Chapter two! This is by far the lightest chapter in the bunch, so enjoy it while you can.

Happy Reading!


6-7: Lavender - Maturity

Hardware was done.

But what is a droid with no programming? No purpose? It can be difficult to determine sometimes, but it's always worth finding.

Lavender 1. Lavender 2.

Ninjago city is great. Trust me. But sometimes the best way to get some headspace is out in the small villages. At night, the city is busy and partying. Sometimes a quiet night under the stars is what you need. Plus, ninjago city isn't the only place that needs protecting from Samurai X. Ever since the time twins disappeared with Wu, I've been doing this quite frequently. Tonight I was watching over Cole's hometown. It was beautiful. Stars scattered the sky and a heavy breeze dawned the air. Light, and noise - all I needed any more to be happy. But that didn't mean there was nothing to do.

Crying. The only thing worse to hear than crying is screaming. My sensors quickly picked up the source of the noise and headed towards it. It was coming from a small back alley - the source? A small boy, about 5 or 6 years old. I thought about how to approach the situation. My appearance might be threatening to a small child. More than that, my voice. I had designed it to be so. Maybe it was best if Samurai X were female in this instance. Not wanting to risk my identity, I switched my voice cloak to emulate Nya, and hopped off of the roof a few yards away from the child.

His olive green eyes, covered in tears, looked up at me with caution. He had light brown hair that blew violently around him in the wind.

"Are you okay?"

He nodded, slowly.

"Are you lost?" I took a few steps towards him.

"Yeah." His voice was shaky.

"You're not hurt, are you?" I kneeled down in front of him, as he presented his hands to me; both scraped and bleeding. My eyes glanced over the rest of his body, finding knees to match.

"I fell down," he sniffed.

"That's okay. This pavement is pretty hard, huh?" I lifted one of his hands closer, to better inspect it.

"Yeah."

"What's your name?"

"Eli."

It didn't look like the scrapes were too bad at all. They would simply need a bit of time to heal. "I'm here to keep you safe, okay Eli?" He wrapped his arms around my neck as his breathing slowed along with his heart rate. "Do you know where you live?"

He let go of me and thought for a moment. "In house number 13."

There was only one neighborhood, so the number was all I needed to begin calculating the fastest route there. "Let's get you home. Can you walk?"

"I think I can do it." He pushed himself off the ground and smiled.

"Good, let's go then." I stood up and began leading the way towards house 13. He kept a few feet distance from my side as we walked through the empty, sleeping streets.

His eyes stared up at me, puzzled. "You're Samurai X."

"Yes, I am."

"I thought you were the water ninja now."

"Nya is the water ninja." I switched my voice back to its standard setting. "I am the new Samurai X."

His eyes grew wide with excitement. "Woah!"

"Pretty cool, huh?"

He hesitated for a moment and then spoke. "Could you do my voice?"

I chuckled. "Sure, let me try it." I didn't have much data to work with, but I quickly configured a voice cloak using his speech. "Hi! My name's Eli, and I am Samurai X!"

He laughed and bounced at the sound of his own voice. "That's…" he searched for the right word. "Weird. But like, cool weird."

I switched my voice cloak back to normal. "Glad you think so."

"So… who are you then?" he asked curiously.

"Who do you think I am?"

He looked at me very carefully. "I don't know. I can't really see your face too good under the mask."

I chuckled again. "Well, do you think I'm a boy or a girl?"

"I think you're a girl." He answered, without hesitation.

"Really?"

He jumped ahead of me a few feet. He seemed to be trying to not step on any cracks between the stones that made up the walkway. "Yeah. Girls are lots more smarter than boys."

"What makes you say that?"

"My big sister Maria is really smart. And she's a girl, so…"

"What if I told you… I was a robot?"

He turned back to look at me. "…No, I don't think so."

"No?"

"You're too nice to be a robot."

"Are robots not nice?" This misconception concerned me greatly.

"No. Robots are evil! They're black and scary and have evil red eyes! They take people away!" That description sounded a lot like the nindroid army… the one I helped to make.

"What about the ice ninja? He's a good robot, right?"

"Yeah. The only good robot. And you know what all the other robots did to him? They all killed him." He kicked a small pebble into the distance.

"Well, Zane came back. He outsmarted all of the other robots."

Eli simply huffed and continued walking, now with his head hanging down a bit. Maybe it was best we moved on from this.

"So, I'm a not robot, girl. What… color eyes do you think I have?"

He quickly perked up and looked back at me. "I think… green eyes."

"And what color hair?"

"Brown hair. Like the dark brown kind."

"Why do you say that?"

"I don't know. I just got a feeling that's what you look like." He jumped up onto a curbside, attempting to balance on the edge as we walked.

"Be careful," I grabbed one of his hands. "You don't want to fall down again."

"It's okay." He reassured me. "I got it."

I smiled. "I think I'll keep holding you anyway."

We silently walked together for a moment; he balanced on the curb, while I balanced him.

