Lloyd sat on the front steps of the Monastery, watching as the ninja trained in the courtyard. He hadn't seen it the first time around, as it sunk into the floor, but the courtyard contained a moving training course for the ninja to practice with. Currently, they were all training individually, with no small amount of shouting and hollering whenever they succeeded. They were rusty, that much was obvious. Master Wu had told him that they hadn't done much training since collecting the Golden Weapons a couple of months before.

Lloyd took a bite of his apple, shivering as a cool breeze hit him. He remembered when the ninja were like this. They hadn't liked him at first, either, but had warmed up to him over time - especially once he was kidnapped by the Serpentine. That wouldn't be happening this time around, right? At least, not in quite the same way.

His focus landed on Zane, who was training silently by himself. Lloyd frowned. Zane was always quiet, but he seemed especially troubled today. As Lloyd watched, the white ninja fumbled a step and a piece of the training equipment slammed into him, sending him crashing to the ground.

Lloyd hastily set his apple aside and hurried over, even as Zane blinked in apparent bewilderment and sat up.

"Zane!" The ninja in question looked up at the address, giving Lloyd a small smile.

"I'm alright, Lloyd, don't worry. As you said, I have quite substantial endurance."

"Oh. Good." Lloyd couldn't help but note that none of the other ninja had stopped to check on him. "Are you, um... feeling alright?" Zane tilted his head in silent query. "You seem... I dunno. Off."

"Off? Surely you can see that I am functional."

"No, I mean, different."

"Oh." Zane picked himself up, dusting himself off and retreating towards the step where Lloyd had been sitting. "I am a bit out of sorts," Zane confessed as Lloyd followed him over. "If only because of my dream last night." Lloyd blinked, sitting down beside him. Zane had had many prophetic dreams around the time they first met.

"What was it?"

"It was odd." Zane sighed, looking off into the distance. "I dreamed that I was standing on a mountaintop... surrounded by the four tribes of Serpentine. At their head was a member of the fifth tribe, who held four colored blades. He held them up, and a great snake rose from the ground, and came forward to devour me." Lloyd listened in stunned silence. The member of the fifth tribe was obviously Pythor, with the four Fang Blades, which he then used to unleash the Great Devourer.

But what... since Lloyd wasn't there to release them, why would Zane be having this dream? Did it mean that he was meant to release the Serpentine, that he needed to in order to keep things running correctly? But how could he justify such an action? The Serpentine, once released, had rampaged and pillaged all over Ninjago.

"I'm sure it means nothing." Zane continued, looking down. "But it grates on me." Lloyd pursed his lips, looking down as well.

"...yeah, it... crazy." When he lifted his head again, Zane was looking at him.

"You know something regarding the Serpentine, don't you?" He asked simply. Lloyd chewed his lip.

"...yeah." He trusted Zane, there was no reason to hide this from him. "So... you know how I'm from the future?" Zane nodded. "In the original timeline, the first time around, you came to Jamanakai village yesterday and found me trying to threaten the townsfolk into giving me candy." Zane's lips twitched, trying to hide a smile. "You chased me out, and I wandered off, and accidentally stumbled upon a Serpentine tomb." Zane sobered at that.

"Oh my."

"I released them." Lloyd continued. "And... some way or another I managed to get control over them. I went back to Jamanakai to use my newfound power to get candy, and you and the other ninja chased me off again. But this triggered a domino effect of the rest of the Serpentine being released, including the last member of the fifth tribe, Pythor." He stopped there. "So... your dream is prophetic of the way the timeline originally would have gone. But this time, it shouldn't- because I didn't release the Serpentine." Zane nodded thoughtfully.

"Perhaps destiny isn't aware yet of the change." He suggested. Lloyd considered this. Zane didn't know, but he knew that destiny was written by the writers in Cloud Kingdom. It was fully possible that they still had the original course of events in place. But... he could defy that destiny, right? Morro had done so, and so had the ninja in the course of stopping him.

"Maybe." He allowed.

"Hey, Zane!" A shout caught their attention, and the pair looked up to find the rest of the ninja watching them. "Get tired so soon?" Jay teased.

"Not tired." Zane shook his head. "Merely having an interesting conversation with Lloyd. I will return to my training."

"You're-" Cole started, but Kai cut him off.

"Hey Lloyd, why don't you give the training course a try?" The fire ninja's stare was challenging. "If you're really the legendary Green Ninja, this should be a piece of cake for you." Lloyd tightened his jaw, looking at the training course. It would be a piece of cake for him - in his normal body. As a 9-year-old who had never worked hard in his life...

"I'll pass." Lloyd shook his head. "If I were 22 like I'm supposed to be, yeah, but as a kid? I'm gonna get myself hurt."

"22?" Jay echoed. "I thought you come from 6 years in the future. You're not telling me you're..." he hesitated for a moment. "16 now?"

"No, it's- a long story."

"So you need to wait until you're older to be the Green Ninja?" Kai goaded. "Sure hope Ninjago doesn't need saving until then."

"No, I just don't want to put myself in a potentially dangerous position for no reason."

"It's a training course, Lloyd, it's not gonna bite you."

"Lay off, Kai." Cole cut in. "If he doesn't want to, he doesn't have to. Get back to your own training." Kai gave his partner a dirty look, but turned around to head back to the course. No sooner had he done so, however, that Nya burst out of the monastery with wide eyes.

