Disclaimer: I do not own Ninjago or the lines taken from Into the Dark.

Cole felt better than he ever had in his entire life! He had just spent the entire day with the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. Princess Vania was so cheerful and happy. He couldn't help but love everything about her.

"Are those all the stories?" Vania asked once Cole finished the story about the Day of the Departed.

"We haven't even gotten to the good part yet," Nya told her.

"Yeah. We still have to tell you about our parents and the Quiet One and..." Kai started.

"We don't need to mention her now do we?" Lloyd asked coldly.

"You don't have to tell me if it makes you uncomfortable," Vania said.

"Lloyd!" Cole whispered.

"No, really. I don't mind," Vania said.

"Well, we're not at that part yet anyway," Nya mentioned.

"Vania, it's nearly time for bed," Hailmar said as he entered the room.

"Hailmar, I'm not a child anymore. Can't I stay up with the ninja?" Vania pleaded.

"Yeah, it is the princess' birthday after all," Cole mentioned.

Vania paused to look at the master of earth and smiled.

"I'm sorry, Princess, but we have a busy day tomorrow," Hailmar replied as he grabbed Vania's hand and led her away.

"I can't believe that took so long, and we haven't even told her everything," Cole said.

"Well, things do take awhile when you keep telling the princess how grateful you are for being invited ever five seconds," Kai teased.

"Only once!" Cole protested as Jay started snickering.

Truthfully, he was embarrassed. He had a crush on the princess, sure, but he had to be mature about it. It would never work anyway. Why would a princess who lives in the most beautiful kingdom in all of Ninjago, like him, a ninja obsessed with dirt. Cole went back to bed, trying hard not to think about the princess any longer, but he couldn't help it. Cole put his shoulder pad on the side of his bed and stretched a little. He then sat on his ridiculously comfy bed and lay down. After a strange talk with Lloyd, Cole heard a strange sound in his room. He got up to see a strange purple creature that was wearing his mother's locket! All the other ninja thought that he was crazy, but Vania didn't. He was very surprised. She actually believed that he was sensible enough to know what he was talking about, and she hardly knew him!

"Follow me. This way!" Vania instructed as she grabbed onto Cole's hand and led him out to the palace garden. "Here."

"The palace gardens?" Cole asked as they walked out into the cool, crisp air of the night.

"This is where Mr. Sparkles and I used to play. That's what I called him," Vania laughed a little at her own childish imagination. "All the adults insisted I dreamed him up in my head, but I swear he used to come right up out of there," Vania pointed to a small cage on one of the walls. It was so small, you'd have to crawl through it, though. "There used to be some mines under the city," Vania told him, "but my father ordered them all covered up for the public safety."

"Mines?" Cole asked.

"Long ago, before my people settled here, there was an older city run by this super evil sorcerer who built tunnels and mines and dungeons deep in the mountain. He's gone now, but the dungeons are still there, so my father forbade anyone from entering them. It's too dangerous," Vania told him.

Cole looked up at the ceiling remembering that conversation he had with the princess all those years ago. She was the only one who believed in him, and they were still very good friends. Right now, in fact, they were in the palace gardens again talking about Cole's last adventure.

"You always seem to be in some sort of trouble," Vania realized as the two were talking.

Cole laughed a little. "How so?" he asked.

"We hardly got through all of the stories the last time we saw each other. Then we had our own adventure, and you just got back from saving Ninjago again. All I've been doing since you've left is try to make it clear to other nations that we don't sell vengestone anymore. You'd be surprised how many people actually want that stuff," Vania told him.

"Well I've been here less than a day, and I can already tell that the people love you as a ruler," Cole told her.

"Let me ask you something, Cole. Do you enjoy being a ninja?" Vania asked.

"Why wouldn't I?" Cole asked her.

Vania seemed a little disappointed by that answer.

"Why?" he asked.

"Oh, I was just wondering."

"What about you?"

"It's nice to be queen and live in a palace, but it can get quiet lonely."

"Don't you have Hailmar?"

"Yes, but I can't just talk to him. There has to be an important reason."

"Like what?" Cole asked.

