I have no idea what i just wrote or how cringy it is or if people can enjoy it but here ya go ^^

Also happy New Year everyone! <3

Previously...

"I said get away from her!"

"I can't do that. I know you brought reinforcements, so that's what...this is for. And...this is for you to go tell them that you'd better bring me all your money in cash, or she might not be breathing when the sun rises tomorrow."

Kai froze. He could almost feel his blood boiling. His hands were shaking, and that was a good sign.

He rushed at Shade and, sending the blade skidding across the floor, knocked him over. Shade disappeared into their shadow momentarily before kicking Kai square in the face out of absolutely nowhere.

Kai barely felt it. All he felt was red hot anger. Red hot. Red hot...

He grabbed Shade as he tried to give him another punch, and burned him. He yelped before disappearing again, but his shadow was still there. Kai shot fire at him but it didn't do any damage. They began to circle each other.

Kai attacked again, but Shade dodged it and disappeared.

Kai heard a shriek from his sister.

He turned and saw Nya rushing over to Kylie.

Shade used this opportunity to make a hard blow to Kai's stomach, knocking the breath out of him. As he lay on the ground, he saw the others.

Skylor, fighting someone in a blur of smoke—his uncle?—and then running to Kylie's aid.

Zane, Jay, and Lloyd, fighting... Masters of Poison and Forms? Wait, Poison is Tox, Kylie's sister...

And Cole. Kai saw him right before being kicked again by his opponent. Cole looked as pale as Kylie. He was staring at her. Kai could see the shock on his face.

Cole's beautiful girl was covered in her own blood; her perfect skin, broken. She didn't deserve to be hurt like this.

Cole hadn't felt this angry in a long time.

Kai could see as Shade's shadow moved across the floor and the knife was picked up. It was just floating in the air, looking spooky, and it and the shadow on the concrete came towards him. There was a blur of green and the Master of Shadow was knocked backwards and remained still on the ground.

Lloyd's concerned voice broke through the chaos. "Kai?"

"I'm fine!" he managed to yell back, even though his vision and hearing kept going in and out. Dang, was Shade strong.

⚅ ⚅ ⚅

Kylie had begun to regain the rest of her consciousness. Someone was holding her but she didn't know who it was, nor did she want to know. It was getting less cold, and the fuzziness in her head was disappearing more and more. Her breathing felt normal and good, and it became comforting instead of stressful. She began to feel more sure of herself, more stable, and as more and more of her senses returned, she started to recognize something very familiar. It was one of the most comforting sensations and made her feel increasingly better and stronger. It was coming from inside her and outside too, enveloping her. Then she realized: it was her own powers.

Her eyes opened and there was Skylor, beads of sweat formed and anxiousness written on her forehead, but with a relieved expression and a gentle smile on her face.

"Skylor?" Kylie murmured.

"Hi."

"Did you just...?"

Skylor nodded. "I guess so."

"Amber," Kylie again murmured.

"Kylie!" Nya exclaimed out of nowhere, pulling her into a tight embrace. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah."

"Do you feel alright?"

"Yeah, I feel good."

Nya started crying softly.

"Nya?"

"It's okay; you're okay now."

"Yeah..." Tears threatened to fill Kylie's eyes too, but only because Nya was crying. She didn't want to remember what happened but she knew it was bad; she knew it would make her cry. She didn't want to cry again. She was too tired. In multiple ways.

"Nya, take Kylie and Kai home," Lloyd instructed. "Skylor, you can go with them too. Everyone else, help wrap up."

Nya helped Kai up, and as he turned toward Kylie, their eyes met, and they spoke volumes. Kylie looked at the ground. She didn't want to remember anything yet.

As they made their way to the car, they could still hear voices as they slowly faded into the distance. "Good work everyone," Lloyd was saying. "It's been a long night. We're almost..."

Skylor drove. Kai stared expressionless out a window, and at one point wiped his face. Nya held onto Kylie the whole drive. When they got there, Nya helped her to her room as Skylor and Kai spoke to Wu in hushed voices.

