Wellspring

by HillwoodDailies

"You still have feelings for him… Don't you?" Kai asked. Nya stared into the bright blue sky with effervescent clouds, but only saw a dark abyss, inky black as the smoke Cole had fallen into, her own faults projecting through her field of vision. She sighed, finally giving in. "They never left." A Cole x Nya canon divergent retelling. Canon compliant Jaya.

5. I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend…

A/N: OMG I've been waiting to write these chapters for so long, I can't wait for you all to read them. Again, sorry for the long wait. Three months is just way too long to keep you hanging. Lots of cool and ridiculous things have happened this past month. This chapter and the next was inspired and heavily influenced by the song 'I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance with You' by The Black Kids.

It's a good song, you should go check it out. Right now. I'm waiting…

Disclaimer: I don't own this song either.

Everything that has happened: Every canon installment until Season 1, Episode 6: The Snake King.

This chapter takes place during the events of the episodes Tick Tock, Once Bitten, Twice Shy, and The Royal Blacksmiths.

---

The word's on the street and it's on the news,

I'm not gonna teach him how to dance with you.

He's got two left feet and he bites my moves.

I'm not gonna teach him how to…

Dance, dance, dance, dance!

Nya

Sometimes Nya became angry that Wu would never tell her or the team close to anything when it came to an Elemental Master's 'True Potential'. Wu left without any warning, and that annoyed her the most. Each one of the boys in the group had done all they could and with Lloyd gone, they prepared with all their might to get stronger and become the masters of their bodies and minds.

Nya tried her best to help each of them with what they needed, whether to set up for a challenge, or help them with spotting their strengths and weaknesses in combat. She wondered every day as she watched the boys train and battle the dummy's that were created by Jay what each of them held back that kept them from reaching it. Each day of the week it felt like Nya was learning something new about everything.

The days of that week progressed like this:

First, on day one after Wu had gone to be on his merry way, she would learn the extent of what they were fighting against: The Great Devourer. A new set of macguffins were introduced to defeat the monster. Something that they needed to find and quickly: The four silver Fangblades. Artifacts that would be instrumental to freeing the giant snake. The conversation between her brother about the matter and the history of the fallen brother, Lord Garmadon, in her room of the ship was short and sweet.

"So Garmadon was bitten by the Great Devourer while retrieving Wu's sword over the monastery wall, creating the evil inside of him and turning him away from Master Wu. They were so young, and this beast will only keep growing, as long as it keeps devouring everything in sight."

"Kai? Are you sure that is all he said about it?" Nya asked, arms crossed in contemplation.

"Yeah. The Devourer had been sealed away at that place you saved us the other day. The City of Ouroborus. We need to find them, Nya. It could destroy everything before the prophecy can even begin to take shape. I was thinking we could ask around Jamanakai Village first. Any other ideas?"

She wiped her mouth with her hands and puzzled the situation with a stroke to the chin with pursed lips and a scrunched brow. After a moment she says her one idea. "We could do flyers? We've got to stock up on some supplies in the Village when we get there, but that could be a good start to get any information out of the townsfolk. Get us on our side."

"I like it, but I don't know how the others will take it. It's just too simple for them right now."

"It doesn't really matter does it? The sooner we start searching the less time Pythor has of recovering the lost locations of these blades."

"Cole says that we only need one, without all four of them he still has no chance."

Nya was impressed with this assessment. "Yeah, he's right. Then, the sooner we get Garmadon, all this will be over and we'll be home free."

"Or I do."

She sighed in annoyance. "Kai, I know you want to be this 'Legendary Green Ninja' person said to 'defeat the Dark Lord and bring peace to the realm'… But after all that happened to Sensei and his brother, I kind of feel a little sorry for the guy."

"That's nice, Nya." He laughed sarcastically with a twinge of anger in his voice, "But the next time I see him, prophecy or no prophecy, he is getting a good ol' fashioned beatdown. No one takes my sister and gets away with it."

"Oh, this is silly." Zane said exasperated while holding the flyers next to Jay. Jay was posting them to the nearest telephone pole. Nya noticed from him an unfamiliar bout of self awareness.

"Do you have any ideas? I know it may be a little tedious, but I think it is a great idea." Cole responds as he looks in Nya and Kai's direction, but she knew the smile that accompanied the compliment was meant only for her. With all of the insults, she felt herself slouch for a minute and thought she should have listened to Kai and thought of a better idea, but the smile helped. She smiled back in kind.

"Hey, maybe Sensei is gonna go get the 'Samurai' for help?" Jay said, annoyed. Her face fell a little as Jay mentioned the Samurai again, and in such a hateful tone. Like any feelings that were felt between siblings, she felt Kai's urge to interrupt him.

"The Samurai? I'm sure she's—" he started stuttering again after absentmindedly making another mistake while hiding their secret. Nya rolled her eyes, and resisted the urge to rest her face on her palm. "I mean, he's busy looking for the Fangblades as well."

"Hey. You guys sound kind of antsy. Um, is everything all right? Nya, you look like you want to fly away." Cole was teasing her, trying to get something out of Kai. She could see it in his eyes through the hood of his suit. Jay turned around with a quizzical look from behind Zane that she turned her head away from. She held her ground as Kai was trying to step forward to protect her but he wasn't fast enough, blocking him from getting closer to Cole.

"Everything's fine. One hundred percent! We're not hiding anything." Kai stepped through them, shooting a confused set of eyes at Cole, and got behind Jay who was following behind Zane up the road to hang more posters. Before Cole could catch up with the others, Nya came up from behind him and pushed his shoulder in warning.

"Don't you know what could have happened? Jay could know, and he still is annoyed at who the Samurai is. You're playing a dangerous game with me, Brookstone." She whispered in defiance.

"Relax. I was just fooling with you." Cole whispered back. "I also like to see Kai squirm a little. You do remember what we talked about a few days ago, right? I know that Jay and the others would be fine with this. What are you afraid of?"

"Unlike you, I'm not afraid of anything, I'm just being cautious." He scoffed at her at this statement, and she added a quick and quiet response. "Oh you're one to talk, we both have secrets we need to share with the class, don't we?"

"Yours is much cooler, and pretty easy and understandable. Mine is a little bit harder, and who knows what the others might think?"

"Yeah, right, Mr. Hypocrite, using my words against me. I'm not buying it." Nya whispered, easing herself closer to his face. "You. First." Nya said as she used her hand to poke him twice on the chest for emphasis.

Cole responded with his whole body, getting closer and saying into her face with a smirk: "Not on your life, sister." and it took her back for a second, and his closeness overheated her face. If she had worn her helmet today, she knew the goggles on it would have fogged up. Remembering that very conversation in her room, and what she said to him, repeating Sensei's saying back to him and saying 'brother sharpens brother', she became upset at what Cole was insinuating. She knew he was her friend, but was that really what he saw in her? Just another one of his siblings, like Kai, to squabble with?

Before asking him about it, a shriek from a store owner was heard from up ahead. They both came to Zane, who was blankly staring at the sky, transfixed on the bird that was flying overhead. All of the flyers that he was carrying were all on the ground.

Kai was the first to apologize and stoop down. "Sorry. Sometimes our friend is in another world."

"He's littering all over the place." The man said, gesturing in the dazed ninja's direction.

"We'll pick it all up for you. I'm so sorry, sir." Cole said to him, joining Kai in picking up the papers.

Jay put a hand on Zane's shoulder and shook him a bit to try and snap him out of it. "Zane, what's going on? Hey! It's the Falcon!" The ninja, stopping what they were doing, came up to see it. "Every time we follow it, something good always happens."

"Nya! Head back to the Bounty and wait 'til you hear from us." Kai said to Nya before he ran off. Cole and Jay both looked over their shoulders to give Nya a sorry face, before heading off in Kai's direction.

"But where are you going? What about all these flyers?" Nya loudly said to the boys getting farther and farther away. "Guys!" Apparently that gumption Kai had earlier that day didn't last long, because all of the boys would follow Zane chasing after the falcon again somewhere far away from the task at hand. She sighed into her hands as she looked down at the scattered paper on the street, and slowly stooped down to pick them up. She decided, against her brother's wishes, that she would do the rest of the work herself. Nya was used to it after a while. Looks like I'm alone again. Typical.

She then walked throughout the town, posting each of the flyers one by one and going from shop to shop, but had no luck in acquiring any information. Nya, when she arrived at the empty ship late that night, wanted so many things at the same time, but after a day of going house to house she was so tired. The only thing she wanted to do was to pile onto the couch and stare at the ceiling, but even as she did it still didn't fix the problem that the emptiness hummed to her, making her loneliness a little worse.

She wanted to ask Wu about the predicament and seek some semblance of guidance. She missed Lloyd's voice and his running footfalls on the wood of the ship. She wanted hot-headed brotherly advice, maybe a few jokes from a mouth as quick as lightning, a hot meal, or… just a talk at night during the wind and under the stars. A thing that she secretly craved more than the rest.

—

In the sunny afternoon of day two, when the ninja came back, something happened that she wanted to see to believe. Nya didn't get to see Zane's awakening to what had been called a ninja's 'True Potential'. From what she saw when they all came back from their latest adventure, she saw the ramifications of opening your mind to your flaws and becoming a new person. You could see it in Zane's face; the peace, the clarity, the new perspective. It was like he was replaced with a new someone else. Or in Zane's case, a new robot.

It made sense in retrospect, the calculated focus and drive to a mission, never prone to distractions, being able to hold his breath underwater for an exponentially long amount of time… It all made sense. Too much sense, and the rest of the team agreed. She had to see it for herself.

