(A/N: This is a fanfiction for delonnieisthebestkindofthingtobe's Ninjago Girls!AU (on tumblr), in which all the gals are the main characters/ninja. This particular fic is a retelling of S5, E1, although I'm taking some MAJOR deviations from the AU. I got permission before posting, though, so I hope it's good anyways! "^^ This will be a oneshot unless I decide "yo, this is fun, Ima keep doing this," so feel free to follow the story if you're hopeful for an update even tho it says 'complete.' XP)

(For anyone interested, deviations include: Seliel being the Master of Smoke [instead of mist], Bansha being the Master of Wind [b/c I wrote this before realizing there was updated info on Bansha in the AU, woops], and basically PIXAL's entire situation [because I love her and will do what I want with her ;P] XD)

On the floor of the newly opened Steep Wisdom, four girls sat in a circle holding blue cards with important-looking patterns on the back. One of the girls— a fiery-looking teen with a distinctive blue streak running through her long red hair— suddenly slapped her cards face-down onto the floor in a gesture of victory.

"HAH! GO FISH! TAKE THAT, YA LOUSY WATER TROUT!" she cried triumphantly.

"'Water trout?' I'll show you who's a water trout!" another girl muttered angrily under her breath, and she drew another card from the pile in the middle. Her blue eyes were fierce with determination as she looked at the new card and slid it into her hand.

"It's your turn, PIXAL," the third member of the group said gently, nudging the only one of the girls who had so far been silent the entire game.

"I… still do not understand the point of this," the fourth girl replied, her voice eerily robotic. The others were unaffected by this: in fact, they seemed more disturbed when she suddenly had to set down her cards to sneeze.

"Um… bless you?" Nya said questioningly, setting aside her feud with Seliel to look at the silver-haired girl with concern.

"You can sneeze now, too?" Seliel chimed in, speaking aloud what Nya was thinking.

"Apparently so," PIXAL stated cooly, picking back up her cards with two unnaturally pale hands. They were the least striking part of her appearance— the girl's sleek silver hair, piercing blue eyes, and icy white skin would have suggested her to be a vampire rather than a nindroid at a first glance.

"You know, I'm still not used to you being… you know… not metal," Seliel stated. The other red-haired girl sighed.

"As blunt as ever, Seliel…" she muttered.

"I have already told you," PIXAL said, closing her eyes, "I do not care what you speak of. My new form does not bother me in the least." Her tone was matter-of-fact, but the girls knew her well enough to detect a small hesitation in her voice, giving away the fact that she was lying. Skylor in particular was visibly alarmed to hear any sort of emotion in her partner's tone.

"Seliel. Apologize, now," she instructed. Her amber badge gleamed as she turned towards the window to see a familiar figure walking by. Seliel opened her mouth to comply, but before she could, the figure that Skylor was watching came in through the front door.

"Ah, girls, good to see you," the older woman said as she walked inside, balancing what seemed like too many boxes of tea in a big, wobbly stack.

"Lady Misako!" the girls cried in unison. All at once, they ran up to their master; Seliel and Nya hugged her from behind, while Skylor and PIXAL immediately started helping with her boxes.

"Thank you, girls," Misako said to her pupils, and started to lead them to the back room. "I'm sorry I had to be gone for so long, but there was so much to do at the museum, what with the new exhibit opening up and all…"

"Yeah," Seliel said, flashing a toothy grin, "An exhibit on us!"

"It is pretty cool to think that all of Ninjago knows who we are," Nya admitted with a daydreamy smile.

"How is Master Harumi?" PIXAL asked abruptly, sounding anxious.

"She seemed happy when I left the museum," Misako chuckled as she sorted out tea boxes by type. "A bit tired, with all her running around giving speeches and such, but happy. She inquired about you, as well."

"Glad to hear she hasn't forgotten about us," Skylor said teasingly, a soft smile on her face. She always seemed so calm and gentle that most civilians were surprised to learn that she was the most devious and relentless team member during battle. Then again, most civilians didn't get the luxury of seeing her when she was angry at her teammates, either.

"Hey, PIXAL, you all right?" Nya suddenly asked. She tapped her friend lightly on the shoulder. The nindroid was rigid, and her stare had gone vacant.

"Something is wrong with the weather," she stated blankly. The other girls looked at each other with concern.

