Ayo. Quick disclaimer, some sexual themes are discussed throughout the chapter.

You have been warned. Proceed with caution.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Lloyd and I stayed home from school the following day. Everything was just so complicated. I don't want to go back to school and I know for certain Lloyd doesn't either. I just wish I were invisible again. In my first couple years of attending Ninjago High, no one ever bothered me. I stayed out of everyone's way and they stayed out of mine. Since I met Lloyd, my entire life and world view have flipped upside down. Not that I'd have it any other way.

I love Lloyd and everything he's done for my life. I just wish we could be left in peace. I don't want him to feel bad about loving me because of the attention it gets us.

An ideal life right now would be living on an isolated island with nothing but Lloyd by my side where literally no one could bother us. But I know that fantasy would never become reality so I just have to suck it up and try to be there for him whenever he needs me.

When the both of us woke up, not a word was said. We just looked at each other and our faces said enough. Lloyd looked at me with pained eyes. Even though nothing was said, the expression on his face asked "what are we supposed to do?"

I sigh and lay my hand on top of his. He turns his hand to be palm up so we could lock our fingers together. His hand felt warm and shaky. I didn't mind, though. I just want to make him feel better.

"We'll get through this," I whisper.

"I hope so," was all Lloyd managed to say.

As the day progressed, I could feel the tension grow with every passing hour. With each minute passed, we grew a minute closer to going back to school the following morning. We had to do something to get our minds off of things.

Koko wasn't doing much better either. She was so anxious for the two of us. She was genuinely worried we would get hurt if we went back to school. But it's not like we could just stay home forever. The idea of home schooling crossed my mind but my mother would have to be the one to enroll me and I'm not ready to see her in my life again.

In fact, the more I think about her, the more I realize she's probably seen everything about Lloyd and I. Lloyd was never able to have any privacy. Being the son of Garmadon made it so that every little thing he did was publicized for the rest of the city to see. And I know our relationship was no different. There's no way for my mom to not know by now. Everyone knows.

My mind runs absolutely crazy. My thoughts just won't slow down, and I think Lloyd was able to notice my body well with anxiety as I fidget with my hands and shake my legs.

"Do you wanna get some fresh air? Maybe go for a little walk to clear our minds?" He offered.

I nodded as I reluctantly agreed. I was worried about people seeing us in the streets and saying or doing things to hurt us. But hopefully we could handle ourselves. Most people we know are in school right now, anyway.

We told Koko we were heading out and we made our way out of the apartment building. The air was crisp and relaxing as the wind blew gently against my skin. I rolled my sleeves up so I could feel it better. The wind just had such a calming rythm.

Lloyd noticed me close my eyes and smile as I take in the atmosphere. He just giggled at my sudden happiness. I can only assume he's just as delighted by my happiness as I am by his. Nothing is better to me than seeing him smile.

After I was finished soaking in all of that refreshing morning air, Lloyd and I began to walk hand in hand. There was no true direction to where we were going. We were just trying to distract ourselves from all that's been going on. And I can't help but be reminded of our first date together under the tree on the far end of the city. Even though it wasn't that long ago it's still one of my most fond memories.

"Hey, I brought my wallet with me. Maybe we could stop and get something to eat somewhere? You know we've never been out to eat together by ourselves since we've together," Lloyd mentions.

It sounds tempting but I don't like the idea of Lloyd spending so much money on me. Even if it's just some cheap fast food. He's already done more than enough for me.

"I'm not sure if I'm really hungry," I say as I keep my eyes on the sidewalk infront of me. It was a semi-lie. I was a little hungry, but my main reason for denying the offer was because he already does so much for me.

"Aw, are you sure? I feel like we need a real, official dinner date," he persists. Now I realize this is less about food and more about Lloyd's romantic desire. I know Lloyd is the type to think about romance a lot more than I do. Not that I dislike it, I'm just more of a 'stay at home and cuddle' kind of guy. But if that's what he really wants.

"Alright, Greenie, you've convinced me," I chuckle, "so where did you wanna go?"

"Well," Lloyd begins, "There's a new noodle place that just opened up that I've been wanting to try. Maybe we can stop in if they're not too busy."