"Can you control it now? The ice just comes out of your hands because you tell them too?" Nya asked, perplexed.

"Affirmative." Zane replied, a smooth cloud of ice forming around the air of his hands. The crystalized flakes that appeared inside sounded like the tinkling of sleigh bells in winter, but small and near silent as the twinkling of stars. "Sensei was right. The heart was the key to my potential. I also have all of my misplaced memories. I now know where I come from, who I am, and I'm much more powerful because of it."

She placed a hand on his shoulder. "I'm so happy for you, Zane."

"Thank you, Nya." he said back to her, bowing, then lowering his hands and turning off the ice in a soft flicker, with flakes slowly floating down onto the deck.

"And all with a flick of a switch. Unreal." Jay said, walking forward to take a place next to Nya and in front of Zane. "What I wouldn't give to learn how to make a Nindroid all my own from your dad."

Nya let go of Zane and proceeded to break down into a fit of giggles. "Nindroid? Who came up with that name?"

"Yours truly." Jay said, theatrically bowing subtly.

"That's a good one."

"Thank you, m'dear. I'll be here all week."

"I'm sure you will." She said to Jay before turning to talk to Zane again.

"So that's it? Was it really that simple Zane?"

"I just had to accept what was holding me back. It was everything that I could have ever wanted. I guess when Sensei said to follow our hearts, he wasn't saying a metaphor, but what we had to do to reach our 'True Potential'."

"Now all that is left is, what do we all do?" Kai asked, gesturing between the three yet unenlightened.

When Nya looked at Kai, he was shrugging and looking genuinely confused, not to anyone in particular, which was a familiar sight. But to Nya the real story was the body language that appeared between Jay and Cole. Nya could read both of them like a book. To her left, Jay had puppy-dog eyes with a half smile, and was nervously looking up and down, redness forming on his cheeks, never looking her in the eye in an attempt to avoid her face.

To her right, Cole looked pekid. White and green permeated the color of his skin as his hooded eyes gleamed with a wetness she had never seen before. With what she had gathered from his history she felt true pity as Nya felt Cole sinking into the wooden planks of the ship with regrets and revelations. But instead of avoiding her gaze, it looked like his eyes were swimming and boring into hers. His gaze was searching through her eyes for answers.

She knew what thoughts were coming from both and it was only a matter of time.

After a quiet night in her room, Nya decided to apply herself on the third day on the Fangpyre skeleton. She acquired it just on the outskirts of the Desert of Doom by the people of Jamanakai Village. It was the very same one she found by the townsfolk and given to the Samurai the week that Lloyd was stolen from them. It would take a few hours, but she would be able to study the venom and its effects to get a grasp on how to defeat an enemy.

She was glad it was a Fangpyre, she didn't want what happened to Jay's parents to happen to anyone else. Despite Wu's disappearance and all the work she had to do to her suit, the ship, and her research that was suggested by Cole, everything was completed and she was ready to go.

—

On day five she decided that day to make a presentation to the boys about what she had found about the Fangpyre's venom, the skeleton spread on the table, but was distracted during it by a cruel prank by her brother. She shouldn't have asked so much of the boys, with everything on their plates. All they had to do was just sit still and listen, but the only one that was listening intently to the material was Jay. She saw his moon-eyes from across the table from Cole drawing away on his sketch pad, and Zane and Kai trying to contain their laughter. From what, she didn't know, until she took a good breath when she turned toward Jay's direction.

Her throat started to swell, her nose became irritated and stuffed. It was suffocating. Kai made him wear perfume to prank Jay, and probably keep her away from him as much as possible, killing two birds with one stone. Well, it was probably gonna happen sooner or later. Protective older brothers am I right? It ended with Jay finally asking her out on a date, and no surprise to herself she said yes.

Jay called her beautiful under all of the perspiration, redness, and other fluids upon her face. It was unfamiliar, but an unprecedented and welcoming change. Then she left to go find Pythor before the perfume he was wearing took her out. She was unsuccessful in finding the snake in a patrol, until an alarm sounded on her communicator that indicated his precise location: Mega Monster Amusement Park. He was making an appearance at the park with the rest of the Serpentine to search for the first of the four silver Fangblades. He found one.

Not on my watch.

The date was supposed to be simple: a small dinner date, but at the last minute was changed to Mega Monster Amusement Park. She was lucky, and she decided to kill two birds with a stone of her own. Once the plans were made and she was free to change and carry her equipment in her purse, Nya and Jay arrived together arm in arm, sharply dressed, and they sat down to order their meal.

She found, unfortunately, that Cole had been absolutely right. Taking Cole's advice was often easy, because it was often always right, but she wished that he wasn't right about Jay. He was lying almost the entire time, but again so was she. At least to her, what he did was endearing. Nervousness always shown on him like paint on a face.

She had been sneaking around as Samurai X, refusing to be a part of a boy's club, but still wanting to impress him. It was something that they shared together; building, inventing and bringing down the bad guy while doing it. She had her own truth to tell, 'True Potential' or no.

But he was acting especially weird the entire time, fabric periodically wrapping around his neck, hiding more and more. Not that Nya noticed most of it. He talked a mile a minute, and Nya couldn't stop watching the communicator on her wrist.

"Yeah, so even when I was young, it was clear I was born and bred for adventure."

"Heh. Is that right?" Pythor was near, she could nip it in the bud right now, but she chose to try and stay focused on what was in front of her: two monstrous burgers that were made for one person and her date.

"I was the first one to get my knot badge in 'Lil Scouts. I was always trying daring foods." He said, pointing to the giant burgers piled high with carnival fare. His choice, to her agreement.

She decided to keep an eye on Pythor periodically throughout the date. She prayed that the signal that he built had caught the eye of Kai, Zane, and Cole back on the ship. She hid behind the giant food to look down again, hoping that the rest of the team were on their way, or at least on their way.

"I once built these wings from scrap metal and other—uh, you okay?" Nya was then interrupted by Jay saying, "Are you alright? You seem a little distant."

"Uh, yeah." Nya said, then started thinking of a way to explain herself, thinking on her toes. "The portions are huge here, and we split that dish."

"Heh. That's funny. So… That Samurai." Her head perked up in excitement about how much she wanted to hear Jay talk about her secret identity. He changed the subject too much for her liking, but this was something she awaited for in eager anticipation. "Oh, man. I hate him, don't you? He's such a showboat, you know? If you ask me, he's nothing without his big, clunky exo-suit."

"Oh." Nya hated how sad she sounded, but hoped that it would help him hear her truth. The disappointment, she felt, was palpable. "Really?"

"Yeah. Nothing can compare to two good old fashioned feet and fists, don't you think?" He raised his eyebrows in a flirty way in her direction from his booth.

She smiled back, but half-heartedly. "Yeah. Sure." His words were like a stab to the gut from a jagged knife. It seemed that no matter how much she tried to impress him in the shadows, he would always be wary of competition from those around him, like the others. Maybe he is just trying to impress me? She then thought of the way Jay was strapped to the train tracks to get the Samurai's attention and win the bet.

"You know, sssomeone once told me…" Jay looked himself over with the back of his spoon, looking shocked over something.

"Jay? Are you okay?"

"Yeah, uh… Excuse me for just a moment., Nya. I'll be back. I have to go to the resssstroom." Jay ran into the bathroom and didn't come back for some time.

To pass the time, she tapped her foot against the wood below the booth. With the minutes she waited impatiently doing so, they slowly evolved into an hour. The consistent, now unmuted, beeping on her comms kept her occupied while the terror of Pythor wreaking havoc on the citizens of Ninjago a few feet away ate away at her more and more. She took a look at the long line leading into the restrooms in the back, and with a final dejected sigh of a day she had waited for so, so long finally lost to her, she made another choice.

"Sorry, Jay. Duty calls." She got up, but not before getting the remaining money in her purse that she owed for the date and bolted out of the door of the restaurant. She walked to the back and pulled out the shrunken version of her helmet. Nya pressed a button on the left side of the helm and it expanded within her hands. Preparing to place it atop her head, she threw her head back to move the hair from her face for more comfort, and it slid on like a glove. Pressing a few buttons on her wrist she called her suit to her location, and waited.

It came with a flourish, and Nya hopped into the open hatch to sit and make Pythor regret he ever set foot on the park grounds. Nya lied in wait for Pythor and whoever showed their face, and he appeared from the exit on one of the dark rides with his army. She could tell by the citizens running out in fear. She had been to the park before in her youth, and that particular ride was never scary. Maybe for children, but not for me. She thought.

Hiding behind the building she tried her hardest to keep quiet, to surprise them, the unmistakable image of a small silver blade in the shape of a fang thrust into the air by the Anacondrai general amongst his minions. The first Fangblade. Each of the Serpentine escaped the ride in droves and cheered for the success of their leader. Nya vowed to stop it now, to cruelly and swiftly rip them from their revelry once and for all.

She made the plan in her head and took the leap, a wide sadistic grin along her face. She immediately started her thrusters and jetted forward and used her mechanical arm to rip the blade from Pythor's grasp. Nya heard the panicking shouts of Pythor and the Serpentine, after stealing their prize. "Stop him!"

She laughed to herself and tried to do so quietly, but failed. She was halfway free, preparing to fly above and beyond the Ferris Wheel and back to the ship. It's over. It's all over. After she had pressed the button to fly away, she rose off of the ground, but lights were shining red from inside the suit. Nya was going down, hard and fast, and what she feared was now the truth. "Thruster malfunction!"

