Okay, I see my new story isn't very popular but please give it a chance. Truth is, I didn't like how Aniki turned out and everytime I tried to revise her, Alexis kept playing in my mind. So, long story short: I liked Alexis more and decided to put Aniki up for adoption. Spoiler alerts: (a) there is an added scene that's one of those "if this doesn't make you cry nothing will" and (b) I will be adding arthor's notes if I want to insert some music not part of the show.
Sensei was in his room mediating in front of his spirit smoke, listening to Kai, Cole, and Jay play their video game again. These ninja never learn.
"My turn!" Kai yelled, "Ah, my turn!"
"Okay, you want a little more?!" Cole shouted, "Take this!"
Kai then shouted, "Yeah, how 'bout a little of this!"
"YAH!" Jay yelled.
"Monkey-paw to the head!" Kai cried.
"Ninja roll!" Cole called.
"Dragon punch!" Jay screamed
Sensei got up, put a flute away, and went to the video game room, only to see the ninja weren't there. When he entered to the courtyard, the man was surprised to see every ninja training. Jay was fending off arrows with his nun-chucks, Cole was dodging and hitting dummies, Kai was practicing his Spinjitzu, and Zane? Well… Zane was just meditating.
But then Zane got up and jumped around everywhere. Because of the white ninja, an arrow hit Jay's nun-chucks, Zane grabbed Cole's scythe and breaks a plank dummy, then he froze everything with Spinjitzu which made Kai lose his balance and fall on the ice. All of the ninjas walked toward each other.
"This roof isn't big enough for the four of us," Kai grumbled.
"Correction," Cole said, "This roof isn't big enough for him."
"It's like he's in his own world," Jay frowned, then directing his next words at Zane, yelled, "I bet he can't even hear us!"
The old man walked over to the three boys while Zane began throwing his shurikens around.
"Sensei, Zane's..." Kai paused to find the right words, "...weird."
"What is weird?" the elder asked, "Someone who is different or someone who is different than you?"
"No, Sensei," Cole explained, "He's 'weird, weird'."
Flashback:
-Cole-
Cole was in the bathroom, reading a newspaper while on the toilet. Then, Zane walked in and began combing his hair.
"Do you mind?" Cole yelled.
-Jay-
Jay, Nya, and Zane were watching a romantic movie. At the sad part, Jay and Nya were crying and sniffling, Zane, however, was flat out laughing. His friends turned to him with confused expressions.
-Kai-
Early in the morning, Kai, still in his pjs, yawned and stretched while heading to the fridge. He opened the fridge door, only to find it mostly empty, with a note stuck to the back.
'I'm sorry,' it read in Zane's handwriting, 'I consumed the last of the deli meat...cheese?'
End Flashback.
The elder and ninjas watched as Zane bowed to a plank dummy, only for it to whack him on the head, which the former instantly rubbed.
"We like the guy," Kai assured their mentor, "He's really smart... he's just... a little off sometimes."
"Zane is a brother. And brothers are often different," their master said, then, thinking about his own sibling, added, "I should know."
Outside the monastery, a mailman was walking tiredly up the mountain it was on. He wiped the sweat off his brow and continued walking. When he reached the top, he took off his bag and rang the doorbell, which produced a gonging sound, causing the mailman to jump back in fear.
"Mail!" Kai, Jay, and Cole shouted.
They answered the door and the man gave them their mail.
"Hah... let's see," he said, "A letter from Jay's parents... Kai has a fan letter... Oh! Something from Cole's father..."
"What, no package?" Cole said, "I'm expecting something from Creatures, Beasts, and Beyond!"
"No, nothing from... ah... Ah-hah! Here it is!"
"Ha! Rocky's gonna love this!"
Jay and Kai opened their letters, then Jay looked up from the paper and noticed Zane walking around, a bit somber.
"Hey, Zane," he asked, "how come you never hear anything from your parents?"
"I don't remember my parents," Zane sadly explained, "I've been an orphan all of my life."
Kai and Jay exchanged looks and frowned.
"You mean you never had a home?" Kai asked.
Zane shook his head sadly.
"The monastery is your home now," Sensei Wu told him.
Zane just turned around and walked away and the others watched him leave.
(Line Break)
At the dragon stables, Cole was opening his package.
"Liver and toads, Rocky," Cole charmed, taking a dead toad out of the box, "Your favorite!"
