"Guys!" Nya shouted, rushing over to a chain-link fence, "Come over here!"

Cole was the first to her side. As quietly as possible, he moved a branch out of his vision, and found himself looking at a brightly lit monastery, "What the f..." he trailed off, "What is this place?"

"It looks like a monastery hidden in the woods," Zane's voice slowly grew closer, as well as the footsteps of the others.

Yes, thanks Zane, Cole shook his head, but then something dawned on him, "Hey guys.... This looks like Chen's place."

"No," Kai shook his head, "It can't be, he's got his own island for that."

"Yeah, well," Jay waved his arms at the building and training yard in front of them, "I've got a hunch that he's moved to NinjaGo!"

"OverLord?" Nya suggested, "Maybe he knows that Chen could be a good ally."

"Great," Cole slouched his shoulders in dismay, "Just perfect! First we have to deal with the OverLord and his digital minions and now we've got a group of Elemental Masters who're out for our heads to deal with too?!"

"Yes," Nya shrugged with an all-knowing tone, "You've already defeated this guy, though, you'd think he'd have stayed further away."

"Unless there is something in New NinjaGo City that he wants," Zane said, putting a hand to the fence, only to have a gate swing open under his touch, "Oops."

"Should we?" Kai asked the question that drifted through all their minds.

Cole answered by pushing his way into the training field. The others all followed in close pursuit, calmly pulling out their weapons of choice.

Kai jumped into a balcony and pressed his back to the wall. The rest followed him up, and he peeked into the window. What he saw almost made him shout, but he tried to suppress his voice into a whisper to not blow their cover. When he opened his mouth no sound came out. Jay gave him a worried look, "What's the matter?"

Kai pointed soundlessly and frantically at the window, silently telling everyone to look inside. Cole looked at pulled his head back down below the sill, stage-whispering at the rest, "What is she doing here?"

"I was going to ask you that!" Kai's voice was a little above a whisper, so everyone shushed him. He grudgingly obliged and lowered his voice as he poked his head up to gaze at the sleeping girl in the room. Her eyes were closed, breathing even and brown-blonde hair splayed over her shoulders and onto the pillow. She was only wearing an oversized dark blue t-shirt. Kai snarled lowly, seeing the other body in bed alongside her,

"And who is she sleeping with?"

"Brother?" Nya suggested, "Why would you care anyway?"

Cole poked Kai's sides, "Oooooo, someone's got a crush on a Hypnobrai!"

"Do not!" Kai whined with a scowl.

"Can we discuss Kai's creepy love interest choices later?!" Jay asked, clearly annoyed, "We kind of have bigger issues on our hands!"

"Jay has a point-" Zane cut off, "My sensors are picking up movement inside the room to our right. I suggest we hide."

"Hide where?!" Kai snarked, looking around at the plain, blank balcony, "There's nowhere to hide!"

"Over the edge then!" Nya shoved Jay off the side and followed suit, "We can just hang out for a bit."

The last of them just got over the railing when the door to their right and footsteps echoed through the empty night. A girl, around the age of Jay, walked out. The only thing about this newcomer that wasn't a vibrant green was her faded, dark purple pajama pants. Short, bright green hair was pulled back in a high ponytail, scuffled with sleep, showing off her equally as green eyes and freckles.

She pursed her lips, also green, and scanned her surroundings. When she found nothing, the mystery girl turned towards Lar's door, "Psstt!"

She kept at this for quite sometime before the next door down from Lar's opened, and out stepped Shadow, rubbing his eyes from sleep, "Tox, what are you doing?!" he hissed lowly.

"I heard voices out here!" she protested, waving her arms around, "I thought it was Lar, but then I came out here and there's nothing," by the end of her sentence she was talking normally: no more whispers.

Shadow followed, although, his voice was slightly louder than her's, "Well, it wasn't me, if that's what you're getting at."

"That's not what I was getting at, Shay, I was just saying that there were voices out here," she leaned on the railing and glared at Shadow.

"Go back to sleep, you're probably hallucinating from too much toxins," he sneered.

