Out of Time // Ninjago Halloween Special 2018

Chapter 3 - 2016

This chapter is for my friend bear2710 whose birthday it is today - alles Liebe und Gute zum Geburtstag Toni 🎉🎉🎉!

When I posted the sneak peek, I promised her a little cameo in this book, and of course I then planned out the whole story and update schedule to make sure that Antonia would make her appearance in today's chapter 😉. Hope you like the role I gave her!

Also, when I asked people who they would like to see in this story, Ed and Edna were the most requested characters, so I had to add an extra scene to this chapter (because they obviously need to be in Jay's timeline).

This turned out quite a long chapter (>5K) so I'd better leave you to it now 😉.

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Chapter 3 – 2016

Ever since my conversation with Misako, I had been trying to convince myself that this story couldn't actually be true, yet here I was.

Just after dusk on the Day of the Departed, I was again walking the narrow the path up Haunted Hill, carrying a leather college bag over one shoulder and instructing myself to not get my hopes up.

For the first time in years though, I had dressed up for the celebrations. I was wearing a long, slim sea blue velvet dress, that had belonged to my mother. It had always been one of my favourite outfits of hers, but I had never had much opportunity to actually wear it myself.

The elegant dress had a similar style to the Duchess's robes displayed at the museum, which of course was purely coincidental. At least that's what I had been telling myself all evening.

But when I reached the top of the hill, my heart skipped a little beat when I saw he was already there. Jay was sitting on a tree trunk, alternating between nervously running his hands through his tousled auburn hair and playing with the buttons of his off-white shirt, while his eyes were fixed on the mossy ground.

Hearing me approach, he looked up. His beautiful eyes lit up as he broke into a huge smile and jumped up to greet me.

"Nya." He exclaimed. "You came. I-I was come up here the next day, and I was waiting for you, but you didn't turn up, so I thought..." His voice trailed off.

"I know." I simply said, returning the smile. "It was the same for me. How did you figure it out?"

"When I told my mum and dad about the fun fair, they were very interested in my stories-" He blushed. "-especially those about you; yet they had never heard of all these rides and games we had done there and insisted that these don't exist. But they hadn't been to the fair in years and I knew what I had seen so I made some little pictures and schematics to make sure I wouldn't forget. Then, a few months ago, I started my apprenticeship with an old friend of my dad's. Cyrus Borg not only works for the Duke but he's also a famous inventor, so I showed him my drawings. He also told me more or less the same as my parents, but then he was very interested in realising my 'inventions', so in our spare time we've built a couple of these contraptions together."

I remembered the picture I had seen at the Museum, so the second person on it must have been this Mr Borg. I there and then decided I would ask Misako to add their names to the portrait of the 'two craftsmen, identity (not) unknown (anymore)'.

"That sounds wonderful." I agreed.

"Yes, it is." He beamed at me. "And even the Duke of Ignacia was very impressed with our work, he came to the demonstration himself. Also his son, Lord Nicholas – he prefers to be called Cole though and is a really nice person and we've become good friends. Can you believe I'm friends with a future Duke?"