The First Breath [Ninjago Fanfic]

3 - The Green Ninja

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Y/N had never thought that she would one day see the Destiny's Bounty in person, let alone stand on its deck, gazing out at the cloudy night sky as she waited for Sensei Wu to summon his students. It felt strange to be in a place with air that smelled like corpses and muck, but as she lowered her mask, the chilly night air embraced her and she let out a long sigh of relief. Finally, a breath that wasn't tinged with madness. True, it was frigid up here above the clouds and Y/N quickly found herself wishing for a covering that was more than a few pieces of scrap fabric stitched together, but it was beautiful. There were more colours than the varying shades of purple, and as she gazed up at the moon she felt a tear leave her eye. It was beautiful. She had almost forgotten how beautiful the moon could be. The red moon of the Kingdom of Madness couldn't hold a candle to the sheer brilliance of the true moon. A moon that reminded her of home.

"Are you all right, Y/N," Sensei Wu asked. He had noticed her distance from him and Garmadon after their arrival in Ninjago. He had also noticed how she seemed to be in tearful awe of everything around her.

Y/N sniffed and wiped her nose on her clothes. "Yeah. I..." She paused, her gaze returning to the moon. "I just forgot what the moon looked like." She leaned on the railing of the ship, watching as the stars revealed themselves, twinkling as darkness settled across the sea of clouds.

"Sensei!"

Y/N flinched at the loud noise. The Kingdom of Madness had been covered in a blanket of near silence and the noise of Ninjago was already giving her a headache. Though she had once lived in a place far noisier than the clouds of Ninjago, living in the Kingdom of Madness had been quiet and still. And dark. Nearly everything in Ninjago was threatening her with a migraine, and as three of the four Ninja – and Nya – approached, Y/N wondered how long she would last before asking to retire for the night.

As she turned towards the Ninja, she noticed Garmadon hiding in the shadows, concealed behind his brother. She too was partially concealed, the dark hues of her clothing allowing her to pass relatively unnoticed by the Ninja. And they were much too happy to see their Sensei again to notice that he had returned with two – most likely unwelcome and unwanted – guests.

"Ah. It's so good to be home," Sensei Wu said.

"So glad you're back."

Zane, master of ice. He had yet to lose his human appearance in favour of his true titanium body and had a mop of blond hair piled atop his head, his crystal blue eyes shining in the night. Y/N was glad that Zane wouldn't lose those eyes even after the switch from a human disguise to his titanium body.

"Did you bring us anything?"

Y/N shook her head, biting back a laugh.

Cole, the master of earth, and the ninja who often switched between a total goofball and possibly one of the most grounded of the four Ninja. But all of the Ninja had their own moments of goofiness. He wasn't much different than how he had been portrayed in the show, with the same black hair falling over his eyes, and the same body the show had tried to capture in a lego figurine, but now his skin was tanned and his muscles much more prominent without the plastic barrier.

"Oh, Sensei, have you missed a lot. Zane's a nindroid, Nya is the mysterious samurai, Cole's a dancer..."

And Jay, the master of lightning. Easily the chattiest of the four Ninja. He seemed almost boyish in a way, perhaps due to his clumsy nature and the bright blue colour of his gi. Still, it was surprising how well the Lego figurine had managed to capture Jay. Or rather, how Jay looked compared to his Lego avatar. Brown hair, the same scar on his eyebrow, but instead of falling over his ears, Jay's hair seemed a little stiffer, more prone to easy styling than lying flat.