If she leaned any closer on the railing, she was sure to fall head first into the street below. A part of her really wanted to do it. Maybe everything that's happened in the past year was all just a dream? Maybe if she just… let go, everything would go back to the way it was? Her pendant was freely dangling under her now- one bad tilt of her head and it would succumb to gravity.

What stopped her from going further was the firm hand on her shoulder, purposely pulling her back.

"If you're going to purposely harm yourself, then at least do it where none of us can see you." the calm, firm voice of Monty informed her.

Minerva only gave him a small glance from over her shoulder before telling him, "I'm not trying to hurt myself. I just needed to get some air."

"And you're only catching the downdraft; the prevailing wind typically comes from the other side of the building."

"Thanks Monty." came the sarcastic retort.

"Of course." he replied, possibly ignoring her tone. "Someone has to make sure you're not giving up yet."

The teenager grimaced for a moment before looking back over the protective railing. It was too late to do anything drastic now- she'd never admit it, but Monty was good for grounding her to the task at hand. It was something that came from growing up with each other.

"I came up here to find you because we're ready to test the Time Window again." Monty informed her. "I was going to say that you didn't have to come, but since you seemed so dangerously fascinated in looking at traffic..."

"I'm coming." Minerva told him with a wave of his hand. Monty didn't seem so reassured, so Mina linked her arm in his and looked up at him. Her adoptive cousin raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything against it. Together, they headed back inside Borg Tower and to the room where the Time Window was kept.

Apparently, they had been the last ones to regroup. Cyrus and Nya were over by the Time Window's console, Zane was admiring the construction of the Time Window's portal viewer, Kai and Cole seemed to be in a heated debate about whatever game they had been playing before, and Jay had been restlessly standing by the door.

"There you are!" Jay exclaimed as the duo came through the door. Monty and Mina gave each other a quick glance before unhooking their arms, leading Monty to give Jay his full attention.

"Did something unexpected happen?" Monty immediately asked. Jay immediately shook his head, and was about to say something, but was stopped by Nya shouting,

"Hey Montgomery! Get your wonderful nerd brain over here and help us finalize these calculations!"

"Coming." Monty immediately agreed.

Now being left alone with each other, Jay and Minerva gave each other awkward smiles before Mina moved away. She found a quiet corner that no one else was occupying and hid in its shadow. From there, she was able to see what everyone else was doing. It still wasn't much- the anticipation for the Time Window to be reactivated was starting to make the air tense.

"Alright!" Cyrus suddenly announced. "Everyone take a step back from the wormhole generator and prepare for a bright light!"

"How come I don't feel comforted by that warning?" Jay mumbled to himself.

"At least we get one." Kai thoughtfully decided.

At the Time Window's console, Cyrus, Nya, and Montgomery all gave each other nods of agreement before starting the machine's activation sequence. At first, nothing seemed to happen. Then Cyrus pulled a level that lead a more powerful jolt of electricity to course through the machine, effectively making several instruments on the main console to come to life.

It was the combined efforts of Nya and Montgomery that the Time Window's portal viewer started to activate. There was a small reaction at first, almost like a dusting of sparks, before the Time Window's viewer suddenly emitted a bright light- nearly everyone looking in that direction had to shield their eyes in reaction. A few moments after, something started to be seen through the bright light. Cyrus saw this for himself and started to further adjust certain perimeters in the system; the image in the Time Window was starting to get clearer.

"It's working!" Cyrus happily declared. Instead of outright celebrating, everyone let out a long sigh of relief. Unfortunately, it was short lived. The Time Window's viewer started to lose the image, and was once more replaced with the white light. Small sparks were starting to come off the viewer now as well- they only seemed to become more frequent the brighter the light became.

"No," Monty informed them, in a voice trying very hard not to panic, "It's overloading."

When the truth dawned onto Cyrus, he immediately started to get back to the console. "Quickly!" he instructed Nya and Monty, "We have to redirect the power before it gets too unstable!"

"I have a feeling that it might be a little late for that." Nya interjected, her fingers flying on the console as she entered different commands.

Meanwhile, the others were buckling down for an explosion they couldn't stop. For the most part, Cole, Kai, and Jay had tried to migrate closer to the Time Window's console; either to hopefully duck behind it when the viewer combusted, or to protect their friends when parts starting flying everywhere. The only ones who remained where they were was Minerva and Zane. Zane seemed less concerned on the Time Window itself, and more to study what Mina was going to do.

The girl was frozen in place. A white light may have engulfed the viewer, but there was still something moving from within. Worst of all, it was calling out to her.

"Mina..." a voice called out to her. "My beautiful little girl..."

To her, the white light gave way a little to see the figure inside. She could see a male with platinum blonde hair windswept to the side, glowing green eyes that held a gentle undertone, a white silk gi adorned with green sashes, and a fond smile that nearly gave Mina the urge to cry. She could only venture to guess, but something told her that this was her father; Lloyd Montgomery Garmadon.