In her hulking mech, she tried to get up and run, but Nya was slow and outnumbered. They were gaining ground fast as she was lumbering away. After a moment or two she felt the weight of a few of the Serpentine attached to her legs, tripping her. Nya turned herself around and tried to push herself up with her arms behind her to get back upright but it was no use. She was trapped underneath the pile of snakes that kept her down.

Pythor removed, with his great strength and some help, the hatch that opened up to reveal the person within and maniacally laughed. "Finally, the mystery man shall now be revealed."

In the corner of her eye, a brown and orange blob which she guessed to be one of the Constrictai pried the hand of her suit open to obtain the stolen Fangblade. She heard the gasps of shock and awe from the villains as Pythor peeled the mask off of her head.

"Or should I say mystery girl? Who's gonna save you now, hmm?" Pythor said with a wicked smirk and glare. Nya gritted her teeth in both panic and rage. "Load her up boys! I know exactly what to do with this thief."

One by one the Serpentine in a chaotic procession came forward and pried her out of her unmovable suit. They pulled her along behind her and no matter how hard she tried she couldn't break free from a million scaly hands grasping and pulling at her limbs. They arrived at a roller coaster, the only one in the park that was under repairs, and Pythor called on a few of the Serpentine to break the gate and find whatever rope or chains they could find. They proceeded to press her into the front seat of the closest cart and wrap a long chain around her body.

Someone behind her made the decision to switch the roller coaster on, and somewhere above in the sky in her line of vision, a cartoonishly large ring of fire ignited to life. It proceeded a gap between the tracks, where she knew would become her destination. A fall to her death. No way out.

"You won't get away with this!" Nya cried, still trying to free herself to no avail.

"Oh, I already have! And don't count on those color-coded imbeciles, they were tied down by their own incompetence. I don't know what this 'True Potential' thing is that they kept raving about, but whatever it is, it wasn't enough to get the Fangblade," Pythor said, wiggling the silver blade in front of her face to torment her. "And it certainly won't be enough to save you now. So what is left to do but cry out for help, huh? Can I hear one before I go? It would be most exhilarating."

As he finished his monologue with a final hiss of his forked tongue, Nya had flashbacks of what it was like to be held by the binding of the ropes that held her prisoner in the Temple of Fire by the Lord of Darkness. A prisoner. Confined. Approaching and hurdling fast into flames, helpless and alone. She wriggled and shook to break away from her confines as Pythor's sneer grew wider and wider in anticipation. Unlike that last time where she had hoped to be untied and find safe, hard ground; she was going to be in the sky with no help, no answers, and no way off.

He was the only one in her thoughts. Not her brother, not Zane, or even Cole. She wanted what she was denied that entire day; a moment's peace and levity, and a laugh from a passionate soul. She did cry out for help. Something she hadn't done in a long time.

"Jay! Help!"

"Later, alligator." Pythor said, sneering over her in the seat of the roller coaster cart. He hit the side of the car and Nya jumped back in surprise. "Let's go, boys!" Pythor yelled amongst his supporters, and they laughed with him as they all scurried away out of sight. She yelled for a few minutes, begging for something, anything to come and take her off, before the ride had started to roar to life and move forward.

Her prayers were answered as the cart chugged along the track and someone, completely covered in clothing from head to toe, had climbed aboard. From the pattern of the scarf, she could tell who it was in an instant.

"What happened to you?" Jay asked, climbing over to her, holding onto the side of the cart as the coaster went further up the first incline.

"Pythor happened. He tied me to the tracks as a… distraction! We have to hurry! Before we hit that opening."

"That fiend! Where? What opening?"

"There!"

He looked forward to the end of the tracks ahead and with his eyes wide as saucers, Jay said, "Uh… We have to get you out of here." He then proceeded to rattle and break the chains that trapped her in the cart.

Nya, with her curiosity taking over as the chains weren't budging off of her, looked him over. After all of the incessant rattling she began searching for a reason he was covered completely by all his clothing, seeing something terrible. A tail, protruding out from his back. "Jay. Wait. Did you get bit? Here, I'm gonna take off your headscarf." She attempted to reach up and grab it.

"I prefer not to." He sighed, the proverbial jig being up. "Yes. It was the Fangpyre skeleton from this morning. I pricked the fang on my hand earlier today. I was meaning to tell you sooner, but I didn't want to ruin our date."

Nya felt a blush creep to her cheeks as she felt her smile expand. "Oh, how sweet." She then stared at the tracks in horror as she searched for an idea in her brain, distracting her only for a moment from her predicament. Nya thought of what he said to her today at the table. "Jay? Weren't you first to get your knots badge in 'Lil Scouts? You could-"

He looked dejected as he interrupted her before she could go any further. "Yeah, about that, I made that up. I just wanted to impress you. I wasn't ever in 'Lil Scouts."

"What?" Feeling the pinnacle of the ride itself and the inevitable plunge the coaster would take, she yelled, "Hold on!"

"What? You have an idea?"

She would have laughed if she wasn't so terrified. "No, hold on!"

Jay climbed into the seat next to her as the slow climb was finally over. They rode down the slope with a pair of shrill screeches, and the wind in her hair blocked her field of vision, carelessly and wickedly around her. She heard the whoosh of something beside her flying away, and she looked to Jay and found his face, all of his face, with scales and in a sickly green color. She saw it once before on his parents and it suited him as much as it suited them to her. It didn't.

"Aah! Don't look at me! I'm a monster." Jay said as he shielded his face from her view.

"You are not a monster. You're still just Jay."

"Look, we have to call on the Samurai! Oh, where is he when you need them?" Jay looked down from the passenger's seat and cried out as loud as he could. "Help! Samurai? Samurai!"

The ride was forgotten. He needed to know no one was coming. "Jay?"

"What is it, Nya?

"The truth is… I haven't been honest to you either." Nya couldn't bear to look into his face.

"What? You haven't?"

"Jay, I- I'm-" She gulped down her fear and turned to him. "I'm the Samurai."

"You're the Samurai?"

As they barreled into the last legs of their ride, she came up with the words she would say to him as if it were her last.

"Jay." Nya gulped. "If anything horrible were to happen, I just want you to know that you don't have to wear cologne or pretend to be anything that you're not. Because I like you best when you're just you." Nya said, and sealed it with a kiss to his cheek, raising his heart rate, and the effects of the Fangpyre venom had melted away. "Whatever happens next, just remember, you are the best you."

In the end forgiveness and understanding was all that they needed, and a little morale boosting. What seemed to Nya as another chemical reaction like losing the snake-like features that had once claimed a place on the faces of his parents, he instead stood up in the cart and transformed again quite literally and figuratively into the boy he was meant to become.

It was scary and beautiful to see Jay become one with his powers. The cute and sweet person that she knew didn't exist anymore but became something of a higher being. Tendrils of white-hot electric bolts ran throughout his body, and a similar colored glow emanated from his person. Her mouth was hanging open in shock.

"What is that?!" She exclaimed.

"MY 'TRUE POTENTIAL'!" And then he floated (Floated!) down to the front of the roller coaster cart. With his own inner strength he stopped it dead on its tracks to a halt with an excruciating screech. When the show of strength was done and Jay had no other thing to worry about, the tendrils dissipated and he collapsed in a heap upon the cart and he could carry on no longer, gasping for breath.

She traveled forward under the confines of the chains and grasped onto him. With her own strength heaved him up into the seat next to her and each breathed a sigh of relief in each other's calming presence. No more secrets, no more lies, heads on each other's shoulders, just basking in the glory of staying alive.

—

"You certainly had me fooled, I wouldn't have thought that you would be the Samurai." Zane had said with an air of wonder and praise in their little team huddle to discuss the days harrowing events, and discussing the newest reveal outside the park's gates.

Cole stepped forward, a half smile forming across his face, and his high spirits were slowly fading through his words. "Heh, I wish I had a sister like you."

There it was again. Sister. A sister like me? She hated it. Nya's skin crawled while inwardly begging to see him smile again, but she hid it with a smile of her own which he weakly returned.

"Technically, I was the first to discover her secret, and didn't we agree whoever we thought was the best would naturally be the Green Ninja? The destined ninja to defeat Lord Garmadon, huh?" Kai said, and as predictable as the sun climbing in the sky the next morning, they all in their own way decried his remarks.

"You know what I learned today? No matter what kind of secret you have, whether you're a snake or a samurai, it's important to be yourself." Jay said, strapping an arm around her waist to hug her and slowly letting go to give her more space.

Cole interjected. "Yeah, that's cute, but you wanna know what I learned? The Serpentine now have the first Fangblade." He crossed both of his arms together, looking anywhere but in front of him.

Cheerfully, Zane added, in his new and emanating calm. "But we are getting stronger. One day, we will all reach our 'True Potential' and Pythor will be stopped."

"And we figured out all this without Sensei. Pretty good for four ninja." She punched his shoulder as playfully as she could manage, saying in her mind: What am I chopped liver? "And a Samurai."

"I wonder what Sensei is doing now?" Kai asked the group. Nya had no way to answer him, and neither did the rest of the group.

Cole turned to him and chimed in first, breaking the silence. "Let's just hope we find out soon, see where he is and get this all over with. Let's go back to the ship. I for one have had enough 'Amusement' for one day." Cole said, walking away, in between both her and Jay, heading back to the ship.

He turned his head towards her face to give her another weak smile that Nya saw had disappeared almost immediately at the corner of her eye before he left.

What is going on with him?

