"So we are in the future..." Kai mused in wonder after Cyrus Borg had explained what he knew.

"30 years to the day." the scientist agreed. "What I can't understand is how you managed to bend time itself when there is no method of doing so. The Hands of Time are still lost, along with the Time Blades, so I can't begin to fathom what could..." And that was when Cyrus was hit with a sudden realization. "Unless..."

"Unless?" Zane curiously repeated.

Cyrus then paused for a moment, debating on whether he should tell them or not. He eventually gave in to his own debating with a small sigh.

"Recently, I finished work on a machine I call 'the Time Window.' It is a marvelous invention that allows one to view moments in the past through a non-tangible wormhole and drawing on the Hands of Time's trapped abilities." he explained, hoping that he wasn't losing the ninja's attention too much. "It is possible that with a large enough power implosion, the Time Window could have created a tear large enough in the space-time continuum to force you four into it. But I can't even begin to fathom how it would have malfunctioned in the first place..."

"I think I have an idea." a new voice spoke up. Everyone turned to look at an older woman with black hair cut into a clean bob that could be no one else but-

"Nya!"

The woman gave a smug smirk as she looked at them. From behind her, two teenagers stepped out to make themselves known as well. The first was a boy that stood almost as tall as Nya; his dark colored hair was shaped into a no-nonsense bowl cut that did nothing to hide the fact he wore thick, wire frame glasses. Wearing an argyle sweater vest and pressed ironed dress pants, the dude looked more like a uppity business intern than a kid. The other teen was the girl from earlier- her tightly curled, mousy brown hair looking even more frazzled than before and a hand firmly wrapped about a long pendant.

"Nya!" Cyrus even exclaimed with even greater surprise. "What brings you here?"

"I got a rather confusing call." she replied, motioning toward the female teen who seemed to shrink a little. "Ask my son about it," (she pointed to the male teen this time who didn't even flinch) "And apparently it's something they did."

"How?" Cyrus then asked, giving the two of them a confused look.

"Minerva overloaded the Time Window through overuse." the male teen replied as he pushed his glasses further up on his nose.

"Me?!" the female teen shouted. "You're the one that tried to turn it off when it was obviously unstable!"

"Obviously?" the male (now known at Montgomery) repeated with a snort. "Then why didn't you turn it off earlier?"

"I..." she tried to answer, but the words didn't seem to form. She gave a look at the four ninja before looking away again, giving another, more sullen, "I..."

Nya put a firm hand on the teen's shoulder before turning her attention to the others, "Whoever is to blame for this doesn't matter." To Cyrus, she added, "It was the cause of the power outage last night."

"I think I slept through it..." the scientist sheepishly admitted.

"Wait, wait, wait, wait," Jay spoke up, interrupting the recap, "If that Montgomery is Nya's kid, then who are you?" he questioned before pointing a finger at the female teen. At this, no one seemed to answer. This silence did not go unnoticed before Jay then said, "Does she even have a name?"

Knowing it was a name Jay was looking for, a small sigh escaped from Nya and Cyrus's lips before Nya put both her hands on the teen girl. "This is Minerva." she told them. "She is… a very special kid."

"More like the most unluckiest kid." the teen then grumbled under her breath.

"Sounds like you and Lloyd would get along just swimmingly." Kai then joked, hoping to break the rather dark atmosphere that was starting to surround them. It didn't work very well when Nya then said under her breath;

"You would have no idea."

The silence that followed weighed on them all with an odd feeling of unease. Knowing that someone needed to move on to the next topic of conversation, Zane decided to speak up.

"We do not belong in this time." he told everyone in a plain tone. "How are we to get back?"

"The same way you came through." Montgomery informed him. "We'd have to modify the Time Window a bit for actual time travel- but it shouldn't be that hard of feat. Would it Cyrus?"

"I… suppose it could be done." the scientist carefully agreed. "But it may take some time." He looked to the ninja to add, "And you four should not be seen in public. Never ask why- it's a very complicated answer."

"Then what are we going to do?" Cole questioned.

"Anything you want." Nya playfully told him. "Just don't leave the building."

"Or look up winning lottery numbers." Montgomery chimed in, giving an obvious glare in Jay's direction.

"I could use a hand in repairing the Time Window." Cyrus even offered. "The more help the better."

The four ninja all gave a collective nod to show they understood.

"Hey Cyrus," Cole inquired, "Is the eighteenth floor still an arcade?"

"It sure is." the scientist agreed with a beaming smile. "But be mindful that some of the games there were down there no longer are, or in need of some repair. There are also some new games that you could try out- technology waits behind for no man, after all."

