Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The boy standing on the ledge below her couldn’t speak. He was struggling to get the words to leave his throat, coughing between attempts until the blonde to his right voiced the question for him, asking what she thought of the color blue. When Nya smiled down at him, telling him that it was her favorite color, Jay pumped his fist triumphantly. In an overwhelming flash peppered with varying shades of blue, Nya saw the rest of her life laid out for her. 

A kiss on the cheek in an amusement park. A boy flickering with piercing electric blue light, lightning ricocheting off of him.

The same boy, his eyes sparkling through the hood pulled over his face, reaching out his hand for her on the rooftop. A flicker of hesitation, of separation. A moment where she saw him chained to a ship, a moment where she saw herself collapsing in his arms, sickly green sludge coating her wedding dress. The feeling of his hand in hers as they flew up to the rooftop, encapsulated in a royal blue cloud of power. 

A cerulean dragon they perched on, his arms wrapped around her waist as they flew through the clouds. Electricity and water mixing to create rather than destroy, their powers coming together in azure light against the baby blue sky. 

The mention of a time long gone, forgotten by their friends. The boy looking across the team to smile at her. Blue eyes meeting brown, crinkling around the edges. 

Slamming into his arms after months of separation. Clutching his hair as thankful tears burst from her eyes, blue waves crashing down her face. 

The boy kneeling in front of her, holding out a pendant, not seeming to care about the battle brewing around them. Her heart nearly bursting with love as she agreed, leaping into his cobalt blue embrace. 

Catching him as he fell through the sky, spinning toward the sand. Holding him above the lava by a chain that held them together. The three words slipping easily off his tongue, her heart beating with the same feeling she couldn’t yet verbalize. 

Clutching his sparkling periwinkle suit as they spun around the dance floor, leaping and dipping each other. Jumping into his arms, grinning down at him as they surpassed their competitors, the entire room glowing true blue. 

Kneeling by his bedside as water overtook his lungs. Feeling powerless as she couldn’t extract it, couldn’t use her element to save the only man she had ever loved. Looking out toward the sky, knowing what she had to do. Kissing him goodbye before climbing to the rooftop, looking back for long enough to mouth the words that her vocal cords could never say, before leaping into the water, letting it consume her. 

Her favorite color leaking from his eyes as he reached for her hand, his own passing through her watery one. Focusing all of her attention for long enough to kiss him on the cheek, glowing ocean blue as he had their first time, before leaping into the sea, ignoring how he called out for her to come back, knowing that she wouldn’t be able to leave him behind again if she did. She had saved him, had extracted the turquoise sea from his lungs. It was a part of her now. It didn’t matter how empty, how blue she felt in his absence. She did what had to be done. 

A dance. A storm. A lifetime in the six years without him. A fight where his bright blue eyes turned to red and he spit venom at her as he left. 

Then, something else. An older version of the boy she loved standing in a cobalt suit, an eyepatch pulled over one eye, gray peppering his auburn curls. She stood beside him, wrapping an arm around his middle with a smile, lines etched into her face from the years by his side, beaming at the thought of an aquamarine lifetime together. 

Nya blinked, shaking her head slightly as she looked back down at Jay, who was grinning lazily back at her. His face was round, boyish and clean. The same dusting of freckles that she had seen under the wrinkled version of his face cascaded across the bridge of his nose, reaching up to his cheeks. Nya beamed back at him, her eyes twinkling, her heart squeezing as she thought about the powder blue future she had seen. 

She couldn’t wait. 

Chapter Text

Jay’s hands were shaking, static electricity wrapping around his fingertips. 

“We don’t have to, you know,” Nya whispered, leaning into Jay’s shoulder. He shifted slightly to look over at her, his eyes wide. “If you’re nervous, that’s okay.”

“What?” Jay scoffed, his voice pitched upward with clear-cut anxiety. Nya took his hand, giggling at the quick shockwave that popped along her skin as she ran her thumb along the back of it. “I’m not nervous. It’s just a ride.” It was a clear lie.

The team had a rare day off. Garmadon seemed to have grown bored of trying to destroy Ninjago city after he was swallowed by Meowthra, offering the ninja an uncommon moment of peace. They had decided to do a group outing to the MegaMonster Amusement Park on the edge of the city. Everyone had been excited about it except for Jay. 

He would never admit it to the rest of the team, knowing how bad Cole and Kai’s teasing could get, but he was terrified of roller coasters. He didn’t trust that humans should be going that fast just for a trivial few minutes. He had never been able to see the fun in it. If he was going to fly around, it was going to be while in the safety of his mech, in service of saving the city. 

The whole day, Jay had been pulsing with anxiety. Not only because of his fear of the rides his friends were eager to go on, but also because sneaking away from the group served as his and Nya’s first date. 

He had tried to ask her out before, but he hadn’t been able to muster up the courage. She was impossibly cool, what with her leather jacket, her motorcycle that she rode through the school without consequence, and her mechanic skills. Not to mention her skills on the battlefield, the way that water obeyed her command in order to defeat a bad guy. On more than one occasion, Jay had found himself in harm’s way because he was watching Nya during a fight, leading to her hurling herself across the battlefield to save him. At first, he thought it was embarrassing, then, it made him like her even more. Not that she would ever feel the same way about him. 

Then, there was the time Kai had told her that perfume was the key to Nya’s heart, only for her to be allergic to the one that her brother had helped Jay pick out. 

So, when Jay finally gotten the nerve to ask Nya on a date, he was shocked when she blushed and said yes. They were in front of their school with dozens of their classmates swirling around them. Jay had just caught up with Nya as she climbed on her motorcycle, about to pull her helmet over her blue-tipped hair when he called out to her. He didn’t know what it was about the particular day that made him so desperate to finally buck up and ask her, but some piece of his heart knew that it was a moment he had to take. He fiddled with the bright orange scarf he had wrapped around his neck despite the heat, tiny crackles of static electricity popping beneath his fingers as he glanced up at Nya, swallowed, and asked the question that had been on the tip of his tongue for months. Shockingly, she had grinned and agreed, telling him that she would text him after her shift at her family’s shop. With a final smile and a wave, she pulled on her helmet and skidded away, leaving Jay, smiling like an idiot, on the curb. 

The line moved forward as the rollercoaster’s cars pulled up to the gate, the riders climbing out of it with exhilarated smiles and tousled hair. Jay looked at them, his eyes rimmed with anxiety. They had reached the front of the line. 

“Last chance, Sparky,” Nya whispered as they took slow steps forward. “You gonna be okay?” She squeezed his hand, instilling confidence in him with the simple touch. As long as she was by his side, he had a feeling everything would be okay. Just like on the battlefield. 

Jay focused on Nya instead of his anxiety, grinning at her and pulling her to the cart. “This is gonna be great,” he said, hesitating when Nya gestured toward one of the front carts. “Just not one of the front ones… okay?”

Nya chuckled. “Okay, Jay.” 

They made their way to one of the middle cars on the roller coaster, letting go of each other’s hands for long enough to make sure they were strapped in and safe.

“Hey, it’s just like a mech, right?” Nya said, leaning into Jay’s shoulder as she took one of his shaking hands. He nodded as the coaster jolted forward, creaking up to the first drop. His stomach twisted, his head spinning. He screwed his eyes shut so he wouldn’t have to watch the world below come rushing toward him as he flew to his death. Then, Nya squeezed his hand again, pulling his attention toward her. “You’re safe, don’t worry. I won’t let anything happen to you.” 

As they reached the top, the ride pausing for the first drop, Nya leaned over and pressed a kiss on Jay’s cheek. His eyes flew open and he whipped over to look at her. Nya was grinning back at him, her eyes slightly anxious as the warm mark her lips left behind on his cheek burned with his blush. Just before the rollercoaster continued down the hill, Jay summoned all of his courage and leaned forward into her lips, pulling Nya in for a kiss in return. 

Unfortunately, the coaster took that opportune moment to continue down the first drop, leading Jay and Nya’s faces to slam together, their teeth knocking against each other’s lips. They both pulled away, wincing as the rollercoaster continued its trek down the track, then caught each other’s eyes and burst into laughter. Nya slipped her hand back into Jay’s and turned her attention back to the track as they flew through the course of the ride. Jay followed her gaze, but his mind could only focus on the burning mark she left on his cheek and his lips. 

As they climbed off of the rollercoaster and walked back into the park hand-in-hand, Jay couldn’t stop the smile that stretched across his face. All of a sudden, he didn’t feel so scared of the amusement park’s attractions anymore. 

Chapter Text

A bead of sweat brewed on Nya’s upper lip as she studied the details of the machine below her. Nothing seemed to make sense, and the sun beating down on the back of her neck did nothing to ease her frustration. She groaned, resisting the urge to kick the hull of the Bounty as she stood up, wiping the sweat off of her face with the crook of her elbow to avoid smearing it with the grease coating her fingertips. 

“Any luck?” 

Nya turned enough to see Jay emerging cautiously from behind the wreck of their ship, where the rest of the team had been attempting to escape the heat of the desert they had crashed in. She shook her head as he stepped up beside her, squinting down at the wreckage. 

“You want some help?”

Nya smiled, stepping back toward the ship. “Sure.” 