He threw the animal to the panting dragon, which gleefully snapped it up and ate it in a few short seconds. Unfortunately for the two of them and the others, Cole still had not realized that he was hypnotized and that the snake responsible for this was watch everything through the black ninja's eyes.
In the Forest of Tranquility, all of the Hypnobrai were building a treehouse while Skales and a scout named Rattla chat at the top.
"I can't believe you hypnotizzzzed one of the ninja!" Rattla said excitedly, "Does the general know?"
"Of course not!" Skales responded impatiently, "He's still under the control of Lloyd and Alexis! And I plan to use it for my besssst interesssst."
Rattla looked behind Skales and walked away. Skales turned to see Slithraa.
"Everyone works while you do sssslack!" Slithraa hissed, "As my second-in-command, I expect more from you, SSSSkales!"
"Yessss, General!" Skales bowed.
Slithraa turned around and began to slither away, but Skales spoke up.
"General, you know I am most loyal, but I must question thissss childish agenda! The ninja have sssstolen our staff, yet you insssstruct your army to build this playhousssse for the children? Snakesss don't belong in treessss, even the girl knowsss that."
"You know better than to question my judgment, SSSSkales! Esssspecially concssserning those with the Sight," Slithraa threatened, "I'll pretend you didn't ask!"
"Hey!"
The two Hypnobrai looked down. Lloyd was standing on one of the lower platforms, waving.
"If we plan to rule Ninjago from here, this elevator needs to have a trap door!" Lloyd yelled, "I WANT MORE BOOBY TRAPS!"
"As you wish, young Garmadon!" Slithraa bowed and gestured for Skales to start working on it.
"As you wish... General," Skales growled as he bowed and walked away.
As he entered the next room, Skales bumped into Alexis.
"Hey, watch where ya going!" the girl snapped, then recognized him, "You're the number two guy? Here, read it and get everything on it."
She shoved a long piece of written paper in the snake's hands, causing him to get even angrier.
"And what, may I asssk, is all of thisss?" he growled.
Alexis sighed, put a hand to her head and gruffly explained, "Look, everyone knows that the ninja have magic weapons that could, oh I don't know, potentially destroy this place. So we need to get everything on this list and put them all in or on this fire hazard."
As she walked away, she added insult to injury in a snake-ish voice, "Or isss that too much ssstuff to do?"
That just made the second-in-command fume even more.
"Oh, I love it when it's Zane's night to cook!" Jay smiled.
"Hey, I didn't hear any complaints about my duck chowder last night!" Cole said.
"That's because it glued our mouths shut," Kai pointed out, "You really thought Jay was speechless all throughout dinner?"
"Yeah," Jay crossed his arms, "Please don't make that again."
"Dinner is served."
Zane set down their dinner and looked around the table. He was wearing a pink, flowered apron. Everyone's faces changed expressions rapidly before they burst out laughing.
"What's so funny?" Zane asked.
"Zane!" Nya laughed, "You're wearing a... Well, even I wouldn't wear that!"
Zane walked to another end of the table and asked, "You laugh because I take steps to ensure I am clean after cooking?"
"No," Kai assured him, "We laughed because you came out wearing that ridiculous outfit!"
"I guess we don't share the same sense of humor," Zane observed.
"Well, how 'bout this?" Cole picked up a plate from the table and mushed it in Kai's face.
Everyone except Zane and Kai started laughing again and Sensei got up from his seat and walked behind Cole and Kai.
"How could you not find that funny?" Cole asked before his teacher set a bowl upside-down on his black hair.
"Waah!" Cole's face grew shocked.
The bowl's contents dripped down his face and his master laughed.
"Now you are brothers," the ol man laughed as he put his hands on Zane's and Cole's shoulders and walked back to his seat.
Laughter rang around the table once again. The others began throwing food around the table while Zane watched in confusion, getting food suck to his apron and shirt.
Zane when outside to throw away the garbage, stripping off his apron and placing it into the can as well. He looked up at the stars, thinking about many things, mostly why he felt he was alone. Then, a falcon's cry broke his thoughts. He turned to a tree near him; the falcon sitting on one of the branches, looking directly at him. Zane tilted his head, and the falcon copied him. Zane shook his head, unsure if it had really done so. He looked back at the bird, only to see it shake its head as well.
