#mint writes stuff

Garmadon was rarely ever this blindsided, given he was somewhere over a thousand years old. That wasn’t to say he couldn’t be, of course—a key example being how shocked he’d felt at finally having the evil purged from his veins, something he hadn’t dared to Hope was possible for centuries. 

Another example would be right now, as he stared at the redheaded young woman in front of him who was introducing herself to the ninja as “Lily, Master of Sand—and this is my friend Arti, Master of . . . Ink, I think? We figured out it was Ink and not paint, right?”

The shorter brown-haired girl beside her nodded, looking somewhat nervous. “Yeah, it was ink . . . Lily why are we doing this I’m not sure we should—”

“Relax, Arti, it’s the Ninja! We can trust them!” Lily gave her companion a comforting smile, before turning back to the teens. “We’re HUGE fans, it’s so exciting to meet you guys!”

“. . . Nice to meet you, too?” Lloyd replied, giving his teammates a confused look—and then turning that look to Garmadon. The man shook his head at his son, not wanting to raise any of his suspicions while the girls were still right there. They were young, best not to scare them. 

“Hold on, Ink can be an element?! Really?!” Jay exclaimed incredulously. “What, do you . . . what would that even do?” The blue ninja raised a chipped eyebrow. 

In reply, Arti thought for a moment, before holding up a finger and sketching something in the air, leaving behind a suspended trail of thick, iridescent, dark-blue ink behind. When the girl finished, the image of a fairly cartoony cat was left in front of her, and with a snap of her fingers, the drawing suddenly moved, leaping down from its perch in the air and prowling around Arti’s feet. It had come to life, acting as if it were a real cat and not a simple inked drawing. 

“Tada!” Lily exclaimed, gesturing to her friend proudly. “Living art! That’s so cool, right?!” The redhead then swirled her hand around for a moment, causing a small, colorful whirlwind of sand to spawn above her open palm. “I mean, sand is cool too, but Arti’s ink stuff is WAY cooler.”

These displays only further concerned Garmadon, heightening his suspicion of the two girls. That was absolutely a display of elemental power from both of them, he could feel it . . . but these were no powers he had ever witnessed, or even heard of, in all his life. 

Until now. 

These two girls, whom he knew nothing about where they could have come from, were bearing elemental powers that, as far as he knew, did not previously exist.

Needless to say, the sensei was trying very hard not to betray his utter disbelief. 

“So, why are you guys coming to the tournament?” Cole asked, bringing Garmadon out of his thoughts. 

“Well, to be honest, we really don’t have any other ideas for what we could be doing, plus we need to actually learn more about our powers, PLUS the whole thing is suspicious as hell—”

“LILY—” Arti hissed at her friend, shooting her a panicked glare. “What are you doing?!”

“. . . Answering the question?” Lily looked genuinely confused by the other girl’s outburst. “Because they asked a que—”

Before she could finish, the brunette covered her mouth and started dragging her off. “Sorry, gotta go for now, sorry about all of this it was her idea—bye!” Arti gave the group a wave, pulling Lily behind her as she left to go somewhere else on the ferry.

Garmadon watched carefully as the pair left, making sure they were assuredly out of earshot before letting out the breath he hadn’t even realized he was holding. “Those two . . . worry me . . .”

Lloyd looked up at him quizzically. “How come, dad? Sure they were . . . kind of weird, but they did seem nice.”

“They did, yes, but that’s not what worries me. The issue is specifically their powers.”

“What’s wrong with their powers?” Cole asked, turning to face the man.

“Those two elements? Sand, and Ink? Those are elements that I have never seen before, and I have no idea as to where they could have come from.” Garmadon shook his head. “This is especially concerning because, as far as I knew, I did have knowledge of all of the elements that exist.”

“Wait, so those are new elements? Seriously, how much have you guys been keeping from us?!” Jay exclaimed, eyes wide. “There can also be new elements?!”

It’s never a quiet night in Ninjago City. Well . . . it’s usually never a quiet night. Even months after the Oni army and their dark cloud descended on Ninjago City, few incidents ever occurred. Only the pettiest and smallest of crimes popped up here and there, but never anything big. 

That is. . . Until one fateful night. 

Far too close to midnight for anyone’s liking, the ninja received a call from the police— someone had broken into the Ninjago City Museum, and had begun ransacking the place!

So naturally, the ninja were on the case. A museum break in? From some unknown criminal, no less? Should be easy-peasy. 

However. . . As soon as the ninja entered the building, things quickly shifted.

“OH MY GOODNESS IT’S FUGIDOVE!”

The whole team stopped in their tracks to stare at Lily, dumbfounded. Even Arti. Heck, even the criminal in question himself.

“You know this guy?!” Jay asked incredulously.

“Unfortunately,” Arti remarked.

“Of course I know him! He’s my favorite guy!” Lily answered, visibly shaking with glee. “Oh my goodness—”

The bird-dressed villain seemed similarly delighted at the recognition. “It seems my reputation precedes me! Yes, it is I, Fugidove!” he proclaimed, puffing out his chest. “My cry fills the night!” He let out a loud, yet gentle coo at this, like his namesake bird.

“. . . Okay, then, uh . . . Fugidove . . . we are here to stop you?” Lloyd said awkwardly, trying to get the encounter back on track. “So we’re gonna have to ask you to stand down.”

“Yeah, can we just get this over with?” Nya remarked, already summoning some water to float above her hands. 

“You’ll have to try to stop me!” Fugidove shot back, spreading his wing-arms wide. (Wait, were those actual wings, or just a costume?)

“Oh, gladly,” Arti said, forcing down a yawn. And. . . waiting for Lloyd’s signal. It was just one guy after all. She wasn’t worried. 

And then the room was suddenly full of feathers. And birds. And the group erupted into chaos.

“WHAT THE HECK—”

“WHY IS IT ALWAYS BIRDS?!”

“WHERE DID THEY—”

“Behold, my army of feathered friends!” Fugidove declared as the pigeons and doves swarmed the group. “Fly, my fellow birds! Fly!”

“. . . How did you manage to acquire so many birds?” Zane asked aloud, sounding both mildly concerned and a bit curious.

“Through the power of friendship!” the criminal replied happily. “Also, birdseed.”

“Why do we keep having to fight birds?!” Kai exclaimed, swinging his katana wildly at the flock to try and drive it back. “First Sensei Wu’s crazy chicken, now this?!”

“Hey, at least these birds aren’t electric?” Cole offered somewhat optimistically. 

“I LOVE BIRDS!” Lily exclaimed, seemingly not taking the situation seriously at all.

“Well, that’s unfortunate,” Arti said, blasting a few birds away with her ink. “. . . Hey, wait, where did Fugidove go?”

Sure enough, with his flock of feathered friends serving as a distraction, the villain had vanished further into the museum. Pursuing. . . whatever he broke into the museum for. 

“Crap, he’s getting away!” Lloyd said, trying to push his way through the birds. “Come on, guys, we gotta catch up!”

“We’re trying, Lloyd?!” Kai replied, missing yet another bird. “The birds are in the way!”

“This is a stupid amount of birds,” Nya grumbled, also failing to hit any of the flock. 

