Hello. It's been a little while, but here's another update. Hope you don't mind cursing, because there's one word in here.

The more you know~

Chapter Fifteen: Astray

Her hand wavered on the door knob as the doctor's final words washed over her. Initially, they had seemed so innocent in her mind, nothing more than a sincere statement that could have been for any client. Now, as she was inches away from leaving the office, Laurie felt as if the words themselves were holding some malevolence. Part of the girl wanted to turn around and confront the man about them. He had always struck her as being odd and slightly sinister, but, then again, she could have just been reading into things too much. Perhaps the words meant nothing at all and she was just being paranoid. Paranoia could stem from mental illness and anxiety. Settling on the latter of her thoughts, Laurie pushed open the office door and stepped out...

Into an unexpected pile of snow.

The chill licked at her faded jeans and soaked through her sneakers. Startled, Laurie tried to take a few steps backwards, but only managed to fall. Cold snow engulfed her body and she shivered, feeling her hair grip at her neck and shoulder relentlessly. Confused and startled, she glanced back behind her to see an open door, though it did not lead back into the office of her psychologist. It just lead back into an area that she only seemed vaguely familiar with.

"Well look who finally decided to venture out," came a harsh voice. Laurie turned her attention back towards the wooded area in front of her and finally noticed that she was not alone. "It's the other Garmadon."

Her face softened as she just stared at Kai. It felt painful to be in this dream, the one where no one seemed to remember her. That's all it is though, she reminded herself, struggling to get off of the ground and back onto her feet. It's just a dream. If that was true though, then why did she feel so cold? Her bare hands were a deep red color from the weather and she felt a hard shiver travel down her spine as a sudden breeze blew across the area. "You don't have to be so rude," she spat back, eyeing Kai indefinitely. His brown eyes were almost unfamiliar to her, full of distrust. She had not seen them like that in such a long time. "I know you don't believe me, but I really am Lloyd's sister."

The red ninja scoffed and turned on his heel, a lustrous golden sword visibly holstered across his back. Gasping lightly, Laurie ran as fast as she could through the snow, slowing down only when she felt like she was going to trip and fall. "Kai, wait," she called out, catching his attention. He turned back towards her, a quizzical expression on his face as he just watched the strange girl try to catch up with him. Well, he was willing to humor her for whatever she wanted. He might not trust her, but she really did not look like much of a threat. "Kai...I just...your sword," she breathed heavily, every exhalation puffing white in the Birchwood Forest air.

"My sword?" he asked raising a notched eyebrow. Without a second thought, he wrapped a gloved hand around the weapon and slid it out from its holster. It gleamed in the sunlight, reflecting rays off in every possible direction. "What about my sword?" Kai watched as Lloyd's sister slowly reached a hand towards it, almost entranced, before he pulled it away from her. "Oh no you don't," the Ninja of Fire said, keeping the weapon down by his side now. "If you really are a Garmadon, you probably want this. Want to take it back to your dad or something, try to help him take over the world."

She knew deep down inside that this was the Kai that did not know her. This was not her Kai, but she could not stop the blood boiling anger that had sparked from his words. "Look, hothead," Laurie spat taking a step towards him and watching as he reacted quickly, pulling the weapon on her. It wavered near her chest and she rolled her eyes, feeling a sense of deja vu overwhelm her. "I'm not here to steal or anything or try and take Lloyd away from you, got it? I wanted to see your stupid sword because I never had the chance to before." The red head recalled the photo Kai had given her, the one she kept back at their home. It was just him leaning against the railing of the Destiny's Bounty, his sword in his hand. "By the time I came around, my father had already stolen them."

"Stolen them?" Kai laughed, keeping the sword trained on the girl. The tip of his blade was close enough to properly threaten her, though not close enough to physically harm her. Yet. "He could never steal them. After he helped Lloyd get us out of a sticky situation with the Serpentine, he went back to wherever Sensei originally found him." Lloyd's sister, if she even was his sister, just did not seem to be right in the head. "You're really crazy, you know that?"

Laurie snorted and crossed her arms over her chest in an attempt to deflect Kai's words. "Crazy, yeah, like I haven't heard that before," she said softly, recalling the interactions with Dr. Voler. She really was going crazy, that was why these dreams were so vivid and encompassing. In all honesty, Laurie just wished that her own mind was more kind to her, instead of throwing her into scenarios where her friends did not remember her or were attacking her. Pulling herself out of her thoughts, Laurie just saw her friend shaking his head and rolling his eyes. She felt angry once more. "Oh yeah? Well you're an idiot, you know that?"

"Idiot? Please," the red ninja smirked, seeing Laurie stick her tongue out at him. "I'm not an idiot. I'm the smartest one on this team." The egotistical vibe that emanated from him was very unfamiliar to Laurie and she shifted uncomfortably under his gaze. "Well...Zane's actually the smartest one, but I'm pretty sure I come in at a close second," Kai quickly corrected. "You though, you don't have a clue about anything, do you? You say that you're Lloyd's sister, that you know us all, and that you actually know about the Devourer and Serpentine lore, but I think you're a liar."

