"Hey, pass me that hammer."

"Sure!" Jay hurled the tool towards Cole, who caught it out of the air with ease. "Ooh, almost gotcha."

"I have cat-like reflexes." Cole snipped back. "You'll have to try a little harder to pull one over on- ah!"

"My apologies." Zane hurried to say, having appeared behind them with a cardboard box. "I merely wanted to ask if either of you had anything to throw away." Cole sighed, tossing a broken piece of wood into it.

"You're pretty darn quiet for being made of nuts and bolts." He told him. Zane smirked.

"I would argue that that makes me the best ninja- since I am clearly handicapped."

"Nuh-uh-uh!" Jay protested. "Maybe you were specifically built to be a ninja! We don't know."

"Perhaps." Zane shrugged, turning away. "Believe what you wish." From the other side of the room, Lloyd smiled at their antics.

Zane seemed to have fully come to terms with his true nature, back to his old carefree (as much as possible for him, anyway) self. Sensei Wu had gone off with Nya for the day, and left the ninja to work on fixing up their new headquarters. Lloyd's uncle had offered to let him come, but Lloyd declined, preferring to spend some time with his brothers.

Kai was the only one who seemed unenthused by this arrangement. It hurt. The rest of the ninja had warmed up to Lloyd considerably since his unexpected appearance, but Kai seemed to find him as a nuisance at best and a villain at worst. Obviously Kai's feelings regarding his father were bleeding out onto the son - Lloyd hadn't even done anything wrong! Unless he was bitter that Lloyd was the green ninja, but he"d barely had a day to get attached to the idea. Not the months he had in the original timeline.

Lloyd rested his chin in his palm. Hopefully things would just... work themselves out. His and Kai's friendship was one bit of destiny he didn't want to defy.

"Ninja, goooo!" Jay spun into a bright blue spinjitzu tornado, vacuuming up various debris from around the aroom and depositing them into a cardboard box. He slid to a stop, then scooped up the box and marched off. Lloyd smiled. It was weirdly endearing to see his brothers using an ancient battle tactic to help clean up around the house.

"Hey, Lloyd." Cole caught his attention, and he looked up. "Can you do spinjitzu?" Zane looked at him as well, and Lloyd considered this.

"Well... maybe." He ventured. "I did originally learn as a kid... but it's been a long time since then."

"Why not give it a shot?" Jay suggested, coming back in. "Maybe your muscle memory will come back to you." Lloyd looked at each of the three in turn, thoughts immediately going to Kai goading him into trying the training course. This was different, they didn't do this out of a desire to see him fall in his face. And, maybe if he showed that he could do spinjitzu, Kai would see that he wasn't just a stupid kid playing dress-up.

"Okay." Lloyd hopped up, dusting off his hands on his t-shirt. Breaking his tradition of almost exclusively wearing green clothing, he'd picked out a shirt with a skull on it. If he was forced to be a kid, at least he could dress like one. "Give me some space, I don't wanna break anything." He said with a grin, though nervousness was creeping up on him. Even if he knew they meant well, he didn't want to screw up in front of them.

His brothers backed off, giving him as much space as possible in the relatively small room, and Lloyd placed himself in the middle. After a moment of mentally going through the motions, he spun around and created a small spinjitzu tornado - only to trip and fall flat a moment later.

He didn't expect to hear them, but found himself grinning at the cheers that came up from the other ninja.

"I've never seen someone your age do spinjitzu!" Zane exclaimed. "Well, your physical age, anyway."

"Yeah." Lloyd's cheeks heated as he picked himself up. "I sucked at it when I was really this age, too."

"Well, you can only get better!" Cole told him encouragingly. "Maybe you can join in our training? So you can improve even when you're this age." Lloyd nodded, chest feeling warm.

"Y-yeah, that sounds good."

"Hey, Sensei and Nya are back!" Kai's shout came from out on the deck. "They brought stuff!"

"Presents!" Jay cheered, promptly fleeing the room. The other ninja followed with slightly less jubilation, and Lloyd hurried after them, leaning over the railing to watch as Kai's dragon glided down to land beside the ship. Sure enough, Nya was carrying quite a few shopping bags.

By the time they had landed, the ninja had climbed down from the ship to greet them.