Jay turned to try and glare at Lily through the flurry of feathers. “Lily, will you stop fangirling for FIVE SECONDS and HELP US GET RID OF THE BIRDS?!”

An inky arm reached around the birds, whacking Lily on the head. Arti glared at her friend. “FOCUS!”

“OW—Fine, fine, just—fine, I’ll try and—focus on the birds,” Lily grumbled, whipping up some sand around her. “Don’t expect this to help much, though, flying’s immune to ground,” she dryly joked as she started trying to blind the crowd of birds with the sand.

Enough birds had been knocked down by the ninja, storming through the rest of the museum would be no problem. 

“We should split up,” Lloyd said. “We’ll cover more ground that way.”

“Don’t split too much!” Lily added. “You know how things can go downhill if we’re on our own. In several ways.”

“Two groups of four should work,” Nya said. “The museum isn’t that big.” 

“Right—” Lloyd nodded, “Me, Cole, Zane and Arti will take the east wing. Nya—you, Jay, Kai and Lily will take the west. And we’ll meet up here if we haven’t found Fugidove.”

The rest of the team gave various nods and statements of agreement, before the two groups split off to go search.

Kai turned to Lily as their group started on their way to the west wing. “So . . . how exactly do you know about this Fugidove guy? Are we at the next season, or whatever?”

Lily shook her head. “No, we avoided the next season by not going to a pyramid. Fugidove’s just a side character, but I adore him an unreasonable amount. I’m not joking when I say he’s my favorite guy in the show. He’s just so fun!” The ginger was still smiling brightly.

“. . . Okay, the bird swarm was pretty creative, I’ll give him that,” Jay said, “but, what even is this guy’s deal?”

“Oh, I have no idea, we never actually see what crimes he’s actually committed in the show. I’m just excited we’re fighting him!” Lily shrugged. “. . . Though he does have an intense one-sided rivalry with you, Jay.”

“Seriously?!” Jay exclaimed. “I’ve never even met the guy, and he thinks we’re rivals?” 

“Apparently! There’s a whole sequence in the anime episode where you’re like Goku fighting him and it’s absolutely glorious.”

“The WHAT EPISODE?!”

“I think I could have gone without that mental image,” Nya commented. 

“Oh, Goku Jay is probably the least cursed thing in that episode,” Lily merrily replied. “They made Lloyd buff as hell and it’s just so wrong to look at. Meanwhile Nya isn’t buff at all!”

“Oh, come on!” Nya crossed her arms.

“I know, right?! Buff Anime Lloyd is notoriously cursed, and while not as talked about, people also mostly agree that you NOT being buff like the others was criminal.” The Master of Sand shuddered. “And let’s not talk about Kai’s Hair.”

“HOW ABOUT WE STOP TALKING ABOUT THIS—” Kai interjected, looking immediately horrified at the idea of something being wrong with his hair.

Lily rolled her eyes. “Fair, I guess. Arti hasn’t even watched this episode out of fear. Even though I keep telling her to watch for the Fugidove content.”

“Back on topic, where should we start searching?” Nya asked. “Krux’s secret lab?”

“No, that’s on the other side of the museum, I think,” Kai replied, shaking his head. “So the others are probably checking.”

“Well, what if we look for birds?”

The other three all turned to stare at Jay quizzically.

“Look, the guy obviously has some sort of thing for birds, so maybe he’s trying to steal something bird-related!” the Master of Lightning explained, holding out his arms. “It makes sense! Right?”

“That. . . really does,” Nya said. “There's probably plenty of art pieces of birds, right?”

“I can’t think of any specifically, but that sounds about right!” Lily agreed. “Where would we find bird art?”

“Why not the museum’s storage?” Jay suggested. “That's where I’d start anyway.”

“Good idea,” Kai replied, nodding. “There’s a lot of stuff they don’t have on display, right?”

The group headed into the storage room. Crates of artifacts piled up close to the ceiling, creating a small maze within the room. Statues and paintings stood against the walls, filling most of the space, making the whole room feel claustrophobic.

Fugidove could be heard talking further into the room, letting them know they were in the right place.

“Do you think this guy has any more birds hiding somewhere?” Jay looked to Lily, hoping for an answer.

“Knowing what I do, anything is possible,” she replied. “So who knows?”

A swarm of doves could be seen holding up a painting, managing to lift it off the ground and towards the door with Fugidove directing them.

“. . . And there’s the answer!” Lily added, pointing. “Wow, he must really be good friends with the birds, that’s so cool.”

“Honestly, it is pretty impressive, yeah,” Kai agreed. “Somewhat terrifying that he can direct them so well, but impressive.”

“Yeah, well, let’s stop staring and start stopping him!” Nya said, stepping closer to Fugidove and readying her trident.

Fugidove looked up at the approaching quartet of ninja. “Aha!” he declared, pointing back at them with his wing-arm. “You’ve caught up to me! Well, don’t think that you’ll stop me now!”

“Seriously? We’ve dealt with way worse than you.” Jay said, spinning his kusarigama around. 

“Oh, your friends said that too! But I still took care of them.” The criminal shrugged. “I expected more of a fight, actually.”

–

“I cannot FREAKING believe we lost to FUGIDOVE of all people!” Arti ranted. “After literally everything else we’ve been through!”

“. . . So, we might be a little rusty?” Cole said awkwardly, trying to cheer her up.

“Rusty? This is way more than rusty!” Arti sighed. “We’re completely oxidized!” 

“Yeah, I think this whole thing just proves even more what Sensei Wu was talking about when he said we’d let ourselves go,” Lloyd agreed, squirming around in the ropes holding the four ninja captive. “. . . Now, how do we get out of this? Cole, can you break us out?”

The Black Ninja strained against the ropes for a second, before frowning. “Nope. Sorry.”

“On analysis, it appears that there are traces of vengestone within the makeup of these bonds,” Zane piped in. “Which would explain your inability to break them, Cole.”

“. . . How?!” Arti said, shocked. “How in the world did he get this?!”

The nindroid shook his head. “That, I cannot answer.”

“Great,” Lloyd groaned. “Just, great.”

–

“. . . Well, uh, you may have gotten through them, but you still won’t get through us!” Jay retorted, though he looked taken aback by the information.

“Yeah, well, we’ll finish what they started,” Kai added, lighting his sword on fire. “Time to, uh, fry this poultry? Are doves poultry? Or is that only chickens and stuff?”

“Who cares?” Nya replied. “Ninja, GO!”

With her shout, the four flew into action, lunging forward at Fugidove. 

The doves nearby dropped the painting, and quickly went to intercept the ninja and peck at them. It wasn’t nearly as many birds as earlier, but it was still enough to be at the very least a nuisance. Lily quickly stirred up another sand devil around herself to try and blind the birds and stop them from getting in the way.

Fugidove, much to the group’s surprise, cut through the miniature sandstorm to smack Lily away, sending her sliding across the room. Eventually, she hit a mirror with a rough cracking sound.

