A/N: I just realized my dumb lil self made a timeline error in the code for last chapter. It was supposed to be "6-15-21-18" instead of "20-8-18-5-5". Oops.

Steep Wisdom, Northwestern Ninjago, 1:19 pm

Lilly slowly got up, still a little shaken up over what just happened. Her back ached now from being thrown into the shelf, and her scalp hurt from getting her hair tugged on. She walked to the middle of the room, picking up her katana and carefully placing back in it's sheath. She gently pulled the band out of her hair, her ponytail diminishing into a wavy mass of hair. She hoped that if she got rid of her ponytail her scalp would stop hurting.

She walked out of the room, her thoughts still filled with questions about the impostor. Where is the actual Kai then? How can his impostor look exactly like him!? Who created this fake Kai? Why didn't any of my techniques stop him!?

Her thoughts then shifted to the impostors to deal. She was to not tell anyone, or she would surely die. Though, couldn't she just tell someone when he wasn't around? Just then, a lightbulb went off in her head. I'll tell them when he isn't around! She started to walk faster, a look of determination. Yeah! That's what I'll do!

Almost immediately, an upside down face appeared in front of her, causing her to gasp in surprise. "Kai" hung upside down on the ceiling, a smart alec smile on his face.

"Ah, now what are you up to?" he asked, his eyes narrowing as if he could see into her thoughts.

"How are you hanging from the ceiling like that?" Lilly asked. "Kai" looked up at his own legs, then gave an upside down shrug.

"I honestly have no idea. This just happened," he said, "Anyways, back to our topic."

"I'm just going back into the the tea shop. I'm sure Nya doesn't like working the counter by herself," Lilly answered him, covering up the fact that she was either going to tell Nya or Sensei Wu. "Kai" narrowed his eyes again, then his lips curved into a mischevious smile.

"Smart answer, Blondie. You really would have fooled my clone," he said, "but you cannot fool me so easily."

He reached out and touched her face, causing her to step away, now extremely uncomfortable with this fake Kai touching her. She glared at the impostor, who's smile did not fade.

"Please try to keep your end of the bargain. It should convince you even more when I tell you another secret," he told her.

"What secret?" Lilly questioned with a bit of curiosity. The impostor chuckled.

"Eager to know, are you?" he smiled, "Well, I won't hold it back from you."

He adjusted himself as if he were sitting in a chair, then sighed.

"You see, I have these friends than can look exactly look like your teammates, just like how I can look just like Kai. I asked a few of them to come by sometime, but I can't tell you who's who, so I recommend you don't tell anyone our little secret. You never know which one isn't who they seem, and if you tell them, they tell me, then I'll have to cut you. Got it?" his smile was starting to creep Lilly out now. Especially when it accompanied the words "I'll have to cut you". The blonde slowly nodded in understanding, afraid of what would happened if she didn't show any reaction or shook her head.

"Good," the impostor's voice was no longer as serious, "Keep that in mind. I'll let you return to whatever you were doing now."

He tried to curl himself up so his hands could reach the ceiling, but ended up falling off of it instead. He landed with a thump on his back, then glared at the ceiling.

"Pretend you didn't see that," he told her as he got up. She didn't respond, watching the impostor get up and walk casually out of the hallway. She grumbled under her breath, her plans now ruined. He could have just been lying, Lilly thought, but his words seemed serious.

She decided to not risk it. She'd rather not try it than possibly end up dead. He didn't specify who was being impersonated either, causing more bad luck to fall upon her. Why couldn't I just live in peace for just one year!? she shouted in her head, frustrated with her situation. Why couldn't this be easier!? Why is this imposter a clever asshole!?

She sighed, sounding exhausted. "Might as well play along."

Ninjago City

I followed the others to Xavier's shop, Zane leading the way with the directions he was given from Lilly. I tagged next to Nathan, who seemed to be in a better mood than he was yesterday. He refused to look at Jay though.