"Are you sure?" Skylor asked. "After my dad's… experiment… you haven't been yourself. Your calculations might be off."

"I am certain," she replied. "Zane senses it, too." Abstractedly, her hand moved up to her chest and clutched the fabric of the gi that covered her heart. The others knew not to comment when she did that— she was very touchy about the current state of her boyfriend, and risked an emotional overload if he was brought up too much.

"PIXAL," Misako said gently, "you know that I trust your intuition—"

"It is not intuition," PIXAL insisted, suddenly gaining a slight angry edge to her tone, "it is fact."

"—but you have nothing to fear. If anything arises, we will take care of it." The woman offered her student a comforting smile, but PIXAL didn't seem comforted.

"I am worried about Master Harumi," she repeated. "Whatever is causing this anomaly in the weather may be putting her in danger."

"Aw, don't worry about me," a voice from behind the girls suddenly said. The ninja shrieked and spun around to find themselves face-to-face with none other than Princess Harumi, the Jade Ninja and (somewhat) the leader of the group. A thin and quickly fading veil of smoke was curled around her.

"Rumi!" Skylor exclaimed, and rushed forward to give her sister a hug. The others quickly followed suit.

"How'd you get all the way here from the museum?!" Nya asked.

"I finished helping up, and then I used my smoke teleportation to get here!" she replied proudly, puffing out her chest. Seliel raised her eyebrows.

"Um, Harumi, you know that takes a lot of energy, right? You shouldn't waste your strength," she said, tucking the blue strand of her hair behind her ear nervously. The others looked at Harumi again— now that they knew to look for it, a thin shadow was apparent under her eyes, and her voice was slightly weakened.

"I know, I know," she laughed, "but I just couldn't wait to see you all! I've been so busy lately, with all the speeches and stuff…"

"No kidding," Nya said with a smirk, "seems like every place in Ninjago City wants you to make some sort of appearance. I guess that's one of the perks of being the Jade Ninja and the princess of Ninjago, huh?"

"You call it a perk," Harumi said, "I call it more work." Then she giggled. "Oh hey, that rhymed!"

"Master Harumi," PIXAL said, stepping forward and bowing in her usual overly-formal manner, "I am relieved to see that you are all right. There is an anomaly in the weather, and I do not know what has caused it."

Harumi cocked her head and gave the Ninja of Ice a worried smile. "I don't think a small problem in the weather is too much to worry about. And I told you not to call me 'master.'"

PIXAL hesitated and stepped backwards uncomfortably. "I… apologize," she said, reaching up to her heart again.

"Well then," Misako said, recognizing her student's nervous habit, "I think we should all brew up a cup of tea to celebrate."

"Celebrate what?" Skylor asked, following the old woman outside after picking up several bags of tea and a blue teapot. Nya went on ahead of the group to the stream to bring back the water, after which Skylor would set a fire to boil it with. The girls liked making tea outside; it had become a regular group activity since the grand opening of Steep Wisdom.

"How about beating up your evil dad?" Seliel laughed, perhaps even less emotionally sensitive than PIXAL.

"Or Sensei Misako's successful retirement," Harumi added quickly, trying to lighten the mood.

"Or the return of our dear friend," Misako said, looking backwards to give PIXAL a kind smile. "There are plenty of reasons to celebrate." The nindroid glanced away, still seeming uneasy, but she continued to follow the others and then started gathering dry leaves and twigs for Skylor to burn. Since Skylor's element— amber— only gave her a fraction of the powers she absorbed, she needed fuel in order to start even a small fire.

Soon, the evening colors of the night had started to take ahold of the sky, and the five ninja and their master sat around a warmly burning fire with cups of hot tea in their hands. The sounds of casual conversation floated up with the smoke, filling the air.

"Mmm…" Nya smiled as she sipped her tea. "Pink Jasmine is my favorite."

"Well, anything's better than Tomorrow's Tea," Harumi said, evoking a laugh from the rest of the group. They remembered all too well that fateful episode.

"You were such a spoiled little girl," Skylor said with a smirk. She pretended to headlock the white-haired girl, which everyone knew was her way of showing affection. Harumi smiled, but her face quickly contorted into exhaustion as she let out a long yawn.

"Sorry, Sky," she said, rubbing her eyes, "I love hanging out like this, but I think I need to go to bed early tonight."