Lily shook her head, trying to regain her bearings, before letting out a huff. “Oh, come on, how come EVERYONE ends up knocking me into walls?!” she grumbled, getting back to her feet—before noticing the now-broken mirror she’d been thrown into. “Crap, uh—you guys keep fighting, I’ll fix this, I don’t wanna get sued for damages!”

“Got it!” Nya replied, sending a blast of water at the criminal. She managed to hit him squarely in the chest, putting him off-balance.

“Got him!” Jay added, swinging the chain of his kusarigama around Fugidove while he was down. 

“Got—AGH—got the birds!” Kai finished, completely covered in doves and pigeons.

Lily glanced over at the others from where she was carefully using her elemental power to repair the mirror. “Wow, that was fast, I’m not even done yet. Makes you wonder how the others apparently lost . . .”

–

As soon as the mirror was repaired, the rest of the storage room was put back in order, and the other half of the team was freed from the vengestone rope that Fugidove had somehow gotten his wings on, the group made their way outside with the captured criminal to turn him over to the police.

“Sorry about all this, Fugidove,” Lily was apologizing. “You really are my favorite guy, but we do have to arrest you. You were trying to commit a crime.”

“Lily, why are you apologizing to him?!” Jay asked her incredulously. “He’s literally a criminal!”

“But he’s my favorite guy!” Lily repeated, pouting. “And I don’t want him to be sad!”

Jay groaned at this, shaking his head. “Why are you like this.”

“. . . Normally I’d agree, if I didn’t get my ass kicked by this guy.” Arti crossed her arms, “I had some geese sic’d on me. Geese! Geese are terrifying!” 

“Wait, he had geese?” Kai raised an eyebrow. “We didn’t see any geese, just more doves.”

“You don’t wanna know,” Lloyd replied with a shudder. “Trust me. You don’t.”

“Either way, I hope we don’t have to fight that guy again.” Arti groaned. 

“And if we do, we need to make sure to be back in shape,” Cole added. “Because I hate to admit it, but that was embarrassing.”

“Relax, guys, we’ll be fine,” Lily assured. “Like I told my group, we’ve already avoided the canon Season 11, so we’ve got plenty of time to train back up before something major happens.”

“I hope you’re right, Lily,” Nya said. “I really hope you’re right.”

–

Back in the storage room, everything was quiet and back in its place. Statues, paintings, and various other artifacts and art pieces carefully organized throughout the stacks and stacks of boxes. The mirror that had gotten cracked during the fight was even fully mended, not a single chip or fracture left as evidence of what had happened.

But not all was truly back to “normal.”

Long after the ninja had left and the room was locked back up, now unseen by any living eyes, the glassy surface of the mirror suddenly began to shimmer with a cold blue light. If anyone had been there to see it, they would have likely been overcome by an almost supernatural sense of unease and worry at the glow.

The light steadily grew brighter and brighter, the mirror itself shaking as if power was building up to a breaking point within it—

Before the glass pane shattered, a fist extending outwards from the frame as shards cascaded around them before seemingly dissolving into nothing after hitting the ground.

The owner of the fist slowly pulled themselves out of the now-empty frame, the now nearly blinding blue glow behind them hiding their features in nothing but a silhouette. As soon as they were out, they began taking in their form with some sort of fascination, a dark chuckle escaping them.

The figure’s chuckle steadily grew into a full laugh the more they saw, the temperature suddenly dropping as a cold wind began to swirl around them, frost forming under their feet. It was like a snowstorm was spinning to life around them, freezing the room.

Lloyd had certainly seen a lot during his time as the Green Ninja so far. Race of snake-people that he accidentally unleashed in an attempt to be evil? Check. Indestructible army of statues commanded by the literal embodiment of evil? Also check. The robot uprising, a cult who wanted to turn into snakes, ghosts trying to bring Hell itself into Ninjago? Check, check, and check again!

However, one thing he definitely hadn’t expected to see a repeat of was the sight of his dad having four arms again.

Also, just generally looking like he used to back when he was an evil warlord, but he noticed the four arms first, okay—

“Dad, what—what are you—” he found himself stammering, unable to coherently put together a sentence at the extremely confusing sight of his decidedly-not-evil-anymore father looking, well, evil again.

Garmadon whirled around to face the blonde, a mix of shock and what seemed to be embarrassment on his face. “Lloyd?! What are you doing in here, I—” The expression morphed to also include panic as he glanced down at himself. “Oh no . . . Lloyd, I swear that this isn’t what it looks like—”

“Dad, why do you look like this again?!” Lloyd finally managed to ask, staring up at his currently-demonic-looking father with what was probably one of the most baffled looks of all time. “And—and how?!”

“I promise, I am not actually evil again, I am practicing—how about I just show you, actually, that should help.” Garmadon shook his head, before closing his eyes as if to focus. He suddenly started glowing with a soft white light that engulfed his entire form, and said now-indistinguishable form started shrinking before his eyes, before the light finally faded to reveal Lloyd’s father returned to his human self. “There. That’s better.”

Lloyd felt like his eyes were about to bug out of his head. “WHAT.”

Garmadon gave him a somewhat sheepish smile, rubbing the back of his neck. “I’m sorry that you ended up walking in on me during . . . that . . .” he apologized, shaking his head again. “I thought I had locked the door, but it appears that I didn’t.”

“Dad, what was that?!” Lloyd demanded, unconsciously taking a step back. “You—are my dad, right, and not—some kind of shapeshifter trying to trick me?” There was a Master of Form, after all, it could be possible.

“Yes, Lloyd, I promise it’s me,” hopefully-actually-Garmadon replied with a nod. “Do you need me to provide any proof?”

“Maybe? I’m not sure—uh, what did they deny giving you at Chen’s island during breakfast?!” he asked on the spot, trying to come up with something to use for proof.

“Creamy biscuits,” the man answered without missing a beat, chuckling a little. “Does that help?”

Lloyd relaxed a bit, letting out a sigh of relief. “Okay, yeah, it’s you . . . but, wait, how did you do that?!”

“Well, over the past few weeks or so, I’ve started attempting to better embrace our heritage—more specifically, the Oni side,” Garmadon explained. “I finally feel comfortable enough that it shouldn’t somehow reignite the evil that used to flow through my veins to start . . . experimenting, if you will.”

The Green Ninja blinked, unsure what his dad was talking about. “The what side? What about our heritage?” he asked, somehow feeling even more confused than he was before.

“The Oni side, Lloyd, don’t you—” The man stopped mid-sentence, a look of annoyed realization coming over him. “Oh, curse it all . . . we haven’t told you about your heritage from the First Spinjitzu Master yet? I’d expect as much from Wu, but I also haven’t mentioned it yet?”

“I mean, I know that he was your dad and my grandfather, but not really anything else,” Lloyd replied with a frown. “And it sounds like there’s more to it than that from what you’re saying . . .”

“Indeed, there’s much more to it than that,” Garmadon agreed, shaking his head. “Would you like to have some tea while we sit and talk? There’s quite a lot I need to tell you.”

“That sounds good, yeah. I’ll go get us some.”

One acquisition of freshly-brewed tea later, father and son were soon seated across from each other at the table.

“So . . .” Lloyd stared down at his teacup awkwardly, unsure what to say.

