Hey guys! This is my second story. Hope you like it!

Warning: LONG A/N. Feel free to skip!

Ok, this is a birthday present to four different people, so bear with me hear. Yeah, only one of them is actually going to read it, but OH WELL! This story is dedicated to my cousin who turned 15 back on Valentine's Day, my brother who turned 9 on the 17th, my other cousin who turned 5 on the 19th, and KaitouKiwi whose birthday is today. Congratulations to you all. This story is also dedicated to my cat, Pebble who has done NOTHING for this story other than repeatedly rub against my iPod, and sit on me while I'm trying to write.

DISSCLAIMER: I do NOT own Ninjago, but I do own Melissa, Skylar, Mia, and Rori. Melissa is inspired by my best friend, End of story goodbye the end. Though this story takes place after the final battle, Lloyd wears the gi he got from the Temple of Light. I just can't get used to his gold one. Yes, I know, I'm strange. LIVE WITH IT!

Now please enjoy! =D

When One Divides

The Party

Kai raised his fiery sword, slashing it across the training dummy. The dummy split in half, quickly catching fire. The flames were extinguished soon after, by a chilling blast of ice.

"Careful," Zane cautioned, his gaze full of seriousness, but Kai detected a hint of humor in his tone. "We don't want to burn down the bounty. Nya wouldn't be pleased." Though he had his mask down, Kai could tell he had a little smile. The fiery ninja shared the smirk, before continuing with the training drill.

Cole knocked a dummy backwards with the end of his sword, letting it fall to the ground with a heavy thud. Jay jumped out from behind him, ripping it's front open, shocking it with his electric blue sword.

Lloyd saw them, and ran over from the dummy he'd been burning, shooting a ball at ice at the one lying in front of Cole and Jay.

"Dude. This one's ours," Jay growled, slight annoyance growing in his tone. "We already killed it."

"They're dummies," Lloyd stated, rather taken aback by his lightening brother's outburst. "You can never be sure when they're officially 'dead'." He gave the frozen dummy with a weary glance, before cautiously poking it with his foot.

"Guys," Kai called from the other end of the bounty's upper deck. "This exercise is supposed to be about teamwork. Not about who 'killed' which dummy." He crouched low like a footstool, as Zane sprinted across the deck and launched off Kai's back, freezing the three nearest dummies all at once.

"Try to top that!" Zane challenged, landing perfectly, crossing his white sleeves over his black gi.

Cole, and Jay shared a glance, before Cole crouched down, the same as Kai had done. Jay launched himself off Cole, however, he extended his leg, and raised his sword, as though to be attacking one of the giant stone warriors. His launch however, was just a little to the left of his initial target, so instead of hitting any dummies, Jay flew right into the Bounty's mast, wedging his sword in the sturdy wood. The blue ninja tugged a few times, but his sword seemed to be pretty wedged in.

"Uh... A little help," Jay laughed nervously. Cole couldn't help face palming, giving a frustrated sigh.

Suddenly, an alarm sounded, signifying that the drill was over. As the lights came up, twenty dummies were visible, half of which were heavily burned, frozen, or demolished in some other way.

"Good practice guys," Nya's voice sounded over the loudspeaker. "Jay, you need to to pay more attention to were you're landing."

"Got it," Jay blushed, sounding love struck, as usual.

"Lloyd, remember, this is a team effort," Nya continued to give helpful pointers, ignoring Jay."You're not alone in this."

"Ok," Lloyd sighed. After being treated so differently when he was training to destroy the Overlord, Lloyd was having a difficult time getting back to working as a team.

"Other then that, you guys did a great job," Nya smiled, pride in her tone.

"Sis, when will we actually fight something," Kai whined, not caring that he sounded like a pouty five year old. Ninjago city had been at peace, ever since the defeat of the Overlord.

"Isn't peace what you've been trained to protect," Sensei Wu asked, as he entered the upper deck from below.

"If there's nothing to defend it from, then there isn't really a need to protect it," Zane pointed out.

