There had been many times in Lloyd's past that he had experienced great heartache—when he couldn't save his father, when he couldn't protect his friends, when he couldn't keep his powers from being taken. But the heartache he had felt then could never compare to the heartache he felt now. For Kai had succeeded in bringing back dark memories that had continued to haunt Lloyd's dreams for weeks now.

Just thinking of the numbing chill and strange drowsiness that had come over him when Morro had taken control of him that day in the museum—the scattered times of breaking through, only to be pulled under again—the severe migraine, earache, and bout of fever that had followed the Battle of Stiix—made his skin crawl and his body shudder with terror. If he had not believed before that all battles leave scars—both seen and unseen—he certainly did now.

But he had never realized just how deep his scars went.

Until today.

The fifteen-year-old boy was huddling curled up in a corner of his little hideout, clutching his favorite green-and-gold blanket tightly, hot stinging tears pouring down his cheeks. Sobs racked his body unmercifully, and his bloodshot eyes were red and puffy from rubbing them vigorously every couple of seconds. His heartbroken cries were just beginning to turn into hiccupping coughs, his gi was drenched with tears, and his breathing was shallow and irregular as he struggled to get his heart rate under control. But it seemed the strangled cries that emanated from his lips would never cease.

It didn't help matters that his head was pounding behind his eyes, his body was being ravaged by uncontrollable chills, his fatigue was through the roof, his scratchy throat burned like a raging fire, and his collar was soaked with sweat as well as tears. He'd been trying to hide his condition for days—and now it was catching up to him.

Yet even as he wallowed in grief and despair, a sudden sound caught his attention.

The sound of someone crying just as he was.

It was softer and more delicate, but there was no denying that it was, indeed, someone crying. The bamboo screen that made up the sliding door softly swished open a second later, and it was then that he realized that that someone was Pixie. She looked just as distressed and tearful as he did. Her eyes were just as red and puffy as his, and her body shook uncontrollably with sobs. When she looked over at Lloyd huddled in the corner, he flushed crimson as he realized that he'd been staring.

And then, his heart seemed to shatter into a million teeny-tiny pieces as she asked in a strained yet genuinely concerned voice, "Lloyd, why are you crying?" The Green Ninja's lip trembled, and he grasped his blanket even more tightly as his sobs returned, steadily increasing in pitch. A sudden wave of weakness from his illness and sorrow combined washed over him, and he suddenly slumped over against the wall. Pixie's lip also quivered, and she raced over to Lloyd laying in a heap on the floor, wrapping her arms around his waist in an attempt to comfort him. Overwhelmed with sorrow, he weakly sat up and returned the embrace. For a few seemingly endless moments, the two of them just sat there, Lloyd sobbing into Pixie's shoulder with great tears of trauma and pain, his voice too choked up with tears to say a word.

Frankly, he didn't need to say anything. His tears were enough to confirm that he was trapped in great depths of sorrow and anguish. And while Pixie had questions as to why he was so grieved, she understood that there are sometimes hurts so great that you cannot explain them in words.

Hence why she was startled when he suddenly took a deep breath, pulled away from her, and answered her question from before. "I—I thought—I thought I'd gotten o-over it, but I didn't! I didn't!" he stammered between sobs.

Pixie hesitated, wondering if she should ask the next question that came to her mind—but she had to know. "Gotten…over…what?"

"BEING CON-CONTROLLED!" Lloyd wailed, squeezing his eyes tightly shut, his frail form shaking with anguish. "I NE-NE-NEVER G-G-GOT OVER BEING CON-CON-CONTROLLED!"

"Con-controlled?" Pixie questioned. Lloyd said nothing—just continued to sob. Then Pixie's eyes welled with tears once again. Whatever this being controlled meant, the Green Ninja clearly was in great turmoil over it, and the thought of him suffering hurt such as this made her heart ache with sorrow. Her own sobs suddenly echoed Lloyd's, and for several seconds they just leaned against the wall, crying their hearts out as Pixie just held Lloyd tightly, like she'd never let go. Eventually, though, Pixie's tears subsided, and Lloyd's quickly dissolved into hiccupping coughs. Pixie then closed her eyes and leaned against Lloyd as he laid his head on her right shoulder again.

