Mina watched as Zane looked over the cover of the book with interest as if it were the only contents the book had in it. It was practically unnerving for her, but she kept silent.

"I would not think that Sensei Garmadon would be one to write a memoir." Zane said, sounding as if he was speaking a thought.

"There were a lot of unauthorized biographies." Mina told Zane in a quiet voice. "But this particular book was written by him, and it's the only one known to exist."

"Oh?" Zane inquired with interest. Mina gave a small nod and refused to look him in the eye.

"Gran Mi gave it to me on my birthday. She said that when he finished writing, he passed away with a smile."

"That sounds very poetic." Zane remarked with a kind smile. "Is that why you like it?"

Mina shook her head.

"No."

"Then why, if you do not mind me asking?"

For awhile, Mina went silent. Zane patiently waited, looking at her with a very trusting expression and with no thought of making fun of her in any way.

"I've read it cover to cover so many times..." Mina started to say, "But every time, it feels as though... it feels like it was written just for me. It's like he addressed it to me in hopes that... I dunno... like he'd know I'd need that wisdom some day."

"All the best books come off that way." Zane told her. "That simply means that you truly enjoy it."

Mina grimaced, feeling as if Zane was not understanding what she was telling him.

"Right." Mina said quietly as she started to get up. "I'll... just be going then."

"I understand." Zane agreed, who remained where he sat to Mina's delight. "But I wish to tell you one more thing before you return to your room."

"What?" Mina asked, a certain shot of fear going through her veins.

"If you would like, I shall 'maintain the crooked road' so that we may lead back here. I will memorize every curve that was a lesson in direction so that we can grow to this outcome. I sense that you are quite influential in this time line, and so it is with your permission that I learn what I can so it may be kept in history. Or not, if you prefer."

Mina looked Zane over, not sure whether he was being serious or not. He was practically asking to change the future, whether it ended up having a better consequence or not. The mere thought tempted her- everything she knew at the moment would have meant nothing, in another universe she didn't have to feel this pain. In another universe she could have had... she could have had them both.

"I'll let you think about it." Zane then said kindly. "For now, I do think you should try to get some sleep."

Sounding like a fairly decent idea, Mina nodded her head and headed back to her room.

"Thanks... Zane." she said before quietly shutting the door behind her. "I'll think about it..."

. . .

"I've run a diagnostic on the Time Window for modifications," Cyrus told the five ninja at breakfast, "It would take around three weeks to a month to modify the machine to send you back into your own time line."

"Three weeks?!" Cole asked as he ate.

"At minimum." Cyrus agreed.

"What if we do that thing were we meet our other selves and the time whatever resets itself?" Jay asked, almost sounding like he was about to freak out.

"I'm fairly sure that you will not meet your future selves within the next three weeks." Cyrus informed them, a certain sadness laced in his voice that served as a hint.

"Where are we?" Lloyd inquired, catching on to the idea that something was not right. "In the future, I mean."

"Far, far away." Cyrus said shortly in a distant tone. "And that's all any of you need to know right now."

The five ninja gave Cyrus an odd look as they thought about what he said- if there ever was a sign that there was more to the story than what was led on...

Interrupting their thoughts, the door to the kitchen flew open and in walked Mina as she mumbled some song she knew to herself. Her hair was down, revealing that she had naturally loose curls that hung behind her without the aid of a headband.

"Good morning Minerva." Cyrus greeted. "How did you sleep? I can only guess that it was fairly decent when you wake up on the right side as always."

Mina opened her mouth, ready to answer, before she looked up and saw Lloyd, Kai, Jay, Cole, and Zane sitting at the table and jumped a good foot away in surprise. Her face grew pale as she realized that the events that transpired the day before weren't part of a bad dream gone on for too long.

"I'm going back to bed." Mina declared as she spun on her heel to walk right back out the door.

"No, wait!" Cole called out to her, "You can't let me eat all this food alone! I could, and I might, but you need to at least try something!"

At the door, Mina stood frozen. Eventually, she started to back up and walk back over to the table.

"Here." Cole said, moving a plate her way with pancakes smothered in sticky maple syrup and eggs on the side. "Eat up kid."

A small grimace made its way onto Mina's face as she unwillingly took a fork and started to eat. A few bites and Mina put the fork back down as if she were a snobbish queen about to deliver bad news.

"Cap didn't make this." she decided. "Who did?"

"I did." Zane told her. "Do you like it?"

"You forgot the chocolate chips."

"I had a certain feeling that you are not particularly fond of having chocolate chips in your pancakes, so instead I added a bit more brown sugar than recommended. Was it not as you desired?"

"It... is actually pretty good. Thanks."

A small smile exchanged between the two- giving everyone an almost uncomfortable feeling that something had happened between the two of them earlier. Lloyd in particular felt a rather tinge of jealousy, but wasn't quite sure why yet.

Interrupting their thoughts, however, there soon came a small tap on the window. Everyone looked up to see a rather familiar robotic bird tap its beak against the window to be let in.

"Crow!" Mina exclaimed joyfully as she nearly leaped out of her chair. The five ninja looked at each other with the same confused look.

"Crow?" they all asked with a tone that matched their expression. Perfectly ignoring them all, Mina opened up the window to let the robotic bird in. Without warning, the Falcon soared to every corner of the kitchen, knocking over everything that happened to be in the way before settling down on Zane's shoulder.

"Well, hello old friend." Zane said as the robotic bird then perched on Zane's extended hand. "You seem rather perplexed, is everything alright?"

The Falcon let off a small electromagnetic pulse that Zane was able to translate into a message of its current objectives. When all of the messages were decoded, Zane frowned.

"You don't say...?" Zane asked warily, addressing the robotic bird as if it were speaking a riddle.

"Crow, come here." Mina then said, "What did you find?"

"Are we not going to address the fact that she keeps calling the Falcon, Crow?" Jay asked although speaking to no one in particular. Perfectly ignoring him, Mina offered her hand for the robotic bird to perch on but it remained on Zane. Slowly, Mina started to worry but didn't take direct action.

"Crow..." Mina said again, this time with a bit of worry laced in her voice, "You do have news, don't you?"

"Minerva, our Falcon friend believes he completed his objective." Zane informed her.

"What objective?" Cole asked, to which the other four agreed. Mina did not seem to answer as she stood frozen, almost paralyzed in a visible fear. Cyrus moved his wheelchair close to Mina, standing by in the case she would fall.

"Crow..." Mina started to say, her voice small and barely heard, "Cyrus... Crow thought that..."

"Thought what?" Lloyd asked, also catching on to Mina's distress.

"May I tell them?" Zane asked. Cyrus, dumbfounded on what to do, looked at Mina. Cyrus looked back at Zane and nodded.

"Our old friend believes that he has found us, as Minerva instructed him to do three weeks ago." Zane informed them.

"How did she do that when we just got here?" Kai inquired.

"Not the ones I know." Mina mumbled as her eyes glossed over. "They're lost... gone..."

Mina turned to looked at Lloyd.

"Or..." she started to say, but upon looking at Lloyd, her words became lost in her throat.

"You see ninja," Cyrus told them, "Time rots everything... even hope. In this time line, Ninjago has lost hope in the ninja that once protected them because those ninja are no longer around. I'm afraid to tell you that, in this time line... you are all considered... dead."