—

As she was coming up from below later that night, the same high that she felt amongst the clouds and the electricity in the sky on the rollercoaster existed on the ground as well. She never felt an obsessive need to skip in her life until this very moment. The air clear of all secrets, and the calming cool of the new love that existed on board the ship, docked by her, still close to the place where they had exchanged their feelings for the first time.

He asked her to be his girlfriend in the cart, their rescue being imminent. And she did gladly, and quickly, accept.

After a few hours of making repairs to the mech that Pythor and the Serpentine Army ruined to trap her, she was famished which usually led to a bout of frustration and anger. Jay had told her to be careful and Nya was touched that he would do that. He was so attentive and as happy as she was. She had skipped dinner that night and just needed a little sustenance to get by for the next few hours before bed. The meal she had at the amusement park was enough food for a set of dragons, let alone one. She climbed the stairs to the deck to get closer and closer to the kitchen, her mouth watering for the thought of anything sweet that she could get her hands on.

Just as soon as she reached the door at the top of the staircase ready to grip the doorknob in a vice, the door opened without her help and knocked her back into the wall-railing to her right. Nya stepped up ready to fight whoever was at the other end of the hall and knocked her over after feeling so hungry. She was stopped from falling down the stairs by a firm hand grasping onto her forearm, pulling her to him. Nya was quaking, not with dread but with a quiet, simmering rage as she wrapped her arms around his waist to hold herself up. It had cleared when she had taken the time to breathe, smelling the familiar scent of something sweet, and crumbs were starting to prickle on her shoulder.

Nya guessed Cole's name even before he started to speak. "Nya? Are you all right? I'm so sorry."

She shook her head and started to straighten herself. "I'm fine, Cole. It's okay." Nya was still grasping at his lapels and slowly tried to back away, but stopped to look him over. Instead of the PJs that she would usually see him in, he was wearing baggy sweats. She noticed this and responded. "What's with the get up? I know I am working on something and burning the midnight oil and stuff like I usually do, but where are you going?"

Cole quietly backed up into the other side of the hall, wiping the crumbs off his shirt, freeing himself from Nya's grasp of his shirt. "I need… I need to be alone right now."

"I haven't seen you all day." She took notice of the crumbs, stepped forward and slowly, bit by bit, pinched them off his sweatshirt. "Been 'eating away' I see."

"Yeah. I was. It, uh, makes me feel better." Cole said, unsteady. With each crumb that was lifted from the shirt, the more he would start to slowly climb down, but never far enough away from her that he didn't let her continue removing the remnants of his desert.

"'Feel better', huh? Are you okay? Do you want to talk about it over some sparring? We can test the new dummies that Jay made on the deck. Invite him to see them be successful?"

He started stuttering and wiped the crumbs of his shirt faster, and when he was done, he crossed his arms. All of the crumbs were gone when Cole answered her two steps below her. "No. I mean… yes. I mean. I am okay. I'm just on my way back down for the night." He cleared his throat a fist came up to his face to block the cough out of his mouth. "You haven't, uh, already tested it with him?"

Nya put a hand in her pocket and held herself onto the railing for balance. "No. I had to start on some repairs on the jetpack of my mech." She sighed in annoyance, looking away. "It got trashed when Pythor and his minions were trying to get the Fangblade." Nya then smiled to herself at the memories on the rollercoaster. "But at least it led to something good that came out of today."

"What?"

"Jay and his 'True Potential' and... that because of it, I'm his girlfriend now." Nya said, sheepishly shrugging her shoulders, her right hand playfully picking at the rail. When her eyes met his, Nya noticed that they had widened a miniscule amount.

Cole's eyes looked down at nothing for a moment, then up at hers again. "Well. Heh. That was fast."

"I guess we are both a little eager, but we've felt this way about each other for a while. I'm sure you know that more than anyone."

"Yeah. I do, don't I?" He rubbed his hands against his pants, swiping at nothing, a half smile pulling at his lips. Cole started to talk again. "And to think that you were a part of his ''True Potential" all along?" Cole paused. "He's, uh… he's really lucky."

"You'll find it soon, you know."

"Find what?" Cole asked, and she judged his response to be half curious and half annoyed. Strange. Nya was genuinely confused.

"Your 'True Potential'. Just promise you won't be like Kai."

"Bitter and desperate? Me? Never." Cole said with a slight stiffness to his demeanor.

Nya laughed softly at his observation. Kai has been acting a lot like that lately. A silence hung in the air, not because of a sense of awkwardness but because she believed no more conversations could be had.

"Okay, Cole. I'm gonna go get some air, get something to eat."

Cole awkwardly moved further away into the lower stairwell, his hand clutching then sliding over the rail to to the right of the tall. "Sure. See ya." Then in a hurry, apparently to Nya, he turned away and started fast-walking down the stairs and into the hallway.

She started to turn away as well, opening the door to the outside at the top of the steps. Nya turned her head around her shoulder, missing the doorknob entirely with her hand. She crossed her arms behind herself, and leaned against the door. She called to him softly. "Hey… Cole?"

He halted at the bottom of the stairs, inside the hallway "Yeah?" Cole asked, his gaze almost hopeful.

"Any suggestions?"

That hopefulness melted away as he gave his suggestion. "The cake is the best, but of course, that's always my answer." Then Cole walked away out of her line of sight.

As soon as he was gone, she opened the door and walked the path to the kitchen where she was surprised to find Kai. She questioned if she really wanted to go through with it and just get back to work. He was the only one in the room and the rest of the boys, including her new boyfriend, were gone. And from the way Cole acted, he wanted to be as far away from everyone as possible again. Nya looked back to the door of the stairwell, preparing to turn the other way, but her stomach growled to get her attention and she persisted.

She waved at Kai at the door and made her way to the refrigerator. "Hey, Kai."

"Hey, sis!"

"Hey. Whatcha doin'?"

"I just wanted a snack and to play a game or something before bed."

"Me too. Hey, Kai, where are the rest of them? They hadn't said anything to me after I left for my room for the night. Are they waiting for you to come back?" Nya asked, propping herself on the fridge door.

"Jay and Zane turned in for the night. Long day for all of us I guess." Kai answered, body fully in the fridge, digging for more.

"Yeah. I don't blame them." Thinking about it for a moment, Nya felt that her eyes were indeed heavy, but had chosen to ignore it.

Kai gave her a piece of the cake from the fridge, and Nya stopped to look at it for a moment. She thought of Cole, flustered and distant at the top of the stairs in the hull.

"Kai?"

"Yeah, sis?"

"Have you noticed Cole acting strange? Did anything happen to him today? I met him in the hull a moment ago and he seems a little distant. Well, more distant and closed off than usual." She took a bite and savored it, she immediately hummed in delight. Cole was right again.

"Not really." He grabbed a piece of the cake for himself and took a bite, talking with his mouth full. "He had always worked out when he was stressed, out of everyone else's way. Cole used to do it a lot before you moved in." Kai shut the door of the fridge after Nya backed away from the door. He swallowed down the bite he had and the story continued. "Cole only really cared about the mission usually. De facto leader he usually is. But I wish we had come for you guys a little sooner. It looked like you guys needed as much help as us. He was focused on the Fangblade and really nothing else. Failure, I guess, wasn't something that he was counting on today."

"Why didn't you come and find us after you found and lost the Fangblade?" Nya started to hold the piece of cake up to her mouth to take a bite.

"Oh, that was Cole's idea."

Her attention to the dessert was almost completely forgotten. "What?"

"Yeah. Cole just said 'Let's just leave the two love birds alone'." Kai responded, quoting Cole's words incredibly close to how Cole had always sounded. He mimicked Cole's actions and she was surprised to find that he had copied what Cole had always done when he was bitter with his actions, a low and like gravel, with the bridge of his nose pinching in subtle anger. "After that, he didn't say much."

"Did he... really say it like that?"

"I'm pretty good, huh. I can read him like an open book."

"Right." she said sarcastically like she thought a younger sister should. Nya didn't want to pry too much again, and wanted to eat her snack and get out. Be distracted. Resume some semblance of a safe and normal life again. She yawned, and she couldn't hide her tiredness from her brother any longer.

"You must be tired. Sis, take a break, you've been working too hard. How long have you been up? "

"Don't kill me, or act all protective, but about… five this morning?" Kai winced and tried to speak before she finished. "Well, someone had to teach you all about those snakes and save your butts."

"It looks like Jay was the one who was doing all of the saving." Kai said, mouth stuffed with the final bite of his cake, smirking through his chewing.

Dreamily, Nya sighed, but caught herself in the middle catching Kai's expression. "What?" She stuffed the cake in her face, hoping to avoid this step of the conversation.

"So, uh." Kai hesitated and stepped closer to her, and looked her dead in the eye. "What is Jay to you, exactly?"

"Well, we are boyfriend and girlfriend."

He crossed his arms and made a little scoff after defeatedly resisting her gaze back to him. "Really? That fast?"

That's exactly what Cole said.

"We are the only people we are interested in. I've actually felt this way for a while." Nya said. After this, Kai gave her a look that screamed 'overprotective brother', one of those looks that she was all too familiar with. "Why tiptoe around the idea of being together if we both want it?"

Kai stiffened and leaned against the now closed fridge. "I just…" He sighed. "Wanted to make sure you know what you're doing."

"I can take care of myself, you know." She said, finishing the late-night snack.

"I get that, I get that. But that's not what I'm saying though."

She had to ask him. Clear the air. "You don't like him do you?"

"Pfft. I never… said that." Said Kai, defensively with a little laugh. His hands were up, as if caught in some kind of crime.

"So pulling that prank on him this morning and saying I need to be careful around him is just for giggles then? 'Cause it's not that funny."