She always loved working on machines with Jay. They always found themselves in a perfect rhythm, the comfortable silence between them charging up with electricity as both of their minds whirred, working through the problems and solving them as they tinkered together. Jay was the only one Nya was alright with sharing her workbench with, as the rest of the team had learned when Lloyd tried to help her fix the Bounty the last time it had crashed and she had nearly bashed his head in with the hammer she threw across the room at him. Jay, on the other hand, was almost an extension of her. When they worked together, it was as though he climbed inside her mind and knew exactly what to do, his hands working as fast as greased lightning, with all the precision that the machinery required. 

“It’s gotta be the pistons, right? They’re overheating,” Jay muttered, poking around the pieces of metal that allowed their two-hundred-year-old pirate ship to fly. Nya shook her head, her sweaty hair bouncing around her face. 

“I tried that already. No dice,” she said with a huff, squatting down beside Jay as he continued examining the engine. 

“Weird…” he murmured, shifting the same pieces of the machine around that Nya had. Without pulling his attention away from the metal, he extended his hand to her. “Pass me the socket wrench?” 

Nya obliged, digging around in the Bounty’s emergency toolbox and passing Jay the right piece of equipment. She watched as he slid the wrench into place between two canisters in the engine, turning just enough for it to…

Boom . 

A cloud of greasy smoke engulfed Jay and Nya. The master of water squeezed her eyes shut against the smoke, coughing slightly as she inhaled it. Jay’s hand made its way through the dark cloud to take hers, tugging her away from the wreckage.

Once they were out of the haze, Nya opened her eyes to see Jay standing in front of her, his entire front scorched with oily sludge. She assumed that she looked the same, and after a moment of assessing that he was alright, Nya burst into laughter. 

Jay blinked at her for a moment, clearly wondering if a piece of shrapnel had flown at her and lodged in her brain, causing her to double over in a fit of giggles. Then, the ridiculousness of the scene came together in his mind, and a bubble of laughter burst from his lips as he joined her. They stood there, continuing with their hysterical, uncontrollable sniggering as the red, black, and green ninja ran around the corner to check up on them. 

“Woah! You guys okay?” Cole asked, his dark eyes scanning the couple as they turned to their teammates, trying - and failing - to stifle their giggles. 

“Oh, FSM, what did Jay do?” Kai asked, wincing as Lloyd elbowed him in the side. 

“Hey!” Jay exclaimed defensively, pulling out of his and Nya’s hysterics to shoot a scrunched-eyebrow riddled glare at Kai. Then, as he seemed to remember what had led them to the explosion, his brow un-creased, his posture slouching slightly as he gave in. “… I messed with the pistons…” he mumbled. 

“Right… right…” Kai said, crossing his arms over his chest with a nod as he turned back on the sand. “Well, you can’t pay me to stand in this sun anymore. Try not to kill my sister, Jay.” With that, he strode back around the Bounty to where Zane was crafting ice blocks for them to survive the heat, with Cole and Lloyd close on his heels. Lloyd, at least, gave them the courtesy of a thanks for attempting to fix their ship before he dashed around the corner. 

“I wouldn’t dare!” Jay called moments after the team disappeared behind the ship, turning to squint at Nya with a lopsided smile stretched across his grease-covered face. 

“For the record, we wouldn’t have died from the piston explosion,” Nya said, reaching forward to swipe her thumb along Jay’s cheek, uncovering the freckles that lay below the sludge. “At most, we’d have been permanently maimed.” 

“Worth it,” Jay said as he leaned into her touch, his grin growing to create a dimple against her palm. Then, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a dark blue handkerchief, pulling out of Nya’s grasp enough to wipe the oil off of his lips, making sure they were clean when he leaned in to kiss hers. Nya grinned into his lips as she returned the chaste kiss, her hands flying to cup his jaw. 

As she tasted the metallic grease shift from her lips to Jay’s, the solution to their problem popped into Nya’s mind. Her eyes flew open and she pulled back, her hands still on Jay’s face, his lips parted from the sudden lack of contact with hers. 

“That’s it!” she cried, all of the puzzle pieces of the Bounty’s engine coming together in her mind as she turned all of her attention back to the machinery, rooting around in the toolbox for the perfect instrument to assist her. Jay followed behind her, kneeling in the sand beside Nya, smirking as he caught her attention before she dove back into the project at hand. 

“Just tell me what tools you need. I don’t wanna be responsible for permanently maiming your pretty face.”

Chapter Text

Jay was exhausted. He and Cole had been traveling for weeks searching for Master Wu, constantly coming up short in the search for their sensei. He was frustrated at the fruitlessness of their mission, snapping at Cole that they should head back to the monastery (as per Lloyd’s summoning) and regroup before continuing the search. 

The strap of Jay’s duffle bag dug into his shoulder as he trudged down the hallway, offering Cole a quiet apology for his attitude before turning the corner toward his room. The hinges creaked as he pushed the door open, wheezing as it was opened for what he assumed was the first time in months. Jay sighed, his attention wandering back to his failed assignment rather than his bedroom as he flicked on the light, illuminating the room, which was filled to the brim with white roses. 

“What the…” Jay muttered, dropping his bag and looking around the room, a small smile creeping onto his lips as his attention wandered over his bed, where Nya was seated, a large bouquet of roses, wrapped in a ribbon of their signature blue, positioned in her lap. She was beaming across the room at him. 

“Welcome home!” 

Jay grinned, a laugh bubbling through the frustration that had plagued him all the way home as he stepped into the room. “Were you just sitting here in the dark waiting for me?” 

Nya blushed, pursing her lips as she nodded. 

“What if I decided to unwind and play video games and didn’t come back in until morning?” he asked, continuing to tiptoe across his room. Nya shrugged. 

“I didn’t think of that. Darn,” she said, shifting the bouquet off of her lap and rising up on her knees on Jay’s bed as he finally reached her. She wrapped her arms around his waist, looking up into his eyes. 

“Where’d you even get all these?” Jay asked, gesturing around at the dozens upon dozens of flowers before his hands came up to cup Nya’s cheeks. 

“Can’t a girl have her secrets?” Jay squinted back at her, pushing her for more. Nya rolled her eyes with a small chuckle. “I know a guy who knows a girl, alright? I wanted to do something special for your homecoming.”

“Thank you.”

“Now, can you shut your mouth of lightning up for a second so I can kiss you?”

Jay made a zipping motion over his lips, miming throwing away the key that locked them shut and then leaning down as though he was going to press a kiss to Nya’s lips - it was what she was prepared for - only to wrap his arms around her torso and scoop her up into an embrace. Nya giggled lightly before returning the hug, her arms wrapping around Jay’s back to pull him in as she attempted to gain her footing on his bright blue rug, giving up when he tugged her off the ground, swaying her gently from side to side. Nya’s grin widened as she pressed her head into Jay’s shoulder, her fingertips digging into his t-shirt as one of his hands found its way to cradle the back of her head, the other holding her securely to ensure she wouldn’t tumble to the ground. 

“I really missed you, ya’know?” Nya whispered, squeezing a tiny groan out of Jay.

“Really? I never would’ve guessed,” Jay said sarcastically, lowering Nya back down to the bed and sitting beside her, the mattress creaking slightly under their shared weight on the edge of it. Nya rolled her eyes and shoved him lightly, beaming as he leaned back in, pushing a chunk of her hair, which had broken free from her ponytail, away from her face. Then, he took a rose from the bouquet Nya had discarded on the bed, letting it rest behind her ear. Nya blushed at the simple tenderness. “I missed you, too. Cole doesn’t like my jokes nearly as much as you.”
Nya shrugged, the smell of roses enveloping her. “It’s an acquired taste,” she whispered, leaning in to finally claim her kiss. 

Chapter Text

‘Crazy Agent Walker and his fishbowl’ was what Jay had become known for around the office. He didn’t blame his coworkers for thinking his behavior was strange. Hell, if he had seen his present self a week before his assignment, he would’ve thought he was out of his mind. But as of late, it didn't seem so crazy. 

It had started off normal, like every assignment Jay had been put on since becoming head of Realm Reassignment at the company. He stepped through the portal gate to get to the problem - in this case, the tsunamis plaguing the Endless Sea - and looked around for the issue. When he reached the coastline, he saw her standing there, her watery smile slightly lopsided as she surveyed him from beyond the waves. 

Jay had called out the normal spiel to her, telling her that she had to come with him, that the all-encompassing authority of the Administration gave him the right to take her back to the office for experimentation. Of course, he said it in the bureaucratic way he had memorized through his years at the Administration, and wasn’t surprised when she didn’t listen. Field problems never did. Jay was surprised, however, when she approached him, her presence pushing a wave forward on the sand so the sea flooded his polished shoes. 

“Who are you?”

She shrugged, tilting her head as she looked down at him. After a moment, she reached into the pool of water that made up her chest, just where her heart would be if she had flesh, pulling out a golden pendant hanging from a delicate chain. She extended it to him, her watery eyebrows raised. 

“Wh-what?” Jay stuttered, his fingertips flying to his own neckline, to the nearly identical necklace that hung underneath his suit. He wore it out of habit, mostly. He had no idea where it came from or what it meant, but there was some piece of him that refused to let it go or take it off. It was the same part of him that believed that, somehow, his pendant would fit perfectly with the one worn by the Watergirl. She widened her eyes, continuing to push the pendant forward. Jay, stunned, knew that the mystery was too far out of his reach to make any sense of. He pulled out the jar he had been sent with for data collection, removing the lid and holding it out to the girl in the water. “Will you come with me?” 