Making sure that my friends couldn't really hear us, I spoke to Nathan in a whisper, "Everything okay between you and Jay?"

"What does it look like?" Nathan replied in a slightly peeved whisper. I took that as a no. He then made a disgusted noise, cringing. "Ugh, my mouth still tastes like lilac from Hunter making me eat soap."

"He made you eat soap!?" I questioned in a louder whisper.

"He just made me wash my mouth out because I cussed a whole ton. It's a thing our family did sometimes," the master of water explained. Having to stick soap in your mouth sounds pretty gross to me, but I guess it's an effective way to teach someone not to do something? I don't know. Different things work in different ways.

"So, uh, while you were shouting at Jay yesterday you were asking if it was wrong to like someone after he said you were staring at Sammie. Were you admitting you like her or?" I asked. Nathan cheeks became a light shade of red immediately.

"I said that out loud!?" he exclaimed, catching the attention of our teammates. Hunter gave a look of curiosity.

"Said what, Nathan?" he questioned.

"None of your business," Nathan replied immediately, the shade of red on his cheeks growing darker from the attention he gained. Hunter raised an eyebrow.

"Oh really?" he responded. Nathan crossed his arms and nodded, his cheeks still as red as the skin of a tomato. The orange ninja paused for a moment, then a smile appeared on his face, as if he knew more than his brother.

"Alright then...I'll just find out later," he said, turning around with the others. Nathan let out a sigh, his cheeks returning to the light red shade from earlier.

"Yeah, okay, I like Sammie a little, okay? I didn't mean to blurt that out though. That was supposed to stay in my head," the light blue ninja admitted to me in a whisper, "Just keep this a secret, okay?"

I didn't understand how this could stay a secret since he said it aloud yesterday, but I nodded anyway. I'll keep his secret and tell no one, unless he wants me to. That's how I was with everyone else. I'm too anxious that the owner of the secret will find out to tell anyway.

Nathan smiled, looking much better than he did yesterday. "Thanks Karma. You're a livesaver."

I nodded with a smile. "No problem."

We all entered Xavier's shop, seeing no sign of the master of time. All we found was his shop neatly organized, and Yamikani scarfing down some spinach, looking quite stressed. The news blared on the TV nearby the stressed man, showing scenes of a recent traffic accident caused by a flying droid.

Yami looked at us with wide eyes, then jumped up immediately.

"I'm so sorry you all have to walk in on this scene! I've just been worried so much and-" the master of time's boyfriend exclaimed and talked quickly. Jay put his hands up, a bit overwhelmed.

"Hey, hey. Calm down and talk slower, please. We're just as on edge as you are," he told the man calmly. Yami took a deep breath, shaking and hugging himself. Jay slowly put his hands down, watching him.

"I'm sorry...I'm just really worried..." Yami apologized. The master of lightning nodded.

"I understand, but please try to stay calm, okay? If you're acting extremely anxious and jumpy, I will become the same way, which will make my body crackle with electricity. Since I'm the master of lightning, I have the unfortunate luck of producing tons of electricity when anxious or excited, which can lead to me electrocuting someone. I really don't want that to happen right now," Jay explained to Yami, who seemed more calm now. The man nodded in understanding, his bright, orange eyes still reflected his worry though. I waited for Kai to barge in on this conversation and ruin what Jay had done, but I was surprised to find that he wasn't even with us. I walked over to Lloyd and tapped him on the shoulder.

"Where did Kai go?" I asked in a whisper.

"He turned back for Steep Wisdom a few minutes before we reached the City. He said he forgot something," Lloyd answered in a whisper. I gave a sigh of relief at the information. There was no chance he'd ruin this all now. His skills at trying to get information and negotiation skills are horrible. I saw enough of that at Ronin's old pawn shop in Stiix.

"So, as I can tell, Xavier did not come home last night, correct?" Jay asked. Yami nodded as he took another bite of spinach.

"He's usually always home before nine. This is the first time he hasn't. I'm honestly scared something bad happened to him, and the news reports keep making me nervous," he informed us. I walked to the table where he was originally sitting and picked up the TV remote. My thumb hovered over the "power" button.

