Long after everyone else had gone to sleep, Alexia, Lane, and Moppet slipped into the hold of the ship. Carefully, they made their way to where a coffin was. Alexia lifted it off, and with Lane's help put it silently on the floor.
"They must have not nailed it shut yet." Alexia murmured.
"Look for the symbol on the back of his hand." Lane whispered quickly. Moppet grabbed Lord Garmadon's cold hand and lifted it up, using a flashlight to see it clearly. "Moppet, flatten the wrinkles on his hand so we can get a clear shot."
Moppet did so and Alexia took a picture of it. "Let's go back."
The three girls worked for the better part of the night, trying to figure out what the symbol could mean.
"I don't get it. The symbol suggests that someone wanted to know people to know that they'd turned Lord Garmadon evil." Alexia said, looking at her itouch.
"I find it more interesting that the symbol is this elaborate. Either this is a very long word or name, or the person did more than just touching it up." Lane noted.
Moppet said nothing, since she had fallen asleep right after they had gotten the picture of the symbol. Only now did the other two girls realize how late it was, or rather, how early, as the sky was turning pink from sunrise.
"God, I should be getting up by now." Alexia stiffened a yawn.
"We should get some sleep or else we will be exhausted." Lane said, and the two fell asleep. In a few hours, however, Moppet awoke. Yawning, she rubbed her eyes and looked around to find something new. It was the first time ever that Moppet had gotten up earlier than Lane and Alexia. Not knowing what to do, she wandered onto the deck where the ninja were training.
"Hey Moppet. Where's Lane and Alexia?" Kai asked.
"They're asleep." She answered.
"That's weird. Aren't they normally awake before everyone else?" Jay said.
Sensei Wu walked out to the deck. "It is time for training. We should awaken them."
Kai and Zane entered the girls' bedroom to find Alexia and Lane both fast asleep. "I'll wake Alexia, you wake Lane." Kai told Zane.
Carefully, Kai gently shook Alexia. Instead of waking up, though, she just rolled over in her bed and smiled slightly. Kai couldn't help but smile in return. She looked beautiful in her sleep, relaxed and completely at ease. For a moment, Kai just wanted to leave her alone and let her sleep, but he knew he had to wake her up. He leaned over and whispered in her ear, "Time to wake up."
Alexia groaned but complied. "Five more minutes." She murmured, sitting up.
"Sorry, Sensei says you need to wake up." He told her, grinning.
"Fine." Alexia muttered, but she was smiling herself. She looked over at Zane, who was trying in vain to awaken Lane. "Any luck?"
"Nope. I think we did one too many sleeping pills." Kai answered.
"Let me try." Alexia walked up to Lane and murmured, "The Doctor's here."
Lane yelped, shooting out of bed, looked around, and then scowled. "You liar." She muttered, stretching and got out of bed, rearranging her mussed hair. "Any food around? I am starving right now."
"Just check the kitchen." Alexia said. Lane nodded and set off, leaving the boys slightly confused.
"Is it just me, or is Lane different?" Kai asked.
"Lane's on meds. When she isn't, she's chipper, bright-eyed, and Doctor Who obsessed. When she is, she's calm, cold, and a genius that isn't being tampered her non-med side." Alexia explained.
"When does it wear off?" Zane asked.
"Depends. The amount of medicine in her system, probably several days." Alexia said. "Now, why did Sensei Wu want us awake?"
"Training." Kai told her, and Alexia sighed.
"I'm going." The three went onto the deck, and began their usual training. However, for the first time since the girls had arrived, Kai managed to beat Alexia in sparing. The others gaped in surprise as Alexia fell over and Kai pinned her to the floor.
"Whoa. That's so cool!" Lloyd yelled, happy that someone finally beaten one of the girls.
Kai frowned. "Did you go easy on me?" He asked, his tone low so only Alexia could hear.
"Hell no. I'm just tired." She replied. Only now did Kai notice the shadows under Alexia's eyes and how sluggish she had been during their fight. "Didn't get much sleep."
"Alexia, can you come here?" Lane asked. Alexia complied and Lane led her and Moppet back to their room. "Please say you did not tell him?"
"No! Why would I do that?" Alexia asked.
"Because he is your boyfriend." Lane told her, and Alexia's eyebrows shot up.
"How-" Alexia began but Lane interrupted.
"I noticed, but I just did not think about it till late yesterday." Lane answered.
"Okay, you're good. So, what else did you want to talk about?" Alexia asked.
"I figured it out. Take a look at this." Lane took Alexia's itouch and showed them the symbol on Lord Garmadon's hand again. "Most of this is design, but if I could strip away parts, then I would be able to spell out the letters. I would need a better computer, though."
"Where in the world are we going to get a good computer?" Moppet asked and Alexia groaned.
"Another all-nighter, coming up." She said miserably.
Hours later...
Around midnight, the girls slipped out of their room and went into the control room. "You sure this is a good idea?" Alexia whispered.
"No, but this is the only one we thought of." Lane answered, plugging in Alexia's itouch to the control system. Unfortunately, it shorted out the system. "Damn, this is when a sonic screwdriver would be nice." She muttered.