Shockingly, the girl pulled her hand back, pushing the pendant back into her chest for safe keeping, then leapt into the jar. Jay brought her back to the Administration, but didn’t have it in him to send her to the lab for testing. There was something about her that he couldn’t quite place… some piece of the mystery that he knew he had to solve on his own. 

So, he transferred her to a fishbowl so she would have room to swim, and he kept her close at all times. 

Having a companion made the doldrums of the Administration somewhat less boring. Jay had taken to asking the girl questions throughout the day - mostly when his coworkers weren’t around - grinning as she squeaked out a response that he was sure only whales could understand, gesturing around wildly. 

“Watergirl, what do you think of this?” Jay asked as he customized his avatar for a new game he had installed - Prime Empire - which he had heard some of the other Administration agents talking about the weekend before. They had mentioned something about the game turning evil years ago and attempting to take over a city before the merge, but Jay was sure that they were just making things up to check if he really was crazy. Jay turned the screen toward the fishbowl beside his keyboard so the watery figure in it could get a good look at his bright blue rockstar avatar, which he had, unfortunately, spent real life money to customize. 

In the weeks he had been carrying the fishbowl around, Jay had begun to understand pieces of the Watergirl’s squeaky speech. From what he could comprehend, she liked his video game suit, but thought he was an idiot for spending his paycheck on it.

“Yeah, you’re right about that, Watergirl,” he mumbled, swiping his mouse across the screen to start the game, reaching for his remote control when a creaking from his door signaled that he wasn’t alone.

“Agent Walker? Who are you talking to?”

Jay turned on his swivel chair, his eyes wide as he glanced quickly at the girl in the fishbowl, who had disappeared into her watery dwelling, making it appear as though the glass was full of empty water. Jay pursed his lips, turning back to his subordinate, who he knew was thinking he was insane and should be committed. With the proper paperwork, of course. “I’m working on my research project, Prentiss. I’m incredibly busy and would prefer not to be disturbed,” he said pointedly, raising his eyebrows at the other agent until he got the point.

“Right. Of course, Agent Walker,” Prentiss said apologetically, backing out of the room. Jay swore he could hear him planning how to tell his coworkers that their manager was out of his mind on his way out. He had started to get used to it.

Jay turned back to the fishbowl, where the Watergirl had emerged, leaning against the lip of the glass with a playful smile. Jay shook his head at her, his own grin dancing on his lips. “Really, Watergirl? You’re making me seem crazy, here.”

The girl in the water shrugged her liquidy shoulders, squeaking up at him about how maybe he was crazy, but she was crazy, too. Jay’s fingers wandered to the chain around his neck, brushing along the pendant that hung there. The one that was eerily familiar to him, that was worn by the mysterious Watergirl sitting in the fishbowl on his desk. He couldn’t explain it, but he was sure that there was a significance of both of them wearing the symbols. Maybe it was a part of his past that he couldn’t remember, despite frantically attempting to recall it. 

Being the Administration’s ‘Crazy Agent Walker’ was starting to be a nickname he could get behind, especially with the Watergirl living in the land of insanity with him. With her simple watery presence, she helped ease the loneliness that had consumed him in his tiny office, filling the hole in his heart that had always been longing for more, like the part of him that felt missing was filled with the sea.

Chapter Text

Nya didn’t know how she had gotten to the floating piece of land hurling through the cloudy sky. 

All she remembered was the moment in which she was declared to be betrothed to the last of the Djinn, then darkness. She was vaguely aware that there was someone else in control, but she couldn't see what they did while puppeting her body. She couldn't feel it. A blank slate of her memory was all that Nya felt until she snapped back into focus, a dull pain spreading across her chest, reaching up to her arms and down her torso. Nya looked down, her eyes registering sickly green venom stains on the bodice of her wedding dress before the corners of her vision blurred, her legs collapsing beneath her. 

As Nya fell to the dusty ground, arms came up behind her, catching her in the lap of another ninja. Jay. 

Despite his own damaged, aching body, he slid across the dirt and pulled her into his arms, his hand flying to wander over the stained fabric of her dress, not daring to touch the venom. His split lip quivered as tears pooled in his bloodshot eyes. Using all of the strength she had left, Nya reached up to caress Jay’s cheek, careful not to press too hard against the bruises and cuts. She made him promise not to waste his wish on saving her, not to be so foolish as to sacrifice the good of their world just so that she could be a part of their boys club. Nya had never wanted that, anyway. 

He protested momentarily, telling her that he didn’t want to lose her. She shook her head, the movement making her entire body ache. She told him that the greatest love stories ended in tragedy, so they would be hurling toward this conclusion no matter what. 

Before she blacked out completely, falling into the darkness of her impending death, Nya heard Nadakan make a wish. Jay, his eyes squeezed shut as a sob shook his body, didn’t hear the Djinn wish him away. Nya, her eyes sliding closed, her tongue feeling like cement in her mouth, couldn’t warn him as the wish magic made its way across the floating island. The last thing she felt was Jay’s body stiffening beneath her as Nadakan turned him into a statue of gold, a tear frozen on his cheek, his arms wrapped eternally around Nya’s lifeless body. 

With a gasp, Nya pulled herself out of her nightmare. She clawed at the exposed skin of her chest through the tank top she had been sleeping in, where the venom had been resting moments before in her slumbering mind. Dampness coated her fingertips, but it wasn’t tiger widow venom. It was her own cold sweat. 

It had been a month and a half of sleepless nights after the waking nightmare that was Nadakan’s rule over Ninjago was over. Most nights, Nya would work herself into exhaustion in the old SamX cave, hoping that falling asleep as morning neared, slumped against her workbench, would lead to a night without reliving the horrors of her memories in her sleep. But, she never shook the nightmares. She just woke up with her joints aching, a wrench or screwdriver clutched in her hands like a sword. 

The worst part of the nightmares was not being able to talk to anyone about them. Even though the rest of the team saw the bags under Nya’s eyes deepen and darken, she always insisted that she was fine, just having odd dreams. Even though her older brother’s eyebrows crinkled with worry at her forced cheerfulness, she couldn’t confide in him. How could she? To him, the nightmare had never happened. He had never watched her die in Jay’s arms. 

Jay. The only other member of the team who remembered. 

More nights than not, Nya woke up in her own room, but fell back asleep in his. She was too stubborn to fall asleep in his room in the first place, both in hopes that for once she wouldn’t need him to hold her to fall back asleep and fears of what the others would think about their complicated relationship. But in the middle of the night, Nya knew it was safe to stealthily move through the corridors of the monastery, tiptoeing down the hallway to Jay’s room. 

Nya’s thick socks allowed her to silently move through the slumbering monastery toward Jay’s room, which was positioned right across from the game room. She paused for a moment, before pushing the door open quietly, surprised when the crack spilled light into the hallway and she nearly stepped face-first into the master of lightning. 

“Woah!” Jay stuttered in his tracks, stepping back with widened, anxious eyes, which turned bashful when he registered that it was Nya waiting at his door. The visible tension in his shoulders eased and he stepped out of the way so that Nya could join him in the room. “Oh, hey.”

“Hi,” Nya whispered, closing the door behind her and scanning the room. Jay’s bed was unmade, the duvet thrown onto the floor. It was as if he had tossed and turned in an attempt to sleep, just to come up short. The swivel chair at his desk was pulled out, pens and papers scattered across it haphazardly. Nya knew that when he couldn’t sleep, he put his whirring mind to use, just like she did. In the month and a half since they had stopped Nadakan’s hostile takeover of Ninjago, Jay and Nya had almost built an entire fleet of vehicles and small inventions. It was another difference that their teammates questioned, but that Jay and Nya refused to talk to them about. “Couldn’t sleep?”

Jay shrugged, then nodded. His sleepy eyes twitched. “Never can. You?”

“Nightmares. Again,” Nya said with a sigh, walking over to Jay’s bed and perching herself on the edge of it. She tilted her head as she looked across the room at him. “Can I stay with you?” 

Jay’s sleep deprivation didn’t stop him from smiling, his teeth peering out from between his lips, his entire face dancing with electricity. It reminded Nya of the Jay she had first met. Jay before… everything. He limped across the room to her - a phantom pain, he had told her, since his time shackled on the Misfortune’s Keep had been lost in time - and climbed past her onto his bed, settling among the pillows and opening up his body for her to join him. A tiny smile crawled onto Nya’s lips as she scooched across the mattress, finding her place between Jay’s legs so she was cocooned by him, her head resting on his chest. Jay’s lips brushed against her hair as he whispered to her. “Of course, Nya. You always can.”

Nya squeezed Jay gently, clinging to his t-shirt as his hands moved to her back, hugging her in return. “Do you wanna talk? About why you can’t sleep?”

Jay was quiet for a moment, his fingers tracing small circles on Nya’s back. Then, in classic Jay fashion, he deflected. Focusing on her instead. “Do you want to talk about your nightmare?”

“No,” Nya said quietly, tears prickling at her eyes as she remembered the solid Jay statue that held her as she died, right before she yanked herself out of her sleep. She pawed at Jay’s side, at his bicep, at the muscles of his flesh, desperate to feel the warmth of his skin and the give of his body. Desperate to know that he was alive . 

Maybe it wasn’t the healthiest manner of coping, but denial was all Jay and Nya knew to do. They only had that and each other to cling to through the nightmares, through the lack of sleep, through the flashbacks and the phantom pains. 