"What's your favorite color? Mine is orange. Like the light kind of orange. Not the dark kind. Like almost yellow. Like the inside of a daffodil."

"That's very specific."

"Yeah. I guess so. So, what's yours?"

"My favorite color is purple."

"Just purple? Like what shade of purple?"

I thought for a moment and then smiled. "Light purple. Like wisteria."

"I knew you were a girl."

"What?"

"Purple is a girl color." He hopped down from the curb, back onto the road.

"It doesn't have to be a girl color. It can be a boy color if it wants to be."

"But I don't think it does want to be a boy color."

"Why wouldn't it? Wouldn't it want to be different? Change?"

"I don't know. It seems like nobody ever wants anything to change."

"What do you mean?"

"Like you didn't want to change Samurai X. You pretended to be Nya. Why did you do that?"

His question caught me off guard. I didn't expect him to ask something so potent and layered. Then again, maybe he didn't mean it that way. "I thought my voice might scare you."

"So you pretended to be someone else? That seems silly!"

I froze for a moment, at a loss for words.

"Hey! That's my house!" he bolted ahead of me to the house in question. It was rather small but neatly kept for what it was. The door swung open before I could get there to reveal another boy, about 12 or 13, with darker brown hair and gray-blue eyes.

"Eli! Where were you bud?!"

Eli threw his arms around his waist. "I was playing, and then everyone went home, but I didn't want to go home! So I kept playing by myself, but then it got dark, so I tried to go home, but I got lost, and fell down, and got scrapped up, but then Samurai X found me!" He pointed to me, now only a few feet from the doorway.

The boy looked up at me, his eyes growing wide. "Oh my gosh! Samurai X! You're-"

"Glad this little one is safe." I placed my hand on Eli's shoulder.

"This is Taylor!" Eli said, letting go of him. "He's my brother!"

"Nice to meet you." I extended a hand.

Taylor glanced down at it, and then hesitantly reached out his as well. "Thank you so much, it's so amazing to meet you… Mr. Samurai… Ms. X?"

"Samurai X is fine," I told him, breaking our grip.

"Thank you, Samurai X."

"I'll be right back! Stay there!" Eli instructed me before running off into the house.

"What are you doing here? I thought you operated in Ninjago city."

"Ninjago City has the ninja looking after it. There are plenty of other places that need protection."

"So what happened?"

"I think he just got scared once it got dark. Make sure he feels extra loved tonight, and he should be fine. The scrapes don't look too bad at all. But it won't hurt to keep an eye on them."

"Sure thing."

Eli returned, running towards me holding a small paper.

"Hold out your hand!" I did as he instructed, as a bright purple star was placed on my palm. "It's a good job sticker! And it's your favorite color!"

"Consider it an upgrade." Taylor shrugged.

"Where's Maria?" Eli yawned. "I want to go to bed."

"Oh! That's right! She went out looking for you!" Taylor ran his fingers through his hair. Eli's eyes shifted back to me and looked in awe for a moment. "She'll be back though. Don't worry about it."

"I'll find her, and tell her he's back," I told him.

"Would you do that? I'm sure she's super worried about him."

"She'll be back before you know it." I moved back from the doorway and then engaged my rocket pack, propelling myself into the sky overlooking the town. I enhanced my audio sensors, waiting to identify a figure awake and roaming around in the night.

Sure enough, I picked up a female voice about a mile away repeating Eli's name. That would be Maria. I flew closer, attempting to distinguish her features. She was wearing a light blue night dress that fell just above her knees and had shoulder length dark brown hair.

I landed on a roof nearby and observed her from a distance. She spoke loud enough to hear but soft enough as not to wake those in the buildings around her.

"Eli, where are you, buddy? It's time for bed." I could hear strain in her throat, like she had been crying.

"Excuse me, madam," I spoke, her head turning to see me as her eyes squinted through the darkness to make out my figure. "Your brother is safe, and has been returned home."

She didn't bother to wipe away the tears lingering on her cheeks, or brush the hair whipping in the wind out from her olive green eyes, she simply stared at me.

"What are you doing here?" Her tone was more skeptical and pointed than grateful.

I hopped off of the roof, and onto her level. "Protecting your brother."

She stared into my helmet, wanting to see my eyes. "That's my job."

"We could all use help every once and a while, can't we?" I extended my hand as her eyes landed on my palm.

"What did you do to him? What did you do to my-"

"I've told you. I simply returned him home." She looked at me, still skeptical. "You distrust me. Is there a reason? Have I done anything to harm you?"

"It's just a little hard to trust anyone who claims to protect this town. No one ever means it."

"You live in the birthplace of the earth ninja. You should feel safe on this ground knowing his strength watches after you."

She began softly shaking her head. "He's the reason I have the trust issues." She began walking back in the direction I had come from, briskly, hoping to leave me I suppose, but I stayed at her side. She held bitterness in her heart. Bitterness against someone or something. Or maybe just everyone and everything.