I smile and nod. Whatever Lloyd wants is always good with me.

"I'd love to do that."

Lloyd was so excited to go out like this. Our first dinner date. Well, this was more like brunch. But you get the idea. Lloyd was so eager to get there that he almost started running.

"Woah, slow down there, tiger," I laugh.

"Heh... sorry," Lloyd nervously apologized.

Of course I had no problem with his excitement. I just wanted to enjoy the walk. It's not often we walk anywhere in the city other than just to the bus stop. It was pretty refreshing.

"It's nice out today, isn't it?" I try to distract him with small conversation.

"The weather is almost perfect. Just like you," Lloyd beams.

"Almost?" I playfully nudge him.

"Y- you get what I mean!" Lloyd defends himself with a flustered expression. I don't know why he gets so embarrassed that easily but I think it's cute. I just laugh at him a little.

Lloyd and I continue to walk until we reach the place Lloyd was talking about. I look up at the big flashy sign atop the building.

'Chen's Noodle House.'

An unfortunate name considering Chen is also the name of the guy who wants us dead, but whatever. I notice the place is pretty busy, as I can see crowds of people through the window.

"Wow. There's a lot more people in there than I expected," Lloyd fakes a nervous laugh.

"It's fine. I bet it's worth the wait," I say. I know a date like this is important to Lloyd and if it makes him happy, I wouldn't mind waiting.

"I'm not really concerned about the wait," he says, "more about all of those people seeing us together. I don't know if I'm really prepared for how everyone would react."

Lloyd anxiously rubs his shoulder as he shakes his leg. I could tell he was definitely going to be bothered by all those people. But I don't want something this special to him ruined just because of a few people.

"Ah, who cares what they think? I'm down to eat here if you are. I think it'd be nice," I try to calm him.

"Okay..." Lloyd's look of worry slowly turns into one of determination. I know he's pretty excited.

We head through the big heavy doors of the restaurant. There's already a ton of people waiting to be seated. And it looks as though there's only one girl doing all the work. Her hair is bright red and she has it up in a messy ponytail. She frantically paces around as she tries to handle everything herself.

As she juggles all of her responsibilities at once, I see a man come through a door that presumably leads to a kitchen or an office. His hair is bright red, just like hers, only his is short and slicked back.

"Skylor!" His voice booms.

I watch her cringe as she stops in her tracks. "Yes, daddy?"

"You need to pick up the pace! Look around! What kind of business do you think we're trying to run here?" He yells as he gets in her face.

"But- but I-" she tries to speak but gets interrupted.

"No buts! Hurry back to work!" He only proceeds to yell.

Man, this guy is a dick. I feel like I need to stand up for this girl. She's doing as much as she can already.

"Hey, man. Lay off. She's trying her best," I say from the other side of the counter.

"What are you doing?" Lloyd nudges me as he tries to keep his voice down.

"And who exactly are you?" The man asks as he steps closer.

"Well, I was about to be a customer, but if this is how you treat your employees, I'm not sure if we should spend any money here at all," I sternly reply as I cross my arms.

Clearly, this guy wasn't one for confrontation. He just scoffed, rolled his eyes, apologized to his daughter, and went back through the door he came from. The girl who he referred to as Skylor sat in shock. She watched her father disappear behind the door and turned to look at me.

"Wow- I don't know what to say. No one's ever talked to my dad like that," she admits.

"Heh, sorry if that was embarrassing for you. I just felt like I had to say something," I tell her as I step a little closer with Lloyd right by my side.

"Well, I appreciate it..." she smiles right before freezing again. "Hey... I recognize you two... you're Lloyd Garmadon. And his boyfriend... uhh..." she tries to think of my name.

"(Y/N)," I anxiously finish for her. I feel Lloyd's grip on my hand tighten. Neither of us wanted to be recognized by anyone today but I guess I just fucked that all up.

"Right! Sorry, I know we've never met. I just see a lot online about you two," she mentions but then she notices the anxious expressions Lloyd and I share.

"Oh! Don't worry, I won't judge you or anything. In fact, you got my dad off my ass and that's about the nicest thing anyone's done for me in a long time. The name's Skylor, by the way," she smiles wide.

