Lloyd's P.O.V.:

Kira, Ashley and I were on our way to Kira's old treehouse in Hiroshi's Labyrinth. My father had called and told us that Ryder had gotten hurt so we were going to visit and see if Ashley could help him. Kira was really worried and she was blaming herself for what happened to him.

"I never should've let him go. What kind of mother am I?" Kira said as she was driving unusually fast.

"Kira, it was my idea to send him with Ethan and my dad. If this is anyone's fault it's mine." I frowned.

"Relax Mom, if Ryder is hurt than I can heal him." Ashley said from the backseat.

"You can help him Ashley, but don't try to do more than you can, ok sunshine?" I told her.

"Ok Dad." She nodded.

I honestly didn't want to interrupt their training mission. It was important for Ethan's sake that he didn't have a lot distractions on this trip, but after learning that Ryder got hurt, this was something that we couldn't ignore.

Kira parked her car and we all climbed up to the treehouse. We saw Ryder laying down on the bed and his ankle was wrapped up in bandages. Kira ran right to him and hugged him. Ethan and my father were nowhere to be found.

"Ryder!" Kira ran right to him. "Are you ok? What happened?"

"It's a long story." He sighed.

"Where are your grandfather and Ethan?" I asked.

"They went on a hike. Grandpa didn't want to Ethan to be here when you arrived because he didn't want you to distract him." Ryder told us.

"Ok let's see that ankle." Kira looked at it.

As Kira and Ashley were helping to heal Ryder's ankle, he was explaining everything that happened to him. He still wanted to track down that figure he saw in the woods, but with the atmosphere in this part of the forest, it can cause you to see things that aren't really there. I wasn't sure if he saw a real person or some kind of illusion.

"Ow!" Ryder screamed as Kira touched his ankle.

"That's definitely a hairline fracture." Kira frowned. "Ashley can try to heal it, but we might have to take you home with us."

"No, not yet. I made a promise to protect Ethan and I'm going to keep it." He said. "He still needs my protection."

"That's noble of you bud, but you don't want to risk injuring yourself any farther." I told him.

"But you always say ninja never quit, right?" He looked at me.

"Yes, but a good ninja also knows when to retreat for his safety, so he can live to fight another day." I said.

"But I'm not even fighting, I'm just here to protect him." Ryder said.

"Ryder hold still, I'm going to try to heal you." Ashley said.

Ashley put her hands by Ryder's ankle and tried all she could to heal him. She kept going until she physically and mentally exhausted herself and fell over the bed. Kira and I helped her up.

"Ashley, are you ok?" Kira asked.

"Yeah yeah, I'm fine." She caught her breath. "Is that better Ryder?"

"Yeah, that's a lot better actually." Ryder moved his ankle. He still looked like he was in a bit of pain, but it looked a lot better than before. "Your powers have gotten a lot stronger sis. You're gonna make a great nurse."

"Thanks Ryder." Ashley smiled.

"Ashley healed it for the most part, and the walking boot we brought with us should help keep the pressure off, but I still want to take you in for an x-ray just to be safe." Kira said.

"Ok, I'll go but after we're done training Ethan. It's important that I protect him." Ryder insisted.

After a lot of negotiating, Kira agreed to let Ryder stay and finish his mission, as long as he wore the walking boot and kept her updated on his condition. They also had to get an x-ray the second Ryder got back. I thought that was pretty fair all things considered.

We said our goodbyes to Ryder and took Ashley back to our car. She slept the whole way home because she was so exhausted. I just couldn't stop thinking about that person Ryder saw. It sounded familiar but I didn't understand why. It was just felt weird to me.

"Lloyd, Ryder's gonna be ok." Kira looked at me.

"I know, but I just have a bad feeling about that person he saw." I said. "I know it was probably an illusion, but I can't shake this bad feeling I have, it's like I can't ignore it."

"I would turn back, but Ashley needs to rest." Kira frowned.

"I know, I'll figure something out." I said.

Skylor's P.O.V.:

Kai was driving me home from the hospital. I had a check up for my rib that I broke a couple weeks ago. It was feeling ok for the most part, it just felt sore every now and then.

"Kai, I told you I could drive myself, you didn't have to come with me." I told him.

"I just wanted to keep you company, that's all." He shrugged. "So when can you go back to work?"

"I'm going back tomorrow." I said.

"Tomorrow? Isn't that a little soon?"

"I've been off for about three weeks now, I'm definitely ready to go back to work."

