Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It's a quiet day. She stands at the fore of the ship, the wind tousling her hair, the edge of the sea spray splashing her face. She catches sight of a flash of orange behind her and smirks.

"Oh, what a boring day!" she says out loud. "The treasure is found. No merchant boats are due for some nights. The crew is restless."

Ah, he's right behind her, now. She keeps her eyes steady, staring at the sea before her.

"It's almost enough to make me wish…"

Two hands are placed on her sides, one the cool metal of a prosthetic hook, the other warm and of an otherworldly flesh. She leans backwards into their touch, letting them caress her hips, and reaches up to twine her fingers with those of the other two hands.

A voice whispers –

"Wish for what, Dilara?"

She laughs and looks up at Nadakhan's face, pressing her head against his chest. "But what a useless thing to waste a wish on!" she says. "A day of excitement? We've had plenty of those, and we'll have plenty more. I don't need to wish for that."

Nadakhan shakes his head and smiles. "You have yet to use any of your three wishes, my love. Surely you can afford to waste one."

"Oh no, not for this." She lowers her voice to a murmur. "Each of these wishes carries a tremendous power over you. I must be very careful."

"Such confidence!" Nadakhan releases one of her hands to tease his fingers through her hair. "You know, many others have thought they had that sort of power, that sort of control. They were all wrong. What makes you different?"

"Oh, my dear…" She closes her eyes for a moment. "I don't need a wish to control you. You're madly in love with me."

She feels Nadakhan's chest shake with his laugh, and abruptly, she's picked off the ground. A yelp escapes her as Nadakhan spins her around before placing her back on the deck, facing him. He leans down close and strokes her cheek.

"Such confidence," he repeats, and he kisses her.

She wraps her arms around his neck and kisses back. Nadakhan lifts her up again, hovering just above the ship's deck, under the sunny sky. Why would she ever think these days were boring? She has the heart of a djinn in her grasp, has riches and power beyond what she could have ever imagined as a child.

She smiles.

No days are boring on Misfortune's Keep.

She wakes up with a gasp, her heart pounding. The dream is bright in her memory, and for a few moments, she can't shake the feeling of being on Misfortune's Keep, thinking that Nadakhan could appear from the shadows at any moment –

She breathes.

The night is cool and dark. The other ninja are all asleep – well, maybe Zane isn't, but he does like to sleep, even if he doesn't need to. She has a room to herself, being the only girl. It's nice, sometimes, and then sometimes it isn't.

She decides to go outside.

It's a little colder than she expected. She wraps her arms around herself and shivers. The sun has yet to rise; it'll take another hour before the sky begins to lighten. She takes deep breaths and finds a rock to sit down on. She'll head back to bed soon, she thinks. She just needs a minute to let the fear pass.

She does not let herself think of the dream. It doesn't matter. Dilara is long, long dead, and no one will ever find that teapot in the wreckage of Stiix. She doesn't have to tell anyone about it, because it means nothing, not after the timeline was reset.

It's just a dream.

She goes back inside.

The way to Djinnjago is only accessible by Nadakhan. He does not take any of the crew with him – no, not even her. She can't help but feel relieved. Nadakhan has told her about his father, and his opinions of those who are not djinn. He decided it was safer for her to stay with Misfortune's Keep, while he went to Djinnjago alone.

He does not return happy. Nadakhan barks orders at the crew and has them set sail at once. 

"My father has disowned me," he tells her in private. "He would rather the royal line die out than allow our marriage."

"Because I am human," she says.

Nadakhan turns away. "Yes."

She stands up from the bed and goes to him, placing a hand on his back. "You need not despair," she tells him. "This only means the path will be more difficult than we imagined."

"To gain infinite wishes, I must be married on djinn land," he says. "I have just been banished from all djinn land."

She frowns. "There must be another way," she mumbles, more to herself than to him. "Are you truly never able to return?"

"Oh, I may return. With my father's blessing, though –" He lets out a bitter laugh. "Not a chance. He would never allow our wedding."

There must still be a way. She refuses to accept the alternative, that all her careful words and touches have been for naught, that the power she fell in love with may never be within her grasp. She puts her cheek against Nadakhan's back, feeling anger rise up inside her.

"We will find a way," she says. "You have a right to that power. You will not be denied it forever."

She will not be denied it, either.

"Eventually, my father will be forced to step down, and then there will be no one to take his place." Nadakhan moves away from her touch. "One day, I will be king. But that may not be within a human lifetime."

Oh, she can't allow that. "You cannot sit around and wait for power to be handed to you!" she says sharply. "Don't you know that?"

He says nothing, his back turned to her. She clenches her fists.

"You are used to everything being easy," she says. "You are strong, you are clever, and you have powerful magic at your disposal. Nothing has challenged you thus far, has it?"

"What are you saying?"

She takes a deep breath. "This is a trial of love, my dear. Prove to me that our love is true. We will be married on djinn land."

Still, he says nothing. Has she pushed too far? "And of course, I will be with you every step of the way," she says, her voice softer. "You know I would never leave you."

When he turns to face her, Nadakhan is smiling.

"Is that a proposal, Dilara?" he asks.

She blinks, then laughs. "I suppose it is! Normally, the man is supposed to propose – I don't even have a ring!"

"We're pirates, my love," Nadakhan says, and he takes her hands in his own. "When have we ever done things the right way?"

She splashes water on her face and groans, staring at her reflection in the kitchen sink. "You alright, sis?" Kai asks from beside her.

"I'm fine," she says.

"You sure? You don't look it."

She sighs. "I've just been having a hard time sleeping. It's been a weird few months."

"No kidding!" Kai says. "The Hands of Time, finding our parents, and Wu…" He trails off. "It's a lot. It's really a lot."

And she has to carry this timeline that never happened with the burden of everything else.

"You know you can talk to me, right sis?"

"Yeah," she says. "I know."

She knows Kai can tell she's hiding something – but what can she do? She can't tell anyone about this. She turns off the water and goes to make herself breakfast.

Jay is sitting at the table with Cole, eating cereal. He looks up at her, and she sees the worry in his eyes, and she turns right around and goes to eat somewhere else.

"Nya –" she hears him call. She ignores him.

They're supposed to be looking for information on where Sensei Wu could be. She volunteers herself to talk to Ronin, and when she gets to the pawn shop, she drops the money on the counter, sits in one of the ratty old chairs for sale, and buries her face in her hands.

"Uh," comes Ronin's voice. "Thought you were looking for information. You alright, Nya?"

She looks up at him and fights back tears. "God, no," she says.

Ronin frowns. "That's not good. What's going on?"

"I can't tell you," she says. "I can't tell anyone. Not you, not the ninja, not a goddamn therapist –" Tears well up in her eyes, and she screws up her face to keep them from falling. "– dammit!"

She has to be helped off the chair and into Ronin's back room, where he sits her down on the couch. She can't stop sobbing, and her attempts to contain the tears are only making it worse. She can't see where Ronin is, but she hears the microwave ding, and a few moments later he sits down next to her and hands her a hot mug.

She sniffs it. It's hot chocolate. "How did you make this so fast?" she asks through her tears.

"Microwaved it," says Ronin. "Listen, I can't do much. I'm not gonna ask you to talk to me about whatever you can't tell anyone. But, y'know, if you need a place to get away from everything… pawn shop's better than nothing."

She manages a smile. "I do need some information, you know," she says.

"Oh, sure, sure. You're paying me, after all. What do you need?"

"What do you know about Misfortune's Keep?"

Ronin doesn't know much anything, so the next place she goes is the library. She finds the story of Misfortune's Keep in a history book. It tells her things she already knew. Two hundred years ago, Nadakhan sailed the seas with his pirate crew and his lover, Dilara. His crew was banished across the realms, and Dilara died an unknown time later. It doesn't tell her how his crew survived those years in banishment, or how Dilara died, or anything she cares to know. She groans and slams the book shut.

And there's no one else alive who would know anything, is there? She leans back in the chair and closes her eyes. The only people who've met Nadakhan are Jay and herself.

And…

Her eyes fly open.

She shows up at Ronin's pawn shop in the dead of night. She almost thinks he's not there, after her knocking goes unanswered for some time, but finally, the door opens. Ronin rubs his eyes and squints at her.

"It's two in the morning," he says. "I know I said you'd be welcome here, but damn –"

She shoves the money into his arms and shuts him up.

"I need to break someone out of Kryptarium," she says. "Will you help me?"

Chapter Text

"Do the other ninja know about this?" Ronin asks on the journey to the prison.

"No," she says.

"Uh, shouldn't we tell them?"

"No."

Ronin frowns. "Why not?"

"I told you, I can't tell them. I can't tell you, either, so don't bother asking."

The stones surrounding the prison are visible in the distance. Ronin's mech stomps through the Sea of Sand. The ride is bumpy and she has to take deep breaths to calm her nerves.

The plan was put together quickly. The warden trusts the ninja, so she might be able to get away with asking to meet with one of the inmates. The problem is getting Captain Soto out of there – she can't let the others know what she's doing, especially not Jay, and the warden would undoubtedly inform Lloyd if she tried anything too drastic.

She grimaces. The warden might tell Lloyd regardless of what she does. Maybe it's too late.

"What'cha thinking about?"

"How much my life is a nightmare," she says.

Ronin laughs at that, which earns him a glare. "Chill, kid," he says. "You're being awfully dramatic about all this."

"Yeah, well, whatever." She slouches in the seat. "What am I supposed to do about it? Not care?"

"Nah, I'm not saying you need to not care at all, but maybe don't get worked up about things that aren't gonna get better."

"What does that mean?"

He sighs. "Sometimes, life screws you over, and all you can do is roll with the punches."

She considers this perhaps more deeply than she should. What if this is how it's always going to be? That she's always going to have this burden, and there's nothing that can be done about it. Should she just learn to live with it?

She can't accept that.

"Doesn't mean I have to put up with it," she says.

"You're a tough kid, Nya." Ronin smiles at her. "Sucks to see you go through whatever this is."

She doesn't respond.

Ronin drops her off some distance from the gate, and she walks the rest of the way. She's dressed in her full ninja uniform, hood up, and the guards recognize her immediately. She meets the warden at the entrance.

"Good to see you, Water Ninja," he says. "What reason do we have for this visit?"

"As you know, our sensei, Wu, was lost in time," she says. "Because he could be anywhere in time, I'd like to talk to one of your prisoners, Soto, to see if he's somehow ended up in the distant past."

It's a flimsy excuse, but the warden buys it. "I see," he says. "We can arrange a meeting, but, of course, it will have to be heavily guarded. These are Ninjago's worst criminals, after all."

"I expected nothing less," she says. Her words sound so fake to her own ears. How is she fooling him?

They go inside. The meeting room is near the center of the prison. She is shown there first, with assurances that Soto will be out momentarily. She sits down at the table and waits.

She isn't kept waiting for very long.

"So, the pajama woman returns!" Soto says, flanked by two guards and in handcuffs. "Where are your pajama friends?"

"They're busy," she says. "Soto –"

"Captain Soto to you!"

"– Captain Soto, I just want to ask some questions."

"What makes ye think I want to cooperate?"

She glances at the warden, who nods and speaks. "If you cooperate, we may take some years off your sentence," he says. "You'll have the opportunity to go free."

That gets Soto's attention. "Right away?"

"Of course not. You'll be here for a few more years."

Soto shrugs. "Well, it be better than being here for life."

She takes a deep breath. "Sensei Wu was lost in time," she says. "He could be anywhere, including the distant past."

Lie. The Iron Doom was careening into the future when Wu sent her and Kai back into the present. She doesn't know for certain, but the idea that the Iron Doom could have reversed direction in the portal… seems unlikely.

Still. She has to keep the act up.

"I want to know if you've seen anyone fitting his description two hundred years ago," she says. "Or heard of any old men appearing without any history, or…"

She trails off. Soto shakes his head.

"Can't say I have. Me crew spent all our days on the seas." Soto shrugs. "We were more interested in the merchant ships – oh, and the other pirates, o' course!"

"Others?" She doesn't have to fake her interest in that. "What others?"

"Oh, there be many others on the high seas!" Soto pauses. "Were. Past tense, I be forgetting…"

"Like who? Do you know any names?"

"Well, there be one name in particular…" Soto leans back in the chair and grins at her. "Ever hear of the tale of Nadakhan?"

"The name is… familiar." The warden is giving her an odd look. She motions for him to stay quiet. "He was a djinn, right?"

"Oh, still is, I be certain! Djinn don't die easily!" He makes an attempt to cross his arms, not an easy task in handcuffs. "Hard enough for me to seal him away! I had to outwit him, poison him, and deal with all his crew at the same time! Not all of us survived the encounter!"

She knows that Dilara – "Who died?" she blurts out.

Now Soto is giving her an odd look, too – she's at least  grateful that her hood hides most of her expression. "Two of me crew. Barry and Finn, they deserved better than what they got…"

"Who of Nadakhan's crew?"

Soto frowns. "I wished for all his crew to be banished across the realms, and he granted it – but one was left. Arr, Nadakhan said his love was not a mere member of his crew, but an equal to himself! So she was not banished with the rest."

"So she died."

"Oh, no, she didn't die. She escaped! I don't know what happened to her – but two hundred years? She be dead by now."

Her heart is pounding. "Who was she?"

Soto hesitates for a moment. "Her name was Dilara."

Deep breath.

"Thank you," she says. "That's what I needed to know."

She turns to the warden. "I'm taking him," she says.

"Excuse me?" says the warden.

"Excuse me?" says Soto.

"His sentence ends now. I'm taking him with me."

The warden shakes his head. "I can't allow that! Even if you're a ninja, you can't just take a dangerous criminal –"

She blasts him with a water jet to the face.

"Whoa there!" Soto yelps, just as she vaults over the table and kicks one of his guards, while the other gets hit with more water. She lands and pulls Soto to his feet, half-dragging him to the door.

He resists. "Pajama woman, I won't be going anywhere with ye if I don't know what be happening!"

"I'm busting you out of prison," she says. "Don't ask questions."

The guards are too shocked to react when she runs past them; she hears one of them say, "Hey, you can't –" and then she's through, and the gate is within sight.

Alarms start blaring, and the remaining entryway between her and the gate slams shut.

"The whole place be locked down!" Soto cries. "Now we both be in trouble!"

"Not if we don't get caught," she says, and she grabs him and drags him to a door, which she discovers is some sort of linen closet.

Soto is smart enough to keep quiet while they're hiding. While he watches, she crouches down and places her hands on the floor. She knows the pipes here are large enough to allow a person passage, but the problem is getting to one. She can feel water rushing beneath her… maybe, if she…

"They can't have gone far," a voice says.

She takes a deep breath and calls the water to her.

For a few moments, nothing happens. Her arms are trembling with the effort, and Soto keeps glancing at the door. Finally, the ground rumbles.

"Hey!" the voice shouts, and just as the closet door opens, a geyser erupts in the room outside.

She stands up and nearly falls over. She catches herself on the wall and takes a moment to let her head stop spinning. When she looks up, Soto has taken out the guard who opened the door. "Ye alright, pajama woman?" he asks.

"I'm fine," she says.

"Great, 'cause there be more coming!"

She half-stumbles out of the closet. Water is spouting from a hole in the floor, and she realizes belatedly that she won't be able to escape that way – not only is the hole too small, but if the pipe is filled with water, they'd drown before reaching an exit.

Nothing to be done now. She calls on her powers again and redirects the flow of the geyser, sending it crashing into the barred door. It doesn't budge.

"Freeze!" a guard yells. Her mind races, going through the remaining possibilities, searching for a way out –

The door is knocked in from the other side.

"Hey!" Ronin yells over Rex's speakers. The mech stomps forward and scoops Soto and her in one hand. "Let's get outta here!"

She covers their escape with jets of water aimed at the guards. She doesn't let herself relax until they're out in the Sea of Sand, and the prison is receding into the distance.

Then she passes out.

It's unfair, she thinks, that her parents decided to have a second child. Her father knew that elemental powers could only be passed down to one child – why have another, when his power was already given to her sister?

So she has to sit with her mother and be taught lessons from books, while her father teaches her sister on how to use her powers. She watches them from the window, watches her sister's face, her brow furrowed in concentration, and she thinks –

– that should have been me.

Her mother wants her to be a scholar, to sit in dusty old buildings and listen to older people speak. Her father wants her sister to travel to the monastery, to study and train under the First Spinjitzu Master, from whom all elemental powers stem, like the many branches of a tree, or the many fingers of a hand.

She is barely an adult when she's sent away to one of these old universities. She reads books, studies ruins, and wishes she were somewhere else. A scholar's life is not for her, but the life of an elemental master will never be hers, either.

She is in her twenties when she cannot take it anymore.

The waters of Ninjago are dangerous, and there is always work needed. She offers her services scrubbing the deck and doing other menial jobs; it's not long before she gets picked up by a merchant ship. She doesn't care where she ends up, so long as it's away from her family, from her sister.

Of course the merchant ship is attacked by pirates.

They're quickly overwhelmed. She doesn't put up a fight. As much as she hated them, her studies have aided her – she knows what Nadakhan is. There is no outwitting a djinn, she thinks.

So then, why is he so surprised when she refuses to use her three wishes?

"Hey, sugar. Wake up."

She jerks awake and nearly throws a punch at Ronin before she regains her senses. "Sorry," she says. "Where are we?"

"We're as far as I'm willing to take you." Ronin opens Rex's hatch and climbs out. "Got Soto's cuffs off him while you were asleep."

"That's Captain Soto –"

"Yeah, yeah."

Outside the mech, she looks around. They're on a rocky beach, within some miles of the wreckage of Stiix. "Why did you take us here?" she asks.

"You're a criminal now, didn't you know?" Motioning for her to follow, Ronin takes out a flashlight and shines it in a dark cave. "I used this as a hideout, once. Might as well pass it on to you."

She laughs. "I have my own hideouts, but I appreciate it. Thank you."

"Whatever. I'm gonna go into hiding myself. Here, let me show you around…"

The hideout has some stockpiled food, an old sleeping bag, and not much else. It hasn't seen much use since Stiix was destroyed, Ronin explains. She nods and thanks him again.

"Listen, don't sweat it," he says. "Not only did you pay me, but you're a friend of mine. It's the least I could do."

"Can you pass on a message to –" She reconsiders. "Never mind. Just… if the ninja ask, say you don't know where I am."

"Sure can do. Good luck, Nya."

Once Rex has disappeared into the night, Soto speaks up. "Now can ye explain to me the situation?"

"Yeah, of course," she says. Her hood feels uncomfortably warm, so she takes it off.

She only realizes her mistake when Soto frowns at her. "I have to say, ye look awfully familiar, pajama woman. He said your name be Nya?"

"Yeah," she says. "Come on. I'll explain while we rest."

Chapter Text

Their faces lit up by firelight, eating the canned food in Ronin's hideout, Captain Soto is the first person she tells about her dreams.

"It feels like I'm dreaming of someone else's life," she says. "In these dreams, I – I see Nadakhan, and…" She swallows hard. "He calls me Dilara."

Soto bursts out laughing. "So that be why you look familiar! You're the spitting image of her!"

"It's not funny," she says. "It's freaking me out! I need to figure out why this is happening! And you're the only other person alive who's met Nadakhan, so –"

"I ain't stupid, pajama woman. Ye wouldn't go this far just because of weird dreams."

She freezes.

Soto fixes her with a glare. "I don't know what ye be up to," he says, "but if ye want to find that teapot and release Nadakhan –"

"No!" she shouts. "Never! I would never!"

He blinks, taken aback by her outburst. "Alright," he says. "Then what be the real reason?"

She hasn't told anyone, not her brother, not her friends, not Ronin – why should Captain Soto be the one she tells about the lost timeline? She grips the fabric of her uniform, can't look Soto in the eye.

"I can't say," she says. "I just – I need to know more about Dilara. I have no interest in freeing Nadakhan, I promise. I know what he is. I know better than to think I can outwit a djinn."

"Damn right!" says Soto. "But I'm not the only one who's met Nadakhan face to face. There be others alive today."

"Who?"

"His old crew, o' course!"

She has to take a moment to think about that. Of course – even though they lived two hundred years ago, Nadakhan's crew would still be alive now. They certainly were when she met them. "Okay," she says. "Where are they?"

"Ye be in an awful hurry!" Soto yawns. "Let's get some sleep, then I'll tell ye where they be."

She can't argue. It's been a long day for him. She lets him have the sleeping bag and goes outside to keep watch. She doesn't think she can sleep tonight.

Morning comes. She waits until the sky is light to go back inside and wake up Soto.

"Good morning," she says loudly. "We're leaving now."

Soto groans and pulls his hat down over his head. Did he sleep in that? How did it stay on?

She considered splashing some water to wake him up, but that would be rude, and she wants to stay on Soto's good side. They're working together, after all. "Fine," she says. "I'm just going to wait here until you get up."

She takes out her phone while Soto rouses himself; she set it to silent and put it away before going to Kryptarium. Her stomach lurches when she sees how many missed calls she has. No doubt the others were told of the trouble she got into.

Most of the calls are from Kai, but there's a decent amount from Jay, too. She listens to one of his voicemails, despite her misgivings.

"Nya," Jay says. "Nya, nya, please come back! I know it's – uh – I mean, I don't really know what you're doing, but – if this is about the thing, please come back! It's okay! We can talk about it!"

She doesn't listen to the rest.

"I'm up, pajama woman," Soto announces. "First, we best be getting supplies…"

She nods. "I'll buy some." She still has some money left, after giving most of it to Ronin. "What do we need?"

Soto raises one eyebrow. "Ye be buying it? Excuse me?"

She rolls her eyes. "I might be a criminal now, but I'm not going to steal if I don't have to. I'll disguise myself. It's fine."

"Suit yourself, pajama woman. I'll be stealing."

"No you won't."

Eventually, she manages to convince Soto to keep a low profile – she doesn't want to have to break him out of prison again, and he's not interested in going back. She puts together a makeshift disguise with some of the junk in Ronin's hideout – a change of clothes, a hat to cover her face – and goes into Ninjago City.

There are wanted posters for her. She ignores them.

Soto asked for climbing equipment and warm clothes. She spends the rest of her money on food. When she gets back, he looks over what she's bought and gives her an approving nod. "Excellent, pajama woman! Now we have all we need to climb the Wailing Alps."