"Sweet!" the black ninja cheered before starting to head out. "Let me know when something exciting happens again!"

"Wait for me!" Kai shouted before going after him. Minerva watched him with a scrutinized eye before turning back to the others.

"I'm going back to bed." she declared. "Wake me up when someone makes banana-hazelnut pancakes."

"Of course my dear." Cyrus agreed. Giving her elders a small nod, Mina wasted no time heading back to the bedrooms. This now left Jay and Zane to decide what they were going to do now.

"Is it alright if I just take a walk around the building?" Zane decided before Jay could say anything. "I promise not to look into information about our future- but I am interested to know what has changed otherwise."

"Then I believe the seventy-ninth floor would be of use to you." Cyrus offered. "I've had it converted to an art gallery in the past year or so- we even managed to get special holographic projectors for interactive pieces."

Zane gave a small smile. "That would be wonderful." he agreed. And with that, he too got up to leave. This now left Jay behind, and knowing he was alone, the blue ninja tried to sneak out with Zane but was immediately stopped by Nya.

"And where do you think you're going?" she teased.

Knowing he had been caught, Jay gave a nervous chuckle before saying, "O-oh you know; join Cole and Kai, order takeout, and maybe even totally avoid helping you fix that not time machine."

"You're not that lucky." Nya chuckled. "Come on, the faster we get it repaired, the faster you four can go home."

Knowing that he had no choice but to help, Jay sagged a bit in defeat. "Aw man..."

. . .

In their time, the seventy-ninth floor was being used as a warehouse of sorts for the assembly line upstairs. As Zane casually strolled around the gallery, the more he came to appreciate that this was the best use of that space. However, it was incredibly obvious that this was a collection curated by Cyrus Borg himself, and not truly designed to be seen by public eyes.

Many of the artwork reflected Cyrus's interest in robotics more than anything else; schematics for the first mass produced Nindroid, photographs that displayed robotic parts in ways to please the eye, and so on. There were other works (notably photographs) that detailed more humble scenery, a possible hint of where Cyrus had started at and how far he had come. Zane found himself smiling at one traditionally painted ink drawing that featured the outline of PIXAL; he looked closer to see how the artist was (to thank them later for capturing his favorite female Nindroid quite beautifully, of course) but was disappointed to find that they had chosen to remain anonymous. The next painting Zane took a bit longer to admire was one done in acrylic paint- it featured the street of a small village with different colored houses, in the middle of the street was a child who appeared to be dancing or running after something, and up in the air not far from the child was an indistinct bird shape. It could have been interpreted as the bird circling the girl in protection, or maybe they were playing a game.

There was something about the girl and the bird that seemed familiar. He looked a bit closer at the painting, hoping that the artist and the work's title could help; it did not. The title of the painting had been called 'A Girl and Her Bird' and the artist was credited as a 'C. Hyun,' but neither of those seemed to ring a bell in Zane's memory. But then, in a sudden moment of realization, a signal that he had received when the falcon had found them; it had told him that it had a new owner, the name of that owner was none other than Minerva.

Minerva…

There was something definitely off when she met the ninja at the door. Her blood pressure had increased while her face had grown pale- surely an indication of fear. But what did she have to fear? The Nya in this timeline seemed to be a friend, and yet during the phone conversation he eavesdropped on, there had been some urgency to Minerva's voice. Zane didn't believe she was the sole reason on their current predicament, but there had to be more to the story. Curious, the Nindroid started to head back to the domestic quarters.

When Minerva had spoke of banana-hazelnut pancakes, surely she meant hazelnut spread? Interesting- he didn't have the recipe in his memory banks, but had a good feeling he could find it elsewhere. What better way to coax a nervous child than with food?

A/N: Anyone else see the Steven Universe movie? "Here we are in the future; no one to fear, no one to fight. I can't... believe... we've come so far..."

I was totally not stalling on this chapter- but, come on, Secrets of the Forbidden Spinjitzu is a season with nothing but filler and actual plot moving eps in every 2 or 3 episodes, so you can afford to cut me some slack too. You can tell the Hageman brother left- that's all I'm saying. I remember when 'The Stone Army' premiered and thinking 'wow, we got a LOT of stuff done this episode' and then (more recently) watching 'Wasted True Potential' and I was like 'wow, this seemed a LOT shorter than the others' before finding out a few eps later that the runtime had been halved. The pacing just seems... odd now. I still like it, but it just feels off, you know?

Enough retrospective nitpicking, thank you for reading!