Then tears sprang to Pixie's eyes again as she suddenly remembered why she had been crying before. Did she dare to ask? What would Lloyd do if she asked the wrong thing? But she had to know—and she had to know now.

"Lloyd, do you think—" her voice cracked for a second before she finished, "Do you think I'm a nuisance? A bother?!"

"What?! NO! Never!" Lloyd suddenly cried out, stunned that Pixie would even suggest such a thing. But Pixie wasn't finished. Before she could stop herself, she suddenly blurted out, "How could you even want me?! I have nobody! I AM nobody! I'm just some orphan making a mess wherever I go!" Her voice suddenly broke, and she again burst into tears before reaching a hand up and wiping her severely runny nose with the back of it.

Right then and there, Lloyd knew he was going to have a long talk with Kai about how he'd been treating Pixie. But first things first, Pixie needed to hear the truth. "Pixie, look at me!" Lloyd commanded, kindly but firmly. The young girl lifted a tear-stained face to meet Lloyd's gaze as he continued, "It doesn't matter what other people think of you—you are part of our family now, and there is nothing that could make us not want you." His voice broke off for a second as dizziness suddenly clouded his vision for a second. But he succeeded to finish his thought with, "You. Are. Not. Unwanted. You never have been, and you never will be."

The tears then increased as Pixie buried her head in Lloyd's chest, letting out all the hurt she'd been carrying within her for the past few days. But without warning, her own anguish was suddenly quenched when the Green Ninja's head jerked upward, and a harsh coughing fit rattled his entire body. And how had Pixie not noticed before that Lloyd was a lot warmer than he was supposed to be?

"Lloyd, what is it? What's wrong with you?!" Pixie blurted, her vocal pitch elevating uncontrollably with fright.

"Don't tell them." Lloyd begged in a raspy voice. "Don't tell the others about this, please."

"But you're sick! You need help!" the young girl protested.

"Don't tell them." the Green Ninja begged once again before another violent coughing fit ensued. His tear-stained face was a ghostly white, and his eyes shone brightly—too brightly—in the dark room. And then Pixie, despite her better judgment, caved.

"All right!" she exclaimed, her pitch dropping to a half-whisper. "All right, I won't tell." Ignoring the risk of her getting sick too, she snuggled closer to him to offer comfort, pulling his sweat-and-tears-saturated blanket over the both of them. Then, as Lloyd pulled the blanket closer around the two, Pixie noticed something else. There were dark circles underneath Lloyd's eyes, and his eyelids drooped with exhaustion.

"Have you been sleeping lately?" she whispered. Lloyd weakly shook his head before adding, "Not well, anyway." He then rested his head on her right shoulder again, and Pixie bit back a gasp as she realized he was definitely burning up with fever. In a small gesture of comfort, she began rubbing his back with the same gentle touch that Zane used with her. Then she thought of something.

"When I…" she hesitantly stated, "when I…feel scared and don't know what's going to happen to me, I sometimes like to sing. It helps calm me down and keep my mind steady." She paused for a moment, then continued, "Would you like me to…sing something?"

Lloyd's only response was a weak nod. Taking that as a yes, Pixie took a few deep breaths before softly crooning a wondrous lullaby of hope and of joy that Zane had sung to her every night as she was drifting off to sleep.

All that is gold does not glitter.
Not all those who wander are lost.
The old that is strong does not wither.
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken.
A light from the shadows shall spring.
Renewed shall be blade that was broken.
The crownless again shall be king.

Her voice throbbed slightly at the end, but she took another rather shuddery breath and started over, her hand unconsciously moving to squeeze Lloyd's wrist. The Green Ninja let out a silent gasp at Pixie's tight grip, but the young girl did not notice, and Lloyd closed his aching eyes as Pixie crooned yet again,

All that is gold does not glitter.
Not all those who wander are lost.

Pixie was suddenly startled when Lloyd's strained, raspy treble joined her own light, fluty childish soprano.

The old that is strong does not wither.
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

Lloyd's voice gradually began to fade away as his eyelids drooped and the gentle darkness of peaceful slumber began to tenderly draw him away from the waking world. But he managed to stay alert long enough to finish the song with Pixie.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken.
A light from the shadows shall spring.
Renewed shall be blade that was broken.
The crownless again shall be king.