"I… what?"

Soto looks at her like she's the one who suggested they climb the highest mountain in Ninjago. "The Wailing Alps be the only way to get to the Cloud Kingdom, don't you know?"

"We can't climb the alps with this junk," she says. "We need a vehicle, and then to get to the Cloud Kingdom, we need to wait until the Blind Man's Eye passes over the peak, and then we need to know Airjitzu, which I'm pretty sure you don't know."

"Oh," says Soto. "I didn't know ye be needing to do all that."

She groans. "Let me handle this," she says. "We need to go to a bunch of different realms, right? Forget the Wailing Alps – we need to get the Realm Crystal. I don't know where it is exactly, but I know Borg took responsibility of hiding it."

Soto frowns and taps his peg leg. "So why did ye buy this junk?"

"Because I'm stupid, I guess!" she snaps. "Whatever! Let's leave this here for Ronin. He'll get a kick out of it."

By the time they get to Borg Tower, it's the middle of the afternoon. She finds a spot outside the city for Soto, then puts her disguise back on to enter.

She hesitates before getting on the elevator. Cyrus Borg will have heard she's a criminal, so she doesn't think he'll agree to help her. She's fixed Zane enough times to have skills with advanced technology. Surely she can hack into Borg's systems and find out where the Realm Crystal is.

She hits the button for the rooftop and gets to work.

It's easy enough to unscrew the panel and stop the elevator. She won't have much time before security notices something's up; she takes out her laptop and plugs it in.

"Come on," she mumbles, typing rapidly. Getting into the system isn't as easy as she thought, but of course Cyrus Borg of all people would have an near-impassable firewall. She knows there are security cameras in here, but she knows Airjitzu – if all goes well, she'll be able to jump off the roof and –

Her laptop screen goes black.

> HELLO NYA
> I TRUST YOU HAVE A GOOD REASON
> FOR INVADING MY FATHER'S PRIVACY

"Oh no," she says. "Pixal?!"

A single word appears on the screen.

> CORRECT

"Please," she says, "please, please – don't tell the ninja I'm here."

> I WILL GIVE YOU TIME TO EXPLAIN YOURSELF
> IF YOUR EXPLANATION IS UNSATISFACTORY
> THEN I WILL KEEP YOU HERE UNTIL THE OTHERS ARRIVE

"And what if it's not… unsatisfact… I mean, what if it's satisfactory?"

> THEN I WILL LET YOU GO

She wrings her hands together. "Okay…" she says. "Okay… um… I've been having these strange dreams lately, and –"

> YOU LEFT BECAUSE OF DREAMS
> WHY DID YOU NOT TALK TO US?

"I can't talk about this! It's something only me and –" Uh oh. "– only I can deal with, okay?"

> WHO ELSE KNOWS?

"Forget I said that. I can't tell you, okay? Please, Pixal, just trust me."

> YOU BROKE A CRIMINAL OUT OF KRYPTARIUM
> AND NOW YOU ARE ATTEMPTING TO HACK MY FATHER'S SYSTEMS
> THESE ARE NOT EASY CIRCUMSTANCES
> IN WHICH TO TRUST YOU

She takes a deep breath. "I've been having dreams where – where I'm some other person, someone called Dilara. I need to know who she is – I know she existed, I know she was part of the djinn pirate's – Nadakhan's – crew, and I know she looked exactly like me!"

Pixal says nothing for a few moments.

> THERE ARE NO KNOWN IMAGES OF DILARA
> HOW DO YOU KNOW WHAT SHE LOOKS LIKE

She can't speak for a few moments before remembering – "Captain Soto said so," she says. "That we look exactly alike."

> I DON'T UNDERSTAND
> YOU DID ALL THIS
> BECAUSE OF DREAMS?

"They're not just dreams!" she shouts, then claps her hands to her mouth. "I mean – they're not just dreams, they mean something. I keep – I keep dreaming about Nadakhan, about this life I never lived – I need to know what they mean."

She can almost hear Pixal's sigh before her laptop flashes with more text.

> THIS DOES NOT MAKE SENSE
> YOU ARE A SENSIBLE WOMAN
> YOU WOULD NOT TAKE THESE ACTIONS
> IF YOU DID NOT THINK THE SITUATION WARRANTED THEM
> YOU SAY YOU CANNOT TELL ME THE REAL REASON
> I CANNOT LET YOU GO WITHOUT IT

Dammit, she thinks. Dammit, dammit, dammit –

"If you need to know so badly, ask Jay," she spits out. "He was there. He knows everything that happened. Tell him I've been having dreams where I'm Dilara, and he'll know exactly what's going on."

> JAY IS NOT CURRENTLY HERE

"Not now! After you've let me go!"

> DO YOU REALLY EXPECT ME
> TO LET YOU GO?

"Please," she says. "I need you to trust me. I need to get to the Cloud Kingdom, and I thought – I thought stealing the Realm Crystal would be how I did it. But if you let me go, I'll leave and – and find another way. I'm sorry."

Pixal says nothing.

"Please, please trust me."

Finally, Pixal speaks.

> I WILL LET YOU GO
> DESPITE MY MISGIVINGS
> PLEASE BE CAREFUL
> I WILL TELL MY FATHER THERE IS NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT

She breathes a sigh of relief. "Thank you, Pixal," she says. "Thank you so much."

> I CANNOT TELL YOU TO BE HONEST
> WHEN I HAVE BEEN KEEPING SECRETS OF MY OWN
> STAY SAFE NYA

The text vanishes, and her laptop returns to normal. She packs it back up and sets the elevator moving again.

Back on the street, she has to sit down for a few moments before meeting up with Soto. So she can't get the Realm Crystal. That's… fine. They can try climbing the Wailing Alps. She still has some vehicles that the other ninja don't know about, she can probably alter one of them to get up the mountain…

Her phone beeps, jolting her out of her thoughts.

"I put this on silent!" she says out loud, taking it out to check the settings. Before she can, though, the screen changes to a map of Ninjago, one location blinking red.

Hiroshi's Labyrinth.

She smiles.

"Thanks, Pix," she says.

Chapter Text

"Hiroshi's Labyrinth?" Soto says in alarm. "Anyone who goes in that maze never be coming out!"

"That was before we had GPS," she says. "We'll be fine."

He doesn't look convinced, but she doesn't give him any other options. "This way, we'll have access to all the realms, not just the Cloud Kingdom," she says. "Which, may I remind you, you didn't even know how to get in the right way."

"I was close!" Soto protests. "Got the location right!"

She rolls her eyes. "Yeah, yeah."

Hiroshi's Labyrinth is a fair distance from Ninjago City; she decides to go by elemental dragon. Soto isn't happy about this, either. "I don't like dragons," he says when she asks. "They be dangerous. Everyone knows that."

"It's not like this is a real dragon," she says. "It's completely under my control. I can dismiss it any time I want."

"Awfully bold of ye to think I like ye, either!"

She gives him an exasperated look. "I'd like to think you don't not like me, after I busted you out of prison."

Soto laughs. "And I be supposed to believe ye did that out of the goodness of your heart, eh? Ye had your own reasons. We don't owe each other anything."

"Maybe that's how pirates work, but it's not how I work." She sighs. "Chances are, we're going to be working together for a little bit longer, so let's at least try to get along."

"As ye say, pajama woman."

She just shakes her head. She thinks it's going to be a long, long journey.

They reach Hiroshi's Labyrinth at sundown. Dispelling her water dragon is a relief; she can't sustain it when she's afraid, and she was battling anxiety almost the entire flight. Thankfully, Soto didn't seem to notice anything was wrong. She's not sure she would be able to handle it if he had freaked out.

"So where be the crystal?" Soto asks.

She takes out her phone and checks the marked location. "This way," she says. "It shouldn't be too hard to miss. Borg likes to go all-out when he builds stuff."

The two of them carefully pick their way through the jungle. "Aren't there supposed to be terrible monsters and savages here?" Soto comments, unwrapping a vine from his peg leg.

"I mean, there's some animals, but…" She frowns. "Wait. Savages?"

"O' course! Legend says, after Ninjago cast her out, the Master of Wind took her family and followers here and never returned."

She grimaces. "Well, all the Masters of Wind are dead now." And she's not interested in thinking about Morro, not when she has so much else on her mind. "I really doubt there's anything left of them after over two hundred years."

"So ye say!"

"I'm pretty sure, yeah."

Even with the GPS, the jungle isn't easy to navigate. She frowns at her phone, wondering why the blinking dot doesn't seem to be getting any closer, when Captain Soto yells, "Pajama woman, watch out!"

She looks up. There's nothing in front of her.

"No! Look down!"

The moment she looks at her feet, she yelps and jumps away, barely dodging a snake bite. The orange snake hisses and darts forward again. She hits it with a jet of water that knocks it away, but it just comes right back.

"Just a snake," she says, and she grabs it just below the neck, so it can't bite her. It still tries, thrashing its tail with its mouth wide open. "Wonder why it's so aggressive."

"Uh, pajama lady? There be more of them!"

Now that she's aware of it, the hissing seems to grows louder. Red and orange snakes slither out of the underbrush and advance towards them, too many to count. She throws the snake she's holding, backs up, and sends a quick, wide spray of water around her, knocking them back a few inches.

"I hate snakes," she says. "Why is it always snakes?"

"Dunno," Soto says, standing there oblivious to the snakes running over his foot.

She groans. "Come on! Is it only me they're after?"

"What?" Soto looks down. "Augh!"

While he attempts to climb a tree, she continues warding the snakes away with water. There's so many of them, she finds herself expending a lot of effort when she's barely keeping them at bay. She grits her teeth and jumps up, her Airjitzu technique catching her and carrying her to the same tree Soto is failing to climb.

"Come on," she says, reaching a hand down and helping him up. "We should be fine up here."

The snakes start climbing the tree.

"Oh, goddammit!"

She puts an arm under Soto's shoulders and uses Airjitzu again, landing on the branches of another tree. "Hang on," she says to him, and she jumps again, from tree to tree.

Eventually, she decides they're far enough from the snakes that they can land on the ground. "Thanks, pajama woman," Soto says when they land.

"No need to thank me. The snakes were ignoring you. You weren't in any danger." She frowns and looks behind them, though the jungle is so dense she can't see where they first encountered the snakes.

"Oh, really? Arr, thank ye anyway."

They press forward. According to the location Pixal put in her phone, they should be almost there. She motions to Soto to stay back; they don't know what sort of defenses the Realm Crystal's keep has. She creeps forward on her own, spotting a manmade structure through the bushes.

"Halt!"

A nindroid sticks a gun in her face.

She yelps and ducks down, her heart pounding. The bush rustles, and the nindroid parts the leaves to look down at her.

"Oh," they say. "It's the Water Ninja. What are you doing here?"

"Haha, uhhh…" She grins up at them. "I just, uh, wanted to see where the Realm Crystal was! Y'know, see how it's guarded, and… stuff."

The nindroid's face is covered by a white hood. She has to imagine them frowning.

"Does Borg know of this?" they ask.

"Uh… no. I know it was kind of stupid of me, I know, but I wanted to, like… test my skills, sort of, and find it for myself?"

They're not buying it. They are absolutely not buying it. Her grin falters. She really doesn't want to have to fight a bunch of nindroids, especially not with how they remind her of the nindroids the Overlord created. Did Borg repurpose them to protect the Realm Crystal? She wouldn't be surprised.

"The database says you are now a wanted criminal," the nindroid says. "We are not programmed to use lethal force. However, I must inform you that we are obligated to –"

She kicks their feet out from under them.

The sound of automatic doors sliding open reaches her ears, and turns and runs before the other nindroids can take stock of the situation. Soto stands up from his hiding place – "Run!" she hisses. When he doesn't move right away, she grabs his hand and drags him through the jungle.

The nindroids don't follow them for long. She slows down when she can no longer hear their tinny voices, and stops to catch her breath. Soto stumbles to a stop behind her and looks back. "Great job, pajama woman," he says. "Now what do we do?"

"Give me a minute," she says. "I need to think."

She sits down on a fallen log. The nindroids aren't following her, she tells herself. She has some time to think.

Pain bites into her ankle. She yelps and kicks, sending the snake flying. Even as she gets to her feet, her head is already starting to feel dizzy – she grabs Soto's hand, has to lean on him to stay upright, thinks about using Airjitzu to get away from the other snakes she knows are coming – and her vision goes black.

She's holding Nadakhan's hand, laughing in his arms as he spins her around, her wedding dress billowing in the air.

She's gripping Jay's shoulder, telling him she's going to choose her own destiny before pushing him through the portal.

That's not right, she thinks, but she can't tell which scene she's thinking about. Both? Both are from the same lost timeline, the one Jay used his final wish to erase –

– a chill strangling her heart as the poison works through her body –

– she doesn't know who she is. Someone is calling her a pajama woman. "Nya," she hears, and she thinks – who?

Dilara, she thinks, but – no, no, that's wrong, that fills her with such a horrible sense of wrong that she can't think of anything except how wrong it is. How wrong all of this is.

She remembers screaming at Dareth, shouting that she's not just a girl, she's not just the girl ninja, she's not Nadakhan's dead girlfriend – Jay has to lead her away, sitting beside her while she sobs. It's not fair. It's not fair. Wu didn't even tell her about her powers until he needed them – it's not fair!

Unfair to never have powers at all, to watch her sister dance in the waves, laughing as the water twists around her arms like snakes. God, she hates snakes. Her heart is pounding. She feels uncomfortably warm. The Tiger Widow's venom felt so cold. 

Infinite wishes, Nadakhan tells her. He can give her everything she's ever dreamed of. She can have the life she's always deserved, she can rule as the human queen of Djinnjago. But even that seems to be taken from her, as the enemy pirates hold her back, as the djinn she pretended to love disappears, the power, the future, God, that damned Captain Soto –

There are voices talking. She recognizes Soto. She recognizes that she doesn't recognize the other. She struggles to sit up.

Someone puts a hand on her shoulder. "Easy, pajama woman –"

"Stop calling me that!" she shouts at a volume that surprises even her. Soto jerks back in alarm. She paws at the wall next to her, feeling for a handhold. She finds one, pulls herself to her feet, swallows hard. Her throat feels as if she hasn't had anything to drink in days.

"My name is – !"

Chapter Text

She wakes up again with a splitting headache. She feels… better in some ways, worse in a lot of others. She puts a hand to her head and groans – she doesn't remember much of her last bout of consciousness, only that she yelled at Soto and told him to stop calling her "pajama woman." Which is valid, actually, but not the best behavior when she's trying to have the guy tolerate her while they're working together.

"Are you awake?"

She knows that voice. It's not Soto. She sits up and rubs her eyes. She's in a tent, large enough to stand in and lie down flat, and not much bigger. There's a figure standing at the opening, staring at her through a helmet. "Samurai X?" she says, for lack of a better name.

The armored figure nods. She has to say, it's odd, seeing her armor used again and not knowing who's using it. Not Ronin, not Dareth, not Skylor… her mind wanders, thinking of who else it could be, until she realizes she's been staring at them for far too long.

"Are you alright?" Samurai X says, in that harsh robotic voice. "Vermillion venom isn't pleasant, but there haven't been any recorded deaths. Please don't be the first."

"Vermillion venom?!" No wonder they were all going after her! She takes a look at her ankle. It's red and swollen, but otherwise doesn't hurt if she doesn't touch it. And keeps her weight off it, she finds when she stands up. "How'd they get all the way out here?"

"Despite what the Hand of Time did to him, Cyrus Borg was unwilling to simply exterminate the remaining Vermillion Warriors. He elected to put them here, as a sort of natural defense for the Realm Crystal." Samurai X taps their foot. "They were not overtly aggressive when they were moved. It must be because a fragment of the hivemind remembers you."

"Fantastic," she says. "Great. I bet Borg's been notified that I was here, too."

"Most likely."

"Dammit!"

"Arr, she be awake!" Soto sticks his head in the tent. "How ye be holding up, Nya?"

She cracks a smile. "So I'm not pajama woman anymore?"

"Nah, ye told me to call ye –" He hesitates for a fleeting moment. "– your name. Can't be calling ye pajama woman forever, eh?"

"I was kind of assuming you would, but thank you for… not doing that."

"Don't worry, ye always will be pajama woman in my heart."

"Wow, thanks."

"What are the two of you doing here?" Samurai X asks.

"That be a long story," Soto says.

"That I'm not up for explaining to yet another person." She sighs. "First Ronin, then Soto, then Pixal… how many times do I have to tell people that I can't tell them? I wish things were easier for me!"

The moment the phrase leaves her lips, she freezes. "I mean, I don't wish," she quickly adds. "I just – I just, uh –"

Soto bursts out laughing. "There ain't be djinn here!" he says while she glares at him. "Don't be needing to watch your language, pajama – Nya, I mean."

"You are after a djinn?" Samurai X asks. "Why?"

"I'd really rather avoid djinn at all costs," she says. "I just… need to find out about the crew of Misfortune's Keep."

"Ye be looking for information on Dilara," Soto says helpfully.

She sighs. "Yeah, not like I was deliberately not mentioning that or anything."

"Ye were? Why?"

Samurai X hums, a harsh, staticky sound. "Dilara. You spoke that name when you were delirious."

"Of course I did." She sits back down and covers her face. "I hate everything," she mumbles into her hands.

Soto steps into the tent. "I told Spot here what we be doing," he says. "They seem trustworthy enough."

"Who the hell is Spot?"

"That's his name for me," Samurai X says.

Soto trips over his words in his rush to explain. "Because X be – X marks the spot!"

He bursts into laughter. Samurai X politely does not comment.

"I am willing to help you obtain the Realm Crystal," they say. "However, you cannot stay here for long. Cyrus Borg will surely alert your fellow ninja you were spotted. Do you think they'll leave you be?"

"God, no," she says. "I don't want to run into them if I don't have to."

"Then I suggest you leave. I will alert you when it is safe to return."

There's nothing else they can do, is there? She nods. "Yeah. Thanks."

Parting with Samurai X, they leave Hiroshi's Labyrinth with the help of GPS. Soto is amazed when they reach the boundaries of the jungle. "Two hundred years ago, this wouldn't be possible!" he says.

"Wouldn't have been possible forty years ago, either," she says, remembering the goal of the Hands of Time. To return Ninjago to it's pre-modern glory. Good thing they stopped those guys.

A thought occurs to her. "Wait, did you come with me thinking we'd never get out?"

Soto shrugs. "Eh, ye seemed confident enough."

"That's it?"

"Are ye saying ye would have given me a choice in the matter?"

"Well," she says, then fails to continue.

He laughs. "Like I be saying, ye had your own reasons for breaking me out o' prison. I won't be pretending I have a choice, here."

"Oh," she says. "I… I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"For not giving you any options, I guess." She really hadn't, had she? She dragged Soto into this mess without even asking. "Look, you don't need to help me. If you want to leave and go do something else, that's fine."

"As if I have anywhere else to go!"

Soto laughs again, the sound echoing through the mountains. He stops once he sees the expression on her face and clears his throat. "Ye really feel that bad about it?"

"Kind of?"

"Don't worry your pretty little head, Nya, this be the most fun I've had in years!"

She sighs. "Well, if you think so. Thanks for coming with me."

They find a cave not too far away from the jungle, where they set up camp and wait for Samurai X to contact them. "We might be stuck here for the night," she says. "I brought some food, but nothing to sleep on. Which… was really an oversight on my part."

"So we ain't sleeping tonight," Soto says.

"You're welcome to try. I'm going to build a fire."

Soto follows her out when she goes to collect firewood and starts grabbing large leaves off trees. "What are you doing?" she asks.

"Arr, we should have something to sleep on. This be better than nothing."

"Honestly, I wasn't planning on sleeping at all." She adds a few more dry sticks to the pile she's accumulating. "I told you, I have messed up dreams."

"That ain't be healthy! Ye can't stay awake forever!"

"I can stay awake for a while longer," she says.

Eventually, they head back to the cave. The sun is starting to set. While Soto lays out the leaves, Nya rummages through her backpack and takes out a fire starter. Before he left with Zane on their own search for Wu, Kai insisted he take one. "Since you won't have my elemental powers around!" he said with a laugh.

"Great," she said. "It's like I have a less annoying version of my brother."

Kai laughed and pretended to be offended. Thinking of him now, she feels a pang of guilt. She knows how confused he must be, how worried, how upset –

She takes a deep breath.

It takes a few tries to get the logs to catch and a lot of smoke, but she's able to start a fire. Now that it's dark out, she's starting to feel tired. She rubs her sore ankle and yawns.

"Tired, Nya?" Soto asks.

"No," she says, and yawns again.

"Well, I sure am!" Soto lies down on his own pile of leaves. "Goodnight to ye, Nya."

She rolls her eyes. "I really doubt you'll be able to sleep on that."

He doesn't respond. After a few minutes, she hears him snoring.

Her leaf mattress is on the other side of the cave. She lies down on it and stares at the ceiling. The leaves aren't comfortable, but it's better than the rocky floor. When she starts to feel drowsy, she takes out her phone and stares at it, the location of the Realm Crystal still blinking on the map.

Why did Pixal let her go? She can figure out why Samurai X is helping her – that armor did once belong to her, so they probably feel like they owe her something – but Pixal? What has she ever done for Pixal?

It's too much to think about. She rolls on her side and lets herself drift to sleep.

"Oy, Dilara?"

She looks up from mopping the deck. "Yes?" she responds.

Flintlocke stands there wringing his hands; he's always been awkward around her. "Captain wants to see you," he says. "Sorry."

She hands off the mop to Clancee and walks into Nadakhan's quarters with her head held high. What is there to be afraid of? Certainly, Nadakhan could kill her, but not before he tries to get her to make a wish. Her mouth twitches. He'll twist her words and curse her, just like he did Doubloon, Monkey Wrench, Dogshank…

"Dilara," Nadakhan says. "Come, have a seat."

He gestures to a table set up with food and drink. She plasters a smile on her face. "Thank you, Captain," she says, "but what have I done to earn this?"

"Is it not enough that you're a member of my crew?"

"Perhaps not. Do you give Clancee this treatment?"

Nadakhan laughs. "I'd like to think you rank above Clancee, at the least."

She sits at the table. Nadakhan sits across from her. "Eat," he says when she hesitates. "I have done nothing to the food. You may have someone come in to taste-test it, if you'd like."

