Heart of steel (a Ninjago fanfic)

Six months and sterling silver (part 1)

I'd like to thank a few writers before I start. Leroy77 is responsible for the cover, which I think is totally awesome. Thank you so much! I'd also like to thank lunardial, turtlegirl, and kingsteve for their support. I don't even know how to thank you guys enough, but I'll try: this chapter and the next one are dedicated to everyone mentioned.
🐱🐶🐱🐶🐱🐶🐱🐶🐱🐶🐱🐶🐱🐶🐱🐶🐱🐶🐱🐶🐱🐶🐱🐶🐱🐶🐱🐶🐱🐶🐱🐶🐱🐶🐱🐶🐱🐶🐱🐶🐱🐶🐱 Jay's POV

When I got back to the dining hall, Kai and Lloyd were regaling Zane with past games of One Question, while Cole finished his pancakes. When I walked in, Lloyd looked up and grinned impishly. My heart began to ache. It was easy to forget sometimes that he was just twelve years old. He had gone through so much. Poor kiddo. I shook my head and sat down. "Same rules as always. Sensei's one, Cole's two, I'm three, Kai's four, Lloyd's five, and Zane replaces Nya as six." I shook the die and it landed on a five. Lloyds smile vanished as Kai and Cole conferred for a minute, then told me what to say. I grinned and opened my mouth.

"Lloyd, did you go through accelerated puberty when you caught the effects of the tomorrow tea?" Lloyd turned bright red before sputtering out a yes. Cole and Kai shrieked with laughter while Zane looked around, completely bemused. I gave Lloyd the dice. "Your turn." his face began to return to its normal color as he shook his fist and rolled. One dot was visible on the plate. "Sensei! You're up!" Sensei sighed as us ninja conferred for a moment. Zane seemed to be getting the hang of it.

Lloyd sat up. "Sensei, why is that blue teapot so special to you? It's the only one you use." Sensei smiled sadly. "It was a gift from my father for Christmas, long ago. You four have his weapons. I have his teapot."

We played a few more rounds, learning that Kai had once gotten too close to a hot sword in his fathers blacksmith shop, earning him a scar, and that I used to be a frequent live action role player before joining the ninja. Lloyd had a good laugh at that, imagining me in elf ears.

I was not an elf.

I was a gnome.

Finally, Cole rolled a six. We conferred for a moment before deciding on a suitable question for Zane. Finally, Cole spoke up. "Zane, why do you never talk about the Digiverse?" Zane's expression hardened. "I don't enjoy speaking of it." I looked at Cole for an answer. He shrugged. "Zane answered the question fully and truthfully. It's someone else's turn."

I frowned and handed Zane the die. He quickly rolled and groaned in exasperation as a six was shown. No conference was needed this time. "Zane, what happened in the Digiverse?" Zane immediately stood up. "I quit." Then it was everyone else's turn to groan. "Zane, you can't quit! We can't play the game with five people! Whatever happened... there... please tell us." Lloyd punctuated his sentence with a ginormous pair of puppy dog eyes. Zane shook his head and grabbed his plate. "No. Just... no. I'm sorry for messing up your game. If anyone needs me, I'll be training." He put his plate in the sink and walked out of the dining hall.

Kai put his head on the table and groaned. "What do you guys think actually happened in the Digiverse?" Cole shrugged. "Must have been pretty bad if Zane won't tell us. He's not the type to be guarded." There was a sudden cry for Kai from the training deck. Kai quickly left the room to go see what Zane was yelling about. We suddenly heard peals of laughter. The rest of us, minus Sensei who was making tea, ran to the training deck.

I will never forget what I saw.

Zane had kicked the dummy and his foot was frozen to its torso. His face was bright red and his leg was suspended in a ballerinas arabesque. Lloyd immediately grabbed his phone and started taking pictures, which Zane responded to by blushing an even brighter shade of red. I immediately ran forward with Kai and Sensei. "What happened? Are you okay?" We all immediately  bombarded Zane with questions as Kai knelt down and began to melt the ice around the dummy and Zane's foot. "I'm fine. I just got a little worked up." The last of the ice sloshed onto the deck of the ship as Kai stood up, his job done. "If you need us, we'll be watching the most terrible movie we can find in the rec room. Just yell." Zane nodded, and we began to troop downstairs.

Before I left the deck, I turned around towards Zane, who was watching us go downstairs. "Seriously, if you need anyone to talk to, I'm right here for you. We all are." He smiled a silent thanks and nodded before turning back to the training dummy. I walked downstairs, my mission clear: finding the stupidest movie available.

Nya's POV

After finally leaving the mall, almost completely bogged down with shopping bags full of denim, overalls, and soft shirts, Kyra and I walked a reasonable distance before I activated the Samurai X suit. We'd have a riot on our hands if anyone saw us! We finally- finally!- arrived at the workshop in the birchwood forest. As I deactivated the exoskeleton, Kyra began to walk around the tree shaped building, her cheeks stinging from the late-autumn chill. I walked over to her. "You okay?" She whirled around at the sound of my voice. "Nya, why are we here? Is this the surprise?" She sounded a little angry. I gave her a smile. "I thought I'd take you to visit your dad, who, by the way, isn't dead." Her eyes widened. "Nya, he is dead. He died months ago." She turned around and walked behind an abnormally thick birch. I followed a few steps behind her, completely confused. She stopped and pointed to a small wooden cross staked in the ground.

Oh.

"I'm sorry. I really am. Zane didn't tell us. He didn't tell me, at least. I had no idea." Kyra smiled halfheartedly, all traces of anger gone. "It's alright. Maybe he told the boys and they assumed you knew. Anyway, thanks for taking me out here. I never did get to say goodbye properly." I nodded, grateful my mistake had been overlooked. "Do you want me to give you some space? I can go try to heat up the workshop, if you want." Kyra gave me a full grin this time. "Thanks, Nya. That would be great." I spun around, my cheeks burning from the cold and from embarrassment. I was such an idiot! How did I not pick up on anything at all? I wrenched open the workshop door and ran down the stairs curving down the wall.

The workshop was dusty and cold enough to see you breath, which was expected, given that it had no windows and was mostly underground in a freezing forest. The small furnace in the corner looked unused. I grabbed the lighter sitting on top of it, picked out some logs and twigs from under the furnace, opened the door, and began to try to light the array of wood. It took a few tries, but I eventually got a strong little blaze to erupt. The little workshop began to glow with light from the furnace. Once I was sure my fire wouldn't burn out for a while, I began to walk around the small space, looking for evidence that a child (or two) had once lived in this place. Once you started to check, the proof was everywhere: a small, dusty alphabet book hidden behind a workbench, a doll tucked lovingly under the stairs, and innumerable scratches in the floor.

As I poked around on the table, I found a set of small rhinestone studs, the kind you could buy virtually anywhere for a few dollars. They must have been Kyra's at some point. As if knowing she'd been thought of, Kyra came thumping down the steps, her usually pale cheeks rosy from the cold. I yelled up at her. "I found some earrings. Rhinestone studs. Are they yours?" She shook her head as she reached the bottom, rose glow starting to fade. "Nope. I don't have pierced ears. Probably moms. She moved out a few years after Zane was born. Don't see her much." She shrugged. "No big loss, she never was around much anyway. Have you seen a little amethyst pendant? Silvery chain? I always meant to come back here and find it. Never got the chance. Shame, really. I like amethysts." I thought for a moment before shaking my head no. Then it hit me. Jewelry, amethysts, and a mall just a few miles away... I could still give Kyra a surprise!

"Kyra, how would you feel about pierced ears?"