Chapter Text
The bright glow of sunlight was what awoke me from my slumber. I opened my eyes sleepily, trying to blink myself awake. A massive yawn forced its way from my mouth, and I stared at my surroundings. For a moment, I was confused when I saw that I wasn’t surrounded by the familiar wooden walls of the Destiny’s Bounty, but then I remembered. It had been destroyed by the Great Devourer.
The only window in the room was open, letting the warm sunlight stream inside and allowing a cool breeze to gently blow through it. I sat up in the bed, looking at the hotel room I was in. It wasn’t the best or the fanciest hotel in Ninjago City, but we’d had nowhere else to go last night, and luckily the ninja had enough money to pay for a night in this room. At least we had a roof over our head---that was all I needed.
I looked around the small hotel room, finding no ninja or anyone in sight---except for the Green Ninja. Lloyd Garmadon was on the floor at the side of my bed, his head resting on the sheets. It looked like he had fallen asleep in the position.
When did he get there? I wondered, smiling fondly at the sight of him. Was he that worried about me? Sometimes, it still amazed me how much Lloyd seemed to care about me. He was my best friend, so I supposed it only made sense. The two of us had been through so much together in such a short time, and we had formed a special bond that I was sure nothing could break. The fact that we’d both turned out to be the Green Ninja and Yellow Ninja of legend had only brought us closer together.
I decided to wake him up; maybe he knew where the others went. “Lloyd?” I whispered, nudging him. “Wake up.”
Lloyd stirred, but groaned in protest. “Five more minutes…”
I giggled at his response. “Come on, sleepyhead. I need company.”
Slowly, Lloyd opened his eyes and woke up. He lifted his head, yawning loudly like I had earlier. When his gaze found me, a smile brightened his face, and he perked up. “Hey! You’re looking a lot better.”
I nodded, sitting back against the pillows. “Yeah, I feel so much better,” I confirmed, stretching my arms out. A dull soreness had replaced the sharp pains and aches yesterday’s events had thrown upon me. First I’d been thrown into a rack of heavy weapons by Pythor, then had been crushed by said weapons, and then after that I had crash-landed with the dragon while fighting the Great Devourer. I was relieved that I hadn’t suffered any major damage, and was very happy that all that remained today was a few sore bruises. “I don’t hurt nearly as much as I did yesterday,” I informed my friend.
Lloyd breathed a sigh of relief. “Good,” he replied. “I was...kinda worried about you…”
I smirked down at him. “Lloyd, did you stay here all night?”
“N-No!” he immediately denied. His cheeks turned the tiniest shade of red. “Not all night…”
I laughed at his reaction. “Thanks, Lloyd. That was sweet.” Deciding to give him a break, I changed the subject. “So, where is everyone?”
Lloyd stood up on his feet. “Well, the ninja are out helping to fix some of the damage that the Devourer caused. Nya and my uncle went to run an errand---something about getting Dragon Ointment and parts to fix the Ninja Tank. They told me to stay here with you until they got back.”
I nodded. “Guess we’ll just have to wait for them.” I thought for a moment, then sat up. “Wanna play a game until they get back?”
Lloyd smiled and nodded. “Sure!”
. . .
So... What is the first thing that a family of ninjas do after saving all of Ninjago City from a giant snake known as the Great Devourer, and after they’ve helped clean the city?
The answer? Apartment hunting.
“This one bedroom, one half bath is a cozy dream!”
A real estate lady, Patty Keys, was giving us a tour of an apartment. Well, I wasn’t too sure that it qualified as an apartment; it was more like one room with a tiny bathroom attached to it. Lloyd and I peeked into the apartment with the rest of the ninja. “Cozy” was definitely one way to describe it, as it looked very cramped. Wires and pipes poked out of the walls, and cobwebs were everywhere. The kitchen, if you could call it that, was a mere stove and oven with a few boxes next to it. The single bed inside didn’t even have a mattress.
Okay, I know I said before that all I needed was a roof over my head, I thought, but I was hoping for something just a tiny bit...nicer.
“Who needs extras when everything is in arm’s reach?” Patty stated happily, smiling widely. “Now, wait until you see the lighting!” She flipped the light switch, and the singular light bulb flickered for a moment before fizzling out. To make matters worse, it fell out of its socket the next second, shattering on the ground.
Patty’s smile faltered for a moment. “Uh… Who needs lights when you have this view? Heh.” She walked over to the window and pulled the blinds up, revealing the wonderful sight of a brick wall outside. I mentally facepalmed.