It's a comfort, that he knows she's wary of him, that he does not pretend there is no reason for her mistrust. She keeps the smile on her face. "Thank you," she says. "That won't be necessary. I believe you would not hurt me."

"Really?" He sounds amused. "What reason have I given you to think that?"

Danger, her mind whispers. Has she made a mistake? Chosen her words wrong? She searches her mind for an answer. "You find me too interesting," she says. "You want to see if you can convince me to use my wishes. You want to know why I refuse to use them. Am I wrong?"

"Not entirely, no." He serves himself some of the food. "You certainly are interesting, Dilara… but not because you refuse to wish. You are not the only one who hasn't used their wishes. Clancee has yet to wish for anything. Says he doesn't need to." He laughs. "One can only imagine what he would use them on! Here."

He puts a scoop of food on her plate. She doesn't move. "Then what is it?" she asks, her smile now gone. "What is it you see in me?"

Nadakhan puts the serving spoon down. "You know my powers," he says. "Wishes cannot be used for more wishes, of course. They cannot be used for death. They cannot be used for love. And I cannot wish for myself… but that doesn't matter." He smiles at her. "I can always get what I want."

She says nothing.

"I believe you and I are very much alike." Nadakhan gestures to the food. "But, not so much in our biology. Eat, Dilara. You should not have to go hungry."

She picks up her fork and begins to eat.

Chapter Text

She wakes up covered in sweat. The fire has burned down to a few smoldering embers. Soto is still snoring. She decides not to go back to sleep.

The night is cool, but not cold. It's still summer, after all. She stands up, brushes off the stray leaves sticking to her damp skin, and goes outside. The sky is cloudy and threatening rain. She takes out her phone and checks for any messages from Samurai X, but finds nothing. She sighs and on the ground, which she instantly regrets when the dew soaks through her clothes.

Her mind drifts to her dream.

What does she know about Dilara? Assuming her dreams are true and not just dreams, she knows Dilara was the second child of a former Master of Water, and the elemental power went to her elder sister. It's not really surprising. If they look exactly alike, it makes sense that they're distantly related, part of the same bloodline. Doesn't change how uneasy it makes her.

She knows Dilara was taken aboard Misfortune's Keep, but the details are fuzzy. Probably her subconscious trying to protect her from thinking about Nadakhan. Even the name makes her shudder, but she can't afford not to think about him – she needs to focus on her goal, which is…

What is she trying to do here?

"I want to know who Dilara was," she says to herself. "I want to stop these dreams. I want… closure, I guess."

Her words sound insincere in her own ears. She could've talked to Jay. She could've told the others what had happened. She could've had help from her friends. Now she's alone.

She groans and buries her face in her hands. "This sucks," she mutters. "Everything sucks."

She has to keep moving. She can't let herself have doubts. She's going to get the Realm Crystal, they're going to go to the Cloud Kingdom and find whoever of Nadakhan's crew got banished there, and she's going to put all this to rest.

Her phone lights up.

> The ninja have left.
> You may meet me back at the tent.

She glances back at the cave. She almost leaves without waking up Soto, but decides against it.

"Rise and shine, Captain," she says loudly, splashing the remainder of the fire as she walks in. "I've been in contact with Samurai X, and it's time to go get the Realm Crystal."

Soto rolls on his side and covers his head with leaves. It takes all of her self control not to use her water powers on him.

"You told me you didn't have a choice in the matter," she says. "So come on! We gotta go!"

"I change me mind," Soto grumbles. "Let me sleep."

"Nope! We're going now!"

It takes a few minutes before Soto gets up. He smells horrible, she notices, but it's not like she would smell much better. "We should find somewhere to wash up," she says. "I don't want to go meet this mystery crew member smelling like jungle crap."

"We passed a river on the way here," Soto suggests. "It be better than nothing."

A jungle river might just make them smell more like the jungle, but she can't think of anything else. "Alright," she says. "We'll do that after we meet with Samurai X."

"Ye mean Spot?"

"I'm not calling them that."

She does a quick check of the area before showing herself – she trusts that Samurai X will keep their promise, but that doesn't mean she shouldn't be cautious. After she determines that none of the other ninja are there, she and Soto approach the tent.

Samurai X nods at them. "The ninja appeared, questioned me, and believed me when I said I did not see you," they say.

"Thank you," she says. "I gotta ask, though… why are you helping me?"

"You have a strong drive to do the right thing," Samurai X says. "I trust that you will continue to follow it."

"Thanks, but that's a really vague response that doesn't really answer my question."

Samurai X holds out the Realm Crystal.

She stares at it, unable to speak for a few moments. "Oh my God," she says. "What – how –"

"You said you could not tell me everything," they say. "I cannot tell you everything, either. Please take this."

She almost doesn't want to, thinking that if she touches it, it'll slip through her fingers. It doesn't. It's solid. "Oh my God," she repeats, turning it over in her hands. "Thank you, Samurai X! Thank you!"

"You can call me Spot," Samurai X says.

"I really can't."

"So that be it?" Soto says. "No need to steal anything?"

"I've done all the stealing for you," Samurai X says. "However, I do have a request."

"Oh, anything," she says, clutching the Realm Crystal in her trembling grasp. "Anything. What is it?"

"Please allow me to come with you."

That makes her hesitate. "Why?" she asks. "You've helped me a lot already, and you won't say why, but… I might need to know, for this."

"It's merely a request. You do not have to grant it." Samurai X's expression is unreadable under their helmet. "I would understand if you didn't. With my identity hidden, I am a stranger to you."

"So you won't answer the question?"

For a long moment, Samurai X says nothing. Finally, they speak. "You have a strong drive to do the right thing," they repeat, "but you are acting recklessly, and it worries me. I may be a stranger to you, but you are not a stranger to me. I will not tell the ninja, but I don't want to let you go off on your own, if you're willing to have me."

"Hey," says Soto.

Samurai X corrects themself. "I don't want to let you go off with only a criminal for company."

"Hey!"

Samurai X tilts their head. "What will it be, Nya?"

She only has to think about it for a moment before the answer becomes clear. "I'll let the captain decide," she says.

Soto blinks. "What?"

She turns to him and smiles. "I told you, I feel bad about not giving you any options," she says. "What I decide here will affect you, too. So I want you to decide for me."

Soto laughs nervously. "Arr, that be an awful big decision! Are ye sure?"

"Yes."

"Well then…" He furrows his brow. "Spot be right. Ye are acting recklessly. I'd feel much better if ye had someone to keep an eye on ye. I say they join us."

"Alright." She can't say she's happy to hear that Soto's worried about her, too, but he's made his decision. She turns back to Samurai X. "Welcome to the team, X."

They nod. "Thank you, Nya, Soto. Where are we going?"

"The Cloud Kingdom," she says, looking at the Realm Crystal. "I was gonna wash up, first. I haven't had a decent shower in way too long."

She washes up in the river, while Samurai X and Soto wait at the tent. Once she returns, Soto goes to clean, and she and Samurai X wait for him and talk.

"I'm not gonna ask you to tell me who you are," she says to X, "but it's a little weird, knowing that you know me without knowing who you are."

"I know," X responds. "One day, I will feel ready to reveal my identity, but I doubt it will be on this journey."

"Won't anyone miss you? I mean, I don't know how long we'll be gone, but it might be for a while."

They shrug. "Doubtful. My absence will be noticed, but I have disappeared before."

She mentally goes through the possibilities for Samurai X's identity. She had considered Ronin before, but Ronin was out of commission with a broken leg when X first made their appearance. Too bad, because it would make sense – other than Pixal, Ronin is the only person who knows she's even going on this journey, and she can call him a friend. She wouldn't put it past him to steal her old armor, either.

A thought occurs to her – could the armor have supported Ronin's broken leg? It would take some modifications, but he's a mechanic, too.

While she's considering that, Soto makes his return. "I'm back!" he says loudly, adjusting his hat as he walks. "When do we set off?"

"Now, I guess?" The Realm Crystal is heavy in her hand. "Everyone, stay close to me. Actually –"

She takes X's hand and motions for Soto to take their other. "Alright," she says. "I just need to think of where we're going, and…"

Cloud Kingdom, she thinks, raising the Realm Crystal up. She's never seen it, but she can imagine it, based on the other ninja's descriptions. Where the scribes write the story of Ninjago, where the Green Ninja prophecy came from, where maybe, just maybe, she'll find the answers she's looking for.

The portal opens above her, and all three of them are pulled inside.

She and X land on their feet. Soto doesn't, tripping and falling into X. "Sorry, Spot," he says. "I be a bit disoriented."

"It's fine," says X.

She lets go of X's hand and looks around. The Cloud Kingdom is… full of clouds. The whole realm has a golden glow, like the sky at sunrise. They're standing in front of a large, closed gate, with no other buildings to be seen.

"Does anyone know we're here?" she says out loud.

"They must," says X. "The scribes of the Cloud Kingdom know everything that happens in Ninjago."

"Cool. I'm gonna knock."

The door opens just as she reaches it.

The person grins at them, dressed in a simple gray robe with the hood down, revealing neat brown hair and bushy eyebrows. Before she can react, they reach out and grab the hand she was going to knock with. "Welcome!" they say, giving her a firm handshake. "I'm so glad to see you! Come in, come in – quickly!"

The three of them are ushered inside, where she sees rows and rows of scribes sitting at desks and writing on parchment. Some of them quickly look down and pretend they weren't just staring at her. She frowns.

"Who are you?" she asks the scribe, who is now leading them away from the other scribes and to an old side door.

"Nobu," they say. "And you're Nya, and he's Captain Soto, and she's –"

Samurai X coughs.

"Right," says Nobu. "Sorry. Quickly, this way!"

They lead the group through the door and onto a floating boat, drifting back and forth in the breeze. "My – the Master Writer will be here soon," they say. "He's very upset about the lost timeline. I was able to distract him, but not for long – get on!"

They practically shove her onto the boat. She stumbles and grabs the mast. "Wait," she says. "What's going on?"

"No time! Go, Nya!"

Once they're all on, Nobu starts the engine and jumps back on the cloud. "Flintlocke is to the east of here!" they shout as the boat begins to move. "I'll hold off Fenwick as long as I can! Hurry!"

Samurai X quickly takes control of the boat and steers it away. As they leave, a voice echoes through the realm.

"Nobu!"

Muffled by the distance, she hears Nobu say, "Hello, Father," and then their words are lost in the clouds.

Chapter Text

"That was weird," she says.

"No kidding!" says Soto. "What was that kid talking about?"

"Kid? They didn't seem that young."

"Need I remind you that I be two hundred years old?"

"They mentioned a lost timeline," says X. "What does that mean?"

Crap. She swallows hard. "Yeah, well, they also mentioned that you're a girl, so unless you want me to start guessing your identity –"

"You're hyperventilating."

"I am not."

"We don't need to be threatening each other," Soto says. "Nya don't need to tell us about whatever the lost timeline is, and we don't need to ask."

She takes a deep breath to try and calm her racing heart. "Yeah," she says. "Sorry. I won't try to guess who you are."

Samurai X nods. "And I won't ask about the timeline," she says. "Nobu said Flintlocke was to the east. Who is Flintlocke?"

"Nadakhan's first mate," Soto says. "One of the few of Misfortune's Keep who hadn't been cursed by a twisted wish. He could shoot a hole through a penny while you were flipping it!"

"I'm not sure the saying goes like that," she says.

"No, I saw him do it!"

"So he'll know who Dilara is." She's starting to breathe fast and hard again. "He might know her best, after Nadakhan himself – and I am not speaking to Nadakhan."

"Smart choice, Nya," Soto says. "Did the kid say how far east?"

She looks out at the kingdom. There's no sun, just that golden glow. "Are we even going east?"

"Your armor has a compass," X says. "It is still functional, even in a different realm. We are going east."

"You don't have to call it my armor, you know." She smiles. "It's pretty much yours now. I wasn't even using it, y'know, being the Water Ninja and all."

"I still took it without asking," X says.

"Ye mean ye stole it," Soto corrects.

"That is also true."

"Seriously, it's fine," she says. "I'm glad someone's getting some use out of it."

Samurai X says nothing.

Their boat sails on. The other boats ignore them. Eventually, the clouds in front of them are clear of buildings, and they don't pass anyone else across the sky. She doesn't know how long it's been, but she can feel boredom settling down on the three of them.

"So," she says. "Anyone know any road trip games?"

"What?" Soto says.

"We could play I Spy," says X.

"Twenty questions," she suggests.

"I don't know what either of those be," Soto says. "Are ye suggesting we sit around asking each other questions?"

"That actually sounds more interesting than both of those." She sits down and fixes X and Soto both in her gaze. "Alright… favorite color?"

Soto looks utterly baffled and doesn't respond.

"Purple," says Samurai X.

"Cool. Mine's red. Now someone ask me a question."

After glancing at X, Soto speaks. "Why'd ye become a ninja?" he asks. "Ye weren't the first time I met ye."

"I had to," she says. "Didn't have a lot of choice in the matter. Sensei Wu told me about my water powers, and, well, we needed them."

"Who says ye had to be a ninja? Ye could've been a pirate!" Soto grins at her. "Still could!"

She thinks of Dilara and shudders. "No," she says. "I really couldn't. Why'd you become a pirate?"

Soto slaps the seat and laughs. "That be a good story! So, me father was a drunk and me mother didn't care about much of anything, so I ran off and joined a ship's crew. We sailed the Endless Sea for some time, then on one of our docks, I went down the wrong street, bumped into the wrong man, and was sentenced to death."

"Excuse me?" she says in alarm. "Sentenced to death for bumping into someone? That doesn't sound right!"

Soto shrugs. "That's how it be. Or rather, how it used to be, two hundred years ago. Arr, everyone could tell I came from the poor part of town, and the man I bumped into – well, he had a lot of social standing. The captain never came for me, but one of the inmates took pity and helped me escape. I had nowhere to go, so I became a pirate, because the seas were all I knew."

She feels sick. "Sounds like you didn't have a lot of options."

"Course not – but I be happy with where I've ended up!" He laughs again. "Look at me! Two hundred years later, I'm still alive!"

"You were dead for most of those years," X comments.

"Does it matter? I'm here now! Now, how 'bout the story of how I found me ship, Destiny's –"

"I see something," says Samurai X, and she points up ahead.

Sure enough, she can see a boarded up building, built with dark wood and painted with a white skull. The three of them crowd around the fore of the boat. "I'd say that's where Flintlocke be," Soto says. "Unless there be some other pirate in this realm."

"Nya, do you have a plan?" says X.

"Uh," she says. "Not really. I figured we'd just… free him, or whatever, and ask him some questions? I guess?"

Soto clears his throat. "Just so you know, the crew of Misfortune's Keep be banished with their weapons. He might shoot us. Me, mostly, since I be the one who banished him."

"Yeah," she says. "You're staying back on the boat. I really don't need you getting shot. X and I will free him."

"What if he's violent?" X asks.

"I mean, we are freeing him. What, is he not gonna be grateful? At least a little bit?" She shrugs. "He doesn't seem like the kind to shoot first, ask questions later."

"How do you know?"

She has to think fast for a response. "I told you, I've been having dreams where I'm Dilara. Assuming they're actually her memories, and not just my brain making up stuff, then I sort of know who Flintlocke is." She thinks back to the other members of the crew. "And Clancee, and Dogshank, and Doubloon…"

"They certainly be memories, then," Soto says. "How else would ye know the crew's names?"

"Yeah," she says. "How else?"

"So you believe you're dreaming of Dilara's memories," X says. "Maybe we should focus on that instead of going after Nadakhan's crew. For all we know, they might try to find their captain, if we don't keep an eye on them."

A chill grips her heart. She hadn't thought of that. And here they are, about to free his first mate. What was she thinking?

When she doesn't respond, X speaks again. "Let's rest here," she says. "We have options. We don't need to free Flintlocke right away – now that we have the Realm Crystal, we should be able to return here whenever we want. Nya, you're hyperventilating again."

"Can you stop pointing that out?"

"Sorry."

"It's fine." She takes a deep breath. "Yeah. Okay."

They moor the boat on the cloud the building is on. They don't go in; whatever they find in there, she's not ready to face it. She unpacks the remainder of their food and splits it with Soto, after Samurai X politely declines a share.

"You sure?" she says. "We've got enough for the three of us, I think."

"I have my own," says X. "But thank you."

Once they're done with the food, it's time to discuss their next steps. "You want to know more about Dilara," Samurai X says. "It may be that's not the goal we should be aiming for. Why are you receiving her memories?"

"If they are her memories – and again, I'm pretty sure they are, but we don't know – we're distantly related," she says. "She's a great-great… however many greats, she's a great-aunt of mine. Younger sister of a previous Master of Water."

"Really?" Soto says. "I didn't know that!"

X turns to Soto. "You've met Dilara. Can you tell us anything about her?"

"Arr, I only met her the once. After Nadakhan was captured, she tried to sweet-talk her way out of captivity. Didn't work on me! Worked on me first mate." He shrugs. "Then she stole a rowboat and fled in the dead of night. Never saw her again."

"Did she use any magic? Anything that would result in her possessing Nya now?"

"Possessing?!" she yelps. "I think I would know if I was possessed!"

And she had been, once. After the horrible marriage. After Nadakhan gained infinite wishes. He had brought Dilara back, and it was only after he had been shot by the Tiger Widow's venom that Dilara's hold on the living realm had broken.

"That may have been the wrong choice of words," X says. "Not like how ghosts possess people, and not something conscious on her part. But there may be a magical link between you. It might be worth talking to your mother to see if she has ever experienced the same thing, being the previous Master of Water."

"Like, if Dilara did something to curse the Water bloodline?" She can see the logic in that. Why would Samurai X think there was any personal connection with Dilara? To everyone except Jay, she just started having dreams about Dilara for no reason and freaked out about it.

"Exactly. What do you think?"

What is she supposed to say? There's no curse on the Water bloodline. She hesitates, long enough that Samurai X speaks up again.

"I don't know your relationship with your mother," she says. "You don't have to ask her if you don't want to. I understand that it might be… awkward."

"That's one way to put it. I barely remember her from before Krux kidnapped her and my dad, and now…" She shakes her head. "It's weird, that's all. They're still adjusting to being free, too – they were captives for almost twenty years. I feel bad for not being there for them, but… I've had all this on my mind."

X nods. "How long have you had these dreams?"

"Since… God, before Acronix showed up. It's been a few months." She yawns. "Sorry. Feels like it's been a long day."

"How about this," X says. "Now that we've been here, any one of us can use the Realm Crystal to return here."

"Any o' us?" Soto says. "Can I try?"

"No. Nya, you have hideouts in Ninjago that the other ninja don't know about, correct?"

"Yeah," she says. "I mean, they're less hideouts and more storage units, but…"

"We can go back to Ninjago for the time being and do research. If we find someone versed in magic, we could find out if there really is a curse, and how to break it. Either way, we don't need to free Flintlocke before we're ready."

"Maybe Nya here should take a nap, first," Soto says.

"Why? It's not like I enjoy these dreams."

"All I be saying is ye look exhausted!"

"Wait," Samurai X says. "If you can sleep now, it might be useful."

She wrinkles her nose. "I could also never sleep again."

"You need sleep to live, Nya. This armor is equipped with a number of sensors. If I monitor you while you sleep, we could see if the dreams have a supernatural origin. It's not guaranteed, but it's worth a try."

"I guess," she says. "I mean, dunno what the sensors I put in there will do. Didn't really think they'd be able to detect magic."

"I'm not expecting to find the answers this way, more that…" X taps her foot. "If something is noticeably unusual, we'll know where to start looking. If not, perhaps we can rule out some options."

"Makes sense." Not that she's looking forward to dreaming again. She sighs. "Alright, I'll do it. Where should I sleep?"

She ends up lying down on the clouds. It feels weird, but then again, what of this situation doesn't? Samurai X crouches down beside her, while Soto stays on the ship. "So I just go to sleep," she says. "No pressure or anything."

"We have time," X says. "Take as long as you'd like."

She hates to admit it, but she is tired. A few nights in a row of poor sleep would do that. The ground is soft and comfortable, and she finds herself dozing almost immediately.

She thinks of Dilara, because of course that's where her mind wanders. She has so many questions. Who was Dilara? What did Nadakhan see in her? What did she see in him?

If only she could ask…

And then she's asleep.

Chapter Text

She wakes up with a smile.

She sits up. She's still in Nadakhan's bed; Nadakhan himself is gone. He must have left while she was asleep. Her chores have certainly been handed off to Clancee after last night – Nadakhan made it clear she would no longer have to lower herself to such a level.

To think that the captain of Misfortune's Keep is in love with her!

She's giddy with the realization. Nadakhan, a djinn from another realm, the most feared pirate in the Endless Sea, loves her, the second child of the Master of Water, a mere human with no powers. She can't keep the smile off her face. She may not view him the way he views her, but she's not opposed to the idea, and she can play the part. If it means power, riches, glory? She can be anything he wants.

After a few minutes, she decides she's tired of waiting around in Nadakhan's room. It's not as if their relationship would be a secret.

When she goes to get her breakfast, Nadakhan appears behind her. She jumps when he puts his hands on her shoulders. "Good morning, Dilara," he says softly. "Did you sleep well?"

She turns her head and smiles up at him. "I did indeed. Did you?"

"Ah, djinn don't need sleep the same way humans do. But I had a good rest." He releases her. "Once you eat, come see me in my quarters. There is something I'd like to talk about."

She can't help but feel a prickle of anxiety. Maybe she's jumping to conclusions, and he doesn't love her yet. Maybe she pushed things too fast. She takes her food from Clancee and eats slowly, and only returns to Nadakhan's room when nearly everyone else has finished eating.

"There's no need to be nervous," Nadakhan says when she walks in. "There are simply… some things we must address."

"Such as what?"

He holds out a sword. She blinks, staring at it for a long moment. "What's this?" she asks.

Nadakhan cracks a smile. "You may be clever, but your fighting skills are lacking. You were easily subdued when my crew attacked your ship. I will protect you, of course, but you must learn to fight for yourself."

She takes the sword. She doesn't know how to hold it.

"I see we have much work to do!" Nadakhan laughs. "But our lessons won't happen here. Come, Dilara."

He holds out his hand. She takes it with only the slightest hesitation.