Garmadon chuckled. “Don’t look so nervous, Lloyd. You’ll be fine.”

“Yeah, I know, I just . . . this feels kinda sudden.” He shrugged, looking back up at his dad.

“It is, yes . . . but it’s about time someone told you all of this.” The man took a sip of tea. “Now, our story begins long before time had a name, even before your grandfather, the First Spinjitzu Master, created Ninjago. After all, this story begins even before his birth.”

“. . . That’s. A long time ago.” Lloyd tried to wrap his head around how long it could be.

“Indeed it was. But, back then, before any of the other Sixteen Realms existed, there was the First Realm.”

“The . . . first realm?” he repeated, his eyes widening. “Woah.”

“Two types of being called this realm home,” Garmadon continued. “The Dragons, with the powers of Creation, and the Oni, with the powers of Destruction. Thus, the First Realm was also known as the Realm of the Oni and the Dragon.”

Lloyd nodded, trying to follow along. Oni and dragon . . . he knew a lot about dragons, but he’d never heard anything about what an oni was before. “What exactly are the Oni, dad?”

“It’d be easiest to compare them to some sort of demon, I’d say, though not all of them necessarily act demonic. Visually, I could more specifically describe them as looking like a more monstrous version of how I looked when I was a dark lord.”

“. . . So like how you looked when I first came in?” Lloyd deduced.

“Not exactly like that, but yes,” Garmadon replied, before going back to the story. “Now, the Dragons and the Oni were diametrically opposed, which led to a nearly endless war between the two.” He held up a hand, pausing for emphasis. “But not all of what happened between them was conflict, you see. One day, a child was born of both Oni and Dragon, a child who learned and understood that you could not have Creation without Destruction. A child who would flee the war in the First Realm, instead creating a new land to call home in a new realm. A realm that you should know very well.”

“I should?” Lloyd thought for a minute, trying to piece it together . . . “Wait, do you mean Ninjago?”

Garmadon nodded with a smile. “Indeed, it was Ninjago.”

“Then that means . . . the child was the First Spinjitzu Master!”

“Exactly. And, as his lineage, you and I, as well as your Uncle Wu, also have both Oni and Dragon blood within us. I am more connected to my Oni side, while Wu is more connected to his Dragon side—not that he has any idea what that actually means.” The man let out a snort, rolling his eyes. “I at least had an excuse for never choosing to explore my abilities, given I feared they would speed up the corruption of the Devourer’s venom, but he does not. I’m fairly convinced that he never actually—”

“Wait, back up,” Lloyd interrupted. “We—I’m part Dragon?! And Oni?”

Garmadon nodded again. “Yes, you are. And so am I. This is probably quite a revelation, isn’t it?” He reached out and gently grabbed Lloyd’s hand. “It’s alright, son.”

“But—how does that work?! I mean, I look human, right? How am I part—”

“Oni have the innate ability to alter their form, Lloyd,” Garmadon explained. “In fact, that’s what I was practicing when you walked in.”

“. . . Oh,” he said, nodding in understanding. “That . . . makes sense, yeah . . . wait, does that mean I could shapeshift, too?”

“With proper practice? It’s possible,” Garmadon said. “You might be less Oni and Dragon than Wu and I, but there’s at least some likelihood that you could also—”

“Hey, Lloyd, there you—oh, hi Sensei, I was looking for Lloyd.”

The pair seated at the table turned to find that Kai was now standing in the it-looks-like-they-forgot-to-lock-the-door-AGAIN doorway, looking over the scene a bit curiously.

“What are you guys up to?” the Red Ninja asked, raising an eyebrow. “Or is it private family stuff?”

“We were just having a discussion, that’s all,” Garmadon replied. “Do you need my son for something?”

“Well, Nya and I are gonna spar for a bit, and I wanted to know if Lloyd wanted to join us,” Kai said, glancing over at the blonde. “Are you interested?”

Lloyd started to nod, but then paused to look back at his dad.

“We can talk more about this later, Lloyd, don’t worry.” Garmadon smiled at him.

“Alright, thanks dad!” The blonde got to his feet, waving to the man as he followed Kai out.

They weren’t that far down the hall when Kai turned to Lloyd and asked, “So, what were you guys talking about?”

Lloyd shrugged. “Family stuff. It’s pretty deep, I’m still trying to process it . . .” Then a devious thought hit him, and he grinned. “Hey, Kai, did you know I’m part dragon?”

“Really? Huh, that’s cool.” They kept walking for a moment, before Kai stopped in his tracks and whirled around to face Lloyd in shock. “Wait, WHAT?!”

Well. This was bad.

On one hand, they’d successfully kept Lloyd from getting possessed by Morro.

But on the other hand, NOW ARTI WAS POSSESSED INSTEAD!

Needless to say, Lily was not happy. She was the opposite of happy. She was, in fact, terrified by the sudden realization that Morro now had, at the very least, a passing knowledge of the events to come, which was very very bad.

Still staring at the spot where Morro-possessing-Arti (Marti? Honestly that was the best she had off the top of her head) had last been standing before just. Well. Disappearing, Lily felt paralyzed as her anxiety began to kick into overdrive.

Dear chaos we’re utterly doomed Morro has Arti and by extension he has everything Arti knows and that means that he might be able to get ahead of us and we can’t stop him we’re DOOMED—

“Lily!” The ginger looked up to find Lloyd was holding her shoulders, looking at her with concern. “Are you alright?”

Still feeling somewhat out of it from the sudden panic she was experiencing, she quickly shook her head. “Nope. I am not okay. Morro took Arti. At least he didn’t take you but now he took Arti. And he might be able to beat us to the Realm Crystal depending on how much Arti remembers of the details. So I am not okay. I am terrified. And—”

“Okay, that sounds pretty bad,” Lloyd agreed. “But you also know what happens, right? So we’re still even!”

. . . That was a good point. “True. I do know more than Arti. Thanks.” Lily felt a wave of relief come over her as the Green Ninja helped her to her feet. “Thank you for reminding me.”

“So, what do you think we should do?” the boy prompted, probably trying to help her calm down further by getting her to think more strategically or something.

“Well, first, we should find the others. In canon, once you got possessed, they lost their powers so they went back to the tea shop on their own. But here, they aren’t going to lose their powers since we kept you safe, so we need to find and tell them ourselves.” Lily had been planning out what might need to happen ever since they’d gotten the phone call confirming that Morro was actually still going to be an issue, so she already had this in mind. “Then we need to head back to the tea shop and tell Wu that Morro is back as a ghost because I think we forgot to tell him that before we left.”

“That sounds like a good plan, I figured we should do the same thing and find the guys.” The blonde gave her a confident smile. “They’re out giving out fliers, right? It shouldn’t be too hard to find them with those teapots on their heads.”

The reminder of the stupid employee outfits that the others were wearing right now made her burst out with a chuckle. “Chaos, I almost forgot they would still be in those! Yeah, we should be able to find them easily, no doubt.”

-----

True to what both of them thought, it was very easy to find the other four ninja. After all, Lily knew for a fact that Zane would be flying around on his Elemental Dragon, so they just had to, well, look for the dragon.