"Can you fix it?" Alexia asked.
"I can try. Get me some duct tape." Lane told her. Alexia handed them to her and Lane began to rewire the computer. "Ever take computer programming?"
"I did tech for theater at school." Alexia answered.
"Good enough." Lane said. Alexia got down on her knees and shined a flashlight at the wires.
"Reconnect the blue wires, tape the red to yellow, then cross the green and black wires." Alexia instructed. Within a few minutes Lane rebooted the system.
"Alright, time to see what we can do." Lane started up the computer again and pulled up the picture of the symbol. She began typing and managed to separate the elaborations from the actual lettering. "Got it!" Lane rearranged the letters and they made two words.
"Disconnect my itouch. We'll translate it in our room." Alexia said.
In the girls' room, Alexia translated the Arabic wording to English, but she frowned. "Something wrong?" Moppet asked.
"It's not a name." Alexia answered. "It's doesn't even make much sense."
"Alexia, what is it?" Lane asked again.
"It says 'Ultimate Powerless'." Alexia said. "But who would want to be the most powerless person? And on top of that, how would someone like that be able to kill Lord Garmadon?"
"Maybe we should ask the boys." Moppet suggested before Lane punched her hard in the face.
"Idiot! Think for a change. If we told the boys, they would wonder how we even know about these kinds of things. They may even suspect we were behind it!" Lane told her.
"Sorry." Moppet whispered.
"Both of you stop it. We've got to find the meaning of this." Alexia said roughly.
"Maybe tomorrow. We have just spent another entire night awake." Lane said, pointing to outside where the sun was rising. Alexia sighed.
"Come on, let's get some sleep. But first-" Alexia hung a sign outside in an attempt make sure they got a good night sleep.
Only enter if it is in the event of emergency. Otherwise, you will be
EXTERMINATED WITH EXTREME PREJUDICE.
"If that fails, then we are doomed." Lane said.
Watching Torchwood right now while I write. It's not bad but THE DOCTOR dominates!
The next morning, Sensei Wu again sent some of the ninja to wake up the girls.
"Does that sign on their door freak anyone else out?" Jay asked, scared.
"What's the worst that could happen?" Cole asked.
In the next second, the boys knew exactly what the worst could be. As they entered Jay and Cole were knocked out by Alexia and Lane, who had been waiting by the door with weapons, Alexia with a baseball bat and Lane with a lead pipe.
"Don't people EVER listen to the signs on the doors?" Alexia asked. Lloyd screamed and ran away.
"I guess it is time to wake up." Lane said, groaning.
"Noooo, me no awake, let me sleeeeeep." Moppet muttered into her pillow.
"Just get up." Alexia ordered. When Moppet refused, Alexia dragged her outside onto the deck.
"AHHH! THE SUNLIGHT! IT BURNS!" Moppet screamed, covering her eyes.
"We have GOT to get Moppet to bed earlier." Lane said, annoyed.
"You guys finally up?" Lloyd asked, out of trauma.
"Yes, so please shut up now." Alexia told him.
"Guys!" Nya ran out onto the deck, panting. "You need to see this."
In the control room, Nya pulled up a video that showed the Endless Sea, where a dark island rose from the water. "This happened last night." She explained.
"Any ideas on what it is?" Kai asked.
"I'd say the island rose because the plates shifted." Alexia replied but Lane shook her head.
"Too big for that. This is not an island; this is a continent. Last I checked, those do not just rise out of the ocean." She said.
"Then how?" Jay asked.
"Sis, are we moving into the mythical answers?" Moppet asked in almost a pleading tone.
"There has to be a logical explanation." Zane insisted.
"Either way, we need to investigate. We'll go." Cole said. He pointed to the girls and said, "You guys stay here and find out what you can, and if you do, radio us."
"This is all because we couldn't get enough sleep." Alexia muttered to Lane.
"Then good luck." Nya told the boys.
Just before they left, Alexia held Kai back for a moment. "Come back in one piece, okay?" She said.
"I promise." He whispered, kissing her lips lightly before going with the rest of the boys.
Only when the male ninja were out of sight did the girls return to their room. Lane sighed and fell onto her bed.
"Something wrong?" Alexia asked.
"Ever liked a guy and never told him since you were scared he did not feel the same?" Lane asked in turn.
"Yeah. Lemme guess, Cole or Zane?" Alexia asked.
"Zane!" Lane answered, "Cole is, um..."
"Ah... unappealing?" Alexia asked knowingly, "I know, just had to check."
"But what do I do about Zane?" Lane wailed face down into her pillow.
"Lane, the dude's practically in love with you! And before you contradict me, he was always blushing around you, liked being with you, was the only person to spar you, and he didn't want you to know he was a robot. Piece it together aaaaaaand... all are signs he likes you." Alexia explained.
"Fine, you got me. So, what should we do now? Sleep?" Lane sighed.
For once, Moppet was going to do something she had never done before; rejected the idea of sleep when she was tired. "No, we need to find the mystic source of the island rising!" Moppet squealed.
