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Lloyd had started staying at the Monastery. No one knew how long that was going to last. It was fairly evident how uncomfortable he was there, and he already had a history of running away. Every day he was still around was a mild surprise.
Still. Lloyd’s presence was having an effect. Ever since Lloyd had moved in, Jay had started having nightmares again. The ones about pirates. Pirates in the sky. Pirates on an island. Friends disappearing. Ronin sacrificing himself.
Lloyd and Nya dying right in front of him.
Jay woke up and stared at the ceiling for a few moments, his breathing erratic. He thought he was over that, but having Lloyd around had reopened old wounds. He tried to even out his breathing and get his bearings back. He closed his eyes.
He was in Ninjago. In the Monastery. Nadakhan was never freed. Nadakhan was two years ago. Since then, he had helped stop the time twins from rewriting the timeline, he had helped defeat the Great Devourer, Kai had found his true potential, Cole wasn’t a ghost anymore and Master Wu had come back to the realm of the living.
The sky pirates weren’t going to happen again. Not like that, at least.
His breathing became steadier. He felt the tension melt off him. History would not repeat itself.
He was still too tense. His mind kept drifting back to that. He couldn’t stop thinking about it.
There was only one cure for this.
He got out of bed and headed to the kitchen for a midnight snack. Something salty and sweet would take his mind off djinns and pirates and death.
At least he thought so.
He couldn’t help but yelp at the creature with evil glowing eyes, sitting on the kitchen counter. Instinctively Jay flicked the lights on, summoning his element-
It was Lloyd, covered in a blanket, holding a plate of cookies in one hand.
He looked at Jay, blurry-eyed and disgruntled.
“Why d’you turn the lights on?” he complained, blinking hard to get his eyes to adjust to the light, apparently not startled by Jay at all.
“You scared me,” Jay answered, slumping a little. “Dude, your eyes glow in the dark!”
“My eyes don’t glow in the dark. They reflect. It’s why I can see in dark conditions,” Lloyd answered. “I get it from my Oni side. Uncle Wu should have them too.” He looked Jay over, then held out his plate. “Cookie?”
Jay looked at the plate. Then at Lloyd. It was weird for the teen to so casually mention being part Oni, then change topic to something so mundane. It was surreal. Surreal as being awake before 5 AM.
He looked back at the plate. Well, since Lloyd was offering…
Wait.
“Didn’t Zane make these for the Police Commissioner?” Jay asked. “Since he’s struggling with the Darkley’s kids…?”
Lloyd shrugged dismissively.
Oh, Lloyd knew.
“C’mon Lloyd, put those back. Those aren’t for us.”
Lloyd, without breaking eye contact, shoved one in his mouth.
“Lloyd!”
He ate another one. Jay hurriedly snatched the plate out of the teen’s hands and put it back on the counter.
“C’mon, you’re supposed to be reforming,” Jay reprimanded him. “Eating other people’s food, especially when it’s meant for someone else, is bad.”
“I know it’s ‘bad’. But who said I’m reforming?”
“Um. The judge? The police? Your friends?”
Lloyd looked away, frowning.
“Lloyd, did you forget the whole part where you helped save Ninjago from the Great Devourer?”
“Yeah, well it was either that or get eaten. Or hide out in an underground bunker with Gene, which was not happening.”
“Are you really gonna pretend you’re not even a little bit altruistic?” Jay asked, exasperated. This was Kai’s candidate for the Green Ninja? Really?
“I offered you a cookie, didn’t I?” Lloyd retorted, crossing his arms.
Jay sighed. It was coming up to three in the morning. It was too night for this kind of conversation. So, he decided to concede and let Lloyd have this round.
Jay shuffled over to the fridge and opened it, looking through the contents. Miraculously, they had some leftover cake. And pizza. He took out both.
“Want the pizza reheated?” Jay asked. Lloyd looked at the pizza uncertainly, a little thrown by the offer. He slowly nodded.
Into the microwave the pizza went.
Jay placed the cake on the counter and took out two forks.
“Why are you up anyway?” Lloyd asked, hopping off the counter and taking a fork. “You’re too old to be hungry for a midnight snack.”
“I’m twenty-one, Lloyd.”
“Yeah. Old. Like I said.”
Jay sighed. It was too early in the morning for some sixteen-year-old to be making him feel old. FSM, was this how the other elemental masters had felt when the Ninja had turned up to the tournament of elements? He hoped not.
“I couldn’t sleep,” Jay admitted. “One cure is getting up and eating something. I learned it from Cole.”
“You couldn’t sleep?” Lloyd repeated.
“Yeah, um…” Maybe it was the cake, maybe it was the time of day, maybe it was the weird relationship he had with Lloyd, but Jay ended up saying, “I get nightmares sometimes. Something recently has made them… start again.”
“The Great Devourer?” Lloyd asked. Jay was going to say no but hesitated. Being honest would only raise more questions. And to be fair, it kind of was the Great Devourer that caused all this. If it weren’t for the Great Devourer, Lloyd probably wouldn’t be at the Monastery.
“Um, yeah. It’s the overgrown snake. That’s it.” Ok. Jay was a terrible liar, and Lloyd didn’t believe him at all. Jay glanced at the clock. “Do you often wake up after midnight to eat gift cookies?”
Lloyd ate some more cake before answering. “No, not really. I… I couldn’t sleep either,” he admitted. “Um. Also nightmares.”
Jay stared at him.
“What?” Lloyd demanded, flushing pink, hiding his embarrassment by eating more cake. The microwave pinged.
“Sorry, Lloyd. I, uh. Just didn’t think Darkley’s kids could get nightmares,” Jay answered.
“Well…” Lloyd rubbed his eyes, trying to get the sleepiness out. “Usually you would be right.” He didn’t elaborate further. Jay fetched the pizza. The cake and pizza together should have tasted wrong. But before 3 AM everything just tasted amazing.
Lloyd let out a deep sigh.
“I’ve… never told anyone this,” Lloyd spoke softly. “… A few years ago, I started having nightmares. About … things… Being stabbed, here.” He placed a hand on his side. “And here.” A hand on his chest. “They stopped after a while, but… They’ve started again. Ever since I got here.” He paused, then said in a serious tone, “I think it’s anxiety.”