“Okay,” Jay whispered, pulling Nya closer to him, almost crushing her with his squeeze. Nya nuzzled her face into his shirt, comforted by the smell of the monastery’s shared detergent as it mixed with the smell that was uniquely Jay . Her eyelids drooped with exhaustion as Jay continued running his hands up and down her back, the rhythm combining with the steady beating of his heart, lulling her eyes shut. 

Nya didn’t remember when she fell asleep. When she stirred the next morning, squinting at the bright blue light filtering through Jay’s curtains as she rubbed her eyes, she was thrilled to realize that she had secured a few hours of blissfully dreamless sleep. Jay’s arms were clamped down around her, not enough to make her feel claustrophobic, but enough to make her feel secure. And prevent too much movement. Nya pulled her head away from Jay’s chest just enough to look up at him, grinning as she saw his mouth hanging wide open as he slept. She watched a few of his deep breaths, her ear to his chest, right over his heart, before letting her eyes fall closed once again, taking advantage of the infrequent sleep that being wrapped up in Jay’s arms gave her.

Chapter Text

When Zane trudged back to the group, powerless and frowning, Jay’s heart dropped into the acid of his stomach. For so long, the ninja team had been the only Elemental Masters of their realm, making competition near nonexistent. It had made them cocky as they walked into the Tournament of Sources, leading Zane to get knocked out in the first round. 

If Zane couldn’t move on, what chance did Jay have? He was already rattled from thinking he saw Nya in the crowd, his attention constantly wandering to the blue-tipped braid that he saw disappearing around every corner. With his attention scattered, he knew he didn’t stand a chance of fighting back against Shatterspin, should he need to. His stomach flipped at the thought. Jay turned his attention back to his team’s conversation, hoping it would distract him from the anxiety swirling around in his gut. 

“Now, I can only spectate until my powers are returned at the end of the games. I apologize for not being of better assistance for the mission,” Zane said apologetically, his cold blue eyes drooping with guilt. 

“You did the best you could, Zane. Nobody said this was gonna be easy,” Lloyd said, reaching across the group to put his hand on Zane’s shoulder. The nindroid loosened his posture slightly at the touch. 

“I wonder who’s next,” Jay murmured, turning to look up at Roby as he zoomed by.

“Up next… the most shocking competitor in the tournament… Jay Walker! Elemental master of lightning!” Roby announced, zipping by on his hovering podium as Jay’s photo appeared on the screen behind him. He groaned. 

“I just had to ask, didn’t I?” he muttered, stepping into the arena and shaking out his muscles. Get psyched, Jay. For the good of the team. For the good of the Source Dragons . 

Lloyd, the team’s leader, followed close behind, stepping up to the barricade between the competition and the spectators. “It looks like Ras is coaching your competition.” 

Jay shook his head, trying not to let the prospect of Ras’ potential team member get to his head. He turned back to Lloyd, flashing him a grin that didn’t reach to his worried eyes. “Don’t worry. Whoever it is, I can take ‘em.”

“And, welcome to the arena… she’s slick… she’s cool… and she’s well-hydrated.” Jay’s stomach dropped at the summary. It couldn’t be… “Nya! Elemental master of water!”

From the cluster of Ras’ team, she emerged, turning towards the arena with her brows low over her eyes. Her hair was longer, pulled into a braid over her shoulder rather than the classic ponytail she had sported before the merge, and the water scars on her face from her time at sea seemed to have deepened. But it was her. 

Nya . 

The moment of shock and terror was over at the sight of her, actually standing in front of him, after so long. Jay’s face cracked open in a smile. “Nya! I knew I saw you! Where have you-”

“What are you talking about? I’ve never seen you before in my life,” Nya spat, her words ringing over and over again in Jay’s ears as his breathing quickened, the shallow gasps for air doing nothing to help his anxiety. What? 

Before he could question her words or beg her to snap out of whatever trance she was under, Nya pulled her hood over her face. It was gunmetal grey with blue accents, making her feel familiar but all so different at the same time. Jay swallowed as Roby introduced the challenge. They would have to race to the top of the tower. Jay wasn’t sure that he could even move his legs, let alone scale the vertical wall in the middle of the arena. 

“Lloyd, I can’t fight her!” he called across the arena, turning back to the spectator area. Lloyd looked back at him with saddened eyes.

“We don’t have a choice, Jay.” 

Above the arena, Bleckt rang the bell, signaling the beginning of the race. Nya loosened her shoulders, the joints cracking menacingly as she studied Jay like a hunter stalks its prey.

“Nya… It’s me! Jay!” he said, desperation kicking in. 

“Is that supposed to mean something to me, lightning boy?” she asked with a scoff, launching forward to roundhouse kick him, her foot landing squarely on his torso, knocking the wind out of Jay in the same movement that knocked him to the ground. Jay groaned, attempting to pick himself up as Nya took the moment of his vulnerability to strike again. This time, he saw it coming, and was able to roll out of the way before she could kick him in the face. Then, he pushed himself off the ground, gritting his teeth against the pain in his side that he was sure would leave a blotchy bruise. 

“Jay, focus on the dagger!” Lloyd’s voice called from the sidelines. Jay looked up and over his shoulder at the dagger positioned hundreds of feet above him at the top of the tower. When he turned back around, Nya was already barreling toward him. He instinctively kicked her back and charged up a fistful of lightning, ready to inflict it on his opponent until he saw Nya’s deep brown eyes peeking back at him through her mask. In the moment that he hesitated, she pulled herself off the ground.  

“You had a clear shot and didn’t take it. What are you, a terrible ninja or something?”

Jay sighed, tears prickling behind his eyes. “I don’t want to hurt you, Nya. We care too much for each other!” 

“Speak for yourself,” she said, releasing a battle cry as she launched toward him, water swirling around both hands. 

Jay pushed back, their forearms colliding as they both charged up their elemental powers, their arms buzzing against one another with exertion. They had sparred like this before, but it had always been in good fun, ending with a joke or a kiss before they went to raid the pantry together. Now, it just made Jay feel nauseous. 

Nya took the opportunity of their faces being just inches apart to offer helpful exposition, her water continuing to swirl, ready for action, around them as they stood face-to-face. “My Master Ras told me that you’d try to get in my head, lightning boy. That you’d try to use mind games against me. But you won’t shake my confidence, because I don’t believe a word you say!” 

Jay mustered up all of his courage to push Nya away from him. “Ras is the one lying to you, Nya! You’re a ninja, like us!” he gestured back to his team. “But you disappeared after the merge.” Nya’s eyes narrowed behind her mask as she took a step back. Jay stepped forward, reaching his arms out despite her nonverbal insistence that he stay away. “Nya. You’re the love of my life. My Yang.”

“Ugh, as if!” Nya rolled her eyes, continuing to back away. “Ras told me the truth: I was a great warrior fighting alongside my master in the Wyldness. Then, after the merge, I ended up in the Administration, where Ras found me and rescued me.” 

The tears behind Jay’s eyes threatened to break free. Nya had been in the Administration, the large building at the edge of the Realm of Madness. For six years, Jay had been protecting the Cragling village across the mist from the Administration. For six years, they hadn’t even been a realm apart . Jay swallowed his tears. There would be time for that later. 

Nya lunged at Jay, knocking him to the ground. His hip collided with the hardwood of the arena, and he groaned as the crowd let out a collective gasp. 

“I owe it to Ras to win this tournament. Whatever it takes,” Nya said from above him, pulling a wolf mask out of her gi. No . No, no no no.

“Nya, no!” 

As Nya pulled the wolf mask down over her already-covered face, waiting for Ras to slam the gong and shatter every ounce of goodness left in her soul, all Jay could think about was the girl he loved. His Yang. The girl whose favorite color was blue, the girl who became her element to save him. As Nya shattered her goodness, throwing her head back with a cackle that could only be described as villain-like, Jay found himself thankful that Kai wasn’t there to see it happen. 

Jay’s heart stopped, his stomach lurched, and tears hammered behind his eyes as he watched the scene. The team had been warned against the powers of Shatterspin, had been taught how to notice it and how to stop it, but all of that vanished from his mind as he watched it happen to Nya .

Red consumed her, turning her eyes and wrapping around her in dark, curling Spinjitzu. Jay had to shove the memory of Nya in red before she joined the team out of his mind, feeling like he was going to vomit on the floor of the arena at the thought of the younger version of Nya he had met all those years ago. Of the girl in red, then later in blue, that he had fallen in love with. The darkened, twisted version of her standing before him didn’t give him any chance but to fight back, unless he fought back hard . Jay swallowed, pulling his face covering over his mouth, and tried to focus on the movement of everything around him. The ground beneath him, which he knew was subtly shifting him through space despite feeling like he was standing still, the crowd holding a collective breath as they watched the exchange, Roby zooming around to make sure the fight was shot from every angle. The love of his life ripping herself apart in front of him. 

I’m sorry, Nya . 

Jay pulled himself into a burst of blue and yellow lightning-filled Spinjitzu, spinning for a few moments before the tornado morphed into a dragon and he shot up into the sky, arching over the crowd, ready to descend into Nya’s Shatterspin. A tear slipped from his eye with the movement as he dove down, catching a glimpse of her glowing red eyes as she squinted up at him, releasing a frustrated shriek as he broke through her tornado of Shatterspin, sending her tumbling back as he landed safely on the arena floor. 