He gaped at the bird, then smiled, flapped his arms and stepped up and down. It once again followed his movements exactly. Zane watched it for a moment before it hopped along the branch and took off. Zane looked inside the monastery for a second then followed the falcon and began to run down the mountain.
The bird led Zane through a forest, stopping every now and then to make sure he was following. Zane paused for a moment, then kept running, only to stop again and gasp. A brightly lit house-like building was in the process of being built in a tree. It seemed normal at first, then he took a closer look. The Serpentine were the ones working on it.
"If I see one girl except for Alexis in here," Lloyd warned from his perch atop a board of wood, "I'm gonna go ballistic."
Speaking of Alexis, Zane saw her coming close to him. At first, he thought she was just patrolling the outer edge of the area, but then after noticing her speed and directionality, he quickly realized that she was purposely coming his direction and would soon spot him if she hadn't already. Without a second thought, he quickly climbed a nearby tree and tried to use a branch as a hiding place. She came to his area and looked around, slightly confused.
"Weird, I thought… aw well," Alexis thought aloud before leaving.
When he was sure the coast was clear, he quickly climbed down and hid behind the truck. Then, the falcon cried again and Zane looked up. It motioned for him to go back and tell his friends.
"Thank you, my mysterious friend," Zane said to it.
The next day, Zane led Cole, Jay, and Kai through the forest, in the direction of the large tree house. Zane paused and looked around.
"Where are we going again?" Jay asked skeptically.
"I don't think Zane even knows where he's going?" Kai replied as they tried to catch up with the white ninja.
Once they found him, everyone except for Zane was a bit exhausted.
"So, tell us again how you stumbled upon Alexis and Lloyd's secret headquarters?" Kai asked Zane.
"I followed a bird," he answered.
"Why did you follow a bird?" Jay looked confused.
"Because it danced," was the reply.
"Oh, Okay," Jay looked at his friend strangely, then sarcastically asked, "Was it a cuckoo bird?"
Cole, Jay, and Kai started laughing while Zane looked at them, confused.
"Of course not," Zane answered, "Everyone knows cuckoo birds are not indigenous to these forests."
The others groaned as Zane began running again. The others shrugged and followed him, until they reached the clearing where the Serpentine were.
They heard Lloyd shout from the building, "No, bigger! Come on, we don't have all day! It's not time for a lunch break!"
Just below them, Alexis seemed to be inspecting some wood when a gang of ten snakes walked up to her saying, "Hey kid! Tell your boyfriend we demand maternity leave!"
"First of all, Lloyd's not my boyfriend," Alexis blandly stated, "Secondly, maternity leave, seriously? You do know you're all guys, right? Do you all even know what maternity leave is?"
The gang dissolved and walked away as Alexis looked around before returning to the treehouse.
"Holy cannoli," Cole exclaimed, "Frosty was right!"
"We can't let those brats and those snakes get a foothold on Ninjago," Kai said, "We gotta destroy that thing before it becomes operational."
""Are you sure? It such a cool looking treehouse. It's got a ropes course, ooh! A tree swing…" Jay babbled.
"Hey! Remember whose side you're on!" Cole yelled, then turning to the others asked, "Alright guys, what do we do?"
"It looks like the entire place is being supported by those three trees," Kai observed, pointed to three large trees on different sides of the tree house, "Once those ropes are severed, the whole place is gonna fall like a house of cards."
"But why would one make a house of cards?" Zane asked, "Such construction would be careless."
"Oh brother," Kai sighed.
"Travel in shadows boys," Cole said.
"Oh, I almost forgot," Zane quickly added, "We must be extra careful, I think Alexis also has a sixth sense."
The other ninjas nodded in agreement and Cole flipped towards the treehouse, the others followed suit.
Kai flipped out from behind a tree, then took out his sword and sliced a rope, flinging himself onto the treehouse.
Cole grabbed onto the wood at the bottom of an elevator and clung to it as two Serpentine were raised up to the tree house.
Jay and Zane were climbing up a tree. Jay landed on a branch and almost lost his balance, but Zane grabbed his wrist and hauled him up.
All four ninjas peered through the walls as Lloyd and Alexis walked around a corner.
"It's almost finished," Lloyd laughed, "Soon, my… I mean our fortress will be complete."
"Still," Alexis murmured warily, "I have a bad feeling about this."
"Seriously, Alexis, you need to relax."
"Yeah, well, in case anything bad happens, just remember: I told you so."