Lily walked up behind Kai, who was still doing firebreather tricks to impress the crowd, and tapped him on the shoulder. “Hey. Kai.”

The Master of Fire jumped at the contact, whirling around to face the girl. “AGH—Lily, what the heck?!” he demanded. “I was in the middle of something—and when did you get here?!”

“So, Arti got possessed by a vengeful emo ghost, and we need to head back now.”

Kai blinked at her, looking like he thought she was crazy. Which was admittedly his usual reaction to whenever Lily said anything odd and out-of-pocket. “I’m sorry, Arti got possessed?”

“Yeah, originally it was Lloyd who got possessed, but we managed to avoid that, but in return Arti ended up possessed instead, and we gotta get back to the tea shop to warn Wu that his old student is back for revenge.” Lily counted each thing she said on her fingers as she went, before looking up at Kai. “It makes sense, I promise, and the reason we didn’t warn you about this being possible ahead of time is that we didn’t realize we’d actually end up facing the guy until the call for Lloyd came in earlier.”

“. . . Oh, so this is one of your future knowledge things,” Kai realized, nodding in sort-of-understanding—before freezing and shooting her a concerned look. “Wait, it was almost Lloyd?!”

“Yes, but we kept that from happening, please follow along, and help me get the others so we can get back and hopefully beat Morro there!”

“Alright, alright!” Kai held out his hands defensively, then realized he was still holding the torch, which he quickly passed back to the street performer Lily knew he’d borrowed it from. “I’m not sure I entirely follow, but if Lloyd was almost in trouble, and Arti is in trouble, then let’s do something about it.”

“Good.” Lily smiled. “Lloyd’s trying to round up the other guys, then we better run back.”

-----

Lily tried her best to explain to the others exactly what they would be facing as they all flew back to Steep Wisdom, trying to make sure they knew enough about Morro to not be caught off guard as she rode behind Lloyd on his Elemental Dragon. 

“Given he’s using a body, we won’t have to face much ghost stuff, but he’s still really formidable in his own right. He’s the Elemental Master of Wind, and saying he’s a master of it is pretty darn correct.” Lily shook her head. “One thing I can remember him clearly doing with his powers is using a whole freaking windmill blade as a shuriken.”

“And you didn’t tell us about this guy until now, why?!” Jay demanded, sounding a mix of frantic and aggravated. 

“Well, Arti and I had assumed that since the Battle of the Corridor of Elders never happened here, that he wouldn’t have had any way out of the Cursed Realm!” Lily retorted to her fellow redhead ninja. “We didn’t actually realize he’d still get out somehow and become a problem until the museum called today, okay?!”

“Okay, okay, I get it . . .” The Blue Ninja rolled his eyes. “But you could have told us before you left!”

“We were panicking over the realization that Season 5 was actually happening! Give us some slack—”

“Guys, how about we stop arguing and focus on the actual issue at hand?” Cole interjected, trying to shut things down before they could escalate. “For now, just focus on trying to stop this Morro guy and get Arti back.”

At this point, they’d reached the tea shop. The boys all landed and dispelled their dragons, Lloyd making sure to wait until Lily had hopped off first, and the whole group ran inside.

“Sensei!”

“It's an emergency!”

“We need you!”

“It's important!”

“Guys, wait up!”

Misako looked up from behind the counter where she’d been packing a bag of tea leaves for a mother and daughter. “Boys, not so loud!” the woman said with a chuckle, shaking her head. “Can’t you see we have our first customers?”

The little girl looked up at the team in awe. “Wow, the real ninja!” she exclaimed as she approached Jay, who was closest to her.

Lily interrupted before Jay could say anything. “Maybe later, okay? Right now we have some really important news we need to bring our teacher.”

The little girl looked a bit disappointed, but nodded. “Okay!”

“Oh, I didn’t expect you all back so soon.” Ah, there was Sensei Wu, entering with another bag of tea leaves. “Did advertising go well?”

“Advertising is the least of our worries at the moment, Sensei,” Zane answered. “There are far more serious matters to attend to.”

Lloyd nodded. “Yeah, the museum was a setup, and Arti got possessed.”

“Yeah, uh—” Lily added, cringing slightly. “Probably should have mentioned this before we went, but you know Morro? Your old student? He’s back.”

The speed at which Wu turned to look at the Master of Sand was almost instantaneous. “WHAT?!” The old man’s eyes looked like they were nearly about to pop out of his head in shock.

“Yeah uh he was a ghost in the cursed realm and Arti and I assumed he wouldn’t be able to escape because of what we were able to change but apparently he did, and now he’s possessed Arti and he’s coming here for both revenge and also he’s after the staff you got from your dad cause it has the directions to the Realm Crystal on it—”

“Hold on, can we back up? What do you mean by ‘old student’?” Jay demanded. “You didn’t mention that on the way here!”

“Because it wasn’t as relevant as ‘oh by the way the ghost possessing Arti has wind powers’?!” Lily let out a groan. “I’m trying to explain things as needed! Okay?!”

“Well, excuse me for wanting to know!”

“Guys, stop it, it’s not the time—”

“Sorry about this, they fight sometimes—”

“What in the world is happening in here?!”

“Hi dad, it’s a long story—”

“ENOUGH!” Sensei Wu slammed his staff on the ground, causing everyone to go silent—including Garmadon, who had apparently walked in during the argument. “Lily, how much time do we have until he arrives?”

“Not much, pretty sure he showed up just a few minutes after the guys in canon.” Lily shook her head. “We need to get ready to get out of here, and start making our way towards . . . we’ll figure it out on the way, there’s a lot we’ll need to discuss. On the bright side, we did prevent Lloyd from being the one possessed, so we do have the advantage of everyone still having their powers to counter whatever knowledge Morro gets from being in Arti’s head.”

Wu nodded. “Then there’s no time to waste—”

“I’m sorry, what was that about Lloyd?” Sensei Garmadon interrupted, shooting Lily a concerned look.

“Lloyd was almost possessed but Arti and I went with him to keep him from being possessed but then Arti got possessed instead. So now we have an emo ghost after us.”

Garmadon was silent for a moment. “. . . And you didn’t warn us ahead of time why, exactly?”

“That’s what I’ve been saying!” Jay agreed, throwing up his hands.

“Look, I already told the guys, but we legitimately didn’t think that this would still happen because of how we avoided certain things back with the tournament,” Lily hissed, sounding extremely frustrated to be repeating herself for probably at least the third time today. “And when we did realize, we were more immediately concerned with keeping Lloyd from being possessed!”

“I understand, Lily, I was just wondering,” Garmadon replied gently. “Thank you for protecting my son.”

“I mean, Arti did more of the protecting than me, given she got in the way directly and took the metaphorical bullet—”

“Uh, guys? I think Arti’s—er, Morro’s—here,” Kai said from where he was watching at the window, pointing to a figure approaching down the road. “So whatever we’re doing, we better do it now.”

The sky had darkened completely, with black clouds blocking any shred of sunlight, heralding the vengeful ghost’s arrival. Even from a distance, Lily could tell that Morro hadn’t even bothered disguising himself like he had at first in canon. After all, the ninja knew he was coming this time, and he was probably very aware of that, so why bother?

