"Any news?" Jay enquired as he burst through the doors of the tiny - and already packed with the other three Ninja – office of Steep Wisdom.

Following his conversation with Ronin, the blue Ninja had immediately called his teammates to inform them of these latest developments. He had then sent them the details of all the security cameras located outside the arcade before taking a cab back to the tea shop; he had already wasted a lot of money on getting the, admittedly useful, information from the cunning shopkeeper, the taxi fare didn't really matter now anyway.
On the way he had then called Nya to cancel their date for tonight. She had sounded disappointed but had promised to take good care of his motorbike, and she had wished him good luck on their 'mission' (not that she knew it was an actual mission for the Ninja!) to find Lloyd.

"Good evening, Jay." He was greeted by the Nindroid. Even in the most stressful moments, Zane would never forget his manners. "Unfortunately, the security footage has confirmed that Lloyd boarded a bright green Serpentine bus at 10:46 this morning. It departed shortly after. We were able to follow its route all the way through the city but we lost it when it drove into the Sea of Sands. I have already dispatched the Falcon. If what Ronin has told you is true, it should not be too difficult to locate a huge gathering of Serpentine in the desert."

While the Ninja were able to access Ninjago City's CCTV system, Zane and Jay had constructed a very fast and powerful spy drone named the Falcon to scan unpopulated areas, like the vast desert which surrounded Ninjago's capital.

"Thank you, Zane." Jay plopped down on the last empty (and slightly wobbly) chair. "How's Sensei Wu holding up?"

"How do you think he is?" Kai shot back, angrily glaring at the blue Ninja. The Master of Fire must be taking the whole situation even worse than he would have thought.

"Sensei Wu has closed the shop for the day and is currently re-organising all the teas on the shelves." Cole informed his best friend. "Which means he's really stressed out."

"No real surprise, considering the kid's past." Kai muttered. Neither Sensei Wu nor Lloyd had told the Ninja the entire story, but they knew that, following the presumed death of his parents, the boy had lived in the streets for quite a while and been involved in some criminal activities before his uncle had found him and given him a new home.

"You don't actually think he's joined the Serpentine again, do you?" Jay gasped.

"Of course not." The Master of Fire hissed. "Idiot."

"Calm down, hothead. It was a valid question." Cole, the team leader, reprimanded the red Ninja. "And it's not like the rest of us haven't been thinking about the possibility."

"Yeah, but only motormouth here would say it out loud."

"Could it be that your being angry at Jay has something to do with the discovery that Nya has been spending the nights at his apartment while pretending to work late at the autobody shop?" Zane suggested, much to Jay's horror.

"I guess it does." Cole remarked when Kai stormed out of the office, slamming the door shut behind him. He patted his friend on the back. "I'm really gonna miss you, bro..."

"Oh, I'm so hooped." A very pale blue Ninja stammered. "H-how d-does..."

"PIXAL has accidentally told him." Zane said. "But please do not hold it against her."

"Don't worry, it's not her fault." Jay gave him a weak smile. "It's never a good idea to keep things from the people you care about, sooner or later it's gonna come back and bite you in the butt..."
No, he was not just talking about hiding their relationship from Kai. And, of course, Zane understood that.

"Cole, could you please check on Kai and make sure he will not burn down the shop?" The Nindroid requested.

"Sure." The black Ninja nodded as he got up from his chair.

"You cannot tell Nya this secret." Zane stated firmly as soon as Cole had closed the door behind him. "This is not just about you, it affects all of us. And you cannot betray the trust Sensei Wu has put into you."

"I know that." Jay replied, burying his face in his hands. "But I'm just so sick of all these secrets: Wu's keeping secrets from us, we're keeping things from our families – and from our girlfriends who, by the way, are also keeping stuff from us – and then I've even kept a secret from my own teammate."

"Which is out now, so you have one less to worry about." Zane supplied.

"Yeah, but these last few days have been so hard, now I also have to pretend I don't know Nya's secret." Jay complained. "I suck at lying. And I don't want to lose Nya, even if that means I have to quit being a Ninja."

"You want to leave the team?" Cole, who was just returning with Kai, questioned. "If this is about Kai, I promise to keep an eye on him and make sure he won't harm you."

"No, this isn't about Kai." Jay sighed. "I don't want to keep lying to Nya." He looked into Kai's eyes. "Kai, I love your sister. I've even asked her to move in with me, but I know that it won't work if we can't be honest with each other. So, if I have to choose between her and my job..."

"This isn't just a job." Cole claimed. "And Sensei Wu has chosen the four of us for a special reason."

"Which he won't tell us..." Jay interjected.

"No, but you can't just quit in the middle of this fight."

"And I won't." The Master of Lightning reassured his friend. "I'm not letting my team down, but after we have brought Lloyd home, I am going to talk to Sensei. I mean he's the one with a long white beard who always knows everything - and I need his advice."

"And an apology." Cole nudged the red Ninja.

"Yeah, I shouldn't have snapped at you." Kai mumbled. "It was very... unprofessional, and I'm sorry about that. And I'll support you if you really want to talk to Sensei after this mission. But this does not mean I'm not mad at you anymore, I just want my sis to be happy..."

"So do I, Kai. And I'll do anything to make that happen." Jay promised his girlfriend's brother.

"Good, now that we've got that sorted, let's go back to our problem at hand, okay?" The team leader demanded.

"The Falcon has detected tyre prints in the sand that match those of a bus exactly like the one we're looking for. It is now following the track." Zane informed him.

"Excellent." Cole smiled approvingly. "I suggest to get ready so that we'll be good to go as soon as we have Lloyd's location."

"Is it okay if I get a quick snack from the kitchen?" Jay asked. Due to the unplanned stop at the arcade, he had missed lunch. And this could now turn out to be a rather long day.

"Sure." Cole nodded.

"There should still be some quiche in the fridge." Zane added.

Jay went to the kitchen. He took the food from the fridge and heated it in the microwave. Just as he had sat down at the counter and taken the first bite, his phone rang.

"Hi Nya." He answered with a smile, happy to her her lovely voice and especially happy that he could take her call without Kai around.

"Hi, where are you?"

Jay quickly swallowed the piece of quiche.

"I'm at the tea shop." He told her. "Just arrived a few minutes ago."

"Have you... spoken to Kai?" She wanted to know.

"Yeah, and I'm still alive." He chuckled. "For now. We need to focus on finding Lloyd."

"About that." Nya hesitated. "Lloyd is actua-"

"JAY." Cole's voice came over the communicator. "HURRY UP. WE FOUND HIM. EVERYBODY, GET READY. WE'RE LEAVING NOW."

"Sorry, sweetheart." He apologised. "Gotta go. I'll call you when we're back."

"Alright." She sighed. "Be careful."

"I will." He promised. "Love you."

"Love you too."

Jay ended the call and, giving a brief and rather disappointed last glance at his unfinished meal, he jumped up and sprinted to the changing room. Zane, already in his white gi, was waiting for him at the door with his nunchucks.

"The Serpentine are in Orobourus, a ghost town in the desert. Lloyd's cover must have blown, we have images of him trapped inside a cage." The white Ninja informed him, handing him the golden weapon. "We will wait for you outside."

"I'll be there in a minute." Jay nodded. He entered the changing room where he spun into his blue Ninja suit. Before he put his phone into the locker, he sent a message to Nya.

Oroborous. It said.