We follow Misako into the same room I was in earlier today. Once again, the students were standing quietly in a row. But as we enter through the doors, all eyes turn to us.

"It's the golden ninja!"

"Oh my god where?" Kai mumbles. I snicker.

"Silence!" Garmadon says. Everyone goes quiet. Kai turns to me with wide eyes, and I bite my lip to keep from laughing.

"You can all sit now," Garmadon says, calmer now.

The students and I sit first. The guys look at me with confusion. Rolling my eyes, I pull Jay down next to me as the rest quickly follow.

"Tonight we will continue our lesson on defense. Thank you, El, for introducing us and showing your tactics," he says.

"My pleasure," I respond.

"What tactics? We taught you!" Kai whispers harshly. I scoff. "Hardly. I learned from Mistaké."

"Maybe you should get a lesson," Lloyd says to Kai. Cole and Jay snicker as Kai glares at Lloyd.

"Son, if you could please join me. I think two people would better demonstrate the Art of the Silent Fist," Garmadon says. Lloyd stands up and meets his father in the middle.

"Attack me. Give me all you've got. But please, no powers," his father says, laughing good-heartedly.

Nya grins. "The Ultimate Battle. Part two," she says, just for us to hear.

Lloyd lunges towards his father, but Garmadon leans to the side. A flash of confusion crosses Lloyd's face, but he turns to keep fighting.

Garmadon turns to his students. "The key is balance."

Lloyd jumps and kicks Garmadon, but Garmadon leans backward, and he runs into a wall. He pushes off it to attack his father again, but to no avail.

"The point of the Silent Fist is to tire your opponents, without doing much of anything yourself," Garmadon adds. Lloyd shouts and lunges for him once again, but Garmadon dodges him. Again.

"How's that for the Golden Ninja?" Garmadon taunts playfully. The kids laugh in response.

Lloyd grunts and begins to form a green sphere in his palms. I didn't realize how angry he was before that.

"Woah, son. We were just joking around," Garmadon says, attempting to calm Lloyd.

Lloyd exhales deeply and the sphere disappears. "Sorry. I don't know what got into me."

His father places a hand on Lloyd's shoulder. "You're fine. You only let the anger take over. I know that feeling," Garmadon says, zoning out for a second. "Let's divide into groups!"

I partner with Nya and we begin to play fight. She grabs my shoulder, her head next to my ear.

"We need to talk ASAP. I have girl problems and I need to discuss them with a girl."

"Ooh. Can't wait," I respond.

A loud scream is heard. The guys, Nya, and I look at each other with worry and confusion.

"The techno blades!" Kai exclaims.

We hurry outside, Garmadon following behind us. We burst through the doors outside, only to find a silver female nindroid tied up by Zane's doing.

"How'd she find us?" Cole asks.

"How about we take her apart and find out?" Kai says, glaring at the female droid.

"No!" Zane says, stopping Kai. "Pixal was just doing what she was programmed to do."

Zane takes his techno blade in his hand and it powers on, a light blue light illuminating the night. He places the tip on Pixal's temple.

"No!" Garmadon shouts.

"Hey! It's alright, it only hacks into things," Jay says, holding Garmadon back.

A wave of ice washes over Pixal. She gasps. "Where am I? Why am I tied up?"

Zane hurries to untie her. "You were under control of the Overlord," he says. "How did you find us?"

"They've mined Sensei Wu's memory, the Overlord knows all of your hiding places," Pixal responds.

I gasp. Mined his memory? Could the Overlord somehow project his memories on a screen or something? That sounds bad, there are some things I do not want people seeing. Or me seeing again. I could tell all my friends had the same feeling too.

Right then and there I swore to myself that would never happen to any of them.

"El! You were right," Cole says, taking me from my thoughts.

"Wha-what?"

"You know, you said the Overlord wanted Lloyd and we didn't know why. Now we do," Cole explains.

"Oh. Yeah," I say, pretending to know what they're talking about.

"Why does the Overlord need Lloyd?" I whisper to Jay.

"Pay attention," he says.

I scowl. "You're one to talk."

He rolls his eyes. "The Overlord needs Lloyd's golden power so he can escape the digital realm."

"Ah, of course. The digital realm," I mutter.

"Why are the techno blades so important?" Kai asks.

"Together, they can reboot the system, essentially destroying the Overlord Virus for good," Pixal responds.

"Finally," I say. "That bitch won't stay dead," I mutter to myself. Nya smiles. "You've got that right," she whispers.

Pixal gasps. "I didn't come alone."

"Uh, who's with you?" Jay asks.

"Nindroids."

"Nindroids?"

Seriously?

"Where are they?" Nya asks.

The nine of us gather in a tight circle, searching for the so-called nindroids.

Without warning, at least twenty nindroids appear around us in a circle.

"Five versus eighteen," Pixal says. "Probability of surviving too low to quantify."

"That doesn't sound good," I mutter.

The nindroids advance towards us. I kick off and run, taking my techno blade from my back. It powers to life, a grey light brightening the nindroids faces.