The crowd went wild, but all Jay could hear was his own blood pumping in his ears. He watched Nya pick herself up off the ground, groaning, her red eyes turned down. A few chunks of hair had broken loose from her braid, and her lip was split and bleeding down her chin. Jay wanted to reach out to her, to care for her wounds, to make sure she was alright… but Lloyd’s words rang in his ears. Focus on the dagger . 

He looked up at the tower, squinting through the darkness to see the weapon hovering at the top. All he had to do was scale the wall and grab the dagger, and then it would all be over. 

Jay ran, pumping all of his power into his feet as he jumped up to the first foothold, yanking himself up and flipping over to the next. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Nya look up at him, watching him with fury as she revved up her elemental powers and chased after him, hurling balls of water as he continued his climb. Mist brushed Jay’s cheeks as a droplet shot past him, Nya close on his heels as he flipped up onto the next platform. She joined him, her teeth bared as she reached forward to knock him off, and he acted fast, leaping away so he wouldn’t have to shove her off of the platform. 

No matter what, she was still Nya . And he could never hurt Nya. 

Jay focused, forcing his aching legs to propel him skyward one last time, landing gracefully on the top of the platform and scooping the dagger out of its floating podium. The crowd erupted in applause as he held it in the air triumphantly, then the tower retreated into the floor of the arena.

“We have a winner! Jay, elemental master of lightning! Woohoo!” Roby exclaimed, riling up the crowd with a wave of his hands as he continued zipping around on his hoverboard. Jay peeked over at Nya, who was glaring at the floor as her powers, blue and bright, were pulled into the cup in Roby’s hands, then transferred to Jay.

He was sure that the aching in his heart wasn’t due to the additional powers, but they came along with an odd sensation, nonetheless. 

“The thrills keep coming: Nya is now without her elemental powers, and Jay can control lightning and water! Jay, how about you show us what you’ve got?” Roby yelled, grinning down at Jay, who gritted his teeth, looking down as he launched a ball of water into the air, which fell around them like rain. 

With Roby already moving on to the next competitors, Jay turned his attention to Nya, who glared at him before striding away, toward the rest of her team. Jay’s chin wobbled as he watched the exchange between Nya and Lord Ras, whose body language signaled his silent disapproval before he turned, leading the team away from Nya. Leaving her to process her loss alone. 

Jay seized the moment to approach her.

“Nya?” he whispered, clearing the rising tears from his throat as he stepped toward her. Nya turned slightly, looking over her shoulder at Jay. Her lips were pulled in a flat line, her eyebrows furrowed. “I know you lost your memory… but I need you to know the truth.” Jay paused for a moment, foolishly hoping that Nya would turn around and tell him that everything was alright. Jay kept his voice quiet so it wouldn’t be so obvious that it was shaking. “I love you. I will always love you, Nya.” 

Nya’s eye twitched, her lip curling as Jay reached out for her. She shoved him away, turning her attention fully toward him as her eyes shifted back to a glowing red as she got in his face, making sure he heard every word. “And I will always hate you,” she spat, pulling back and stomping away. Jay’s feet stayed rooted to the ground, feeling like they were going to buckle and break beneath him as he watched Nya disappear into the city of temples. A sob bubbled up in his throat but couldn’t escape his trembling lips. 

Nya may have been the one to shatter her goodness, but in the same, swift moment, she shattered Jay’s heart.

Chapter Text

The chrysalis wiggled, the edge of it splitting open as the butterfly emerged. Nya had been sitting in the courtyard, soaking in the sunlight on one of her rare days off, when the movement caught her attention, pulling her over to the garden. She was mesmerized by it, seeing new life spread its wings right in front of her. 

“Whatcha doing?” 

Nya jumped slightly at Jay’s voice, pulling away from the tiny cocoon to face Jay, who was stretching by the door with a small smile playing on his lips as he studied her. She waved him over, shifting slightly so he could crouch beside her in the garden. 

“Woah,” Jay whispered, his curls tickling against Nya’s cheek as he leaned in to get a better look at the butterfly as it broke free. Its damp wings curled around its tiny body as it crawled out of the chrysalis. 

The planter box outside of the monastery had been littered with the stages of butterfly life for weeks. Vibrant wings, striped bugs, tiny eggs. Bright green pods stuck to the fence, to the pots in the garden, to other plants, to the tables and chairs and - in the case of one brave caterpillar - pieces of the training equipment. Jay and Nya had taken a peculiar interest to the colony of butterflies fluttering around the garden, waiting for the opportunity to watch the first butterflies emerge. 

The butterfly moved up the brick, unfurling its wings so that the deliciously warm sun could hit them. When it opened up its wings, the insides were revealed to be bright blue, spreading from a light turquoise closest to its abdomen to a deep cerulean towards the tips. 

“It’s beautiful,” Nya breathed, careful not to disturb the fresh bug in front of them.

“Yeah…” Jay murmured in return, watching the butterfly open and close its wings, testing the new additions as they dried. After a few moments, when the sun had dried the butterfly’s wings enough for it to fly, it flapped harder, tentatively rising into the air around the garden. It bobbed around the flowers for a bit before adventuring off into the sky. Nya and Jay grinned as they watched it go. “The majesty of nature…” 

Nya turned, staring blankly at Jay for a moment before bursting into laughter, wrapping her arm around his middle and pulling him in for a half-hug. He returned it easily, resting his cheek on her forehead. “Way to really capture the beauty, Jay.” 

In a realm far away, years down the line, Nya was reminded of the butterfly when a similarly ocean-colored one flew past her gaze. Once again, Nya was sitting in the monastery courtyard, but she was staring blankly at the fountain, waiting for something to break into the endless monotony of her loneliness. Her mind had just wandered back to Jay - not that it strayed from him for more than a few seconds in his absence - when a butterfly bobbed through the air in front of her. She watched as it swirled in the air around her, making sure that it caught her attention, making sure that she saw its bright blue wings as it drifted by. Nya knew it wasn’t the same butterfly she and Jay had watched emerge from its slumber before the merge, that had been years ago. But a tiny piece of her wondered if it was a descendent of the creature from her and Jay’s past. A tiny piece of her latched onto the butterfly wearing their shared favorite color, the way that the light blue blended into the dark, the two pieces coming together to create a beautiful painting across the wings of the butterfly.

Maybe Nya was just clinging to any connection to Jay she could find. She ached in his absence. 

As the butterfly floated away, a small frown crept to Nya’s lips as she watched it go. She knew it was the ‘majesty of nature’, like Jay had said years before, but that didn’t stop her from feeling abandoned by the creature, or from feeling saddened as she watched it drift into a spiderweb on the front gates of the monastery. Nya gasped as she watched, wide-eyed and horrified, as a tiger-striped spider scurried along its web to the struggling butterfly, sinking its teeth into the bright blue bug, sucking the life out of it as it slowly stopped moving. Nya swore she saw the wings turn a sickening red, but that didn’t make sense. 

Tears rose in Nya’s eyes, her emotion clawing at her throat, wet and hot. She didn’t know how to explain the swell of feelings - it was just a bug - but that didn’t stop the tears from pooling, clouding her vision with watery ripples. She shook her head, standing up and bolting into the monastery, beelining to her room and throwing herself face down onto her bed so that none of her teammates could see or hear her sobs. 

Chapter Text

“What in the ninblooey is that? ” Jay shouted into the howling wind, looking up at the sky as it shattered into multi-colored light. Nya ran up beside him, her eyes widening as she took in the storm above them. 

“What is that?” Nya repeated, turning to Jay with wide eyes filled with confusion, only to see the sentiment mirrored in his. She turned to the monastery as the rest of the team barreled out of it, all staring up at the sky as another shockwave hit the ground beneath their feet. 

“The earth, it's… screaming,” Cole said softly, kneeling down to run his fingertips along the cobblestone. Then, he looked back up at the sky, his attention shifting to Master Wu. 

“Master Wu, what’s going on? Was this in the scrolls you’ve been studying?” Nya asked, raising her voice over the volume of the storm as Jay reached for her hand, his own fingers trembling as he looked up at the rainbow clouds.

“This wasn’t supposed to happen like this… this isn’t right…” Master Wu murmured, more to himself than his students. It was as if he was in a trance as he looked up, only snapping back into action as a food cart flew into the building with a crash. “Alright, ninja. We have a lot of work to do. Nya: you and Zane prepare the Bounty. Kai and Cole, fly out and make sure everyone’s alright. Jay, power up your mech. You can help intercept debris. And where is Lloyd ?”

The team sprang into action as Master Wu bolted back into the monastery in search of his nephew, having received their assignments for the mission at hand. They were used to following orders, no matter how odd and confusing the situation they were fighting back against was. Cole and Kai pulled down their hoods and were gone in a flash of Spinjitzu before Nya could even register that they were leaving. Zane ran to the chain hanging down from the Bounty, scurrying up it and revving up the engines. Nya moved to follow him, but was stopped short by Jay’s hand, which was still clutched in hers. She caught his anxiety-widened eyes.

“Nya, I have a bad feeling about this thing,” he said, his voice almost lost in the storm. 

Nya scrunched her eyebrows together, pushing a tentative smile to her lips as she squeezed Jay’s hand. “We’ll be fine, right? We always are.” She knew that Jay wasn’t convinced, because she wasn’t even convincing herself. A terrible sense of dread was swirling in her gut. “Now, let’s go save the world.”

