Neither of them knew where Cyrus was taking them, so they diligently followed behind while they went down numerous halls that all looked the same.
"Did I really hurt you?" Mina wondered as Monty wrapped his wrist in sports tape.
"Of course not." he scoffed. "I've been helping Mother repair a rather large automation recently, and I'm beginning to suspect the beginning of carpal tunnel syndrome."
"In plain tongue Mont?"
He gave her a hard glare before correcting himself, "My wrist hurts, and it's not because of you." There was a small pause before Monty said, "You are getting better, though. If only you didn't act on impulse so often."
"It looked rather impressive from where I was standing." Cyrus offered. "Not that it was a very good position, really..."
Despite herself, Mina gave a small chuckle of amusement. She quickly stopped when she saw Monty's displeased glance. She still thought it was pretty funny, she just decided to keep it to herself.
"Here we are." Cyrus noted when they came to a door that looked like the rest. Using a keycard to unlock the door, Cyrus then gestured for the teens to go before him. The room was still dark when they entered- Cyrus flipped the switch as he came through the door, revealing to them all the new invention. The bulk of the room was filled with several servers that connected to the main console in back, in the center of the room was a large circular archway.
"It's… a supercomputer." Minerva noted as she folded her arms and glanced in Cyrus's direction.
"With a heavy grade wormhole portal generator." Monty added, now giving Cyrus a concerned look of his own. "What is this thing?"
"This is much more than just a supercomputer and wormhole portal generator," Cyrus proudly told them, "This is the Time Window; a marvelous invention that allows us to see into moments in the past! Here, look, I'll show you how it works."
Monty and Mina didn't stop the old inventor as he used his wheelchair to get to the main console. After inputting several commands, the portal generator started to hum to life; a few moments after that an image started to appear. The three of them stared as the image became clearer, showing a scene from years before with a much younger Cyrus.
"This was the moment I met them, you see." Cyrus told them fondly. It took the teens a moment to realize what he was saying as the Time Window then gave them view of the four they knew quite well: Cole, Zane, Jay, and Kai.
"Hmm..." Monty thought to himself, "Dad had more hair then."
"Compared to what he looks now, it almost looks like Cole doesn't work out anymore." Mina herself noted. "And Zane is practically unrecognizable."
Glad that the duo were admiring his work so far, Cyrus then went on, "As you can see, the Time Window is quite effective- we can see them but they can't see us! But that kind of power shouldn't be used for too long as it strains the space-time continuum, so the Time Window can only be used in moderation. However, that doesn't mean this is the only moment in time we'll be able to view second hand!" and with a few more keyboard strokes, the scene started to change. They were now greeted with good view of a fight between ninja and vermilion warriors- the fight seemed to be nearly over, and not one that was going quite in the ninja's favor.
"Pop quiz Minerva," Montgomery decided, "Before the ninja bring down their hoods, guess who they are and what their element is."
"That's easy." the teen bragged while giving a knowing smirk before turning her attention to the wormhole. She studied the scene as each of the ninja started to cease fighting. She made her first guess when a black suited ninja moved close to the wormhole. "That's Cole, Master of Earth."
"Correct." Monty agreed. "Who else?"
The next ninja to move close enough to the wormhole was dressed in white. "And there's Zane," Minerva told him, "The Master of Ice." That was when she spotted two other ninja, one dressed in a dark blue and the other in a light blue. "Over there's your parents, Jay and Nya, the Masters of Lightening and Water respectively."
"And the red one?"
Minerva looked over at Monty with a cheeky smile before saying, "That's Kai, Master of Fire, and my legal guardian. Or… he was." The sudden reminder cause a pit in Mina's stomach, causing her to clutch the fang shaped pendant that laid on a chain that reached a little below her breast. During sparing matches with Monty, she had it off (or, she did now, because he almost choked her with it to prove a point) but any other time it was on her person at all times. After giving herself a quiet introspection, Minerva looked back up at the wormhole and noted one other ninja that she hadn't seen before.
"Who… who's that?" she asked, pointing to the ninja dressed in green. "I don't recognize him."
"Y-you don't?" Cyrus questioned as he moved closer to her and Monty.
"She wouldn't." Monty confirmed, giving Cyrus a certain glare that indicated the keeping of a secret. Understanding a bit, Cyrus gave a nod to show he got the message. It all went unnoticed by Minerva as she kept her eyes trained to the Green Ninja. When he brought his hood down, everything in her body froze.
She didn't have his eyes. She didn't even have his hair color. All she knew when she saw him was that they were related- she could feel it. As if it were reading her thoughts, her pendant started to feel a bit warmer in her hands. She held it tighter in reaction. No way. There was absolutely no way…
"Minerva, are you alright?"
The sudden sound of Cyrus Borg's concerned voice nearly made the girl jump out of her skin. In a moment of confusion, she looked from Cyrus to Monty and back again.
"I..." she tried to say, but couldn't find the words, "I need to go." and with that she ran through the portal viewer and straight out the door. For a moment, all Cyrus and Montgomery did was stare at the door. It was Cyrus who moved first, giving a small sigh before shutting down the Time Window.
