Thanks for all your votes and lovely comments.

This will be a rather 'slow' story; although Jay and Nya meet again in this chapter, neither of them feels like rushing into anything.

And I really don't have an update schedule at the moment.

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Chapter 3 (Jay)

Six Years ago, a week after the Zane's funeral

"Ed & Enda's Scrap N Junk, good afternoon. This Edna speaking. How may I be at your service?"

I can't suppress a little chuckle hearing my mother's posh telephone voice.

"Mum, it's just me." I inform her. "No need to be formal."

"Oh, Jay sweetie." She exclaims. "I'm sorry, I didn't recognise your number."

"Yeah, I got a new phone." I explain. I had received too many unanswered calls and messages on my old one... "Just wanted to give you and dad my new number and let you know I'm alright."

"It's so good to hear from you." Mum says, relief in her voice. "Your father and I were very worried about you. And so are your friends; they are looking for you everywhere."

"Is that so?" Although I've been ignoring my ex-friends, I'm still kinda curious. Yes, and it is nice to hear that they still care.

"They came here day after you left." I was somewhat expecting them to turn up at the junkyard, which is why I had to cut my stay there short. After only one (rather sleepless) night I said goodbye again to my parents and drove off in my Thunder Raider. At first, I was just aimlessly driving around for a few days, before I finally knew where to go.

"Wh-who came?" I croak out, although I'm not sure I actually want to know who 'they' were.

"Cole and Lloyd."

No, I really didn't need to know who came looking for me. And who didn't.

But why would she?

"They said that Nya was very upset." Mum adds, she's always been good at reading my thoughts. "And very sick so she couldn't come with them. And Kai was too worried about his sister to leave her alone..."

I feel a pang of guilt hearing these words. I've never meant to hurt the love of my life, no matter how much she hurt me. But she'd been sick even before I left so at least that can't have been my fault, right?

"And then two days later Cole came back, alone. He said that Nya still wasn't doing any better so Kai was taking her to the hospital. The poor thing, I hope she's gonna be alright. And Mr Borg had called them earlier requesting an urgent meeting, so Lloyd had gone ahead to the city and everyone else were to meet up at Borg Industries later – I think Cole was hoping you'd turn up as well, honey, but that was three days ago now. But he also left a letter with us, addressed 'to his best friend'. Do you want me to read it out to you?"

"No." I hiss through gritted teeth. "Just throw it away, okay?"

"But sweetie..."

"Please ma." I insist. "Just. Bin. It."

"Alright, honey." Mum sighs. Despite the bad connection, I can hear she's disappointed in her son, but just for once I am not concerned about what other people think of me.

I first need to focus on sorting out my emotions. They have started to affect my lightning powers. Well, they always have, but since becoming a Ninja I've never been this messed-up. And I think I've found just the place to stabilise both my feelings and my element.

I raise my head to look up, seeing the electric storm raging above me, with bright bolts of lightning zooming across the sky.

Yes, it's calling me.

"Uhm, gotta go now, and I probably won't have any reception for the next couple of days or so." I say. "But don't worry I'm fine, okay?" I reassure my mum.

"Where are you?" She urges, but I ignore her question, knowing that it would unnecessarily worry her even more.

"I'll call you when I can." I promise instead. "Say hi to dad for me. Love you, mum."

"Alright." She sighs. "Love you too, honey. Take care."

I end the call and start to climb up the seemingly endless chains leading up to the Floating Ruins of Lightning.

Present Day, Ninjago 'Elementary Masters' Primary School

Following my last class for the day – PE with the second grade – I stay behind at the gym to do a couple more exercises. I may not be a Ninja anymore, but I'm still trying to keep somewhat up with my training. When I've eventually had enough and return to my office, I find my friend Kath waiting for me in the corridor outside my door.

Were we supposed to meet for lunch today, and I've forgotten about it? I think, but then I notice that she is not on her own. The little girl from yesterday, Abby, is with her, grinning widely as she waves a sheet of paper at me.

"Mr Gooordon." She exclaims excitedly. "I've drawed a picture for your office. Because you were sooo nice ye'terday."

"Awww, that's really sweet of you, Abby." I reply, taking the offered gift. It's a drawing of two stick people, on big and one small, sitting at a table with some tools in their claw-like hands. "Thank you so much."