"The kids are going to miss you around the house."

"I know, and these past few weeks with them have been great, but what I feel like the longer I wait to go back, the more crime there's going to be that I wouldn't be able to prevent."

"I know how important the job is to you." Kai smiled. "The kids and I will do just fine."

"Thanks." I smiled.

As we were driving we passed a restaurant and picked up some burgers in the drive through for the kids and took it home. We fed them dinner and while they were eating we told the news.

"Ok kids, the doctor says I'm fully healed. So as of tomorrow I'll be going back to work." I told them.

Amber and Blake took the news pretty well, but Trent stopped eating and freaked out.

"What? Why would you go back after you got hurt?" Trent yelled.

"It's ok champ, I'm all better now." I said. "There's a lot of people that still need my help."

"But I don't want you to get hurt again." He frowned. "What if you don't come home this time?"

"Trent I thought we talked about this." Kai frowned.

"No! I don't want to talk about it!" He screamed.

He ran upstairs to his room and started to tear up. I was really worried about him. I knew he was having trouble with this since the day I came home late, but I didn't think it was this bad.

"I'll go talk to him." I said getting up.

I walked upstairs to his room and knocked on the door.

"Trent, it's Mom. Can I come in?"

"Fine." He answered, reluctance in his voice.

I opened the door and set next to him on the bed. He leaned into me and I put my arms around him.

"I don't want you to leave." He frowned.

"I know champ, but there's a lot of people that need my help." I told him.

"But I need you too." He looked up at me. "I know it's selfish of me but I don't want you to go. What if you don't come home?"

"I know that you're worried, but I've trained for this job and they taught me how to stay safe and make sure I come home everyday. Even though I got hurt I can learn from that mistake so it doesn't happen again."

"But I'll still be scared. Please don't go back." He hugged me again.

I know I really wanted to go back to work, but I didn't want Trent to be scared out of his mind whenever I was at work. That's when I got an idea.

"Hey, why don't you come with me to work tomorrow?" I suggested.

"Really? You mean I get to ride in your cool car?" He suddenly got a big smile on his face.

"Yep, that way you can see what I do and then you'll know I come home because you'll be with me. How does that sound?"

"That sounds awesome! Thanks Mom."

He hugged me again, but this time it was a happy hug. I didn't like the idea of taking him on a ride along, but tomorrow was a Tuesday so we weren't expecting a lot of major criminals. As long as he was with me and stayed in the car, he would be safe.

Once the kids had eaten Kai and I went up to the bedroom.

"Is Trent going to be ok with you going back to work?" Kai asked me.

"I'm taking him on a ride along with me tomorrow so he can see what I do everyday." I told him.

"A ride along? Are you sure that's safe?"

"I'll be with him the whole time and we're not expecting a lot of calls tomorrow."

"But what if something goes wrong?" Kai frowned.

"Look, as long as he's with me and stays in the car, he'll be fine." I told him. "Besides, I don't want him freaking out everyday so it's either this or quit my job, but I want to try this first."

"Ok but make sure he stays in the car." Kai said.

"I got it Kai, I would never let anything happen to him." I nodded.

"I know he's safe with you, but you know how manipulative he can be." Kai smiled.

"Yeah but he gets that from you." I laughed.

"Guilty."

We had a good laugh and then got ready for bed. We then laid down and went to sleep.

The next morning...

I woke up at my usual time and went into the boys room to get Trent ready and he was already dressed and ready to go. I take it that meant he was excited.

"Come on champ, time to go." I whispered so I didn't wake Blake.

"Ok." He whispered and ran out the door.

After a quick breakfast, we got into my car and he hopped in the front seat.

"Now Trent, before we go, you have to promise to do everything I say and stay in the car no matter what. Got it?" I said to him.

"I promise." He nodded.

"Ok now we can go."

"Yay!"

We started our day by taking him into the station and showing him around. I gave him a tour of the place and introduced him to all my friends. Then he sat in my office and played on his tablet while I looked through some case files. Then someone knocked on my door.

"Come in." I said.

The commissioner came into my office with the phone in his hand.

"I have someone on the phone for you. They asked for you personally." My boss said.

"Ok." I took the phone from him and answered it. "Officer Smith, NCPD."

"Skylor, I need your help." I heard Lloyd's voice on the other end of the phone.

"Lloyd? Are you ok?"

"Yeah I'm fine, I was wondering if you could look into something for me." He said.

"Ok what is it?"

"Ryder claims he saw someone in a kabuki mask lurking around Hiroshi's Labyrinth. I don't know if he actually saw something, but I don't want to take any chances."

"Why was Ryder in Hiroshi's Labyrinth in the first place?" I asked.

"Let's just say it was a training mission for Ethan." He said. "Can you please just make sure there's no one out there? I have a really bad feeling about this guy and I have to make sure the kids are safe."

"Alright, I'll look into it." I told him. "Take care Lloyd."

"Thanks, bye." Lloyd hung up the phone.

I gave the phone back to my boss and grabbed my keys. I tapped Trent on the shoulder and he took off his headphones.

"You ready for the exciting part?" I asked him.

"Yeah!" He jumped out of his chair.

We walked out to my car and started driving to Hiroshi's Labyrinth. I was explaining to him who we were looking for.

"So Ryder saw a weird kabuki person and now we have to find them?" Trent asked.

"Well the fog surrounding the forest can cause your mind to play tricks on you, so we're really just seeing if it's real or not." I explained.

"How does it do that?"

"No one really knows, it's one of the great mysteries of Ninjago."

"Cool." He looked around. "So where are we supposed to start looking?"

"Well there's a few places that he would make good hiding spots out here and there's a cave not to far from where Ryder lost the trail." I said. "We'll go from there."

"Ok."

As we were driving around, I drove past Kira's old treehouse and we started heading west from there. That was where Lloyd told me Ryder was chasing down the person. I knew there was a nearby cave in that direction so I thought I would check there first.

I arrived at the cave and parked my car away from the entrance. I got my gear from the trunk and went to tell Trent what was going on.

"Mom can I come with you?" He begged.

"No Trent, it's too dangerous." I said. "You just stay here and keep the doors locked."

"But what if they show up and find me? I'd be safer with you right?" He looked at me.

"Fine, just stay close to me ok?"

"You got it." He smiled.

I let him out of the car and we went into the cave. I didn't want Trent to go with me, but he did have a point. If I left him in the car and the person came back, he would be defenseless, he was safer with me, at least I hope so anyway.

We walked deeper into the cave and although I didn't see anyone, there were definitely signs that someone had been living here. There was a cot and some banana peels and apple cores all over the ground. Some of them weren't rotten yet and that meant they were here recently. I kept looking around and found some papers hidden under the cot. It was a map of the Oni temple in Prime Evils Eye and another one was a map of the abandoned subway tunnels underneath Ninjago City.

"Why is that here?" Trent asked me.

"I don't know, but now we have a lead." I said.

"Who do you think is behind it all?" He asked.

"I don't know, but this is certainly a big clue."

I took some pictures of the maps, but before I could put them back, I heard some footsteps approaching. I took Trent and we ducked behind a rock.

We heard someone walk in and I peaked out from behind the rock. I didn't see her face, but I heard her talking on the phone with someone.

"Yes, preparations are almost done. Once I have the boy, they'll be no one left to stop you."

Her voice, her face, I couldn't believe it. How could she possibly be back? I knew one thing, I had to warn Lloyd and the Garmadons before it was too late. I looked out from behind the rock and saw her looking for something under the cot. I took a picture of her face so the others would believe me.

"Yes, I have everything under contr..." She looked underneath her bed, she saw that the maps were on the top where I left them. She knew we were here. "Actually, I'll have to call you back."

She hung up the phone and started looking around the place. I stopped watching and kept Trent quiet. The last thing we needed to do was to get caught, especially with Trent.

"Trent, do you have your Samurai X mech?" I whispered.

He nodded and showed me the bracelet around his wrist.

"Ok, here's the plan. I'm going to distract her so you can slip out and get your father. Take my phone, show him the pictures, and tell him the quiet one is back."

"But Mom, I can't."

"Yes you can, I believe in you son." I smiled and gave him my phone and hugged him. "Good luck."

Trent's P.O.V.:

"Harumi!" My mom stood up.

"Oh you, I remember you." The lady said.

A fight broke out between them and while she wasn't looking I managed to get to the other side of the cave. I looked back for a second and saw my mom on the ground being pinned by her. I wanted to go back and help, but my mom placed her trust in her me, so I had to complete my mission.

I ran far enough into the forest where they couldn't see me and had to catch my breath. I called my Samurai X mech and hopped inside of it. I had just enough fuel to fly it back to my house, or at least I thought I did. I did have just enough to make it home, but not quite enough to make it home and land my mech safely. I crashed it face down in my backyard and I passed out...

To be continued...