Chapter Text
Zane struggled to free the Bounty from the Colossus's grasp. The wood started to splinter and snap, mast breaking and nearly crushing Kai, who barely managed to jump out of the way.
"Hands off you big oaf! We just had her fixed!" Jay screamed.
"I can't get us free-! Its holding on too tightly!" Zane yelled over all the chaos.
"We need to go!" Little Wu shouted.
"To go...in your time of need, tea to go...I think this is why she gave us this!" Jay exclaimed, holding up the tea bag Mystaké had given them.
They gathered around in a circle.
"Well, what are you waiting for?" Cole asked, holding on to Little Wu's hand.
Jay opened the tea bag.
It was beautiful. Golden stars and deep blue stardust floated out, circling all four ninja and Wu. They stared in awe at the magnificent sight, for a moment forgetting about the giant Colossus that was currently crushing their ship.
"We need to go!" Wu shouted again.
"Go where?" Cole smiled.
A myriad of colours engulfed them, and then everything went black.
《》
"No-!" Lloyd screamed hoarsely, as the Bounty got crushed by the Colossus right before his eyes.
...They were gone.
Lloyd's world stopped spinning.
His family was gone.
《》
Jay groaned in pain, cracking open his eyes to a stinging sensation.
"Jay..? Where did the tea bring us?" Cole asked, helping little Wu up.
"It would appear to be the Royal Palace," Zane said, before frowning.
"But wasn't it destroyed?" Kai asked.
"It will be soon! That's why we need to get out of her now!" Someone shouted at them.
"Hutchins!" Cole exclaimed.
"What's going on?" Jay asked, getting up to follow after Hutchins.
"The Sons of Garmadon. They planted bombs and blew up the entire palace. Your green ninja went to find the prince, but I still haven't found the Emperor and Empress," Hutchins explained.
"Wait...the prince?" Zane said slowly.
"You must have hit your head hard. I need to leave now to find the Emperor and Empress. Please protect the prince. It's your top priority," Hutchins said.
"Wait but-" Kai started to say but Hutchins ran off into the debris and smoke.
"Prince...?" Cole repeated in confusion.
"Prince!" Wu repeated happily.
"My initial theory was that we were transported to the past when the palace was blown up. But now, I'm not so sure myself," Zane said.
"Questions later! We need to find Lloyd and this prince now!" Jay said.
"No, remember in our dimension, Lloyd and Harumi managed to escape safely with the mask? So they should have already left the palace right now and are currently on their way to the Bounty," Cole said.
"But we don't know how different this is from our universe! We can't make such assumptions and risk losing our teammate," Jay exclaimed.
"Jay is correct. We cannot make any assumptions with our lack of information," Zane said.
"Then let's find Lloyd and this prince," Kai said.
A scream sounded.
"I believe we have found them already," Zane said, running to the source of the scream.
"Lloyd!" Jay shouted as he spotted someone with sandy blond hair and someone with such a light shade of blond hair that it was almost white.
"You're okay! I was so worried! Where are the Emperor and Empress?" Harumi asked, and that was when the ninja noticed something.
Harumi was wearing a green gi. The same green gi reserved for the green ninja.
All four ninja audibly gasped. Little Wu imitated them, completely unaware of the situation.
And then they finally paid closer attention to the other person holding onto Harumi's hand, staring up at them.
It was Lloyd. But he was considerably shorter and younger, and had red eyes. He was wearing clothes that was usually worn by the royal family. And he was holding on to the Mask of Deception.
"Zane..?" Jay said, slowly panicking.
"I- This makes no sense-" Zane said, running countless possibilities in his circuits. "Unless..." He said.
"Less talking, more running! This whole place is coming down! Hutchins went to find the Emperor and Empress. Right now, the both of you are our top priority," Kai said, and rammed into the nearby wall, creating a hole for them to run through.
"Go go go!" Cole screamed as he passed little Wu to Jay and broke through the next wall with his lava arms, throwing aside debris.
Harumi dragged Lloyd(?) along by his hand and Zane tried to extinguish the flames with his ice.
"Guys! Over here!" A familiar voice shouted.
"Nya!" Kai exclaimed, running over to his sister.
"I managed to get the Bounty. We need to go now. The Sons of Garmadon are still there, and they're still looking for the mask," Nya said, shooting a glance at the mask Lloyd was clutching on to.
Kai nodded and helped the others on board the Bounty as Nya started the engines.
"Wait- But what about the Emperor and Empress?" Lloyd finally said.
