Partners In Crime

Chapter 86: Puzzle Pieces

"Ok!"

The ninja jump as Kai slaps a blank scroll on the table. After they finished cleaning up the city, again, the ninja decided to regroup on their findings. Now that Jay, finally, got it.

"So," Kai faces the others "Who wants to go first?"

"Are we writing this all down?" Reika questions. "Why?"

"I think it's so that we can organize our thoughts more easily," Zane points out.

"Right," Kai nods.

"Shouldn't sensei be here as well?" Zane asks, "He might know more than we do."

"Since when has he ever gave us a clear answer?" Cole replies.

"He has a good point," Jay nods.

The ninja all agrees with that statement and move on.

"Well, I'll go first since I've known her since she was born basically." Cole says "Growing up, my aunt Layla who is Aria's mother, always told me the story of the Servant of Evil. The children's book about Aria's past life. I didn't always know it was about my cousin though, cause she wasn't born yet."

"This is stupid," a young Cole crosses his arms.

"What is Cole?" Layla asks as she stops reading.

"I don't wanna hear some lovey dovey story!" young Cole shouts "I want some action!"

"Oh? I suppose you don't want to hear how they died then?" Layla questions as she closes the book.

"Wait! They die?!" young Cole asks as he sits up in bed.

"Yep," Layla replies as she sets the book down.

"Wait aunt Layla!" young Cole calls out "How do they die?! Why?"

"Oh, now you're interested?" Layla laughs.

"I don't get it," young Cole says, "it's a romance story about a princess and her knight, it's like a fairy tale, isn't it?"

"Unfortunately," Layla smiles sadly "not all fairy tales have happy endings."

Cole sighs "After she finished reading me the book, I still didn't get it, but she explained it by one simple answer. I didn't understand back then, but I do now."

"It's said light cannot exist without darkness, but there's something a lot more powerful than elemental power." Layla says.

"What's that?" Young Cole asks.

Layla smiles "It's love."

"Yeah... that doesn't make sense." Kai comments.

"No, it does," Zane says "hold on."

Zane wrote down Cole's story before turning to the other Ninja.

"Spotlight's yours Zane," Reika takes the scroll from him.

"It was back when I was fighting the digital Overlord," Zane began. "In a single moment, when we connected as I overloaded, the Overlord said something to me."

"You say this was about family," the Overlord says, "Well you could say the same for me."

"Your daughter would've had a better future if you didn't interfere with peace." Zane tells him.

"No," the Overlord responds, "those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it." Zane's eyes widen at his response as the Overlord looks up to the sky "I couldn't save you from fate in the end Aria... forgive this poor excuse for a father."