This is probably one of the only times someone has recognized us and not instantly acted like they hated us. Lloyd just smiles at the kindness she's shown us.

"Oh! I need to get back to work. I'll seat you two in a minute, sorry about that!" She says as she walks off without giving us time to even say anything. Lloyd just stands there in shock.

"See? Not everyone is all bad," I laugh.

"I can't believe that. Someone who doesn't hate me..." Lloyd says with a blank stare.

"She may even be a new friend, huh?" I smile. "Maybe we can see if she wants to hang out sometime?"

"That sounds fun," Lloyd nods.

He seems so happy by some of the smallest gestures of kindness. I don't think Skylor will ever know how much her simple words mean to Lloyd.

I stare into his eyes for a moment. He's so adorable when he's happy. It's like his eyes just light up. There's nothing better to me than seeing him smile.

But this happiness is cut somewhat short. The sound of sirens blast through the city. The same sirens we hear every time there's an attack.

"Oh, you've gotta be joking," I sigh.

"Well, let's go," Lloyd whispers as he grabs my hand and leads me out of the building while everyone inside frantically runs around and hides under tables.

Lloyd looks around to see where all the chaos is coming from. "Looks like the attack is on the school!" Lloyd points out.

"You didn't happen to bring our suits, did you?" I ask, knowing the answer would be 'no'.

"We're closer to the base. We can head there, grab our gi, then take the mechs back over to the school!" Lloyd announces his plan and begins to run toward the base.

"The mechs?!" I exclaim, "I don't know how to pilot that thing yet!" I yell, running side by side with Lloyd, "hell, I don't even know if I can handle fighting again yet!"

"If you don't feel like you're ready you can always stay behind. You know I'd never want to see you get hurt again," Lloyd says in reference to my last time in combat.

Lots of things are running through my mind. I mean, I don't want to get hurt either, but it would also kill me to know Lloyd was in combat without me there by his side to make sure he's okay.

"No, I'll come with you," I make up my mind on the spot. Lloyd's safety is far more important to me than my own. I know he knows how to handle himself but what if we have another situation like the first day we met. What if he crawls into another janitors closet and dies in there. I couldn't live with myself if that happened.

Lloyd just nods at my decision to come along. It doesn't take long for us to reach our base. Lloyd instantly hops in the front seat of his mech after hastily putting on his gi and starts it up. I do the same but I'm hesitant to turn the thing on.

"Remember! I told you it'd be easy!" Lloyd calls out to me.

Apparently the mechs also have control over some of the mechanical parts of the warehouse. Because I watched Lloyd flip a switch and the roof of the place slowly started to open.

I direct my attention back to the controls of my mech. They look pretty simple. Not a lot of things that I'd need to keep track of, but it's still overwhelming. I hold my breath as I start up my mech. I feel it rumble as it starts. I plant my hands firmly on the front controls as I take a deep breath.

I then jump at the sound of a speaker, which I didn't even know was there until I hear Lloyd's voice come through. "By the way, we can communicate through these things, too," he mentions with confidence. It makes me feel better knowing I could call to Lloyd for help if I needed it.

Lloyd's dragon mech slowly lifts off of the ground and flies up into the air. There was something so captivating about the way it glides through the air.

"You coming?" Lloyd's voice comes through the speaker once more.

"Uhhh, yeah," I nervously reply.

"Okay, you got this," I whisper to myself. I pull up on the controls and feel the mech gently lift into the air as I had just watched Lloyd's do. It slowly rises into the air until I'm the same level with Lloyd. It's like he waited for me until he took off towards the school and I followed. Just pushing forward on the controls...

Easy... just like Lloyd said. Even though no mistakes had been made yet, my heart races in anticipation for one.

It's just a straight line. I'm flying in a straight line. Nothing to worry about here.

"You hanging in alright?" Lloyd asks.

"I'm hanging in as best as I can, I guess," I reply.

"Alright well we need to land over here. There's plenty of space. Nothing to worry about," Lloyd tries to reassure me, but I only feel my anxiety grow.