"Well… he's not my… favorite person in the room at all times. And I have known him longer than you."

"You have known him for as long as I have. What is so wrong with him other than that you don't like that he talks too much?"

"Literally the first thing he said when he found out we were saving you was: 'Wait. We're saving a girl? Is she hot?' and 'Does she like blue?'" Kai pointed at himself, mimicking the idea that Jay would say that she liked blue only because Jay would be wearing it. She ignored his disdain.

"That doesn't mean he is such a terrible guy that you and I can't find something we like about him. He's cute, he's funny, he's nice to me and I like him. There's not much you can do to change my mind."

"I'm just saying to be careful. He was pretty harsh about Samurai X more than anyone else before you were revealed to be in the suit, and I know you can 'handle yourself', and he found his 'True Potential' with you and in your relationship or whatever." Kai leaned off the fridge door to put a hand to her shoulder, his gaze boring into hers to make his point. "I've been in relationships like this, more than you, and from my experience it is always the ones who have too many compliments have a lot less substance. I'm your brother and I know I annoy you, but I do have your best interests at heart."

"I know. I'm sure you do." Silence. Stares. Nya stepped away and removed his hand from her shoulder. Then, "Well, if everything you say is true, you'll be the first to know."

"And I'll be there for you when it-"

"If."

"If it happens. I'll be there for you if it happens." Kai nodded his head in understanding, and she returned it in kind. He moved away to go. "I'm gonna head to the TV room, relax for a while. You want to join me?"

She considered it, for a moment, before she felt her eyelids tugging her eyes closed at a more constant consistency. "No, I am going to bed. You're right, I have been up for too long. Goodnight, Kai. See you tomorrow."

She left before she wanted to hear anymore from her brother, right out the door at a brisk pace. Nya traveled down the stairs back to the hallway that contained her room, grumbling to herself. In order to be more careful, as opposed to the last time that she tried to climb the stairs, she climbed down slower than usual. However, the more she thought about her conversation with Kai, the less she cared about the loud sound of her footfalls. How dare he?

What made her stop going about halfway down was a series of grunts, almost painful. Nya tried to speed up, but was afraid of what would be beyond the stairwell, so she just walked naturally and tried to catch up to what it was. Sneakily tiptoeing across the wooden planks at bended knees, quiet as a mouse, Nya pressed onward.

As she approached the next door on the right after she turned the corner, the louder the grunts became, and the more they started to be more familiar. It was Cole, and it was accompanied by the sound of metal softly jingling against more metal. She resumed the path toward the door of the gym, where a series of sounds like these had usually come from.

His baggy sweats that covered his torso was a darkened gray, from the sweat of exertion she presumed, lying haphazardly against the equipment on the other side of the room as if it had been thrown. Lying down and with ease, no effort whatsoever, Cole lifted the gigantic weights up and down. Nya was surprised at how frustrated he looked, his brows furrowing in anger at the exertion.

Cole had always worn clothes that didn't really fit right. A loose pajama shirt, a baggy hoodie, the gi that was never too tightly wrapped around him and, more recently, an equally loose-fitting sweatshirt that was now thrown across the room. With all of that stripped from his torso, she recognized the fruits of his labor from working out to combat the constant consumption of confections and, what Kai had revealed so matter-of-factly, his stress.

At this sight, Nya gripped the wood of the doorframe in a vice, the tips of her hands digging into the wood underneath the splinters of the aging wood. Pity and a twinge of an unfamiliar frustration permeated her bones as she watched him strain under the weight of the lift. As if on cue, Cole sat himself up to look at the mirror to the left of the room after putting the weights up on the uprights of the bench press.

He was shaking a little and breathing heavily. His chest rose and fell drastically, swinging his head back to move his sweat-soaked hair. Cole then used both of his hands to slowly pull his hair back even farther, both arms over his head and stretching his upper body to elongate his back, eyes closed and sighing in relief. His shoulders rolled and everything under it rippled to life, like a stream over the rocks.

Nya's tired eyes didn't want to close anymore. Her hands dug into the wood some more.

His arms came down and Cole started unwrapping the cloth wrapped around his hands, Cole's shaking and breathing slowly subsiding only for a little bit. In the middle of untying the cloth, he stopped to look at himself. Nya believed that Cole's gaze into the mirror was a look of longing into nothing, far away from the ship and into another world. After a few seconds of building tension, he became angry with whatever he saw and ripped the cloth that was on his hand, scrunched it all together in a ball, and then stood up to throw that ball in the mirror at his face.

Nya almost gasped and gave away her location, but she covered her mouth just in time to catch the outburst. The sight of his anger on his face melted away as he took notice that the throw itself was pointless. He sat down, dejected, put his head in his hands, then clutching his black hair into his fists. A soft moan escaped his lips, signifying he had become a wounded animal. Cole's muffled whimpering was the only sound in the room. Seeing this Nya backed away, somehow knowing that nothing from her would help his state of being, and she slowly walked into the hallway towards her room. Nya left, with a heavy sense of dread in her heart.

Looks like he did really need to be alone. We need to find his 'True Potential', and fast.

—

On day six, a day that Nya would definitely remember for a long time to come, Cole had finally told them all about his past. It turned out she didn't even have to try after what she had seen from him the previous night. His father, then his family's history, then his life before the monastery was forced out of him due to unfortunate circumstances. Nya couldn't have been more relieved for him. Sure it was a secret that only they shared together, but it was a relief just the same. A promise was a promise and she wanted to repay him in kind.

When he was done with the explanation none of the boys jeered, or made fun. They were all in on whatever plan Cole would come up with to get the next Fangblade. The blade in question he recognized from a set of pictures that he showed the rest of the group from his photo albums. It was now turned into a trophy, of all things, pilfered by the world-famous explorer 'The Great Clutch Powers'. A man known for his daring feats of exploration and his Ninjago best-sellers. Winning the show 'Ninjago Talent' was the only way to claim the prize, much to the boys', and most of all Cole's, chagrin and nervousness.

"Here is what we'll do. Zane, Kai, we need a complete read out on the history of 'Ninjago Talent'. I'll join you and whatever we don't know we'll ask Dad when we arrive." Cole said to the team, taking the reins of leading the meeting at the head of the table in the headquarters. He took his role today intensely. Zane and Kai nodded to him in approval.

"Jay, I need you to get a communicator at the ready so we can keep tabs on the ship while we're down there." Cole said, looking in her and Jay's direction at the other end of the table. "Okay. Now Nya," Cole looked to her, "You'll stay here and try to get in contact with Wu, if or when he comes back."

"That's it? I can't help you or Jay with anything?" She felt Jay's hand on the back of her shoulder, but it didn't calm her enough to not make her case against Cole's plan for her.

"No, Nya, that's not it. I thought about something else you can do for us while we research. We need something to keep all four of the elemental weapons in when we jump out of the ship and arrive in town. I need it to look like an instrument case. Flat, long, and unsuspecting. Pop's suspicion is something that we don't want, or something we can afford right now."

"I'm sure I can fix something up from below. I've got some metal and leather and some extra fabric scraps." She then asked him with a strong caution, "But Cole, don't you think that hiding these weapons from your Dad is a little bit unnecessary?"

"No, it's necessary. We need to keep them in a safe place; with me and close to the team. In and out and as quickly as possible. It would also really help with keeping them out of sight of Garmadon, should he return unannounced." He turned his attention to the boys. "We need to handicap Pythor. All we need is one and all of this is done. Kai, Jay, Zane, we are talking to my dad about that trophy, going to the competition, getting it, and then we bounce."

"But-"

"Clear to go and understand your assignments, guys?" A hearty cry of 'yes' on top of one another from each of the ninja made Cole nod and hit the table in a flourish of finality. "Good. Let's go."

Cole then exited and the huddle around the table was broken, each boy headed in their own directions. Jay let himself quickly hug her from the side before he left, then leaving Nya at the table completely alone.

—

After a good three hours of preparing the instrument case, it was complete. Nya was very proud of it. The Golden Weapons were brought up one at a time, so as not to use them all and suffer the consequences. The last person who did had faded from existence and she wasn't going to take that chance. She used many of the unused hinges on the broken doors that couldn't be used anymore. Leftover leather from the seat of the Samurai X Mech. Little bits and pieces to remind him of home and family that Cole would carry along with him to see his father after years of being apart.

She held off for as long as possible to tell him it was done. The implications of making something that hid his true self from his father, though personal, made her incredibly uneasy. All of this work to bring him out of his shell she felt was for nothing. But the Fangblade, a chance to get to save the world from a 'Great Devourer', was above any ulterior motive, so she continued to work anyway.

She caved in to call Cole up to her room after close to the four hour mark. All of the golden weapons were laid out on her bed waiting for him to return to test the dimensions with him before they would leave on their mission. She made that excuse so she could have him in the room alone before he left. One last shot. One last chance.

He came into the room at a brisk pace in a baggy gray hoodie and a set of jeans to combat the colder weather. Nya probably guessed that he just wanted to get this over with. "Hey, Nya. We're all ready to go. So, is this it?"

"Yep. That's it."

"It looks great." He started with the Nunchucks of Lightning, Shurikens of Ice, then the Sword of Fire and placed them one at a time in the raised slots on a blanket of cloth. Cole gave a noise of satisfaction. "Yeah, looks like they all will fit. Thank you."

"Great. I was hoping this would meet all of your specifications."

He turned to meet her eyes with a smile that Nya hadn't seen in a while that etched his face. "Well, you have an eye for the details, and to be honest I knew you would never disappoint on an assignment like this."

