Hey guys, I know it's been a super long time since I updated this story. One of the reasons is because I got a new job that keeps me busy and the other reason is because I have been writing another book called "A Turn of Events: A Ninjago Jaya Fanfic." Feel free to check it out and enjoy this (kinda filler) chapter!

Oh and thanks for getting me to 200 followers! Love you guys! 😊

Stay awesome! 😉

_____________________

Zach's P.O.V.:

I had been applying and applying for jobs all over the place, but since the only thing I've done is be a prison guard for my ex-brother in law, there wasn't much out there.

According to the city, I have to get a job in order for Maizy to live with me. If I can't take care of her they'll put her in a foster home, and that's not what I want for her, it's not what Zoey would want for her.

The last place I knew in the city that was hiring was this little place called Chen's Noodle House, run by some of Lloyd's friends. If I couldn't get a job here than I didn't know where else to look.

I walked into the place as confident as I could be and ran into one of the owners. He was wearing a red uniform and his hair was spiky.

"Hi, welcome to Chen's noodle house. What can get for you?" He asked.

"Actually I saw your help wanted sign in the window and I wanted to see if you guys were still hiring." I said to him.

"Oh yeah, Lloyd called and said you might come by." He came from behind the counter. "You're Zach right?"

"Yes, that's me." I answered and shook his hand.

"I'm Kai, my wife and I run this place. Lloyd told me all about what you did for him and Kira last week."

"Oh, you heard about that?" I said embarrassed.

"Yeah. If you hadn't let them go, they never would've escaped." Kai grabbed some noodles and set down at the booth with me. "On the house." He passed me a carton of noodles.

"Thanks." I took it from him.

"So if you don't mind me asking, why do you need this job so badly?" He asked.

"Oh it's because if I don't get a job soon, they'll put my niece in foster care and we've already been though so much, I don't want to put her through that." I sighed.

"Oh that's right, you're that girl's uncle right? Harumi's niece?"

"Maizy, yes." I nodded. "What happened to our family is a really long story."

"I've got time." He shrugged.

"Well, alright." I began...

Zoey and I were twins, so not only was she my sister, she was my best friend too. When we were kids we were basically inseparable, always in the same classes, same clubs, we even shared a bedroom until we were 12.

There was only one difference, Zoey had powers and I never did so it was obvious she was everyone's favorite. Zoey was smart, confident, popular, the complete opposite of me. I was a nerdy shy kid that everybody picked on, but Zoey always had my back.

It was our first day of middle school. I was walking across the playground when all of a sudden the school bully tripped me.

"Oops, sorry loser!" Akamu, the bully yelled. The whole playground was laughing at me.

"Akamu, knock it off!" Zoey yelled. She ran to me and helped me up. "You ok bro?"

"Fine." I said frustrated as I brushed myself off.

"Don't worry, as long as I'm here no one is ever gonna bully you again." Zoey said.

"Thanks sis, but I can't go through life with you protecting me all the time." I sighed.

"Wow so even back then Akamu was a jerk." Kai interrupted.

"Yep, I guess he's always been that way." I sighed and continued with the story.

Zoey only started going out with him because he convinced her that he had a turned over a new leaf, but I knew what he was doing the whole time. I tried to warn Zoey, but she never listened to me.

I remember a time that Akamu was failing history so Zoey, being the smartest kid in school, offered to touter him. He was over at our house and I walked by the dining room during one of Zoey's study sessions and overheard Zoey and Akamu talking.

"And the golden weapons were created by..." Zoey stopped.

"Master Wu?" Akamu guessed.

"Nope, guess again."

"The First Spinjitsu Master?"

"Yes, that's right!" Zoey exclaimed. "See, you can do it."

"I guess I just needed the right teacher." Akamu said.

At that point I decided to peak in the room, but I really wished I hadn't. I saw them looking into each other's eyes and a few moments later they were kissing.

After a minute, Zoey saw me and made up an excuse to leave the room.

"Zach, what the heck were you doing?" She yelled.

"I should ask you the same question." I crossed my arms.

"What? It was just one kiss." She shrugged.

"I thought I told you to be careful about him! Don't you remember how he bullied us in school?"

"That was years ago, he's a different person now." She said. "And since when do I need your approval of who I can and cannot date?"

"You can date whoever you want, but Akamu is a bad guy. You gotta trust me on this."

"Maybe it's you who doesn't trust me. I can make up my own mind." Zoey said.

"Zoey please, Akamu just gives me bad vibes. I don't trust him."

"Well you don't have to, but I do so you better learn to accept that." She said sternly.