Vania shrugged. "Sometimes I don't even know," she said.

There was silence between the two for a moment as Cole looked up at the beautiful blue sky. He watched as some of the Shinatrans flew through the skies. He then turned his head to the side and frowned when he saw the small cage that led to the mines.

"Vania?" Cole asked. "What made you want to help me when I was having trouble with my friends all those years ago?"

"What do you mean?" Vania asked.

"I mean, you could've just let me go back to bed that night when my friends didn't believe me, but you didn't. You told me about your Geckle friend and took me to the dungeons so I could find out how he got my mom's necklace. I don't how, but you seemed to know that I needed help, that I needed someone to believe in me."

"I guess I just recognized the feeling of being neglected. I saw a friend in you, and I wanted to help."

"How bad was your dad. I mean, before you found out he was, well..."

"Evil?" Vania asked. "He was always working. It was mostly Hailmar who I played with. When he was too busy, I was with Mr. Sparkles, I mean, Gleck."

"What about your mom?" Cole asked nervously. He was a little scared that he might bring some sort of bad memory he was unaware of.

"Someone got into the palace to assassinate the king when I was a baby. They got the queen instead," Vania told him.

"Oh, Vania. I'm so sorry," Cole said.

"It's alright. I was too young to remember anyway. We should probably go inside now. It's almost time for lunch," Vania said as she stood up.

"That wouldn't happen to include cake now, would it?" Cole asked hopefully.

"Don't worry, Cole, I made sure that my cook would make some for you," Vania replied.

"You're the best, Vania!" Cole cheered.

Once the two were inside, they sat at the extremely long table and ate.

"Queen Vania, I have a list of things you need to attend to today," Hailmar said as he handed the queen an extremely long list of tasks.

Vania unraveled the scroll to see that it extended all the way over to Cole's chair!

"Do you need help with any of this?" Cole asked.

"This list is rather short actually. Many of these things don't take very long. It's just the things like watching Chancellor Gulch pass a new law or talking to the Metalonian king about why I don't need vengestone," Vania told him.

"Is there anything that I can do?" Cole asked as he picked up the other side of the list. "Let's see there's Teach Kids How to Fly, Learn How to Use a Hammer, and Gown Fitting? For what?"

"One of my gowns tore the other day. I just need to make sure that the seamstress fixed it up correctly," Vania explained.

Cole kept reading through the list before he said, "We can get through this thing twice as fast if you let me help. And the things that I can't help might be more enjoyable with a friend nearby."

Vania smiled a bit before she said, "Very well then, Master Cole. I will take you up on your offer.

Cole and Vania went down below the mountain to work with the Geckles and Munce first.

"Who do you want to see first, the Geckles or the Munce?" Vania asked.

Cole just shrugged.

"Whatever you want," he answered.

Cole followed Vania to the tunnel that led to the Geckle's cave, and they soon made it to the courtroom.

"Paragraph eight of section 24-5 proclaiming that Slime Hat Day is the most delicious holiday is now in order," Chancellor Gulch proclaimed. Suddenly, all of the Geckles started throwing rocks at him to signal their praise towards this new information that really didn't need to be proclaimed in the first place.

"Oh, look! The queen of Shintaro has arrived!" Gulch exclaimed. "Will you please help us? We must find out if we should proclaim Yetis existing on Saturdays."

"Um...that's easy," Cole told him. "I met a yeti myself."

"Yes, but was it Saturday?" Gulch asked.

"I still talked to him on Saturday. Well, as much as a yeti can actually talk," Cole answered.

"Cole, what are you doing?" Vania whispered.

"Relax, I've got this," Cole replied. "I think that should definitely be proclaimed."

Gulch stared at Cole in pure awe as the other Geckles cheered and threw rocks at him.

"How did you do that so well?" Vania asked as they left for the Munce.

"I don't know. I just spoke to them," Cole replied.

"Well I hope you're as good with the Munce," Vania said.

The two walked until they made it to the Munce throne room. There they saw Queen Murtessa sitting on her throne looking quiet bored.