"Are you sure you're feeling okay?" Nya asked her as they neared her room.

"I just need to sleep."

"Okay. Goodnight. Tell us if you need anything."

"Goodnight," she closed her door gently behind her.

"I love you." Nya said from the hallway.

"I love you too," she murmured.

Her heart stopped when she looked in the mirror. Though she had been healed, her clothes were not, and had lots of stains along with holes where they'd been sliced through.

She tore her eyes away from the sight and ripped off her clothes, changing into pajamas. She would shower in the morning. Right now, she needed sleep, and she needed it fast. She didn't want to think any more. Not about her uncle, or crying, or Skylor, or Kai's eyes, or the fact that the others were still working while she slept.

She fell asleep almost right after she collapsed on her bed.

⚅ ⚅ ⚅

And the others?

Lloyd, Zane, Cole, and Jay gathered the villains (some unconscious), and after some discussion about what to do with them, took them with the police to have an official interrogation on the ones who were conscious enough.

Nya made Kai go to sleep, and she and Skylor talked the whole thing over with Wu, and went to bed.

A few hours later, the others returned to a waiting Sensei.

The story?

Four elemental masters decided to do some crime.

"They must've really felt in the gang element," Jay remarked.

These four gang members?

Tox, Master of Poison.

Ash, Master of Smoke.

Chamille, Master of Forms.

And Shade, Master of Shadow.

Tox did the planning/organizing (supposedly).

Ash made the negotiations.

Chamille did the bullying.

Shade did the dirty work.

The missing piece? Neuro. And let it not be forgotten that he's the Master of the Mind.

⚅ ⚅ ⚅

11:43 AM. Kylie's clock stared at her when she woke up. She rolled back over and snuggled into her blankets. She was safe here.

She got up after a bit, put on some music in her bathroom, turned up the volume all the way, and got in the shower.

The music kept her thoughts at bay. For a while.

Fortunately, no one could hear her sobs over the music.

After dressing, she went downstairs. She knew she had to face the others eventually; she needed breakfast anyway.

Good. Cole and Zane were the only ones in the kitchen.

"Good morning Kylie," Zane said. "There is oatmeal, toast, and hot chocolate; would you like some?"

"Yes, please."

Her eyes met Cole's and she immediately started tearing up. Cole came over and hugged her. He put his hand on her head. She couldn't stop herself from crying more.

Only when Kylie heard her food being set on the table did she end the embrace. She kept wiping her face and they didn't look each other in the eyes for a bit.

"Is the oatmeal satisfactory?" Zane asked as he cleaned.

"Yes, it's great." It was. It warmed her. And that nindroid could sure make good toast.

Cole was gulping hot chocolate. Kylie chuckled.

"It's like chocolate cake in drink form," he told her.

"Ah." She tried some. It warmed her too.

These two warmed her heart; Zane was such a grounding presence and Cole was so sweet. Maybe it's cringy, the thought, but it's true.

⚅ ⚅ ⚅

That afternoon, the ninja had to drive to Kryptarium to get the witness accounts and so that the ninja could talk to the prisoners. Kylie only went so the police could interview her; she really didn't want to go, but she had to.

She had to tell the whole story of how Neuro took her downtown that night, and she was kidnapped by her sister, and she woke up and... everything went downhill from there, until she went unconscious again, and when she woke up next, Skylor was healing her.

Kylie did not have to visit the prisoners, and chose not to.

⚅ ⚅ ⚅

"Why would you do that, are you stupid? You went too far!"

"I was just doing what I thought you would want, chill. Anyway, why would you have this idea in the first place if you didn't want to hurt her?"

⚅ ⚅ ⚅

They were waiting for the police to finish talking to Lloyd.

Kylie closed her eyes, remembering–or just imagining (could she really remember?)–the pain of each stab. Shade. She saw him, in her mind's eye, stabbing her. What was going through his head?

Rage? About what?

Regret, or worse, shame?

Deep wounds. He was wounded. He was hurting, badly.

There was a tap on her shoulder. "Kylie?" It was Cole. "Are you ok?"