Lloyd and I walked inside. “Uh, why do I smell old people?” Lloyd asked her.
I breathed out a sigh of relief. “Oh, good, I thought I was the only one bothered by that.”
“Look, dolls,” Patty said, abruptly losing her optimism, “I’m trying to work around your budget. This is all that you can afford!”
“Uh, this looks...promising,” Cole stated uncertainly. He turned to the others. “Remember, guys, Sensei told us our main objective is to train Lloyd and Aurora, not kick our feet up in some swanky suite. If this is all we can afford, this is all we can afford.”
Jay waved an arm to stop him. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, let’s not rush into any decision. I mean, if it’s really all about Lloyd and Aurora, don’t we need to live some place that’ll make their training easier?”
“Yeah, Jay’s right,” Kai agreed. “If we have to get Lloyd and Aurora ready to save Ninjago from Lloyd’s father, shouldn’t they at least have their own room?”
I mean, having our own room again would be nice. But...I supposed that we didn’t really need it…
Zane spoke up. “Technically, that does not matter, they only---”
Kai elbowed him in the stomach, cutting him off.
“We’re only thinking about the children!” Jay finished for him, laughing nervously at Patty.
Patty smiled again. “I do have another property that you’ll just love !”
About ten minutes later, we were all walking into a drastically different apartment complex. We rode the elevator to the top floor, and when the doors opened, they revealed the fanciest modern apartment that I had ever seen.
Everyone gasped simultaneously at the amazing sight. “Whoa!”
Patty proudly led the way inside. “Now, this is the eight-bedroom Hero Suite! Floor-to-ceiling windows, digital wall television, state-of-the-art game console…”
Lloyd and I exchanged an excited look at the mention of a gaming console. Awesome!
“Uh, it seems a little out of our price range,” Cole pointed out.
Patty smiled. “Oh, sure it costs a little more, but you deserve it! I forgot to mention: there’s also a dragon keep on the roof.”
A dragon keep?! This place was our dream home! It was unreal!
“Nice,” Jay said. “Maybe we can get a hero discount. After all, we are the ninja who saved the city.”
“I thought Lord Garmadon saved the city,” Patty replied.
That comment made Jay cross his arms and pout.
“We could get day jobs to pay for the extra expenses,” Kai suggested.
Zane smiled. “We always said we could use a little more responsibility.”
“But we have to train Lloyd and Aurora,” Kai reminded him, gesturing to the two of us.
Patty smiled wider, pulling a remote out of nowhere. “Did I mention the in-house training facility?”
She pressed a button, causing a section of the wall to slide open. We went to peer inside the new room and found a fully functional training facility inside, just like the one we’d had back on the Bounty. If anything, it was more high-tech, and larger than that one had been. I grinned in awe at the sight. This place is amazing!
All four ninja smiled widely. “We’ll take it!”
. . .
And so, the ninja immediately began working day jobs to pay the rent. Jay was a pizza delivery boy, Cole was a security guard at a bank, Zane was a chef at a restaurant, and Kai played with kids at birthday parties. The four of them were out all day doing their jobs, earning as much money as they possibly could. At the end of each day, they would put all their earnings in a big jar on the table. Lloyd and I would run through the training course together while they were busy, and then play on the fancy video game console when we had finished.
At first, it all went pretty smoothly. However, it didn’t take long for the ninja’s new jobs to start taking their toll on them. Each day, they came back more and more exhausted, and sometimes with fewer earnings. When they came back at the end of each day, Lloyd and I were hopeful that they would finally train us, but they were always too tired. And since Nya and Sensei Wu were still gone on their trip, we were left to our own devices most of the day.
Currently, the ninja had just arrived back at the apartment. I grew hopeful that they would train us today. Lloyd was smacking a punching bag, while I was practicing flipping over obstacles on one of the spinning devices. I saw Lloyd punch the bag, not pay attention, then get smacked by it, knocking him onto his back.
I hopped off the spinning thing and laughed. “Punching bag: one, Lloyd: zero,” I said as I walked over to him.
Lloyd grumbled in frustration, begrudgingly accepting my hand to help him back up. “Things would be different if we finally got trained…”
“Yeah,” I agreed, glancing at the exhausted ninja in the other room. “Wanna go ask if they can finally train us?”