“The staff is our number one priority,” Lily stated, clenching her fists as she watched the twisted form of her possessed friend slowly making her—his? Their? Its? way up the path to the shop, before turning back to the others. “I don’t know if he’ll still really need it entirely? Given he’s got what Arti knows? But just in case. At the very least, we need to make a rubbing as soon as we can. Then, Nya, get the bounty ready, we need to try and get as far ahead as we can. Boys, we need to hold him off as long as possible, and possibly get him out of Arti if we can figure out how on Earth to do that mid-battle. Which is unlikely, but possible maybe? I don’t think I remember any way to force a depossession in canon, maybe I could homebrew a spell—”

“Wait, what about the customers—” Cole interjected, before realizing that they’d vanished.

“I think Misako’s already helping get them out of here, she’s gone too,” Lily replied. “Sorry for talking so much, but, as you know, I talk a lot, and there’s a lot I needed to say. Are we ready?”

The other five ninja, plus two senseis, all looked at each other and nodded.

“Yeah, we’re ready,” Lloyd answered for all of them.

“Then let’s do our best—”

Then the front doors burst open with a forceful gust, and suddenly there was no time to talk anymore, because oh crap Morro was now right there that was fast.

Arti under Morro’s control could have been a completely different person. Her hair had been stained black due to the ghost’s influence, her skin tinged with a pale green with brighter green marks around her eyes, a tattered cloak covering up the Allied Armor and her gi. Despite likely knowing the others were expecting him, he practically waltzed into the tea shop. Fully confident in whatever he was planning. 

“I’m sure you know what I’m here for.” That voice was very distinctly not Arti’s, deeper and far more masculine, with an otherworldly edge. “Let’s just get this over with.”

“Oh, hi Morro, I didn’t expect you to just barge in,” Lily snapped back, trying to channel her panic into anger instead. Sand started whirling around her feet, like it tended to do nowadays when she got emotional. “Arti’s info not enough for you, I’m guessing?”

Morro’s irritation with his host was barely hidden. “It was enough.” 

“How about you let our friend go?!” Kai demanded, lighting a hand on fire. “Because don’t think we haven’t fought each other before!”

“I think this is different than sparring, Kai!” Jay nervously cut in, yelling at the Red Ninja.

“Agreed. During sparring, we typically hold back,” Zane added, “but I doubt that our intruder would plan to do the same here.”

“Guys, focus!” Lloyd shook his head. “Let her go, Morro. We all know it’s me you wanted, not Arti.”

“Lloyd, don’t you dare—”

“If she LET ME, I would gladly have left by now!” Morro snapped. “But no. I have to make do with this.” 

At this point, Wu stepped forward, holding his staff protectively behind his back. “I see you've found the Allied Armor, Morro, yet you haven't summoned your friends.”

“Oh,” Morro started, regaining some semblance of composure, “I don’t think I’ll need to.”

“We’ll see about that!” Lily retorted. “The ninja have their powers this time, so this fight might be a lot more uneven than you realize.” And with that, she launched herself forward at her possessed friend, sand swirling around her hand like a fist.

“Yes, we’ll see.” Morro said, with an effortless wave of his hand, a gust of wind strong enough to push Lily backwards blew throughout the room. 

“AGH—” The Master of Sand let out a groan as she found herself thrown against the wall by the force of the gale, before sliding down and slumping over. She was still conscious, thankfully, but her head and back were screaming at her from the impact, and her ears were ringing from some sort of whiplash. “Ow . . . stupid . . . wind powers . . .”

“LILY!” one of the others yelled out, but she couldn’t tell which one with how her head was spinning. Man, why was she so out of it suddenly? She’d been training a lot, she’d been taking impacts like this for at least a month now, right? Huh . . .

“Guys, we gotta—”

“—one help Lily!”

“SENSEI!”

“—get the staff!”

“Hurry—”

It was hard to follow what was going on around her at this point. Everything felt kinda fuzzy.

Huh. Was this maybe what a concussion was like? 

She didn’t know.

Oh. Everything was starting to fade now.

And then Lily fell forward, and everything blacked out.

-----

“. . . think she’s coming to!”

“Thank goodness—”

“I would recommend giving—especially sensitive—”

Lily let out a low groan as she tried to open her eyes, blinking in the harsh light. “I . . . huh . . . ?”

“LILY!” at least a couple of the ninja surrounding her exclaimed, making her wince at the volume.

“We were so worried!” Nya added, the other girl coming into focus as she helped the Master of Sand sit up. “Apparently, you got a concussion when Morro knocked you against the wall, so you missed a lot.”

“I . . . wait, what?”

What was that about Morro?

. . . Oh. Oh, she remembered now. Morro had possessed Arti. Right.

Oh.

“. . . How did the fight go?” Lily asked, before wincing and putting a hand to her forehead. “Ow . . .”

“It was pretty close, but Morro managed to get away with the staff,” Cole replied, shaking his head. “He seemed pretty winded when he escaped, though—”

“Hah, wind-ed!” Jay laughed, pointing at Cole.

Cole shot the Blue Ninja a deadpan look. “Yes, winded. Very funny, Jay.”

“Jokes aside,” Lloyd cut in, shaking his head, “yeah, we didn’t manage to keep the staff away from him.”

“You did your best, son. All of you did.” Garmadon gave the Green Ninja a pat on the shoulder. “At the very least, we managed to copy the engraving before he could get away.”

The throbbing pain in Lily’s head was finally starting to subside, and she could better see where they all were now. It seems like they were in the clearing where the Bounty crashed in canon, or at least somewhere similar. Everyone was seated around a campfire, with the Bounty itself crashed into several trees a ways above.

“Man, how much did I miss?” the redhead asked, slowly panning her gaze over everyone.

“Oh, yeah, the Bounty crashed,” Jay stated, pointing out the obvious.

“Yeah, I can see that . . . just like canon. I feel like I should make a joke or something about the chances of that, but my head still hurts too much.” Lily slowly shook her head. “Man, I do not want to have another concussion if I can help it, this sucks.”

“While you were unconscious, Sensei Wu was also able to tell us the story of him having Morro as his pupil,” Zane stated. “Is this something you’re also aware of, or do you require a summary?”

“Oh, yeah, no, don’t worry,” she replied, trying to sit herself up more comfortably against the log they’d had her resting her head on. “I know that part. It’s practically half the second episode from what I remember.”

“Understood.” The nindroid gave her a nod. “Though once you feel better recovered, we would appreciate being able to hear anything you have to add, as well.”

“Trust me, I’m willing,” Lily assured. “There’s a lot we have to talk about, and I can think of at least a couple ways we can still try to get a leg up on Morro—”

Only to grimace as another spike of pain ran through her head.

“. . . Though I might need an ice pack first,” she admitted with a sigh. “Ow.”

“Okay,” Nya started again, “here’s a crazy one: what if we wish to resurrect the Devourer? Then we sic it on Nadakhan?”