Lloyd brushed her comment off as the duo approached a Hypnobrai soldier.
"You!" He ordered the Serpentine, causing it to turned, "Hold up that sign!"
It complied, holding up a sign that said: No Non-Alexis Girls, Ninja
Lloyd then pulled a lever. The snake laughed until the floor under him gave way and it fell to the ground below, screaming the whole way down.
"Booby trap!" Lloyd yelled down the hole in the floor as Alexis snickered a bit.
The ninjas jumped up through the wooden beams and boards and leaped through the doorway at the top of the tree house. Kai climbed to the very top while Cole, Jay, and Zane ran along the three ropes connecting the tree house to the supporting trees.
"Ninjaaaaa-Go!" Jay spun into his tornado of blue lightning and severed the first rope.
"Ninjaaaaa-Go!" Zane whirled into his ice tornado and sliced the second rope.
The tree house began to fall apart. Boards and ropes crumbled and snapped. Debris fell everywhere. A few stories down, Lloyd looked up and spotted Kai through the wooden beams of the higher levels.
"I said no ninja!" Lloyd roared, "Attack!"
"Everyone!" Skales yelled, "Retreat!"
"Cole!" Kai shouted, "Wait 'til we're off the treehouse! Then cut the line!
Cole nodded and Skales looked up at the sound of Kai's voice. He recognized Cole as the ninja he had hypnotized at Jamonacai Village.
"You," he cried, capturing Cole's attention, "will obey my every command!"
Cole's eyes turned a deep shade of red.
He bowed to Skales and said, "I will obey your every command."
"Where's Cole?" Jay asked frantically as he and Zane jumped to the tree house roof.
"Oh, this whole place is coming down!" Kai yelled.
"Hyah!" With a flourish of his scythe, Cole leaped down from his perch on the tree and landed on the roof. "No one goes anywhere unless they deal with me!"
He advanced threateningly on Kai, Jay, and Zane who stepped back.
"He's been hypnotized!" Zane responded fearfully.
"Yeah, well, he'd better snap out of it quick!" Jay yelled, "Because this whole place looks like it's about to go down!"
"Don't go!" Lloyd begged the snakes, "We have to protect my treehouse fortress!"
Alexis put a hand on Lloyd's shoulder and stated, "There's nothing we can do. Forget this jenga tower! We can make another one!"
"Another treehousssse?" Skales hissed as he came behind them, "It'ssss about we did... thissss!"
"What?" Lloyd only had time to say before Skales pulled a lever and the floor under Lloyd and Alexis disappeared, forcing the children to fall into a cage a few yards under them.
They heard the stinging ring of Serpentine laughter in their ears as they fell.
Alexis opened her mouth to say something, only for Lloyd to glare at her and say, "Not. A. Word."
"Okay, now, come on," Jay said nervously, "Friends don't hit friends."
Cole promptly thrust his leg up, kicking Jay in the face.
"Ow! Oooh, okay, okay, I'm going to ignore that."
Cole then began jumping around the tiny platform, swinging his scythe around. He yelled and struck a board next to Kai's feet, knocking the wooden plank off.
"What are we supposed to do?" Kai asked, dodging Cole's hits, "If I use my sword, this place'll go up in flames faster than a tinderbox!"
"Isn't the anti-venom in the staff?" Zane queried.
"Yeah, but we left it back home!" Kai yelled.
Cole suddenly made a blow to his stomach, knocking him back. He landed on the pole-like corner of the roof, slid down it, and lay there for a moment, dazed. Then, the wood broke and he fell. Zane lunged out and grabbed him by the feet.
He swung Kai back up, saying, "Jay, use your lightning! Try to shock him out of his trance!"
Jay obeyed and took out his nun chucks. He began swinging them around.
"Oh, sorry, Cole! This is gonna hurt you a lot more than it's gonna hurt me!"
He sent a concentrated ball of electricity at Cole, who fell back and let go of hid scythe. The three hesitated as Cole struggled to get back up. Then, the black ninja opened and his eyes. They were just as red as before. Cole got up and rapidly ran to Jay. He picked him up by his shirt and threw him over the edge.
Two cries of "Jaaaay!" were heard. Jay, however, grabbed onto a dangling rope and swung on it. He landed on the outside of the broken tree house.
He then declared, "That is a serious safety hazard!"
Cole turned sharply and ran back up the last rope holding up the tree house. He raised his scythe, about to swing.