"The Serpentine!!" She cried out. "They're free!! They're attacking Jamanakai village, we need to help them!!" Zane spun around to face Lloyd in shock.

"What??" Lloyd shot to his feet. "No, that's- that's impossible!!"

"Impossible?" Kai jogged up towards his sister, fixing Lloyd with a suspicious look. "Why?"

"Because I was supposed to do that!"

—

—

Acronix tucked his arms around himself, shuddering harshly as he and his twin made their way across the snowy mountainside.

"R-remind me again why we're h-here?" He gritted out through chattering teeth.

"I warned you to bundle up, little brother." Krux scolded him, turning to give him a sour look over his shoulder. "And I've told you twice already, must I repeat myself?"

"H-have you? Th-the cold must have f-frozen my memories."

Krux sighed. "We're here to release the Hypnobrai. I've spent the last 40 years gathering information and preparing for your return, I know exactly when and where we are in the timeline. If we can take control of the Hypnobrai, we can use them to stomp out those detestable ninja before they ever grow strong enough to defy us."

"B-but we're powerless." Acronix protested. "Even if we do remove the ninja, w-we have no powers, no Time Blades, and n-no Iron Doom." Krux sighed, pausing in the snow to shrug off his coat and wrap it around his twin's shoulders.

"That is why we must ally with the Hypnobrai. It worked with the Vermillion, didn't it?"

Acronix shrugged, huddling into the coat. "S-sort of."

"I'm not even sure why you're here." Krux went on. "I appear to have taken the place of myself six years ago. You were not even here six years ago, you were in the time vortex." Acronix shrugged.

"J-just because I can control time doesn't mean I understand it, b-brother."

"Neither do I. Ah-" Krux stopped, toeing at the snow with one boot. His foot met solid metal, and he brushed the snow aside to reveal a hidden hatch. "We're here."

"Why the mountains?" Acronix questioned as he came up beside him. "D-don't snakes get all... slow and sleepy in the cold?"

"Well I didn't make the tombs." Krux snipped back. "Help me dig this out." Acronix complied, and the twins worked together to unbury the large hatch. Eventually, they revealed a large, snake-shaped lever, and Krux warned his brother to stand clear before he threw it. With the shudder of ancient gears, the hatch creaked open, releasing a cloud of toxic fumes before giving way to a dark hole underneath.

"After you?" Acronix gestured towards the pit, and Krux rolled his eyes before taking initiative and leaping into the hole.

The twins landed on the ice, both struggling for a moment to catch their footing before standing upright. Acronix scanned the cave, frowning when he saw no movement.

"...perhaps the snakes are all asleep-"

"Hush." Krux admonished. "Look." Acronix turned, following his brother's gaze, and he stiffened at the sight of a tall, hulking Hypnobrai slithering towards them out of the shadows. The creature was holding a golden staff with a blue stone on it, which Acronix briefly noted as holding the antidote should anything happen. "Now, let me do the talking," Krux ordered as the snake came closer.

"You are bold," The Hypnobrai addressed them, "to wander ssso far from home, humansss."

"Listen well, Serpentine." Krux responded boldly. "We are the Hands of Time. We have travelled back in time in order to strike a great victory for the Serpentine. We have great and extensive knowledge of the future, and together-"

"Handsss of Time?" The Hypnobrai interrupted, his voice harsh and derisive. "Has it been ssso long that you've forgotten the lassst time we met?" Krux sneered.

"If we've met before, I'm sure I found it unnoteworthy." He responded icily. Acronix shot his twin an incredulous look.

"I sssee you have no loyalty to your elemental massster friends." The snake continued to approach, circling the twins like a shark would its chosen prey. "If you wished to ssstrike a great victory for the Ssserpentine, why not travel just a bit farther back? To the Ssserpentine wars?"

"For having spent 40 years planning, you seem to have forgotten one very crucial detail!" Acronix hissed in his brother's ear. "We fought in the Serpentine wars! We likely fought against these very snakes!! Should we not take a bit more effort to befriend them, rather than treating them as worms under our boots??" Krux scowled, but didn't refute this.

"If you had our knowledge of the future, you would understand." He tried again, his tone placating. "The elemental masters were weak. This moment is that which heralds the rise of a far greater enemy, of young warriors under the command of Wu. They do not yet know their true power, and it is our goal that they never find it."

"So we are but toolsss to you."

"No, that isn't- what I meant." Krux shifted, obviously frustrated. "I only mean that we can help one another."

"I'm sssure we can." Whipping around suddenly, the Hypnobrai's hand shot out, grasping Krux by the chin and forcing him to make eye contact. "Look closssely, and sssee if we need you as much as you need usss."

"No!" Acronix leapt at the snake, driving a leg down on his outstretched arm and causing the Hypnobrai to jerk back. "Even if you do not need our knowledge of the future, we still released you from your prison." He snapped, standing between them as Krux rubbed at his aching head. "You owe us for that." The Serpentine general considered this, looking up at the hole they had dropped through.

"Ssso you have." He acknowledged. "Perhapsss we can come to sssome kind of agreement." Acronix let out a tense breath, turning around to face his twin, only for his face to blanch.

"Krux!" They were already surrounded. Hypnobrai encircled them on all sides, hissing, fangs flashing in the dim light. Krux grimaced, taking a step closer to his twin.

"Perhaps I didn't think this entirely through."

"Perhaps not." Acronix agreed.

"I should think you of all people would know, Handsss of Time." The general hissed, facing them. "To never trussst a sssnake."