Nadakhan takes her to a jungle island. "There are many monsters here," he tells her. "Be alert."

"Am I supposed to hunt these monsters down?" she asks.

"Of course not! I have other reasons for bringing you here."

"And what are they?"

"You will see," he says, and leaves it at that. She frowns, but doesn't ask again.

They avoid the sand after she sees something moving beneath it. Nadakhan picks her up and carries her across to the jungle itself. "Here," he says, once they've found a relatively clear area. "Now, you don't know how to hold a sword. Here, watch me."

He takes out his own sword and demonstrates the proper way to hold it. She tries to mimic him, feeling the weight of the sword in her hand. "Good," he says, "but your stance is all wrong. Here."

His form changes, to one of a human with two arms and two legs. "Stand like this," he says. "Here is where your weight should be…"

After her first attempt to mirror him, Nadakhan walks over to her and puts his hands on her to show her how she should be positioned. It may have just been stances, but after what feels like hours, she's covered in sweat and the smell of the jungle. It's almost humiliating; she's glad there's no one else here to see this. "What now?" she says, when Nadakhan doesn't give her another stance to practice.

"Come with me," he says. "I must show you something."

She breathes a sigh of relief and lets herself relax. "Should I leave the sword here?" she asks.

"Bring it with you. We shouldn't leave it lying here.''

Hopefully her training is done for the day. She follows Nadakhan to a cave, deep in the jungle. He goes to the opening and motions for her to stop.

"Here sleeps the Tiger Widow," he says. "One drop of its venom would kill a human… and weaken a djinn."

She looks in the opening. She can't see anything inside.

"Humans have many weaknesses. Djinn do not. Even those without infinite wishes have powers that could destroy a kingdom from the inside."

"Infinite wishes?" she asks.

Nadakhan turns away. "Normally, a djinn cannot grant their own wishes. However, when a member of djinn royalty is married on djinn land, they may grant as many wishes as they'd like – theirs or others."

"When they are married, hm?" She smiles. "And why are you telling me this, after the night we had?"

"When I left Djinnjago, I never expected to return. I may have been prince, but I never expected I would gain infinite wishes. I can always get what I want."

She moves to his side, takes one of his four hand in her own. "And what do you want, Nadakhan?"

He doesn't say anything for a long moment. "I want for us to be equals," he says. "Of course, a djinn will always be more powerful than a human, but otherwise, I want you to have the same status as I. That is why I brought you here. Now you know one of the few weaknesses of a djinn."

"Is this your way of saying you trust me?"

"What else would it be?" He chuckles. His back is still turned to her. "Perhaps I am being foolish, as my father always said of me."

Equals to a djinn, she thinks. How did she ever get this lucky?

"My father told me never to wish for anything," she says. "That all I wanted was obtainable through hard work and my own efforts. He told the same to my elder sister. He was wrong, of course."

"Really?" Nadakhan says.

"Of course! I could have worked as hard as I liked, but would I have amounted to anything? My sister didn't work for her elemental powers – no, she inherited them, because she had the luck to be born first." She sighs. "It was a hard thing to accept. I felt that no matter what I did, I would always come in second place."

She reaches to put a hand on his face, gently his head to look at her. "And here you are," she says, "saying that you want us to be equals, and that you trust me. You, a djinn, and me, a mere human."

"Why are you telling me this?" Nadakhan says softly.

"You have shown me your weakness, but you know all of mine. My secrets are all I have to share."

"I did not picture you as someone with secrets."

She laughs at that. "Then you have much to learn about me."

She wakes up feeling nauseous. It's like she just woke up from a nightmare – she sits up and looks at the sky and thinks that Nadakhan could appear at any moment. Terror grips her heart – when Samurai X puts a hand on her shoulder, she screams.

"Sorry!" she says when X jerks back. "Sorry, I just – God, I hate these dreams."

"Did something bad happen?"

"Nadakhan was there," she says. "How much worse can it get?"

Soto pokes his head out from the boat. "'Scuse me for interrupting," he says, "but why do ye hate Nadakhan so much?"

"What do you mean, why? He – he –"

She can't answer.

The realization chills her. There's no way to answer without letting slip that she's met Nadakhan. In her dreams, he loved her – and while Dilara's exact feelings are muddled, Soto would know she didn't hate him. No, in this timeline, she has never met Nadakhan.

"Arr, I suspected this from the start." Soto stands up and crosses his arms. "Ye met Nadakhan, didn't ye?"

How she wishes she had never met him at all.

She shudders. "You don't know that," she says weakly, but Soto is frowning at her, and she can imagine a similar expression on Samurai X's face, whatever that looks like.

"I don't," Soto says, "but it don't be making any sense, otherwise! Now, tell me what happened, because if Nadakhan be freed from that teapot –"

"He's not!" she shouts. "I swear to you, he's not! He – he – oh, God –"

She can feel tears threatening. She covers her face and squeezes her eyes shut. "He's still in Stiix," she mumbles. "I took Jay's hand, just like he wanted, and no one ever found that stupid teapot."

"Wait, ye know where he is?"

"I wish I didn't," she says, and immediately stiffens. "I mean – oh God, oh God –"

Samurai X puts an arm around her as the tears start falling uncontrollably. She sobs and leans against X's chest, wrapping her arms around her even though the hard edges of the armor dig into her skin. She barely feels it.

She doesn't let herself cry for long. After a minute or two, she sits up and wipes her face clear of tears and snot. "I'm fine," she says. "I guess… I guess I can't keep hiding it, can I?"

"You shouldn't, Nya," Samurai X says. "If only because of how much it's hurting you."

"Yeah, whatever." She hiccups and takes a shuddering breath. "The lost timeline… Jay and I are the only ones who remember it. I did meet Nadakhan. Here's what happened…"

Chapter Text

She always assumed the first person she would tell would be Kai. He's her brother, after all.

She never considered that, out of everyone she knew, everyone she had met, the first people she tells about the lost timeline are Captain Soto and someone whose identity she doesn't even know.

Samurai X listens quietly through her tale, only moving to elbow Soto when he tries to interrupt. Good – it's hard enough remembering what happened without him trying to ask questions. She has to stop and take a few breaths when she gets to the fight on Misfortune's Keep, where Lloyd and Cole were captured, and with Zane and Kai already gone, she and Jay were truly alone. She powers through, talking in a low, monotone voice.

She almost doesn't tell them what happened at the end.

"Flintlocke – he and Dogshank were able to escape when Nadakhan started banishing his crew," she says. "They joined Jay and the others, and Flintlocke shot Nadakhan with the Tiger Widow's venom." She looks away. "I – I was possessed by Dilara, so I was – close to him. So, when he was hit – well, it only takes a drop to kill a human."

Soto and Samurai X say nothing. Wordlessly, X reaches out and pulls her into another hug. She doesn't hug back, all her energy used to prevent another crying breakdown.

"It's fine," she mumbles. "It never happened, in the end. Jay's last wish reset the timeline, back to us on the roof, before the teapot was found – and because of his wish, it was never found at all.

"Regardless of whether it happened in the timeline," X says, "it happened to you. You should never have had to go through that."

"Yeah, well, I did," she says. "And now I just gotta deal with it."

"Not alone, you don't." Samurai X releases her. "You need to tell the ninja. You need to tell your brother."

"It's not all my choice," she says. "I mean – Jay went through it, too. I'm worried they'll be angry at him if they find out he knew, too, and didn't tell anyone."

"That just means he's suffering in the same way you are," X says. "You both need to tell the others."

"Not now," she says. "Not now. I need to find closure, first." She wrinkles her nose. "And stop these horrible dreams."

"Pardon my interruption…"

All three of them jerk their head towards the building.

The door creaks open and a man with a large, bushy mustache walks out. She recognizes him immediately, and judging by Soto swearing, so does he.

"Flintlocke?!" she says, scrambling to her feet.

Flintlocke raises both hands in front of him. "Now, now, I ain't about to fight you. I'm still a bit disoriented. Dunno how I got free of…" He glances back behind him. "…whatever that was, but, well, I've been doing some eavesdropping, and I just want to talk."

"How much did you hear?" Samurai X says, her voice soft and dangerous.

"Quite a bit. My apologies, but I wanted to know what I was getting into before I showed my face." Flintlocke sighs. "And since you didn't know I was here, I've got no reason to believe all that lost timeline stuff wasn't true."

He keeps staring at her – she fixes him with a glare and he looks away. "So?" she snaps. "What's it to you?"

"Means I've got no interest in freeing my captain," he says. "Hate to say it, but it ain't surprising he'd throw away his crew once he didn't need us. Now, I ain't gonna cause you trouble, but it looks like you're my only ticket out of here."

"What do you think, Nya?" Samurai X says.

"No," she says. "You can't come with us. We're leaving him here."

She turns away. "Hang on!" Flintlocke says. "Can y' at least drop me off somewhere? Don't exactly got any food, here –"

"Then starve." Her body shakes with barely-contained emotion, and she nearly stumbles when she gets on the boat, Soto catching her before she falls. "X, get over here."

Samurai X looks at Flintlocke, then back at the boat. "Nya, I'm not certain –"

"We're leaving! Now!"

Before getting on the boat, Samurai X whispers something to Flintlocke. She pretends not to notice.

Samurai X doesn't take the boat far, pulling over within sight of the building Flintlocke was trapped in. "Nya," she says, "I understand if you don't want to be near Flintlocke. But I don't feel right leaving him there."

"Maybe it be best if ye give Nya a chance to calm down," Soto says.

"I am calm," she says, clenching her fists and digging her nails into her palm.

"Maybe it would be good to have some distance," X says. "Nya, Soto, the two of you should return to Ninjago. I'm going to stay here for the time being."

"Okay," she says. "What should we do there?"

"Restock on food and other necessities. And…" Samurai X hesitates. "Thank you, Nya. For telling us what you did. I know it must have been hard for you."

"Whatever," she grumbles. "Fine."

After agreeing to meet back in the Cloud Kingdom by the end of the day – her since of time is out of whack, and the Cloud Kingdom always being the same lighting doesn't help, but Samurai X informs her that it's late morning – she and Captain Soto return to Ninjago.

She has the Realm Crystal transport them back to Ronin's hideout. It's as good a place as any. "You stay here," she tells Soto. "I'll get more food, and, uh…"

As she speaks, she checks how much money she has left, which is zero. She stands there staring at her wallet for a few moments, then groans. "Okay. Okay. This is fine."

"Be there a problem?"

"Yeah. No money. Goddammit."

Soto laughs. "I could steal!"

"Yeah, no. I'm not busting you out of prison a second time." She takes out her phone. "Give me a minute…"

She leaves the cave and sits on a rock by the beach. Her phone informs her that she has a few dozen voicemails and near a hundred missed calls. She deletes all the voicemails and sends a text.

Hey. I need money. >
Don't freak out, and don't tell the others. >

She waits for a response, her heart pounding. Maybe Jay is the wrong person to ask, she thinks. Maybe she should trust in Kai. But her brother will worry, and she can't face him now, not yet, not until she's ready to return.

The messages come in rapid succession:

< nya what are you DOING
< everyone's freaking out
< kai's freaking out
< I'M freaking out
< so if you want us to not freak out
< you're too late
< cause we're freaking out

There's still some things I need to do. >

< we can do it together

We can't. >
I need to do this alone. >

Mostly alone, she thinks, glancing back into the cave where Soto is.

< please come back nya
< is this my fault
< did i do something wrong
< i'm sorry whatever it was

It's not about you. >
I'm doing this for myself. >
Look, I just need some money for food. >
I paid Ronin most of what I had. >

< does ronin know

About Nadakhan? No. >

Jay doesn't respond right away. She sighs and wonders if she'll have to text Kai after all. She'll give Jay five minutes, she thinks.

He texts back after three.

< will you actually meet up with me to get the money

No. I'm gonna ask Ronin to do it. >

< you know he'll take a cut right

I just need enough for food. >
I'd rather not resort to stealing at this point. >

< ok
< I'll send 300
< hopefully ronin won't take more than 50
< it's gonna be ok nya

I know. >
I'm making sure of it. >

--

Ronin is glad to hear from her. "Everything going alright?" he asks over the phone.

"As well as it could be," she says. "How's it going for you?"

"Well, there's a warrant out for my arrest, but eh. Not like it hasn't happened before. I'll probably have the pawn shop up and running again by next week."

"Good to hear. Listen, can you meet up with Jay for me?"

She lets Ronin and Jay set up their own time and place to meet, and then she's run out of things to do. She can't go buy food until Ronin brings her the money, and there's not much to do in the hideout. She plays games on her phone until Soto clears his throat.

"Not to be a bother," he says, "but could we talk?"

"Yeah, sure," she says, putting her phone away and turning to face him. "What's up?"

Soto frowns. "Where do I go after this be over?"

"Uh…" She hadn't thought of that. "Well, I'm gonna have to talk to the Kryptarium prison, figure out how to make up for breaking you out and causing a lot of property damage in the process. Depending on how that goes, you might be able to go free."

"Yarr, freedom would be nice, but do I have a place in this future?"

"What?"

He laughs at her shock, just as loud and cheery a laugh as he always has. "It's be two hundred years in the future! There be so much I can't understand about this new world – how am I supposed to live in it?"

"I'm sure you'll be able to adapt!" she says. "And – you know what, even if you don't adapt, I'm not gonna let you just…" She didn't want to think about what could happen Soto. "You're my friend," she said. "I could get Ronin to find a place for you. Or, I don't know – the ninja know a lot of people who could help." She thinks of Skylor, Pixal, hell, even Dareth. "You have options, now."

This time, Soto's laugh sounds sad. "Ye be a kind soul, Nya. I be glad to help ye on this journey o' yours."

She's not sure how to respond, so she doesn't.

Chapter Text

Ronin comes by with the money just as the sun is setting. "Here," he says, handing it over. "All three hundred of it."

"Thanks," she says. "You want a cut?"

"Nah, not this time." He shrugs. "I'm pretty set, all things considered."

She cracks a smile. "I didn't get to say it earlier, so… sorry for making you an accomplice to my crime."

"Eh, you paid me well enough. It's fine." Ronin smiles. "See you around, Nya."

They shake hands and part ways.

Now with money, she disguises herself and buys food without issue. She wonders what food Soto would like; has she even asked? He doesn't seem like the type to care much about what he eats. She gets a variety of food and figures she'll let him choose.

Back at Ronin's hideout, Soto eyes the sun. "Think we should be heading back to Spot?"

She thinks of Flintlocke and feels her stomach twist. "Yeah," she says. "Probably. Let's eat some of this, first."

She hasn't eaten much all day, but then again, she hasn't had much of an appetite, either. She makes herself a sandwich and eats it, all while Soto paces and glances outside at the darkening sky. "I'm not hungry," he says when she offers to make him something. "I don't like leaving Spot alone there for long."

"She'll be fine. What's there to hurt her, anyway?"

"Arr, I just have a bad feeling."

She finishes her food and picks up the Realm Crystal. "Alright," she says, mostly succeeding at keeping her anxiety out of her voice. "Let's go back to the Cloud Kingdom."

The Cloud Kingdom is quiet. She brings Soto and herself back to the island where Flintlocke was trapped. There's no one there.

"Hello?" she calls out. Her voice echoes through the realm. The boat is gone, she realizes.

Soto pushes the door of Flintlocke's prison open. "It be empty in here!"

"Crap," she says. "Uh. Okay. Maybe it was a bad idea to leave Spot – I mean, Samurai X alone here for so long."

Just as she's saying that, her phone buzzes.

< Nya, are you there?
< I am not certain these messages can be sent between realms.
< The Master Writer has asked me to meet with him.
< I don't think I can refuse.
< Please respond when you see these.

She's quick to text back – "I'm here, where are you?" – but doesn't get a response, even as the minutes tick on and on. She hisses under her breath.

"I got some messages from her," she says to Soto. "I think they were sent a while ago, and I'm just not getting them, because of… technology stuff." She feels bad for not explaining, but she's not sure how much technology Soto is familiar with, and she's not really interested in explaining the ins and outs of cell signals. "She's not responding, but she said the Master Writer wanted her to meet with him."

"She be in trouble?"

"Don't know for certain." She frowns. "I'd say it's likely, though."

Soto nods. "Gotcha. So what do we do?"

"I don't know about you, but I want some answers." She glares at where the boat was, as if that'll cause it to reappear, then shakes her head. "We can use the Realm Crystal to get there. Come on."

The Realm Crystal drops them in front of the gates again. She wastes no time in marching forward and knocking on the door. "Hey!" she shouts. "Master Writer! What did you do with Samurai X?"

Soto follows from a distance. "Are ye sure this be the best idea?"

"What else should we –"

The door opens. She turns away from Soto to face the man frowning down at her.

"You've caused us quite a bit of trouble," he says, in lieu of an introduction. He has a neat mop of gray hair and dark bags under his eyes, she notes. Definitely showing his age.

"Are you Fenwick?" she asks.

"I am the Master Writer, yes." The frown doesn't leave his face. "Why don't the two of you come inside?"

Inside looks very much the same as it did when Nobu hurried them through. She keeps an eye out for the young scribe, but everyone writing at their stations looks identical with their hooded robes.

"You know," she says, following Fenwick through the rows of desks, "I haven't heard good things about you. Didn't you work with the Cursed Realm to try and kill my fellow ninja?"

"I didn't try to kill them," Fenwick snaps, "and I'd appreciate if we left that part of my past behind us."

"You locked them in a room to be used as some monster's playthings."

"You have bigger problems to worry about."

"Is that a threat?" Soto growls.

"Please. As if I could pose any threat to you."

Fenwick leads them up a flight of stairs and into a large office. He motions for them to sit in front of the desk, then goes behind it to sit himself and fix them with a stern look.

"Now we can talk," he says.

"Where's Samurai X?" she demands.

"Ah, yes." Fenwick picks up an old-fashioned phone. "Hello? Can you send Nobu and the two offenders to my office, please? Thank you."

"What, your kid, too?" Soto says. "What did they do to ye?"

Fenwick hangs up. "Nobu disrespected my orders and allowed you to free a member of Nadakhan's crew," he says. "He is in as much trouble as you are."

"We didn't intend to free Flintlocke!" she says. "Honestly, I don't even know how he got free in the first place! It's not like we did anything –"

"After two hundred years, his prison had greatly weakened, and the sound waves from your conversation was enough to break it. There was a reason we stayed away from it, you know."

The door behind them opens. She catches Flintlocke out of the corner of her eye and forces herself not to look at him.

Samurai X sits on her left, with Nobu beside her. "Are you alright, Nya?"

She manages a smile. "I'm fine. Are you alright? Kinda freaked me out there when you didn't respond."

"Sorry. I was afraid to message back when I was being watched. They haven't done anything to hurt us."

"Can someone explain to me what's going on here?" Flintlocke says, and the reminder of his existence is enough to make her wince.

"Of course," Fenwick says. "Some months ago, we detected a temporal anomaly, and our scrolls were affected. We found dozens of scrolls in the trash that no one remembered discarding, depicting events that would happen in the future – but didn't. It was a timeline that never would come to exist."

"How is that my problem?" she demands. "That timeline – it wasn't supposed to happen! We're all better off this way!"

"That's not yours to decide!" Fenwick snaps. "The work of the Cloud Kingdom is to ensure things like this don't happen! You're not supposed to get second chances – that's not the way the world works!"

Her heart is pounding. "Are you saying that Jay should've kept everything the same?"

"There's a reason time travel is frowned upon –"

"Yes or no, dammit!" she yells, jumping to her feet and slamming her hands on the desk. "Everything that happened – Nadakhan set free, pieces of Ninjago pulled into the sky, all the ninja picked off one by one –" She wipes furiously at her eyes before any tears make themselves known. "– me dying, was all of that supposed to happen?!"

"That's not the point!" Fenwick glares at her. "Whatever happens, happens! You are not supposed to try and erase it from the timeline! You are not supposed to go back to fix things! You are supposed to accept reality as it is!"

"No!"

"Nya," Samurai X says, getting to her feet as well. "Don't –"

She pushes X away. "Don't tell me to calm down! I don't care! I'm not going to accept that I can't change anything! Never!"

"So what would you have me do?" Fenwick says. "If you pose a threat to the timeline, I'll have to keep you here indefinitely."

"Are you serious –"

"Of course I'm serious." Fenwick's voice is low and dangerous. "Keeping the timeline intact is the Cloud Kingdom's top priority. If I must imprison the lot of you, I will do it."

Nobu speaks up. "So when you agreed to let Morro have the –"

Fenwick raises a hand to stop him. "Nobu," he hisses, "this is not the time. I have already explained the actions I took back then."

Samurai X puts a hand on her shoulder. "Nya," she says again. "Please be careful."

She takes a deep breath. "I know," she says. "Look, I have no plans to go back in time again, and I definitely don't want to release Nadakhan. If you just want to yell at someone for resetting the timeline, you're better off yelling at Jay."

Fenwick bristles. "Jay did not march in here and cause chaos –"

"Chaos?!" Nobu exclaims. "You were the one who yelled at me in front of all the other scribes!"

"Nobu, be quiet."

"If you hadn't said anything no one would have even noticed!"

"Nobu, enough!"

"Father –"

Fenwick slams his fist on the desk. "I told you not to call me that!"

A heavy silence falls over the group. She's not sure what to say. Glancing at Nobu, she can see tears in their eyes, their face twisted in anger.

Samurai X clears her throat. "Is there anything more you would like to say to us?" she says.

Fenwick relaxes. "I suppose that's all. Now please leave, do not come back, and take this man with you."

He gestures to Flintlocke who says nothing. Samurai X looks at him, then turns to her. "Nya, what do you think?"

"I don't think we have a choice," she says. "Fine, we'll take him. Let's go."

Fenwick lets them leave without any further lecturing. They take a moment to rest outside the gates. She does her best not to look at Flintlocke, who is staying quiet.

"What now, Nya?" Soto asks.

"We should go back to Ninjago," she says. "Back to Ronin's hideout. We can work out a new plan there."

Samurai X nods. "That would be good."

Behind them, the gates creak open. They all turn to stare.

"Hi," Nobu says, carrying a backpack stuffed with scrolls, a half-smile on their face. "I – I'm sorry for what happened, I tried to stop my – the Master Writer from calling you in, but –"

"Hey, it's not your fault," she interrupts. "I'm sure you did your best, and you helped us get away when we first got here, too. Don't blame yourself."