"I don't know how to land this thing!" I shout.

"It's simple, just watch what I do," Lloyd tries to calm me as he swiftly lands his mech in a large plot of land near the school. He grabs his sword and jumps out to watch me land behind him.

I take a deep breath before trying to ease my mech onto the ground. I hear the engine slow as I approach the soil. And my mech softly plants into a still position.

Did I do it? Am I on the ground?

"Nice job!" Lloyd yells up to me from the ground. "Now hurry! We gotta help the others!" He shouts as he runs off. I grab my nunchucks and do the same.

We run into the school and already we see the others amidst battle.

"What took you so long?" Cole calls out.

"We were all the way across the city, give us a break," I defend the both of us as we hop into the fight.

"So you didn't come to school today but you had plenty of time to go on a little date?" Kai jumps in.

"It's more complicated than that, Fire," I reply. Even though we all know each other's names, we still use code names while in battle so no one over hears us.

"Even Ice didn't come to school today and he got here WAY quicker than you did!" Jay mentioned.

"That's because he lives just right around the block," I huff.

After what felt like forever we had completely cleared all of Garmadon's men out of the building. There were a lot more than usual and we were all out of breath by the time it was over. All of us but Zane, at least. He acted like he could endure just about anything.

"Is everyone alright?" I ask as I look around to make sure everyone was here and okay.

Everyone nods. It's like they were all too out of breath to give a simple "yeah."

"Alright, well then we better-"

"GHAAAAHH!"

I hear Zane yell out in pain as a general comes around the corner, throws a sword at his face, and then runs away.

Zane collapsed to the floor with his face down.

"Ice!" We all call out in unison. My heart sank as we rush over to him. Jay was the first to reach him as he drops to his knees and holds Zane in his arms.

"Nonononono- not like this, buddy!" He cries.

Jay flips Zane over onto his back and what we see leaves all of us in complete shock.

Zane's mask was torn open, and instead of an opened, bloody wound, the only thing coming from Zane's face was metal and wires.

"What... what the..." Jay's face goes pale as he backs away.

Zane's mind finally catches up as he sits up and looks around. It's like he didn't even know what was going on.

"What's happening... why are you all looking at me like that?" Zane looks around at the six of us with a dazed look on what remained of his torn face. It's like half of his face was still normal and fleshy while the other was exposed, cold, hard steel.

"Your face... why... why is it metal!?" Jay yells.

"Metal? My face isn't..." Zane stops speaking as he brings his hand up to his face. He can clearly feel the difference in texture against his fingers. What he was feeling definitely wasn't skin.

He feels around for a moment longer before taking a fist full of wires and pulling them straight out of his face. He looks at them intently before balling his hand into a fist.

"This can't be... this isn't real..." he whispers to himself.

"I'm a human!" He screams out. He didn't even believe what he was seeing right infront of him.

Jay shakes as he stands up. "Are you even the real Zane?" He whispers low enough that we can only barely hear.

"You know me... I'm your best friend!" Zane shouts.

I finally feel myself become grounded in reality again. "Okay, um, why don't we take this somewhere else before someone sees us like this," I suggest as my voice shakes.

Everyone silently agrees as they follow me off to that janitors closet that was far too familiar to Lloyd and I. It was large enough to fit all of us but barely. I close the door behind us and flip the light on.

Jay immediately rips off his own mask as tears run down his face. "What the hell is going on!?" He screams.

"Jay, it's me! I had no idea about any of this but I can assure you, I'm the only Zane!" He frantically tries to explain.

"Are you sure there's no REAL Zane? And you're not some sick copy!? I would have known by now if my best friend was some- some... robot!" Jay steps closer and closer to Zane as their faces are only inches apart. I can tell Jay is just so confused that the only way he knows to express it is through yelling.

"I don't know... I just want to go home," Zane cries as a tear runs down his cheek.

He can cry?

Jay looks as though he regrets everything he said. Seeing Zane cry almost instantly assured Jay this was in fact the real Zane he's known and loved for nearly his whole life.

"It's okay, we'll get you home. Maybe we can get some answers then?" Cole suggests as he puts his hand on Zane's shoulder.