"You waste your intelligence on her." Montgomery coldly told the inventor.
"Why do you think this was the last invention?" came the bemused – but disappointed – sigh. "The stock holders are not happy that I've been focusing my energy on Minerva. I was so sure she would enjoy this one, but it only proved to be overwhelming."
"You reminded her of what she's lost." Monty reminded in a cold voice. "Besides, as admirable your efforts were until this point, there is only one person in this world who can find Minerva's happiness, and it is herself."
"I suppose you're right." Cyrus sighed. "I suppose you're right..."
. . .
Minerva wasn't an idiot, she knew that the ones she grew up around were ninjas. Not that any of them were particularly shy about it either- but it lead to one of the bigger frustrations between her and Kai. 'Train me!' She's argue, 'No!' He'd say back, 'I can't allow you to get hurt. It's too dangerous! Yada, yada, yada' and all those other overprotective adult excuses. But there was something about that Green Ninja, something she couldn't shake. In the dead of night (and knowing full well when Cyrus would be asleep), the headstrong teen made her way back to the room holding the Time Window and started the machine up on her own.
She didn't know when in time to start watching, so she went with a time she remember Kai reminiscing about every now and again. Mina sat in a still, attentive silence that she wasn't aware when Montgomery entered the room as well and took a seat next to her.
"Why are you still awake?" she asked him as he got comfortable. "Or still here, for that matter."
"I could ask you the same thing." came her snide answer. When a witty reply didn't come to her quick enough, Mina remained silent as the two of them watched the quiet moments of their predecessors lives pass.
It took some time, but as the two watched Nya earn her true potential, Minerva asked Monty, "Do you think you should have gone with them?"
"No." was his quiet answer. "I haven't unlocked my true potential, and I have yet to see a dragon of any kind fly me anywhere. Even if I was of some use, I still don't know how my powers work or if I can even summon them the way Mother had. I know so many things – about Ninjago, and my history – but I don't know myself, and it's a bit terrifying."
Mina looked at him for a moment before moving a bit closer; she put her head on his shoulder and remained silent. Monty moved his head a bit to give her a curious look before blowing away a strand of her tightly curled hair, then reciprocating the gesture by nestling his head on top of hers. The moment was perfect as the two sat with each other, watching the lives of their predecessors without much care. That is, until Montgomery remembered something.
"Minerva, how long have you had the Time Window operating?"
"I don't know. A few hours, maybe?"
At this, Monty frowned and started to get up, leaving Mina to fall over in surprise.
"Hey!' she declared, moving herself around to see what he was doing. When she realized that he was working to turn the Time Window off, she then started to shout, "Wait! What are you doing?!"
"Did you not hear Cyrus earlier?" Monty questioned back. "The Time Window will overheat if you use it for too long."
"But it was doing just fine!" Mina argued as she tried to get him away from the console. Unfortunately, Monty had a lot more muscle on him that at first appearance and was not an easy obstacle for Mina to try to move. It didn't stop her from trying.
Both of them struggled for control over the Time Window in the next few moments. It was when they both shoved each other in opposite directions when things got complicated- each of them landed on a button that proved to be the last straw. The Time Window started to make an earsplitting whistle before the portal viewer itself (which was still active, mind you) gave a short combustion. At the same time as the combustion, a large burst of energy shot across the room leaving everything in its wake without power. In the aftermath of their fight, both Minerva and Montgomery stood still. After a moment or two Minerva was the first to retort;
"Way to go genius. You broke it."
"Don't bring my IQ into this Minerva." he replied as he tried to turn the Time Window back on again. "And it was you who overloaded it to begin with."
Knowing that arguing wasn't going to help the situation, Minerva held back her tongue as Monty continued to get the Time Window working.
"It looks like the overload caused a power surge in the mainframe." Monty then mumbled, more to himself than Mina. "If there was any damage done from the temporal side of things, we won't know until the Time Window is repaired."
Leaning against the console as if nothing were wrong, Mina then carefully asked, "So, that means…?"
"It means," Monty sighed as he turned to look at her, "It's time for you to go back to bed."
With that, the older teen started to leave the room. But Mina didn't move at first. "I'm not a kid." she grumbled under her breath before following him back to the apartments.
A/N: And there they go- done broke the Time Window in all its glory. Because of it, this chapter is a bit longer than the other, but I wanted to have the inciting incident done in this chapter before we found out what the consequences are.
I'm so happy at the response for the first chapter! over 50 views on the first day between FanFiction and Wattpad, and some of you even went back to read some of my older stuff too. Now, I can't stop you from doing that, but you have to understand that anything said in those fics DO NOT effect this one- it's mostly because they were written during the 2 year hiatus before Rebooted, and it's been so long I simply don't remember what happened in those fics. However, if memory serves, the evolution of Monty's character is truly a sight to behold; he's always been Jay and Nya's kid though, it was just his role (and part of his appearance) that has changed the most. It's kinda like he aged, but in reverse xD
Anyways, thank you for reading and remember that (as a personal opinion) Cartoon Network once pushed Chima to distract us from Ninjago's (at the time) end.