Nobu manages a full smile. "Okay! Thank you. Um, can I come with you?"

She blinks. "Why?"

"I want to help! I know scribes aren't supposed to interfere with Ninjago, but I've broken so many rules already, I don't think I can do much worse." They laugh nervously. "Um, and if you will let me come with you, we have to leave soon, because my father's going to be really mad when he realizes I stole all these scrolls."

"Uh," she says.

Muffled by distance, she hears Fenwick yelling.

"Sure," she says. "Let's go."

Chapter Text

Once in Ronin's hideout, the group lights a fire and huddles around it. "We need to go over our goals," Samurai X says. "Nya, what do you think is most important to accomplish?"

She has to think about it for a few moments. Everything has been moving so fast, she's lost sight of why she originally started this journey.

"I just want some sort of closure," she says. "And, I mean… I want to stop having these dreams. That's really the big thing, here." She takes a deep breath. "That's why I started doing all this. I could ignore everything else, but the dreams… I can't."

"I can help with the dreams!" Nobu chirps. "I mean, maybe? I'm not really sure. But with my powers, I could maybe track them to their source!"

"You have powers?" she says in surprise.

"Yeah!" Nobu says. "Same as any Cloud Kingdom Scribe! I can change fate!" They put their pack in front of them and pull out a blank scroll. "It's, uh, not as powerful as it is when all the scribes work together, but I can change small things."

"How would you use those to track the dreams?" Samurai X asks.

Nobu hesitates. "I'm not really sure," they say. "But I really want to help!"

She smiles at them. "It's okay," she says. "You think of a way to do that, and we'll try other things in the meantime. Alright?"

"Okay," Nobu says, nodding.

Flintlocke clears his throat. "Pardon me," he says, "but I feel as if I'm dead weight. Where do I fit in, here?"

An awkward silence falls upon them. Samurai X looks at her, but she doesn't have an answer. She doesn't want Flintlocke here… but he hasn't done anything wrong yet.

She hesitates before speaking. "You should have a choice in the matter," she says. "I'm not going to force you to go anywhere you don't want to go."

"Theres the problem," he says. "I don't have anywhere to go. Can't go back to Nadakhan, not now…"

Soto snorts. "Yeah right," he mutters. "I know how loyal ye be to him!"

Flintlocke glares at him. "I'm not in the mood to hear these accusations from you, Soto."

"Captain Soto to ye!"

"I'm not in the mood for this, either," she interrupts. "Soto, I know you're worried about him going to free Nadakhan, but we don't have a lot of options."

Soto grumbles wordlessly and crosses his arms.

"And honestly?" she says to Flintlocke. "I don't trust you, either. Not enough, anyway. If Nadakhan is freed –" She shudders. "Even if you promise you won't, there's that chance you're lying to me. Because you're right – you have nowhere to go. Misfortune's Keep was your whole life. And I'm supposed to believe you're not gonna try to get that back?"

Flintlocke shifts his weight from side to side, visibly uncomfortable under her gaze.

"I'm sorry I let you free," she says. "If I hadn't, we wouldn't have this issue right now. But I mean it – I don't want to force you anywhere. I'm just going to need someone I trust to keep an eye on you."

"I appreciate that," Flintlocke says. "Just… give me some time to think about it."

"Fine with me." She yawns. "We're gonna need to rest for the night, anyway."

"Nya, can I talk to you for a moment?" Samurai X says suddenly. "In private, if you could."

She gives X an odd look, but nods. "Sure."

Samurai X takes her down to the beach, the stars shining above them. In the distance, she can see the black silhouettes of the ruins of Stiix. Knowing that Nadakhan's prison is there – it makes her uneasy. She tries not to think about it.

"What did you want to talk about?" she asks.

X turns to her. "You shared your secret with me," she says. "I'd like to return the favor."

Slowly, X takes off her helmet.

Her eyes widen.

"Pixal?!"

Pixal nods. Her eyes are faintly illuminated, glowing green in the darkness. "Yes. When Zane was… out of commission, after my father was kidnapped, I… I needed to do something. I was able to gain access into your Samurai X computers, so…" She turns away. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner, I…"

"It's okay." She reaches out and puts a hand on Pixal's shoulder. "I understand. Does anyone else know?"

"My father might. I used his factory to build myself a new body. If he knows, he hasn't said anything to me." Pixal shakes her head. "Zane does not. Please do not tell him. I will tell him on my own time."

"Of course!" she says. "I'm not gonna tell anyone, I promise."

Emotion overwhelms her, and she pulls Pixal into a hug. Pixal stiffens, clearly surprised, but returns the gesture, wrapping her arms around her.

"Thank you for telling me, Pixal. And –" She blinks away tears. "– thank you for coming with me. I'm sorry I put you through so much."

"You're my friend, Nya," Pixal says, "and you've been going through so much. I noticed you had been acting strange… but I didn't want to pry. I knew something was wrong when you were trying to steal the Realm Crystal, and I wanted to help in any way I could."

"Thank you so, so much."

Eventually, Pixal puts her helmet back on and they return to the cave. Soto and Flintlocke are on opposite sides of the cave, while Nobu digging through their pack.

"I think I forgot a pen," they say when she asks what they're doing. "Um, I didn't bring any ink, either, because I was worried it would break in the bag, but I figured I could get some…"

"Does it have to be a special pen?" she asks. "I might have one in my bag."

She digs through the stuff she's accumulated and finds one, cheap pen that probably came in a pack of several dozen. Nobu takes it and looks it over. "Whoa," they say. "Does it have ink inside it?"

"Yeah? I mean, most modern pens do…"

"That's so cool!" Nobu beams at her. "Thank you, Nya!"

She shrugs. "It's no problem."

The sleeping arrangements are a problem. There's only one sleeping bag, and four of them who need to sleep. Flintlocke says he's fine on the cave floor, Nobu says they're not tired, and Soto offers the sleeping bag to her. "Ye need it more than I do," he says when she tries to refuse. "I'll be fine."

There's not much point in arguing. She takes it.

It takes a long time for her to get to sleep. She stares at the ceiling, listens to the scratching of pen on paper and Flintlocke's quiet snoring. She thinks of everyone she's managed to drag along on this journey – Soto, Pixal, and now Nobu. They want to help her, despite two of them barely knowing her.

…so why does she feel so alone?

"Be careful, Dilara."

She flashes Nadakhan a smile. "What do I have to fear?" she says. "Haven't I been trained by the best?"

"Dilara." Nadakhan takes her by the shoulders, looking into her eyes with a serious gaze. "I have faith in your skills, but even the best may fall. Humans have many weaknesses."

"Everyone on that ship is going to be a human," she says, shrugging off his hands. "Serpentine, maybe. Still mortal, just as I am. We share all the same weaknesses."

Nadakhan scowls. "You are not taking this seriously. What will happen if you're cornered and I'm not there to protect you?"

"As if I need your protection."

"Dilara –"

There's no time to argue; the enemy ship is approaching. Nadakhan gives her another stern look, then starts shouting orders to Flintlocke.

When the fight begins in earnest, she throws herself into the fray, wearing the armor Nadakhan got for her. She knows the game; distract the enemy pirates while Nadakhan corners the captain. She parries blow after blow, landing some stings of her own, teasing and laughing as she darts in and out with her sword.

Pain slices across her back. Her laughter stops. She whirls around and attacks blindly, her sword slicing through empty air. The pain is making it hard to focus. She grits her teeth – now the other pirates are laughing. How many of them are there? She can only see one, fresh blood on his sword, as she attacks again and strikes nothing –

A burst of orange, and Nadakhan's sword cuts deep into the pirate's chest.

"I have what we came for," Nadakhan says as the lifeless body falls. "We are leaving."

It's not a retreat; Nadakhan's crew did not lose. But they leave in a rush, nearly leaving Clancee behind. She's lightheaded and breathing hard, leaning on Dogshank as the other woman helps her back to her quarters.

She can't look Nadakhan in the eyes while her wound is treated.

"You fought poorly," is the first thing he says to her. "You were sloppy. You did not pay attention to your surroundings. What did you expect to happen?"

She says nothing.

"I will not allow you to fight until you've proven you can handle yourself. What would have happened if I had not been there?"

She grits her teeth and says nothing.

"Dilara, look at me."

What is she, a child who must be reprimanded? She refuses.

Nadakhan takes her chin and turns her face towards his.

"I will not allow you to be killed fighting my battles," he says softly. "You will not fight until I have given you more lessons. There is glory in our future, Dilara. I want us to meet it together."

She looks in his eyes, and realizes how utterly she has her captain under her control.

"We will, my love," she says with a smile. "We will."

Chapter Text

The next morning, Flintlocke has decided where he wants to go.

"I may be no good as a pirate anymore," he says, "but put me back on the seas. Surely there's work for a sailor around these parts?"

"Uh," she says, looking at Soto, who is politely pretending Flintlocke doesn't exist. "Maybe? I can ask Ronin…"

"But…" Flintlocke frowns. "I can't say I feel right about leaving the rest of my crew in their prisons. Is there any way, anything I could do to convince you to set them free?"

She knew this was coming. Ever since Flintlocke was freed, she knew the rest of Nadakhan's crew would follow. Wouldn't it be wrong, to have Flintlocke be all alone, with Soto the only one who remembers him? What did he do to deserve his freedom while the his crewmates remained banished?

She takes a deep breath.

"I'll think about it," she says.

Sitting outside the cave, she thinks about it. Most of Nadakhan's crew were people who had their wishes twisted into curses. Flintlocke and Clancee were, as far as she knew, the only exceptions, along with Dilara herself. They didn't originally want to be part of Nadakhan's crew… but they found themselves with few other options.

Given the choice, what would they decide?

She thinks to her dreams.

Dilara wasn't close to most of the crew. She was some sort of friendly with Dogshank, respected Flintlocke, and liked to tease Clancee. Monkey Wrench ignored her, Doubloon rarely talked, and the other, lesser members of the crew treated her with respect, but there was no chance of becoming friends. How would they react to her, who wore Dilara's face?

"Nya."

She looks back at Samurai X – who she now knows to be Pixal. "Yeah?" she says. "Is something wrong?"

Pixal walks over and sits down next to her. "I think you should tread carefully," she says. "I don't think Flintlocke has your best interests in mind."

"I mean… yeah, I kind of figured. What have you noticed?"

"He joined us far too easily. He believes the lost timeline without question – it's true, of course, but why would he believe it, when he has no reason to?" Pixal lifts up her helmet, revealing her frown. "We should not seek out the rest of his crew."

She nods. "Yeah," she says. "We really shouldn't. But… if all their prisons are as fragile as Flintlocke's was, they might break free on their own. Then what do we do?"

"Nothing. They will be trapped in alternate realms. They won't have any way of coming to Ninjago and freeing Nadakhan."

"You're right," she says, "you're right…"

"You aren't happy about this," Pixal says.

She can't help but chuckle. "I guess? It just feels weird… I met them, once. We were almost on the same side. And in my dreams, we were on the same side." She looks up at the blue sky. "I just wish they had other options, you know? They weren't really… that bad, I guess."

Pixal hums. "The chance that they would seek out Nadakhan is high, and Flintlocke may have overheard that the teapot is in Stiix. However, there may be another way to prevent Nadakhan from escaping."

"Really?"

"We find his teapot ourselves, and hide it where no one will ever find it."

She gasps and claps a hand to her mouth – but they could. They know it's in Stiix. If they find it, they can keep it safe, put it where it's impossible to get to, and Nadakhan would rot in it for eternity.

So why does the idea make her want to throw up?

"I understand it may be distressing for you," Pixal says. "You don't have to be there. I can do it myself."

"I have to think about it," she says. "Stay here for now, okay? Don't go."

She's surprised at the intensity with which she says the last words. Pixal blinks. "I wasn't planning on going now," she says. "Don't worry. I don't intend to leave you in this state."

She smiles. "I appreciate that."

"So what should we do about your dreams?"

She brings Nobu with her when she goes into Ninjago City again. The kid is awed by the skyscrapers and busy streets, and she has to pull them out of the road more than once.

"You can't stop in the crosswalks!" she hisses, pulling them beside her. "You'll get hit by a car!"

"That would be cool," Nobu says.

"No! It wouldn't be! You would be dead!"

Even in her disguise, she can feel the passersby's eyes on her when she has to stop Nobu from doing something dangerous. She swallows hard and keeps a tight grip on their arm, walking firmly towards the tea shop.

"Almost there," she says. "Come on, Nobu!"

She pulls them away from a window display and ducks through the door.

Mystake is at the counter, looking at the door as if she was waiting for them. "Hello, dears," she says. "What can I do for you today?"

Nobu brushes themself off and stands up straight with a smile. "We need stuff about dreams," they say.

"I've been having strange dreams, and I'd like them to stop," she clarifies.

"Interesting." Mystake smiles. "I do have tea that prevents one from dreaming, though it's not permanent… do you believe these dreams are coming from an outside source?"

"I don't know," she says. "They could be, maybe?"

"Come inside and tell me about them."

Sitting in the inner sanctum of the tea shop, she explains the dreams, with some identifying information removed. She has dreams where she's someone else, and they're distressing. "I know this person existed two hundred years ago," she says, "but she's long since dead. I just… want to stop dreaming about her."

Mystake nods. "Are you tired now?"

She wrinkles her nose. "You want me to go to sleep? Right here?"

"How else will I be able to find the source? Or lack of one, as the case may be." Mystake goes to a cabinet and takes out a box of tea. "I have some tea to help you sleep, if you need it."

"No, I think I'll be fine."

She does end up needing the tea. She tries to get comfy on the couch while it steeps. Nobu chats excitedly with Mystake; she hopes they won't let slip that they're a Cloud Kingdom scribe. Right now, they're just asking questions about the different kinds of tea.

Once she drinks the tea, she feels drowsy almost immediately. That's magic tea for you, she thinks, and she lets herself drift to sleep.

Something is different. She is wrapped in Nadakhan's arms, listening to his soft breathing. Djinn's don't need sleep the same way humans do – she suspects that he only sleeps because he chooses to.

She remembers what happens here. She gets up to leave, and Nadakhan wakes up, asks her where she's going. She picks her words carefully, not wanting Nadakhan to suspect that anything is amiss – but it's hard, sometimes, faking this love for him. It's worth it for the power she'll have, she thinks, but constantly watching herself, knowing that one false step could ruin everything…

But this is different. She sits up and stares down at Nadakhan.

"This isn't real, is it?" she says.

Nadakhan says nothing.

She stands up. "Am I dreaming?" she says, looking down at her hands. "No. This is a memory. But…"

She remembers more.

She's on the ship again. A storm is raging. She draws her sword and blocks the attack from the enemy pirate. A shot fires, and the pirate drops dead in front of her – she nods in Flintlocke's direction and charges forward. The next pirate is stabbed before he has a chance to react, and she shoves his dying body aside and continues through the fray, her eyes on the door to the captain's quarters.

What confidence, she had thought, when the pirate challenged Nadakhan. What could a mere human do against a djinn? Nadakhan has nearly limitless power and the wits of an ancient being of another realm.

All Captain Soto has is a teapot.

Again, she stops. Around her, the battle ceases. "I know how this ends," she says. "All my plans for naught. My future crushed. What was I to do? I escaped Soto, but there was nothing in this world for me."

She waves a hand, and the world vanishes. "I know what is happening, here," she says. "I am dead."

She smiles, a bitter one. "What is there left for me, even in the afterlife? I cannot let go of what was taken from me. My sister's powers. Infinite wishes. I cannot move on." She turns, facing the figure of Nadakhan, motionless, expressionless. "What am I to do, my love?" she says. "The life of a djinn is much longer than that of a human. You will find someone else, maybe one who will love you sincerely. But will you ever be able to forget your first love, your dear Dilara?"

Another wave of her hand, and Nadakhan is gone.

"What am I to do?" she repeats. "Life was so cruel, and the afterlife is crueler still, for making me relive it." She looks around at the void surrounding her. "But is there hope? Do I have a second chance?

"After all… I'm not alone, am I?"

Chapter Text

She wakes up screaming.

She nearly punches Nobu when they approach her. "Careful!" Mystake says, standing up and catching Nobu as they stumble back. "Give her a moment to wake up."

It takes a few more moments for her to remember where she is. Her heart is pounding; she swallows and looks around. Just the back room of the tea shop. No ships. No Nadakhan.

Experimentally, she waves a hand in the air. Nothing changes, much to her relief.

"I can see why you want to stop these dreams," Mystake says. There's no humor in her voice. "Are you alright?"

She nods. "Yeah," she says. "I just – God, that's never happened before."

"I believe I discovered where your dreams are coming from, but I'm going to need to ask you some questions." Mystake pulls a chair over and sits down. "Have you ever been possessed?"

"No!" she yelps, and all the fear of her dream comes back. "I'm the Water Ninja! Ghosts can't get near me!"

"Aren't we supposed to be hiding our identities?" Nobu says worriedly.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to tell anyone." Mystake takes a deep breath. "Nya, you must know that ghosts don't always need to be close to you for you to be possessed. What I found while you dreamed was a link between you and the Departed Realm that is active when you are asleep."

She covers her face and screams.

"It's going to be alright, dear." Mystake says gently. "There are ways to break this link, but you need to be truthful. Have you ever been possessed, Nya?"

She remembers the lost timeline.

"Yes," she whispers. "But – the timeline was changed. It never really happened."

"Hm. That wouldn't carry over, so we must go to the next option." Mystake frowns. "You might be the one causing this link."

"What?!"

"Which is good," Mystake says before she can scream again, "because that makes it easier to break the link, even if it's not a conscious connection. You said that in your dreams you're someone else?"

She nods. "She existed, once, but… she died a long time ago."

"I see. Was this the same ghost you possessed you?"

She nods again.

"Then here is my diagnosis." Mystake smiles, which might supposed to be comforting. "You have clearly been through a traumatic experience you have not healed from, even if the timeline was changed. Assuming the ghost does not remember the events of the changed timeline, you must have been the one to recreate the link the two of you had when you were possessed. You will continue to have these dreams until the link is broken."

"Great," she says. "So how do I do that? 'Cause if the last dream was any indication, she knows about the connection now."

Mystake blinks, and her smile vanishes. "She knows? Is that why the dream was distressing?"

"She didn't know before! I don't think? I didn't even know there was a real connection, all I knew was that I was reliving her memories!" She takes a deep breath and tries to calm herself. "This time – she realized she was dead. And she seemed to know I was there, but –" She shakes her head. "God, I don't know."

Mystake stands up. "I am going to give you the tea to prevent dreams. It must be taken every night. This will give you time to find a solution."

"So you don't have a solution yourself?"

"Sadly, no.

"Okay." She stands up, too. "I think I need to go."

On the walk back, Nobu stays by her side to make sure she's alright, which she's thankful for; she's in no state to stop him from running after everything that catches his eye. They make it back to Ronin's hideout with minimal incidents.

She hears shouting when she gets close. Soto and Flintlocke's voice, though she can't make out the words. Dread pools in her gut and she takes off at a run. Nobu yelps and follows close behind.

The scene is as such: Samurai X is restraining Flintlocke. Flintlocke is struggling in her grip. Soto is holding the Realm Crystal and holding it out in front of him like it's radioactive.

She clears her throat, and everyone looks at her. Flintlocke makes an attempt to break free of Samurai X's grip. It doesn't succeed.

"What's going on?" she demands.

"Flintlocke tried to steal the Realm Crystal," Samurai X says.

"Now, let me explain –" Flintlocke starts.

"What be there to say?" Soto snaps. "Ye were set on freeing your captain, were ye not?"

"I never said that, and I don't appreciate –"

"Everyone shut up," she says. "X, what happened?"

Samurai X nods. "Flintlocke wanted to take the Realm Crystal and find the rest of Nadakhan's crew," she says. "He attempted to convince me to help him, first. When I refused, he tried to take the Realm Crystal by force."

The Realm Crystal is too valuable to keep on her person, especially in Ninjago City. She had entrusted it to Pixal, believing her friend would keep it safe. She is beyond grateful that she was right.

She sets her gaze on Flintlocke.

"Is that true?" she asks.

Flintlocke has the decency to look ashamed of himself. "Well, yes – but I had no plans to free Nadakhan. I barely know where he is, and I'm in no hurry to save him if what you said about that timeline is true. I'd like to find my crewmates, that's all."

Soto snorts. "A likely story! Nya, can I return this to ye?"

"Yes, thank you." She takes the Realm Crystal; Soto is visibly relieved to give it up.

She turns back to Flintlocke. "I told you I would think about what you wanted," she says. "You're not making a very good case for yourself."

Flintlocke narrows his eyes. "So you won't help me, will you?"

She shakes her head. "No. I won't. But I know you're not going to quit that easily. I'd much rather have you free the rest of your crew if you had someone watching you."

"What?" Soto says.

"Nya, what are you saying?" says Samurai X.

Flintlocke raises his eyebrows and says nothing.

She turns to Soto. "Hey," she says, "I know this is asking a lot of you, and you're free to say no, if you don't want to do this. Will you take the Realm Crystal and go with Flintlocke to free the crew you banished?"

"No!" says Soto immediately. "Why would I do that?!"

"Because I trust you," she says. "You're one of the only people I'd trust to do it who's capable of protecting yourself if things go wrong."

He crosses his arms. "Sweet words, Nya, but I only be one person! How do ye expect me to defend myself against the entire crew?"

"Don't worry," she says, "your fate is in good hands."

"Excuse me?"

She smiles. "Nobu is going to write your fate, and make sure nothing bad happens." She looks at Nobu. "You can do that, right?"

Nobu blinks, then nods and grins. "Yes!" they say. "I can do that! I have to work in broad strokes, so I can't decide the details – but I can at least keep him alive! How do you want me to do it?"

"Hang on," Soto says. "I haven't decided to this! Don't ye want to give me options?"

She winces. "I know," she says, "but I'm running out of options for myself. If I don't let Flintlocke free the crew of Misfortune's Keep, he's going to keep trying. The only way I could let him is if someone I trust was watching him – Nobu can't, I need Samurai X to stay with me, and…" She swallows hard. "I can't do it myself. But I mean it – if you say no, I'll… figure out something else. Maybe Ronin can do it."