Jay choked on his slice of pizza.
“Jay?” Lloyd asked.
“I’m fine,” Jay coughed. “Stabbed in the chest, huh?” he croaked, clearing his throat. “And side too.”
“Yeah,” Lloyd replied calmly, not seeming to pick up on Jay freaking out. “When I was fourteen, I had those nightmares for two whole months, on loop. They faded out after a while though.” He slumped a little. “I thought it was over. Turns out, they can still come back. I just wish I knew what was triggering it. FSM, I hope something is triggering it… If it just started up without any cause…”
So Lloyd had those dreams while he was fourteen? But that was also how old he’d been when Nadakhan had- when Lloyd had-
Oh.
Should Jay…?
Jay looked up at Lloyd and it seemed to startle the teen. Huh. Jay must look the way he felt. Lloyd looked him over wordlessly, then his eyes lit up, as if he had figured something out.
“Are your nightmares… similar?” Lloyd asked. Jay hesitantly nodded. “And they stopped… but have started again now too?”
Jay nodded. Lloyd slumped.
“Your nightmares have nothing to do with the Great Devourer.”
“Um, you know Lloyd, it’s kinda late,” Jay started trying to dismiss, stretching his back. “We should be heading back to bed-”
“Jay, there was something I wanted to ask you years ago, but we weren’t close, so I never knew how to bring it up,” Lloyd spoke up. Jay found himself freezing in place. No way. Did the kid know something? But no one knew, the only ones that remembered were-
Without even batting an eye, Lloyd asked, “Did you rewrite the timeline?”
Jay’s jaw practically dropped. Lloyd, in response, widened his eyes in disbelief.
“No way,” the teen weakly said.
Hey, wasn’t that Jay’s line? How did Lloyd have any idea…?
As if guessing what Jay wanted to ask, Lloyd answered, “Gene detected a huge chrono-energy spike about the same time the nightmares started. We concluded the only thing that could have caused such energy levels would be someone rewriting the timeline. It got proven right when you had that whole adventure with the time twins. Same spikes. More, since- I don’t know what you guys were up to, but apparently the timeline got rewritten a lot while you were fighting the twins.”
Silence followed.
“So… you don’t remember? Um. The alternate timeline,” Jay asked. Lloyd shook his head.
“My nightmares are caused by it though, aren’t they?” he asked, mildly horrified that something that hadn’t even happened was having an effect on him – something he couldn’t even remember happening to him.
Jay nodded.
Unlike Lloyd, who was almost bewildered out of his mind, to Jay, this made sense. Sure, Lloyd had died in the alternate timeline, but he had still been at the epicenter of the reversal, along with Jay and Nya. Lloyd was also, assuming Kai was right, the Green Ninja. It made sense that the teen might be more sensitive – a lot more sensitive – to changes in reality than others. Would be able to retain some subconscious memories when others couldn’t.
Lloyd looked down at the slice of pizza in his hands. He munched on it thoughtfully, a way of distracting himself from his horror.
“What did I do in that timeline to make you trust me?” Lloyd asked.
“What? No, I don’t- why would you think- nothing changed,” Jay replied, flustered.
“No, you started being way nicer to me after Gene detected the energy spikes. I know I did something to earn your trust and it’s been driving me crazy, because-” He cut himself off. Jay stared at Lloyd, who had suddenly become tongue-tied. Unwilling to talk.
Because what? What did it mean that alternate Lloyd, yellow Ninja Lloyd, had earned Jay’s trust?
And then Jay sort of puzzled it out. It meant that he and Lloyd had been close in the alternate timeline. That Lloyd had also trusted Jay, since trust was a two-way street. And considering how much ‘trust’ Jay apparently still showed Lloyd despite the loss of the original relationship… It meant Jay had trusted him a lot in that timeline and, as a result – though it had never occurred to Jay before – it also meant the Yellow Ninja had had just as much trust in him.
And what? Lloyd didn’t like that he had once trusted Jay? Or didn’t like that he could have been that close to someone, or…
Jay sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. This was a terrible conversation to have before 3 AM.
“Lloyd, even after everything, you’re still a brat,” Jay said after a long silence. Lloyd looked offended. “But you’re also a good kid. I think. You just never had a chance to prove it.” Lloyd still looked like he wanted to protest. “You recently helped stop the Great Devourer. You didn’t need to do that, even if you’ll argue ‘till you’re blue that you did have to. In the alternate timeline… You helped us fight some bad guys. Big bad guys. They’d eradicated almost the whole team. It was just me and Nya left. And you.”
“I was on the team?” Lloyd asked. Jay nodded.
“You just kind of clicked with us,” Jay admitted, shrugging. “It felt natural.”
Lloyd stared at him for a long time. He then put his unfinished pizza slice down.
“I need some air,” Lloyd announced and abruptly left the kitchen. Jay stared after the teenager and decided it was best to give him some space. It wasn’t a secret that Lloyd had major issues and needed time alone to process things.
Jay sighed and started clearing the food away.
That morning, Lloyd’s bed had been found empty. The few things he had brought with him had been gone too. Lloyd had run away.
Though it had been expected to happen sooner or later, Jay wasn’t going to lie to himself. It felt like the cause was definitely that midnight conversation and it hurt that Lloyd had left because of that.
But life went on. Until parole officers could be properly assigned, the Police Commissioner and the Ninja were in charge of the Darkley’s kids. The mystery of where Lloyd had gone was quickly resolved – he’d returned to his roots. That is, he had gone back to living with Brad Tudabone, a fellow Darkley’s student.
At least Kai was in regular contact with Lloyd. More so than anyone else on the team.
Lloyd and Jay hadn’t talked since that midnight conversation.
Which was why it absolutely threw Jay off when one day, Lloyd cornered him in the Monastery. As far as Jay had known, Lloyd hadn’t set foot in the place since leaving. When he’d had contact with the Ninja, he’d meet them in neutral locations. Even his uncle he refused to meet anywhere but some public location in Ninjago City.