"It is perfectly understandable," PIXAL spoke up, nodding. "After all, tea does have a tendency to make one sleepy. I shall accompany you to your quarters." She started to get up, but Harumi motioned for her to stay where she was.

"Thanks, but I'm fine," she said. "I can take care of myself." Before PIXAL could argue, she was on her way to bed, and the others had resumed their conversation around the fire.

"So, Lady Misako," Nya said, "I was wondering. Since you aren't going to be fighting anymore, what are you going to do with all your stuff?"

Misako raised an eyebrow knowingly as the other girls caught Nya's drift and looked at their teacher hopefully. "Oh? What kind of stuff?" the woman asked, knowing the answer full well.

"You know… armor, weapons… stuff like that." Nya bit her lip, trying not to smile too hopefully, but exchanged an excited glance with Skylor. "Your staff, maybe?"

Misako smiled just a touch condescendingly. "You know I'll never give up my staff. Not until my dying day."

"Awww…" the girls groaned in unison. None of them had any clue why Misako's staff was so important, but ever since she'd made it clear that she wouldn't let it out of her sight, curiosity had taken ahold of all of them.

"But you're never gonna die," Seliel moaned, flopping onto her back and snorting a puff of smoke out of her nose in annoyance. Misako laughed.

"Well, I'm honored that you think so, Seliel." She sipped the last of the tea in her cup and refilled it. "Anybody else need a refill?"

Nya nodded but simply waved her hand and summoned a stream out from the teapot herself, twirling it through the air and into her cup.

"Nya, you're gonna make your tea cold," Skylor pointed out, and then looked over at PIXAL. "And PIXAL, you haven't even touched yours."

"I do not get thirsty," the girl stated defiantly, setting her still-full cup on the ground.

"Pix," Seliel said, glancing over with some concern, "you've gotta drink. Your body needs fuel."

"Seliel is right," Skylor said gently. "It's like my fire— if I don't feed it twigs and leaves, it will go out." As if to prove her point for her, the fire flickered briefly as a gust of wind blew past. PIXAL shuddered.

"But… I…" she started, but then stopped. She closed her eyes and muttered quietly to herself. "No, I don't need… but… no, of course not… hnnng." She sighed and reached out for her cup, and glared at her teammates with a look that could kill a man. "Very well."

The girls looked at each other as the nindroid drank. They knew what had happened: when PIXAL was being that stubborn, only Zane could make her behave. And he'd had to do so more than regular ever since her becoming a hybrid of robotic and organic parts; she seemed to detest doing almost anything that regular humans had to do to take care of themselves. Misako seemed the most concerned out of everyone that she would end up with some form of anorexia nervosa, or worse.

"Hey, Amber," Seliel said, breaking the uncomfortable silence, "d'you mind warming up the place a little more? The wind is getting stronger." She shivered as the fire flickered once again.

"I told you not to call me—" Skylor started, but she was cut off by a sudden shriek from the building behind her. The girls all turned in unison towards Steep Wisdom as they realized who's voice they had heard.

"Rumi!" Skylor yelped, but PIXAL had already gotten to her feet and charged into the building. The others got up to follow, but the doors of Steep Wisdom suddenly burst open, throwing PIXAL back with them, as if a giant wind gust had come from inside.

"What's going on?" Nya yelled. A shrieking laugh came from inside the shop, but it was not Harumi's voice.

"Hello… ninja." The ninja gasped as Harumi— or some version thereof— stepped out of the shop. The princess' white hair remained tied in a ponytail, but it looked ragged and unbrushed. A ripped black cloak with a hood hung around her neck, and her skin had turned a sickly, pale shade of green. Perhaps most distinctive of all were the dark green markings around her eyes, which looked like flames and, in fact, seemed to flicker if stared at for too long.

Misako gasped and spoke under her breath, "That's not Harumi."

"Step aside," the girl taunted, although it sounded more like a challenge to fight than an order to surrender. Then she fixed her gaze on Misako. "I want a word with your master." She narrowed her eyes and the wind started to pick up until it was practically howling.

"What's gotten into Harumi?!" Nya yelled over the now-noisy wind. PIXAL stepped forward, her gaze stern and determined.

"I sense that a foreign entity has taken over her body," she stated, while calculations ran visibly in front of her eyes as though they were being reflected. "So the question is not what, but who has gotten into her."