Lily shot Nya a dumbfounded look, like the Master of Water was utterly insane. “Nya, what the hell?! Why would that be a good idea, in literally ANY timeline?!”

Jay finished the handful of chips he was chewing, and nodded in agreement with the redhead. “Can’t do it, either. Can't wish to do harm, can't wish for more wishes. And you can't wish for . . .” He chuckled to himself awkwardly for a second. “Love. Which is how I got us into this mess. All due to just one little glimpse into the future showing us together—”

“Jay, can you please let it go for now already, I am DONE with the freaking SOAP OPERA?!” Lily interrupted him, taking the Blue Ninja aback with the sudden rage in her voice. “Look, yes, you blame yourself, I blame myself too because we didn’t warn you guys well enough, and now it’s literally just us three left of the team! And I don’t appreciate being stuck here third-wheeling the drama, in a situation I was hoping we could avoid!” The redhead groaned, burying her face in her hands. “Look, we don’t even know if that future you saw is even guaranteed anymore, alright?! And not for any reasons happening right now, I can assure you! So please, just SHUT UP!”

Nya and Jay stared at the Master of Sand in stunned silence for a minute as she tried to breathe and recollect herself.

“. . . Lily, are you okay?” Nya asked, setting down the pudding she had been holding.

“No, I’m not, I am this close to a mental breakdown, and I would rather we focus on how to stop Nadakhan than any romantic drama you two are trying to work out, okay?!”

“Alright, alright, we get it,” Jay worriedly agreed, sharing a nervous glance with Nya. “So what do you think we should do?”

“I mean, I’d say ‘we could try to pull a Euan’, but literally none of us know enough about that kind of firepower to actually put that kind of a plan into practice, plus Arti and I never did actually figure out how that all goes down and I don’t think any of us can match Euan’s sheer level of insanity or Mercy’s level of spite in a way that we can cause Nadakhan grief in the way they were going to—”

“. . . Can you repeat that in a way we can understand, please?” the Master of Water asked dryly, though Jay could guess that she also knew as well as him that this tangent probably wouldn’t amount to anything.

“Well, do either of you know how to make nuclear missiles or what Persian wedding customs are? Because I’d assume not.” She turned her back to them, shaking her head.

“. . . Fair enough,” Nya conceded with a nod. “Though, you could just wish to know about those things, couldn’t you?”

“Yeah, you kept all your wishes while everyone else was wasting them!” Jay added. “That was—”

“ALRIGHT, LOOK.” Lily slammed her hand down on the table, whirling back around to face the duo, her eyes wild and her tone accusatory. “Do you actually realize how hard that was for me?! How hard it was to not start wishing like the rest of the group?!”

Jay was so startled nearly fell backwards out the window, barely catching himself in time. “Hey, I didn’t mean it like that!” he backpedalled, holding out his hands defensively. “I was trying to compliment you for self-restraint—”

“WELL MAYBE IT DOESN’T FEEL LIKE A COMPLIMENT TO ME, OKAY?!” Lily stormed over to the Master of Lightning, glaring at him and clenching her fists. “DO YOU NOT THINK THAT MAYBE THERE’S MORE TO IT AS TO WHY I’VE BEEN TRYING NOT TO MAKE A SINGLE WISH?! THAT MAYBE, IF I SLIP UP AND START WISHING, I’LL INEVITABLY WISH THAT I COULD JUST GO HOME?!”

The silence was deafening for a moment, before Lily suddenly collapsed to her knees, weakly starting to cry.

“I . . . I just want to go home,” she repeated, her eyes starting to tear up. “I just know that if I start wishing, I’m going to want to be selfish and wish that I could just go home and see my family again . . . but that would leave all of you here to still deal with Nadakhan without any help, and it would leave Arti here alone and I don’t even know if she wants to go home, and—and I also don’t even know if it would STICK, because in canon all of this ends up not having happened in the end and only you two remember it and I don’t know if that would change and if we don’t change things enough that will still be the case and if I left we probably couldn’t change things enough, and so would I even be able to go home?! I don’t know! And I might not even know what I missed out on! And I—I just want to see my family again, okay?!”

The young woman’s anxious rambling devolved into choked sobbing, burying her face into her chest.

Nya shot Jay a concerned look, before coming up behind the sobbing girl to try and help her sit up. “I . . . we had no idea, Lily, I’m so sorry . . .”

Jay felt like he’d been punched in the gut by the rant. Just how long had the Master of Sand been feeling like this?! She’d always seemed so excited and carefree up to now, no matter the situation, but this . . . just how long had she been keeping all of this bottled up?!

And he’d been so stupid as to try and compliment her self-restraint. He’d just assumed she was trying to put her “outside knowledge” to good use, he hadn’t even considered that there could have been another reason for it, and now he felt awful, even though he couldn’t have known.

“I’m sorry, too, Lily, I—I didn’t realize—” he stammered, trying to scramble to his feet. “If we—I—if any of us had known, we’d—I don’t even know, okay, but why haven’t you told us?! I think everyone would understand—”

Lily didn’t reply, continuing to try and gasp for air as she sobbed on the floor. Nya managed to help her sit up, letting the older girl lean against her, before motioning to Jay to sit down, too. The Blue Ninja obliged, sitting on the other side of the redhead to help support her.

And they didn’t say anything else. They just let Lily cry.

Cole has certainly been experiencing a whirlwind of emotions on being brought into the factory. Confusion, then anger, then joy, then despair, and now finally boredom as he stood there chopping noodles as the currently-former Master of Sound, Jacob, kept talking about his plan to break out of here.

“And then—” the blind man continued, only to be cut off by someone groaning further down the line.

“Jacob, I swear. I have told you several times already, you are not going to freaking try to escape on your own. It’s not gonna work.” Turning to look, Cole found Lily, the redheaded Master of Sand, standing over on the opposite side of Jacob, her arms folded as she gave the man a deadpan glare. “Seriously, how many times am I gonna have to repeat myself?”

“So you just want to stay stuck here in the factory forever, huh?” the man shot back at her. “Because I sure don’t!”

“I didn’t say that,” Lily refuted, shaking her head. “I’ve just been saying that trying to escape on your own isn’t gonna work. Not that escape’s gonna be impossible. We are gonna eventually get out of here, together.”

“And how you know this?” Karlof cut in, sounding skeptical. “You sound certain.”

“Look, I just—” The girl paused, blinking, suddenly noticing Cole standing next to karlof as she turned around to look. “Wait, Cole’s here already? Wow, that was a fast evening . . . you still lost, huh?” She nodded to herself, looking pensive. “I figured that’d be the case, but I wasn’t entirely sure if it’d change or not.”

“Yeah, I lo—” Cole paused, taking in all of what Lily had just said. “. . . Wait, what do you mean I still lost?” He let go of the lever he’d been working, turning to fully face the Master of Sand. “That implies you knew I was going to lose.”

“Well, yeah, I did kno—oh chaos we never did explain ANYTHING, did we.” Lily’s eyes widened in realization, and she facepalmed. “Arti’s kept on telling me ‘not to spoil things’ and ‘we can’t trust anyone here it’s freaking CHEN’S ISLAND’ but like. We seriously haven’t even mentioned at least that we already knew what was happening before we even got here?!”