“Hi Jay,” Lloyd greeted, hanging upside down from the rafters.
Jay did not scream when the teenager appeared out of nowhere.
“What are you doing here?” Jay demanded.
“Don’t worry about that,” Lloyd answered, then jumped down. “I wanted to talk to you.”
“Mhm, yeah, I can see that. You haven’t been here since you ran away!”
Lloyd flinched.
“I… needed to think things through,” Lloyd dismissed, as if it were no big deal. “And I’m here, because I wanted to ask for your help?”
Jay looked the teen over. All these weeks, and that’s all he was getting?
“Ok. Cool. Yeah. Sure, I’ll help with whatever, but don’t you want to talk about the whole sky pirates thing? Like, at all?”
Lloyd stared at him evenly. “Not really, no.”
Jay sighed. “Yeah. Sure. Because that won’t eat away at you. So what do you need my help with? Apparently, it’s something only I can do, since you’ve waited for everyone else to not be around. How long have you been stalking me for?”
“I wasn’t stalking you.”
“How d’you know I’d be in the Monastery alone?”
Lloyd hesitated to answer. “Anyway,” he said, avoiding the question. “You and the other Ninja are in charge of the Darkley’s kids, right?”
“And the Police Commissioner.”
“Yeah, sure.” Lloyd paused. “I’m worried about some of my former classmates. Mags and Lar.”
“Who? I don’t remember anyone going by those names at the trial…”
“That’s because they weren’t there. They’re missing. Probably been missing for a while,” Lloyd explained.
“And their names are Mags and Lar?”
“Well, Magnolia Skitts and Larry Sunny. But we all call them Mags and Lar. They’re pretty cool. Actually, Lar tried to once convince everyone he was the Master of Water. Was running a pretty good crime ring for a while. Then Nya unlocked her true potential and now everyone in Ninjago knows he’s a fraud. He should have called it quits earlier, before the real Master of Water revealed herself. Not that I’m complaining, I got a real big cash out from-”
“Wait. When did these two kids go missing?”
“I don’t have an exact date, but after some digging around, I figure it’s something like… A day or two before the Great Devourer was unleashed-”
“They’ve been missing for weeks, and you’re only telling someone now?” Jay exclaimed, incredulous.
“Things have been chaotic and, you know, we’re Darkley’s kids. We’re good at taking care of ourselves. Disappearing off the face of the realm for a few weeks isn’t unusual! I’m not even sure they’re in any danger! Buuuuut it’d be good if someone could check in on them and make sure they’re not getting into trouble. You know, we don’t want a repeat of Sally and Marla.”
Jay sighed. These Darkley’s kids…
“Yeah. Fine. I’ll look for them. I haven’t got anything else going on anyway,” Jay muttered. “But why me? You could have told Kai, Nya, Zane, Cole…” He sensed Lloyd would ordinarily have gone to anyone but Jay.
Lloyd hesitated.
“No reason,” he then finally answered. “Well… What do you know about Prime Empire?”
Jay stared at Lloyd. Ok. There was the reason. That was the reason Lloyd had singled him out. He doubted the others knew anything about Prime Empire, so going to Jay would save time explaining things… But it was a little disappointing that this was the undoubtedly only reason Lloyd had sought him out.
Once again. Ouch.
Jay let out a deep sigh.
“I know a lot, Lloyd,” Jay told him. “I know a lot about Prime Empire.”
After letting the team know what he was up to, Jay started looking for Mags and Lar. It led him to an old, abandoned arcade in downtown Ninjago City. When he powered it up, he discovered that every single one of the old machines was infected with the computer virus – that is, the one that had currently forced a quarter of all arcades in Ninjago City to shut down. It completely erased the original game and replaced it with itself. The Prime Empire virus.
He’d been meaning to look into the virus since before the Great Devourer. That was back when the problem had first started, when the first few video games had started getting infected. But the Oni masks and the Fang Blades had quickly taken precedence, so the whole thing had been kind of forgotten and by the time the Prime Empire virus made the news again… It seemed more like a job for software engineers than the Ninja.
But thanks to Lloyd, Jay could now be involved again.
To test the virus, Jay started playing “Prime Empire” and eventually kind of forgot why he was playing in the first place. Once he beat the last level… A portal opened. And he walked in without pausing for thought.
Which was, naturally enough, a mistake. He was unable to contact the outside world, he was a new player – meaning he had no power or skill or anything – and he had no way out.
He didn’t regret the mistake.
Staring at the high-tech cyber punk world of Prime Empire, Jay found himself getting excited, squealing under his breath. “Is this finally… my big solo adventure?” he couldn’t stop himself from asking. All his friends had been on big solo adventures, apart from him. Well, technically he had had one, but that one had not been fun, and as such, did not count. But this? Being stuck inside of a video game? Having to defeat it in order to free the kids also trapped in here? He knew it was probably wrong to think it, but… “This is the best day ever.”
This was going to be fun.
Jay wondered if the others had noticed he was technically missing. Probably not, since he had told them he may be off the radar for a while (originally in hopes of getting to spend hours playing an unreleased game uninterrupted by anyone).
Since entering Prime Empire, some of Jay’s levity had left him. After tracking down Mags and Lar, he had met with Scott and learnt the truth about the game. Then they’d been roped up into collecting the so-called key-tanas in order to stop Unagami – who was, according to Scott, Milton Dyer. Which… didn’t make complete sense, because why would Dyer need a portal back to Ninjago…?
It wasn’t all bad, Jay had to admit. He had made some great friends while in Prime Empire – Scott, Okino, Racer Seven, to name a few.
However.
Jay’s little improvised team of three had been losing lives on their way to Unagami. All of them had just one life left, and Jay felt he’d be the first to lose his last life, because he knew he couldn’t let Mags and Lar get cubed. He knew he’d sooner sacrifice himself than let either teenager die.
In hindsight, he wished he’d taken a teammate with him. The thought of leaving Mags and Lar alone to save Ninjago did not sit well with him. Leaving the fate of Ninjago in any Darkley’s kids’ hands did not sit well with him. Lloyd currently included.
