Lloyd POV: After arriving I had the others wait outside so it would be easier. Nya really should be the one talking, but she insisted on staying on the Bounty when Kai woke up. Which we all understood and left her.

I was nervous when I opened the door and found her sitting in a chair reading something. She looked a whole lot better than when we first met her, and I will admit that she looked like she could easily take any of us on. Which makes sense if she was in that world for as long as we think she was. But that made me feel bad all over again for asking about that.

She noticed that I entered the room and said, "Is there something you need?"

I cleared my throat and said, "Um… yes, but only if you're okay with it?"

She gave me a suspicious look, but put her book down and stood up. "Well, what is it?"

Before I could back down I said, "We encountered a soldier from Malic's army in Ninjago."

She flinched and froze, like Kai did. But she didn't start shaking like he did. She just processed this information without saying anything. I waited patiently for her to say something, so I didn't trigger her.

Eventually she finally said, "Only one?"

"Yes, and he was after Kai." I answered, not wanting to leave anything out.

Again she went silent, thinking this over before quietly saying, "Then that means he's weaker."

"What?" I was confused.

She looked at me and said, "Malic. There's no way he would only send one soldier unless he couldn't afford any more."

Already taking a logical approach despite the shakiness in her voice. She's stronger than she looks, but that was a little concerning though.

"He had a lot of soldiers back in his realm. How can he have so few now?" I asked, dropping it for now.

"That's true, but without elemental masters the only way to potentially open the gateway is to use his own men to power it." she said, thinking hard about it.

"But that's way too cruel. How did any of them agree to that?" I knew that Malic was evil, but this is too much for anyone.

She just looked down without saying anything. She knew something about that. That much was obvious. Finally she said, "It's easier to control others that are dead."

My whole body went cold and I had to ask, "Dead? What do you mean?"

She still didn't look at me but she explained. "All those soldiers are skeletons from that realm. They were destroyed ages ago before Malic appeared and used them to create his undead army. He spent a lot of time making them stronger."

That gave me shivers, but at the same time it made a lot of sense. The ones we faced were single-minded and extremely focused while they ignored everything else unless it directly blocked them. We all knew something was up when they would explode into ashes and bones. I guess we should have pieced that together ourselves, but we stopped to focus on Kai.

She went over to her bag and looked through it. I was confused and asked, "What are you looking for?"

"My dagger. I'm going to need it." She responded, and that made me freeze. I never saw her with a weapon.

"Since when did you have one?" I had to ask, because no one else saw a weapon.

"The whole time. I hid it to not upset anyone." She pulled it out and swallowed a little.

It was a long dagger made out of black metal and a simple dark grey hilt and grip. And it looked really sharp and clean. It clearly wasn't a weapon someone could easily hide. How did she do it?

"You guys were distracted, that's all." she suddenly said, putting it in a sheath and placing it on her belt.

"What?"

"You looked confused, but I didn't really try too hard." I laughed nervously. Am I that easy to read for her?

"How is Kai?" she asked, finally looking right at me.

"He's fine. Nya's keeping an eye on him." I answered. She sighed and tried to move past me.

But I stopped her and asked, "Where are you going?"

"I need to end this. I've waited too long to take care of him." she responded, but I didn't like how she said that.

"Alone? That's too risky." I said, but she just shook her head.

"I've lasted this long, I can last long enough to finish this."

She tried to shake me off, but I stood my ground and said, "Maybe, but you can go against an army by yourself. Let us help and we can all come out alive."

She didn't say anything, she just stared. Again I held my ground, despite her intense look. Eventually she sighed in frustration and said, "Fine, but Kai needs to be there."

"Why? He should rest." I asked, really confused and worried. Kai wasn't in good shape after one soldier. I didn't want to think how he would be when in front of an army. Even if it was much smaller than before.

"You and I both know he'll be too stubborn to sit on the sidelines. Besides, he needs this to get some closure." she said, and I knew she was right. And maybe he can move on once this is all over.

"All right, once he's ready we'll go." I said, and she nodded. I just hope that he'll be ready when the time comes.

Kai POV: I groaned as I woke up in my bed, with a headache that ached. And I knew exactly why I felt so bad. I groaned again and flopped back. Why did I freak out so much after seeing him? I didn't even have a connection to that one and I still had a panic attack. I haven't had one in forever, so it hit really hard.

I rolled off the bed and found myself in my room on the Bounty. But we weren't moving. Maybe we haven't left the area yet.

I headed to the bathroom and splashed some water on my face. Before I looked in the mirror and sighed. I had dark circles around my eyes and looked generally awful. I groaned and left the bathroom, and right into Nya.

"Sorry, I thought something was wrong." she quickly said. I guess she was about to knock.

"It's fine, don't worry." I tried to say, but she clearly didn't believe me.

"Right. How are you really feeling?" she asked, and I just walked past her to sit on the bed. She followed and sat next to me.

Eventually I said, "I'll be fine. I just… got surprised." That was the truth, but I could feel myself shaky a little on the inside.

"I know. But you can lean on us, remember that okay?" she said, leaning her head on my shoulder.

I didn't say anything back. I didn't need to, we both knew how we both felt. After getting rescued we were all more connected and protective of each other.

"Just so you know, we went to Borg Tower after you… fell asleep. To talk with Yuko about everything." I felt nervous when she said that.

But strangely I wasn't surprised by that. I guess I knew it was coming. "Alright, thanks for telling me."

She hugged me a little and we both stood up before saying, "Well, the others are waiting to meet us in the Tower, if you're up for it."

I probably shouldn't, but there's no way I'm going to sit this out. Not when I can finally really put this behind me.

"Let's go." I said, and she nodded.