There was a drowsy yawn, and then Pixie opened her eyes to find that Lloyd had drifted off into a quiet, possibly-fever-induced sleep. She wondered if she should be concerned, but then she saw him smiling slightly in his sleep and decided that he would probably be all right. Still, she would stay with him—if for no other reason than to offer emotional support when he woke. Pixie's own eyes slowly drooped shut, and her voice was drowsily slurred as she whispered, "Sweet dreams, big brother."

And then, the silver-haired girl almost immediately dropped off to sleep.

Kai gulped silently as he hesitated outside the door to Master Wu's chambers. After hours of wrestling with fear and guilt, he had finally screwed up the courage to try and apologize to both Lloyd and Pixie. Of course, it wasn't as if he had had any choice. He silently winced, recalling how Nya had poignantly pointed out that the snappish crack he had made about Morro was a low blow, to say the least. And that he needed to get things right with Pixie as soon as possible—since she was the one that he'd dumped his frustration on the most over the course of her time here.

He stared up at the ceiling before closing his eyes and balling his hands into fists, thinking all the time, Well, here goes nothing. Fighting the urge to turn tail and hide, he slowly slid open the sliding door. Then he quietly creeped into the room, looking all around him nervously, as if some nightmarish monster would jump out at him when he wasn't looking. His breathing became incredibly shallow as he hoped that no one was here, after all.

But any hope of that was immediately disintegrated when he peeked around the slightly ajar screen door between him and Lloyd's little hideout. And that's when he saw them.

Lloyd and Pixie curled up together in a corner, holding each other close, as closely as if they were brother and sister.

Tears immediately sprang to Kai's eyes, as he recalled the many times from his childhood when he had held a trembling, frightened Nya in the same way that Pixie held Lloyd now—one arm behind Lloyd's back, and the hand of the other grasping Lloyd's left wrist as he laid his head on Pixie's breast. His purpose for being here momentarily forgotten, Kai ducked into the room and painstakingly tiptoed over to the duo snuggled up together on the floor. His heart quailed momentarily as he saw Lloyd's strangely pale complexion, but he shrugged it off as just a trick of the thin moonlight streaming in through the porthole window.

And then Kai's face flushed hot as he recalled why he was in here in the first place. He wondered if he could just wait until they woke—no, best to get this over with now. Cautiously edging closer to Pixie, he knelt and laid a trembling hand on the young girl's shoulder. At the sudden touch, Pixie slowly pried her eyes open and sleepily gazed over to see Kai looking at her, tears glistening in his eyes. A flicker of fear lit up in her eyes but was then quenched by an expression of sheer exhaustion—or was it peace?—as she just sat there, staring at him. He opened his mouth and tried to run through the speech he'd been practicing for the past hour and a half, but his voice seemed to catch in his throat, and the only sounds that came out of his mouth were short, breathy gasps. He trembled as he struggled to get his voice back. But before he could say a word, Pixie suddenly whispered what he thought were the three most beautiful words he had ever heard.

"I…forgive…you."

Her eyes closed again, and she let out a deep sigh as she fell back asleep. Kai, however, just knelt there for a few moments, unable to move or speak or do anything. His mind raced in confusion as he mulled over those three words. And then, without warning, something happened.

A strangled sob burst from his throat, and he stood on shaky legs before staggering out of the room and over to the side of a wall in the adjacent chamber. He then slumped to the floor, burying his head in his hands as he started to cry.

He couldn't understand it. He just couldn't understand it. What he had done—how he had slashed at Pixie again and again with his sharp, inconsiderate words—was completely, utterly unforgivable. And yet, she had still forgiven him.

Truly a single act of forgiveness could change everything.

It had changed everything for him.

For it was in that moment that he suddenly viewed this young girl not as a bother or a nuisance, but as a treasure.

Zane was right—she was precious. She was just as precious as anyone else on the team. It just had taken so long for him to see it. But no more.

Forgiven. That word—that simple little word—meant so much more to him now than it had before. I am forgiven.

And as he sat there, shaking uncontrollably with sobs of confusion and amazement, he tearfully began softly singing the words his ears had caught as he had been wrestling with his guilt outside the door.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken.
A light from the shadows shall spring.
Renewed shall be blade that was broken.
The crownless again shall be king.

The crownless again shall be king.