Jay screwed his eyes shut and nodded. Nya pulled Jay’s gloved hand to her lips, brushing a kiss along the back of it before letting go so Jay could dash to his mech, which was parked in the courtyard. She squeezed her own eyes shut, hoping that she had the confidence to fight the mysterious storm ripping open the sky above them. She heard Jay’s mech take off and took it as a sign to leap up to the Bounty so she and Zane could focus on freezing and flooding the swirling clouds of mystery. 

Nya had almost reached the chain when Jay’s bright blue mech landed in front of her, stopping her in her tracks. She looked up at the cockpit, confusion etched onto her face as Jay jumped down, grabbing Nya’s shoulder to pull her in for a kiss, cupping her cheek and running his fingers through her hair as she grabbed his waist, understanding immediately and holding him close. She memorized the feeling of his touch, praying to the First Master that she wouldn’t have to rely on her memory after the battle was over. Jay pulled away, pressing his forehead to Nya’s, their bangs tangling together. “I love you.”

Nya inhaled the warmth of his breath. “Be safe,” she murmured, kissing him again to silently return his words. She hoped it wouldn’t be their last one as she wrapped her arms around his back, holding Jay close to her. She could feel his heart hammering against his ribcage. She didn’t want to pull back, she didn’t want to have to save the world. But it was what they did. 

Jay was the first one to gently tug away from her, caressing her hair with his gloved hand and raking his glassy eyes over her face one last time before jumping back into the mech and flying off, leaving Nya to climb up onto the Bounty, hurling balls of water as they flew away. 

In the years following the storm they had since called the merge, in the years without Jay, Nya remembered the feeling of their last kiss. The feeling of Jay’s chapped lips pressed against hers, his breath hot and his hands shaking as they touched her with impossible gentleness, wordlessly showing her how much he loved her. In his absence, Nya found herself wishing she had told him how she felt the same. She kicked herself for not being braver, for not telling him with her words that she loved him, too. 

Until it was too late.

Chapter Text

“Jay! Jay! ” Nya shouted through the darkened street, cupping her hand around her mouth to amplify her voice as she called out for him in the crowd. She swore she saw his auburn curls poking out from the cluster of people, recognizable even after years of separation. Nya bolted forward, pushing past people who were walking too slowly in her search for Jay, pulling the attention of someone with identical hair to him, but a completely different face. She apologized, pulling away and whipping her head around, her heart racing. “Jay?” 

Nothing. 

Nya sighed, tears pushing behind her eyes as she made her way back to the dormitory assigned to the team, curling herself on the cot, letting the ache of missing Jay gnaw at her insides. After six years of the feeling, she had gotten used to it. It was part of her nightly routine.

The next night, when Nya saw Jay for real, her mind threw her through a rollercoaster of emotions. Her heart skittered to a halt out of pure shock, blood pulsing through her limbs as she took in her Yin standing before her. She was surprised that he didn’t run into her arms and kiss her all over, but she was more than willing to be the first to reach out for an embrace. She grinned as she stepped forward. 

“Jay! I knew I saw you!”

“What are you talking about? I’ve never seen you before in my life!” Jay yelled across the arena, shaking his head at her, his eyebrows pulled low in a glare. Nya stopped dead in her tracks, staring at him with disbelief. 

From the spectator area, Nya could hear Cole’s attempt to understand the situation. “Jay could never forget Nya… or any of us. Is that some sort of fake Jay? Some loser in a Jay wig?”

As Jay pulled down his mask and prepared to fight Nya in pursuit of the dagger on top of the tower in the middle of the arena, Nya found herself wishing that it was a fake Jay standing before her. Maybe the real Jay was out there somewhere, searching for her. Still in love with her, waiting for her to find him after the merge. But as the Jay standing in front of her revved up his powers, lightning crackling around his fists, Nya knew that it was her Yin. 

He didn’t remember. He wanted to hurt her. He was lunging at her, swinging his leg as she jumped out of the way, trying to hit him back with a burst of water but coming up short. 

“You had a clear shot and didn’t take it! Are you a terrible ninja?” Jay spat, his voice patronizing. Nya looked down at her hand, at her useless fingertips. 

“I don’t wanna hurt you, Jay. We care too much for each other!” 

“Speak for yourself, lady!” Jay said, releasing a battle cry as he sprang forward, roundhouse kicking her in the middle. As they continued circling one another, occasionally throwing a punch or a burst of elemental power, Jay explained the life he had lived since the merge. He had woken up without memories, had been led to the Administration, where he worked dutifully until he finally managed to escape. He praised Lord Ras for saving him, telling Nya that he would win the tournament by whatever means necessary to make it up to him. 

Then, he pulled a wolf mask over his face, waiting for Ras to shatter his soul so he could fully fight back against Nya. 

Her heart cracked as she watched his eyes glow red, watched him be engulfed by the Shatterspin that Egalt and Rontu had taught Nya how to overcome. She knew what she needed to do, but she didn’t want to have to do it to Jay. 

“You don’t give me any choice, Jay,” Nya muttered, pulling her azure bandana to cover her face and focusing hard as she moved from Spinjitzu into Rising Dragon, watery blue engulfing her as she crested over the arena, then dove into Jay’s red and black Shatterspin. She heard him scream, frustrated, as she hurled herself toward him, knocking him off his feet and onto the side of the arena as she landed on the splintered wood. She stared down at him, fighting the urge to run forward and make sure he was alright. 

“Nya! Focus on the dagger!” Lloyd yelled from the spectator booth on the edge of the arena. Nya turned her attention to the dark night sky, to the dagger floating at the top of the illuminated tower. With a final glance in Jay’s direction, seeing that he was still picking himself up off the floor, gritting his teeth with glowing red eyes. Then, she began her ascent. 

As she threw herself up the tower, Nya felt blasts of lightning shoot past her. She knew that Jay was aiming for her, going after her instead of the dagger that would grant him the victory he shattered his soul to receive. 

He didn’t remember her, and he was dead set on winning no matter what. She may not have wanted to hurt him, but he had no problem with hurting her. 

Nya threw a ball of water behind her, forcing Jay to jump out of the way as she made her way to the top of the tower, snatching the knife from its position on the top of the pillar. Roby flew by, declaring her victorious as the tower descended into the ground. The teenage master of ceremonies seemed not to be able to read the open air of the room as Jay looked down, his red eyes drooping as his powers were tugged from his body and transferred into hers. Nya looked down, her lips trembling as Roby commanded her to cast a bolt of lightning into the sky, which she did without looking at the master of lightning. She only reached for him once Roby moved on to the next pairing, watching as Jay approached Ras and the rest of his team, only to be cast away like he was worth nothing to them.

But he was worth something to her. He was everything to her.

Nya stepped forward, attempting to penetrate the high walls that Jay had built around himself since the merge. “Jay?” He glanced at her, then rolled his eyes, his shoulders slumping. But he didn’t walk away. “I know you lost your memory, but you need to know the truth…” she swallowed, searching for the bravery to speak the words she had never said out loud. “I love you… I will always love you.”

She reached forward, taking his hand, but Jay shoved her back before she could fully wrap their fingers together. “And I will always hate you.”

Boom .

Nya was back on the street, standing in her pajamas as she searched the crowd for Jay. She had the strangest feeling of deja vu, determined to find his wild hair in the crowd. “Jay!” she shouted, dashing forward. As soon as she almost reached someone with Jay’s exact hair style, she found herself tumbling forward into the arena with no idea how she got there. 

Her heart pounded as she saw Jay for the first time since the merge, but it wasn’t… right? She had just seen him, she had just fought him… hadn’t she? 

“Jay, I knew I saw you!” she said, taking a step forward with a wide, hopeful smile. 

“What are you talking about? I’ve never seen you before in my life!” Jay shouted across the arena to her, shaking his head as he shot daggers at her with his glare. Nya paused, her feet planted firmly on the ground. She had heard that before, hadn't she? In her vision back in the cave? 

“Is that some sort of fake Jay? Some loser in a Jay wig?” She had heard that, too. 

Nya turned back to Jay, her head spinning with confusion as he pulled down his mask, just like she had seen him do before. As they fought, she felt herself falling into the same moves as she had the last time they had sparred. She tried again to hit him with a blob of water, but she still couldn’t conjure the power to hurt him.

“You had a clear shot and didn’t take it! Are you a terrible ninja?”

“I don’t wanna hurt you! We care too much for each other!” 

“Speak for yourself, lady ,” Jay spat, leaping forward to hit her. Nya winced, picking herself up off the floor as Jay spoke to her, filling her in on the life he had led since the merge. No memories, the Administration, the escape, Lord Ras. The wolf mask was pulled over his freckled face, his goodness was shattered before her eyes as she stood helplessly, watching it happen. She couldn’t shake the familiar feeling as she watched, horror widening her eyes. 

You don’t have a choice, Nya . She thought, screwing her eyes shut as she transitioned from Spinjitzu to Rising Dragon, shooting into the air and then plunging down to the arena floor, casting Jay’s angry body aside. Focus on the dagger . 

Nya leapt up, scaling the tower as Jay followed close behind, furiously trying to stop her with zaps of lightning. She skillfully dodged them, knowing where they would fall before they even left his fingertips. She snatched the dagger, victorious, then received Jay’s powers as her own. She hoped something would be different when she reached for Jay after he was rejected by Ras and the team.

“Jay. I know you lost your memory, but you need to know the truth,” she searched his face, his tightened jaw and his low brows as she found her words. “I love you. I will always love you.” 

It didn’t change the outcome. 

“And I will always hate you.”

Boom . 