Lloyd nodded. The two of us walked into the living room, finding four disgruntled ninja inside. Cole was soaking his feet in ice water.
“My feet…” he groaned. “I can’t feel my feet.”
A muddy Kai half-fell onto the couch. “There was so many of them,” he muttered. “And they wouldn’t stop.”
Zane held an oil can, oiling the gears in his right arm. “My gears locked up several times,” he said. “I didn’t even know my gears could lock up.”
Jay laid on the floor in front of the TV, weakly reaching for a controller. “I don’t even have enough energy to play video games…”
Lloyd spoke up, frowning. “But I thought you were going to train me and Aurora when you got home.”
I nodded. “Yeah, we’ve been anxiously waiting all day.”
“Sorry, champs, but we can’t until we make rent,” Cole told us. “How close are we, Jay?”
Jay went over to the cabinet, rattling the jar of money inside. “Is this jar getting bigger?” he groaned. “We’re not even close.”
“And our rent is due tomorrow,” Zane pointed out, flexing his arm.
“I can pull a double shift,” Cole offered.
Zane smiled. “And I can do overtime.”
Jay heaved himself to his feet. “Maybe I can sling a few more pizza pies.”
Kai sat up on the couch. “And I can make a little extra if I do the human pinata…”
Everyone looked at him with worried and confused expressions.
“Ugh, don’t ask,” Kai told us.
Cole nodded. “Great, then our priorities are set. Tomorrow...we make rent.”
“And, uh...what about us?” Lloyd asked him.
“How about you two help out and fetch me some more ice, huh?” Cole told me and Lloyd.
Lloyd and I sighed, exchanging disappointed looks. I knew that the ninja were tired and busy, but to me, it seemed like they had forgotten what was really important. When would Lloyd and I finally get to learn how to be the ninja that we were destined to be?
. . .
By the time Lloyd and I woke up the next day, all of the ninja had already left for their jobs. We both knew that it would be quite some time before they got back, so we had to occupy ourselves yet again until they returned. So, after eating breakfast, we decided that we would train ourselves.
The two of us kept ourselves busy and really tried to raise our stamina and build muscle. My body was no longer sore, so thankfully it was easy for me to exercise and train. First, we had a little bit of a friendly competition, seeing who could run the fastest and who could complete the training course with the fastest time. Once we grew bored with that, we decided to try and do Spinjitzu; let’s just say that it didn’t work, and the only thing we accomplished was making ourselves very dizzy. Then, we kind of went off track and, uh...started roleplaying.
“The Serpentine are about to attack the city!” I exclaimed, faking panic in my voice as I pointed.
“Then it’s up to us to stop them!” Lloyd proclaimed. “Ninja, go!”
The two of us ran forward, right toward the dummies we had set up to be the “Serpentine.” Lloyd kicked one while I tackled another, then I punched one repeatedly while Lloyd knocked another one down.
This went on for a few minutes, then Lloyd shouted, “There’s too many of them! What do we do?”
“Keep fighting!” I told him, pretending to dodge multiple attacks. “Ninja never quit!”
“You’re right!” Lloyd replied, pretending to fight off two enemies at once. “Let’s hit ‘em with our special move!”
This was something we had randomly thought up earlier. Lloyd and I stood together, each of us extending a hand toward the dummies. We pretended to summon our powers and shoot down all of the “Serpentine” fighting us.
“Ultimate Spinjitzu Master Strike!” Lloyd shouted as we unleashed our power.
The two of us quickly ran around, knocked all the dummies over, then ran back to the poses we’d been in before, acting like we’d summoned a massive wave of combined power to defeat them all.
“We did it!” Lloyd cheered.
“Woo-hoo!” I shouted, leaping up to meet Lloyd in a high-five.
And then after that, we decided to fight each other.
Lloyd and I stood across from one another, our gi masks on and our expressions serious. With the sun high in the sky outside, it felt like a scene from an old western movie. Neither of us moved or spoke, standing still as statues as we each faced our opponent. Then, at the same moment, we both charged.
Without any weapons to battle with, the two of us could only use our own fists. But we didn’t want to actually hurt each other, so our fight was less-than-impressive. It was more of a play fight than an actual training bout. We pushed each other around, turned away and swatted each other’s hands, wrestled on the ground, and basically just tumbled around with each other. Any time one of us tried to do an impressive move like we’d watched the ninja do, we’d fail at it, and the other would get a laugh out of it. The fight ended when we accidentally clunked our heads together, sending us both falling backward onto our backs.