"Good to know." She thought of the pain she witnessed in the weightroom, the pain in his eyes when Zane reached his 'True Potential', and the huffy way he stormed back to the ship on the day at the gates of the amusement park. She had to say something. Time to rip this off like a band-aid. "So… You are going to tell him right?"

His lopsided smile faded slowly and his gaze morphed from her and into nothing. "No."

"Why not?"

"There are more important things at stake than my- what did you call them at one point? 'Daddy Issues'?" He simultaneously turned from her and the conversation that they were having entirely. Cole said this to her so bitingly, she couldn't help but think of their time with Rocky. She did say that… How simple things were, and how long ago it seemed to be.

Nya tried to defend herself. "You know I didn't mean it like that."

Cole sighs, holding something in, leaning over the case that she made for the mission, hands both on top of the case preparing to shut it. "I know."

"You also know what this could mean, right Cole? This could be the very thing you need that can unlock your 'True Potential'."

He sighed as he stopped to put the last of the elemental weapons in the case; his Scythe of Quakes. Sounding even more annoyed, Cole said, "I am, unfortunately, very aware."

"What's stopping you? Look what happened with Zane. With me and Jay."

He stopped for a moment, his back was as tense and stiff as a board. "I just… I just can't Nya."

"Why?" Nya stepped forward, deciding to crowd him in his space if he decided to turn around. "It was so easy for Jay and Zane! It could be the same for you if you just tried."

"I can't!" He yelled as he towered over her. "It's more than that for me! This isn't about just learning a lesson about lying to you about myself, 'cause…"

Nya was shell shocked at his shouting and stepped back a bit in surprise. Noticing this, Cole hesitated and looked over her face and at her wide eyes for a moment. He refrained from raising his voice any louder, and continued more calmly.

"I… already don't do that. And it is definitely not as easy as a flick of a switch. This isn't just about telling him where I've really been all these years. And it's been years, Nya. It's years of bad memories. Years of being so tired and aimless. No purpose. Now I have one. This could save our entire world. That's the only reason I'm seeing my father today. I'm asking him about the contest, getting that Fangblade, saving everyone and getting the heck out of there."

"You really believe that is your true purpose? Your 'True Potential'?"

"Yes. And it's…" Nya was shocked to find the hint of tears in his water line. "All I have left to look forward to."

Nya heard that statement from Cole's mouth in disbelief.

"So, if you'll excuse me, Nya. We've got a Blade Cup to take." He turned away, took the top of the case that contained all four weapons, slammed it shut and clicked the hinges that locked it into being more secure. As soon as it was done he breezed past her without even noticing her scowl, the instrument case clutched in his fist by the handle, and her aggressive demeanor that would lead to her next comeback as if she didn't exist. It angered her further.

"And you really think that stealing is really all you have left to do? What about everything that Wu gave and taught to you? That led you here? With us?"

"All that's here on the ship. And Nya, I've got nothing else to lose." He held onto the wooden door frame as he answered her back like he did before, then leaving and clicking the door shut.

She remembered the last time he was at her door like this, giving her advice to lead her to a life less alone. And in a moment's notice after he didn't take hers, Nya felt more alone in her own room than she ever felt in her life.

—

Nya tried to find something that didn't cause her distress on the ship as soon as the team left. She knew she had more than a few hours to kill and as soon as she parked the ship outside the borders of Cole's hometown, so Nya tried to reach Wu again. Instead of the lilting old voice of her Master, she was only greeted with more and more static. So after many runs of the commlink she ultimately failed and quit.

Wherever he was, it was likely he wasn't coming back to offer words of wisdom anytime soon, or to find a way to comfort Cole and give him a call. Failure wasn't an option that she was hoping for, or even wanted, so for the next two hours she didn't work on it or screw with the mech. She wanted to hit something. To train. So that's what she did.

Nya found the comfort she knew would come from things that actually worked around her. She immediately felt more calm around the hum of Jay's technology that he had installed in the ship. Each of the five dummies at the press of a button, that he installed into the deck, whirred to life. Spinning and lifting out of the floorboards with a click and a small jump, and they were ready to go. I'll just test these babies myself. She placed herself in the middle of the makeshift enemies and just started to attack. Without hesitation, no surrender.

Nya leapt over their swords, swept under their pikes and maces. Nya trained with a vigor that she didn't know that she had. It tossed the objects toward her in a familiar fashion, keeping her away from them by their swings up and down. She swept through the obstacles with ease. As easy as muscle memory. Her mind flashed to the first course at the monastery. It was almost the same, coasting from one of the dummies to the next, but only without the bonus of balancing on pillars, making the course force the offensive. Without them, she only ended up using the dodge that Cole taught her that first night, over and over and over again.

She lunged herself over the low swings and lunged herself under the high swings, like she was taught. The more that the swings had tossed her around, it provided little to no challenge. After the tedium, it made her enraged. She was yelling, but at no one in particular. Well… that was a lie. Thoughts of her regrets and incomplete hopes for another piled on top of each other in her head and were tossed around by her actions inside the circle of robots.

Instead of incessant ducking and weaving, Nya hacked and sliced through the objects that were made to cause her no actual harm. She in succession succeeded in stopping each of the dummies' weapons one at a time. One retracted their sword, one held the mace behind their back, and the rest followed suit after Nya's attacks. A failsafe kicked in when she was through and, as programmed, they retracted back into the wood.

It left her alone on a now empty deck, hair wild, breaths fast and heavy bouncing with bended knees on her remaining kinetic energy. The day's air made a hollow sound against her ear as she was literally and mentally surrounded by emptiness and nothingness. Simmering anger towards what felt like ghosts. She refused to go to her 'happy place', to take any lessons she had learned to curb that anger and sped through her options.

She ran, not walked, to pack her broken jetpack for a journey. Anywhere away from here.

In the end the decision to steer the ship in the direction of the Sea of Sand once again was easy, if not a bit predictable. If there was something she could find to fix her pain, it would be where she was most comfortable and without any distractions. The Cave. To tinker away.

Nya parked the ship at her set destination in a way that the ship could remain unseen; in the mountain range beyond Echo Caverns. She made her trek to the entrance under a large skull at the end of a foreboding skeleton nestled between two rock formations. She pressed the button on the right side where the ribs used to be, but not before looking from side to side. Coast was clear and the skull raised to beckon her in.

The first place she arrived in the cave was her suit. It was where she carried the remains of what was once her mech's jetpack from the bowels of the ship. It was one of her fears that she would need it very soon to be at a moment's notice, and she wouldn't take any chances. She set up all of her tools and went to work.

Whatever thing that she had been searching for came to be underneath all of the metal behemoths made by her bare hands, and it had worked. Nya spent hours that she didn't miss twisting and turning the knobs and screws needed to complete her project. Later in the day, in the middle of working on the final touches, Nya heard the communicator on her wrist beep and she pressed the button to say "Hello?"

"Hey, Nya. It's Jay! Just wanted to check on my wonderful girlfriend and see how she was doing!"

She smiled and swooned with a sigh at the word "girlfriend". Looks like the novelty of a first boyfriend just hasn't worn off yet. "I'm doing fine, just making some adjustments to my Samurai suit, I had to make a few more repairs to the jetpack after the whole 'Mega Monster Amusement Park' run-in with the Serpentine."

"And, again, sorry about that Nya."

"It's all in the past now." Nya shrugged to herself and pulled out from under the work that she was doing, leaning against the back of the legs of the mech, focusing on the conversation. "How is everything going in Cole's hometown? Is everything what you expected out of him?"

"The dancing? No. His dad and their relationship? Now it all kinda makes sense. I think I've learned more about him walking around his house than just straight up asking him."

"Really? Well, what's up with his dad? Did Cole tell him the truth about everything to his father yet?"

"Um. Yes and no."

"What do you mean yes and no?"

"He's kind of making it up as he goes along. He mostly told the truth. He is living with us, he is getting information about this 'Ninjago Talent' competition and how to get the trophy. Cole just hasn't gotten all the way through to him."

"Didn't you all try to get to him?"

"As much as we could. At this point, I don't think much of anything is going to change his mind. Sorry."

Nya wiped the perspiration on her forehead. "You're probably right, Jay. I tried to talk to him before you all left too. I had tried to convince him for a few weeks to say anything."

"Wait." He paused over the line for a moment. "You knew about this before? Why didn't you tell us sooner?"

Nya sighed and gripped the cool metal of the leg behind her. "It was his story to tell. He did-" Nya winced, shaking her head and stopped herself from saying anything further. It was all in the past now. "He would do the same thing for me. Anyway, the point is that Cole has to own up to this soon. It could be something that could tear him apart. I just don't want him to get hurt."

For a few moments Jay did not answer her and Nya stopped for a second to listen to the background noise on his end of the communicator.

"Jay? Jay?" She walked across the room, away from the mech, to see if the signal on her wrist was really strong enough to work. Nya thought of the missing Wu and remembered his static signal and became angry, not just about herself, she hated failure and she had enough for one day.

"Well, Nya." Jay said over the communicator after a pause of a few more seconds. His hesitancy was not entirely filling her with any hope. "He did say something, but he dropped it as soon as he mentioned it."

She was now standing in the middle of the cave, surrounded by the machines that made her proud but were all overshadowed by the thought of only one thing. "Tell me. What was it?"

"It was something about a dance move. The Triple Tiger Sashay? His dad told us it was one of the toughest dance moves in the history of Ninjago. Cole said he was seven and it didn't go so well."

"Anymore details?" She said softly.