Maybe someone would notice he was missing. Maybe Lloyd would speak up if he noticed Jay was missing. Would Lloyd notice? Considering how long it took for Lloyd to notice Mags and Lar were missing, he did not have high hopes.
“Choose your champion,” a cheerful voice boomed. Jay came out of his contemplations and looked around the room. Mags and Lar were staring dead ahead. Jay looked forward and saw icons of their faces in front of them, looking not dissimilar from a character select screen.
“Aaaand now it’s an old school ‘fighting game’. Because sure, why not,” Jay muttered tiredly. He’d already thought the Infinity Maze was unnecessary.
“Um… What does it mean by ‘choose your champion’?” Lar asked.
“I think one of us has to fight the boss,” Jay answered. He looked at Mags and Lar. “I’ll go.”
“But you only have one life left-” Mags protested.
“We all only have one life left,” Jay corrected. “Look, I get we’re in a game, so our skills, abilities, experience, it all doesn’t apply here. But I’ve still been racking up more EXP than either of you, so I’m still the most qualified for this.” And FSM, he was not going to let a teenager die in his stead. Not again.
Mags and Lar fell silent. They wanted to protest, but they knew they couldn’t.
Ever since meeting Jay, they’d been dragged into being his sidekicks, despite having been trained for evil. As a result of their learned evil, whenever called to act, to fight, to stand up, they had always hesitated – often at Jay’s expense.
Meaning Jay fought more than them. Meaning Jay got more EXP than them.
Both of them felt their pride hurt, having to acknowledge that the good guy was “better” than them, because he had done good. They also felt guilty. Jay had lost his lives protecting them. Both of them would not be here, if Jay had been just a little bit selfish. Unable to argue with Jay, the teenagers were silent.
Seeing this, Jay decided not to let the teens brood more about it and stepped forward, pressing his icon.
“The champion has been chosen,” the game voice cheered. “Unagami will choose your opponent. Fighter two will be…”
Jay activated his prime controller. The avatar started materializing before him.
Red eyes opened. While the meaning of this selection was lost on the two teenagers, it was all too horrifying for Jay.
“Hi Jay,” a small teen Lloyd said, in that kiddy voice he’d still had at fourteen. Dressed in a yellow gi, Jay didn’t need to ask who this was meant to be.
“How…?” Jay stuttered. How did Prime Empire know about this version of Lloyd? Lloyd had never been the Yellow Ninja in the rewritten timeline, how-
“This isn’t fair! We were allies!” Jay protested loudly. He missed the surprise on Mags and Lar’s faces at hearing that.
“Yeah, I know,” Digi-Lloyd answered. “So this should make it easy, right? No fighting to the death, no violence, no hurt. This is basically going to be a good old-fashioned sparring-” Digi-Lloyd leapt forward, unsheathing a dao sword and striking Jay. On instinct, Jay blocked. “- session,” Digi-Lloyd finished with a sly grin.
“That felt too lethal to be just for practice,” Jay lightly protested. Digi-Lloyd’s grin widened.
“Let’s be honest, Jay. Was I ever a real teammate?” Digi-Lloyd asked, as he made for another attack.
“What do you mean?”
“You think we were allies? Ha, I think you’re misinterpreting my actions. Anything I did back then was out of necessity only. You’re just trying to see good where there is none,” he spoke and mocked, after attack and attack and attack. Jay could only defend, unwilling to fight someone that was younger than him, someone that had been a friend, someone that had died on him, someone Jay was supposed to be protecting from Nadakhan…
Jay could see Mags and Lar calling to him from behind a force field that must have formed when the battle started.
It’s not real.
The two teenagers didn’t have the context, but they could see something was upsetting Jay.
Right. This wasn’t the real Lloyd. This was Digi-Lloyd, a program made to get inside Jay’s head and stop him from reaching Unagami.
This was cruel and underhanded.
“One of us is going to die here,” Digi-Lloyd threatened. “You failed to protect me once. Are you going to let your failure repeat itself?”
“You’re not real,” Jay answered, and with just one attack, stabbed Digi-Lloyd through the chest.
Jay froze. He had expected the teenager to dodge. Lloyd was quick on his feet, he should have been able to dodge such an obvious attack-
Digi-Lloyd smiled at him, despite the blood spilling from his lips. “See?” he said. “Just like last time. It was destined to happen once; it’s destined to happen again. You can’t protect him, Jay.” Digi-Lloyd wrapped his hands around Jay’s wrist and forced the sickle in deeper. He stared hard at Jay, even as his eyes started becoming unfocused. “Here’s another secret.” He leaned in closer, the sickle disappearing further into his chest. “You can’t save anyone.” Lloyd let out a laugh, until it morphed into a rattling cough. Lloyd began to slump. “See you around, ninja,” Digi-Lloyd said, then collapsed. Jay instinctively caught him, catching him before he hit the ground.
The body hung from him for a moment, then Digi-Lloyd dissolved into blue pixels, evaporating into air, as all other creatures of Prime Empire had. Jay fell to his knees, still looking at his hands. The blood that had spilled had vanished too. Of course. The avatar hadn’t been real, so neither was any of the spilled blood.
He felt a warm hand on his shoulder. He looked up.
“Jay, are you ok?” Mags asked. Jay slowly shook his head.
“We need to get out of here,” he simply said.
“You know that Lloyd’s fine, right?” Lar asked. “He’s never been inside here.”
“Yeah, no, I know, I… You don’t understand…” Jay muttered. In his mind, all he saw was Lloyd dying, once at Nadakhan’s hands and now, fresh and new, by his own. “I’ll be ok.” Lloyd was ok. Jay was ok. Everyone was ok.
“Why did he pick a younger Lloyd? In those clothes? That was weird. Right?” Mags asked.
Jay gradually got to his feet again. “Unagami must have gotten a look in our minds when we were uploaded. I knew that version of Lloyd.”
“How? When?” Lar asked.
“It’d take too long to explain,” Jay dismissed. “Don’t worry about it. Point is, we need to be super wary of Unagami from now on. He’s not afraid of playing mind games on us.”
“Yeah, we can see that. You’re shaking!” Mags pointed out. “I didn’t even know you Ninja could feel fear.”
