It takes me ten chapters to move the plot two centimeters, but WHOO! Two centimeters it is! At least we're finally starting to tie off a plot thread that's been running for the ENTIRE STORY. I might actually get close to finishing someday guys, can you believe it? :P

Guest: Thanks for the review! Yep, things about to get a little lighter for a while, maybe. A little. ^_^

Fiiiyaaah: Yep, slowly working on patching these kids back into one piece. They've got a ways to go yet, but they'll get there. :)

SpiritDragon: Yeah, they're dealing with a lot. And honestly, in a way Kai's secret is already out—Nya and Sensei have already guessed, and Lloyd and Cole can't be too far behind. Kai's just really hoping nobody tries to talk to him about it . . . well, besides Sensei, who's already started.

Oct 24

9:49 AM

Status conditions: Cole; penetrating trauma to lower limb, dialysis dependent. Zane; essentially dismantled. Lloyd; gunshot wound, major bite wound, burn injuries, moderate-to-severe venom-related vasculitis, needs more huggles. Nya; moderate venom-related vasculitis. Jay; blast injury, scalp laceration. Kai; would probably refuse huggles despite dire need thereof

Mild-to-moderate lacerations and contusions across the board.

On the Bounty it was quiet. Most of the adults were probably holed up in corners, and Skylor had already gone back to her noodle shop. Feeling optimistic, Jay went to the kitchen for a second coffee. In the doorway he brightened.

"Oh hey, Kai!" Then he remembered prior circumstances and backed up a few steps. "Uhhhh, just for the record—"

"I know, I know." Kai waved him off. "Sensei Wu is magic and stuff." He looked like he was about to say something else, but suddenly he stiffened. "Wait. Who's with Lloyd?!"

"Cole," said Jay cheerfully.

"What? How? Are they okay?"

"They're great!" said Jay, going to fetch himself a coffee mug. "They're having cuddles and a long talk and I think Lloyd's gonna be doing a lot better now."

"No way. Really? What was wrong?" asked Kai, his eyes hopeful. Jay opened his mouth to start, but then hesitated.

"Ahhh . . . maybe I should let them explain."

After all, maybe Lloyd wouldn't want anyone to know how shaken he'd been. Cole would almost definitely want a chance to explain himself—Jay had already been prepared to beat him up back there, heaven knew what Kai might do.

Meanwhile Kai squinted dubiously, but at last shrugged.

"As long as they're okay . . . "

"Peachy!" Jay poured himself some tepid coffee, with a flourish. "Now. How are you?"

"Ahhhhh." Kai immediately lost enthusiasm for the conversation. "'m all right."

"You look a lot better," said Jay frankly. "Good talk?"

"Good tea," said Kai, shaking his head. "Honestly, I can't tell if that was tea or a controlled substance."

"Yeah?" Jay laughed.

"It was super relaxing. Like, you could have thrown a chainsaw at me and I wouldn't have reacted. So basically Sensei hops me up on the Tea of Illicit Substances, and then he made me talk about . . . you know. That. He says it'll make me get used to feeling calm while talking about it. And then there was a lot of weird stuff about pointing my eyes in different directions and . . . I don't even know. But yeah. Now I'm calm, anyway."

"Mm." Jay watched him tracing the table edge, one corner of his mouth pulled back unhappily. He might be calm, but he clearly wasn't over it. While the emotional edge had been taken off, the intellectual torment continued. If he knew Kai, this wasn't going to go away until something stupid came to pass.

"Well," he said at last, sighing. "Since you're so tranquil today, you should be ready for some alien wrangling."

"No."

"Thanks for volunteering!" said Jay cheerfully. "Here you go."

He fished around in the sink and procured a rather limp-looking Mopp.

"He's yours for the day," he announced, plopping the alien in front of Kai. "Protect him with your life."

"Protect his life from me," said Kai automatically, then stiffened and gave Jay a stricken look.

"Sorry," he mumbled.

Jay shook his head, dismayed at how much of their usual snarking had suddenly become emotionally charged.