"He said that it was during a show, he fell on his face in front of everyone and let his quartet down. It looked like he and his dad took it really hard."

That doesn't make any sense. A dance move can't be the only thing that makes him so distant. There has got to be something else. There's got to be something else.

"Anything else? What did you find at his house?"

"Well, there are a lot of trophies and pictures of Cole's dad's group ''The Royal Blacksmiths''. There are a few, but not a lot of pictures of Cole with his dad and his mo-"

Nya heard a muffle of loud voices far from the phone he was using to contact her. He shouted a far away, "I'm coming, Cole! I'm coming." Then at the typical volume through the phone he said: "I'm so sorry, Nya. I have to go."

"What? Why?" He didn't answer her. "Jay? Why is Cole calling you?"

"There are only a few more acts before us, and Cole wants to get some more rehearsal time in before we go on. Live television and all that. We'll be going on under Cole's dad's group name: ''The Royal Blacksmiths''."

"Live television? When, Jay? WHEN?"

"Don't worry, I'll tell you. It all starts at four on channel nine. I'll see you on the other side, my darling."

She blushed, but only for a short moment. A flicker. Nya continued on. "Okay. Good Luck. I'll be tuned in. Bye." She said, hanging up. She looked at her watch and it was close to four already. She ran back to her mech, packed her things back up and raced out the door to return to the ship. Nya believed she would be needing a more comfortable seat for what would come next.

—

When Nya returned to the ship, she surfed the channels with the clicker like the button was a fire that needed to be snuffed. Nya didn't care for the numbers on the controls, all she cared about was just finding the one channel the performance would be on. When she succeeded in finding the right one she sat down almost immediately after the first frame of the competition was shown on the television screen.

It only lasted a few seconds before the station jumped to a series of unimportant and tedious commercials. None of them were new or interesting and it made her tap her foot in restlessness. She sat on the edge of the couch cushion, legs spread, leaning forward. If it was any other day of television on the ship alone, it looked like she was fully engrossed in sports or in the grips of a cheesy melodrama that she enjoyed watching around Jay.

When the channel finally decided to resume showing the competition, the lights of the stage went crazy as a juggling act was finishing the last bars to an upbeat song. The woman on stage finished the routine off with a flip as the three balls were thrown into the air and caught with her feet.

For Nya, who had seen and done so much training to keep her body in peak condition to win against any villain she could come across, decided it was incredibly impressive. She felt sweat trickling down the temple of her forehead. Nya mused that if any of the other acts could be impressive enough to beat the boys, who until now had no experience dancing in a group let alone the rest, besides Cole, not being fluent in dance at all it could be harder to defeat Pythor and the Serpentine.

If Cole was really planning to steal the trophy and they didn't get it, this could get dicier than she wanted to admit. She didn't want him to go too far and end up dragging the team down along with him. He was spiraling, and she wanted to hit something again. She settled for using the hand that wasn't still holding the remote to clutch the fabric of the couch next to her.

What she saw next made her nearly rip the seam she was squeezing with a deathly grip. The crane shot revealed something that made her recoil. The beard that he was wearing hid nothing and told everything. Not even a clown could pull it off, but Nya was still afraid. It was Pythor P. Chumsworth, in all his glory, and he gave a low number of a five to her impressive display as the rest gave her a few solid sevens. 18 out of 30 was too low. Even for a villain like Pythor.

She waited for what seemed like forever to get to 'The Royal Blacksmiths'. The acts were more than a little mediocre. There were acrobatic acts, singers, and dancers, but the average scores were, moreover, correct and even nicer than she would have given them. Especially Pythor, who would never give a score higher than a six, evening out the scores once performance at a time. But none were as bad as the Serpentine that traveled onto the stage. The very sight of them made her seethe, grinding her teeth in anger in the process. She wished she was there satisfying the urge and itch to stand up and jeer like a madwoman and boo the so-called "TrebleMakers".

They all started shriek singing:

My poison lies over the oce-

Nya winced and immediately pressed the mute button on the remote. Her finger still softly pressed into the rubber preparing to press it once more when the abomination to her ears had ceased. She was extremely perplexed. You'd think the Serpentine in their desperation would at least try a little harder? Right?

The camera panned to the judges when it was over and she softly pressed the rubber button again. There was no mistaking who gave a 10 to that terrible performance was none other than the tall, purple menace that towered over the rest of the judges. The great Anacondrai with his ten card gleefully turned to the camera, the sixes that the judges held were flipped into nines as the Serpentine general sneered in a ferocious manner in their directions.

28 out of 30. The highest score of the night.

Even if Cole wanted to back out, with Pythor calling the shots, they may not stand a chance no matter how good at dancing Cole, or any of the other ninja for that matter, claimed to be.

She began tapping on the remote absentmindedly, and her agonized thoughts diminished slightly when the announcer, a man with a mop of blond hair that swept over his face, came on the screen again. He donned a bedazzled suit, his impossibly smooth skin and sparkly eyes were his most distinct features, a benefit of being a celebrity she guessed, and started to announce the next act with a flourish.

"Our next act that's coming on the stage tonight, last but not least, The Rrrrrroyal Blaaaaaacksmi—" The announcer held onto his ear, hearing something from someplace else. "Uh, hold on. Oh! There's been a switch. Taking the stage next is 'Spin Harmony'!"

Nya couldn't believe it. Something had to have changed. 'The Royal Blacksmiths' to 'Spin Harmony'? A name connected not only to Cole's new life, but the life he now shared with his brothers in Spinjitzu. Was it her advice, Cole coming to his senses, or what happened to him and his father? Whatever it was, it worked. Nya perked up from where she was sitting, a doe in headlights, wide eyes glued to the screen.

She began whispering to no one in particular, repeating herself over and over, willing the universe to see them all again.

Come on, guys… come out… you can do it, Cole… you can do it.

The camera's still showed the barrenness of the stage on the screen. Nothing was happening. Pythor from the judges' table was grinning from one side of his head to the other, white fangs glistening in the stage lights. After a good two minutes of waiting it finally happened. The announcer in all his show stopping glory came out once more.

"Last call for 'Spin Harmony'!"

Still nothing. Nya sat even further on the edge of the couch. The couch cushion gave way in her grasp.

"Come on… Come on, guys… Come on, Cole… Where are you?"

The cameras panned towards the sneering fake judge in his purple scales turning to the rest of the table, talking without a mic, starting to get up and head somewhere else. Nya could only guess if he was leaving to get the Blade Cup, to send to his Serpentine Army to claim it. Time slowed for Nya, the remote to the television shaking within her hand as she fisted it in anger. She began to get impatient. Him having Lloyd and the first of the Silver Fangblades was enough.

Then, quick as a whip, it cut back to the announcer holding on to his earpiece and saying with another one of his exuberant flourishes. "Ladies and Gentlemen! 'SPIN HARMONY'!"

Then, a favorite song of the boys, The Weekend Whip roared over the speakers and one by one all of the ninja came on the stage and turned to the audience, all on cue to each of their spotlights. It was astounding. Each one of the boys settled into their choreography of their separate tornadoes of Spinjitzu. Kai's is a stunning red, Jay and Zane were their shiny, respective blue and white, and Cole a deep brown with light sparks of orange.

Nya couldn't believe what she was seeing. Each one of the team were completely in sync, and although they had different moves between them, all the styles, like them, complimented the music and each other perfectly. They gave their all, and Nya felt a swell of pride. She thought to herself wistfully: If only Master Wu could see them now.

Her celebratory mood started to dissipate at the sight of a den of Serpentine storming the stage, hissing in anger and revenge. Nya stood in fury releasing the remote, hitting the floor. She fists her hands, the tips of her fingers imprinting their mark on her palms. She called out the boys names as she watched as they succeeded in defeating the deviants, dancing and dueling with those snakes on the stage, lights dancing along with them. Each one of their punches and kicks to their enemies were repeated in kind by Nya kicking and punching the air in excitement and happiness, exclaiming at the television along the way.

Her eyes for a while were on Jay, never knowing that he could do the things that he was doing, but everything changed when the camera started to follow Cole, speeding head first into a series of three Constrictai fastly approaching him.

Nya held her breath. He prepared himself a foot away from the first to jump over it, and he did, but not before using his foot to step on its head. Cole used the momentum to flip forward, his fist colliding with the head of the second. With the finishing move of Cole using his head to flip forward again against the third snake, Nya was already still with shock as he landed in his final pose.

Not only did he pose to the camera, he looked straight into the lens. It was incredibly unfamiliar to then see him so confident in his looks, and that confidence rang true as his gaze. His smile was covered by his ninja mask, but it was clearly seen through the windows of his soul.

Wait. Was that?

He released a low, almost feral, growl like a tiger, hand reaching out to his audience with a flirty furrow of his left brow. A familiar heat rose to red the apples of Nya's cheeks. Humidity. Magma after a quake.

"He has done it! The Triple Tiger Sashay! He has danced the impossible!" Shouted the announcer, coming onto the stage, stopping the performance entirely in his wake.

"He did it! He did it! WOO!" Nya shouted her exclamation to the empty room so loud that she was shocked the ship didn't sway and the wood didn't crack and break beneath her as she jumped up and down. Nya shook with exuberant excitement as the camera took a shot of all four of the boys on the screen. Kai gave him a hug and nuzzled into his chest, Zane looked so proud, and Jay gave him a nudge and a wink.

The dimples on her face were so well pronounced in complete adulation but the completeness fell away as the camera cut to the judge's table once again. It compelled Nya in that moment, in crazed lunacy, to fall on her hands and knees, grasping the sides of the television.

