Aryan's POV

"Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait." I said, waving my hands around in overdramatic confusion. "So you showed me that future situation, scared the shit out of me, making me think that it was my presence that killed him, but then, you tell me that's gonna happen regardless?" The dragon, Paix, didn't react.

"No. The future is changing too much to determine that at the moment." I glanced back towards the painting on the wall, a member of the "scrolls" of destiny and fate. The paint, I assumed had once been solid, was now moving and convulsing cross the dark surface, like mist. "It was meant to teach you a lesson." Her words repeated in my head, making sure that I had heard her correctly before I turned slowly towards her.

"Excuse me?" I asked slowly, checking again that it wasn't just my mind. Paix turned towards the wall, as if staring off into a great distance.

"A lesson not to mess with fate or destiny." I swallowed tightly.

"Do you think I somehow asked for this?" Paix still didn't look at me.

"Subconsciously, your input was taken into account." That was it. I raised my finger, glad that I talked with my hands to add attitude.

"Oh, yes." I started. "My biggest subconscious dream is to fall through the sky, get treated like a slave, then get forced to join some dysfunctional boy band with morality issues." I nodded sarcastically. "You caught me." Paix remained silent, so I continued. "I think that old man is using us like an ant farm, some sort of experiment." I tapped my lip, almost unaware that I was more talking to myself now. "The power… it makes us all too different. You can't escape its influence." I heard the sound of scales scraping against other scales as Paix positioned her body so that she could look at me again.

"What influence?" But I barely heard her inquiry.

"The unnerving inability to relate of grow irritated, the blond, the eyes, the skin pigment." I mumbled quietly to myself. "So the power laid dormant, it didn't just appear as Wu makes it seem. The Change happened in the womb."

"Aryan!" Paix snapped loudly in my head, making me remember she was still there. I looked up, putting my hand on my hip.

"What? Any more lessons you need to teach me?" I asked irritability. Paix let out an animal sounding grunt.

"What is the Change?" Something in her tone said she already knew, but I felt the need to explain.

"Power is never free." I said quietly, hoping she could still hear. "It always comes with a price, but the immediate collection is the Change." I took a deep breath, my fingers finding a particular strand of hair behind my ear, no bigger than a needle. "The Power becomes you, changes you." I looked up towards Paix, ensuring she was still paying attention. "If the power joins with you, or is developed in the womb, before birth, it will affect your physical attributes." I pulled the small strand of hair out into the purple-tinted light, showing the dragon. "The grey streak in my hair, the darkness of my eyes." I tucked the strand back behind my ear, out of view. "The overall coolness in Zane's features, the square shape of Cole's jaw, the stability of his build. The warmth in Kai's features, the way his hair refuses to be tamed." I gestured rapidly towards my face. "The way that Jay looks average but has that one feature that shocks you, his eyes." I ran my tongue over my lips as an uncomfortable twinge in my wrist pulled my attention. I tried to move it without restraint, as I had been earlier, but was met with only pain. Whatever Paix had done before, it was wearing off.

"But, of course," I continued, refusing to show any weakness, "the Change always gets your personality. Always gets the things that make you." I wrapped my hand around my wrist, keeping the bone stable. "The way I jump to a challenge, the way my emotions change and are almost overpowering. Cole can keep calm and stable in any situation, no real spike in emotion. Zane having relation problems, cold and disconnected. Kai getting angry at every little thing, having a temper that can you can strike as easily as a match. Jay being jokey and sporadic. Talks too much." I laughed a bit, hearing it come from my own mouth. "Sometimes, I wonder who I would have been if it weren't for…" I opened my palm, watching as the pulsing black appeared above my hand and vibrated in the room. "I wonder who they would have been." I shook my head.

"In school, we would have never been seen with any of the others. The nerd with zero thought filter. The easily likable jokester. The athlete with his heart in the right place. The douche with no regard for anyone but himself, and the girl they keep around for her wisecracks and quick tongue." I looked up towards Paix. "You know, they're finding reasons to hate one another because of those school standards. Finding reasons to hate one another when all they really need to do is realize that their differences make them exactly the same. Picking arguments that make no sense because they can." And I was quiet, and the world was silent until Paix asked the question I was wondering myself.

"And what about you?" Her voice sounded concerned in my head, adding to the worry I had.

"Either way, whether they were all friends or all enemies, I'd still be that girl in the corner cracking wisecracks." I chewed the inside of my lip. "I still wouldn't belong. I'd still be the girl that broke the rock, played with fire through the burn, dimmed the lightning with words, and heated up the ice by letting him know I cared." I chewed on my thumbnail. "That was a stupid thing to do."

"Why?" Paix asked me.