Back to the street. Nya looked around, disoriented. What’s happening right now? Why am I back here again? 

Only something was different, it was moments before. This time, she caught sight of Jay’s face, so she knew where to run to follow him. But she got caught in the crowd, and he was lost. So she ended up in the arena, fighting with Jay. “I’ve never seen you before in my life!” “Is that some loser in a Jay wig?” “Focus on the dagger!” “I will always hate you .”

Boom . 

“Jay!” Nya shouted, pushing through the crowd. Jay turned at the sound of his name, his eyes wide as he searched the bustling people on the street. She threw herself into his arms, but he pushed her away. 

“Who are you ?” 

Shit . She ended up in the arena yet again. Jay’s eyes turned red. He didn’t remember her, and he would hate her forever. 

Boom . 

This time, she knew what not to do. She approached Jay slowly, only having sprinted to him to catch up before he disappeared into Ras’ team’s dormitory. She tapped him on the shoulder, but didn’t know what to say when he turned and looked at her, raising her eyebrows when she just opened and closed her mouth at him dumbly. 

Back to the arena. 

“I will always hate you .”

Boom . 

“Come on,” Nya muttered, wishing she could shake free from the endless cycle of fruitlessly searching for her Yin, constantly failing to reach out and pull him back from the edge. 

Nya dashed forward, slowing her pace once she got to Jay as to not scare him. It was like approaching a wounded animal that would bite back at any moment. “Excuse me,” she whispered, tapping him on the shoulder. He turned, his eyes searching her face. But he didn’t push her away, he didn’t glare at her. It shocked her stupid, and she said the first thing she could think of. “I… um… I saw you at the banquet, and I was wondering… how do you feel about the color blue?” 

Jay’s face faltered for a second, flickering between confusion and subtle irritation before settling on quiet surprise. A ghost of a smile drifted across his lips. 

“Why are you asking me that?”

Nya shook her head slightly, expecting to fall back into the arena, to have failed again. But she didn’t. “Just… answer the question, master of lightning.” 

Jay paused, a crease forming between his eyebrows. He shrugged. “It’s my favorite color, why?” 

Nya grinned, a flutter of hope blooming in her chest. Maybe this time, things would be different. Maybe this time, she would get it right. 

Chapter Text

“I don’t like it when they fight,” Nya whispered into Jay’s sweater, busying her fingertips among the fabric. “It makes me feel…”

“Off?” Jay prompted, his arms around Nya’s shoulders pulling her in as her gaze wandered through the window, to the furious thunderstorm pounding outside. “Yeah, me too.”

The storm had come on suddenly. Jay and Nya had been training in the courtyard, slinging playful insults at each other as they sparred, when a crack of thunder split the sky and it opened up in pounding rain that drenched them in seconds. Their elements never seemed to realize when their arguments were lighthearted. The two of them bolted inside, cackling as the rain slammed against the roof, both soaked to the bone with it. They stripped to their underclothes so as to not track puddles through the monastery (no funny business though, the entire team was home) and made their way to their own rooms to change into dry, comfortable outfits before meeting back up in the dining room, where Jay sat on the bench with Nya in his lap, leaning against his torso. A bolt of lightning flashed across the sky, the same electrical current running through Jay’s hands and into Nya’s skin. She winced slightly.

“Sorry.”

“It’s okay, I know it’s not your fault,” Nya murmured as she ran her fingers along Jay’s arm, covered in silky blue fabric, her attention still on the storm as it raged on. 

“Do you ever think about… us and them?” Jay asked quietly. Nya tilted her head back enough to look at him, confusion lining her eyes and prompting him to continue. “You know, lightning and water. Not really a great combination.”

Nya scrunched her eyebrows, thinking about it. Sometimes she felt like destiny was constantly working against them, constantly pulling them apart just when they found their way back to each other. She had once told Jay that their relationship was proof that the greatest love stories always end in tragedy. 

But she also loved him like she had never loved anyone. 

“Water conducts electricity,” Nya said quietly, fiddling with Jay’s electric fingertips. He shifted to look down at her, but her eyes were still on the rain. “It’s dangerous, sure. It doesn’t seem like they should work. But nothing can keep them apart once they’re together.” Jay squeezed her gently. “Do you get what I’m saying?”

Instead of answering, Jay shifted Nya’s shoulders gently, cupping her face as he kissed her. She smiled into his lips, which buzzed with his element just enough to send shivers down her spine. Nya moved her hand up to hold his face in return, her fingertips running along his damp face and into his wet hair. Outside, the storm slowed. The lightning retreated into the clouds, the rain shifted to a light drizzle, then stopped as the clouds parted. 

Their elements finally took the hint. There was no keeping lightning and water apart.

Chapter Text

“Anyone who likes Jay that much can’t be normal,” Kai said, squinting up at the pixelated sky above them. Nya put a hand on her hip and rolled her eyes, preparing to snap at him when another player stopped her. 

“Freeze!” he called across the alley, holding up a blaster with his hoodie pulled down low to cover his face. “You better talk, before Mr Ginormous here does the talking.”

“Oh, right. The password. What was it again?” Cole asked, turning to Lloyd, who shrugged. “Mr Snugglewomp? Or… um.. Fuddlewimp… no, that’s not it-”

“Mr Cuddlywomp,” Nya cut in with the name of Jay’s childhood stuffed animal, her guiding hope that they were headed in the right direction to find him in the game. 

The player lowered his weapon, pulling the covering away from his face. “The League sent you, eh? Lemme guess, you’re here to see Superstar Rockin’ Jay?” the quartet nodded instinctively, even though they had no idea what most of his words meant, and the other player waved them over to the blank wall of a nearby building. “C’mon, before someone sees us,” he said as the cloaked wall opened up, revealing a small hanger. 

“Woah. This place is awesome!”

“The name’s Scott,” the player said once the door was shut behind them, weaving his way through the tools and machine parts scattered around the floor. “My garage is hidden by a level 999 stealth barrier. Keeps the red visors out,” he explained, leaning casually against the massive tire of a nearby vehicle. “The League of Jay keep my secret, so I help them fix their vehicles and weapons. It’s pretty symbiotic.”

“League of Jay?” Kai asked, his brows crinkling together anxiously as he turned his attention to Scott. 

“That’s why you’re here, isn’t it?” Scott asked, walking to the back corner of the garage and pushing a button on the wall to open it up into another concealed passageway. “Follow me, it’ll make sense once you see it for yourself.”

The team followed Scott through a dark tunnel, which Cole questioned the safety of before they were spat out into another dark room, filled with glowing blue lights and packed with blue-clad Jays. Nya gasped as she took it all in, overwhelmed by the sheer amount of replicas of her Yin that surrounded her, their clothes representing each phase of his life since she had met him. 

“I can’t believe this,” Kai muttered, his jaw nearly on the floor. “Are we in a nightmare?”

Nya glared at him and grabbed him by the crook of the elbow, dragging him further into the underground club. “Come on. We have to find our Jay.” 

“How are we even supposed to know which one’s our Jay, Nya?” 

“I don’t know, but I-”

Nya was cut off by a deep voice pumping through the loud speakers in the club, pulling the attention of the League members to the stage in the middle of the large room. “Attention, League of Jay. It is time for the arrival of our hero, our inspiration, the reason for our very existence! Superstar Rockin’ Jay!” 

As the announcer stepped to the side of the stage, a guitar riff signaled the entrance of the group’s leader, who rose up on a podium, covered in purple light and shredding on the instrument in his hands. The skin of his avatar was pearly white and covered in bright blue stars and triangles. His robes were glamourous and covered in gemstones, with the neckline plunging down to end amongst his abs. The entire ninja team gasped as Jay jumped down from the podium, basking in the glory of the applause and handing his guitar off to the stage hand, who bowed as he took the instrument. Jay’s eyes scanned the crowd of his followers briefly before his attention landed on his friends and his face lit up in a more genuine smile than he had worn for the League members. 

“Guys! It’s really you!” he exclaimed, running forward to embrace Cole and Nya, who were still gaping at him. “I’ve been waiting for you! Isn’t this place awesome ?” 

“Yeah, I guess. But how did you get here? Why are all these people dressed like you?” Lloyd asked, his eyes catching on someone whose avatar reflected Jay after he had been infected with Serpentine poison. 

“They’re the League of Jay!” Jay said, as if it were enough of an explanation. When the team just stared back at him blankly, he leaned in and lowered his voice. “To be honest, I don’t know why they like me so much. But I’m not complaining about it.”

“Right,” Lloyd said, turning his attention instead to look around the room. Kai wandered off to sit down, seeming to be overwhelmed by the entire situation, and Cole followed him, patting his back supportively. 

Nya’s eyes were focused on Jay, wandering down his outfit and all of the skin it exposed. It hadn’t even been that long since she had seen him, but she had already been filled with a gnawing ache for him in her gut. Seeing him again, even in the odd situation, filled her stomach with warmth. When Jay met her eyes, his glowing golden in the skin of his avatar, Nya could tell that he could read the want clear from her mind. She was sure he felt it, too. 

“You want me to show you around?” Jay asked, the question pointed at Nya as Lloyd was cornered by a few League members who were thrilled to meet the green ninja. Nya chewed on her lip and nodded, taking Jay’s hand as he pulled her around the club, taking a tantalizingly long time with the tour before leading her backstage. “I missed you,” he said as they stepped into the green room. “It’s been a long time.”

Nya chuckled. “I just saw you two days ago.”