“Ok, sure, point it out some more,” Jay murmured, folding his arms. He’d be out of here soon and then, he could just disappear into Nya’s warm embrace and pretend the world was only made of the two of them, together, and no danger and no death, and…
He breathed out deeply.
“Let’s go, guys. We’ve got the three key-tanas. It’s time to meet Unagami.”
Lloyd had a sinking feeling, the moment Brad ran into the living room, all pale and nervous. Darkley’s kids rarely got scared or frightened of anything that wasn’t a world-ending threat. Which meant that unless Ninjago was about to become apocalyptic, there could only be one person that had come to the condo to frighten Brad so much.
“L-Lloyd, i-it’s-” Brad stuttered.
“Lloyd…” Kai spoke menacingly as he stormed into the living room. Lloyd dropped his game controller. “… Where’s Jay?” the Master of Fire demanded and suddenly, Kai’s anger made sense.
Was… Jay not in contact with the Ninja?
“Don’t you know?” Lloyd asked, dodging the question. He picked up his controller off the floor and paused the game.
“All I know is that Jay told Nya you asked him to look into something and that’s why he’d go off the radar for a day or two. Now he’s been missing for four days, and even Zane and Pixal can’t find him!”
Brad flinched and turned to Lloyd. “This is about Mags and Lar, isn’t it?” Brad asked.
“Yeah. Jay’s still missing…?” Lloyd asked.
“And you’d know that if you bothered checking in with us,” Kai snapped. “I know you don’t like hanging around, but come on, you could at least come visit me, I thought we were closer than that!”
“We are!” Lloyd protested. “E-enough,” he then added, when he noticed Brad giving him the side-eye. “You know, the Monastery’s pretty far out, and there’s nothing to do there. I don’t want to be visiting all the time.”
“Your uncle’s there!”
“And he knows I don’t like going there too!”
“I’m just going to…” Brad spoke up, hurriedly leaving the room. A second door slam indicated Brad had left the condo altogether. Lloyd let out a sigh and got to his feet.
“Look, I’m sorry if I screwed up. Again,” Lloyd apologized. Kai just squinted at him; arms crossed. Oho, the Red Ninja knew Lloyd didn’t mean a single word. Great. “But why are you so mad?”
“Why am I- why am I mad?” Kai demanded. “Oh, no, nothing, no particular reason, just one of my closest friends, someone I consider a brother, has disappeared off the face of the Realm. Why would I be upset about that?”
Lloyd stared blankly, genuinely not understanding Kai’s worries.
“FSM, you Darkley’s kids…” Kai muttered under his breath. “Where’s Jay?”
“Probably… playing Prime Empire?” Lloyd half-asked.
“Prime Em- What the heck is Prime Empire?”
“Well-” Lloyd was cut off by the TV suddenly freaking out, glitching and sparking, before settling on a new start menu screen.
“Would you like to enter Prime Empire?”
Kai and Lloyd stared blankly at the TV, while ominous main menu music blared.
“Is it supposed to do that?” Kai asked, pointing at the screen.
“The Prime Empire virus…” Lloyd muttered. “How did it infect my system? Mine’s disconnected from everything!” He paused. “Is it… getting more infectious? How? Maybe it’s evolving into a more biological form…”
“What’s the Prime Empire virus?” Kai spoke up, before Lloyd could get lost in thought.
“It’s two Darkley’s kids’ doing. End of year project. The virus started spreading a little before the Great Devourer thing happened,” Lloyd explained. “At the same time, those two Darkley’s kids went missing. I asked Jay to look into their disappearance.”
Kai didn’t know what to say at first.
“Lloyd,” Kai started, as patiently and levelly as he could, “the Great Devourer was weeks ago.”
“Yeah?”
Kai let out an unsteady breath that edged towards being a scream.
“You telling me they’ve been missing for weeks, and you only raised some kind of- any kind of alarm now?” he pressed.
“Yeah…?” Lloyd asked, even more baffled and confused and sensing he’d done something wrong but not knowing what. In any case, Kai was staring at him hard, eyes practically bulging out his skull in disbelief. Kai closed his eyes and started massaging his temples.
“FSM, Lloyd.”
“Um… yeah, Jay complained about me not noticing missing people sooner too,” Lloyd said, fairly certain he now understood what had upset Kai now. He looked back at the TV. “If the Prime Empire virus is getting worse… I’d say Jay must be doing pretty well. The virus is escalating.”
Kai looked at Lloyd pensively, then at the screen, then Lloyd once more. He straightened up, making up his mind.
“Right,” Kai said sharply, “Get your shoes on, you’re coming with me.”
“Wait, what? Why? This is Ninja business!” Lloyd protested.
“Yeah, that you started. Take some responsibility.”
“Jay can look after himself!”
“Sure, but you can’t know that,” Kai retorted. “Four days of no contact, Lloyd. That is not usually a sign that everything is okie dokie, Lloyd. Maybe for Darkley’s kids, not so much anywhere else.” He paused. “And anyway, you know more about this stuff than us. All you need to do is tag along, get everyone else up to speed and then you can go home.”
Lloyd looked at him suspiciously. “You’re not gonna make me help?”
“Not more than that.”
“No heroics?” Lloyd continued.
“None,” Kai promised. Lloyd’s eyes narrowed.
“No weird feelings?” Lloyd asked suspiciously.
“I don’t know what you mean by that, but yeah,” Kai agreed. Lloyd huffed.
“Fine,” Lloyd relented. “I’ll help.” He fetched his shoes and started putting them on. “It’s not like I can play my game until we’ve dealt with the Prime Empire virus anyway, so the quicker you get this over with...” Kai rolled his eyes.
“More excuses for doing good?” Kai questioned.
“They’re not excuses!” Lloyd protested, as they left the condo.
It all happened so quickly. Despite Jay’s best efforts, Mags and Lar did lose their last lives. Lar had lost his, because both he and Jay had let their guards down when they had come across a sushi restaurant and had failed to realize it was the level they needed to beat. Jay had been able to dodge the hostess’ attack. Lar had not been so lucky.