“You WHAT?!” Cole exclaimed, jaw dropping in shock. “What do you mean you knew?! Why didn’t you tell anyone?!”

“I mean, I wanted to tell people, but Arti didn’t want to risk messing anything up and she did kind of have a point because honestly, A), who would have believed us at first, and B), that would just have Chen onto us if he knew we knew.” Lily shrugged. “I still think we should have at least told you guys, though—you and the other ninja, I mean. Cause you guys ended up being onto Chen as well pretty much immediately.”

“I—but how did you know?! I know you guys ended up finding the secret tunnels with us and all, but—” The Black Ninja could only gape at the redhead, trying to puzzle out what ways she could have possibly learned about all this before anyone else.

“Well, it’s . . . REALLY complicated. Like, might-make-me-sound-like-a-lunatic complicated. Heck, there’s a reason we just kinda coined ‘Fictional Coincidence’ as a full-on term on the—wait.” Cole watched as the girl’s expression slowly shifted into one of excited realization. “Wait, hold on—I GET TO TELL PEOPLE ABOUT FICTIONAL COINCIDENCE.”

Cole, Jacob, and Karlof all sort of stared at Lily in different levels of visible confusion at her sudden outburst, none of them really sure how to react to the level of enthusiasm she was now showing.

“Alright, guys, you’re going to want to pay attention and this may be kind of mind blowing but so help me this is probably a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity because I get to, in real life, TELL PEOPLE ABOUT FICTIONAL COINCIDENCE.” Lily had started holding herself steady against the noodle machine, breathing heavily as she seemed to be trying to collect herself. “Oh my goodness this is absolutely insane, I never thought I’d get to do anything like this outside of roleplay—so!” The girl clapped her hands together, before ducking over to the other side of the conveyor belt.

“. . . So, do either of you guys have any idea what she’s doing,” Cole whispered to the men on either side of him, “or are we all lost here?”

“Karloff have no clue,” the Master of Metal on his left said with a shrug. “Girl has been ranting about stuff that make no sense since she get here.”

“Alright, boys, listen up!” Lily exclaimed, clapping her hands again. “So, who here knows about the multiverse theory, aka, the idea that there exists an infinite number of possible universes in the greater multiverse at large?”

Cole furrowed his brow. “I think I’ve seen something like that in movies?”

“Good, that’s a basic enough understanding. I could go more in-depth about universal systems and stuff, but that’s not important to the topic, so forget I brought that up cause I don’t know why I just did. Anyways, the multiverse is real.”

There was a moment of silence, as if Lily was waiting for comments or questions or something like that.

“. . . Nobody’s gonna react to that? Okay. I was expecting more of a response.”

“Karloff not really following,” Karloff admitted. “Karloff not seen many movies.”

“I’ve been to the Underworld before,” Cole explained.

“Yes, I know you have, I just—never mind. Jacob, what . . . oh Jacob left, huh.” Lily pointed to where the Master of Sound had been standing, and, yep, the short man seemed to have wandered off. “Bet he thought I was crazy and didn’t want to hear it. That’s entirely fair, for a while in high school I did outright say I was insane.”

. . . This girl truly was an enigma, wasn’t she?

“Anyways, back to the explanation. So, the Law of Fictional Coincidence is far less known than the Multiverse Theory, mostly because I came up with Fictional Coincidence myself. It’s a long story. But it also has revealed itself to be entirely accurate in the situation we’re now in, so it’s relevant.” 

Lily started motioning as if she had a blackboard behind her, and Cole figured that if she’d had her powers, she’d have been shaping sand into images to represent what she was talking about. 

“So, the basic idea is that for every Universe A that exists, there exists a Universe B in which Universe A exists as some form of fictional media, and vice versa. This can be any media, such as a book, movie, video game, TV show, even fanfiction! For example—” Lily pointed to the imaginary blackboard behind her, “—by the Law of Fictional Coincidence, there exists a universe where the events of, say, the Fritz Donnegan series really happen. This also extends, however, to any piece of Fritz Donnegan media, official or unofficial. The comics are a universe, the movies are a universe, even every instance of fanfiction is a universe. And this, of course, applies to far more than just the Fritz Donnegan series, it’s just the only example I could think of here that I could use.”

Cole tried to think this over. “So, in the Multiverse, every story is real somewhere?” he summarized, just to be sure he was understanding correctly.

“Exactly right!” Lily pointed at Cole with a smile. “However, it ALSO works in reverse, and this is the part where it gets a bit existential. Remember, I first explained this as for every universe, there’s another universe where the events of the first universe are fictional—and THIS is the part that applies more to our current situation.” She paused for a moment, as if to try and let this sink in.

The Master of Earth wasn’t sure he entirely liked where this was going. “By that logic . . . are you trying to imply that our world is fictional in another universe?”

“Bingo!” the redhead exclaimed, pointing at him again. “And this is where it gets complicated, because I happen to, well, not be from this world.”

“You’re NOT?!” . . . Actually, wait, why was that even surprising? She’d just about been implying it the whole time she’d been talking, given that she’d been talking about the Multiverse in the first place.

“Yep! And don’t ask how we got here, because we have no idea. Anyways, if this is the Universe A of our equation, then Arti and I come from a respective Universe B, in which this world is a show. And Arti and I have both watched this show, meaning we know a lot of what happens, given we’re currently within the events that make up part of the show.” Lily shrugged. “This is the existential part, so feel free to freak out for a minute if you need to.”

“. . .” Cole stared at the girl for a minute, before glancing at Karloff to see if he had any thoughts about this. Karloff just also shrugged, as if he wasn’t sure what to think, so he turned back to Lily. “. . . That’s a lot you’re asking us to believe.”

Lily sighed, rubbing her neck. “Yeah it’s. It’s complicated, like I said. I will say, though, that this world doesn’t exist because of the show. I’ve mostly explained this in a roleplay context before, but neither universe causes anything in the other one, they just coincidentally match up as one being media in the other. That’s why it’s called Fictional Coincidence, not Fictional Causation.”

“I guess that makes sense . . . ? But, that’s why you knew I was going to lose the fight between me and Jay? Because you saw it in a TV show?”

The Master of Sand nodded. “Yeah, and that’s also how I know we eventually break out of here—AND WHY I KNOW YOU’LL FAIL IF YOU TRY BREAKING OUT, JACOB!” she added, shouting over at the man in question. “I KEEP TELLING YOU, IT WON’T WORK!”

Rolling her eyes, she shot Cole and Karloff an awkward grin. “But, yeah. TV show. You don’t have to believe me, but it’s the truth.”

Cole sighed. “It’s a lot to take in, Lily, and I’m not sure if I entirely understand it, let alone believe it.” But then, he grinned back. “But . . . it’s not like I’ve got any reason not to believe you, either.”

Lily’s grin went from awkward to genuine. “So you’re at least gonna . . . dangit I can’t think of a good word, tolerate the idea? There’s probably a better word than tolerate but I can’t think of any.”

Cole nodded. “Yeah. It might take some proof first before I can actually believe it, but I won’t shoot you down just yet.”