“Two days for you, maybe. But time passes differently here,” Jay said, putting his hands on Nya’s hips as she stepped forward to meet him by the door. “Did you really think I managed to get all these people to love me in two days ?”

Nya grinned. “I mean, you do have that effect on people.”

“I guess I do,” Jay said, his own smile creeping across his face as his eyeline dropped down to Nya’s lips, then back to meet her eyes. “But, to me, it only matters with you.”

“You’re cheesy,” Nya said, caressing the lapel of his costume, grinning as her fingers glided over the star shaped pin that he had fastened there, which wore a wide smile. Then, she moved her hands toward the center of Jay’s chest, feeling the warmth of the muscles above his heart. 

“Maybe so. Maybe I’m just in love with you,” Jay said, putting a hand on Nya’s, holding them together. She rolled her eyes, blush threatening to creep onto her cheeks, then captured his lips with hers, instigating their long-awaited reunion. Jay’s stance loosened and he wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling Nya in as her hands moved up to caress his pale blue cheeks. She had missed him so much, even though he had only been in the video game for two days in the real world. After a few more tender moments, Jay pulled away slightly. “I wanted to do that as soon as I saw you in here,” he whispered, his breath warm against Nya’s lips. She grinned. 

“Why didn’t you?”

Jay tilted his head slightly, pecking another kiss on Nya’s lips before pulling back further, his hands clasping together around her lower back while hers settled around his neck. “I didn’t wanna parade you around in front of the League.”

“Oh, so you didn’t wanna kiss me in front of your groupies?” Nya teased. Jay rolled his head back, grinning when he looked back at her. “Should I be jealous?”

“Ya know, I don’t really have groupies. I mostly have fans,” Jay said quietly, kissing her again. Nya melted into his touch, his hands catching her before she could fall to the floor. Then he tugged away again. “And no fan gets this special treatment. Just you.”

“Good.” Nya said, reaching forward to claim her own kisses. She wasn’t sure if she even had a body anymore, if anything was real besides them being made up of 1s and 0s. What she was sure of was the electrifying feeling, regardless of her physical being, as she pressed her lips into Jay’s. His hand made its way to cup her face, running delicately through the chunks of her hair that had broken free from her classic ponytail when a persistent knock cut through the haze of the greenroom. Jay pulled back, blue lips slightly parted as he groaned, turning his head toward the door. 

“What is it?”

“Red visors approaching Scott’s garage, sir.” Jay sighed, tucking Nya’s hair behind her ear and swiping his thumb along her cheek, grinning when she leaned into his palm. Jay clicked a button on his wrist to open up his avatar stats, unlocking and opening the door in one smooth movement. Another Jay stood there, sporting a ripped-up gi from Jay’s time in the First Realm. 

“Have they gotten in?” Jay asked, straightening slightly as he launched into the leadership role the League of Jay had thrust him into. Butterflies erupted in Nya’s stomach as she watched.

“No, but Scott wanted you to be aware for when you and your friends continue your quest,” the other Jay said. “They’re waiting outside. I suggest you take the back door.”
“Thanks,” Jay said, nodding to the League member, who turned to leave before pausing.

“You must be Nya,” he said, focusing on Nya by Jay’s side. She nodded as Jay wrapped an arm around her waist, letting it settle on her hip. “It’s an honor,” he continued with a small bow. “Superstar Rockin’ Jay has told us all about you.”
With that, the League member turned on his heel and rejoined the crowd outside. Nya turned to Jay, pulling away enough so she could raise an eyebrow at him. “You told your cult about me?”

Jay grinned, slipping his hand into hers so they could join the others and flee through the back exit. “How could I not? You’re Superstar Rockin’ Nya.”

Chapter Text

For the first time in a long time, Jay woke up clawing himself out of nightmares. It was the middle of the darkest night of the year, and he was alone. 

The nightmares had been more manageable when he woke up with Nya by his side, more times than not after she had woken up to them, too. But since she had merged, had saved his life and left him behind, waking up just felt pointless.

Jay took deep breaths, putting his hand directly over his heart. The weight helped its beating return to a somewhat normal rhythm alongside his breathing, and after a moment he sat up in the darkness. He was in Nya’s room. He hadn’t left it since everyone had gone home after the ceremony. That was three days ago.

The room was eerie. Not because he hadn’t ever woken up in it - usually he and Nya would switch off on whose room they would spend the night in, holding each other as they went to sleep to ward off the nightmares and waking up with tangled limbs and morning breath - but because Nya wasn’t beside him. She wasn’t wrapping her arm around his middle, pulling him in as she dozed, she wasn’t kicking him in her sleep, she wasn’t holding him now that he had startled himself awake. She was gone. 

Jay didn’t have any more tears left in him. He couldn’t remember the last time he had drank any water, not wanting it to trickle back into his lungs. Nya wasn’t there to save him.

A horrible, stomach-turning thought made its way into his mind. 

If he died on land choking on tap water, he would never be able to see her again. If he inhaled the deep blue water of the sea, maybe he would.  

A lump rose in Jay’s throat, nonexistent tears pushing against the back of his eyes. He squeezed them shut, shoving his fists into them and rubbing ferociously. The thought didn’t subside, the feelings didn’t change. They tugged at his mind, pulsing through every nerve in his body, forcing him to climb out of Nya’s bed. He tiptoed across the mess of her floor, left behind from before they had gotten on the submarine to try to resolve the issues with her powers. That all felt so far away now. Everything felt so far away. 

Jay pulled on a knitted sweater that Nya had left behind, taking in the scent of her that clung to it. Then, he grabbed a pair of boots that he had left by the door, numbly slipping his feet into them and lacing them up, not feeling anything as he quietly slipped through the door and made his way to the hanger, where his Storm Glider was parked among mechs. 

He didn’t even think about saying goodbyes. He didn’t think about leaving a note. He didn’t think about Kai or Cole or Zane or Lloyd, he didn’t think about what his parents would think. 

All he could think about was Nya. He had to see her again. 

The Glider revved up quietly, an addition that came in handy not only when trying to make a sneaky getaway on the job, but also when leaving life behind, and Jay steered it into the sky. He flew for a long time, his thoughts continuing to spiral out of control, deeper and darker than ever before. He didn’t even know where he was going until he flew over the lighthouse. 

Their lighthouse. 

Still in a daze Jay flew down, his eyes running over the sparkling water as the waves reflected the stars above him. Would she see all that he would do for her, all that he would give up? Would she let him join her, Yin and Yang forever and ever?

Jay climbed out of the Glider and walked across the sand, his eyes focused on the crashing waves, as though the ocean had put him under a spell. He was sure that it was Nya. He had never been able to take his eyes off of her. 

He continued walking down the shore, not feeling when his boots were splashed, not paying attention when cool water rushed against his waist, not holding his breath when his curls went underwater. He kept his eyes open, the salty water not stinging. It was just like all of the tears he had cried in the days since Nya merged. He was used to the feeling. He looked around the water, searching for the watery figure that had left him behind on the rooftop, giving up all that she was for him. 

The water began pushing down on him, the air dissipated from his lungs. Good. Now it’s finally over . Jay could feel himself growing lightheaded, his vision blurring on the edges as he accepted the after-lifetime with the love of his life. 

Just before Jay blacked out, a force from below scooped him up, a turbine of water pushing him to the surface of the sea. He fought back, trying to swim back down into the deeps, but he couldn’t fight the ocean. 

His head broke the surface, and Jay instinctively gulped in the air. He looked around, his vision becoming clearer as he breathed and treaded water, searching for any semblance of Nya within the water to no avail. After a moment, he felt himself being pushed towards the shore by the cascading waves. 

When he was deposited on the shoreline, Jay saw her: a watery blue version of the only girl he had ever loved hovering on the horizon, one with the sea as the waves swirled around her. Jay choked out a sob, coughing out seawater. 

“Nya… please. I love you!” he clawed at the damp sand. “Take me with you!”

Nya shook her watery head, her entire form rippling in the darkness. Jay took a deep, shaking breath as another wail escaped him. “I love you, Jay. But you have to go home. Your life is too precious to be thrown away for me.”

“No!” Jay shrieked, willing everything he had to cast his voice towards the ocean. “No, Nya, it’s not! I love you… you’re all I have!”

Nya shook her head again as she began fading into the water. “We both know that’s not true, Jay. You’ve never needed me.”

She was saying what she knew would keep him on dry land, but that didn’t mean she believed her own words. But she couldn't watch him die at the hands of her element. Not again.

Nya continued drifting into the horizon, disappearing into the darkness. “No! Don’t leave me, Nya!” Jay cried into the sea, feeling as though his heart was filling with water as he watched Nya turn, shaking her head once again as she slipped back into the shape of water. 

Jay threw himself back into the waves, running through them as they crashed against the shoreline, swimming desperately to catch up with Nya. Every time he put his head underwater, her watery touch pushed him back to land. 

She would not let him die in her watery arms. 

As the sun began peeking over the horizon, Jay gave up, knowing that the stubbornness he loved Nya for wouldn’t allow him to fill his lungs with seawater. He crawled up the shoreline, collapsing into the sand and sobbing into it until he had nothing left to cry. Until the sun rose and fell once again, and he finally mustered up all of his energy to climb up into the lighthouse, where he promised himself he would remain until Nya came back to him.

Chapter Text

He had gone out of order. 

In the weeks leading up to asking Nya to be his Yang, