"Hey! This is Daniel. You know what to do after the beep."
I sighed. It's fine. Infact, maybe it's better this way.
"Hey, it's Sierra. I've got a doctors appointment today, so I won't be seeing you in English. But I'll be back later, so we can still walk home together. I, um… I'll see you then." I hung up as I walked through the doors of the building, swinging my backpack around to drop my phone in the side pocket.
"Circuit?"
My head shot up to find a familiar face I wasn't expecting to run into. Drew had worked here since the beginning of time as far as I knew. Helped build me actually. She's my grandpa's right hand woman, started out as his personal assistant, but has since risen to be head of company communications.
"What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be at school?"
"Technically droids aren't allowed to enroll in public school to begin with," I shrugged.
Drew rolled her eyes, grabbing my arm and tugging me to the side. "Look, the tower isn't a hang out, it's a workplace."
"I just want to talk to my grandpa," I pleaded. "Maybe you could hook me up with an elevator?"
"Does this have to do with why your uncle hasn't come in today?" She crossed her arms.
"We… had a bit of a family emergency last night with my dad," I explained. "Cryptor volunteered to look after him while the team went to try and figure out what happened. It's weird that he didn't tell you. I figured he would have called you about it by now."
Drew's eyes grew distant as she thought. "Cry and I… aren't on the best terms right now." Her expression had sunken from anger into melancholy in a matter seconds. "It's complicated. Look, let's just get you to the top floor, huh?"
"Thank you!" I smiled, following her as she led the way to the elevator. She swiped her id card on the left before pressing the call button. It arrived only a moment later as we both boarded.
"I've got some time sensitive stuff going, so I'm getting off on the 83rd floor, but I trust you can ride to the top by yourself."
"I'm not 7 anymore, I think I'll be alright." I ran my fingers along my backpack straps. The elevator rides are always the most awkward part of any trip to Borg Tower. No matter how fast it is, a hundred floors is quite a height to cover.
"Is your dad… doing alright?"
"He's recovering pretty quickly," I sighed.
"Still, I know how scary that kind of stuff can be."
She turned towards me, sharing a kind look for the first time since I had gotten here.
"Try not to let it get to you too much. I'm sure he'll be alright,"
The doors opened, Drew stepping out before I could respond.
"Hey, thanks!"
She spun around, sending me a quick smile before the doors closed again. Drew was a strange person. I always got the sense that she had way too much stress on her shoulders. I imagine working in one of the most targeted and at risk locations in Ninjago for over a decade can do a few things to your head. Let's just say… she's been through a lot. I've always wondered what she's like once you get to know her. A lot of people seem to like her quite a bit. There has to be a reason my grandpa has kept her around all these years, right?
The elevator doors opened once again as I reached grandpa Borg's office, and I cautiously stepped into the room.
"Whose that?" He asked from his computer at the other end of the room.
"It's Circuit," I announced, walking over to him.
"Circuit!" he turned around to see me as I swung off my backpack, placing it on the floor next to his desk. "How are you, sweetie? I've missed you! You really should visit more often."
I leaned over to hug him, a warmth filling my body as I spoke with him. "You're not mad that I'm ditching school then?"
He rolled his eyes. "You and I both know you don't need that place." He smiled, both of us laughing a bit. "I heard about your father…" His expression faded. "Is that why you're here?"
I was caught a bit off guard. My head just sunk as I thought. "I don't really know why I'm here to be honest. Just… needed to get away"
He studied my face for a moment, a gentle smile spreading across his complexion. "Your father has faced some rather intense consequences during his time as a ninja." He bagan wheeling himself over to the window. "He's been through much worse than even you've ever seen."
"I know," I sighed.
"He's lost a lot over the years, and he doesn't want to risk adding you to that list." he paused for a moment, turning back around to read me. "I'm sure he'll begin training you once things are safer. He doesn't want to push you into the field before you're ready."
Grandpa could always tell what was bothering me. I guess it makes sense, he did a lot of my programming. "I get it," I repeated, plopping down on one of the waiting chairs. "I really do get it. It's better for the team if I wait. In the back of my mind, I know it'll probably even be better for me in the long run. It just… gets hard to wait sometimes."
"Time can be a difficult foe to face," he agreed.
"I've just felt so… restricted lately, you know? I can't go on missions, I can't start training, I can't help mom, I can't talk to Daniel, I can't-"
"What's this about Daniel?" he moved closer.
"It's not that I can't," I corrected myself. "But I can't talk to him how I want to, you know? I'm mean, I've never really been able to, but it's catching up to me now, and… It's just, it's the end of senior year, and everything feels so final, but the only thing that isn't going to end is this whole… lie that I'm living! I mean he's my best friend, I've known him for years, and he still doesn't even know my name." I could feel my eyes beginning to water as I spoke. "It's stuff like that. It hurts. And I don't think anyone else realizes it. And Daniel is a great guy! He deserves so much better than what his parents are giving him! It's like they don't trust him! It's not fair for them to try and hide his potential from him like this!"
"...Did they ever tell you why they were having you monitor Daniel?" his hand on mine snapped me out of my daze as I quickly cleared the water from my eyes.
"Well… yeah, they wanted him to have a normal life before getting dragged into all this elemental stuff. They're worried he won't be ready for his power if he ends up inheriting his mother's."
A sad smile crept onto his lips as he watched me explain. "There's a bit more to it than that."
"What… what else? Why would they not tell me if there was something else?"
He started rolling over to his computer screen, his movement beckoning me to follow. "It was… a few months after the both of you were born that I started doing some research and tests to try and better understand the different elemental powers. I was sure that if I studied them, I would find information to help their holders utilize them better." He pulled up a screen filled with rows of complex data all arranged by element. "We found quite a bit. Strong bonds between certain elements, keys to the elements' lineages, and qualities specific to the creation elements. Now, when elements are passed to a future holder after reaching their true potential, there's at least a brief period where the previous holder retains their powers as well, and the element is split between them. My prevailing theory is that the elements do this in order to allow a training period for the older generation to assist the newer one. Of course, none of this applies if the previous holder dies before the next one reaches their true potential." I already knew most of this, but I could feel the tension in his voice as he continued.
"Now, amber is by far the most powerful element. Strangely enough though, in all my research, I haven't been able to find a record of it having a training period. It's users consistently die before they can see their power passed on. Additionally, because amber's power comes from combining the energy of other elements, it is structurally much different than the rest. It is extremely dense and concentrated. It's strength comes from entirely existing within one location. And it's because of these unique qualities that my simulations for a potential amber training period find that it doesn't... function properly." As he scrolled through the data for amber the numbers grew exponentially bigger, highlighted in red. "Because the element demands to exist in only one place, attempting to split it for a training period would have one of two outcomes; it either destroys the element… or it destroys it's users."
I looked at the data, his words ringing through my brain. "...meaning-"
"Meaning over the course of about a month, the element actively corrodes, poisons, and corrupts the bodies of one or both of it's users…
...to the point of death."