"Care to explain?"

"Not particularly."

"Do you trust me?"

"Of course not."

"Then why do you begin to return home?" She stopped in her tracks and looked at me for a long moment, frustrated but defeated. "Speak. It will feel better."

She looked up at the sky, and sighed. "I used to know him when we were little." She continued her steps again, this time at a much slower pace. "I would wear that fact like a badge of honor around my neck a few years ago. I thought I had him as a… guardian angel." She rolled her eyes. "If trouble came to this town, I knew he would come. If no one else in the world came, he would come." her eyes drifted to the ground, anger slipping back onto her face. "But then the nindroids came… and no Cole. My parents got caught in the crossfire. Almost got me." She lifted her chin to reveal a large scar stretching across her neck. "Even after everything was over… no one showed up. There was no Cole to protect me, or comfort me, or help rebuild my life, my family."

"You hold him responsible for that?"

Her expression softened as she began shaking her head, gently. "No. He doesn't owe me anything. I'm sure he was doing something more important. I'm not angry he didn't come, just… disappointed that he forgot me. I mean it sucks that there's no one out there to protect me, but that was never anyone else's job in the first place."

I thought for a moment about what might be best for her to hear. About what might gain me some trust. Comfort? Reassurance? Agreement? "Well, if it's any consolation, I'll give Cole a good slap in the face the next time I see him." Humor.

She chuckled. "Thanks." She looked at me as her smile grew. Almost like she could trust me. "Make sure and punch the guts out of any nindroids you see too."

"They're the ones you blame?"

Her smile faded again. "Whoever designed those death machines deserves to burn in hell."

I felt a wave of pressure wash over me. Who exactly was that pointed at? "The Overlord?"

She shrugged. "Sure. But you know he wasn't sitting down making those things. He had some nasty low level do the dirty work of getting designs. Probably the same person who pressed the button to start manufacturing and said 'yes, let's make these evil demons!" I could feel my body begin to shake. "That's the person I want. Slit their throat open and watch them bleed."

The vengeance in her eyes was unmatched by anything else I had seen in my life. I half expected her green eyes to turn red, like mine had… red eyes… That version of myself seemed so distant now. The actions she hated me for seemed so disconnected from myself, but they were still mine. No matter how much I changed, I would always be the person she wanted.

"If people like that had to suffer a fraction of the pain they cause, they would be dead a dozen times over at least."

My memories immediately took me back to Chen's island, my body being torn apart, my circuitry ripped out of my chest while my functionality was disabled, helpless to do anything. "I'm sure the balance has punished them for it by now."

"Yeah, I hope so." She sighed.

"What if you… did meet that person? What if they were a better person now? What if they had changed?"

She shook her head. "People like that don't change. Someone who's done things that awful could never forgive themselves for it."

Never forgive themselves? What if they were under the control of the Overlord? Built by the Overlord. Build specifically under the direction of the Overlord for the purpose of stealing blueprints, and building him an army. Was that who I was? A pawn? After the Overlord's rise, I surely would have been deactivated. My purpose would have been fulfilled. But yet here I am, wandering around… without a purpose.

"So, you want to spill your life story to me now?" Her words took me out of my daze. "Who are you anyway? New samurai X. Very creative."

"Actually, I believe Eli may be under the impression that you are the new samurai." His description of me certainly lined up with Maria. Female, green eyes, dark brown hair, smart and strong.

She chuckled a bit to herself. "I'll make sure and act super suspicious once I walk in."

"I'll be sure to be out of sight." I seconded her idea.

"Maybe him thinking I'm a super strong superhero will help him behave a little better."

"You're already plenty strong," I reassured her.

We were quickly approaching the house now, and the night only grew later.

"Thanks. You're doing good things. Don't stop."

"You can count it." I extended a hand as she shook it, firmly. "Good luck, Samurai X." She rolled her eyes and grasped the door handle as I hopped onto the roof of the house.

She waved to me before pushing the door open and voices exploded out from the inside.

"Maria!"

"Wow, I was looking for you everywhere and I just couldn't find you! How on earth could you have ever gotten back?"

I smiled to myself as the door closed, knowing the conversation continued on inside. Inside those walls, there was another version of Samurai X inside the mind of a child. To him, I had a different identity, a different purpose, a different life. That version of myself knew him well, and we walked and talked together often. But in the end, I couldn't think of any of that. Not for long anyway.

No matter how much I tried to ignore it, one thought kept pestering me. No matter how many versions did good, the only version of myself that really seemed to matter was the one they hated. The one I thought I had moved past, and reconciled with, but really only ever dismissed.

The one who pressed the button that killed their parents.

And suddenly, it seemed like I could never forgive myself for it.


Hope you enjoyed that chapter! If you liked my OCs well... oh well. Probably not going to see them ever again. Anyway, leave your thoughts down below if you liked it, or not, or if you were impartial to it or whatever, I could always use feedback!

Thanks again so much for reading!