"Just pet him already," he said, and clapped Kai on the shoulder as he left. From behind him he heard Mopp starting to wearily purr. Good. He trusted the alien to continue Sensei's work, and as a bonus the poor critter could probably use the extra attention.

Still swilling his coffee, he headed down to the control room. There he found Nya working on Zane, patiently explaining his mechanics to an eager Ed and Edna. Meep was sprawled on his back on one of the control panels, basking in Edna's affections.

"Morning everyone!" said Jay, and braced for his mom's kiss hello. Nya looked cheated, but Jay didn't manage to catch her eye.

"Are you doing okay?" he asked. "Woah, wait! Are you, uh . . . sure that's a good idea?"

Zane's head was wired to the computer, as Jay had decided against yesterday.

"Personally I find it excellent," said a wry feminine voice. Jay started.

"Oh, hi Pix!"

A couple of the computer's alarm systems chimed briefly in greeting. Meep rolled over and squeaked adoringly, batting at one of the blinking buttons.

"I figured PIXAL could use some room to stretch her legs," said Nya. "Don't worry, I cleaned all the Technician code fragments off the computer first. We don't need them anymore, all that stuff is going to Dr. Borg's server farm. The katamari's really shaping up! It should be ready in a week or two."

"Awesome," said Jay, smiling. Compared to handling Nash, finishing off the technological aspect of the Technicians' plot seemed like a fun party game.

Nya's thoughts seemed to be trending along a similar line.

"I wonder how the rest of the Techies are feeling, now that their top hitman's out of the way," she remarked. Then she glanced nervously to Ed and Edna and quickly changed the subject. "Anyway! Back to Zane. PIXAL, this gear doesn't go here, does it?"

"Ahhh, geez, I've lost control of their audio," sighed Silica, flopping back in her office chair. She flicked a beetle off her sleeve apathetically—in their underground bunker, you could hardly get rid of the creepy-crawlies faster than they came at you. Her blonde roots had long ago started showing under her sleek blue dye job, but there was no way to redo them out here.

"Well, I guess that's one way to quit a bad habit," she said. "If I can't eavesdrop on them now, maybe I'll finally focus on the new coding. Just a few more fragments and we'll be in business."

"Yeah, sure," said CapsLock, not looking up from a paper full of scribbled diagrams. "I love it. What a perfect time to lose the ability to track the ninjas' plans. Now we won't know if and when they decide to drop in through our ceiling."

"You've been in a great mood lately," said Silica wryly. "What. Ya miss Blue?"

"Eff off," growled CapsLock. "Who's gonna protect us from the ninja now, huh?"

"Meh." Silica waved him off. "Who even cares anymore? You know what, Cappie, I'm actually loving this. No more dealing with Mr. Toothy, no more freaking out that he's gonna stab the ninja, no more wondering when he's gonna turn around and stab us. The katamari is still gonna work just fine without him, and now that we're doing it decentralized, we won't need a bunch of roughs to guard it. Meanwhile the police and ninja are probably gonna be too busy scooping up Nash's crew to bother looking for you and me and our non-slobber operatives. Chances are pretty good they won't find us."

"And if they do?" growled CapsLock.

"Then screw it!" Silica threw up her hands, sending a couple more beetles flying. "If they find us, then they find us. We'll all go to jail. Woo freakin' hoo. Can't be much worse than this! Let 'em come!"

"Well, I'm glad you've entered the bliss of insanity," said CapsLock bitterly. "I know I'm not gonna sit here waiting for the ninja to come slit our throats."

He stormed out of the bunker, sending showers of earth falling from the edges of the trapdoor. Silica rolled her eyes and toppled back upright in her chair, returning to her work.

"Ew," she remarked, picking an earthworm out of her keyboard. Tossing it aside with a sigh, she resumed typing code.

A few hours into the afternoon, Nya decided to go down to Ninjago City to look for replacement parts for Zane. Jay decided this was also a good time to check how Lloyd and Cole were doing, so they rode his dragon downtown together. Jay slipped into the hospital a little nervously—to his relief the "Code Find" announcements weren't still playing.

