Kai held Nya by her hand.

Krux did not.

The heavy hand sat up uncomfortably above Kai's head, gripping a bit too tightly for it to be a comforting gesture.

There wasn't a single word exchanged during the whole trip out of the swamps.

It was all just…awkward.

Nya had stayed put at Krux with fear every time he came too close and never straying far from Kai.

The trip was a lengthy one but Krux never gave them more than a few minutes of rest, the man insisting he didn't have time to waste on them and even saying "If you can't keep up the pace I'll leave you two behind"

That, that scared Kai.

Maybe a bit too much.

He didn't know where they were, how far from Ignacia or the Dome or their parents.

If Krux left them then he was sure he and Nya would die.

Everything was just… Unrecognisable.

He was not only scared, he was terrified, but he tried his best to not let Nya know it.

The Five year old ended up carrying Nya, somehow.

It was a difficult task with him being quite smaller than the average five year old but he managed.

Krux wouldn't let them behind.

Kai would make sure of it.

Krux muttered under his breath as he hurried both kids inside the museum, it was late and hopefully no one but the guards should be around so it was easier to sneak the kids onto the lair.

As they went down the steps towards the basement he finally took a good look at both.

Despite having bathed a few hours ago both looked like a mess, with the little girl exhausted and sleeping, slumped against her brother's back.

Even with the stumble and slow drag of feet he definitely had to go to give it to the kid, he did keep up even when he had to start carrying his sister.

Sure, Krux slowed the pace but not that significantly.

Still, as they entered the room he used as his main sleeping quarters the kid seemed about to fall dead on his fit, with a sigh he only nudged him towards the messy bed where he let his sister down carefully before falling himself onto it, falling asleep almost immediately.

The time elemental scoffed.

At least they wouldn't bother him for a few hours.

Checking on them one last time he closed the door.

Nya woke up with a jump.

Startled, she sat up, rubbing her eyes as she tried to dislodge from the tiredness she felt all over her body.

With a yawn she blinked a few times, noticing the room was almost in complete darkness, a small light coming in from below the door frame, she couldn't see much but she knew this wasn't the Dome room they've been in for the last weeks.

She patted around the bed, feeling uncharacteristic soft fabric below her.

A quilt.

She moved her hands around more, until her hands found another body.

Kai.

He was still deeply asleep, not even moving when Nya crawled around until she found the edge of the bed.

Carefully she laid down again, hugging her brother's back, not really mattering how close to the edge she found herself as she cuddled, listening to his deep breaths.

It was comforting.

One of the very few things that had been a constant during all this nightmare.

She clutched at the cloth, trying not to think of her parents.

She missed them, she really did.

She moved closer to her brother.

With a still tired sigh she closed her eyes, the toddler wasn't so tired as to going back to sleep again but she also didn't want to get out of bed, she didn't know where Krux was now where the snakes were.

Besides, her tiny legs hurt, and so did her feet, despite sleeping for around half the trip her body was still exhausted.

She cuddled closer, eventually drifting off to sleep again.

When Kai woke up he felt like dying.

Everything hurt and honestly he didn't want to move, but even that didn't soothe the tiredness nor the pain of his body.

At least the room was dark, he wasn't sure if his eyes would be able to deal with a bright light right now.

There was some weight behind him too and as he awkwardly moved to pat behind him he felt the weight shift and soon enough Nya was on his limited field vision.

She smiled.

"You'e up" She said, with a whisper. "Good Mo'nin"

He smiled back at his little sister as he hugged her. "Good Morning Nya"

She hummed as she reciprocated.

They aren't sure how long they stayed like that but the moment was quickly over as a light bright illuminated the room, they turned around to find the one and only Krux standing at the doorway.

... Right.

Krux scowled as he saw both of them up.

"You are up"

Both kids nodded.

The frown only deepened.

"Speak, you two are perfectly capable of doing so"

"Yes sir"

"Ye' si'"

With a scoff Krux muttered a "good" before marching in and grabbing both of them by the forearms.

The grip was tight.

"I need to work" He stated, voice firm and clear. "You two are going up with me, both are to stay put, do you understand?"

Kai made a noise of affirmation, the grip tightened.

"I asked a question"

"Y-Yes."

"Yes what?"

Kai whimpered.

"Yes Sir."

"Good, keep that up"

He dragged them out of the room.

Despite their aching muscles none complained.

It was probably a bad idea, but he wasn't about to leave the kids with the snakes again, he didn't need the parents gaining steam to try and fight back.

Honestly he did knowledge the possibility of the snakes just tossing the kids back to their parents, it had been a probability he thought he has measured, he really didn't think the snakes were that stupid.

Turns out he was wrong.

So he had to come up with a temporary B plan just to give time to the former elementals to build enough armors, then he could actually start training everyone regularly, including the snakes.

The vermillion needed to have enough proper control if they were to be tasked with training these two whenever he couldn't.

Which they didn't. Only three of the snakes had armors and "bodies", everything else was a mess, it was too early.

So for the time being he would've to bring the kids with him, at least he cold train them in other ways, he didn't need the snakes to make the kids obedient, he could do that himself.

With a grunt he went back to work in getting the books necessary to keep building his project.

"Nya" Kai hissed in a low voice.

As soon as Krux had turned around to work on his office Nya had run off, maybe to stay away from him as much as possible.

He didn't blame her, but he also knew Krux would be furious if they weren't there when he came out of the office, which could be at any given moment.

He tried to reason that Nya was probably just bored and wanted to run around, he could understand that, but they needed to go back.

Now.

This wasn't the moment to play around, or what he thought was playing around.

That was, at least, until she ran towards the exit.

"Nya wait!" He took her by the arm, trying to halt her sprint and making her squirm on his hold.

Dang, she was strong for a three year old.

As Kai tried to drag her back and she tried to break free they didn't notice how close they got to one of the exhibitions, until Kai stumbled and there was a loud crash sound right behind them.

Both froze, feeling Nya trembled slightly as there was the slam of the door and strong footsteps quickly approaching.

Almost immediately Kai put himself in a way he was shielding Nya, who just gripped at his shirt, out of reflex the kid raised his arms in a defensive manner which only made Krux gripping his forearm easier.

He pulled the kid away from the exhibition, roughly.

Kai whimpered at the force.

"Imbecile!" He growled.

"S-Sorry" Kai squeaked, voice raising an octave. Saunders scoffed, ignoring his apology and Nya's cry as he pulled him again making him stumble as if trying to make a point.

"Uhm, excuse, is everything alright?"

Krux looked up, surprised for a moment before changing to a more friendly demeanor.

"Ah, Mrs. Garmadon"

She sniffled. "Misako is fine"

"Of course, of course, yes, everything is alright"

She blinked, as if not believing him before looking down to the kids, addressing Kai.

"Are you okay sweetheart?"

Kai only nodded, swallowing the urge to start crying. She raised her head to lock eyes with Krux… err. Mr. Saunders.

"What's going on?" Her eyes were sharp and tone slightly accusatory.

"Nothing" He said as he released the kid's arm. Kai didn't move from his spot. "Is only that my son was misbehaving"

"Oh" She blinked, surprised. "I didn't know you had children"

"... Yeah, it's… a bit complicated"

"Well, it was nice meeting your children Mr. Saunders"

He sent a pointed glare to the siblings who shrinked ever so slightly below it as they awkwardly bowed.

He too bowed his head as the lady left.

"Likewise"