a plan. Zane was to go after Cyrus Borg, Jay and Cole to go and free the people that were kidnapped, I would get Master Wu, and Kai and Nya -who returned just as I was telling the plan- would go and find the Twins and keep them off of us. It turns out Kai just went right off to confront his parents, so that part of the plan didn't happen, but the rest of us were dedicated to it. I wanted this to be a stealth operation, so I ordered them not to engage with the Vermillion if they could. There were too many of them to agitate.
A few of you know that Jay and Cole ended up trying to get the people out using the scrap metal to make a ladder, but thanks to Jay's overeagerness to get out he broke it and alerted the guards. They instead just fought their way to the guards and led the people to the Shadow and got them back to the city. Zane, meanwhile, wasn't able to find Borg, since the Time Twins took him with them to ensure he didn't mess up the task they gave him. Sadly, I didn't exactly have much luck either.
When I found the holding cell (Skales' map saved us a lot of time), Wu was gone. The two Vermillion I think were generals came back and told me that, of all things, they were having a lunch break and had taken Wu with them to make sure they didn't lose him. Honestly, I was kinda insulted that they just went off and had lunch like that. I didn't question at the time why they could talk but no other Vermillion did, I think they have a hive mind and the generals were just special? Either way, I don't think it matters.
They took off running with Wu, so I chased after them. The entire thing was really stupid. Like, they managed to get away from me, and when I caught up with them they ended up sending Wu (who was tied to a wheelchair) down towards a giant pit. I fought them off and went to dive for Wu right before he dropped, and that was when I felt time pause.
The Time Twins had managed to predict the emergence of the pause blade using Borg's watch (Thanks. Borg.) and had taken Borg with them to make sure he didn't sabotage the project they kidnapped him for. I remember it was odd, since I didn't know anything was happening when time was paused, but the second it was over I knew that something had just happened. It's like your perception of time just sort of gets back in sync with everything, I guess. Still, it was right when I dove for Wu, so next thing I knew I was holding Wu with one hand and holding a vine with the other to stop him from falling.
...And then, literally just as I got him back up and did the hard work of getting Wu back, those two Vermillion came back, ambushed me, and stole Wu. They knew the swamp better than I did, and I ended up getting lost. I'm still mad about that. They dropped him, I picked him up, and they stole him right when I thought I'd finally got him. I was on edge from the situation, so they didn't help me, at all.
Thankfully, I was lost in the right direction and found Zane. Once we met up, we found Jay and Cole getting swarmed by Vermillion. I made the decision to help them instead of going after Borg -who had just gotten back with the Twins from getting the pause blade- to instead help Jay and Cole. We got lucky with Jay electrifying the water and Zane making platforms for us to stay away from it. I was still a little angry at the two generals, so an easy fight like that was sort of what I needed. We took the armor and disguised ourselves to go and find Borg, which was when we learned of the plan in full. I should mention Borg came out swinging at us, which was pretty brave considering he was in a wheelchair and against the Vermillion. He was lucky the ones the swung at were the literal four Vermillion that weren't going to attack him.
Using the Time Blades, Borg had created a device that would use their energy to open up the Time Vortex that the Twins had first gone into, letting them travel in time. To that, they had Kai's dad make a massive shell called the Iron Doom, which would move when filled with Vermillion snakes. This basically meant that the Twins had a walking army that could go anywhere through time, no matter what. Their plan was to go back in time to right after they jumped into the Time Vortex, defeat Wu and Garmaodn with the Vermillion, and then assume control of time and turn Ninjago into their own kingdom to rule.
...Okay, so I have to say something. The Iron Doom is actually something that, the more I think about it, the scarier it gets. Since it's literally made of snakes and metal, there isn't really anything electronic inside to actually destroy. It's a mech, but it can deploy the snakes at any time and basically make an army on the spot. The Iron Doom is the army. And it can travel in time. It's also huge, like at least five stories tall. Just the size of it alone could overwhelm any mech we ever made. I kinda wonder what it would be like in battle. I never got to see it do anything, and like, it's just so cool to think of!
But… this is where the issue of me not getting to even fight in this battle became a problem. As it turns out, the fourth Time Blade, the reversal blade, had landed with Krux and was found by Wu. In order to make sure it wouldn't ever get stolen, Wu had Kai's parents hide it in the Boiling Sea. And since that place requires someone that can use both fire and water to get to the blade, Krux and Acronix simply used Wu and their parents as leverage.
So, here's the thing: Borg said that if he could get to the top of the Iron Doom, he could plug in some sequence to permanently shut down the device he built. In order to make sure that the Twins didn't realize he'd put in a failsafe, Borg intentionally made sure to forget the code that he wanted to make. Because of that, we couldn't just sneak up and input it ourselves. So, we were about to go and take him when the generals showed up with the rest of the Vermillion army.