"Hey?" He poked his head into Cole's room, then grinned. Lloyd was still there, asleep, curled up next to Cole and nearly hidden under an extra hospital blanket.

"Been having a good talk, huh?" said Jay, coming in.

"Sparky?" Cole looked up drowsily. "Ohhh, hey. Hi. Get in here, you can help me hate myself."

"Did you learn that from me?" Jay plunked down on the edge of the bed and whacked Cole's arm. "'cos that sure sounds like me."

"Well, I've got reasons." Cole ruffled Lloyd's hair, his eyes distant with guilt. "FSM, I really destroyed the kid. I've never seen him cry before."

"Ah, that's . . . that's been a thing lately," said Jay, then regretted it when Cole flinched. "N-not all your fault, though! I don't think."

Cole groaned.

"It's close enough to all my fault. We were talking for hours and he just kept coming back to it, am I really sure I want him to stay, what if the drugs just made me more honest, what if we're being too sentimental and he gets us killed . . . " He slumped, sighing. "He'll never trust me again."

"Aww, no, c'mon," said Jay. "Just keep trying. He'll come around."

"It probably didn't help that he heard me being all tough on Kai earlier and saying he didn't deserve to be part of the team," continued Cole miserably. "No wonder he believed me, he probably thinks I just cut people off at the first excuse. And heck, why wouldn't he? He's only spent nine-tenths of his life getting left behind, and kicked out of everywhere, and used, and lied to, and stabbed in the back—" He broke off, shaking his head despairingly. "How did I do that to him?"

"Would you relax?" Jay shook his arm, somewhat distressed himself by now. He wasn't ready to entertain the possibility that they'd lost their little brother's trust forever. "Cut it out! Beating yourself up now isn't gonna help Lloyd. And besides, it's not like you did it on purpose, and it's not even all your fault. None of this would have happened if this kid wasn't dead-set convinced that we're all dangerous and his problems have to be Class 12 national secrets."

"That's not his fault," said Cole sharply.

"I know it's not," said Jay. "But it sure makes it harder for us to help him."

"Yeah . . . " Cole sighed. "Ugh. Yeah."

Jay sighed as well, clambering over the bed railing and elbowing Cole in the side till he made room. He settled back against the parsimonious hospital mattres, tucked his hands behind his head, and watched Cole smoothing and tousling Lloyd's curls for a while.

"He shouldn't have gone through half of that junk," said Cole, mostly to himself. "Heck, any of this junk. Even if he does talk to us, I don't have half a clue how to fix it. I just . . . Whose neck do I gotta wring?"

"I dunno." Jay smiled glumly. "The universe's?"

"All right, that's your job now, Jay," said Cole. "Find the universe's neck so I can wring it."

"You wish. I'll wring it first." Jay smiled a little when Cole elbowed him grumpily, glad that he had improved Cole's mood to at least that point. He glanced to Lloyd, still soundly asleep.

"One other thing," he said quietly. "Was that true, about Mack? Did he really survive?"

"You think I'd lie to him at a time like this?!" Cole looked wounded again.

"To make him feel better—maybe." Jay shrugged. Cole sighed.

"No, I told the truth." He looked away. "Just . . . maybe not all of it."

Jay watched him silently, waiting for him to go on.

"The police did find Mack by that creek," said Cole. "What was left of him. He'd been shredded up and shot full of venom. Nash must have found him after we knocked him off that van . . . and he wouldn't torture someone who was already dead." He sighed again. "So yeah. He survived the creek. The kid doesn't need to know the rest."

"Mm." Jay let his gaze flicker away again. He didn't know if he was unfazed or ashamed about it, but he realized all at once that he was glad Nash was gone. He hated that Kai had to suffer for it. Maybe on some abstract plane he felt a visceral revulsion at how much Nash had suffered himself before he died. But for the most part? Not. Sorry. At all.

"And hey," said Cole suddenly. Jay started at the sudden edge in his tone. "Is it just more of the pain meds screwing with my head, or did I hear you say that you guys fought Nash without me?"