"If it makes you nervous, why don't you just shut the TV off?" I questioned. Yami darted over instantly and took the remote from my hands, his eyes wide.

"Don't shut it off! They could have found something on Xavier!" he cried, hugging the remote. I sighed. Yami was this worried then, huh?

"Yami, they wouldn't have anything on him unless he was dead. But I seriously doubt that will happen. He's probably on his way home now," I smiled, trying to reassure the poor guy. He remained silent for a minute, staring at the floor, then a slight smile came to his face.

"Yeah...Xavier could be ho-" his words were cut off then the theme for "breaking news" blared from the TV. It showed an alleyway that was blocked off by crime scene tape, and looked to be filmed live. A middle-aged news reporter stood to the left, who I knew as Gayle Gossip.

"This morning, we reported on a finding of huge amounts of blood in an alleyway just south of Ninjago City's museum. Despite no body being found, the victim has been identified and is believed to be dead. Their identity will not be released to the public until tomorrow and the suspect in this crime has yet to be identified," the news reported said, a serious look on her face.

"How do they know it's a murder or crime scene, Gayle? I believe you reported earlier this morning there was no weapons or fingerprints found at the scene," the news anchor reporter asked.

"The detectives received word from a passerby that they saw a strange figure enter the alleyway last night, then disappear without a trace. He also thought he heard strange laughter, though he thinks it may have been a drunkard just walking by," Gayle informed the anchor, keeping her serious face on.

"Thank you, Gayle. We'll keep a track on this developing story," the news anchor replied, the TV cutting back to a shot of the handsome anchor. I turned to look at Yami, who was now trembling. Does he think that was Xavier? It couldn't have been.

Suddenly, the phone on the table rang, startling Yami. He walked quickly over to it and answered it, starting with a calm and polite "Hello?"

A smile came to his face immediately after. "Oh, hello Mrs. Erland! It's been a while since you've called!"

He nodded once, the smile still on his face, but then it quickly started to fade. A shine that was in his eyes when she called disappeared, and the expression he was showing told me something was wrong.

"Oh...y-yes Mrs. Erland. I'll be there tomorrow...d-don't worry...I'll be okay," he spoke in a quiet voice, "Okay...G-goodbye Mrs. Erland. See you tomorrow."

Yami set the receiver down, trembling more than ever. His eyes were now wide, and his face was frozen in a sort of shock.

"Is everything okay?" I heard Cole ask. Yami showed no reaction. Instead, he paced in a circle, his expression still frozen in shock.

"It can't...no...she's playing a prank on me...everything's fine...it's okay...it's..." I heard him mutter, his voice trembling. I walked over to Yami, but didn't touch him. I allowed him to continue pacing.

"What happened? Is everything okay?" I asked, concerned. He stopped in place, now staring at the floor.

"I..." Yami started to say, but his voice trailed off. He then collapsed onto the floor, proceeding to sob into the carpet loudly. I hurried to his side, kneeling down beside him. I heard the others run up immediately.

"What happened?" I asked again, concern in my voice. Yami moved over and wrapped his arms around my neck, now sobbing into my shoulder. I didn't move and allowed him to cry into my shoulder, not minding how my shirt sleeve was starting to become soaked with tears.

"Karma...Xavier...he..." Yami started to say with a trembling voice, "He...he was the...the blood on the news...that was him..."

I froze, my eyes widening from the news. That blood...it belonged to Xavier!? How!? Couldn't he travel in time!? Couldn't he have gotten himself out of that situation!? More importantly, who is the one who made him bleed!? Who is the killer!? Several thoughts were running about in my head, making me feel like my brain was going to explode. Despite not knowing this man for very long, strong feelings of sadness blossomed in my heart. I couldn't help but feel denial too at the recent news.

Xavier really was dead, and all the things I had said to reassure Yamikani were lies. Lies I was unaware of.