"True, but what if there wasn't anything to protect it, then when protection was needed, who would be there to ensure it was protected," sensei questioned.

"That's a big 'what if'," Jay stated, still hanging from the edge of his sword.

"Well, yesterday, we got an invite from the mayor, asking if you'd be special guests at a party for the bank," Nya chimed in.

"I don't know," Cole cut in, not sounding to fond of the idea. "Sounds like they just want free body guards."

"Oh, come on, Cole," Lloyd smirked, giving the earth ninja an unsettling feeling. "A party could be fun. Don't tell me your still trying to avoid your old boss."

Cole shifted a little in his place, trying to avoid eye contact. This only ensured Lloyd that his accusation was correct.

"I think this party sounds like fun," Zane stated, trying to break up the awkward moment.

"It's not like it'll do us any harm," Kai agreed, joining Zane.

"Aw, c'mon Cole," Jay whined, still hanging by his sword from the bounty's mast. "Can we please go?"

"Oh, fine," Cole muttered, finally giving in to the pressure of his brothers. "I guess we can go."

Soon as Cole turned his back, the others silently high-fived each other, with the exception of Jay, who tried swinging back in an attempt to free his sword. Nya, who was watching them, couldn't help laughing, causing Cole to turn around to see his brothers celebrating. He stared at them for a minute, not sure what to think, and eventually just shook his head, and made his way up to the bridge.

"When is this party," Zane asked, after he, and the others finished their little victory.

"Tomorrow night," Nya replied, still trying to contain her laughter. "It's a celebration for the bank's 50th anniversary. By the looks of it, more than half the city's going."

"It sounds like it's going to be fun," Lloyd remarked, "I've always wanted to wear a tuxedo."

"Ok, well if this is all decided, then will someone please help me down," Jay interrupted, rather sarcastically. Not even Zane could help a slight laugh as they tried to free their lightening brother's sword from the bounty's mast.

*At the party*

The ninja, and Nya arrived at the party just after eight o'clock. The ninja all wore matching black tuxedos, with their color tie. Nya had on a fancy, scarlet red dress which, in Jay's eyes, looked absolutely stunning.

Many tables had been set up around the room, leaving room for a huge dance floor in the center of the room. A DJ had been set up to play music, and strobe lights were displayed throughout the room.

"Nya, do you wanna..." Jay started rather nervously.

Nya smiled, knowing just what he was going to ask. "I'd love to dance."

As the two lovebirds left for the dance floor, Kai looked around, taking in all the faces of the different party guests. Out of the corner of his eye, someone caught his attention. A girl with dirty blonde hair, with a crimson red streak.

Melissa sat with her friends at one of the many tables at the party. They'd been there for about half an hour, and watched as the bank went from empty, to full swing party mode.

"Melissa, don't you want to dance," asked a girl with bleach blonde hair, and a soft white dress.

"Not now Mia," she sighed, twirling her red hair with her fingers.

"Surely you don't see one boy you want to dance with," said the girl with wavy black hair, raising her eyebrows.

"Maybe she just needs to get into the spirit," smiled the red headed girl with an electric blue dress.

"Skylar, Rori, I appreciate it, but maybe later," The dirty blonde glanced down at her red dress, trying to avoid eye contact.

"No time like the present," Mia winked at Skylar, and Rori, before grabbing Melissa by the wrist, and pulling her out on the dance floor. Melissa didn't even have time to react, for next thing she knew, she was in the center of a crowd of people all having a blast on the dance floor. She couldn't help but glare at her younger sister.

"C'mon, you have to have at least one dance," Rori protested with a whiny, five year old tone.

"Oh, fine," Melissa sighed, rolling her eyes a little. "Who should I ask?"

"How about him," Mia pointed to a boy with spiky, brown hair, a black tuxedo, and red tie.

"We should ask someone for a dance," Lloyd suggested, "we can't let Jay, and Nya have all the fun."

"What about them," Cole pointed towards a group of four girls. One had wavy black hair, and a short black dress. Two of them looked like sisters, one with blonde hair and white dress, the other was the one Kai had spotted earlier. The fourth had fiery red hair tied up in an electric blue ribbon, and similar colored dress.