"No, Cole, don't!" Kai shouted.
"No! No, Cole, no!" Zane yelled.
Suddenly, the sweet music of a flute reached all of their ears. Cole hesitated for a moment, hearing the flute. He closed his eyes and shook his head. When he opened his eyes again, they were back to their normal black.
"Wha...? Where am I? What are we doing?"
"We're getting' outta here," Nya shouted down, "'Cause this whole place is coming down!"
With that, Cole leaped from his ledge and landed right behind her. Jay, Kai, and Zane followed suit. The treehouse crumbled as soon as their feet left the wood. They all looked back and saw Lloyd and Alexis in a cage, being carried by a few of the snakes. Looked like the kids weren't in charge anymore, which was both a good and bad thing.
"That flute!" Jay remarked, "I cancels their power!"
"It's as old as the Serpentine themselves," their mentor explained before shouting, "But we must hurry! The monastery is unguarded!"
Flame got the message and started flapping harder and flew home faster, at least the humans hoped so.
They got back to the monastery, and it was in flames. Tongues of fire licked at the aged wood of the once-grand building, destroying it to ash.
"We're too late!" Kai shouted, "Those snakes!"
Below them, the three dragons that had been left behind roared and struggled in their stables.
Cole spotted his dragon, "Rocky!"
Flame touched down and everyone quickly got off. Cole hurried to his dragon. He pushed down on a lever and released all of them.
Kai looked up at the exposed inner wood of the monastery and pulled down his hood.
"Our home," he said.
"Shard!" Zane called to his dragon, "Put this out!"
Shard flew around the blazing structure and breathed ice and snow onto the flames.
"The training equipment," Zane murmured when Shard had completed his task, "Gone."
"Our video games," Jay cried hysterically, "Gone!"
"They stole back their staff," Sensei Wu looked around, tinges of anger in his voice.
"What do we do now?" Cole narrowed his eyes.
Rocky put his head closer to the ground and rubbed his muzzle against Cole's cheek. The black ninja sadly stroked Rocky's nose. Kai picked up a badly burnt chunk of brick and easily crushed it.
"If you hadn't followed that silly bird, none of this would've happened!" he accused Zane.
"Kai," Sensei warned.
"No! Sensei, he's right! " Jay stomped up to Zane, "Because of you, my high score's been deleted!"
"This is a teaching moment," Zane glanced down, "We must learn from this."
"A teaching moment?" Cole seemed outraged.
He put his face directly in front of Zane's and shouted, "What's wrong with you? Don't you get it? Everything is gone!"
"Enough!" their master ordered.
Everyone, including Nya, turned to him, "We are all at fault. Zane is your brother. Apologize at once."
Kai, Cole, and Jay lowered their heads in shame. They turned around.
"I'm sorry, Zane," Kai mumbled, "I…"
He broke off. Zane wasn't there. Everyone turned to the sky. Instead, he was flying away on Shard.
The Hypnobrai led Lloyd and Alexis, who now had a rope tied around their right hands, down an icy corridor.
"Do something, General," Lloyd whispered to Slithraa, "You-You're still under my command, right?"
Slithraa looked at the boy for a moment, Lloyd couldn't tell if he still controlled the general or not.
Fortunately for the children, either way the General wasn't about to let his subordinates make all the decisions and cried, "Enough! I am the general! You will return my staff at once!"
Skales looked at the staff and hissed, "No."
Muttering and mumbling broke out among the Hypnobrai.
"You dare challenge my command?" Slithraa demanded.
"Slitherpit... Slitherpit..." The Hypnobrai began chanting, "Slitherpit! Slitherpit!"
Skales smiled and nodded, "I guess we'll have to fight for it, in... the Slitherpit!"
Almost everyone began cheering. Lloyd just frowned and Alexis cringed.
Mezmo took the staff from Skales and carried it to a ledge above the others. Lloyd and Alexis were now tied to a stalagmite, the boy sighed and sat down while Alexis stood and glared at the sight.
"Winner gets the staff and leads the tribe!" Mezmo announced, "You know the rules: there are none! BUT whatever I say goes!"
The general and Skales nodded, showing they understood.
"Alright," Mezmo shouted, "FIGHT!"
And thus, the fight began. The two circled each other before they engaged in hand to hand combat.
"TWO WEAPONS!" Mezmo announced.