Soto says nothing. He looks away from her and stares into space. "Well…" he says. "I won't lie, I owe ye for giving me freedom, and I do like ye, even if ye hang out with those pajama men."

She cracks a smile.

"Ay," he says. "I can do this for ye, Nya. But after this – yipe!"

He clearly wasn't expecting the hug she gives him. "Thank you, Captain Soto," she says. "Thank you so much!"

He laughs awkwardly and gives her a pat on the back. "After this, we be even, understand?" he says. "If I keep working with ye, it'll be 'cause I want to."

"Fine with me." She lets him go. "Okay, you should probably talk to Nobu – you should have some input on how your fate is written."

Nobu jumps forward. "Okay! So how this works, is I can decide sort of your 'end state,' which will obviously include being alive, but there's all sorts of other things I can do! Let's go over there and talk!"

The kid grabs Soto's hand and drags him deeper in the cave. She watches them for a moment, then turns to Samurai X and Flintlocke.

"Let him go," she says.

X does. Flintlocke stumbles forward a few steps before regaining his balance. "Thank you," he says. "You're really nothing like her."

"I… what?"

Flintlocke sighs. "Dilara would have never done something like this. Sure, she was nice enough, treated me with respect… but there was a part of her that saw people suffering and laughed, y'know?"

She can feel the dread again, can imagine it's cold ink staining her insides. "Yeah," she says. "Yeah. X, I need to talk to you."

Pixal joins her at the entrance to the hideout, far enough away from the others that they won't overhear, if they're quiet. "Nya," she begins.

"No. I know, I'm acting reckless, I shouldn't be doing this – that's not what I need to hear right now, Pix."

"No, Nya, that's not what I was going to say."

She blinks. "What?"

Though she can't see through the helmet, it's not hard to picture Pixal smiling. "I think this is a good plan. You're right, both that Flintlocke can't be trusted to free his crew on his own, but also that it would be dangerous if he tried to take the crystal again. I think this was the best course of action."

"…thank you, Pix. That's good to hear."

"What did you find out at the tea shop?"

Right. "Mystake helped a lot," she says. "I still don't know what's going on, but she gave me tea to stop me the dreams temporarily, so we'll do that until we can stop them entirely."

"Do you have any ideas?"

She nods. "I have some," she says. "First, can you help me build a fire? It's getting late, and I want to make sure the tea is ready before I sleep…"

Chapter Text

The tea does its job. After she explains her plan to Pixal, she has a peaceful, dreamless sleep, and she wakes up the next morning feeling better than she has for a long time.

The preparations don't take long. "Nobu's gonna stay with us," she tells Soto, standing in front of the cave. "They'll be safer this way, and you want the person writing your fate to be safe."

"Sounds about right," says Soto. "So… this be it, then?"

She rolls her eyes. "You're acting like I'm never going to see you again. We'll meet up later, alright?"

Nobu gives her an enthusiastic nod. "Yeah!" they say. "We've already planned it! I wrote some of his fate already, and I made sure to include him meeting up with the rest of us – do you want to read it?"

"Not right now, Nobu." She turns to Soto and smiles at him. "You ready?"

He shrugs. "I guess so! Where be Flintlocke?"

"I'm right here." Flintlocke approaches them from deeper in the cave, Samurai X close behind. "Just had to take care of some stuff."

Soto raises an eyebrow. "What kind o' stuff?"

"I don't appreciate your tone, Soto." Flintlocke takes off his pack and shows Soto the contents. "I was getting supplies, so we don't starve to death midway through. We're going to be traveling together for quite a while, so we best learn to tolerate each other at the least."

"Really," says Soto. "We'll see about that!"

Not for the first time, she wonders if this is going to work out. "Well," she says, "if you're both ready…"

She holds out the Realm Crystal to Soto. "We'll be staying in this hideout for the most part," she says, "so if anything goes wrong, or you need to talk to us, or whatever, you can use this to come back here. Alright?"

"Don't ye worry about me, Nya, I can handle meself. Ain't that why ye chose me?" He grins at her. He also doesn't take the Realm Crystal.

She frowns. "So…"

"Right, right." Soto reaches for the Realm Crystal and hesitates. "Arr, ye sure this be safe?"

"We've already traveled using it. It's fine. You'll be fine."

He takes it, eyeing it suspiciously. "Ye sure?"

"Can we go already?" Flintlocke says.

Soto glares at him. "Ye certainly don't have any patience! Well, no sense in waiting around longer. We're going!"

He grabs Flintlocke's upper arm none-too-gently and raises the Realm Crystal high. A portal opens above them, and she waves one last time before they disappear inside.

She spends a few moments staring at the space they were in. Samurai X clears her throat. "We should get going," she says.

She doesn't respond right away. X has to prod her again. "Nya, where are we going?"

"Right," she says. "I thought about what you said earlier, about finding Nadakhan's teapot and hiding it where no one can get to it… but we're not doing that yet. If Mystake is right, I'm being possessed by Dilara." She stops herself before she says "again." "I want to break that link, first. Even if it's only active while I'm asleep, I don't want it there at all when we're looking for Nadakhan."

She takes a moment to breathe. "So we need to know more about the Departed Realm," she says, "and about ghosts. I think the first place to go is the library."

"If I may," Samurai X says, "Im going to attract a lot of attention, dressed like a samurai. Should I come with you? Or…"

"X, you know that me and Nobu both know who you are, right?"

Samurai X pauses for a few moments. "Because Nobu is part of the Cloud Kingdom," she says.

"Yeah," Nobu chimes in. "We kinda know everyone's secret identity, always."

"Just to confirm…" X turns to Nobu. "What is my real identity?"

"You're Pixal," Nobu says. "Uh, do I need to say anything else? You're Cyrus Borg's daughter and –"

"No, that's enough." Pixal takes off her helmet. "Don't tell anyone else," she says with a smile.

The library closes in an hour, so they don't have a lot of time. "I haven't seen any wanted posters for me," she whispers to Pixal as the three of them walk through the doors. "Do you think I could risk not being in disguise?"

"I wouldn't," Pixal responds in the same quiet tone. She's disguised herself with a hologram that makes her appear human, but her voice gives her away. "There's still a warrant out for your arrest." She hums. "Could I sit down for a moment? Zane is contacting me."

Anxiety spikes through her. "He doesn't know where we are, does he?"

"No, but he doesn't know I've built my own body, and it's difficult to hold two conversations at once."

"Got it," she says. "Pixal, you find somewhere to sit. Nobu and I will look for information."

A thought occurs to her just as Pixal leaves. "Do you know anything about the Departed Realm?" she asks Nobu. "I mean, the Cloud Kingdom knows a lot of stuff…"

Nobu shakes their head. "I know my fa – Fenwick did a lot of research on the Cursed Realm," they say. "That was how he knew Morro. I know that since the Cursed Realm is gone, all the ghosts in its possession would've gone to the Departed Realm… but that's probably not helpful."

"Not really," she agrees. "But thank you."

Nobu pretends to be a student studying for a school project, and the librarian helpfully guides them to books on the Departed Realm. They both thank her, and sit down at a table with a dozen books between them. Nobu hesitates. "Where do we begin?"

"Just grab a book and go through the contents," she says. "If it doesn't look like there's anything useful, skip it and go on to the next. We won't be able to take any books out with us; I can't exactly use my library card when I'm a criminal."

"Got it!" Nobu opens the first book on their stack and starts reading.

It takes nearly half an hour before Nobu clears their throat. "I think I found something?" they say. "It's a spell for contacting the Departed Realm."

She looks up. Nobu holds an old, thick book with no title, just intricate designs on its covers. "Uh," she says. "Is that something we want to do?"

"I don't know," they say, "but it's something. Nothing else here has anything about, y'know, doing something, just theories on what the Departed Realm is, and old myths and stuff." They wrinkle their nose. "Found some stuff about the Cursed Realm. That's super dead now, though."

She hasn't found anything better. She puts her own book aside and looks at the page Nobu is holding towards her. Yep, that's a spell, alright. A fairly simple one, too – all she'd need is paper, a pen, and a drop of blood.

She takes a picture of the page with her phone. Nobu flinches back when the flash goes off. "Sorry," she says. "Anyway – I think this is worth a shot."

Nobu nods. "It doesn't open any sort of portal, I'm pretty sure? Just a communication link. Maybe it's similar to what you have!"

She shudders. "Maybe. Let's go."

Pixal joins them outside the library. "I don't think Zane suspects anything," she tells them as they walk. "At least, he doesn't suspect I'm with you. He asked me to continue looking for you, and to tell him if anything was wrong."

"Got it," she says. "Thanks, Pix."

"What did you find, Nya?"

She takes a deep breath. "We're going to attempt to contact someone in the Departed Realm," she says. "We found a spell that should do it. Everything else we found wasn't really useful – but the Departed Realm is a place, sort of, and people can interact with each other, sort of, so… if we contact someone there, we might be able to ask them to break the link."

"That sounds risky," Pixal says. "Or at least improbable. Who are you thinking of contacting?"

"Garmadon," she says, twisting her hands together. "It feels… wrong, somehow, but… he's the only one I can think of who can help me."

"I don't think it's wrong," Pixal says, "but if contacting the Departed Realm is that easy, wouldn't it be common knowledge?"

"I mean, it does require fresh blood. Just a drop, but…"

"Even so. People miss those who have departed, and if it was possible to contact the dead…" Pixal shakes her head. "I'm worried it won't work, or if it does, it will have consequences."

Nobu pipes up. "I looked at it and it seems pretty safe," they say. "I think we'll be okay!"

Pixal doesn't look certain, but she nods. "If you say so."

A sheet of paper with Garmadon's name on it. A drop of blood. She fumbles the incantation and has to start over, tossing the old paper and pricking her finger again, letting her blood fall on the new page. After carefully reciting the words off her phone, the blood spreads across the paper and vanishes.

"Is that supposed to happen?" Nobu asks, sitting on the cave floor – Ronin's hideout only had one chair. 

"You're the one who read the spell –"

Pixal shushes her and points at the paper.

who is this?

She swallows hard and picks up her pen, writing down her response.

Is this Garmadon?

The answer doesn't come right away.

who's asking?

"I don't think this is Garmadon," Pixal says. "Nya, you shouldn't –"

"It takes enormous power for ghosts from the Departed Realm to enter the living," she says. "Last time, it only happened because of the eclipse. There's nothing this ghost can do to harm me."

"Nya, we're doing all this because a ghost from the Departed Realm is causing you great distress," Pixal says. "I think that qualifies as harm."

She ignores Pixal and writes on the paper.

Nya, Master of Water.

interesting

no, i'm not garmadon

"Nya," Pixal says, "I have a bad feeling about this."

"It's fine, Pix," she says. "We didn't get Garmadon, so all we need to do is try again. We burn the paper, and –"

She stops. More words are appearing on the paper.

but before you go

i'd like to talk

i have some unfinished business in the living world

"Nya –"

"It's fine, Pix! They can't do anything to us!"

Who are you? she asks the ghost.

not important

i need you to find sensei wu

and give him this message

I can't, she writes before the ghost can continue. He's gone.

no he's not

if he were dead i would've found him by now

He was –

Pixal grabs her hand, causing her to jerk and draw a long line on the paper. "Nya," she says softly. "This is dangerous. You need to stop. You don't know who this is."

She hesitates. Pixal is right – whoever this is, they can't help her, and they don't need to know what happened to Sensei Wu. She nods, puts down the pen, and picks up the fire starter.

When she turns back to the page, the words on it cause her to freeze.

whatever

tell him i'm sorry

i should've been a better student

i should've been a better son

and i shouldn't have let go

i should have dragged him down to the bottom of the ocean with me

tell him he ruined my life

and i hate him

and i hope he never dies so i never have to see him again

farewell, water ninja

The words disappear, leaving the page blank.

Her hands are shaking too hard to light the fire.

"Oh my God," she says. "I just talked to Morro."

Chapter Text

They burn the paper. She's still shaking. Nobu helps her sit down while Pixal makes sure the paper burns the way it's supposed to, without summoning any unwanted ghosts from the Departed Realm.

Pixal returns after a few minutes to report that the spell was dismissed properly. "That was not one of your better ideas," she says. "What do we do now?"

"I don't know," she says. "That was my only lead."

"I don't feel comfortable having any more to do with magic," Pixal says. "There must be another option."

Pixal turns away and paces back and forth. "There must be something," she says, more to herself than anyone else. "A link to the Departed Realm… there must be something."

Nobu pipes up. "Nya, is there anyone else you can ask for help?"

"I don't think so," she says. "I've already asked enough from Ronin, and I'm not sure if I trust anyone else to not tell the ninja where I am. Unless… Pixal, do you think Cyrus Borg could…?"

"I doubt my father would be able to help us," Pixal says. "I'm also unsure if he knows I'm Samurai X, and if he doesn't, I have no plans to tell him."

"Okay." She mentally goes through the other possibilities. "We could wait for Soto to come back, or…"

She trails off. Pixal stops pacing. "Or?"

"I don't know," she says. "I thought… no, never mind."

Pixal doesn't press, which she's grateful for. "We might want to go back to the library," she says. "I'll try to assist in the search this time."

"Thanks, Pix. Right now, though, let's get the tea ready."

Even though the tea worked perfectly the night before, she has a hard time getting to sleep. Pixal left for the night – she had to return to the other ninja for the time being, if only as an AI – and Nobu is sound asleep in the sleeping bag, leaving Nya with a pile of leaves that isn't nearly as comfortable as the one Soto made. She tosses and turns for a long time, then finally gets up and sits by the fire.

She still has paper. She could do the spell again.

It's a terrible idea, but what about this hasn't been a bad idea? She finds the paper, pricks her finger again, and quietly repeats the incantation. No words appear on the paper when the spell is completed. She writes anyway.

Hello?

The answer comes after a few moments.

you again?

Is this Morro? she writes, her heart pounding.

yes

what of it

She takes a deep breath. I'm sorry, she writes. For what happened back in Stiix.

you're sorry? don't make me laugh

i tried to kill you

i was going to kill everyone else

what do you have to be sorry for, water ninja?

You're dead, she writes, and that makes me feel bad.

makes me feel bad too

ha ha

feel bad then

This isn't helping her mood at all. Her hands are shaking. The next words she writes are almost illegible.

I need help.

Morro's response takes a long few moments.

you were looking for garmadon

i'm not him

find someone else, water ninja

I'm running out of options. It feels like she's been running out of options since she started this journey, two doors closing as soon as one opens. There's a link between me and a ghost in the Departed Realm that's active when I dream. I need to break it.

what's in it for me

Nothing. I don't have anything you'd want.

well, water ninja, at least you're honest

sure

Her heart skips a beat. Really? she writes.

i don't have anything better to do

why don't you pay me a visit?

Of course it wouldn't be that easy. Are you asking me to die?

not necessarily

ever since you drowned the preeminent, portals to the cursed realm open into the departed realm instead

make one of those and you'll get here alive

She takes a deep breath. Is there a catch?

you only stay alive for as long as the portal stays open

if your link to the living world is severed, you'll be stuck in the departed realm forever

so be careful, water ninja

Don't know what else I'm supposed to do. She sighs. Thanks, Morro.

don't thank me

that's weird

You're helping me, aren't you? she writes.

whatever, Morro says, and he doesn't respond any more after that.

"Good morning!" Nobu says cheerfully. "Did you sleep alright, Nya?"

She yawns. "Yep," she says. "Is Pixal still out?"

"Yeah. Did she send you a message about when she'd be back?"

"No," she says, before checking her phone. "Oh wait, yes she did. She says she's sorry, but she'll be gone all day. Maybe she'll be back tomorrow."

Reading the message gave her a spike of anxiety; Pixal didn't say why she was gone, only that she would be. Did something happen? Did the other ninja suspect she was helping her?

There was nothing that could be done.

"How's Soto doing?" she asks.

Nobu grins. "He's doing great! I mean, I have no idea how he's actually doing, but his fate is secure. Nothing's happened to change what I wrote for him."

"That's good." She swallows. "Nobu, do you know anything about how to open portals to the Cursed Realm?"

Their smile disappears.

"The Cursed Realm is gone," they say. "Um. You killed it."

"So what happens if I try to open a portal to it?" Her hands are shaking. "Would it not work? Or would something else happen?"

"I don't know. Why are you asking?"

She shouldn't lie to them. Nobu risked a lot to come with her – more than anyone else has, if her read of Fenwick is accurate. But telling them the truth…

"I talked to Morro again last night," she says.

Nobu freezes. "What?!" they yelp, staring at her with wide eyes. "Why?! He's… bad!"

"I don't know what else to do!" she says, a little too loud. "Nothing is working! I don't know! Maybe he can help!"

"He can't!" Nobu shouts, jumping to their feet. "He won't! He'll – he'll say he will, but – it's not true! He just wants – he just wants –"

"The Preeminent is dead," she says. "He doesn't work for her anymore."

"But – he's not a good person, Nya!"

"I know that!" she snaps. "But –"

"I know you're desperate," Nobu says. "I know you feel like – like you're running out of options. But this is going to make things worse!"

"You don't know that!"

"I do!" they yell. "That's what happened to the Cloud Kingdom! That's what happened to my father! I don't want it to happen to you, too!"

"I won't –"

They're both upset. They shouldn't be arguing like this. She takes a deep breath. "I promise I won't do what Fenwick did," she says. "If I think Morro's going to hurt anyone, I'll stop him. But I can't just – I can't just walk away from this."

Nobu shakes their head and wipes their face on their sleeve. "I can't let you do this," they say, their voice shaking. "You can't do this. Please, Nya, I…"

"I don't have to do anything just now," she says. "I can wait, alright? I won't do anything until we've all had a chance to talk about it."

"I – I –" Nobu takes a shaky breath. "I need to be alone for a while."

"Alright," she says. "I'm going out."

She goes out. Not far, just a walk down to the beach. She breathes in the salty air and keeps walking, no destination, just to clear her head. Her thoughts keep drifting to Morro – why did he agree to help her? Is he planning something? What would actually happen if she entered the Departed Realm? Would she see him?

Would she see Dilara?

She shudders.

If she's remembering correctly, she's going in the direction of Stiix, though it would take more walking than she's prepared for to get there. Images of the city's destruction flash through her head. She almost couldn't save them – all those people fleeing, all of Ninjago, all the realms – they could have all been lost if she hadn't reached her true potential.

She stops walking and forms a ball of water, hovering in the air between her hands. She stares at it for a few moments, then flings it at the sand.

"I didn't want this!" she yells.

She throws more watery projectiles into the rocky beach, leaving small craters where they land. "I didn't want to be the Water Ninja – but everyone else needed me to!" she yells. "I had no choice!"

She glares at the ocean and calls up a wave, rising up taller than she is.

"I want – I want to have a choice again! I don't want to be Dilara! I want to be – I want to be –"

Her voice catches.

"I don't know who I want to be."

The wave falls. The ocean returns to its normal rhythm, with no trace of the disturbance.

She holds her face and sobs.

Chapter Text

Nobu has made lunch, when she returns to the hideout. "Hi, Nya," they say. "Sorry for, um…"

"It's alright," she says. "I kinda lost my cool there. Sorry about that."

They nod rapidly, their hair bouncing up and down. It's a little greasy, she notices – not that her hair is much better. They both should find a way to wash themselves, soon.

"Do you want sandwiches?" Nobu asks.

They eat sandwiches. Nobu has put peanut butter on salami, which makes her think they don't know how to make a sandwich. She doesn't complain.

"What are we going to do today?" Nobu asks her once she's done. "Pixal won't be back until tomorrow, maybe, and Soto isn't going to be back for a while…"

She sighs. "I miss Soto," she says. "I didn't think I would, but he was nice to be around. Do you have any idea when he'll be back?"

"Um, probably not for a few days. Sorry, I thought that if I tried to rush things, it might not turn out well, so I tried to write him with a lot of time…"

"That's fine," she says. "I can wait. I just… I dunno."

Nobu finishes their own sandwich. "I think you should tell Pixal about Morro," they say. "If you talked to him… I think we need to tell her."

"I'll tell her," she says. "Like I said, we'll talk about this before we do anything."

"Nya, you shouldn't –"

"I don't want to talk about what I shouldn't do right now," she says sharply.

Nobu flinches. "Okay," they say. "Sorry."

There's not much to do until Pixal comes back. "Do you want to go to the city?" she asks. "Not to do research or anything, just to hang out."

They smile. "That would be nice. Thanks."

"I've got some spare cash. We could see a movie."

Nobu gasps and covers their mouth. "Could we really?!"

She ends up buying popcorn for Nobu, even though it's expensive and they just ate. The kid can't keep the grin off their face. "Thank you so much!" they say. "This is so cool!"

"Guess they don't have movies in the Cloud Kingdom, huh?" she says after they get their tickets.

"No, never," Nobu says. "Um, we all know about the stuff in Ninjago, but… we're not allowed to leave. Unless we're banished."

"You can be banished?"

"Not me, specifically, but yeah, if you do something really, really bad you can be banished." They sigh. "Father will probably banish me for helping you."

She feels a pang of guilt. "Well, it's not like you have to go back, right?"

Nobu shakes their head. "We have to be banished 'cause otherwise, we keep our abilities to write fate, and we're not supposed to use those outside the Cloud Kingdom. Um, my father will probably send people out to look for me."

"That's…" She struggles to find words. "…not good."

"It's okay, um, he'd have to go through a long process to send people out, since we're not supposed to leave. It's, um, never happened while I was alive, but when it does happen, it can take months." They smile at her. "I'll be okay!"

Not for the first time, she wonders how old Nobu is. Too young to be going through this, certainly.

"Hey," she says. "I'm gonna talk to the ninja about where you can go after this, okay?"

"Really?"

She nods. "I… I don't think you should be banished, but if you don't have anywhere else to go… I'm sure Lloyd or someone can help you find somewhere safe to stay."

"Can I stay with you guys?!" Nobu blurts out. Their face flushes a moment later. "I mean, um, I think the ninja are really cool, and you're really cool, and if I could stay…"

She laughs. "We don't really have a permanent place at the moment, but sure, I'll see what the others think."

