A/N: This is taking me 14 billion years to actually write because I'm afraid it won't be "believable" but then I remember, if only for a brief moment, that an actual villain in the actual TV show, made a snake-powered time machine, and then I start writing a little bit

****

"I can't freaking believe he wants us to go back."

"Kai, none of us want to go back." Jay told him.

Lizz swore she heard Kai's teeth crack over the wind whipping through her ears, "Yeah, well none of you almost got killed yesterday. At least if you had, I would've tried helping!"

Lizz fell back from the group and flew Drop over to fall even with Kai's dragon, Flame, "Kai, we were spooked. None of us actually meant to abandon you."

"Normally when any of us get spooked we go towards the fight, not away from it." he huffed.

"Why'd we leave the other two behind, again?" Jay asked.

"Morro didn't want to come back," Zane told them, "And Cole stayed behind so they could practice being ethereal."

"You should technically be working on that, too, Lizz." Lloyd told Lizz, giving her a pointed look.

She shuddered, "I don't want to."

"Well, you have to until it wears off." Kai chimed in.

"If it ever does." Lizz urged her dragon forward, leaving them in the dust.

Or, well... clouds.

They caught back up to her in a large clearing in the middle of the Labyrinth. As each of their dragons disappeared, a scowl took over their faces as a replacement, "You shouldn't keep disappearing like that, Lizz."

"Since when have you ever cared if I disappeared," she snipped back at Lloyd.

Jay half stepped in front of Lloyd, who looked like he'd been kicked in the ribs, "Hey! Lizz, that was uncalled for."

Her face fell, and she sighed, "I know. I'm sorry..."

Zane motioned with his arm, cutting in to try to ease the tension, "Come, we are near the Crystal, which means the Spirit may not be far."

"Why couldn't Sensei just come here himself?" Lizz huffed, "He's always being so needlessly cryptic and sending us on bull..." she trailed off when there were four sets of eyes trained on her, "Missions..."

"That's what we do," Lloyd told her, "You're part of the team, you have to go on weird adventures. Deal with it, Blue."

She wanted to shove at his shoulder but he was too far away. Zane, leading as usual, "Everyone, keep it down."

"Wouldn't we want to keep our noise level up?" Kai asked.

Jay nodded, "Yeah, if we're loud and obnoxious, then the Spirit would probably get here quicker, wouldn't she?"

"Yes, but we don't want her to try killing us." Lloyd hissed, craning his neck to check the trees, "We want to talk, not fight."

"She comes in like that, again, I think there's going to be a fight no matter what." Lizz pointed out, "Didn't leave much room for talking last time."

"And short of shoving a stick for her to chew on between her teeth, she didn't seem too keen on stopping to ask any questions, either." Kai muttered.

"We're prepared this time," Lloyd assured him.

"Yeah, ain't no one sneaking up on us." Jay added, "We hear her comin' and we'll prepare."

Lizz heard it first. Far in the distance. The wind seemed to pick up, the rustle of leaves becoming heavier. Faster. She stopped moving, planting her feet and squaring her shoulders. One arm reached behind her, hovering over the handle of her sword and the other reached straight to the side, stopping Kai in his tracks, "Boys."

They all stopped, too, giving her a weird look, "What?"

Zane squared up, too, "I hear it. Something's coming."

"Something?" Jay asked, nunchucks in hand, "Or someone?"

"Both." Kai's sword was pulled free just as that same wild scream from yesterday echoed through the trees. He grit his teeth and muttered to himself, "I'm ready for you this time."

"We're all ready for her, this time." Jay fell into the same stance as Lizz; squared shoulders, hand hovering over his weapon.

The others followed suit as they stepped back-to-back in a tight circle. The sounds got louder. Closer. Zane was the first to spot the blur barrelling feet-first towards them, "There."

Now that the threat had been spotted, the group dispersed. They were all able to watch her whiz by, almost in slow motion, getting an almost crystal-clear sight of her before she flew through between everyone. After she dismounted her vine, she'd landed, rolled and sprung back to face them in a crouched position. One of her dirty hands was clawed into the dirt, the other poised above her head. The girl had wild hair that hung in small strands over her even wilder-looking ocean blue eyes. Her teeth were bared, weirdly sharp and strikingly white.

The ninja were posed the same; feet planted. Bodies coiled. Weapons raised.

Neither them nor the Spirit moved, save for slow, heavy breathing.

Lloyd moved first. Slowly and deliberately, he made motion to set his weapon down in the dirt, to show that he meant no harm. The Spirit perceived his movement as a threat and, being on edge to begin with, sprang at him.

Both Lizz and Zane were the first to jump to protect him, despite Lizz still not being at full health. Lizz knocked Lloyd out of the way while Zane went to fight off the Spirit. Kai and Jay unfroze, too, and once Lloyd collected himself, he and Lizz joined too. The Spirit was fast. Inhumanly fast. Too agile for any of the five to get a hit on her, and she'd almost gotten a couple hits on all of them before Zane froze her feet to the forest floor, "We mean you no harm, Spirit!"

Snarling like a trapped animal, she hissed a very real-sounding noise, "Every one who enters my home have the intent to do me and my family harm!"

The ninja froze, almost as if Zane had frozen them too. Collectively, they'd all thought the same thing. She speaks!