I fight two at once, constantly twisting and turning to make sure one doesn't stab me in the back. Aiming towards the back was my secret. Thanks to that little brat, my secret is out.

"Ninjago!" I shout, knocking the two droids down with my Spinjitzu.

When I thought we had thinned them down, more appeared above us.

"It's like they appear out of thin air!" I shout.

"Actually, it's a sort of cloaking technology," Pixal says, correcting my generalization.

"Whatever," I mutter.

"We need to move!" Nya yells, ushering us back inside the monastery. We move through the halls and out the back. I screech to a stop, almost falling off the ledge into the rushing river.

"Hurry, everyone!" Cole says. "Get into the water wheel!"

"Are you crazy?" Jay hisses.

"Trust me! Jay, Kai, send the vehicles we got from the City down the road by the nindroids."

"We just got those!" Kai exclaims.

"Kai! Do you want to survive?" Cole scolds him.

"I don't think the matters are that drastic," he mutters but does what Cole says.

"Everyone, get into the wheel," Cole mandates.

"We can't drive them if we're in the wheel!" Jay says, palming his forehead. Cole smiles sheepishly.

"Put a brick on the gas pedal," I suggest.

"Good idea," Cole says, smiling thankfully at me. We knock out two loose bricks from the Monastery, glancing awkwardly at Garmadon. I'm sure destroying a monastery is some sort of damning sin.

"Hurry!" Nya whispers.

Everyone except Jay and Kai crawls into the water wheel. On the count of three, Kai and Jay drop their bricks and jump into the wheel, sending us rolling down the hill.

The nindroids follow their vehicles and we roll away safely.

Well, as safe as we could be.

I groan as we continue to roll faster and faster down the hill, clenching my stomach. Finally, we run into a tree, knocking the wheel to the ground.

The eight of us stumble out of the wheel, some pressing their hands to their head while others held their stomachs. Jay did both.

"It won't be long till they realize we weren't in those vehicles," Zane says.

"We need to get a move on," Cole adds.

"I'm coming with you," Garmadon says. Lloyd nods.

"If he wants me, and the techno blades are the only thing that can stop him, shouldn't we split up?" Lloyd points out.

"Good thinking. Zane's falcon knows where my Samurai X cave is. You and your father go and take whatever you need as far away from us as possible," Nya says.

"A secret cave? How come I never knew about this?" Jay says.

"A girl's gotta have her secrets."

"But the Nindroids won't let you guys step one foot into the city," Lloyd says.

"We're not going to the city. We're going to shut down the power," Nya says, a proud smile on her face.

"Shut down the power, shut down the droids and everything else the Overlord needs! Smart thinking, Nya!" Cole says, smiling.

Nya smiles. And blushes. "Thanks, Cole."

"We'll go on ahead, catch you guys later," Kai says, waking away with the guys and Nya. Garmadon leaves in the opposite direction.

"Son, you coming?"

"One second," Lloyd says, walking towards me.

Lloyd places his hands on my lower back and gives me a brisk and gentle kiss.

"Stay safe. I love you," He says softly.

"I love you too. Don't do anything stupid," I say. Lloyd grins.

"I'll try." He kisses me one last time.

"You always say I love you right before you leave," I point out, frowning.

"Maybe. But I always come back, don't I?"

I shove his shoulder gently. "You better. Now go, before your father wonders what we're doing."

Lloyd grins, one last time before he leaves. "I can name plenty of other things we could've been doing."

"I swear to god, Lloyd Garmadon, go!" I say, laughing.

He laughs with me, and we go our opposite directions.

-

Twenty minutes later, I find myself onboard a circus train.

That's right, a circus train.

Taking this moment, I pull Nya to a different cart away from the boys.

"So," I say, crossing my arms.

"What?" Nya responds, pretending to be ignorant.

"Jay or Cole?"

She groans. "Am I that obvious? I don't know what to do!"

"First off, how did the whole Cole thing start?"

"I mean, I always kind of liked him I guess. He's super kind and caring. Jay is too, but he jokes. A lot. And not that I don't like jokes, but sometimes being serious is good too. It's hard to have a serious conversation with him, you know?"

I nod. "I understand. The negatives for Cole are..?"

She smiles sheepishly. "I only really started considering him because Borg has a machine that told me he was meant for me."

My eyes widen. "You're letting a machine decide your love life? What the hell!"

Nya sighs. "I know, I know. But it's the Cyrus Borg's machine! He's obviously a genius, just look at Ninjago City! And don't get me wrong, Jay is great too, but I keep thinking about Cole."

I examine her face. She seemed to be deeply perplexed, confused about who's right for her.

"How close are you and Jay? I thought you guys were a thing?" I ask. Now that I think of it, I haven't seen them do much lately.

"We sorta drifted apart. I don't really talk to him much anymore. I want to start something new if that makes sense."

"Then what's stopping you from being with Cole?"

"Well for starters, the Overlord is back and Ninjago is in danger." I roll my eyes. "But...maybe I'm scared to lose Jay at the same time."

She opens her mouth to say something more but is interrupted when Kai bursts in.