"Yeah." She pressed her palm to her forehead. Her voice lowered and Cole leaned closer to hear her. "I'm just thinking about... why Shade would... do that." She clenched her hands to keep them from shaking. She whispered, "He must have been really hurt, don't you think? To do that to someone?"

"I never thought about that."

"I hope he's ok," Kylie breathed.

Cole was deep in thought, awed.

⚅ ⚅ ⚅

The drive home would have been silent if not for Jay's constant jabbering.

Kylie found a break in his speech and murmured, "I'm really sorry, guys."

Jay became silent.

"Sorry for what?" Cole asked softly.

"This is all my fault, I never should have trusted him, I'm so sorry..." she blurted out.

"What?" someone said.

"It's not your fault," someone else said at the same time.

"Kylie, it's not your fault at all," Nya stated.

"You aren't all mad at me?" Kylie thought she had run out of tears to cry.

"Why would we be mad at you?" Zane asked.

"You did nothing wrong," Kai told her.

"Yeah," Jay agreed.

"Oh. Nevermind." She forced a smile.

They were all giving her very concerned (and confused) looks.

"I'll... tell you later," she said to Nya, then turned to lean her forehead against the window.

⚅ ⚅ ⚅

Later, Kylie was explaining it to Nya. "...Because you were all saying how I did something terrible and you all hated me–"

"What?!" Nya exclaimed.

"I figured out it was Chamille. But I didn't realize that until at the station... but I really thought I must have done something bad and you all hated me..."

"I promise you, that never happened," Nya put a hand on her arm.

"Yeah. But then I realized that—" Kylie turned away to hide her tears— "it was my fault," her voice broke.

"How was it your fault?"

Kylie buried her face in a blanket. "I trusted Neuro when he was tricking me the whole time. I was so naive and selfish and it put the whole team in danger."

"How is that selfish? He was the one who tricked you! He used his Mind power on you, it couldn't be your fault!"

"I was being stupid and... I didn't want to admit that he could be... not who I thought he was... because..."

"Why?" Nya asked, gently pulling her into her arms.

Kylie sobbed.

"I wanted a dad."

"Kylie..." Nya's heart broke and she hugged her tighter.

"Garmadon was like my dad. And he's gone now."

They both cried.

⚅ ⚅ ⚅

https://youtu.be/TNIIzC8beTU

"Kylie?"

"Yeah?" She glanced up to see Lloyd, sheepishly standing in the doorway.

"I just wanted to say that..." he grabbed his arm, "I'm sorry. Like, really really sorry." He didn't look her in the eyes but stared off to the side, frozen in place.

"For what?" Kylie stood up and stepped towards him.

"For letting you get hurt." A single tear fell from his face.

Her voice shook as she said, "What?"

"I'm the Green Ninja, I'm supposed to be the leader, I should have been able to protect you. But you got hurt." He finally looked at her; his eyes welled with tears. "That never should have happened and I failed you as the Green Ninja and I'm so sorry."

"Lloyd." Kylie's eyes were wide with concern. "You do not need to apologize, you did absolutely nothing wrong. You did not fail as the Green Ninja. OK?"

"But you got hurt... I should have protected you."

"Just because you become the Green Ninja doesn't mean you have to protect everybody. Nobody is expecting you to do that. That's an unfair and unrealistic burden. And it was my fault. I was the idiot in the story. I was responsible for myself and my actions."

"There was someone under our roof using his elemental powers to trick you and I didn't stop it."

"None of us knew that. We had just... lost..." She looked down, and her voice dropped to a whisper. "...Garmadon." A pause, and she cleared her throat. "So, no, you weren't prepared or expecting that; nobody was, and nobody was expecting you to be. We don't even expect you to always be in control of everything ever, Lloyd–that's a lot of pressure. And we all have a role to play, it's not all your job. Do you understand that?"

He nodded.

"It's not so much your job to protect us as it is our job to protect you. Right?"

"Yeah," he murmured.

She pulled him into a hug. "So don't blame yourself, please. You do not need to have that pressure. You're just a kid. We're going to protect you."

Thus ends this tale and thus begins...