Nya was more than a little concerned at what she observed as the ninja trudged in a line into the dining room in the morning. They each looked incredibly tired, eyelids barely at half-mast and mouths opening to yawn in turns.

"What happened to all of you?" Nya wondered, setting the last of the breakfast things on the table and sitting down.

Eyes darted and heads turned to the back of the line, where Zane was rubbing his eyes with one hand. After a moment, he noticed the other ninja looking at him and appeared to register Nya's question, stating sheepishly, "Evidently I was quite vocal while I had nightmares."

"You had nightmares?" Nya asked.

Zane nodded. "I have already apologized for keeping the others up; however-"

"We wouldn't have it," Lloyd finished, seating himself at the table. "You're the one who's having to have nightmares, we're just having a little trouble sleeping, it's not a big deal in comparison."

Despite looking unconvinced, Zane nodded before following Lloyd's example and sitting down at the table.

Kai, Jay, and Cole sat down as well, and the conversation turned to the lighter topic of Kai and Jay arguing over who got the last of their current favorite cereal.

Nya watched them and smiled at their antics, but out of the corner of her eye she kept watch on Zane. He seemed to be doing decently, a bit overly tired, yes, but if he'd had nightmares all night that made sense. Nonetheless, she wanted to keep an eye on him. It hadn't even been a full day that he'd been back, not nearly enough for him to start feeling one hundred percent again.

Jay won the right to eat the last of the cereal he wanted by virtue of annoyance in that he started repeating everything Kai said in slightly higher tones and Kai resorted to pouring himself a bowl of a different cereal just to get him to stop. Cole and Lloyd, who had been amusing themselves by watching Kai and Jay argue and occasionally siding with one or the other, began picking what they wanted to eat, and Nya followed suit. After a moment, Zane did as well, but Nya noted his hesitation and filed it away to think about later before starting to eat her cereal, still keeping tabs on Zane but focusing more on her breakfast and the new conversation about what to do first that morning.

"Oh!" Lloyd's exclamation startled Nya a few moments later, and she looked up to see him setting the orange juice down.

Across the table a patch of juice was spreading, having already soaked one of Zane's pajama shirt's sleeves and making its way for Kai's.

"Sorry, guys, guess I'm a little out of it this morning," Lloyd apologized, grabbing for the napkins to start sopping up the spill.

Cole, Jay, and Kai began placing napkins over the spill as well, but Nya didn't. Her attention was fully focused on Zane, who had started to roll up his wet pajama sleeve but now was sitting very still, looking at his arm which was still covered by the soggy sleeve.

"You should probably roll that up," Nya advised him, carefully keeping her tone light, as she wasn't entirely certain what was going through Zane's head. Nothing good, she could imagine, but what exactly? She didn't know.

In response to her comment, Zane nodded slightly and resumed rolling the sleeve up, but as he did so, he pulled his forearm back off the table and tucked it under the table.

Something was going on here, Nya was sure of it now. Calmly, she said, "Zane?"

Now Jay, Lloyd, Cole, and Kai were looking at him too, and judging by the way their eyes were darting between his bowl of cereal and his upper arm with the sleeve rolled up on it, they were suspicious too.

"Why aren't you eating?" Nya asked Zane, and now there was a sharp point to her voice. She wanted to know what was up, and she wanted to know immediately.

Zane looked at her, something vulnerable and almost forlorn in his eyes.

"You have a bite or two left in your bowl. You should eat," Nya suggested.

Slowly, resignedly, Zane nodded. Awkwardly, he brought his now-bare forearm back up on the table to grab his spoon.

Immediately, the calm although slightly tense mood of the room flared into fierce anger. Zane clapped his other hand over his forearm, but it was too late. Everyone had already seen. Visible on Zane's forearm was a long, wide mark, reminiscent of both a cut and a burn.

"What. Is. That," Kai ground out.

"...That would be Azizi not bothering to properly repair my arm in the middle of an experiment because she thought she would have time to continue the experiment after the appeal," Zane remarked quietly.

"So she just left you like that?" Kai demanded.

Zane nodded.

"Does it hurt?" Lloyd wondered, eyeing the thick mark.

Zane hesitated before admitting, "It does, yes, but-"

"It's hurting you?" Kai interrupted. "Why didn't you say something yesterday?"

"To be quite honest, it hurts so much less than everything else has in the past few weeks, so it is almost negligible," Zane answered.

Kai made a low, angry sound in his throat, and Cole's eyebrows were so furrowed that his eyes were barely visible.

"Well, now we know what at least Jay and I doing first today: getting you repaired," Nya said calmly, trying to lighten the mood.

"We should do that right now," Jay decided, pushing his hard-worn bowl of his current favorite cereal away from him and standing.

Nya picked up her own bowl of half-eaten cereal and stood with a nod. "Let's get to it."

"You have yet to finish breakfast," Zane pointed out. "You should do that first."

Nya looked at Jay, and he looked back. She could tell he was thinking the same thing she was.

As one, they sat back down. Then, very quickly, they started scarfing down their cereal, barely even chewing it. Maybe thirty seconds later, they each gulped down their last bite and smirked at each other.

"We finished," Jay told Zane, grinning.

Zane's eyebrows were raised high on his forehead and his hand holding his last spoonful of cereal was hovering right before his mouth. "That-"

"That was us finishing breakfast. Now come on. Let's get you all fixed up," Nya stated.

Slowly, Zane nodded again, and he stood, putting the last spoonful of cereal in his mouth and swallowing it.

"Don't worry about the dishes, just leave them on the table. We can take care of them," Cole interjected.

"Cool. See you later!" Jay chirped, and he stood and hurried to stand to next to Zane. "Let's go!"

"Let's go," Nya echoed, and she stood, still watching Zane as she, Zane, and Jay walked out of the dining room and toward the room that was designated for Jay and Nya's inventing.