Jay gulped. Cole glared at him suspiciously for a while, then eventually drew his answer from Jay's continued silence. He sank back, groaning.

"Great. Just great. I missed out on that? FSM, I really am useless."

"Ahhhhh, don't start." Jay whapped his arm again. "You'd already gotten torn up, you weren't in shape to fight."

"But I could've helped," said Cole miserably. "I'm the leader. It's supposed to be my job to keep the rest of you safe. Maybe if I'd been there the rest of you wouldn't be so . . . "

Jay flinched. For just a second the thought flashed through his head: maybe if they'd had one extra fighter, Kai wouldn't have had to go so drastic. Maybe things would have been totally different. After a moment, he forcibly pushed the thought away.

"It just had to happen this way, I guess," he said. "In a way you did help. Because you were tied down in a hospital, we had a pretty good idea of where Nash would attack first. So we knew where to set our trap."

"Ah. So I'm good for bait," said Cole. He sounded about as thrilled as you'd expect.

"Kinda." Jay gave him a rueful smile. Everything had been so morbid lately, he didn't even know what counted as dark humor anymore.

"At least tell me what happened," said Cole.

Jay was a little reluctant at first, but he soon found that walking Cole through the last few nights was actually kind of a relief. Piecing everything together into a narrative made it seem less like a random jumble of terrifying moments. And it was kind of nice to get validation from an outside observer—no, it wasn't just him, this really was messed-up, he wasn't wrong to be shaken. It was helpful. He wondered if this was how Kai's talk with the Sensei had gone.

About half an hour after Jay had finished the recap and the conversation had drifted to other, marginally easier topics, Lloyd stirred and shivered in his sleep. He calmed when Cole ruffled his hair again, but he was out of deep sleep by now. Within a few minutes he was stirring, and finally his eyes slid open. He blinked drowsily from a moment, then started up with a gasp.

"S-sorry!" he sputtered.

"For what?" Cole reached over to tousle up his hair. "You looked like you needed it, and I know I needed the company."

Lloyd still looked guilty, scoping out the room with one eye as he blearily rubbed the other.

"Do they know I'm here?" he asked. "Are they looking for me?"

"Yeah, a couple nurses came in," said Cole. "They wanted to drag you back to your room, but I told 'em you'd been in a trainwreck and needed to hang out down here."

"I'm norra trainwreck," muttered Lloyd half-heartedly.

"They still want you back in your own room, though," said Cole. "Pain meds, and stuff."

"Agh. I feel fine," said Lloyd. That probably wasn't entirely true—with the stuff that had happened to his leg, it was probably near enough impossible—but he didn't seem to be in agony or anything, anyway.

"Once you get through all that, though, you wanna wrangle some way to stay down here for good?" said Cole. "Seriously. I could use a roommate."

Lloyd hesitated, pushing his bangs out of his eyes.

"You sure?" he ventured at last, eyeing Cole as if he kinda knew the answer but just really needed to hear it one more time. Or a couple billion more times.

"Sure." Cole grinned and tugged on Lloyd's forelock gently. "Bring your hair. We might need a third bed just for that, but we'll figure it out."

"Argh." Lloyd shrank away, reddening. "I'll get it cut soon. I promise. As soon as I can. S-sorry."

"Woah, woah, hold up," said Jay. "Now a haircut's on the table after all?!"

"I let it go too far," said Lloyd softly. "I'm not gonna let something like that happen again."

"Well . . . it's definitely gonna be safer," admitted Cole. "For you and for everyone else." He exchanged a glance with Jay, wordlessly questioning. The promise was clearly difficult for Lloyd to make.

"I guess I'd better go," mumbled Lloyd, starting to clamber to the edge of the bed. "I'll ask if I can come back—"

"Uh, hey, wait, hold on a sec." Cole caught at his shoulder lightly. "Just before you go, if y'don't mind my asking . . . why did you grow your hair so long in the first place?"

"Oooooh, yes. I wanna know." Jay jumped onboard at once.

Lloyd flinched, ducking his head.

"I don't know if you want to know . . . "

"Believe me, I absolutely want to know."

"It's really stupid," mumbled Lloyd.

"We kind of assumed that much already," grinned Cole, nudging him. "Come on. I was already kinda figuring that you were holding out just to annoy us, so it really can't get much stupider than that."

"Don't make any bets . . . "

"It's not some kind of Samson thing, is it?" joked Jay. "Cut your hair, lose your powers?"

Lloyd shook his head wordlessly.

"Come onnnnn." Cole sighed, exasperated. "I promise I won't get, like, angry angry. And I won't make fun of you, if that's what you're worried about."

"Maybe," supplied Jay, grinning. Cole elbowed him sternly.

"Ignore him. Ugh. Listen, fine, if you really don't want to, don't, but I would kinda love an explanation—"

"Okay, okay!" Lloyd took a deep breath and turned back. Then he lost his nerve and looked away again. It took a whole series of deep breaths before he could even get a halfway decent start. Cole and Jay waited patiently.

"Soooo . . . uhm." Lloyd faltered, then groaned and shut his eyes. "I . . . well . . . y—y'know how . . . my dad and I always kinda wore our hair the same way? . . . "

Whatever triumph the others might have felt at prying out Lloyd's secret shattered. You could hear it smashing, actually, with how silent the room had gone.

"Snap," said Cole at last. "Lloyd. And all this time we've been teasing you . . . "

"It's not like I minded." Lloyd was starting to tear up again, even though he was smiling. "It was . . . k-kinda . . . every time someone brought it up it kinda reminded me of him, a-and—"

"FSM unpreceded . . . "

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Lloyd shook his head desperately.

"Don't be sorry. Good grief." Cole held out his arms. "Get over here. You little idiot."

"I know, it's stupid, right?" said Lloyd, although he was burrowing into the hug as if worried Cole might suddenly change his mind. Jay hesitated, then draped himself on from the other side, unwilling to leave Lloyd with any doubts about his sympathy.

"No, it's not stupid," said Cole. "You should have told us! Argh, forget that, we should have known. You were way too calm about losing your dad, you were quiet for like three days and then you went back to being happy. We should've known it couldn't really be that easy for you."

"I didn't want any drama," mumbled Lloyd.

"It's not drama. You're supposed to miss people. You remember how shook up Zane was when he lost his dad a second time? You came back from touring to be there and we were staying up with him every night and everything. You think we wouldn't have done that for you?"

"I . . . "

"Come on. I know everyone always says you're the happy one and you keep everyone else hopeful and stuff, but you can't be that all the time. And I know back when you were little, maybe it wasn't safe to let anyone know you were hurting. But it's not like that here. We'd have more than understood if you needed to not be okay for a while. You know we'd have been there for you."

"I know, I know." Lloyd took a deep breath, wriggling free and swiping at his face sheepishly. "m'sorry."

"Are you getting paid by the apology or something?" Cole flicked his forehead. "Stop it."

"So—" Lloyd clapped his hands over his mouth and ducked, muffling giggles, as Cole swung at his head jokingly. He sobered quickly though.

"Still. I'm cutting it. Promise."

"I almost wanna say you shouldn't, now," sighed Cole. "I mean, if you're growing it out in memory of your dad and stuff, that kinda feels wrong . . . "

"Could you maybe pin it back or something?" said Jay. "Or tie it? Heck, apparently Kai used to make ponytails look good, so it's gotta be easy."

Lloyd snorted, smiling ruefully.

"I guess, but Dad sure never tied his hair back. That'd kinda kill the whole point."

"Ahhh . . . " Cole looked hesitantly to Jay, then back to Lloyd. "I hate to bring this up, but . . . You do know that your hair doesn't look like your dad's now anyway, right? Tied back or not."

"I know, I know." Lloyd laughed sheepishly. "But at least the original look is sort of still 'in there,' you know? Just overgrown. Once I cut it, it's sure to turn out different."

"You could bring a picture with you and tell the barber, 'I want it to look just like this'," said Cole. "That's a thing you can do."