There was a small pause in which the two fell silent, waiting for their new guest to step from his doorway, "What are you two doing out here?! It's, like, one in the morning!"

"We were actually gossiping about you," Shadow lied playfully.

Toxikita smoothed out her PJ's, "He's not entirely lying. We were talking about who was out here talking."

"You two are out here talking, and you're most likely waking up everyone else who's in the building!" he whispered at them, flailing his arms.

"Shh!" Shadow pushed his finger to his lips, but still didn't lower his speaking voice,

"Wouldn't want to wake anyone on this floor, now would we?"

"Like who?" Lar asked, placing a hand on his hip, "The only other person on this side of the building is Neuro!"

"What about your little girlfriend inside?" Toxikita nodded her head towards Lar's room, in which Jade was sleeping peacefully, "Don't Serpentine get irritable when unwillingly awoken?"

"I wouldn't know," Lar snapped, "Nor will I ever. She's not my girlfriend, either."

"Ash said you have the hots for her, though," Shadow added, "I was in his room talking to him just before."

"I do not!" Lar objected.

"On the contrary, I've seen inside your mind," they were joined by the smooth voice of Neuro, who appeared on the balcony to the right of Shadow, "Lar, you do indeed have the 'hots' for Jade."

"No one asked you, Neuro!" Lar snapped, glad to have the darkness of night covering his dark blush.

"Indeed, no one did," he smirked, crossing his arms over his gray tank top, "I invited myself into the conversation."

"So I've realized," Lar muttered, glaring into the distance.

"Oh calm down," Shadow scowled at the blonde, "She's probably into you too."

"He's only met her today, Shadow," Toxikita chuckled, "You can't fall in love with someone you've only just met."

"Although," Neuro had such a flat, monotone voice it was hard to tell when he was deeply in thought or just simply talking, "Seeing inside her mind at the moment she is dreaming of you and our old friends the Ninja, especially the red one, Kai. Quite interesting, really."

The group dangling from the edge of Lar's balcony inhaled sharply, and Kai almost lost his grip and fell at the mention of his name. They looked at one another, all asking the same questions.

"Well, it's been nice talking to you three," Lar's voice dripped acidic sarcasm, "But I'm tired and I need to go to sleep."

"Which is code for, 'I miss the bed that's got a pretty girl in it'," Neuro snickered, "Lar, just admit you love her and ask her out."

"I am not in love with Jade!" he huffed, but the others, including the Ninja, heard something else in his tone: and it made Kai's well-known temper flare.

Cole noticed and swung his leg to the side, kicking Kai in the calf as if to cool him off. It worked, for the most part, anyway.

Toxikita yawned, "Okay, you know, we've been out here for at least an hour talking about Lar's freaky romances. There was obviously no one out here, so I'm going back to bed," and with that she wandered back inside her room.

There was a few more minutes of pointless banter between the three guys that remained before Shadow and Neuro said their goodbyes and went back to bed. Lar leaned against the railing and stared, dazed, out at the stars and began to talk to himself, "I suppose those three are right. I've got nothing to lose if I ask her out. She could say yes, she could say no but either way I won't let it affect our friendship."

Kai waited until the door clicked shut before jumping back to safety. He stood from his crouch and looked through the glass door just in time to watch Lar climb back under the blankets and gently wrap his arms around the girl who was already laying there. Kai felt his heart snap when the blonde planted a small kiss to Jade's temple.

*.*↠*.*↞*.*

"Kai, what is wrong with you?!" Cole snapped, on the verge of slapping Kai across the face, "Ever since before at Chen's you've been all wonky and we want to know why."

Kai gazed around the room: Jay and Nya had arranged and intervention to deal with Kai's mood. Currently, they were all seated in the dark game room, with only the company of discarded game controllers and a blank TV screen, "There is nothing wrong, guys, okay?! Just drop it."

"No," Jay crossed his arms, "There is something up. Is it because that Jade girl got away from us?"

Got away from me, yeah, Kai shook his head, "No."

Nya countered, leaning forward in her seat, "Is there a sting from being so close to Skylor last night? She is, after all, your ex and we all know it didn't end well..."