"Spirit, we can assure you, we don't want anything to happen to you, or your family–"

"You have taken several of my family!" she snapped, struggling even harder now, "Release me!"

"Spirit, we have had nothing to do with the disappearance of any member of your family," Jay tried, his voice shaky, "We want answers to what's happening, and we believe you're a major key to help. Why would we wreck our chances of your aid by attacking your family?"

"Release me."

"How do we know you won't attack us?" Lizz asked.

"You do not," the Spirit replied, "However, my family will not be too happy if they find me trapped. That has been happening far too much, recently, and they are on edge."

She has such a heavy accent. Lizz narrowed her eyes. Where did she get an accent from, living in Hiroshi's Labyrinth?

"Kai," Lloyd finally moved, putting his weapon away, "Let her go."

"Lloyd–" Jay began, but Lloyd cut him off.

"She won't cooperate unless we're on the same page. Let her go."

Kai melted the ice that had bunched at her feet. She squatted and rubbed at her bare ankles where the ice had bit into her skin, "I do not like your strange abilities."

"We don't like that there's something bad going on here," Zane urged, "Please, return with us so we may dig deeper into what's happening."

"How do I know I can trust you?"

Lloyd stepped forward, slowly, with his hand held out, "You don't. Not yet. Please."

The Spirit regarded him with a look of suspicion, slit eyes flicking between the five before her. Before she could say anything to anyone, she spun on her heel and released an obscenely feral noise. A noise unlike anything human.

The startled the ninja back a foot, back into fight-ready positions.

From the bushes beyond the Spirit emerged a very large jaguar. He strode with slow, deliberate steps, eyeing the Spirit up with a look that looked confused, almost worried. She stood her ground, squaring her shoulders. The ninja watched her lower herself to a crouched position to be eye level with the muscular cat.

The nina tensed, expecting the cat to attack her, but instead he sat back on his haunches and made a quiet chirping noise. The Spirit trilled back, making strange noises from her throat. The jaguar's ears flattened, his fangs suddenly bared in the direction of the ninja. A quick, sharp noise of some sort from the Spirit returned him back to his docile state, his focus back on the Spirit.

The ninja simply looked between each other with matching looks of utter bewilderment.

After a few more moments of chirping and chattering between the jaguar and the Spirit she stood and turned back to face the ninja, "Arvida is coming with us."

"Who?!" Jay almost screamed, his voice leaping to such a high-pitch that it made the jaguar give a start, lowering himself into a defensive position as he let out a long hiss, "You don't mean the cat, do you?"

The Spirit started towards Jay, "If you want my help we are bringing my brother," she hissed, "My family is in danger and he is one of the last ones left."

Lloyd put his hand out to tell Jay to be quiet, "If you can be sure he will behave, we will gladly bring your brother along. What do you mean your family is in danger?"

"Another one has been taken," the Spirit told him, "Arvida had come to warn me that there's danger in the Labyrinth. Danger more dangerous than you. They've taken my mother already, and the only reason they have not gotten my father is because he is too fast and too dangerous. Arvida thinks he is next anyway."

"Then we bring Arvida with us," Lloyd decided, "Follow us?"

The Spirit nodded at Lloyd before motioning for the jaguar to follow. As they walked along, the aire of the group was tense. Kai and Lizz kept eyeing the cat up with suspicion. Zane didn't seem to mind and Jay was all but sulking. Lloyd, at least, was attempting to make friendly conversation as he ducked under fallen trees, "Is he okay with walking that far?"

The Spirit nodded, curling herself with ease over almost every tree Lloyd squeezed under, "We have run further."

"How do you communicate?" Kai asked, suddenly, from the middle of the group.

The Spirit paused, dangling from a tree branch by one arm, her feet braced on the trunk, "The same way we are communicating now?"

"But... but he's a cat."

"And you are a stranger," was the simple reply before she dropped from the tree and disappeared in the foliage. She popped into view behind Kai, making him squeal a little, "We communicate the same."

"Let's keep moving," Lloyd ushered, "Zane, how's everything look?"

"A quick diagnostic informs me the forest is restless but generally unbothered at the moment," Zane responded.

"I can assure you," the Spirit began, "The forest is on edge and you five being here is not helping. It is best we leave. If something attacks, not even I may be able to help." she adjusted the hip-line of the fur skirt-type-thing she wore, tugging it up a little further.

"Attacks?"

The Spirit paused, turning to look at Lizz, "Yes. Attack. Fight. Danger. Green one," she turned to Lloyd, again, "Where are we going?"

"You can call me Lloyd," he told her, a smile trying to tug to his lips, "And we're heading to a clearing so we can leave by air. Are you okay with this?"

"I may be," she told him, "But Arvida may not."

Lizz waved her hand a little, "He can, uh... he can ride with me, if he would like. I'll fly low, and slower than you guys."

"Oh, yes, you fly on your..." the Spirit waved her fingers a little, "Imaginary lizards. I will speak with him before we leave."

"What..." Jay cleared his throat, "What was that noise you made before? When your, uh, brother first showed up?"

"He was plotting to pounce on you and I had stopped him."

A/N: It'll probably be discussed a bit more in the next chapter [that hopefully comes out sooner rather than next year] but she's *not* running around buck-ass naked she's wearing like a fur bikini type something whatever on the grounds that her boobs hurt when stuff hits them bare, and that her butt cheeks are sensitive I guess I dunno lmao