Present day…

There was something really cathartic about chasing down a criminal that couldn't actually destroy the world. It was just you, them, and a good cardio workout disguised as a foot chase.

"The perp is roughly five meters from me." Lloyd said into his headset. "Cole, Zane, you would be the closest."

"Got it." the two confirmed.

"Kai and Jay, there's a pathway further up ahead where you can cut them off."

"On it!" the other two agreed. With everyone receiving their orders, the group split up. However, it quickly seemed that the criminal they were after had some spine to them- perfectly avoiding the ninja at every route they took to intercept them. The five of them regrouped to figure out some other plan as they continued to chase after the criminal.

As they ran down an alleyway, a bright light started to shine ahead of them. The light started to take the shape of a ninja-sized wormhole that had some sort of pull to it. Before Kai, Cole, Zane, and Jay could stop dead in their tracks, they ended up falling right into it- only Lloyd had the reaction time to stop just inches away from the opening.

"Lloyd, what's going on out there?" Nya demanded through the headset. "We lost the guys' signal!"

Lloyd watched as the wormhole – leaving as fast as it had came – closed within the blink of an eye. Dumbstruck, the Green Ninja said into his headset, "I… I don't think you're going to believe this one Nya..."

While Lloyd was left to figure out he was going to explain this to Nya and PIXAL, the rest of the ninja were sent through time and space itself within the wormhole. Once they reached the appropriate time, the four were ejected out with enough force to knock them down to their knees in surprise.

"What just happened?" Jay questioned, being the first to recover.

"My scanners indicate that this alleyway is much older than the one we were traversing through earlier," Zane informed them. "And yet, it still appears to be the same alleyway? It doesn't make any sense..."

"Well, we're not going to find anything out by just standing here." Cole decided before working his way up a fire escape. The other ninja looked at each other and shrugged before doing the same. That was when they were quick to discover that something was not quite right about the Ninjago before them.

"Is this… Ninjago?" Kai asked as they looked around. "Everything looks so… new?"

"What's the building in the center?" Jay then wondered, pointing to one of the taller buildings at the city's center.

"According to my records, it should be Borg Tower." came the helpful input from Zane.

"Well, here's hoping that he redecorated in the past five minutes with some sort of holographic technology then."

"Not likely- I have scanned the building and it's infrastructure matches up to what we are seeing it now."

"What happened to Ninjago?" Cole finally demanded right before getting smacked in the face with a newspaper. Letting out a disgusted grumble, Cole ripped the newspaper off his face and started to skim read the headline story. "Apparently there was a power outage last-" he started to note before realizing what was written for the date. "H-hey guys, please tell me the date on here isn't what I think it is..."

The other three immediately huddled around Cole to see the date.

"There's no way."

"It can't be possible!"

"I wondered if this was an outcome, and now I'm sure of it."

The ninja all looked at each other with the same fearful look before going into a full blown panic. They were in the future! How did this happen? Why did it happen? What was going on here?!

Zane was the first to come out of his panic when he heard the sound of a familiar falcon cry. Adjusting his peripherals, the Nindroid scanned for the source of the sound. There, coming out from one of the middle floors of Borg Tower, was the figure of a bird Zane was sure he knew. Zane watched with intent as the bird circled around the tower a few times before starting to head in their direction. As predicted, the bird arrived in a minute and perched itself on Zane's outstretched hand. For a moment he and the bird gave each other curious head tilts before the Master of Ice used his other hand to pet it.

"How many times have you been rebuilt, friend?" he curiously muttered to himself. The falcon gave a soft cry before nuzzling its head against his face in reverence. Its call got the other ninjas out of their freak out session, causing them to look at Zane and the falcon instead.

"Zane, what are you doing?" Jay questioned, "We're still supposed to be freaking out about being in the future!"

"Not anymore." the Nindroid cryptically informed them. "I believe it is time once again to follow our falcon friend to our destiny."

Kai, Jay, and Cole gave Zane a funny look before finally realizing that the falcon was there. The robotic looking bird did the same to them then took off into the sky.

"Come," Zane bid the others as he threw up his ninja hood. "Time waits for no ninja." And with that, he went across the rooftops in pursuit of the falcon. Cole and Kai shrugged and followed suit, leaving Jay behind for a moment.