They find their seats and sit down. She explains that the previews aren't the actual movie, then has to explain what trailers are. "They're basically previews of movies that are gonna come out soon, so that people know what they're about. Sort of." She shrugs. "Sometimes the trailers don't show what the movie's like at all. I've seen movies that were way better than how the trailers made them seem."

"Cool," Nobu says in awe. "This is really amazing!"

Nobu sits frozen through the entire movie, staring straight ahead and drinking in every moment. She watches them for awhile, then finds herself engaged in the movie's plot; for an animated kid's movie, it's pretty intense.

"That was amazing!" Nobu exclaims when the credits roll. "Can we see another one?"

She laughs. "Maybe another day. Don't get up yet, though – these kinds of movies usually have after-credits scenes."

When they're leaving the theater, she turns her phone back on and finds a text from Pixal. "I'll be back tomorrow morning," is all it says. She tells Nobu, and their smile disappears.

"You're definitely going to tell her, right?" they say. "About –"

"Yes, Nobu, I'm going to tell her." She sighs. "Sorry, I don't mean to snap."

"It's okay."

They spend the rest of the day at the hideout. Nobu excuses themself to write; she thinks about Soto, and wonders if he's okay. Nobu would know if he wasn't, right?

At the end of the day, she makes the tea and goes to sleep.

She dreams.

She dreams –

The dream is foggy. Her head feels like it's been stuffed full of clouds. Part of her is in Ronin's hideout, lying in the sleeping bag, and another part –

"Dilara!"

She snaps her head towards her mother. "Pay attention," her mother says, jabbing her finger at the books. "You are distracted."

Through the window, she can see her sister. Their father is instructing Aysu to summon water out of nothing, using the elemental powers she was born with. Aysu's face is screwed in concentration as a tiny sphere of water slowly takes form between her hands.

"Read, Dilara!"

She puts her head down and reads. The words blur together. Her thoughts drift to Aysu and their father, the unfairness of her existence. Why would her father have a second child, when the elemental power of water would only go to their first?

She looks back up.

The room is gone. Her mother is no longer sitting across from her. She stands up, and the table disappears, too. There is only a black void, with a window hovering in the air, alone.

She walks to the window.

On the other side, there is a girl who looks much like herself, in clothes she has never worn. Her brow is furrowed as she stares at her hands, then up at the ocean in front of her. She thrusts her hands up, and a wave splashes out of the water with them. The pillar of water twists into a cyclone, before it dissipates into clouds, and the sky begins to rain.

She remembers doing this.

How? She doesn't have these powers – but the girl doesn't look like Aysu. No, that's clearly her own face, her hair styled in the same way. These can't be her memories.

Her father told her that everything could be attained by hard work and her own efforts.

Maybe he wasn't wrong.

"Nya!"

She screams. It takes a few moments for her to wake up fully and process who's standing above her. "Pixal!" she cries. "Pixal, oh God, I have to – I need to –"

"Calm down." Pixal crouches down next to her. "Nya, what happened? Did you forget the tea?"

"No! I didn't! I took it and she was still there!" She gulps down a few breaths. "Pixal, Pixal – I need to stop this. I need to break the link. She knows I'm there, she – she –"

She spots Nobu standing some distance away, looking terrified. She takes a deep breath and tries to calm her racing heart.

"Pixal, there's something I need to tell you," she says. "I talked to Morro again."

Pixal's expression betrays nothing. "What did he say?"

"That he could help me. That if I opened a portal to the Departed Realm, he could guide me. And… I don't think I have any other options. Not anymore."

"Why do you think that?"

She swallows hard. "Dilara knows about the link," she says. "She wants – she wants my powers, and if she can possess me again, she'll have them, and – she'll bring back Nadakhan, and she'll marry him, and they'll have infinite wishes together, and – and – and –"

"Calm down," Pixal repeats. "I will not allow that to happen."

"How can you say that?!" she cries. "What can you possibly do?!"

Pixal leans forward, hesitates, and pulls her into a hug.

"Maybe I haven't been clear enough on this journey," she says. "I will be capable of protecting you. I will not allow you to be possessed, and I will not allow anyone to set Nadakhan free. I care about you, Nya."

She sniffs. "Jay cared about me, too, and I still died."

"Well," Pixal says, "I am not Jay."

What could she possibly say to that?

Chapter Text

The plan, as they conceive it, starts with waiting for Soto to return. "We should not be making decisions without him," Pixal says. "I understand the urgency of our situation, but he's an important part of our team. Is that all right, Nya?"

"It's fine," she says. "Honestly, I've been missing him. But I gotta say… won't he come back with all of Nadakhan's crew? We'll have to deal with that, too."

Nobu nods. "Uh, I might be able to write it so they go somewhere else before we meet up, but…"

She shakes her head. "No, it's better if we're able to keep an eye on them. I'm just… not looking forward to it."

Pixal frowns. "Given the memories you've received, do you think the rest of the crew will have any useful input on your situation?"

"Uh…" She has to think about it for a moment. "I mean… they respected Dilara, and she respected, uh, some of them… but there was still a power dynamic thing, y'know? Nadakhan said she was his equal. She had – well, not all the same power, but she had his power behind her. And besides, you heard what Flintlocke said – a part of her saw suffering and laughed."

"That could be useful," Pixal says. "If they weren't friends with her, they might be willing to help us, depending on what Flintlocke says to them."

"Are you sure? They were Nadakhan's crew, after all."

"Flintlocke was his first mate, and he claims he doesn't want to free him. I don't know how much I trust him, but Soto is there to watch him." Pixal cracks a smile. "And in an emergency, he could strand them all in another realm. I think we have a chance of getting them to our side."

She nods. "They were on our side at the end of the lost timeline, after Nadakhan showed his true colors. The question is if they'll believe us."

"We don't have to involve them if you're not comfortable with it, Nya. I don't want to cause you more stress."

"I'll think about it," she says. "Either way, they'll all be coming back here in…"

"Two or three days," Nobu says.

"Yeah. What are we going to do until then?"

The next day, she takes Nobu to see another movie. Pixal joins them. The movie isn't as good as the last one they saw, but Nobu enjoys it all the same.

Pixal covers their food expenses with Cyrus Borg's money. "He won't notice," she says when questioned. "My father has billions, and we're getting fast food for five dollars."

"It's really good, too!" Nobu says with their mouth full of burger.

"Are you sure, Pix?" she asks. "I mean, even if we're not spending a lot, he might notice the transactions…"

"Trust me, Nya. He won't."

"Okay," she says. "I trust you."

She really does trust Pixal, the new Samurai X. How could she not? Pixal could tell the other ninja everything anytime she wanted, and she hasn't. She risked so much to stay – and so did Soto and Nobu. The three of them stayed, despite everything, and she feels like she can't let them down.

The tea does its job the night after Pixal returns, and she doesn't dream. The next night, she wakes up from a nightmare with no memory of what it was about. Maybe it's good that she doesn't remember, but maybe not.

Nobu says Soto should arrive today or tomorrow. She finds herself hoping it's today.

"Do you know where exactly he'll show up?" she asks, sitting on the floor of the hideout.

"Um," Nobu says, "I know it'll be here, but… I don't know where in here, exactly. Maybe outside?"

"And you don't know when."

Nobu shakes their head. "Could be anytime today or tomorrow, or maybe later?"

"I hope not." She sighs. "Well, I'll wait as long as I have to… I just hope it's not too long."

"If Soto doesn't arrive tomorrow, we'll think of other options," Pixal says, back in her Samurai X armor. "I know I said to wait for him, but not forever."

"It's not like something would happen to him, right? Nobu –"

"I've been checking his fate all day," Nobu says. "Everything's going according to plan."

"That's good," she says. "Sorry, I'm just… worried."

"I am too," they say with a smile. "That's why I've been checking so much. I promise, Nya, it's going to be okay."

It's odd to be reassured by Nobu, considering she's fairly certain they're significantly younger than she is. "Thanks," she says. "All we've got to do now is wait, I guess."

Nobu keeps taking out the scroll while they wait, their eyes scanning the words over and over before they roll it up again. Pixal paces in the back of the cave, her expression unreadable behind the helmet. The sun slowly moves in the sky, and the shadows coming through the mouth of the cave change with it. She's going to be mad if Soto doesn't return today, though mad at what, she doesn't know. Fate, probably.

It's nearing afternoon when a portal opens above them.

She jumps to her feet. Pixal stops pacing. Nobu snaps their head up from the scroll and quickly rolls it up. "It worked!" they say. "I'm pretty sure, anyway? Uh –"

Soto lands on the ground in front of her, holding the Realm Crystal. He doesn't have a chance to regain his bearings before she hugs him. "Whoa!" he yelps. "Nice to see ye too, Nya, but –"

"I'm so glad you're alright!" She let go and smiled at him. "Did everything go okay? Were there any problems? Are you actually alright, or –"

Soto laughed. "I be fine, Nya! Now, we should be getting out of the way before the others come through."

"Oh –" She looks up at the still-open portal above them. "Oh. Yeah."

Once they're safely out of the way, Soto sits down on a rock and sighs. "I hold no ill will towards ye," he says, "but I won't be doing that again."

"Don't worry," she says, "I'm not splitting us up like that again. Not until this whole Dilara thing is done."

"Yarr, I understand." Soto squints up at the portal. "What be taking them so long?"

It takes a few more moments before the first person falls through – Clancee, she recognizes. "Wow!" the serpentine says, looking around the hideout. "W – well, it's certainly nice to be f – f – free…"

His eyes fall on her. "Wow!" he says. "You really d – d – do look like Dilara!"

She blinks. "Huh?"

Soto quickly steps in. "I told them about ye," he says. "Just how ye look like Dilara. Ye wouldn't like it if they all started calling ye Dilara the moment they saw ye, would be?"

"No," she says, "definitely not. Thanks."

A much larger figure falls through the portal and lands on Clancee, who yelps. "Sorry," Dogshank says, picking herself off him. "Did I hurt you?"

One by one, more of Nadakhan's crew fall through the portal. Watching them regain their bearings, looking around, seeing this woman who looks so much like Dilara, even if Soto's told them she's not – she stands up and goes to the back of the hideout, with Pixal.

"Are you alright?" Pixal asks in Samurai X's deep, distorted voice.

"I'm fine," she responds. "Just… it's a lot."

"Do you still want to ask for their help?"

She nods. "We've gone this far. If the only other option is Morro…"

"I'd like to consider him a last resort. We still have options if you don't want to work with Nadakhan's crew."

"Really? What are they?"

Samurai X hesitates. "We can think of something," she says.

"I appreciate it, X, but I don't think I have a lot of choices here." She turns away and watches Flintlocke land on the ground, the last crewmember to arrive. "We'll talk to them."

She walks up to Soto and the rest, Samurai X right behind her. Nobu is keeping their distance; poor kid looks terrified. When they approach, the crew stops their chattering and falls silent, their eyes going from her to Soto to Flintlocke. Without their captain, Flintlocke would be the leader now, wouldn't he?

"Hey," she says. "Uh… how much did Soto tell you?"

Monkey Wretch screeches incomprehensibly before Flintlocke speaks up. "Most of what I know," he says. "That there was a lost timeline that only you remember, and that Nadakhan betrayed us before it was all undone."

"N – not sure how much of it I b – b – believe, myself," Clancee adds. "Our captain has done a lot for us, and it's – it's – hard to believe he would throw us away l – l – like that."

Dogshank and Doubloon nod in agreement. She glares at them.

"Really?" she says. "Is it that hard to believe that Nadakhan only cares about one person?"

"Says you." Dogshank returns her glare. "Soto here made it pretty clear you aren't Dilara. What would you know?"

"I'm not Dilara, but I've been getting her memories," she says. "And I was there when Nadakhan banished tried to banish you all in the lost timeline. All he cared about was marrying me and getting infinite wishes!"

"Why should we believe you?" another woman says. She doesn't recognize her at first, but the name "Cyren" pops into her head. She doesn't question it. "You're obviously our enemy."

"What!" she yelps.

Flintlocke clears his throat. "Now, I wouldn't go that far," he says. "Nya here hasn't given me much reason to doubt her…"

"Has she given you reason to believe her?" Dogshank asks. Flintlocke doesn't answer.

"She's been hanging around with Soto," Cyren adds. "That's reason enough for doubt."

"It doesn't matter," Flintlocke says firmly, "because we don't know where Nadakhan is, and I've no interest in looking. You can consider me your captain now, and I say we set sail."

There are tears blurring her vision, sudden and unwanted. She turns her face away."

"Ye better sail far!" Soto says. "Ninjago ain't kind to pirates no more – and if ye think me and Nya want anything more to do with ye…"

Samurai X starts to speak. "Well –"

"No," she says firmly. "We don't."

X turns to her, and she can imagine Pixal's look of concern beneath the helmet. She clenches her jaw and says nothing.

Before they leave, Flintlocke tries to thank her. She barely hears it.

"Well," Soto says, "I definitely won't be doing that again!"

"But it went well, right?" Nobu says. "I mean, all things considered…"

"I still be here, ain't I?" Soto laughs. "Yarr, that be the only thing I can say in favor of that adventure!"

"Sorry," she says.

Soto blinks and his attention turns to her. "No need to apologize, Nya! I agreed to do this, and I don't regret it."

"But what now?" Samurai X says. "We had planned to ask them for help. Now we have no leads, and the dreams are getting worse."

"They be worse?" Soto says in alarm. "How worse we talking?"

"Dilara knows about our link," she says bluntly. "And I think she wants to possess me and take my powers. But you're wrong, X. We have a lead."

Nobu goes stiff. "Nya, please don't –"

She ignores them and stands up. "I need a piece of paper," she says. "I'm going to talk to Morro."

Chapter Text

She gets the paper. She writes the name. She pricks her finger for the blood. She recites the spell, acutely aware of Nobu, Soto, and Samurai X's eyes on her. This is it, she thinks. Out of options.

Words start appearing before she writes anything.

you can't keep doing this water ninja

you're lucky it's been me answering this whole time

anyone else could hijack it

are you coming to the departed realm or not

"I don't like this," says X.

"I don't even know who this be," Soto says.

Nobu says nothing. She glances at them and they look away.

With a deep breath, she picks up the pen and writes.

I'm not going to the Departed Realm without a plan, Morro.

What's going to happen? Why should I go to the Departed Realm at all?

you said there's a link between you and this realm

and you obviously haven't been able to sever it from the living world if you're this desperate

so you need to find whatever's linked to you

and sever it at the source

Her heart is pounding. And you'll help me?

not like i have anything better to do

make the portal and make sure it doesn't close

unless you want to die

i won't judge if you do

just show up whenever you're ready

Morro doesn't respond to anything else she writes, and she figures the conversation is over.

They burn the paper. "Okay," she says. "I guess there's… not much else to do."

"Nya," Samurai X says. "I don't think you should do this."

"I know!" she snaps. "But I'm out of options, X! If I don't, who will?"

"Me."

Her heart skips a beat. "No," she says. "I can't – X, no, I can't ask you to do this."

"Nindroids don't die the same way humans do," X responds. "If something goes wrong, my body can be rebuilt. The same cannot be said for you."

"What's a Nindroid?" Soto asks.

She ignores him. "Please don't do this, X," she says. "I can be careful! We can take precautions! I just – I can't let you do this for me."

Samurai X takes off her helmet, and Pixal meets her eyes with her own glowing green ones.

"Nya," she says. "I care about you a great deal. That's why I've been trying to help you, and to keep you safe. If you went into the Departed Realm, and you never came back – I would never forgive myself. This is not just for you, Nya. This is for myself."

"But –" Her vision is blurring with tears. "That doesn't make any sense! Why would you want to do this? This is my responsibility! This is my problem! It should be me!"

There's nothing she can say – Pixal just shakes her head. "No, Nya, it shouldn't be you. You should never have had to go through this. If there's anything I can do to to lighten this burden you've been forced to carry, I'll do it."

"No, no, no –"

"Um," Nobu squeaks.

She wipes her eyes and turns to them. "What, Nobu?"

"We can't do anything without knowing the spell," they say quietly. "Even if it's the same as a portal to the Cursed Realm, those are… temporary. No matter who goes through…"

"Then we'll go back to the library," Pixal says. "If this is our only option…"

"We could try talking to Dilara," Soto says.

The thought settles in her gut like a hard, cold stone. She can't speak, can only stare at Soto in horror.

Soto blinks. "What?" he says. "Ye just spoke to a dead person, right? If Dilara be causing the link, wouldn't ye have to confront her anyway?"

She finds words. "Do you honestly think she'll break the link with a nice chat?!" she snaps. "We're going to have to go there. I'm going to have to go there."

Pixal speaks up. "Please, Nya –"

"Don't 'please' me!" she yells. "Maybe I should do this alone!"

"I know we're all very upset right now," Nobu says, their voice shaking, "but –"

She turns and runs.

Behind her, Pixal cries out – "Nya, wait!" – but she doesn't slow down.

No one follows her. Even so, she keeps running and running until all she can think about is where her feet are going to land, the beach crunching beneath her feet, the stitch in her side. She doesn't have to think about Pixal. She doesn't have to think about Morro. She doesn't have to think about Dilara. She can just exist.

It's a long time before she stops.

She's reached the outskirts of Stiix. She leans against a splintery old pole to catch her breath, staring up at the cloudy sky. The wind is cool against her skin. The air smells like rotting wood and salt. She shivers and starts walking again.

Nadakhan's prison is buried here, somewhere.

A grim thought – what if she was the one who found it? The idea makes her nauseous. She shakes her head and walks onto the docks. There's no sense in thinking like that, she tells herself. She won't find the teapot, and even if she did find it, she would never free Nadakhan.

Even so, her mind wanders. Does Nadakhan remember anything of the lost timeline? His crew didn't, but Nadakhan was the one who granted the wish. 

Surely, he would retain the memories, just as she and Jay had.

She should go back. Pixal, Soto and Nobu must be beside themself with worry.

She texts Ronin.

"Yeah, no."

"What?" she hisses, the hood of her sweatshirt pulled low down over her face. True to his word, Ronin's pawn shop is open again, as if the warrant for his arrest has been forgotten, and that's where she met up with him.

Ronin's arms are crossed and he's leaning way back in his chair. "Listen, kid," he says. "I'm not going to tell the other ninja what you're doing, and I'm willing to help you to a point, but opening a portal to the Cursed Realm? No way."

"The Cursed Realm is dead," she snaps. "I'm trying to get to the Departed Realm."

"Yeah, I'm not helping you do that."

She grits her teeth. "Then point me to someone who will."

"Nya, I dunno how to say this, but maybe you should go back to the ninja."

"No."

Ronin hisses air through his teeth. "You're acting recklessly, and coming from me? You should be worried. Hell, I'm worried about you. Might not be safe for you to be on your own right now."

Anger burns hot inside her chest. She wants to scream at Ronin, wants to break all the stolen goods he keeps here…

Instead, she turns and runs.

"Hey!" Ronin shouts. She ignores him. Outside, she summons her dragon and flies it up into the sky, not caring who sees her.

No options. No options. No options.

She grabs the scribe by the collar and pulls them close to her face. "Take me to the Master Writer," she snarls.

Fenwick isn't happy to see her. "You!" he shouts. "You must return Nobu at once, or else –"

A spray of water hits him in the face. "Cut the crap," she says. "Do you know how to open a portal to the Cursed Realm?"

"What?!"

"You do," she says, "because Nobu said as much, and I didn't come all this way for nothing." She readies a ball of water between her hands. "You're going to open a portal for me, and keep it open."

Fenwick sputters incoherently. "I don't take orders from you!" he says. "Quite the opposite! What makes you think I'll do anything you say?!"

She thinks about it for a moment, then takes a step forward.

"Because if you don't," she says, "I'll kill you."

Fenwick's face goes white.

"You wouldn't," he hisses. "You ninja would never –"

"I don't know," she says, and she steps closer. "I killed the Preeminent. I drowned every ghost in the Cursed Realm. I'm responsible for the destruction of Djinnjago. What would one more person be?"

"I'm not going to –"

She sends a stream of water at his face and sustains it until Fenwick falls off his chair, coughing uncontrollably. Part of her is screaming – this is too far! She needs to stop! She needs to go back to Pixal and Soto and Nobu and the ninja and stop doing this! She can't be a murderer!

But she doesn't have the option of going back.

She has to keep going.

Besides, based on his treatment of Nobu, Fenwick's not the worst person she could kill.

She grabs his arm and pulls him to his feet. "Well?" she says.

Fenwick takes a shuddering breath, coughs again, and says, "Fine."

Chapter Text

"Before I go in that portal," she says, "I'm going to let everyone know where I am. If that portal closes while I'm still in the Departed Realm, I'll die – and I'll make sure everyone knows it's your fault if I do."

Fenwick looks up to glare at her. "And what if I tell them you've clearly lost your mind, threatened me, and went on a suicide mission to do God-knows-what?"

She shrugs. "You can tell that to my brother. I don't think he'll be sympathetic."

Fenwick goes back to drawing out the magic circle. Looking at the runes is making her nauseous, but that could be because she hasn't eaten in a day. Regardless, she looks away.

She doesn't go into detail in the text – I'm in the Cloud Kingdom. I'll be home soon. If I'm not, it's Fenwick's fault. She hesitates for a long moment before hitting send, then turns her phone off the moment it goes through. "Are you almost ready?" she says. "I don't have a lot of time."

"It's done," Fenwick says. He stands up and shakes his head. "You shouldn't be doing this."

"I don't care," she snaps. "Stop telling me what I should be doing and do what I say. Open the portal."

"Fine," Fenwick says, and he recites the spell.

Surprisingly, it's not a long spell, barely longer than the one she used to talk to Morro. The room hums with energy, and the circle crackles with light. She watches as the light spirals to the center, and with a high-pitched whine, the portal opens.

She stares at it. No options left, the thinks.

She forces her body to move.

The portal is cold, as if she's plunging into freezing water. She shivers, tries to breathe, but her lungs seize and she starts to panic –

– and then she's on her hands and knees, gasping for breath. Once her head clears, she looks up, then behind her. The portal is still open; she can even see Fenwick's office through it.

She's in a forest of enormous trees, stretching high into the sky, past what she can see. Endless leaves are blocking out the sky, but there's an ambient light allowing her to see. Leaves are scattered across the ground, soft beneath her feet. She doesn't feel cold anymore.

"Took you long enough, Water Ninja."

She stands up.