“Ow…” I groaned, my head starting to ache.
I heard Lloyd groan in pain, too. “Call it a draw?”
“Yeah…” I replied weakly.
The two of us remained laying on the floor, growing bored again and wondering what to do now. Lloyd sighed. “I wish that we could really train…”
“I know,” I agreed. “It’s hard to practice by ourselves when we don’t know any actual moves yet. We can’t even practice Spinjitzu, because we don’t know how to do it!” This whole thing was kind of frustrating. Maybe, once Nya and Sensei Wu got back from their road trip, they could show us some basics while the ninja were away.
Lloyd turned his head toward the window. “The ninja will be back in a few hours,” he pointed out. “Maybe they’ll train us today.” He then turned to me. “Wanna play some video games?”
“Heck yeah!” I replied, grinning.
And so we both spent the next few hours playing on the fancy video game console, having a lot of fun as we tried to kill time. There wasn’t much else to do, after all.
We were playing our favorite dragon battle game, trying to get the high score. We didn’t really care which one of us got the top slot, as long as we beat the ninja’s high score. It was difficult, though; after our bajillionth attempt--I had lost count--the scores appeared on the screen, and they still hadn’t surpassed Jay, who only had the third highest score.
Lloyd and I groaned in defeat once again, but quickly recovered and started another game. We were determined to beat this challenge.
I briefly glanced up at the clock on the wall. The ninja were late---again. I sighed, focusing on the game again. “When do you think they’ll be back?” I asked Lloyd as we battled with our dragons.
“Who knows,” Lloyd replied. “They did say that they were working overtime.”
“Oh, yeah,” I said, remembering that little fact. I decided not to think about it anymore, and focused on playing the game instead.
The apartment was filled with the sounds of button mashing and ambient video game music. The music would be stuck in my head later from how long we’d been playing. The setting sun cast a warm orange glow on the room, and it felt pretty peaceful here.
After a minute, as I stared intensely at the giant screen, something caught my eye. My eyebrows furrowed in confusion when I saw a strange blue figure on the screen, something that I was pretty sure wasn’t part of the game. I couldn’t fully make out what it was, but something about it looked familiar.
“Uh, Lloyd?” I asked, pointing at the screen. “Do you see that?”
Lloyd stopped playing and leaned forward, following my finger to what I was pointing at. He saw it, too, and then turned to look at the window. Suddenly, he yelled, “Wha?!”
I looked out the window, and I also yelled in surprise, my eyes growing wide. Right outside our window, standing on a window washer’s platform, was Skales. He knocked on the window, leering at us menacingly with his hypnotic red eyes.
“Hello, little children,” he greeted sinisterly.
Lloyd and I threw our controllers aside and panicked, leaping off the couch. “Run!” I shouted as we both scurried to the door that led out of the apartment. Lloyd frantically pressed the buttons to open it, but to my horror, the doors wouldn’t budge.
“ Door is locked ,” the automated voice of the security system informed us.
Lloyd tried to pull the doors open. “I know!” he shouted at it. “We want it open!”
I tried to help him. We both pulled and pulled on the doors as hard as we could, but to no avail. The door would just not open!
I heard a scraping sound, and turned to see that Skales was using his staff to cut a hole in the glass so he could get inside. “Lloyd!” I exclaimed, grabbing his sleeve. “He’s coming!”
He turned around just as Skales finished cutting the glass. He pushed the circle that he’d cut out, and it fell inward, shattering on the floor. It left a hole behind that he could easily slither through. Lloyd and I grabbed each other, huddling together and shaking in fear.
“What do you want with us?!” Lloyd demanded fearfully.
I reached back and started pressing the buttons on the security system again, praying that they would work.
“You ssseem to be the only thing your father cares about,” Skales told Lloyd as he slithered toward us. “But with you as my hossstage, he’ll have no other choice but to let me lead the Serpentine!”
A wave of courage suddenly flowed through me. This was Skales we were talking about---he was just one Serpentine! Sure, he was dangerous, but it was just him against us! I banished my fear, putting on a threatening face and leaping in front of Lloyd, putting myself between him and Skales. “You’ll have to go through me first!” I yelled at the snake.
Skales merely chuckled. “We’ll sssee about that, little girl.”