Now, I will just say this: we managed to fool the Vermillion into thinking we had obeyed the hive mind. We would have gotten all the way to the Iron Doom, had Jay not decided to say something when walking by the generals. Since Vermillion don't speak, that got us ousted. If that had been it, we likely wouldn't have made it out of there.
The thing is, that was when the new Samurai X, in the blue colors that Ninjago City know her for today, arrived. She had a new car (another cool vehicle that doesn't get used again) and told us they'd take Borg up for us. Because of this, we split up. I stayed to fight off the Vermillion with Jay and Cole, while Zane helped Samurai X to get Borg up to the top. This was the reason that I didn't even get a chance to determine the outcome of all of this.
I do want to thank Borg for making sure the sequence was 1300 digits long, rather than just, say, a hundred or so. If it had even been just one digit shorter, we would've won. But it took so long that the Time Twins returned from the Boiling Sea, without Kai and Nya, and having all four Time Blades. Just as they arrived, all the Vermillion stopped attacking and starting to march up to fill up the Iron Doom. They used the pause blade to knock Zane off just before he could put in the last digit and start up the Iron Doom.
Everything that happened next happened so fast, I didn't have time to react. The Time Vortex opened up in the sky and the Iron Doom started to rise up into it. A water and fire dragon shot out of the sky with Kai, Nya and Wu on it. Kai's parents jumped off the dragon just as they passed overhead. Then, the dragon shot up into the vortex just before the Iron Doom was gone and… then it was over.
Everything that happened next, was out of my hands. It was up to Kai and Nya, in the past, to stop the Twins. All we could do was just sit, and wait. We got to Kai's parents and went outside to see what was going on. The swamp was completely empty, and every last Vermillion warrior was inside of the Iron rest of us could literally do nothing but sit and just, wait.
From what I understand, Krux and Acronix appeared like they said they would, just after their past selves had jumped into the Time Vortex and then swiftly defeated the Elemental Alliance, forcing Wu to yield to them. Kai and Nya hid away on the Iron Doom and then helped out the alliance by pretending to be their parents. I, guess that would preserve time? I'm not sure how it works. But it didn't work, and the Twins managed to overpower the group and force Wu to yield to them. This immediately made all of time change.
...Okay, this is the weirdest thing. So, we were all standing in the swamp, Jay was trying to get Samurai X to tell us who they were, we learned that during the events of the Boiling Sea that Kai's dad had gotten hit with a time punch, and that we were trapped and couldn't do anything. We could see Ninjago City in the distance. In a split second, everything changed. The entire city looked like it'd never even developed. I could see the Temple of Fortitude, and all of the city looked like… old. And, at the same time all of our earpieces disappeared, Borg's watch was gone, and Zane looked like he did before all of this started.
And then, a minute later, it was all back to normal.
So, what I don't understand is how that happened. If time changed, wouldn't that mean that we wouldn't exist? Why were we still there and able to see anything? And, then why was it that some of us changed, like Zane, and then some of us didn't? If Garmadon was taken out like that, then wouldn't that mean that I wasn't born? Or, was it saying that we were still born but, we didn't get affected? But, Zane, was? I don't know. This was just, incredibly weird. I'm not even sure how to think about it! It's so weird I don't know how else to put it! I wasn't in the past so, I don't know how time worked!
And then… the Time Vortex opened up again, and Kai and Nya came flying out of it with the reversal blade just as we were wondering what was going on. This entire 'final battle' was just over five minutes for me. I was outside of that thing for five minutes, watched Ninjago being messed up in time for a minute of it, and then it was all over.
I… don't have anything to say about it, so I want to talk more about what happened after instead. Kai and Nya managed to get the Time Twins to retreat back into the vortex, and when they did they healed Wu with the reversal blade. While they were traveling in time, Wu realized that the Time Twins were too dangerous to be left to their own devices. Because of this, Wu took the reversal blade and ripped it out of the Iron Doom and shoved Kai and Nya out right as they passed by our time. This meant that Wu was left hurtling through the Time Vortex, unable to control where he went, and locked in a battle with the Time Twins.
I never saw the Time Twins again. I wonder what would happen if they did manage to actually return. But what was more important was the fact that Wu was missing. He was lost to time, and we were down a Master.
When I think back on this whole this, this whole really weird set of events, the only thing that really sticks with me is that this was how we lost Master Wu. I didn't get to know Krux and Acronix enough to think of them like I did Chen. They didn't do anything to me specifically to hurt me like Harumi or Morro. They didn't even have some plan or connection to me that made me feel guilty like my dad and the Overlord. The Time Twins, were Wu's enemy. They sort of became Kai and Nya's enemy too. But they weren't my enemy.
There were a lot of things that I did wrong with this entire bit of events. This was the first and only time I tried to assert me becoming a Master on my team. I made them think of me as childish and unprepared for everything. We let our victories just slip through our hands. But, when it comes down to it, none of the mistakes I made in this time were what actually impacted the end of this fight. Kai and Nya did this on their own. It was their victory, not mine. And, while I'm glad for them, it means that this is probably my most… forgettable fight that I've been apart of.