Morro is sitting on a branch some twenty feet above the ground. He jumps down once she sees him, and she feels the burst of air he summons to soften the landing. He doesn't look like a ghost – no, his body is solid, no longer a translucent green. She glances down at her own hands, as if somehow she's the ghost instead, but she looks the same. Alive.

"We should be able to track your link to its source," he says, stretching his arms up above his head. "It's up to you to do it, though. You can feel it, right?"

She nods. There's something pulling at her, towards somewhere deeper in the Departed Realm. "What are you going to do?" she asks.

"Me?" Morro laughs. "I'm just along for the ride. This is the most exciting thing to happen since I got here. I can't wait to see how it turns out."

"Fine," she says, and starts walking.

Morro follows close behind. "So what have you been up to?" he asks.

She doesn't answer.

He continues without her prompting. "Because I've been super busy being dead. I met my mother. I didn't even remember her when I was alive. She's weird. What's your mother like?"

She turns to glare at him. Morro grins. "I met some other dead people too," he says. "Talked to Soul Archer again, but he was pretty pissed at me. Didn't do anything, though, just told me to leave. Did you know he has a daughter? I sure didn't! And I knew him for fifty years! Oh, when you get back, tell Ronin I said hello."

"Ronin hates you," she says.

"Yeah, but I'm dead and in the Departed Realm, so I don't care." Morro laughs. "My mom loved me! Isn't that weird? Sensei Wu said he loved me, too! And now I'm dead!"

His laugh echoes through the trees. Is she going the right way? She can't feel the pull as strongly as she could. She pushes onward.

"We're going in circles, you know," Morro says.

She stops. "Dammit!"

Morro walks in front of her and looks around. "Space isn't entirely physical here," he says. "There's probably something mental blocking you from going where you want to go. Guess you don't want to get there that bad after all."

"I have to!" she yells. "I need to sever this link before – God, I don't even know! I have no other options!"

Morro is unmoved. "Then focus on that," he says, still smiling. "Keep it in your mind. You have to do this, and you don't have a choice in the matter. No other options, Water Ninja."

She considers that for a moment, then takes a deep breath.

She needs to find Dilara.

When she starts walking forward again, the trees start to thin out. She catches glimpses of the sky between the leaves, stars glittering high above them. She hears the distant sound of waves crashing on the shore.

"Ugh," Morro says. "The ocean. Can we go somewhere else?"

"You don't have to come with me," she says.

Morro's smile disappears. "Sure," he says. "I could sit around waiting for the next exciting thing to happen, while everyone who would ever think to remember me grows old and dies, and I have to try and avoid them. You know everyone hates me, right?"

She frowns. "You said your mother loves you," she says.

"No, I said she loved me. Past tense." Morro snorts. "Lord Garmadon showed up and told her everything I did to Lloyd, and she sent me away to think about what I've done. So I'm not going back. Did you know there's something beyond the Departed Realm?"

"What?"

"The Departed Realm is just a giant waiting room. Once you give up every attachment you have to the living world, you ascend to whatever the next realm is. God, I hope it's not reincarnation. Not that it matters, since I'm never leaving here." The leaves covering the ground are starting to transition into sand; Morro kicks it, sending a sandy spray into the air. "I'm still attached to the living world. I wish I was alive. I wish I got to grow up, even after fifty years."

"Why are you telling me this?" she asks.

"Because I'm sad and dead and there's nothing else to do," Morro says. "You're the only person who tried to apologize to me, you know that? Even Wu didn't, and I died because of him. You have no reason to apologize or feel bad for stopping me."

They've reached the beach. "Hang on," Morro says. "You'll love this."

Morro strides forward and steps into the surf, the water splashing around his ankles. He spins around and smiles, and it almost seems genuine. "You see?" he says. "Nothing can hurt me anymore!"

Behind him, she sees a boat on the horizon, and that seems much more interesting than Morro's angst. "I know where she is," she says. "That must be Misfortune's Keep."

Morro tilts his head back to stare at the ship upside-down. "Huh," he says. "I've heard legends about it. Isn't it captained by a djinn? Is he dead now?"

"Unfortunately, no," she says. "Or maybe fortunately, right now. We won't run into him. How are we supposed to get there?"

Morro steps out of the surf and reaches a hand towards her. She frowns at it. "I don't trust you, if that's what you're asking of me," she says.

"I helped you on the Day of the Departed, didn't I?" Morro rolls his eyes. "You're out of your element, Water Ninja. I know this realm and you don't. You were the one who said you don't have any other options."

That's right, she thinks. No options. No choices.

She takes Morro's hand.

Chapter Text

Morro is taller than she is, but not by much, and he's built like a twig. He's clearly struggling to carry her over the water to Misfortune's Keep. She keeps her mouth shut and holds on tight; if he won't say anything, she won't either.

As they get closer to the ship, she can make out a figure on the deck.

She's waiting for her.

"This is the only way out," she mumbles to herself. "After this…"

"What was that, Water Ninja?" Morro says, his voice strained.

"Nothing." What will be after this?

They make it to the ship.

She's not dreaming anymore.

"You're Dilara," she says.

Her mirror nods, a smile spreading across her face. "We finally meet," she says. "You, Master of Water, and me, Nadakhan's bride."

She clenches her fists. "You didn't love him," she says, as if that would hurt her.

Dilara just laughs. "I've loved many men, and no, Nadakhan was not one of them. But I loved the power he could give me, and that was enough."

They aren't identical. Almost, maybe, but not exact. Dilara carries herself differently, has an air about her that cannot be replicated. Close enough for Nadakhan, she thinks with a shudder.

Morro coughs.

"What is all this?" he says when they both look at him. "Sure, you look the same, but how do you know each other? I mean, you've been dead for centuries."

"She was the sister of a former Master of Water," she says quickly, before Dilara can answer. "And… there's a link between us that I need to break."

Morro raises an eyebrow. "How did you plan to do that?"

"Shut up," she says.

Dilara moves closer to her. "Now that we're properly introduced," she says, "there are important matters to discuss. You have something I want."

"You can't have it." She can feel the water beneath the ship, can feel the ocean's power. She mentally reaches out for it, and the ship begins to rock. "I don't care what I have to do to break this link, because I'm going to do it." She raises her hand, and the waves rise with it. "I'm not letting you ruin my life!" she shouts. "I won't –"

Dilara isn't in front of her anymore. She has just a moment to wonder why before cold washes over her body, and she loses control of the water. She hears Morro yelp as the water twists around the ship, trapping them in a whirlpool, and she tries to regain control – something is wrong, she can't move, she can't reach her powers anymore, her body just stands there and – and laughs, and – and –

The water falls. The ocean calms.

"That's better," she says in a different voice. "Now… where is the portal back?"

She gives a pointed look to Morro. The boy raises his hands in front of him and takes a step back. "I'm not going to help you," he says slowly.

"And why is that?" she asks. "You're a sad, unloved boy with no reason to make up for the wrongs you've done. What do you have to gain by getting in my way?"

"You're right," Morro says. "I don't have any reason to redeem myself."

He lowers his hands and grins.

"Which is exactly why it'll be so much fun to beat the shit out of you, the one ninja who ruined all my plans."

She moves at the same time he does. Morro aims a punch at her. She twists out of the way and grabs his arm, using his momentum to throw him to the ground. He kicks her legs out from underneath her and brings her down on top of him.

"Don't you know anything about possession?" he says gleefully. "It takes a toll on the host! This body will break down within days, and you'll have to find a new one! I'm just –" He sends an elbow into her gut. "– speeding up the process!"

She hisses and punches him in the throat. Morro isn't even affected. He rolls out from under her and cackles. "This isn't your realm anymore!" he says. "What are you going to do? Kill me? You can't hurt me!"

"Really," she says, and she gets to her feet. "Then there's no point in dragging this on."

She raises her hand. A tendril forms out of the water and crashes over the side, wrapping around Morro, pinning his arms. His grin falters.

"Are you stupid?" he says. "Water doesn't do anything to me here. You should know that."

"If you won't take me to the portal, I don't need to keep you around." The water lifts Morro up off the ship. "Sit on the ocean floor and think about what you've done."

"You think you can do this to me?" Morro says, but there's real fear in his voice. "You're not going to do this. You can't do this. Oh, God, please don't do this –"

"Oh, don't worry," she says with a smile. "No one can live forever. Once I return to the Departed Realm, well, maybe then I'll think about freeing you."

"Please –"

The tendril retreats into the ocean, dragging Morro down with it.

She makes her way back to the portal herself. It was silly to assume she would need Morro to lead her, she thinks. The Departed Realm isn't quite physical. All she has to do is think of where she wants to go, and she'll go there.

She doesn't expect to see people waiting for her in the forest.

"Nya!" the Fire Ninja exclaims, and he rushes forward to hug her. She flinches back, but he doesn't seem to care, wrapping his arms around her and babbling. "You really freaked me out! What's going on? What happened? Come on, we need to get back to Ninjago –"

She says nothing. Kai takes a step back and frowns. "Nya," he says, "are you alright?"

"Nya?" She peers behind Kai and sees Jay, keeping his distance. "Um," he says, "I told Kai and the others… everything, pretty much. I'm sorry."

She's supposed to feel something, she knows this much. So she smiles. "Thank you for coming for me," she says, "but this realm is dangerous. We should leave at once."

"Ye don't sound like yourself, Nya!"

She can barely suppress her anger at Captain Soto's voice, the memories flooding back. The attack on Misfortune's Keep. Nadakhan's failure. Being captured, imprisoned, having to escape by boat –

She winces and puts a hand to her head.

"Hey," Kai says, "watch it. You're a criminal, remember?"

Soto crosses his arms and glares at him. "Watch yourself, pajama man! Ye be her brother – can't ye tell? Something's not right!"

Kai looks back at her. "Seriously," he says softly, "are you alright, sis? Nobu said you were going to talk to Morro. Did he do something to you?"

She takes a deep breath and shakes her head. "Don't worry," she says, "he won't be a problem any longer."

Kai doesn't look convinced. She tries to smile again, but it comes out pained. Her head hurts. She hisses air in and out of her body, trying to calm herself. It doesn't help.

"You're not Nya, are you?" Kai says.

Jay gasps, his eyes wide. She lets her smile fall from her face.

"You're more perceptive than you seem," she says.

She hits Kai with a stream of water, knocking him away from her. She hears Jay's crackle of lightning, but none of them would dare to hurt her. Not in this body. She smiles at him, and now that they know who she is, she doesn't have to fake it. Jay falters, and his lightning flickers out.

She's not expecting Soto to tackle her.

"Hey!" Kai yells, but whatever he says next is drowned out by her raged scream. She hits the ground with Soto pinning her down, and all she can think is that she hates him, hates him, hates –

– Soto making the pile of leaves. Soto telling the story of how he became a pirate. Soto taking the Realm Crystal, agreeing to free all of Nadakhan's crew, wanting to help her, worrying about her with Pixal and Nobu and Ronin and –

She pulls herself back to reality. Soto isn't holding her down anymore, but she's still surrounded. Her eyes flick from one person to the next – Kai, Jay, and Soto, all staring down at her as she lies on the ground.

"Okay, Dilara," Kai says, his voice low and dangerous. "You're going to let my sister go right now, or else."

She laughs. "Or else what?" she says. "What could you possibly do to me?"

Soto snorts. "There be ways to get ghosts out of living bodies," he says. "Ye can't keep this up forever."

She gets to her feet, and they don't stop her. "I can keep this up for as long as this body lasts," she says. "And what about you? If that portal closes, you all die. How long are you willing to risk staying here?"

Jay clears his throat, but says nothing when Kai glances at him. His eyes are wide and he's shaking like a leaf. She can't help but laugh.

"I didn't keep my own memories of that timeline," she says, "but now I have hers. You couldn't save her then, Jay Walker. What makes you think you can save her now?"

"I –" Jay's voice comes out in a squeak. He swallows and tries again. "I – I can – I won't let you –"

"You can't."

The new voice shocks Jay into silence. Even Kai and Soto seem taken aback. She stands on her toes to see the tall figure walking towards them, her helmet under her arm, her green eyes narrowed into slits.

"You can't, Jay," Pixal says. "And neither can I. Kai, Soto, none of us can save her."

Pixal walks straight up to her and puts a hand on her chin, gently lifting her head up until they've met each other's eyes.

"But she can," Pixal says. "Nya, this link was created by you, and it can be broken by you, too. I know you're in there, Nya. You can save yourself."

She's frozen, staring into the green light of Pixal's eyes. Her body isn't responding. She remembers Nadakhan, teaching her to fight, tending to her wounds, and she clings to the memories. She will have it all. She will have the elemental mastery she was denied. She will have the infinite wishes Nadakhan promised her. Her body is motionless while her mind rages.

That's not who she is.

"I…"

She struggles to talk. Pixal doesn't break eye contact.

"I am – I am –" Who is she? "I am not –"

"Who are you?" Pixal asks.

She finds the words.

"I am not Dilara!" she screams.

She rips herself away from Pixal and hits the ground. She hears Kai and Jay cry out, hears Soto's exclamation. Her body aches all over, like she's just run a marathon. She has to summon a tremendous strength to stand up, strength she didn't know she had.

Nya stands up and turns to face Dilara.

"My name is Nya," she says to her mirror, "and you won't haunt me anymore."

Dilara snarls, her face twisted in rage. Before she can act, a bolt of electricity strikes her, and Pixal grabs Nya's arm.

"Portal!" Kai yells. "Now!"

Nya doesn't have time to find her footing; Pixal sweeps her off her feet and carries her. They run, all of them, Pixal, Soto, Kai, and Jay, and Nya can see the portal now, can see the realm of Ninjago through it –

They fall on Fenwick's floor in a heap.

"They're okay!"

"Nya!"

"Is everyone okay?"

"Oh my God, Nya!"

Nobu flings themself onto her, sobbing wordlessly. Nya moves her arm to pat their head.

"I'm okay," she says, and passes out.

Chapter Text

She doesn't dream.

When Nya wakes up, she's still in Fenwick's office. The portal is gone. There are a number of concerned faces hovering over her – Kai, Pixal, Jay, Soto, Nobu… she can hear two other voices, recognizable as Lloyd and Fenwick. Most likely Zane and Cole are here, too.

"Nya," Kai says, "sis, are you alright?"

"I've been better," she says. With a groan, Nya sits up. Her head is pounding. "Sorry to make you worry. Did Jay really tell you everything?"

Jay nods. "I'm sorry, Nya," he whimpers, "but you were doing all these things, and when we got the text, we thought –"

"It's fine," Nya says. "I forgive you. For everything."

"Nya!" That's Cole's voice – she manages a smile at him when he comes running over. "Oh my God, Nya, I'm so glad you're alright!"

Nya laughs. "When can we get out of here?" she says. "I'm honestly looking forward to heading back to base, or the Bounty, or – God, I don't know. Anywhere that's not here."

"Soon," Pixal says. "Lloyd has to clear everything with the Master Writer, first. Fenwick is… upset."

Nobu sniffs, bringing Nya's attention to them sitting on the floor. They look like they're about to start crying again. Nya frowns, remembering all they've told her about their father, and the interactions she's witnessed between them.

"There's no need," she says. "We're leaving."

She stands up, leaning on Kai for support. "Alright, everyone," she says loudly. "We're leaving – all of us."

Lloyd and Fenwick break off their debate and turn to her. "Excuse me?" Fenwick says. "There are a number of issues we need to settle, and if you think you can come in here, threaten me, and leave –"

"Yeah," Nya says, "I actually do think that, because I can. We're leaving, and we're taking Nobu with us."

Nobu gasps and starts to speak, only to fall silent when Fenwick shouts.

"You have no right!" Fenwick glares at her. "The scribes of the Cloud Kingdom are under my jurisdiction, and you can't just take one –"

Nya shrugs. "Who cares? I don't."

She reaches a hand to Nobu. They hesitate for a long moment before taking it.

"I won't allow this!" Fenwick grits his teeth and tries to approach them, but Zane holds him back. "You can't do this!"

Nya ignores him. "Come on, everyone," she says. "Let's get out of here."

Nobu starts crying once they're safely out of the Cloud Kingdom and back in Ninjago. Lloyd and Nya sit with them as they blubber thanks through their tears. "I didn't think I'd ever get away from him," they sob. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

"You helped me so much, Nobu," Nya says. "I'm glad I got to help you, too."

She looks up. They've moored Destiny's Bounty at the Ninjago City docks. Pixal and Zane are standing in a corner, talking in quiet voices. Soto is showing Kai all the secret compartments in the ship the ninja didn't know about – they find a pile of two hundred year old coins in one, which Kai immediately shoves in his pockets over Cole's protests that they should give them to the museum.

Jay is still avoiding her. Nya supposes she understands.

"What now?" Lloyd says, bringing her out of her thoughts. "Nobu's fine to stay with us, but Soto… we're not sending him back to Kryptarium, I know."

Nya nods. "That'll be good. I don't know what I would've done without him – it'd be wrong to put him back in prison."

"He still needs a place to go," Lloyd says. "And I'm not sure how happy any of us would be if he stayed here – including him. He's happy now, sure, but…" He sighs. "And if he leaves, well, he's from two hundred years ago. Do you think he'll be able to get an apartment? A job? Do you think he'll be able to pay rent and take care of himself?"

They're legitimate concerns, not that Nya wants to hear them. She finds herself clenching her teeth, and forces herself to relax. "We'll think of something," she says. "We always do."

Nya has Pixal watch her when she casts the spell. The drop of blood spreads across the paper in thin branching lines and right angles, until it fades away and two words appear in its place.

fuck you

Are you alright? Nya writes.

I shouldn't have helped you

but if you really care so much

I dragged myself to shore and sank that godforsaken ship

I've had enough of fun in my afterlife

I think I'll spend the rest of it in peace

Nya sighs in relief. I'm sorry, she writes.

you should be

for what it's worth

I'm sorry too

goodbye, water ninja

My name is Nya.

She gets no further response from Morro, and Pixal burns the paper for her.

Nobu fits in well with the ninja. They might flinch whenever someone's voice is raised, but they're happy, and they're safe, and they have the ninja's assurances that Fenwick won't come back for them. Lloyd ends up giving them Wu's old room on the Bounty. "He's not using it," is all he says when Kai questions him. "When we find Sensei, we'll give Nobu a different room."

One day, Nobu brings a stack of blank printer paper to the breakfast table. "I – I wasn't banished," they explain. "That means – that means, um, I can still write fate. Um, I can't do a lot on my own, but… I want to be useful to you."

Kai bursts out laughing. Cole elbows him hard. "Sorry!" Kai says. "Look, you don't need to be useful, alright? We'll keep you around no matter what."

"The ability to decide fate would certainly be helpful," Zane adds. "I'd like to hear more about it."

Nya nods. "They kept Soto safe when he was using the Realm Crystal," she says. "I'm sure…"

She trails off. Soto isn't at breakfast. Nya can't remember seeing him today.

She excuses herself, takes an extra moment to assure Nobu she's not angry at them, and rushes to Soto's room. It's empty.

"Soto!" Nya calls out, running onto the deck. "Soto!"

"Nya?"

She turns and spots him on the dock, carrying a small bag over his shoulder. "Soto!" she cries, and hops off the ship in one fast movement. "Where are you going?"

Soto shrugs, which isn't a particularly reassuring gesture. "Yarr, somewhere! I've been being a thorn in your side for long enough."

Nya shakes her head. "You're not a thorn! Look, I know things are, uh, confusing right now, but we can find a place for you to stay, I promise. It just… might take a while."

He laughs. "Ye be a kind girl, but I know I can't stay. This was me ship, long ago… it ain't be mine any longer."

"But…" Nya takes a shuddering breath. "What if something happens? What if you get in trouble, or you end up in jail again, or you get hurt, or –"

"I can take care of meself, Nya."

He says it kindly, and she knows it's true. Soto is older than her even without the two hundred years. He doesn't need her to take care of him, considering she's barely out of her teenage years. But as Soto turns away with one last wave, Nya runs up and hugs him.

"Whoa! Nya –"

"Thank you," she says. "For everything."

Soto laughs and puts down his bag to hug her back. "Thank ye for busting me out of prison! Don't ye worry, I'll find a place in this future. I'll even stay out of trouble!"

Nya lets go and rubs the tears out of her eyes. "Does that mean you won't do anything illegal, or that you won't get caught?"

"Ha! I'll see ye around, Nya."

Nya waits until he's disappeared into the crowd to go back inside.

She has a nightmare a few days later.

When Nya wakes up, the fear from her dream stays with her, and it takes extraordinary effort to fight past it and get out of bed. The Bounty creaks. She shudders. Nadakhan, she thinks, but Nadakhan is gone. No one found that teapot, and no one ever will.

Pixal is in the kitchen. "Good morning, Nya," she says. "You're up early."

"Bad dream," she says. "What's there to eat?"

"Not much in the way of midnight snacks." Pixal frowns. "I could try to make you something, but my cooking skills are… subpar. I don't know how Zane does it."

Nya shrugs and sits down. "We'll go grocery shopping tomorrow," she says. "How are things? I know you went to Borg Tower the other day…"

Pixal nods. "My father was glad to see me," she says. "He knew I was functional, but… I think he worries, even if he won't say it."

"That's pretty normal for a dad," Nya says. "I mean, I think it is. I don't have the best relationship with my dad, after not seeing him for almost twenty years… is everything okay with Zane?"

"Zane is upset with me." Pixal looks away. "We will move past it with time," she says. "Are you alright, Nya?"

"Yeah, it was just a dream."

"Are you certain? 'Just dreams' have caused you significant distress in the recent past."

Nya shakes her head. "It was just a dream," she repeats. "There's no connection between me and Dilara anymore. I'll be over it by the time the sun comes up."

Pixal smiles at her. "Don't forget, Nya, you don't have to go through this alone. We are all very lucky to have you, and we are all willing to help you. I understand why you left, before, but it doesn't need to happen again."

She reaches her hand across the table, and they twine their fingers together. "And if you do leave," Pixal says, "we will still help you in any way we can. You have options, Nya. You can be whoever you want to be."

Samurai X, Nya thinks. The Water Ninja, she thinks. Kai's sister, Jay's girlfriend, Jay's ex-girlfriend, Maya and Ray's daughter.

"I'm happy to just be Nya," she says.

THE END