"There's Nindroids! We gotta hide."

We rush out the door and follow Kai to a box.

"We're all supposed to fit in this?" Nya questions, her dark eyebrows raised.

I exhale loudly. "I'm not even surprised anymore."

I could hear the Nindroids shuffling in the car. Finally, they leave and it's safe for us to exit.

"How's Lloyd and you?" Kai asks me.

I smile. "Good. I didn't think we could do it at first, but we can."

"Obviously," Jay says. "I heard you guys moved in together," he says, wiggling his eyebrows. I roll my eyes.

Kai hits Jay's shoulder. "No shit, we helped them move in." Jay scowls and runs his shoulder.

"But really," Kai says suggestively. I groan. Boys.

"Where's Nya and Cole?" Jay asks. Uh oh.

He walks out of the car and I follow him, Kai close behind me.

"Don't tell Jay."

"Tell me what?"

I walk in behind Jay, right when Nya and Cole let go of each other's hands. I palm my forehead.

"Uh, did we walk into something?" Kai asks.

"No, not all!" Nya says frantically.

"We were just...talking," Cole adds, glancing at Nya.

"We're almost there," Pixal says, entering the room with Zane following behind.

"We better get off now," Zane says.

Pixal stays behind and the rest of us silently make our way towards the large building. I try not to flinch as loud blasts of lightning and thunder erupt in the sky.

We climb onto the flooring, looking around hastily for any signs of nindroids. We run towards the core and bolt the door behind us.

"That's the core!" Nya whispers, pointing towards a bright blue beam going down the center of the room. "Shut that down, and it's lights out for the Overlord."

"Hurry! Find the switch!" Kai says.

The six of us burst into different directions, each of us recklessly pushing different buttons.

"None of the buttons seem to be working," Zane says.

"What if we just," Kai takes out his techno blade and glares at the core. "hack into the system?" He hits the core but to no avail.

"You're obviously not strong enough," I say, smirking.

"Oh yeah? Let's see you do it then."

I take out my techno blade and hit the glass as hard as I can. The glass doesn't even scratch.

"Dammit!"

"Language," Zane shouts. I glare at the glass.

"If this is about strength, I've already beaten all of you motherfuckers," Cole says, a wide grin spread across his face.

"Language," Zane says again.

Cole jumps, spins, and hits the glass. The force knocks him down, and the glass is yet to be scratched.

"Do you see anything, Kai?" I ask with a clear tone of mockery in my voice. I pretend to examine the glass.

"I do not, El. Surely, the Ninja of Earth would've at least put a dent in the glass, right?"

"You guys couldn't even do it!" Cole exclaims, looking frustrated.

"Yes, but we are not the mighty Cole."

Kai and I laugh, high fiving each other as Cole walks away, groaning in frustration. Nya sighs. "Could you guys be quiet? We need to stay hidden!"

"Sorry, sis," Kai says.

Suddenly, alarms begin to blare and red lights flash.

"Now look what you've done!" Jay says, glaring at Cole.

"It was El and Kai!"

"Focus!" Nya shouts. "Seal the doors!"

Zane looks at the camera screen, giving us live footage of what was happening. A flash of silver crosses the screen. He gasps. "Pixal! Don't seal the door, I'm going out there."

"Zane! Are you crazy?" Jay exclaims.

"Maybe," he says. Cole hesitantly opens the door for him and Zane swiftly exits the room. As he exits, a small nindroids slides in.

"Great. Now they come in fun-sized!" Jay remarks sarcastically.

The four of us back towards the core, the tiny nindroid advancing towards me. Nya continues to click buttons on the opposite side of the core.

"Someone hit him with your techno blade!" I shout.

"I'm trying!" Cole shouts back. The nindroid shoots a red laser at him and Cole jumps to the side. The laser hits the glass, cracking it.

"Oh come on!" I shout bitterly.

"That's it!" Kai says.

"What's it?" Jay asks.

"Follow my lead." Kai flips the nindroid off and it shouts at him. Kai leans to the left and the laser hits the glass again.

"We have to continue provoking him!" Kai says.

"Or more nindroids. Nya, open the door!" Cole shouts. Nya nods and does as she's told. Twenty nindroids rush into the room and I brace myself.

Lasers fly everywhere as I continue to jump and dodge the shots. Slowly but surely, the glass begins to break. Finally, the glass shatters and falls the floors below.

I push a nindroid inside of the core. It begins to spin around, faster and faster. With a loud boom, the core explodes. The nindroids surrounding us collapse to the ground.

"Yes!" Kai says, grinning.

We run outside and my heart breaks at the sight. Zane was holding Pixal in his arms as she begins to drift away. I watch as her arm falls to her side and I jog to Zane, the others behind him.

Zane picks up Pixal's limp figure and silently walks away. We give him space as we walk away from the tower, the lightning still cracking in the distance.

That night, I rolled around restlessly, unable to fall asleep. It was weird, I was so used to Lloyd being at my side and now he was god knows where.

I find myself stumbling into another dream. And to think I was finally free of them.

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