She went into the kitchen to grab her and Akamu some sodas. That was my chance to have a word with Akamu. I was on my way into the room when he bumped into me and knocked my glasses off my face. I can't see a thing without them.

I knelt down on the floor and felt my hand around for my glasses. I thought I spotted them but then I heard the sound of glass breaking.

"Whoops, sorry nerd." I heard Akamu laughing.

"What's going on here?" Zoey walked in.

"Akamu broke my glasses." I yelled. "I told you he was a bully!"

"How dare you accuse me of that?" Akamu defended. "It was an accident, I was only trying to give them back to you."

"Yeah right." I rolled my eyes.

"Zach why would you lie like that?" Zoey screamed at me.

"Zoey you don't seriously believe him, do you?"

"Why shouldn't I? I know you don't like me being with Akamu, but that's no reason to throw him under the bus like that." Zoey said.

"Yeah, I was gonna give you money to replace them. Honest." Akamu promised.

"See, he's sorry. You've gotta stop stop assuming things little bro." She patted my head.

"I'm only ten minutes younger than you." I groaned.

Zoey left the room and as soon as she did Akamu came up to me and whispered in my ear.

"How does that feel? Zoey believes me over her own brother. I've got her wrapped around my finger and you can't do a thing to stop me." He smirked.

"And what exactly is stopping me from telling her?" I raised an eyebrow.

"You don't want me to break your sister's heart now do you?" He threatened.

"It will never work. Zoey is smart enough to figure out what you're up to on her own."

"We'll see about that, won't we."

He walked away and left me alone.

"Wow, he sounds like a real bully. I'll tell you one thing, if someone did that to my sister, they would get a real beat down." Kai said.

"That's how I felt every day since, but he was a scary guy so I never did anything." I continued.

No matter what I did to warn Zoey about Akamu's games, it was never enough to convince her that he was a bad guy. She was really in love in with him but he never loved her back, at least, I didn't think he did. Then something happened that changed everything.

I remember it like it was yesterday. It was 8am when I woke up to my phone ringing. It was Akamu calling me. At this point it had been 2 years since I had seen Akamu or Zoey and Maizy for that matter, so this had to be important.

I picked up the phone. "Hello?"

"Zach, something just happened." Akamu said, sounding genuinely upset. I had never heard such sadness in his voice before.

"Akamu? What happened? Are Maizy and Zoey ok?" I set up from my bed.

"Maizy's fine but Zoey..." he stopped.

"What?"

"You better come to the hospital."

At that point I knew something was wrong. There had to be. I quickly got dressed and drove as fast as I could to the hospital. When I got there I saw Akamu holding little two year old Maizy. She was fast asleep and Akamu looked as though he had been crying. I had never seen him that upset before.

"What happened?" I ran up to them.

"Zoey and Maizy were in a car accident earlier today." He frowned. "Zoey used her force field to save Maizy, but Zoey..."

"What about Zoey? Is she ok?" I worried.

"They took her into ICU, I haven't heard anything since." He frowned.

I stood there in shock. I couldn't move. I couldn't believe that my sister was hurt or worse and I didn't know anything.

I took a seat in the waiting room next to Akamu and he set Maizy in my lap. I looked her over and she didn't have a scratch on her.

"I got to speak to Zoey before they took her up there." Akamu sighed.

"Did she say anything?" I asked.

"She said to take care of Maizy no matter what happens."

"And what did you say to her?" I looked at him.

"I said that I would and that I loved her."

"Great, the last thing my sister heard was a lie." I rolled my eyes.

"At first I thought I was lying too, but seeing her on that stretcher like that, knowing that I might lose her, I realized that it was never a lie. I do love her, I always have."

I hated to admit it, but I believed him this time. Maizy started squirming around in my lap and woke up.

"Uncie Zach?" She looked up at me and rubbed her eyes.

"Hey Maize." I smiled the best I could. "How are you feeling?"

"Mama?" She looked around.

I looked at Akamu. I had no idea what to tell her. If I told her that Zoey would be ok and she wasn't, she would be so upset and if I told her the truth, that wouldn't go over well either.

"You're mom isn't here right now, but don't worry sweetie, I'll take care of you." I pulled her into a hug.

"I went through something like that with my sister Nya." Kai sighed. "I had to take care of her all by myself when she was three and our parents were kidnapped."

"That had to be rough."

"It was, I know what exactly what you're going through, having to suddenly raise a child by yourself like that."

"Yeah." I sighed.

"So then what happened?" Kai asked.

We kept waiting for hours upon hours until around noon. Maizy eventually fell back asleep on my lap. Then a nurse finally showed up and said my name. Akamu and I braced ourselves for the news.

"Her injuries from the accident were too severe." The nurse frowned. "The only way we could save her was to put her in a coma."