"Because, it makes him a vulnerability. A risk." I said. "Me to him as well. It'll do nothing but get in each of our ways." I pulled my thumb away from my mouth and staring inspecting the broken and bleeding flesh around my fingernails.

"Aryan," Paix started gently, making me forget she had offended me only minutes before, "it may not be very clear at this moment, but I can tell you this." She let out a breath though her nose, blowing my hair back a bit. "There will be a lot of things you will regret in this new life, but Zane won't be one of them." She gave me a smile, or, at least, I think it was a smile. "It's always nice to have someone watch your back."

"Yeah, but it's not like I'm staying anyway." I said, still studying my nails. I looked up briefly at Paix, who cocked her head in confusion and a bit of irritation. "What?" I said towards my hand again. "There up there right now, having some stupid argument about me. Again." I looked back up at Paix, this time for real. I shrugged. "I don't wanna live like that." I bit my lip, releasing it again before I talked a moment later. "Kai is pissing off Zane again, you know, the whole 'cold is only the absence of heat' thing?" I looked back towards my hand, ignoring the temptation and looking back up. "I'm assuming Zane would have had quite the temper if it hadn't had been frozen under there." I shook my head. "I throw the whole thing out of balance anyway, so why don't you just kill me and put fate or destiny back on track?" Paix began to lower her head, until she looked almost menacing in the lighting. I took a step back as the tingling started up in my ribs. Great.

"Yes. You throw the entire thing off balance." She said. "But that's your strength. Garmadon kidnapped you because he wanted, he felt, the darkness that ran through you, but do you know what you did?" She didn't give me a chance to answer. "You managed to take darkness, one of the hardest materials to resist, and you changed it." Her eyes grew wide. "You used it for good, and that's what he wants. That's all he's ever wanted, which makes you their greatest asset. A villain with a conscious big enough to cover the entire city." I looked up at her.

"That also makes me a threat." Paix stood there for a moment, not moving a muscle. With a sudden burst of movement, she took a step towards me and grabbed what was left of the back my uniform in her teeth, careful not to scratch me. "Hey!" I yelled. "What are you doing?" She raised me up to the pedestal in the middle of the room and she dropped me. Not prepared, the shock ran up my legs and into the slowly increasing pain in my ribs. I ran my hand along my chest, suddenly aware of how sore it was despite the fact I had bound it. Oh, and the fact I was on the larger side of nothing. Paix nudged me with her nose, towards the smaller pedestal with the silver sais resting on it.

"All I've heard was a girl who learned her lesson. That she was the anomaly in an already odd group because of her early arrival, but I also heard the outsider desperate to be accepted." I took a small step towards the sais, the whispers they emitted getting louder. "If there's one thing I learned from Wu in our short time of friendship…" I wrapped my hand around the handles, feeling every nerve and vein in my body burst to life as I slipped the weapons into the small scabbards on either of my hips. I heard a small sound, like fabric of rock as I turned around to see my mask. It had gotten disconnected from my uniform during the explosion and placed it my pocket. It must have fallen out during my rough trip down here. I bent down and picked it up, kneeling there as I ran my bruised and cut fingers over the silver fabric. It had been ripped, burned, one side soaked in blood, the hem smelling strongly of brunt flesh, but I saw something else. I saw a hero, the same person that used to wear an infinity sigh across her chest, working alone because she didn't trust anyone.

I saw Legion, the vigilante loner, and I saw The Ninja of Energy, one-fifth of a set. A girl who was actually referred to as Aryan by another living person for the first time in years. And that was nice. In that moment, as I raised the mask over my head, pulling it down until only my eyes showed, I felt like a heavy weight had been lifted from my shoulders.

My past will no longer define me, I'm not sure it ever did. But it will have always shaped me.

Screw Legion. Legion died months ago. Another hero rising from the ashes. I looked over at Paix, who was doing her weird smile thing.

"Is that you have to prove your worth." She finished. I smiled mischievously, though no one could see it as I leapt off the pedestal and onto Paix's back.

"Come on." I said, loud enough that it echoed around the room. "We've got some asses to kick." I tapped my chin. "And I assume some asses to save." Paix spread her wings, not at all impeded by the room's size, adjusting her back legs for takeoff. "Oh!" I exclaimed, leaning forward and interrupting her preparations. "By the way, that whole mushy getting to know me stuff, that never leaves this room."

I hope that was a given for the boys too.

Sorry for such a short chapter, I just wanted to get this chapter up. I've rewritten it a million times, unsure of how to portray Paix. Oh, and thank you for putting up with that whole confusing and really out of character argument thing last chapter, hopefully I clarified the reason for that in this chapter.

Okay, the real reason I was so excited to get this chapter up is because I'm also excited for the new story I'm writing, Savage. If you haven't already checked it out, you should. I think it's my best writing yet.

As always, thank you for all your support and don't forget to R&R!