"Wait! No, no, no, no, no. No!"

She saw the two ten cards in the hands of the other judges and Pythor, the great Anacondrai general who at this point had his menacing grin erased, had put up a zero. A Zero! Unacceptable. Nya thought as the TV shook underneath her hands once more.

As she was nearly rage-blind from her fury with the state of events a hand, yes, a hand with a pen came to protrude out from the Anacondrai's throat. It drew one in front of the zero. To make sure that she didn't imagine it, Nya let go of each side of the TV to rub her eyes. A perfect 30. It was done, and she blew her exhausted sigh with tightly pursed lips, eyes closed, forehead against the cold screen. Nya then got up and steered the ship away from her cave and towards the mountains of Cole's hometown.

—

She received the transmission on the commlink on her wrist that they would return to the ship near the end of the day. Nya was aware of everyone's presence below deck from the hull of the ship, the roar of Zane's golden weapon glider presumably flying up the rest of the ninja to the deck. She was still working on her project of fixing the flight systems of the mech. Almost ready to put it away for the night, Nya was too occupied by running up the steps from below to come and join them in celebration.

Nya could hear them at the top of the steps ascending to the control room where the helm was held and traveled up to the second flight to meet them. She came around the bow of the ship from the lower deck to climb the stairs to the balcony, seeing the back of Zane's white hoodie as he breached through the door. Going to the door and looking into the room to greet the boys, she had only counted three out of the four, muttering to themselves and looking around. Kai was carrying the case that she made for Cole for the trip.

Curious and turning behind her and approaching the rail of the balcony, she backed up quietly to catch the unmistakable silhouette of Cole. His arms were crossed, his hands dangling off the ship, hair loosely flying over his eyes in the gentle breeze and still wearing the clothes that she last saw him in; a baggy black sweatshirt and jeans. She wasn't aware of how many hours had passed, but was surprised to see the now setting sun in front of him, adding to his new glow, a peaceful expression on his face. She had seen that face twice before. It only meant one thing. I was right. Nya started to slowly climb down the steps that lay in front of her to greet him.

"Nya?! You here?" she heard Jay ask behind her.

Shaken by the interruption, she looked back and turned to the team, greeting them instead. "Hey guys!"

"Hey, Nya. We were looking for ya. Thought you would be in here waiting for us." Kai said when he set the weapon's case down on the table, and then they all met in the middle of the room. He set it down with an exasperated thud, he was clearly tired and frustrated about something.

"Greetings!" Zane said, raising a hand in a wave 'hello'.

"Congratulations on the win, 'Spin Harmony'." Nya looked around the room, noticing the absence of what they had come to Cole's hometown for in the first place. "Where is the Fangblade? Didn't you guys get the trophy? You won, why isn't it here?" Their response was a series of embarrassed looks and Jay and Kai sheepishly rubbing their arms because of it.

Zane answered her question for them. "As we were exiting and greeting Cole's father backstage after the performance for Cole to apologize, consumed by their need for revenge, Pythor and the Serpentine got the upper hand."

"Cole apologized to his Dad? That's great! What else happened?" Nya sensed Jay was getting excited about the recounting of the tale of the stolen blade, and he spoke up to interrupt Zane and continue it himself.

"They apologized to each other and from the other side of the room Pythor sent the two Constrictai out to get Cole and Mr. Brookstone, and then 'Boom!' the crates next to the rails made them break apart and then, from the ceiling, all of the stage lights fell from the rafters and nearly crushed them both."

"Then Cole got to his dad before it came down and when the dust cleared, Pythor sped away." Kai said.

"We're they both okay?" Nya asked, genuinely scared and somewhat shocked at the prospect of everyone coming to the ship in good spirits after such harrowing events. "Is that why Cole is out there alone? He didn't look like he was upset."

"Cole found his 'True Potential'. He became completely indestructible, and the entire row of lights were lifted up by him and tossed them out of their way like they were nothing. You were right, Nya. His relationship with his father. That was the key, what he needed to reach it."

After Kai's words and the almost defeated way that he said them, and his demeanor of all his actions since she walked into the door, something clicked inside of Nya like connecting a final piece of a puzzle.

"I know you want to be the 'Legendary Green Ninja' said to defeat the Dark Lord and bring peace to the realm… But after all that happened to Sensei and his brother, I kind of feel a little sorry for the guy."

"That's nice," he laughed sarcastically with a twinge of hate in his voice, "but the next time I see him, prophecy or no prophecy, he is getting a good ol' fashioned beatdown. No one takes my sister and gets away with it."

She made a note to herself to ask him about this later…"Well, I'm glad nothing happened. I'm glad you're all safe and that Pythor didn't stick around longer to do anything else." Nya said.

"After Cole's new powers and our amazing performance, no wonder they didn't come back and finish the job." Jay said to her, coming to her side, sticking out his chest as proud as a peacock.

"It was amazing what you all did, I didn't expect that from you all."

"Thank you, my darling," Jay said, leaning in to give her a peck on the cheek. "But you should really be congratulating Cole."

Kai added to Jay's compliments with a sigh and scratching his head. "Without him nailing that 'Triple Tiger Sashay' and gaining the higher score, we wouldn't have had it in the first place."

"And like he said before all of this began. All we need is one, and Pythor is powerless to hinder us, and the Devourer will never be released." Zane chimed in after him.

"I hope we can. We don't even know where to find the third or fourth, and if Pythor was there the same time we were, then he must have the means to find them both." Nya replied, hopeful.

"Any word from Wu, Nya?" Kai asked, butting in, avoiding the conversation altogether.

"Unfortunately no. All was quiet on the ship but the sound of the TV today, and I tried earlier today, but all I still got was static. Maybe tomorrow I will."

"If there is still static I bet I can get a hold of it with some help. Want me to look at it with you?"

"Count me in. You know, right after I'm done with my suit's jetpack."

"Great. I'll get on some tune ups now and then later tonight before dinner. Zane? You still cooking?"

"If you all still want me to, it is settled then. I don't think Cole would disapprove."

"I'm sure he'd take any food you gave him, Zane." Kai said with a laugh. "I'm gonna relax in the TV room a while. My feet are killing me. I don't know how Cole did it for so many years. Comin' Jay?"

"I'm gonna get my tools and get started on the communication signal. See you guys in a few. I'll let you know if I make any more progress on the comms."

"Okay, Jay." Nya replied and sent him on his way, and Jay and Zane went through the hall in the back going their separate directions, but she tapped Kai's shoulder and took him back into the room.

"Kai, can you wait for a second? I need to talk to you."

"Sure sis, what's up?" He propped himself up on the nearest edge of the table. Hiding his apparent anger and boiling jealousy.

"Nothing's up with me, but something is up with you. Talk to me?" Kai stood and straightened up, his hands balled into fists below his waist. He was currently failing in trying to hide them behind his back. "Is this about what you told me the other day? About Garmadon?"

"I just want everyone to know who they are dealing with. Ever since I became a ninja, to protect you, I haven't done very much protecting lately."

"I haven't needed protection for a long time since then. You've seen that big bucket of bolts going around Ninjago and kicking Serpentine butt recently. Kai, that was me, you know."

He didn't take the joke well. "You were captured by Pythor and the Serpentine and I was nowhere to be found. Lloyd's still captured, Wu is Ninjago knows where, Pythor and those snakes are still loose, and Garmadon is still MIA. And I can't help but feel like, I don't know, everything I'm doing is just hopeless."

"Kai, we are all still here. You've seen Cole, Jay, and Zane, the way they are at peace with themselves, their faces and that true peace that comes with that; their potential. Maybe that isn't what the Green Ninja is or ever will be."

"Nya, I'm the last one left. So, I will be the Green Ninja. It is my destiny. I can feel it. It will be me. I promise you."

"You really are not going to let this go anytime soon are you?"

"No." Kai sighed, preparing for the soliloquy that Nya knew had become increasingly inevitable. "I've seen Cole today change so much, and with the part of himself that he struggled with the most. That anger, the fury within himself. I felt that more times I can count thinking about keeping you safe. Being the brother, no, the protector I know I could be if given the chance. I know that being the Green Ninja is my chance."

"Okay, Kai. Fine." She watched him start to go, but to alleviate the angst his speech set her with. "By the way, is Cole really okay after all of this?. I was a little worried after talking with him. I kind of got a bad little taste before you guys left."

"Maybe you should go talk to him?" he suggested, backing away towards the door in the back with a little smile. "I think it will do you some good to be around him when he is a little bit happier right now. Maybe he can even show you some of his new moves?" Kai exited the control room with a knowing smile as he passed through the arch of the door with a snap to his fingers before that smile faded away.

Nya felt like sitting at the table for a while, contemplating the emotional whiplash of this week that was tugging at her heart. She almost pulled up a chair and did, head in her hands and a bout of deep breathing. The anger, the frustration, and the search within each other for answers was nothing if not tiring, but Nya started walking forward, eyes glued to the door that led to Cole outside.

Walking out into the twilight air, she had found him where she had left him. He was still peaceful, his hands still dangling over the edge of the ship, hair slightly blowing in the wind. Nya wanted many things, all she thought would be good for her soul. Another apology, maybe even a hug, but she could get that anywhere from others on the ship. At that moment the one thing she wanted most was to just take the leap to climb down the stairs and get another something good.

It was because of how much she was curious about today's events, and after the week she knew they all had, now she wanted the truth. She was gonna get it out of him. No matter what.

---

A/N: Come back soon for a new chapter and a surprise!