"Is she going to wake up?" Akamu asked.

"There's a 98% chance that she will never wake up, and if she does she wouldn't be the same." The nurse explained. "She wouldn't be able to eat without help or talk or walk. But we won't take her off life support until you tell us to."

I looked at Akamu and he was shaking his head. I knew that this was a decision we had to agree on together, but we had never agreed on anything before, and I knew we weren't going to agree on this.

"What do we do?" Akamu looked at me.

"Well as hard as it is for me to say this, I don't think Zoey should have to suffer like that." I frowned.

"You mean that we... no we can't do that."

"What other choice do we have? She's not going to wake up and if she does she'll barely be conscious enough to understand what's going on around her, much less take care of a child." I looked at Maizy asleep in my arms.

"No, there's no way I'm letting Zoey go." Akamu refused.

He grabbed my arm and I looked into his eyes. Never had I seen a more sincere look on anyone's face, especially his face. Maybe after all these years Akamu did really care about her, he just didn't realize it until now.

"Ok." I sighed and turned to the nurse. "We'll keep her alive for a week and if she doesn't improve by then, then we'll decide what to do from there. Ok?"

Both Akamu and the nurse nodded in agreement. But that week turned into a month, then six more months, then a year, and pretty soon it had been 3 years since the accident and there was no change in Zoey's condition. Not even a little.

"So you just let her lay there like that?" Kai frowned.

"I tried to put her out of her misery many times, but Akamu never let me." I continued.

Over the years, Akamu kept becoming more and more neglectful of Maizy in order to care for Zoey. He would spend days at a time sitting by her bedside instead of caring for his daughter.

Almost every day I would be in charge of watching Maizy so Akamu could sit in silence in Zoey's room. Akamu never actually asked me to watch her, and he couldn't care less if I did or not, but Zoey would want Maizy to be taken care of.

This was how things were for those three years and years to come. Maizy was even getting to the point where she thought I was her real dad, and at that point I knew that Akamu wasn't in the best place to raise his daughter.

Zoey was home now in a very small room in the basement of the house that Maizy didn't know about. The last thing I wanted to do was lie to her, but Akamu thought it would be best to tell Maizy that Zoey had passed on and I went along with it. It was just easier not to get her hopes up.

One night after Maizy had gone to sleep, I went into Zoey's room to talk to Akamu. I already knew what his answer would be, but I had to get his permission to do what I was about to do.

"Akamu, can we talk?" I asked walking into the room.

"Oh Zach, I didn't know you were here." He said, not looking away from Zoey.

"Anyway, I need to ask you something."

"What?" He looked at me.

"Well you've been kind of neglectful of Maizy lately and I just thought it would be in everyone's best interest if... she were to come live with me for a while?"

"What? Why would you say that?"

"Well I uh... I know how busy you are taking care of Zoey all the time and I'm usually the taking care of her anyway so I thought it would be easier to..."

"No way!" He cut me off. "I made a promise to Zoey to take care of Maizy and I'm going to keep it!"

"I'm just trying to do what's best for Maizy."

"I'm her father, I make those decisions for her. I've already lost my wife, and I'm not going to lose my daughter too."

"But I..."

"Not another word."

"Akamu I..."

"I said not another word!" He screamed.

He clasped his fists and gritted his teeth. He hit me in the face and that's when I knew that not only was he neglectful, but he was dangerous too. I had to get Maizy out of there.

"After that I fought for full custody of her, but I lost because I wasn't one of Maizy's biological parents. Akamu had the upper hand and there wasn't anything I could do." I told him. "Then a few mouths ago, after the fire at the bank, Akamu saw on the news that a boy from the fire had fully recovered. It was then he got the idea to see if the same thing would save Zoey and the rest kinda fell into place. I honestly didn't think he would take things as far as he did. And if I had known what he was going to do that family I would never have gone along with it."

"So now that Akamu's in jail, you're allowed to be Maizy's legal guardian?" He asked.

"Right." I nodded. "I'm the only family she has left. It's what Zoey would've wanted."

He looked one more more time at resumé and looked up with a smile.

"You don't have a lot of experience, but you seem like someone who cares about their family and that's what we look for here, and I don't want to be the one to tear your family apart." He smiled.

"Does that mean?"

"Yep, you're hired." He smiled.

"Oh thank you so much!" I shook his hand again.

"No problem, I'll see you tomorrow for your first day." He smiled.

"You won't regret this, I promise."

I told him goodbye and then I went home to tell Maizy the good news, but she wasn't home. I had gotten used to her coming home late, but usually she at least calls me. I was a little worried but she's a tough girl just like her mother. She would be fine... I hope.