"Okay, but," he whined, "Is anyone else tired of time related shenanigans, or is it just me?" When no one answered, the Master of Lightning gave a bitter sigh as he put up his hood. "Just me then.. Great. Just… great."

. . .

Due to its nature, the falcon was able to make it back to Borg Tower before the rest of the ninja. It gave them time to reach the right level in the tall tower, and it gave the falcon time to wake up a certain someone from her – not quite – deep sleep.

"Crow..." Minerva grumbled as she made sleepy attempts to swat at the bird as it nudged her face, "It's still dark out..."

The robotic bird was persistent, continuing to nudge Minerva from her sleep until a doorbell rang throughout the building level. Groaning, the teen started to get up as the bell continued to ring impatiently for someone to open the main door. With its mission accomplished, the falcon transformed itself into a small box that easily fit in Mina's pocket- to which she took without a second thought and stuffed into her bathrobe.

"I'm coming! It's, like, three in the morning- normal people are still sleeping!" she growled at whoever was at the door; whatever they wanted, they sure were desperate to get in at such a late hour. She wasn't even remotely thinking when she allowed the door to open. "I don't know who you maniacs are, but you have got to be freaking nuts to be visiting someone at this ho-" Minerva trailed off when she finally saw who was on the other side of the door; her eyes widened in horror as she glanced from the four of them, then just between two, and then looking one dead in the eye.

"Hello miss," Zane softly said to her, "We were wondering if Cyrus Borg is here?"

Minerva remained in a frozen fear before she slowly started to open her mouth, and released a loud, terrified scream that definitely got the attention of Cyrus- who was working his way over anyway.

"Minerva, what ever is the matter?" the scientist asked before looking over at the visitors. In seeing the ninja (far younger than what they should have been, mind you) even Cyrus grew pale.

"O-oh my..." was all he could say. "It… it's been awhile ninja. Please, do come in and make yourself at home- I'll go make us some tea."

"I'd thought you'd never ask!" Cole gleefully agreed. Mina stepped out of the way enough for the ninja to pass her- as they did, Cole whispered to the others, "What do you think her problem is?"

"I don't know," Jay hissed back, "But whoever did that perm really needs to be fired."

Once the ninja were safely inside, Cyrus Borg carefully looked the still frozen teen before moving closer to her.

"Are you alright Minerva?" he carefully questioned.

"Tell me I'm having a night terror." she said to him. "There's no way this is happening. It… it can't be them."

"Regardless," Cyrus then mused, "I think I'll make you a pot of chamomile while we figure out how the apparent past ninjas are now in our future."

Giving her a calm pat on the arm, Cyrus then left for the kitchen. Minerva remained where she was as her mind reeled in thought. "Future…?" she mumbled to herself before an idea hit her. The teen then let out a small whimper of "No… There's no way…!" before turning on her heel to go back to her room. She barely stopped when she found her phone, stubbing her toe in the process against her bed, before quickly dialing an all too familiar number. It took a few rings, but there was an answer on the other end.

"H-hey Nya." Mina said over the phone. "I know it's really late, but, um… I think I broke something earlier and it's kinda biting me in the butt right now… Can you… can you and Monty come over to Borg Tower, quickly? Please?"

As Nya gave her answer, Minerva didn't notice that she was being spied upon by a certain white ninja. He could only assume that Nya had been confused on the other line, leading the teen girl to dodge some of her explanation what was going on- at the same time, Zane felt that the pieces of their current predicament were all starting to fit together.

A/N: I'm going to admit, writing this chapter was a bit hard because I'm getting antsy for Zane and Mina's heart to heart. It may not happen for another chapter or two, but it was one of my favorite parts of the original Time Window- Zane will always be a great confidante for the confused Minerva. 'Secret Keeper' is (and always will be) a really great trope to play with. As for the others, Cole (who I absolutely headcanon would be a great dad) would be a bit more stern, Jay would just freak out, honestly, and Mina isn't ready to face Kai for any reason.

Wait a minute... is anyone going to comment that Min (and by a lesser extension, Monty) has, like, five dads? xD

Regardless, thank you for reading!