He pulled a lever and ice weapons were lowered into the arena. The general took a sword and shield, Skales took a short spear and a dagger. Slithraa threw his sword to his opponent, who quickly dodged it; it struck the wall and caused some ice stalactites to fall and hit the general's shield.
Lloyd then looked to his side and noticed a scroll of paper sticking out. He stood and reached out for it, only coming a few inches short. He glanced at the fight, in which Skales seemed to be winning, and tried again, still coming up short.
"SIDE-WINDER!" Mezmo announced again, this time pulling a lever and caused the platform to tilt as the two moved.
Alexis quickly took notice and she too reached out and stretched her arm. Like Lloyd, whose fingers couldn't even brush up against the paper, she was just out of reach. That was when Lloyd saw it: the paper started wiggling out of the hold on its own before it flew into her hand and she grabbed it. It took two seconds for Lloyd to come back into reality and notice Alexis handing him the paper, mouthing the words "it's a map". Lloyd shook his head before taking the paper and tucking it into his back pocket.
"Go, General, go!" He cupped his untied hand around his mouth and shouted encouragement.
Slithraa's tail began rattling and red waves pulsed from his eyes. Skales looked taken aback. He spun around and kicked Slithraa in the face. He then threw a series of blows at the general, only to have them blocked. Suddenly, his entire body began to sway. He wriggled and moved. And he lunged, sharply kicked Slithraa in the chest, and bounced back. The general collapsed onto the ice floor.
"He used fang-kwon-do!" One of the crowd said in awe.
"Get up!" Lloyd yelled, "Get up!"
The general raised his head, then lowered it again.
"We have a winner!" Mezmo declared.
The judge handed Skales back the staff, and the snake's body began to change. Slithraa's did the same. Skales' legs disappeared and were replaced with a tail, while Slithraa did the complete opposite.
Cheers of "Skales!" rang around the room.
"You will be loyal to me, now!" Skales demanded to Slithraa.
"I... will do as you command," Slithraa said reluctantly.
"We're boned," Alexis muttered.
Lloyd just stared dejectedly, silently agreeing with the girl.
"You two!" Skales turned to Lloyd and Alexis, "Leave and never return!"
That made both kids cringe.
The remaining ninja, Nya, and Sensei Wu were now on a nearby mountain. Wisp, Rocky, Blast, and Flame wear huddled together only feet away. The group of five was all holding sticks with burning food on them over a fire.
"Wh-what are we eating again?" Kai asked.
"Mudnewt," Cole muttered, "Not bad for… something that lives underground."
"Wha...!" Jay threw his stick down and spat a mouthful of mudnewt bone into his hand, tossed the bone into a can, and yelled, "Yeah! New high sc-score!"
"Remember," their mentor reminded everyone, "We must be thankful for what we have."
"What do we have?" Cole asked. "Our home is gone."
"Y'know," Kai spoke up, "I don't miss our home. What I really miss is Zane."
"Yeah," Jay sighed, "I miss Zane!"
"Zane?" Nya was the one to speak this time.
"Yeah!" Jay shouted, "Zane! Y'know, white ninja? The smart, strange one?"
"No!" Nya pointed to behind them, "Zane!"
Everyone turned and saw that Zane was indeed walking towards the group.
"Zane!" The ninjas cried in unison.
The group gathered in a semicircle around him.
"We're so sorry for everything we said," Jay apologized, "We're a team, and that means we're all responsible!"
"You don't need to apologize to me," Zane smiled.
"But, what about all those awful things we said?" Kai asked, "Isn't that why you left?"
"Of course not. I saw the falcon again, and I followed him."
"That's our Zane," Cole said, making everyone chuckle a bit.
Everyone hugged the white ninja. Then, they released him.
Nya said, "We're happy to have you back."
"Why? Is it my turn to make dinner?"
They laughed; Zane was still the same Zane.
"Yes, Zane," Sensei Wu smiled gratefully, "We would love for you to make dinner."
"But I already made it," Zane turned around, "Come, I want to show you what I have found. I think you will all be pleased."
Miles away, Lloyd and Alexis made their way far into the desert, the setting sun was now their ally. Lloyd walked a few paces behind Alexis, something obviously bothering him. Eventually, he couldn't let the nagging issue eat at him anymore, he needed to talk to her.
"Alexis, stop," Lloyd commanded.
Alexis did stop as well as turned around with a shocked expression on her face and asking, "Did you just order me like I was a dog?"