Kai's heart jumped. He'd never thought of Skylor, and the fact they left on a bad note made him ache all over, "No."

"Jade's in the hands of an enemy," Cole jumped in on the guessing game too.

More like in the arms, the fleeting image of Lar wrapping his arms around Jade and pulling her flush against him jumped around Kai's head, giving him a throbbing headache, "No. Guys, just leave me alone."

"Could it be possible that you're actually in love with Jade?" Zane leaned back on the couch as he asked this.

Everyone watched as Kai went rigid and flushed, and it was in that instant Kai's secret was not so secret anymore. Everyone gasped wordlessly, awaiting Kai's explanation. He face-palmed and sighed, "Okay, so maybe I have a little bit of a crush. It's nothing."

"Judging by your tone," Zane spoke up, "I am beginning to believe it is not actually nothing, and is indeed something that is bothering you dearly."

Kai's hot temper threatened to burst, so he attempted to calm down, "Guys, I swear I'm fine. Can we just drop the subject now?!"

Before anyone could react he jumped from his seat and stalked from the room, leaving the four confused and all-knowing. Finally, Nya whispered, "I think we offended him..."

*.*↠*.*↞*.*

Kai leaned almost all the way over the railing of the deck, looking down on the green earth below. Thinking he was alone, he let out an exasperated scream. Followed by a frightened scream when there was a gentle voice behind him, "Kai?"

"Misako?!" he gasped out, clutching at his throbbing heart, "You scared me!"

"Sorry," she smiled at him, but noticed the distant look in his eye, "I recognize that look."

Kai panicked, "What look? I don't have a look! You have a look!"

"Technically speaking, I've always got a look," she told him in an attempt to lighten the mood, "Now what seems to be troubling you?" He shook his head, refusing to answer. Misako shrugged, "If you wish not to speak of it, that is alright."

Kai gently caught her sleeve before she turned away, finally swallowing his confusion and finding his voice, "Have you seen that Jade girl?"

"Not lately, no," she shook her head, "I thought you said she-"

Kai cut her off, "Escaped, yes. But that isn't what I was asking. I was asking if you've seen her."

Misako nodded once, "Yes, I have. I see why you're so worried, Kai. She is the spitting image of the younger me."

Kai released her sleeve as if it held an electric current, "No..."

"Yes, actually," she countered politely, "Why are you so interested in this mystery girl?" Misako refused to call the stranger her daughter until she knew for sure.

"I..." he sighed and went back to leaning on the railing, "I think that I may have the slightest crush on her."

The only response was a hum, "I can understand that. And the only advice from me to you is follow your heart, no matter what your brain says."

And in nothing flat, Kai was alone with his jumbled thoughts and throbbing headache, "I need something for my head," he muttered, slowly going back inside. He found the medicine cabinet in the bathroom and removed the painkillers, holding them in his hand.

"You're not going to purposely O.D, are you?" Cole asked, leaning in the doorframe.

"That's nothing to joke about," Kai scowled at Cole through the mirror, "But no, I'm not that heartbroken. I'm a Ninja, not suicidal."

"You're in pain, though," Cole added, nodding to the two small little maroon pills in the palm of hot-head's hand.

"Headache," Kai answered, downing the medicine with a gulp of water. He turned to Cole, "What are we doing tomorrow?"

"Later today, actually," Cole corrected, crossing his arms, "It's three in the morning, and Ninja get no days off. Though, to answer your question, we're going back to Chen's Monastery and taking back what's ours."

"The Techno-Blade?"

"That's not ours," Cole smiled crookedly, "It's Jade's."

"What are you saying?!" Kai's voice cracked in confusion, "I don't understand. We've gotten our Elemental Powers back from Chen when we broke his staff last year. Everyone got their power back, and he's got nothing else of ours!"

"He's got Jade," Cole told him in a whisper, "She's ours. We found her first, but no one can touch her when inside a place of peace, and surrounded by Elemental Masters who will probably protect her."

"So...?" Kai urged him to continue.

Cole face-palmed, "So we get her when she's outside the Monastery, in the Training Grounds and by herself."