And just after they had beat that final level, when they had inserted the key-tanas to go to Unagami… It turned out the boss had still been alive. It would have instantly cubed Jay, but Mags had seen it coming and sacrificed herself, pushing Jay out of the way.
It had been a huge shock. For multiple reasons.
It had been a shock to lose his last teammate.
But it had been also a shock that a Darkley’s kid had saved his life (well, one that wasn’t Lloyd). Both Mags and Lar had come along way from their days in Darkley’s. Who would have ever thought a Darkley’s kid would willingly sacrifice themselves? (again, excluding Lloyd).
After Mags and Lar had been cubed, Jay had been left to confront Unagami alone.
Only to learn who Unagami really was.
He was not Milton Dyer.
He was the game.
Unfinished Adventure Game One. Un_A_Gam_1. Unagami.
And Unagami had been abandoned without knowing the reasons why.
He wasn’t some evil villain with a cruel master plan. The portal wasn’t so Unagami could take revenge on mankind or conquer Ninjago.
Unagami was basically a kid, trying to find out why his creator- why his father had abandoned him.
And wasn’t that an all too familiar tale?
Unagami had then slipped right out of reach. Luckily, Jay had still had the amulet he’d received in an earlier level - the blue dragon he could call upon. After summoning it, he flew out the portal, chasing after Unagami, only to find…
… himself in a warehouse.
Someone was screaming.
Zane was screaming.
“Zane!” Jay cried out, jumping off the blue dragon, and almost face-planting with the floor in his hurry to reach the Master of Ice.
Cole was already by Zane’s side, pulling hard at the cord forcefully plugged into Zane’s core- FSM, Jay had just repaired that, it couldn’t break again-
Jay picked up the cord, getting Cole’s attention. A flicker of relief showed in Cole’s eyes, before he just gave Jay a nod. Without speaking, the two pulled at the cord in unison, Jay’s strength adding that little extra pull needed to get it out. The screaming stopped abruptly, and Zane powered down, falling to the ground. Cole caught him.
“His core has shut down!” Cole exclaimed.
“On it,” Jay replied. He waited a moment, to be certain all systems were down, then summoned his element and restarted the core. It took a moment, then Zane woke up with a gasp.
“Zane, you’re ok!” Cole cried, relieved.
“You had us scared there, buddy,” Jay added.
“’Ok’… is straining the meaning of the word,” Zane told them, still leaning against Cole. He smiled at them. “Cole… Jay. It is good to see you. What happened? Where is everyone else?” He looked Jay up and down. “What are you wearing?”
“I got a little bit stuck inside Prime Empire,” Jay explained. He looked up at a suspiciously dragon-shaped hole in the warehouse. “And it’s not over yet.”
“As for everyone else, Nya and Pixal are on their way back to the city with Milton Dyer,” Cole continued. “Kai and Lloyd were helping me look for you, Zane. I haven’t checked in with them yet, everything happened so fast…”
“Hang on, let me see…” Jay muttered, tapping his communication’s device, reactivating it after being in off-mode for such a long time. “Kai? You there?”
“Jay? Man, am I glad to hear you! You’ve been gone for five days!” Kai’s voice quickly came through the comms.
“Only five days?” Jay asked. He’d been stuck in Prime Empire for weeks. Then again, Mags and Lar did say they’d been stranded for months, Scott for years, long enough he’d almost entirely forgotten Ninjago… Video game time was scary.
“What do you mean only?” Kai asked.
“What do you mean only?” Cole asked, just a moment after Kai.
“Oh- Don’t worry about it; guys, we can play catch-up later,” Jay insisted.
“Can we?” Kai asked questioningly. “Because I don’t know about you, but there’s some guys out here with red visors, and Lloyd’s doing a pretty good job holding them off, but-”
“Listen, I think I can end this without too much fighting,” Jay spoke over him. “Hang on, let me switch to the team channel…” With a button press, he was now in contact with the whole team. “Hey guys, miss me?”
“Jay!” spoke both Nya and Pixal. Jay heard Nya’s voice better. The delight and relief in her voice was incomparable.
“So, we’re gonna play catch-up later, but first, I have a plan to stop Unagami and you’re going to need to do what I say. Um. Zane, you’re gonna need to sit this one out.”
“I’ll stay with Zane,” Cole volunteered. “It’s better someone hangs around in case the Mechanic comes back.”
“Of course it was the Mechanic,” Pixal growled.
“Kai,” Jay continued, “you and Lloyd keep fighting the red visors. Protect the city as best as you can, but do not go after Unagami. I’ll deal with him.”
“How?” Kai asked. Jay wasn’t sure if Kai was asking how he and Lloyd were supposed to fight the red visors, or how Jay was going to stop Unagami. It didn’t matter in the end, so he didn’t address it.
“Nya, Pixal, get Milton Dyer to the top of Borg Tower. He’s Unagami’s creator, basically his dad.”
“You don’t mean…” Nya spoke softly, catching onto the plan.
“Yeah. If those two can talk…”
“It could be risky,” Pixal lightly protested. “Not everyone forgives their parents.”
“It’s the most peaceful solution,” Jay insisted. “And it’s the best for Unagami. He’s only a few years old at the most. He may not look like he’s a kid, but he is. He deserves a chance to do what’s right.”
Pixal didn’t answer for a moment. Then she said, “I’ll see you at Borg Tower.”
“See you there, no time to lose,” Jay replied, as he hopped back onto the blue dragon.
“Where did you even get that?!” Cole called to him.
“Prime Empire!” Jay replied with a big grin, saluting Cole. “Watch me save the day, Cole!” he added, as he flew off. Cole rolled his eyes.
“Show-off,” he muttered. Zane laughed.
“He must have learned it from Kai,” Zane agreed.
If Jay was honest, when Milton Dyer and Unagami had finally reunited, Jay had been half-scared it would turn out the way it had with Lloyd’s parents – that it would be a complete and utter mess of a reunion, leading to destruction.
But Milton Dyer had done something the Garmadon parents had not. Milton had apologized to Unagami and promised to make things right. To start over. Asked to be allowed to start over. It was more than even Jay’s biological father had done for him in the alternate timeline.