"That's you." She points at the taller person with short red hair (which is not my actual hair colour but I'm not gonna complain to the proud artist) and huge glasses. "An' that's me." The smaller person has long brown hair.
It's funny how on a child's drawing our faces look more or less the same – except for my glasses, of course – kinda round-ish, with big blue eyes and lots and lots of freckles and a huge smile.

"What do you think?" I show the picture to my colleague and friend. "Abby and I could be twins, right?"

"Nooo, silly Mr Gordon." Abby places her hands on her hips. "You're wayyy too old for that. Twins must be the same age, you know?" She lectures me.

"I know." I reply laughing. "I was just kidding. But you are a very smart girl to know that."

"Yes, I am." She boasts. "An' you're funny. But my li'l cousins are twins."

"I see." I laugh. "Do you have a lot of cousins?" I admit I'm a bit curious about her unusual family.

"Just two." The girl tells me. "An' one is still in my auntie's tummy."

"Your aunt Skylor?" I ask carefully.

When I met Abigail's aunt yesterday, I did notice Skylor having a small bump. But you should never ever ask a woman directly if she's pregnant – in case she isn't.

"Yes." She nods eagerly. "I'm sooo excited."

"I think we'll let Mr Gordon have his lunch break now." Kath chimes in. "And the two of us should to go back to our class, after-school activities will start soon."

Abby is visibility (and audibly) disappointed. "Oooohhh." She whines. "I thought I could help Mr Gordon again today."

I exchange a few glances with my friend before I crouch down to face the upset girl. "What about this?" I suggest. "You go back to class now with Miss Katherine while I'm gonna have my lunch and do some more work, and then you can visit and help me later."

Her face immediately lights up. "Pinkie P'omise?" She holds out her little finger.

From the corner of my eyes I see Kath smirk as I copy the girl's gesture. "Promise." I say. Ninja's Honour.

It's not even two hours later when I hear someone knocking on my door.

"Come in, Kath." I call, recognising the pattern.

"How do you know?" She asks as she enters, Abby following her suit.

"I was trained to pay attention to details." I reply vaguely, but she knows what I mean. Once a Ninja, always a Ninja. "Everything alright?"

"Someone just couldn't wait." She smiles apologetically as Abby flashes me a shy smile from behind her teacher.

"No problem." I was just the same. Okay, I still am. "I'm almost done with these anyway." I gesture at the pile of fifth grade science exams. Instead of a desk, I have a workbench in my room which also serves as meeting table and for office work. It was actually fun grading these papers, almost all my students did very well this time. One reason I enjoy being a primary school teacher - as long as you make classes interesting and fun, you can quite easily motivate these kids.

I stand up. "Let me just put these away." I take the pile of papers and place them on my untidy shelf. I guess I'll just do the last few ones later tonight.

"Now, "So, what shall we do?" I ask Abby. "Classes are still on, so I cannot do any on-site repairs yet."

But exchanging lightbulbs and replacing fuses wouldn't be something I'd let a five-year old do anyway.

"But I'd like you to have a look at a new idea for my engineering class. Do you think you could do the job of a fourth-grader?" I suggest.

I know this is quite ambitious but my dad taught me similar things when I was her age. I had always imagined doing these kinds of things with my own children.

"Of course I can." She puffs out her chest. "But first, we need to put up my picture. Your wall's so boooring."

She points at the almost bare wall behind me. And she is right. The only items of decoration in my office are a rather neglected green plant and old photo of my parents. I honestly wish I had more family pictures to put up but sadly, I don't. I left in such a rush that I didn't take any photos of the team, and the one photo I always used to carry in my wallet – Nya and I on our second date – is hidden away at the bottom of a drawer in my desk at home. I still couldn't throw it away though.

"I leave that to you." I hands the girl a piece of blue tac, and she goes to work.

"Abby's aunt is collecting her around 4:30 today, so is it okay if I she stays with you until then?" Kath asks.

"Sure." I check my watch. It's already past 3 anyway.

"There." Abby steps back and proudly inspects her work. "Much better."

"Good job." Kath ruffles the girl's brown hair. "Now, I'll leave you with Mr Gordon. I'll come back in a bit to bring your jacket and bag here. And if you need anything, I'll be in my classroom." The last part was probably more directed at me but Abby nods. "Will do." She states.

I have already taken a blueprint from on top of my shelf and rolled it out on the table. "This is a toy robot I want to build with my engineering class." I explain.

It's a simple toy puppet made out of empty tin cans. I've had this lying around for a while now, but the memory of Zane is still quite painful.