"Well yeah, but there . . . actually aren't any clear pictures of my dad, at least from when he was good." Lloyd smiled sadly. "There was that one grainy little photo with him in the newspaper, and literally nothing else. I wish I'd taken some pictures while I could, but . . . everything happened so fast."

"Oh." Cole sat soberly for a moment, thinking about this. Eventually though, he gave Lloyd a curious look. "Well, why not just bring a photo of yourself, back when your hair looked like your dad's?"

Lloyd stared at him with wide eyes. Cole struggled to keep a straight face.

"Never crossed your mind?"

Lloyd sank his face into his hands, groaning from the most plaintive depths of his soul.

"Kill me now . . . "

"Not a chance." Despite their most valient efforts Cole and Jay were laughing. "Agh. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. It's not you—well, I mean, it kinda is, but—"

"How are you not mad at me?!" groaned Lloyd from behind his hands.

"Hah, put yourself in my place and tell me if you could be mad at you." Cole punched his shoulder.

"At least we know fame didn't go to your head!" said Jay. "Probably literally thousands of photos of the Golden Ninja out there, and you're just like, 'wait, what? Pictures of me?'"

"Shut uuuuuuuup," wailed Lloyd.

"Yeah, you heard him." Cole clobbered Jay helpfully with a pillow. "Now Lloyd, listen. This is gonna be easy. Find yourself a ton of photos, and then—ow, Jay!—and then we'll help you track down the best barber in all of freaking Ninjago, okay? You're gonna come out identical."

Lloyd hesitated a second, but finally nodded gratefully.

"Thanks," he murmured. "I'd like that."

"Good," said Cole, and chucked the pillow at him. Lloyd grinned and tucked it under himself so nobody else could use it again, which of course invited Cole and Jay to start assiduously working to get it back. Before things could devolve too far into roughhousing, there was the sound of rolling computer wheels outside. All three of them stiffened.

"Oh shoot, it's the nurse again!" said Cole.

"I'll go!" Lloyd started to scramble up, but Cole caught at his arm.

"Hold on. Jay, could you hold her off for just a second please?" he asked. "Just really quick."

"You got it!" Jay dove headfirst over the bed railing. "I'll tackle her and tie her up with an IV tube!"

"Jay no—"

"Hooah!" Jay was already charging for the door. Cole shook his head despairingly and left it to a gamble that Jay was joking. He tugged gently on Lloyd's arm, pulling him back to the side of the bed.

"Hey, kiddo," he said. "I mean it. Ask them if you can switch rooms, okay?"

"Okay." Lloyd's smile was almost back to its old self. "I'll ask."

"And when you're down here, you can tell me all about your dad, okay?" said Cole. "Anything you want. Then you won't need to grow out your hair to remember him."

"Ahh . . . " Lloyd hesitated, looking at his feet. "I'd feel kinda bad, it'll probably be boring and sappy and stuff . . . "

"I wouldn't care." Cole tugged Lloyd's arm again as he tried to drift away. On some level he knew it was less Lloyd being considerate and more just trying to lock his secrets back up, and he wasn't about to let it come to that again.

"Hey, look. If you want it to be fair . . . " He faltered for a moment, then swallowed and leaned closer so Lloyd could hear him. "I never got to talk to anyone about my mom either. I wouldn't say no to it. We could trade?"

Lloyd shivered, saying nothing.

"It doesn't have to be right away," said Cole quietly. "But . . . someday?"

Lloyd gave a shaky sigh and threw his arms around Cole one last time.

"Love you too, Fluffy," murmured Cole. "A'right. Now go save that poor nurse from Jay, wouldja? And don't you dare cut off that hair before we get pictures."

A/N: All this chaos is technically taking place between Seasons 4 and 5 (believability be hanged), so the presence of Sensei Garmadon photos in Season 8 technically doesn't count. I can totally still make it work, though! Ya notice, the photo that Lloyd keeps coming back to was clearly taken at Chen's Island, pretty much the only place where Garmadon would have been seen by Titanium Zane. Titanium Zane with the photographic memory and the printer abilities. Yep.