It was the right set of words. The right set of circumstances. If Pixal had not made Milton aware that beings of machinery could be just as alive as beings of flesh, if Jay had not shared his experiences of being abandoned with Unagami… If Milton Dyer had been anything but rueful and honest and hopeful…
This could have gone horribly wrong.
But it hadn’t.
Unagami had decided to listen to his father.
Now, in the actual appearance of a kid (his real form all along?), Unagami decided that before deconstructing the portal between the digital and real world, he would let not only the prisoners of Prime Empire go, but also any denizens that wished to live free of a pre-programmed fate.
Jay went down to the portal, in hopes of finding the friends he had made in Prime Empire. When he got to there, he was first greeted by Lloyd and Kai, who had at some point reached the portal during their fight against Unagami’s army. Kai gave him a playful punch to the shoulder.
“Hey, you had us worried,” Kai told him, beaming at him. “Don’t disappear on us like that again.”
“Hey, I didn’t plan to!” Jay complained, then under Kai’s glare hurriedly added, “But I’ll keep that in mind.” Jay smiled. It was so good to see Kai after all this time.
Lloyd stood awkwardly next to Kai, clearly not knowing what to say or how to act. Jay didn’t care. He just felt a flood of relief at seeing him alive and well, especially after- Well. After that. “Hey there, Lloyd. Thanks for helping,” Jay said.
Lloyd hurriedly looked away, evidently flustered.
“Couldn’t play my games until we dealt with Prime Empire, so it’s not like I had a choice…” Lloyd mumbled and despite the deeper voice, the choice of words sounded so strikingly childish, so strikingly like Digi-Lloyd, it made Jay flinch. Lloyd noticed the flinch and gave Jay a questioning look, but before he could say anything, Mags and Lar came stumbling out of the portal, looking dazed and confused. They spotted the trio pretty quickly.
“Jay!” both Mags and Lar cried out, running over and hugging him. Mags and Lar talked over each other, things like “You did it!” and “You saved us!”. Jay couldn’t stop himself from laughing, then patted the two teens on the back. They broke the hug.
“Glad you’re both all right,” Jay told them. They had been pains in the butt, but after weeks together, the two had grown on him. And as said before, they’d come a long way.
Lar noticed Lloyd and smiled at his ex-classmate.
“Knew you’d come looking for us, eventually,” Lar said.
“I didn’t think you’d send a freaking ninja after us though!” Mags added excitedly. Lloyd just shrugged. “I mean, you! Of all people!” she continued.
“A lot of things have changed since you left,” Lloyd quickly dismissed. “Now that you’re back, just so you know, there’s room at Brad’s condo for the both of you, if you’re up for it. Gene, Finn, Sally and Marla are already rooming with us, and there are still empty rooms.”
Mags and Lar looked at each other. Then at Lloyd.
“The thing is…” Mags started.
“… You’re not the only one that’s changed,” Lar finished. Lloyd looked at them confused.
“What do you mean?” Jay asked, stepping forward. This was the first he was hearing this too. Lar hesitated to answer.
“We’ve decided to stay in Prime Empire,” Mags announced, to everyone’s shock. “Jay’s already told us what’s happened out here, and… With Darkley’s gone, we don’t think there’s anything out here for us.”
“Besides, in Prime Empire, I’m an actual Elemental Master of Water. Well. In Prime Empire, just another Water Manipulator. But still. It’s nice. To actually be what I’m claiming to be,” Lar explained.
“And it was kind of fun, being a hero for a change. Even if we were bad at it,” Mags added. “I think Prime Empire could still use a few good people hanging around, that can actually deal with the nasty NPCs.”
“But I put in all that effort to find you,” Lloyd complained. A hand landed on his shoulder and Lloyd looked to find it was Kai’s.
“Asking Jay to find them isn’t exactly effort, Lloyd,” Kai coldly reminded him. Lloyd sulked, reluctant to admit it.
“And we appreciate it!” Mags hurriedly reassured, because asking for help was a lot of effort for a Darkley’s student. “But… After going through Prime Empire with Jay, we realized…”
“We like being in Prime Empire. It’s… It’s become a home to us. Our home. We’ve been there for months, so…”
“What do you mean months?” both Kai and Lloyd asked, but Jay talked over them.
“I’m sure Prime Empire will be better in future, especially if you’re around to help,” Jay told them. “But are you sure about this? There’s a whole world out there. One the other Darkley’s kids are only just discovering.” Mags and Lar looked at each other. They smiled.
“We think Ninjago has enough Darkley’s kids to deal with,” Mags answered.
“We can spare them the trouble of two more,” Lar agreed. “And I think dedicating our lives to Prime Empire… And maybe even helping out another troubled kid,” He looked over to Unagami, who was still talking with his father. “… It might be a good way of making up for all the trouble me and Mags caused during our time at Darkley’s.”
Jay smiled approvingly.
“Someone to care for him in Prime Empire, someone to care for him in Ninjago. I like it,” Jay admitted. The First Master knew the kid needed all the help he could get. Jay looked over to Lloyd, who just looked perplexed.
“You can choose a new home? Just like that?” Lloyd asked the two of them, incredulously.
“Well not just like that. It has been months for us,” Lar corrected.
“But yeah, pretty much,” Mags answered with a shrug. She smiled softly. Lloyd hadn’t known she could even smile like that. “And we hope you will find a new home too. A real one, this time. Not like Darkley’s.” Lloyd looked away from her, feeling uncomfortable.
“He will,” Kai spoke up, slinging an arm around Lloyd’s shoulders. Lloyd looked at him, surprised, to which Kai offered a wink. “If he hasn’t already.” Lloyd could only roll his eyes in response, although the fact that Lloyd didn’t immediately knock off Kai’s arm was very telling.
Jay smiled, feeling a sense of relief. Ok, so Lloyd had left the Monastery, but that wasn’t outright rejection. As Kai had said. This would take time. They couldn’t expect this kid who’d never relied on anyone before to suddenly start relying on them. To suddenly be comfortable around them. But if Mags and Lar could find a new home in Prime Empire…
… Lloyd would get there one day too.