Abby shakes her head looking at the drawing. "This is wrong." She claims.

"Why?" I ask.

"He doesn't look like a robot." She points at the little drawing in the top right corner. Of course, my final design has a white painted body with a kind yellow face and short platinum blond hair.

"Well, I had a robot friend who looked like this." I tell her.

"Had?" She raises an eyebrow.

"Yeah, it's a long story." I reply. "And rather sad."

"I like long stories." Abby says. "But not sad ones. Mummy's often sad so we'd rather read happy stories."

"I'm very sorry, sweetie." I don't really know what else to say. I don't have a lot of experience comforting young children. But I'm much better at distracting them. "But how do you think a real robot looks like?"

"Shiny." She points at the sketch of the unpainted, metallic form. "One of my uncles looks like this."

"Your uncle is a robot?" I gasp. I thought Cyrus Borg has discontinued his line of droids.

Abby's hand flies to her mouth, blushing deeply. "I-I wasn't supposed to say that..." She mumbles through her fingers. "It's a sec'et. P'ease don' tell anyone." She begs me.

"Don't worry, I won't." I reassure the girl with the strange family. "Now, let's get to work, shall we?"

Over the next two weeks, I get regular visits from Abby, and we make good progress on our project. She is very good so we have modified the design from a simple puppet to an action figure with proper arms and legs.

In my spare time, which I have way too much of, I've even built a small motor to control the robot. The remote control I confiscated from the kids at Sensei Wu's Academy all these years ago will now finally be put to a good use after all.

"Aaand that's it." I state as I close the small hatch on the front of the robot. As per Abby's insistence we have painted the robot only with a clear lack to preserve the silver (or 'Titanium' as she calls it) appearance but I have still given the face Zane's features, like his rather distinct hard angles eyebrows and the kind, intelligent smile. "We're done."

"Yay. High Five." Abby requests, and I comply.

"Looks great. But we still gotta see if this actually work." I remark, handing her the remote control. Abby excitedly presses a button – and nothing happens.

"Lemme check if I've switched it on." I quickly say as I see the disappointment on her face. But I have. Now I'll have to check all the electrical connections to see where... then it hits me. I never have full batteries in my workshop because, well, I usually just use my element to charge them as required. But I usually don't have an audience for that. Especially not one that looks like she is about to cry.

And I can't let that happen. "Abby?" I turn to the girl.

"Yes, Mr Gordon?" She raises her head, and it almost breaks my heart to see her big blue eyes glistening with tears.

"Remember when you've told me your secret about your uncle being a robot?" I ask.

She nods silently.

"What about I tell you my secret in exchange?"

She looks at me expectantly as I rub my hands against each other. I haven't done this in a while but I feel the energy slowly building up between them until I create a little spark which I direct at the robots chest. "Number one." I say. Now the remote.

But first I take a careful look at the girl to see her reaction. Abby stares at me, her mouth agape.

"Y-you can do that too?" She gasps.

"Yep." I say. What, why did she say 'too'?

But before I can voice my question, Abby is already copying my exact motions. Sure, the spark she creates between her small hands is a lot weaker than mine but it has exactly the same signature, I can feel that.

No wonder she seemed so familiar, having the same element means we must be related. Maybe I can finally find out more about my birth parents' family...

But my thoughts get abruptly interrupted.

"Abigail Jayne Smith." A female voice calls from the door. "What have I told you about using your powers in public?"

I very slowly turn around. I haven't heard this voice in over six years but I could never forget it. And sure, there she is, standing in the doorway.

"Mummy." Abby jumps up and runs into her arms. "Look what we've made, Mr Gordon and I." She points as me. "An' don' worry, he can do the same stuff as me."

Wait, Nya is Abby's mother?

And my former girlfriend must be just as surprised to see me as I am, for she keeps her gaze fixed at me, eyes wide open in shock, as she wraps her arms around her daughter.

"J-Jay?" She whispers.

But she eventually manages to regain her composure long before I do.

"C'mon, sweetheart." Nya straightens up and grabs the girl's items which are standing next to the door. "Uncle Kai is waiting for us, he needs our help with auntie Skylor's surprise."

"Okay." As she follows her mother, Abby turns around to wave at me. "Bye, Mr Gordon."

I raise my hand to wave back, still unable to say a single word.

Abigail is Nya's daughter... and then I finally connect the dots.

Her eyes, her face, her element, even her age - all this leaves me with only one explanation.

She is my daughter too.