Lane and Alexia looked at Moppet curiously until Alexia sighed. "That can wait until we get some good sleep. It'll take the boys a few hours to get to the island in the first place, so it will be fine if we get some sleep first." She told Moppet before crawling into bed and falling fast asleep.
"I concur." Lane said, doing the same.
Moppet sat on her bed, dumbstruck, for a minute before she shrugged and fell asleep as well.
Hours later...
Alexia awoke to find the sun low in the sky, meaning that they had slept most of the day. She shook Lane and Moppet awake and the three began to work.
"Name things that could have happened." Alexia said.
"A logical explanation is it could have been a volcanic eruption that caused the island to gain height and now be noticed, or even that it is a rock plate lifted by an increase in the pressure of an undersea spring." Lane answered. "However, that is highly improbable."
"It could've been magic from above!" Moppet said happily only to be swatted.
"Moppet, this is a BAD thing. Please get your head on straight." Alexia told her. "Anything else?"
"A dark force at work is likely." Lane suggested.
"But what kind? God, I don't want to do this, but we've got other no choice... Any possibilities?" Alexia asked.
"Hm... The Daleks?" Lane asked hopefully. *Note: Even in her more serious side, Lane is still obsessed with THE DOCTOR. Plus, the meds are wearing off.*
"The Sontarans!" Moppet insisted.
"Reasons?" Alexia asked.
"They want an island for invasion?" Moppet said, but anyone could tell it was a weak argument.
"An observation center watching for evidence of the doctor?" Lane proposed but Alexia just groaned.
"Okay, let's get rid of Doctor Who. And let's look at the symbol again." Alexia pulled up the letters and Lane looked at the translation again.
"Wait, rearrange the symbols. I think there might be another meaning." Lane told her.
Alexia complied and a new translation came up, but this was just as confusing as the first. "This one is 'Never Perfection'. It gets weirder and weirder."
"Are we sure we've got everything?" Moppet asked before Alexia paled.
"We were missing something?" Lane asked.
"Something big." Alexia wrote down both translations on a piece of paper and showed it to Lane and Moppet. "At first it's weird, but what if we switch the words around?" Alexia switched them and Lane gasped. "Ultimate Perfection and Never Powerless. Makes more sense, right?"
"And we know those sayings." Lane said, shaking.
"You do?" Moppet asked, confused.
"Ultimate Perfection is the motto of a coven of girls at my school. Never Powerless is wording around the logo for the same group. Let's just say my past with them wasn't nice." Alexia said darkly. "They'd give anything to piss me off. The only thing that doesn't make sense is those girls were too stupid to learn Arabic. Cunning and devious, yes. Smart, no."
"It does not matter. If one of them is here and their mark is the bite mark on Lord Garmadon that it means that was no snake bite. They would have to have been here from the time when Sensei Wu and Lord Garmadon were children." Lane said worriedly.
"And it means the rising island was a form a dark magic. I don't want to know what would have happened if one of them came here, but it looks like we aren't the only ones to get powers upon coming here." Alexia reflected.
"Then what are we waiting for?" Moppet asked.
"For one thing, proof. The only thing we're going on is the symbol on Lord Garmadon's hand, and since no one else noticed it that means only people from our dimension could see it because of something related to a perception filter. For another, it's not like we can get to the island without anyone knowing." Alexia answered.
"Guys! Go to the control room!" Nya shouted over the intercom. The girls rushed there to find Nya pacing. "The boys were captured! Worse, their communication devices were cut off, and the only message that came through was 'Not him... not Garmadon at all-'. Do you have any ideas?" Nya asked, worried.
"Guess we were right." Lane confirmed, gaining confused looks from Nya and Sensei Wu.
"No time to explain. Get us there, but don't follow. It's me they want, and maybe Lane. If you come, they'll only make it worse." Alexia said quickly.
"But why?" Nya asked.
"Dark pasts have dark consequences." Alexia answered gravely.
"Alright, but I'll make sure I've got my Samurai suit to help if you need it." Nya insisted.
"If it will help you sleep at night, sure." Lane told her, knowing they couldn't call on her for help once they were in.
Nya flew Destiny's Bounty to the Dark Island where Alexia, Lane, and Moppet disembarked. At first, Lane tried to keep Moppet on the ship, but she refused.
"Sis, I'm not leaving you!" Moppet said.
"I do not want anything to happen to you sweetie." Lane murmured, patting Moppet's head.
"I don't care! I want to make sure this works!" Moppet said confidently.
"She grew up fast." Alexia told Lane, who sighed.
"Faster than I wanted. It must be a curse on us, having to grow up so fast." Lane replied. "I thought I could protect her from it, but I guess it was inescapable."
"Come on, let's go." Alexia said reassuringly. The three entered the dark caverns of the island, no idea where it would take them.
Cliffy! Heh heh, you guys probably hate me right now. But don't worry, I've got the next chapter planned in my head, so I promise to be able to update in a week, maybe a few days more at most. I just have to get the okay from my friend and her sister, and this fanfic will end!