“Anyone hungry? I could do with some junk food right now,” Jay announced. “All that action’s made me hungry.” Kai looked him over, then a twitchy smile appeared on his face and Jay started getting a sinking feeling.
“Sure!” Kai said, a little too enthusiastic. Suddenly, the red ninja’s arm was slung around Jay instead. Any tighter, and he could hold Jay in a headlock. His anger was palpable. “Maybe while we’re eating, you can explain to us what exactly you meant by weeks, Jay,” Kai said.
“Haha, great… You know, it’s really not that big a deal…” Jay mumbled, defeated. Right. With Lloyd sending Kai’s protective instincts into overdrive, there wasn’t a chance in the Cursed Realm Jay was going to be able to worm his way out of trauma-sharing.
Then again. He’d missed having his team around to gang up on him like this. To force him to open up and talk. It was nice, no longer having to lead and be the responsible one and be an upbeat jokester without a care in the world.
It was great to be home again.
Nadakhan stirred within the teapot of Tyrahn. Someone was holding it. Using the little senses he had, he tried to see who it was. An unknown being. A chance of escape. Excellent. After years of being trapped back in this damned teapot, and stuck in some vault where the Ninja had apparently chosen to forget about him…
It was about time a thief came along.
He had not forgotten about Jay and Nya. He needed to avenge himself, avenge Djinjago and New Djinjago.
Whoever had been foolish enough to break into wherever the Ninja were keeping him locked away, whoever was here for the teapot… They were going to be a useful pawn.
He sent pulses through the teapot. Feelings of promises to fulfill all desires. To make the holder feel like the being in the teapot was a friend. Make the thief eager to let the djinn out.
But the unknown being did not respond to his friendly signals. Instead, he was ignored, thrown into a backpack and then jostled around as the thief presumably escaped the facility. Angered, he decided to wait. Surely, he would not simply be stowed away and forgotten about again. Perhaps he was being taken to a black-market sale. A bidding object for villains of all kinds.
That could work.
The backpack was jostled around, then handed over to someone. There was more jostling, then the backpack was emptied and the teapot hit the ground. It was lying on grass. From what he could sense, it was night-time. For a moment, he thought he could sense glowing eyes in the dark, but that couldn’t be. Humans did not have glowing eyes.
Then someone picked up the teapot. He could feel the presence and this person was not unknown to him. It was Lloyd Garmadon. Older, taller, stronger, but still the little brat that had permanently destroyed the Djinn Blade.
He could feel Lloyd’s malice through the teapot.
How dare this child be so full of anger towards him? Nadakhan rivalled his rage against Lloyd’s wrath, making the child feel what he felt. But Lloyd wasn’t overwhelmed. He didn’t withdraw his feelings. If anything, it just seemed to make him angrier.
“I know you can hear me,” Lloyd’s voice echoed from outside into the teapot. “I know who you are, last Djinn.”
Nadakhan responded by sending his killing intent through Lloyd’s fingers, making the boy feel his vengeance and desire for his blood. This did shake Lloyd a little. He was holding the teapot a little tighter.
“Nya and Jay told me what you did. I got the whole story. I even remember bits and pieces now,” Lloyd continued, words getting more bitter by the minute. “I was shocked to learn you were being stored away in some facility somewhere, as if you were some kind of common trinket to quickly forget.”
Nadakhan suddenly started having a sinking feeling. The child had once been a relatively harmless threat. But he had grown so much since and he didn’t seem quite so harmless anymore, especially with Nadakhan currently helplessly stuck inside the teapot.
“What you did still keeps us awake at night, you know,” Lloyd’s voice continued. “Jay more so than me or Nya. Almost like he knows it’s not over. Like he knows you could come back… It haunts him. And I was thinking, this is a problem. So, how do we best deal with that problem?”
Lloyd was reaching for something behind him.
“At Darkley’s, we learnt how to monologue, hold villain speeches, you know. All those stupid things that give heroes a chance to save the day… But the Ninja don’t want me to be a bad guy. So, I think I need to do things the way a hero would, right? No monologues, no explanations. Just direct action.”
A vial was being pressed against the spout of the teapot.
“This is just a very, very small mud monster. No threat to anyone,” Lloyd’s voice spoke softly. “Assuming you’re not in some kind of pocket realm that is both compact and infinite at the same time. Where something liquid-like can suddenly be infinite.”
Nadakhan could see the mud monster slipping into the teapot and expanding. Where once was infinite cramped space was very quickly becoming only cramped space.
“Mud monsters are from the Realm of Madness,” Lloyd informed him. “Predators. And here’s something fun. Do you know how they consume their prey?”
Fear was rising now, as the mud started reaching him inside the teapot, no matter where he moved.
“They smother them.”
Nadakhan started panicking. Screaming in his mind, begging for it to stop, complaining it wasn’t fair, that this was not how his story could end, because he had spent years waiting-
And the thoughts collapsed into raw emotions, despair, resentment, anger, fear, all brought forth by something that would ordinarily never be a threat to him.
“Goodbye, Nadakhan.”
Lloyd waited until he no longer sensed anything from the teapot. Nadakhan was dead. For good. He thought he’d feel something, perhaps regret or relief. But he felt nothing. But this was good. He had protected Ninjago from at least one threat. Why the Ninja would let a being as dangerous as Nadakhan live was beyond his understanding.
Now the teapot was carrying a mud monster, instead of a djinn. Good. A mud monster was considerably easier to deal with than a djinn. Granted, once unleashed, it could be infinitely large, but it would still be manageable with perhaps Zane and Cole’s help.
Nadakhan’s death could be his little secret for now (well, his and his accomplice’s). No one needed to know Nadakhan was dead. The Ninja didn’t need to know.
… For some reason, he didn’t want the Ninja to know what he had done. He wasn’t quite sure why. Perhaps some sense of self-preservation?
Lloyd started heading back home for the night. With his little good deed done for the day, he was starting to feel pretty good about himself. Maybe becoming a good guy was something he could do. Maybe.
He ignored the part that knew the Ninja would never do what he had just done.