Perhaps he knew this, knew that she had a hard time believing that it was him. His hand was reaching out to her, beckoning her to move forward. "Connect the pieces Mina." Lloyd urged. "Come find me."

With her feet almost moving on autopilot, Minerva started to walk toward the illusion. The closer she was, the more Lloyd seemed to smile and welcome her to him. Just as they were about to touch each other's hands, someone shouted, "Minerva, get down!" and without her consent, Minerva was tackled out of the way. It was not a moment later that the Time Window released one last surge that rippled from Borg Tower to all of Ninjago. Ninjago's power was once more knocked out for the second time that week.

"Well…" Cyrus mumbled, "Now we can confirm the source of that larger burst of energy..."

It was Cole who instantly replied with a sarcastic, "No kidding."

Mina blinked as she came out of her surprise tackle induced daze- only faintly aware that her tackler was now helping her stand up.

"Are you alright?" they asked, not truly bothering to hide their worry. It was then that Mina looked up to see Zane there- the past Zane, not the Zane she knew.

"I..." she started to say, but couldn't finish. The girl sunk to her knees as she continued to sputter, "I… I..."

In the confusion of the Time Window's second implosion, no one noticed her and Zane at first. It was Kai who happened to turn around to see them there.

"Guys," he said to the others, "The kid doesn't look so hot."

Instantly, Nya, Cyrus, and Montgomery turned around. It was Monty that reacted first, going over to her and Zane's side. Nya was the next one to come over, but it was to Zane that she questioned,

"Is she alright?"

"I can not answer that." Zane replied. Everyone then turned their attention to Minerva and waited.

"I saw him." she spoke- more to herself than the others. "I… I saw Lloyd." Mina held up her hands and stared at them. They had been so close to touching… "He was… waiting. He wanted me to…?"

"I thought Lloyd was lost?" Cole questioned. "How could you have seen him?"

"Could have been a past version of him." Nya reminded him.

"But why didn't any of us see it?" Kai then wondered, raising a skeptic eyebrow.

"Perhaps she saw him because they were related?" Cyrus mused.

Amid the speculation, Monty and Zane were solely focused on Mina. She was still absently looking at her hands. She had been close. She could have sworn she could have felt his body heat… Distantly, she could just barely make out Monty's voice talking to her.

"Min, what did Lloyd tell you to do?"

"He… he said to… to connect the pieces."

"What pieces?" Jay interjected, causing the three of them to look up at him. Apparently, everyone was looking at the three of them now. Mina looked at Jay in particular- her eyes not quite focused on him, as if she was trying to remember who he was.

"I don't know." she admitted.

"Of course!" Cyrus suddenly declared, causing everyone to look at him. "It wasn't a power issue, it was a focusing issue!"

For a moment, everyone just stared at the older man as if he had lost his marbles. But then Montgomery came to the same conclusion.

"That makes perfect sense." he agreed.

"It does?" Cole, Jay, Nya, Zane, and Kai all questioned at the same time, with various degrees of confusion.

"It does." Cyrus informed them. "You see, we were focused on making sure the Time Window had the proper power input. What we didn't focus on was that idea that the Time Window itself could need an anchor point to locate your proper timeline."

"Which means… what, exactly?" Kai inquired.

"It means," Montgomery supplied as he started to get up, "We may need to find objects that are further bound to the point in time that you came from. The disc for the video game you played the most, for example, or something you created by hand that you just recently finished. Anything personal you spend a lot of time with."

"Oh, I kinda get it now." Jay quipped. "Something like mine and Nya's Yin-Yang medallions?"

"Or my favorite cake eating fork!" Cole agreed.

"Maybe something a bit more specific than a fork…" Monty disagreed, pretending to push his glasses back onto his nose.

"Wouldn't that mean that we'd have to leave Borg Tower?" questioned Kai. "I thought we couldn't."

"I believe that it is time for the ends to justify the means." Cyrus replied. "We won't let you go alone, of course, and it would be wise to split into separate groups to compile the objects faster. We can decide who will go with who once we figure out what object you ninja find more personal."

"I wish to stay with Minerva." Zane immediately decided. No one opposed him, and no one had any reason to.

"But will finding these objects even work?" Nya asked Cyrus.

"We won't know until we try." came the less than reassuring answer. "Now, does anyone have any questions, comments, or concerns?"

The seven of them all looked at each other before looking back at Cyrus.

"Yes."

"Of course."

"Oh buddy, where do I even start?"

A/N: We've reached the halfway point! Well, kinda. I have about 4-5 more chapters planned, so it's not a perfect halfway point, but we're definitely going to get past the point the original Time Window ended. The next chapter will (hopefully) center around Cole more.

Even though this story is pretty much about Minerva, I am trying to focus on the other ninja at the same time. It's hard. Focusing on too many characters at a time is hard.