Kai took one look back at his friends before walking up to the girl with the streak of red in her hair. If you wanna dance with someone, you gotta start somewhere, he encouraged himself.

"Hey," Kai tried to pull a smile, but his nervousness got in the way. The girl turned, meeting his steady gaze.

"Uh, hi," she started nervously, but quickly gained confidence in herself. "What's your name?"

"I'm Kai," he replied. Seeing that the girl was just as nervous as he was gave him a small sense of comfort.

"Nice to meet you Kai," she smiled, raising her arm for a handshake. "I'm Melissa."

Kai met the girl's handshake, and felt as the nervousness began to well up inside him again. "Would you like to dance," he asked nervously, expecting her to say no.

Melissa smiled, giggling a little. "I'd love to."

Almost as if on cue, the music changed tempo, as one of those slow love songs came on. Kai felt a little awkward at first, but slowly as he realized everyone was dancing to, he felt more, and more comfortable about it. The fire ninja actually found himself really enjoying it, not that he expected that he wouldn't. It didn't feel at all like he thought. When he was younger, he remembered finding romance disgusting. This wasn't that. It was nice.

Around him, Kai saw his brothers all enjoying themselves as well. Lloyd, and Cole were back at the table, each talking to one of the girls that had been with Melissa earlier. Zane was also on the dance floor. With another girl. Kai had to admit he was rather impressed. Emotions had always been difficult for his nindroid brother. This one however, seemed a lot easier.

As the slow song came to an end, Kai, and Melissa stayed on the dance floor. When they were just about danced out, the two grabbed some punch, and sat with Lloyd, Cole, and the two other girls they'd been talking to. Zane was no where in sight, probably still out on the dance floor.

"You guys looked like you were having fun out there," Lloyd remarked, a slight smirk creeping across his lips. "Who's your new friend?"

"I'm Melissa," Melissa chimed in, pushing her streak of red hair behind her ear.

"Nice to meet you," Cole greeted, "I'm Cole. This is Lloyd. And I presume you know Kai."

"I'm Skylar," spoke up the girl next to Cole. She had long wavy dark brown hair flowing down her back. Her midnight black dress sparkled in the strobe lights. "This is my friend Rori," Skylar gestured towards the girl sitting next to Lloyd. She had bright red hair that had been pulled back into an electric blue ribbon. Her dress was a similar shade. The black frame of her thin glasses stood out against her freckles.

"Hi," Rori smiled, shyly. Her voice was soft, and quiet.

"So, where do you guy know each other from," Melissa asked, trying to strike up a conversation.

"Oh - we uh..." Cole started, not really sure how to respond. It seemed most sensible not to directly reveal that they were ninja. These girls didn't seem to recognize them, so maybe it was best just to not tell them.

"We met at - er..." Kai tried to help

His brother out, but found himself in a similar situation.

"Summer camp," Lloyd blurted out, relieved looks spread across Cole, and Kai's faces. "Cole used to hide my stuff."

"Yeah, cause you always cut me off in the lunch line," Cole argued, trying to work with Lloyd's improvisation.

"So, how do you know each other," Kai interrupted before they could go any further with their summer camp story.

"Oh, well, Skylar and I went to school together," Melissa explained.

"Rori lives down the street from me," Skylar continued.

"And Mia's my younger sister," Melissa added. Kai smiled knowing that he could relate this girl who also had a younger sister.

They all continued discussing things about themselves, and one another. The more they talked, the more comfortable they felt around one another. The whole time, Zane was still out on the dance floor with the girl they later learned was Mia.

Everyone had fun at the party. Even Cole who didn't want to go. Nothing out of the ordinary happened. That is until one interesting phone call. From there, everything began to fall apart.

Ok, this chapter is slow going, but it really picks up in the next chapter, which I will have up most likely some time this weekend. I have several prewritten chapters already, which is a good start. Please R&R, follow, fav, blah, blah, and so on. ;)