"I'm afraid there's nothing we can do. Our top priority is the mask, Harumi and you. They're on their own," Zane said.
"No! We need to go back for them! You're ninja! You're supposed to protect people, not leave them to fend for themselves!" Lloyd argued, backing up towards the edge of the Bounty.
"We'll go back for them Lloyd, I promise. We just can't right now. There are people who want you dead," Kai said, placing a hand on Lloyd's shoulder.
Lloyd swatted it away, and threw the mask at Kai's feet.
"I don't care whether people want me dead! They trusted you! They put faith in you to protect them! And you betrayed it," Lloyd hissed at them, red eyes turning glossy.
"Lloyd-" Kai tried to say, but Lloyd stomped away into the cabins, leaving all the ninja to stare at his retreating back.
"Lloyd?" Wu asked, tugging at Cole's gi and pointing at where he had gone.
"I- not now little Wu, let's give him some time to process this," Cole said, patting Wu's head.
"Such a brat honestly. How did the Emperor and Empress even adopt him?" Nya asked, shaking her head.
"Leave him alone Nya, he's been through a lot," Harumi said, and that's when the other ninja recalled their current circumstances.
"Wait, Cole, who's the kid," Nya finally noticed little Wu.
"Uhm I found this kid on the streets so I just took him in until we could find his parents...?" Cole dragged, shooting frantic glances at the other ninja who purposely stared at something else.
What great friends he had.
"Okayyyy...? Just don't lose him," Nya sighed.
The four ninja, plus Wu, gathered around in a circle.
"Zane! What in the name of Ninjago is going on here?!" Jay whisper screamed.
"I believe we are in an alternate dimension where Harumi is the green ninja, and Lloyd is the Jade Prince..?" Zane drifted off, unsure.
"This is bad, this is really bad. We were literally fighting Harumi two days ago, and now she's the green ninja?!" Cole panicked.
"But if Harumi's the green ninja then...who's in charge of the Sons of Garmadon..?" Kai brought up the question and everyone's eyes widened.
"Lloyd?! But- How-? He looks much younger here," Jay said.
"I don't know how, but he looks less like our green ninja and more like the little kid we brought in on the Bounty all those years ago," Cole pointed out.
"Yes, because in this universe, Lloyd doesn't possess the element of energy, so he retained some of his father's characteristics," Zane explained.
"Would you lot stop chit-chatting and help us out here?! This engine isn't going to start itself," Nya scolded.
"Sorry Nya, a little brute force should work," Kai said, and gave the engine a kick.
The rumbling sound came on.
"Huh, that actually works," Harumi said, smiling.
"Yeah...sorry uhm I must have hit my head pretty hard in the explosion, but could someone please fill me on what the heck happened?!" Jay screeched.
"It was pretty quiet, until it wasn't. You could hear the revving sounds of their motorcycles first, then multiple booms going off everywhere. I ran to find the Prince, and I saw Hutchins who gave me the Mask of Deception to protect. He told me our top priority was to protect the Prince and prevent the Sons of Garmadon from getting the mask. I was trying to find a way out of the palace when I saw you guys," Harumi recounted her side of the story.
"I was outside the palace when it happened, but there were too many bikers for me to hold off by myself. So I managed to sneak past them and get to the Bounty as fast as I could to fly it here," Nya explained.
"Oh," Jay said simply. There was still so many questions.
"I'll go check in on Lloyd and make sure he's okay," Harumi said, and rushed off to the cabins.
"Really, I don't understand what Harumi sees in him. He only really trusts her because she's the only one who tolerates his behaviour," Nya scoffed.
"What did Lloyd do to make you hate him so much?" Kai asked.
"Do you have a concussion? You disliked him as well. We had that huge conversation about how bratty the Prince was remember?" Nya raised an eyebrow.
"Ohh that yeah I remember that, totally. But its just that maybe we should give him a second chance?" Kai suggested.
"I don't know about that, he was off my nice book from the moment he insulted me being a girl ninja," Nya shrugged.
"...Isn't Harumi a girl ninja as well..?" Cole asked.
"Exactly! He's biased towards Harumi like that, not that I have anything against it. We need someone who can keep him under control," Nya rolled her eyes.
"You should try being nice to him Nya. He's really sweet once you get to know him!" Harumi said, joining in their conversation as she walked towards them.
"He just kicked you out of the room didn't he?" Nya deadpanned.
"Yeah," Harumi sighed, shoulders drooping.
The four ninja stared at each other.
What have they gotten themselves into?