"If you four are lollygagging, I should hope that the ship is ship-shape." Wu called out as they neared, a twinkle in his eye.

"Come and see it!" Kai said proudly. "We were just finishing up as you arrived."

"Hi Nya." Jay greeted her, offering her a hand down from the dragon. She handed him a bag instead, which he accepted as she hopped down on her own. "What'd you bring?"

"Just some necessities." Nya held up the rest of her shopping bags. "Linens, dishes, tea for Sensei... oh! We stopped by your parents' place on the way back." She nodded over her shoulder. "Told them where we're living now." Jay's face fell.

"Oh."

"They said they'd visit tomorrow." She continued. "Chin up, Jay. Not everyone has parents to annoy them." She walked past him, and his face reddened.

"R-right, sorry."

Lloyd watched them from where he stood in the sand beside the ladder. Was it just him, or was Kai's dragon looking a little... tired? It had just flown Sensei and Nya around for hours, but... he had never noticed this before.

"Hey." A package was shoved into Lloyd's arms, and he jumped, looking up. "Bring this to the kitchen, will you pipsqueak?" Kai turned away, walking off to help Nya with her other bags. Lloyd scowled at his retreating back, getting his arms under the heavy package. How was he supposed to climb the ladder with both his hands full?? But he refused to ask for help, not when Kai was the one who had given him this task, so he turned around, struggling his way up the ladder and dropping it off on the kitchen table.

When he came back out, Sensei and Nya were milling around the deck, looking at their progress.

"Very good." Sensei praised, looking up at the upright mast. "Were you able to repair the electrical system?"

"We were." Kai said proudly. "Took me and Cole half an hour, but we have power now." Jay smirked, rolling his eyes, but said nothing.

"Wonderful." Sensei turned to head inside. "This will make a fine headquarters for us."

"Yeah, soon as I get my console back." Jay wandered in after him. "Whose turn is it to cook?"

"Yours, Jay." Kai reminded him.

"Oh. Zane, can you help me?"

"Of course."

Lloyd followed them into the kitchen, watching as they unpacked their various shopping bags. His good mood from successfully doing spinjitzu had been thoroughly ruined by Kai's bratty behavior, and he watched sullenly as they transported new dishes to the cabinets.

As Sensei pulled a box of teabags out of a bag, however, something occurred to him, and Lloyd made plans to speak to his uncle privately as soon as possible.

—

"Tomorrow's Tea?" Sensei Wu's brow furrowed. "No, Lloyd."

"Please!" Lloyd begged, pacing on the other side of Sensei's room. "They don't take me seriously- especially Kai. And I would be aged up by Tomorrow's Tea later in the timeline anyway, it won't matter!"

"Did they take you seriously at this point in the timeline?" Wu questioned.

"...no." Lloyd scuffed at the floorboards with his shoe. "I was a bratty kid working with the Serpentine at this point."

"Then it cannot be all that important."

"I'm not the only one changing the story!" Lloyd protested. "The Time Twins are here too! They know the original timeline, Krux was impersonating a historian for years! The ninja need to listen to me if we're going to stop them!"

"And further changing the timeline will stop them?" Wu rebutted. "No. Your advice will have to be enough. The Hands of Time have no power of their own, and their apparent plans to harness the Serpentine have gone up in smoke. I do not see them being a serious threat at the moment." Lloyd pouted. "As for Kai," his uncle continued. "He is stubborn, yes, and likely feels threatened by your appearance. If that is the case, then the other ninja accepting you will only make him worse. It has been only him, his brothers, and his sister for a long time - it will take time for him to adjust."

"I don't want to wait." Lloyd stared down at his shoes, swinging his arms at his sides. "Kai and I were really close - we're supposed to be. But... the events that caused that might never happen... because I won't be releasing Pythor." At Wu's questioning look, he elaborated. "The last of the Anacondri."

"I see." Wu rocked back in his chair, taking a sip from his cup of tea. "Did you make an effort in the original timeline to befriend him?"

"No... not really."

"Then don't make an effort here. Kai will come around." Wu assured him. Lloyd bit his lip.

"You're sure?"

"I'm sure."

Lloyd sighed. "Okay."