"We need to talk," was all Lloyd said as he got closer to her.
"About what?" she demanded.
"About what?" Lloyd echoed before becoming stern, "How about how you just magically got the map in your hands or how you 'happen' to know the white ninja's plan to spill our candy back in Jamonikai Village, for starters."
Alexis got worried, she had been hoping Lloyd wouldn't notice or wouldn't care. She felt the familar dread creeping into her soul again.
"Normal people don't do all that," Lloyd concluded, "Heck, I don't even think my dad or my uncle could do any of that and they're masters of werid and cool powers."
"Yeah well, no one ever said I was normal," Alexis answered, "And if you ever tell anyone I have powers, I'll hit you so hard in the mouth, it'll make every dentist in Ninjago rich!"
"I'll take my chances," Lloyd replied, not feeling threatened, "But, seriously, how the heck did you do all that?"
(Author's Note: better play "Binary Sunset" from A New Hope for this teary scene.)
"I... I don't know," Alexis admitted, turning away and crossing her arms, "For as long as I can remember, I've always been like this. Sometimes if someone at the orphanage lost something, I knew exactly where it was, even before that person knew it was gone. Sometimes I can see and hear what other people were thinking... you know, like everyone else's brain is a radio or TV broadcaster and mine's just picking up the signals. Sometimes, like with the map, when I really want something and I'm in the same room, I can just concentrate and that thing will fly into my hand. And every once in a while, I-I can see things happen before they even do."
"That's... really cool," was all Lloyd could say, utterly impressed and still in shock, before coming into reality and nicely asking, "Wait, how come you didn't say anything earlier."
Alexis turned her head, fighting the urge to cry, "Because you said it yourself, I'm the weird kid from a home for kids nobody wants. Compared to me, you're completely normal. My parents... they probably had some major foresight and knew I was a freak, so... they just dumped me off and never came back. Oh, and don't get me started on all the flack I get from the other orphans."
"What about the adults in charge?" the boy inquired, starting to sound more concerned for her and less like a future dark lord, "Aren't they supposed to help you."
"They don't care, they just label me as a problem child and a trouble starter," Alexis responded with a hollow voice, "And I don't need powers to know what anyone would do to me if they knew about mine so, except you, no one knows about 'em."
Lloyd gave her a quick hug and then released.
"I don't why I did that," he stated.
"Well, thanks anyway," she replied.
"Partners?" Lloyd stretched out a hand, waiting for her to shake on it.
She spat in her hand and then shook Lloyd's.
"Partners."
After an hour or two trekking through the desert from their original camp, Zane stopped and turned around to face the team, a small smile plastered on his face.
"I can't explain it," he finally spoke, "But, I feel a strange connection with the falcon. I think he's trying to help show us the path we need to take."
Then, he led them around a corner. Sitting on the sand just a hundred or two yards away was a large ship, with a wooden dragon head on the front.
"Our new home."
His friends gasped at the magnificent sight.
"Do I smell pie?" Jay asked eagerly.
"Cobblerberry," Zane informed him, "Oh, and I made myrtleberry. And apple!"
Jay sniffed deeply and sighed. Then, he, Kai, Cole, and Nya ran to the ship, yelling and shouting happily. Zane and Sensei Wu stayed behind.
"I am proud of you, Zane," the elder stated, "One day, I promise. We will find your family."
"But... I've already found them."
"I feel there's more to you than meets the eye. There's something special about you, Zane."
"Sensei, will I become the Green Ninja?"
"It's too early to tell. But, if it's in your path, you'll know. Come, now. It would be a shame to let them eat all that pie."
And Sensei Wu and Zane began walking to the ship.
Laughter filled the dining room. All of the team were throwing food around and having a good time, even Zane, who apparently found his sense of humor. Unknown to any of the six at the table, Lloyd and Alexis were watching them from the outside, the map clutched in Lloyd's hand and a hurt look on his face; Alexis seemed unmoved by the sight... at least she did outwardly. Turning her attention to Lloyd, her expression changed into one of concern.
She gently tugged at one of his sleeves and said, "C'mon Lloyd, we can find a better hangout."
Lloyd growled as he and Alexis turned around and began to walk away.
Hope that got your attention. Please, read and review, seriously, I'm desperate! Oh and PS: except for a few characters, I am not counting Rebooted, Tournament, or the new season.