He slithered closer and closer, and I backed up until I was right in front of Lloyd, only a hair’s length from him. He was backed up against the door, and I remained in front of him protectively, trying my best to keep my fear off my face as I glared up at Skales. I wasn’t kidding around---he’d have to throw me aside if he wanted to get to Lloyd. Nobody was taking my best friend away!
Skales grew closer and closer. I started shaking again, but tried to hide it. Just as he was about to touch us, a voice spoke from the other side of the door.
“Hello?” the voice of Sensei Wu said as he knocked. “What’s going on in there?”
I gasped in relief. “Sensei!” I shouted through the door.
“Help!” Lloyd screamed.
. . .
Kai, Jay, Zane, and Cole burst into the apartment, searching for any signs of the two kids.
“Lloyd?” Cole called.
“Aurora?” Kai yelled.
Zane walked around. “They’re not here.”
The ninja checked everywhere. Kai walked over to the training room, peering into it. To his dismay, he found it empty. “Oh, we shouldn’t have left them!” he exclaimed.
“We shouldn’t have taken those jobs in the first place,” Cole stated. “What were we thinking? Losing Lloyd and Aurora is by far our greatest loss.”
“But it could be your greatest lesson.”
Sensei Wu and Nya walked into the apartment with me and Lloyd, making ourselves known. Thankfully, the two of them had been able to get to me and Lloyd in time, and stop Skales. Sensei had escorted the defeated Serpentine general to the detention center down the street, while Nya had taken me and Lloyd out for ice cream to calm us down after our traumatic experience.
“Lloyd! Aurora!” The ninja all cried out our names in relief, rushing over to us.
“You’re okay!” Kai exclaimed joyfully.
Lloyd frowned. “We weren’t going to be, until Nya and Sensei showed up at the last moment.”
I let out a sigh of relief. “And it was a good thing they did…”
“I go away for a few days, and everything falls apart,” Nya said, clearly unamused.
Kai smiled, walking over to us. “I guess you could say we learned we don’t need all the fancy stuff. We just need each other.”
“You want us to help you clean up?” Sensei asked the ninja.
“Well, we are a team,” Kai pointed out.
Sensei turned to Nya. “Nya, I think it’s time for another road trip.”
“Hold on,” Cole interjected. “I’ve got a better idea.”
. . .
A couple hours later, we’d moved out of the fancy huge apartment, and were moving into the old run-down one that we’d first toured. The eight of us worked together to move all our furniture inside the small apartment. It would be a tight fit, and the living conditions were less-than-stellar, but it was all we really needed. Just like Kai said, we just needed each other---beyond that, all we really needed was a roof over our heads.
Me, I was just glad to be a part of this family; I’d never stop being thankful for that. If I’d never met Lloyd or the ninja, then I would still be at that orphanage in Jamanakai Village right now. Between living there and living with a family, I would always choose the latter. Even if I lived with them in a small, run-down apartment.
“It’s not much, but this one bedroom, one half bath is a cozy dream,” Cole said as we carried stuff into the apartment, mimicking Patty. “Who needs extras when everything is in arm’s reach?”
I set down the box I’d been carrying, smiling up at Cole. “Wait until you see the lighting!” I exclaimed with enthusiasm, laughing at my impression. My laughter was contagious and made Cole chuckle, reaching over to ruffle my hair. I swatted him away, giggling.
Kai and Jay were carrying a large chest together, and Lloyd was carrying a chair in front of his face. He couldn’t see where he was going, and accidentally bumped into Jay’s arm. This caused Jay to let go of the chest, and it went crashing down onto Kai’s foot.
“Ow, ow, ow!” Kai shouted, hopping around on one foot as he clutched the other one in pain.
Jay laughed sheepishly. “Feels like home to me,” he said. “Hey, at least we get to stay in Ninjago City for a little while.”
“And now without the distractions, we can put all our energy into training Lloyd and Aurora,” Zane pointed out. He blocked the leg of the chair that Lloyd was carrying from hitting his face.
Lloyd stopped as he bumped into him. “Who’s there?”
I giggled again, going over to the chair’s other side. I grabbed the other end of it, then walked backward, helping Lloyd set it down in the corner.
Kai turned to Sensei Wu. “I know the Serpentine generals got away, but you never told us---whatever happened to Skales?”
Sensei Wu smiled knowingly. “Oh, he found a home, too. But it’s not quite as roomy as here.”
I smiled at his words. I was relieved to know that Skales wouldn’t be bothering us again anytime soon.
Although...I supposed that he was the least of our worries…