"Good afternoon, Queen Mania," Murtessa greeted. "Hi, Mole. Is Ninja Jay with you?"

"Uh, he's taking care of something back home," Cole answered sheepishly. Murtessa seemed very disappointed by his answer.

"What can we do for you today?" Vania asked cheerfully.

"I just want my sweet Ninja Jay," Murtessa answered.

"Oh boy," Cole wasn't entirely sure what to do with this one.

Vania walked up to Cole, and whispered, "She's been like this since the day you guys left."

"Maybe she just needs someone to talk to. Let me try," Cole responded. "Uh, hey, Murtessa. Are you okay?" he asked the queen of the Munce.

"Can you please tell Ninja Jay to come back to me?" Murtessa asked.

"Look, uh, Murtessa, Nya, Jay, and Lloyd told me about what happened while they were here, and well, there's not really an easy way to say this, but Nya won the fight. Jay chose her," Cole explained.

"I believe that's why it makes me sad," Murtessa told him.

"It's okay. You'll find someone again. It's not like he's the only one out there. There are others that are nice and strong and some that are even the same type of creature as you," Cole told her.

Murtessa sighed.

"I guess you are right, Master Mole," she said. "You may leave now. I must think."

As Cole and Vania walked back above the mountain, a hoard of kids tackled Cole to the ground.

"I guess we're a little late to the flight lesson," Vania realized as she picked a toddler up.

Cole laughed a little as he managed to sit up.

"Where's the lesson?" he asked as he picked up a kid and placed him on his back so he could ride.

"Up there!" the kid on his back answered as he pointed up to the balcony outside of the throne room.

"Are you sure that's entirely safe?" Cole asked Vania.

"That's where all young children learn how to fly," Vania replied.

"O-okay," Cole said nervously.

It wasn't too long before they made it up to the balcony.

"All we really have to do is supervise them," Vania explained. "You know, make sure nothing happens."

Cole and Vania watched as some of the kids started floating a little ways off the ground. They sort of hovered a bit before they started floating above the ground far below them. All of them seemed fine, but Cole was still nervous once it was over.

"Maybe you should calm down," Vania told him.

"I'm sorry. That just stressed me out," Cole told her.

"It's okay," Vania replied as she sat down on one of the garden benches, Cole sat down right next to her.

"It really is incredible what someone can accomplish with some help," Vania remarked.

"Yeah," Cole agreed.

"Cole, if you could, would you ever consider staying here in Shintaro?" Vania asked.

Cole looked at her with the most surprised look on his face. He suddenly turned a little red, and asked, "W-with you?"

"Yes!" Vania said. "That is-if you could," Vania quieted her voice a little.

"I-well, yeah, I would love to stay here, but are you sure?" Cole asked.

"Why wouldn't I be?" Vania asked.

"Well, I mean, you're a queen. I'm just, well, me," Cole told her.

Vania frowned a bit at this. He was always putting himself down, and she was sick of it.

"Cole, you can't keep doing this to yourself," Vania told him sternly.

"Do what?" Cole asked.

"You can't keep putting yourself down like this. You've been doing it ever since I met you, and your friends tell me that it was happening before that too. Why don't you ever think more of yourself?"

"I guess I feel like I shouldn't," Cole told her.

"Shouldn't what? Love yourself?" Vania asked.

"I-I don't kno-"

"I love you, Cole."

Cole was shocked. He looked over at Vania, the girl he had loved since the first day they met, just told him that she loves him back. He hardly even knew how to comprehend this. Finally, Cole managed to collect his thoughts , and say, "I-I love you too, Vania."

Vania looked so happy at those words.

"You do?" she asked.

"Of course I do," Cole answered. "I've loved you since the day we met, Vania. I'm just glad that you and the other ninja and my master was able to teach me how so that I would know."

Vania smiled at this before she quickly kissed him on the cheek.

"I'm glad we were able to teach you," she said shyly.

"Me too, Vania. Me too."

"The end is not the end but only a new beginning" -Mystake (Big Trouble, Little Ninjago)

I hope you all enjoyed that. I just hope and pray that Kirby's family is okay, and I wish you all a happy Thanksgiving.