Recalibrate

A New Day

Zane woke up that morning, in an actual bed, staring up at a ceiling. A roof over their heads was something they had not had in a while; he was almost frightened when he saw dark wood instead of stars.

He knew he was the only one awake, given how his teammates never willingly woke before 8, and it was six o'clock in the morning. Or at least, that's what his internal clock said the time was. And of course, his internal clock was never wrong. Blinking a couple of times as his eyes focused in the dark room, he fully let it sink in that he was safe. The ceiling was a testament to that, after weeks on the run, trying to save the world with everything he had. There was no need to worry about a future of a world run by the malicious Overlord, an ancient evil that had sought to make the land of Ninjago his own after escaping imprisonment. There was no need to worry about Lord Garmadon, the Sensei's brother and one of the teammate's own father.

The day before had been the fight of their lives. They had all been so close to losing, so close to succumbing to the evil that the Overlord sought to spread around the world. The entity had gotten so close to taking over everything Zane and his teammates ever stood for; there was a terrifying moment when all but one of them had been consumed by the Overlord's malice. And Nya, Kai's sister... She had been brainwashed for days... There was no guessing the splitting headache she would be waking up to.

If not for Lloyd, the fabled green ninja and wielder of Energy, the world would have become the Overlord's throne. But Lloyd, so young and horribly forced into the whole ordeal when it was prophesied, he would have to defeat his own father, had saved them all. And in a way, the prophecy had come true. Not only did the defeat of the Overlord free them all of the evil's brainwashing, but also depleted all the venom that had turned Lord Garmadon into the villain of Ninjago at the young age of nine.

Lord Garmadon had been their adversary for so long, it was hard to imagine a world in which they didn't have to constantly try to foil the man's plans. And now that he was supposedly "good," how would that look for the team? Would they be expected to immediately put their trust in the older man? Or would the divide between the team and the ex-Lord forever stay unamended?

Whatever the relationship would be between the two previously opposing sides, there was no doubt that, for now, there was peace in Ninjago. Something Zane could have never said before. There was no big bad, no secret stories left to tell from their ever-cryptic Sensei, no surprise legends of ancient villains to be sprung upon them; life was now to be silent as it had probably ever been.

Of course, Zane knew this wasn't going to last. Their job was to help the country and the people in need, to fight the evil and keep their home safe. Without chaos, they would all be fresh out of work. Luckily for them, fighting enemies was a seemingly never-ending profession. Or maybe, that was unlucky for them.

He threw the covers off his body, now fully awake and unable to fall back asleep. Of course, Zane Julien never fell back asleep after he woke up at six o'clock each morning; maybe a slight fault in his programming that he was destined to never enjoy the relaxation that his teammates so lovingly called 'naps".

Zane sat up in his bed, and looked across the room, high on-top of the bunk he shared with Jay. Cole and Kai slept on the other bunk across the way, still fully dressed in their uniforms and sprawled on their backs, as if they had fallen asleep as soon as their bodies hit the mattress. Both Cole's black uniform and Kai's red one were heavily wrinkled, and would most definitely need a wash. If not for the horrendous wrinkles, then most certainly for the grime and soot that still hung on their clothes from the days prior.

Kai's brown hair was stuck up in so many angles that, truthfully, looked roughly the same as it did during the day. However, Kai would most likely moan how messy and unkempt it was (even though that's always how it looked). Although his suit was wrinkled and covered in soot, his tan skin did not have a single speck of ash on it. As the elemental master of fire, things such as soot and burns never scarred his skin; almost as if he were made of fire, and the marks of the flame could not taint his skin.