Skylor looked at the apparently possessed princess and scowled. "Whoever you are— whatever issue you've got with Lady Misako— you've got with us," she snarled. "Give us back our friend."

The girl paused, then smiled in a dangerous way that suggested she'd been hoping for a brawl. She cracked her head on her shoulders and started to laugh.

"Uh, earth to Amber," Seliel said, for once looking nervous about picking a fight, "How are we supposed to fight a friend?"

The villainous laugh rose up again. "Let me SHOW YOU!" the villain cried. Suddenly, she lunged at the ninja, sending forth a powerful blast of wind from her hand.

"That's not one of the Jade Ninja's powers!" Nya yelped as she was thrown back against the wall. Only Misako withstood the blast without tottering.

"That's enough!" Seliel cried. "Take THIS!" She closed her eyes and prepared to teleport behind the princess, throwing her arms forward to restrain her— but she caught nothing but air. "Huh?"

"What are you doing, Seliel?!" Skylor cried. Seliel opened her eyes to see Skylor still standing right by her side.

"I can't teleport!" the Master of Smoke cried back.

"Then how about we heat this fight up a little!" Skylor yelled to nobody in particular, and waved her hands towards the small fire that was barely hanging on in the wind. The possessed Harumi noticed the motion and laughed, sending up another wind gust that snuffed it out completely.

"No!" Skylor cried. She ran forward in an attempt to perform Spinjitzu, but it went about as well as her attempt to revive the fire had. By now, the others had realized that their powers were drained, too.

"Hey, PIXAL, can you— PIXAL?" Skylor called. She looked around for the nindroid and suddenly noticed that she had climbed to the top of the windmill on the other side of the clearing while the others had been fighting.

"You will not hurt my friend," the nindroid hissed at the form possessing Harumi, although nobody could hear her over the wind. She pulled the Shurikens of Ice out from behind her, where they'd been stashed for a long time, and poised herself to throw.

"Be careful!" a voice in her head alerted her. "You don't want to injure her!"

A small feeling of gratitude rose up in PIXAL's heart upon seeing the hologram in the corner of her vision. He was always better at being human than she was.

"I'm only going to pin her against the wall," she reassured the boy, and threw the shurikens with flawless precision. Unfortunately, her target noticed and dodged the attack in the nick of time; the weapons only succeeded in snatching the chopsticks out of Harumi's ponytail and splintering them against the ground.

"Shurikens?" she asked, amused. "Cute. Try this on for size!" She pointed to the windmill PIXAL stood atop and it began to spin out of control, knocking the girl off as the blades came flying through the air until they smashed onto the ground with a terrifying CRASH!

"NO!" Seliel shrieked, and tried to teleport over to catch her friend, but to no avail. PIXAL yelped in pain as she hit the ground, although she instinctively landed in the best position possible, with her knees slightly bent and her hands covering her head.

Suddenly, Misako stepped forward, having realized the severity of the situation they were in. "Stay back!" she instructed the rest of the ninja. "It's me that she wants."

Harumi narrowed her eyes. "Not you. Just the staff of the First Spinjitzu Master."

Misako brandished said staff threateningly. "I see you've found the Allied Armor, Bansha. I do not know how you got ahold of it… or why you haven't summoned your friends."

Bansha, as she was apparently named, let out another evil laugh and the wind kicked up once again, knocking down the ninja who were trying to get to their feet. "Your pathetic students haven't given me a reason to," she said, sneering.

"Hey!" Seliel cried. "No one calls me pathetic!" She jumped to her feet, but Bansha merely laughed and launched herself backwards into the tea shop, pulling Misako along with her. A moment later, the doors slammed shut and the sound of glass breaking filled the air. The girls tried to crawl to their teacher's aid as unearthly shrieks emitted from the shop, but each time any motion was made the wind would kick back up, launching them at least several yards backwards.

"What's happening?" Skylor called, trying desperately to scan for the others. PIXAL, who had been down for the count since her failed shuriken attempt, slowly raised her head.

"I can hear…" she called over the wind. "The staff…"

"What about it?" Nya cried desperately. Suddenly, a final crash was heard from inside, as well as an angered scream from Bansha. Misako came running out, clutching her staff tightly as she did, which was covered in tea powder.