Kai healed his dad with the reversal blade, and they went to make sure it was placed back in the Boiling Sea where it wouldn't be used again. With Wu gone, it didn't feel like a victory. We'd stopped the Twins, but we'd lost something. I knew that I had to do something quick, or else we'd be hurt. I knew what it was like to lose someone important to me, we all did. And if we didn't have something to work for, we'd break.
So I made it our goal to find Wu. For the next year, all of our focus would be on trying to track down Wu. We would split up and search all of Ninjago, waiting each day to see if he would emerge from time. Given the way that time works, it was almost a nothing chance that we would find him. But we had shown ourselves to be weak during this adventure. We'd gotten lazy and let the Twins work behind our backs. We hadn't stopped Acornix at the beginning, and we'd failed to keep ahold of what we won. While we looked for Wu, it would be our job to also train ourselves to be the best ninja we could be when we found him.
We'd defeated the Hands of Time, but lost something to time for it. Now, we were about to enter into something that none of us were expecting. Almost exactly one year after Wu was lost, I was about to discover a group that was going to change everything about me. I was about to meet the Sons of Garmadon.
"Alright," Lloyd shook his head, "It's done, I'm done. This is done. I'm done talking about the Hands of Time."
Zane smiled warmly as he finished the last log and added it to the database. He had indeed just finished doing the remainder of the transcription of Lloyd's chapters up through Morro's defeat. With the time it would take for Lloyd to begin work on the next set of chapters, he would be caught up just as Lloyd started the next batch.
"I did not sense that you had as much issue with these chapters as you did with those concerning Morro," Zane informed Lloyd, "Is there a reason that talking about the Time Twins was such a difficult task?"
"It… it just felt weird," Lloyd sighed, "Everything about it feels off. Like, I had to seriously remember what happened with everything. And just, the fact I wasn't even there when the Twins were defeated was… it just doesn't feel right. We've always all been apart of it before!"
"Perhaps your issue here is that you felt a level of disengagement about this particular story, due to the events that transpired being difficult for you to reconcile?" Zane offered, "Unlike Morro, you don't have as much emotional attachment, but that lack of attachment has put pressure on you to find ways to make your story more robust."
"I think that's it," Lloyd sighed, "I just, I felt just wanted to get through this particular one, but I still found areas to just, drone on about. I still meant to save that stuff about Pixal for later. But, I'll just kinda have to remember that."
"I will make a note of it for you," Zane paused, "Lloyd, might I ask if you are going to be alright with talking about recent events?"
"Hrmm?" Lloyd sat up, "You mean, about Harumi?"
"Yes," Zane nodded, "I understand that your current feelings on Harumi are far less developed than those about your previous encounters. I do not doubt that you will write quality, but I do worry if you are emotionally prepared for doing so."
"I'm, I'll be fine, Zane," Lloyd assured him, "I need to talk about her. She's… she changed so much about all of this. I've mentioned her over and over through this and, I need to make sure that she's down there. I need to talk about her."
"I see," Zane didn't sound convinced, "Lloyd, I would like to remind you that if you struggle, then you are free to talk to us. We all know the hardships that you went through with her manipulations. She did things to you that would leave scars for those that were not prepared. She reopened old wounds. If you find yourself unable to talk… do not force yourself."
"I won't," Lloyd sighed, "I understand. I need to talk about her, and I'm going to do it."
"Then I will ask who it is that you wish me to inform about the time of these sessions," Zane asked.
"I had to do it with him at some point," Lloyd stood up, "I'm sitting down with Jay next, and then Nya after that. And then I'm going to finish it off with that stuff with the Oni with all of you, alright?"
"I will inform Jay at once," Zane agreed, "Are you certain you will end our book there?"
"Yeah," Lloyd smiled awkwardly, "It isn't worth writing an autobiography about things that haven't happened yet. I'm ready to get down for the home stretch."
Author's Note:
And with that, the S7 chapters are finished! While I love writing the Time Twins for Enter the Ninjaverse, Hands of Time was a very oddly paced season. I barely remembered anything other than the finale at first, and now I see why. So, as Lloyd's dialogue implies, I am ending this fic at Season 10. When I first began writing this, the show had just finished Season 9 (one of my favorite seasons). I had always planned for this fic to go through that, and with how Season 10 created a bow for the trilogy, more or less, I decided that I would end it there.
Once more, though, Autobiography of a Legend will be going on hiatus. Like the Season 5 chapters, I've been trying to think of how to approach the season. While not confusing, there are several things that I am figuring out how I want to really tackle. Because of that, I currently don't have enough written to continue posting regularly. Once I have completed the Season 8 chapters, I'll begin posting once more. I will again recommend Enter the Ninjaverse and The Furthest Realm to anyone that wants to have more content! Thank you all for reading, and Ninja-GO!