It was getting increasingly difficult to hold her tongue. "I am Lloyd's sister, you jerk," she pressed, advancing upon Kai without even realizing it, a new flame of energy igniting in her heart. "I do know about the stupid Devourer and the Serpentine, like it or not and I do know you." He had taken his weapon from his back again and trained it at her, his light brown eyes narrowed. "The you that I actually know isn't nearly as much of an...an...an ass though!" With that, she turned away from the stranger that she thought she knew so well and stormed back towards the house that she had presumably emerged from, the one that she had only seen once before.

"Whoa, you two fought like a couple of kids who won't admit they have a crush on each other," chuckled a voice. Kai growled and spun around, blindly thrusting his sword forward. Cole caught his brother's blade with the shaft of his scythe and pushed back on it, causing the red ninja to fall back into the blanket of snow. "Easy there, lover boy," the Ninja of Earth continued, wiping a gloved hand across his forehead and sweeping his hair out of his face, "no need to kill someone over a little fight with someone you like."

"I do not like her," Kai said, getting to his feet and dusting white powder off of his pants. "She just feels really dishonest to me, like she's hiding something important." He met his brother's amber gaze and rolled his eyes. "Don't tell me you trust her. She seems absolutely insane, thinking she's Lloyd's family. Even if that is true, it just gives us more of a reason not to trust her. It's pretty convenient that she just showed up suddenly in the middle of this Devourer and claimed that she knew about it."

The black ninja gestured for Kai to follow him a bit deeper into the woods and Kai reluctantly agreed, the two treading over the virgin snow that had just fallen over night. "I'm not saying we can trust her," the leader answered honestly, noticing the sprawling birch trees above covered in dazzling ice crystals, refracting the light from the sun into an assortment of colors. "What I am saying though, is that Zane has been monitoring her over the past few days and you know that. He hasn't seen anything wrong with her. It really looks like she's trying to be honest with us."

Snap!

Kai looked behind them to see the nothing but the twin trails of their footsteps. "You heard that too, didn't you, Cole?" he asked.

"Yeah, I did," the raven-haired boy answered, gripping his scythe a bit tighter. If anything were to jump out, they would have to be prepared. "It was probably just a Treehorn or something. Nothing to worry about." Cole grinned at his own words, remembering how hard it had been to fight the Treehorns back when they had first visited the Birchwood Forest. "I mean, if they attacked we could totally take them now." Hearing Kai laugh beside him, the two continued their trek through the woods. "So, like I was saying, I'm not sure that Laurie is actually a threat to us, but Zane has been taking note of her brainwave activity. You know, just periodically to make sure that there wasn't any damage to her or anything after the fall she took off the Devourer and when we just found her out in the snow."

"Pffft, so?" the red ninja prompted, rolling his shoulders back in anxiety. There was something off about the forest now. He felt like they were not alone. Like they were being watched. "What does that have to do with anything?"

Cole dipped the curved blade of his weapon down into the snow and just dragged it along beside him, enjoying the sight of the almost translucent permafrost that was visible underneath. "I'm no science expert or anything, so I'm not really sure what it means, but Zane was saying that she always seems to have delta brainwaves. He was telling me that it's impossible to just walk around and function like that. Delta waves only really happen in the deepest level of sleep, but she has them all the time."

"Sounds like a bunch of nonsense to me," Kai scoffed, feeling a harsh breeze suddenly blow from behind them. He wish he could just go back to Zane's old home in the tree and change into a comfy sweatshirt or something, but they had to train Lloyd today. Even if there was a snake that could swallow a whole city in one gulp roaming around Ninjago, they still had to teach Lloyd how to master all of the elements. It was what Sensei would have wanted them to do. "We should head back to the others now. No need to make them worry about us."

She stayed as still as she possibly could against the trunk of the tree behind her and held her breath, watching as the air was forcefully expelled through her nostrils in a hazy mist. Kai and Cole sauntered past her without noticing and she only dared to breathe once she saw them grow smaller along the horizon. Laurie just had a feeling that they were going to have something to say about her and all she wanted was answers. Answers that would help her figure out why she was having these awful, vivid dreams. Now that she had heard what they had to say, all she had were more questions.

"I'm...sleeping all the time?" she whispered to herself, still feeling the chill of the snow on her less than adequate clothing. "Well...of course I would be. This is just a dream." Incoherent thoughts buzzed through her mind as she separated herself from the birch and slowly trudged back towards the warmth of the house. She had to talk to the doctor about this when she woke back up. Maybe he would have more answers for her then.

Where there is light, there will always be shadow...

Laurie froze and stopped where she was, searching for the source of the voice she had just heard, but the area around her was void of anyone. She had heard something, right? At least, she could have sworn that she had heard something. "Probably nothing," the red head sighed, shoving her freezing hands into the pockets of her jeans and carrying on through the woods. "It's usually just nothing."

I really hope that everyone can just bear with me on this. It's slow and it's boring and I know this, but it's all just so psychological and I'm enjoying playing around with stuff and even using stuff I've been learning in my psychology class to aid me in smaller details.

So, yeah. Thanks for reading and I'll see you again on the 29th. Everyone have a great Thanksgiving!