"To the ship!" she cried as she ran, and the others, minus Skylor, followed suit. The wind ceased to knock them down this time.

"I am NOT running away from Rumi!" Skylor cried, looking back at the ruined Steep Wisdom.

"We will not win this fight today!" Misako retorted, and motioned urgently for the amber ninja to follow. Skylor hesitated, but slowly started to creep toward the shop as her teammates ran the other direction. However, she didn't get very far before she was knocked backwards by another brilliant gust that knocked the doors of the shop off their hinges.

"GIVE… ME… THE STAFF!" the unholy voice shrieked, and it felt to Skylor as if the voice itself was stronger than any gust of wind. Lying on her back, she winced and opened her eyes to see the Destiny's Bounty rising high into the air.

"Is she crazy?!" Nya cried from atop the ship, looking down at the fallen Skylor.

On the ground, Bansha glanced up and saw the potential escape route, then ran towards the master of amber and pinned her to the floor, preventing her from moving.

"Foolish ninja!" she hissed, pulling Skylor up by the neck of her orange gi. "Why would you try to take me on all by yourself?"

Skylor glared at Bansha, looking her square in the eye. "Because I promised to look after Rumi."

The sentiment was met by Bansha's grip tightening, causing Skylor to wince with pain as the creature pinched through the gi with unusually sharp fingernails.

"I know you're in there, Rumi!" Skylor managed through gritted teeth. "Fight her!" Suddenly, she broke free of Bansha's grip and spun herself around, grabbing the smaller girl into a headlock— a real one.

"The staff is getting away!" Bansha screamed as the ship slowly moved through the sky. The ninja on board panicked, knowing that they needed to escape but unwilling to leave Skylor to fight the possessed Jade Ninja alone.

"Let GO of me!" Bansha hissed, and raked at Skylor with her nails.

"Only when you let go of Rumi!" the red-haired girl growled back, ignoring the pain of the newly formed scratches in her arm. An orange glow surrounded the red marks, though it went unnoticed by both girls.

"Hnnnng…" Bansha's voice seemed to weaken, and suddenly, the girl turned around and whispered weakly, "Sky… help me…!"

"Rumi? Is that you?!" Skylor gasped, but she was suddenly pulled apart from her sister by the huge metal anchor of the Destiny's Bounty. She realized what had happened as the ship picked up speed, pulling her away from the girl.

"Wait!" she called desperately up to the ninja, "Let me go! I saw Rumi!"

You won't get away that easy," Bansha hissed, and as the anchor pulled the amber ninja up to the safety of the ship, she stretched out her arms and whipped up a current of air to pull her prey back to her.

"Please, we have to go back!" Skylor pleaded to her fellow ninja, but PIXAL put a hand on her shoulder and shook her head, her gaze unwavering and the meaning of her stare clear.

"HRAAAAAH!" Bansha shrieked as she pulled the ship down towards the ground with all her strength. The girls onboard started slipping towards the edge, and Skylor realized that they would all fall if the ship wasn't broken free of the current.

"Have a taste of your own medicine, you friend-stealing freak!" she screamed over the railing, and with a rage-fueled burst of energy, she summoned forth a gigantic blast of wind that crashed down onto Bansha and pushed the ship high, high into the sky.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Bansha screamed as the ship— along with the staff she sought— flew out of her reach.

"Phew… that was close," Nya sighed once the girls realized Bansha wasn't following them. "The coast is clear."

Seliel nodded, then turned to the gray-haired woman angrily. "Ok, Lady Misako, spill it!" she demanded. "What just happened back there, and what did that creep do to my friend?"

"Our friend," Nya added, also affixing her angry gaze onto their master.

"Yeah, Teacher," Skylor put in, her glare worse than the others' combined, "Who was that? You owe us an explanation."

Misako sighed and looked at PIXAL, Nya, Skylor, and Seliel. "You four were not my first pupils," she confessed, looking down at the ground in shame. "…There was one before you. Bansha, the Master of Wind."

"I do not mean to alarm," PIXAL suddenly said in a grave voice, looking out the back of the Bounty, "but it looks like your Master of Wind…"

"Just caught her second wind," Nya finished for her sister with a groan.

In the dark, stormy clouds and windstorm, only yards behind the bounty, was a terrifying white-haired elemental master… riding atop a massive, skull-adorned, glowing Jade Dragon.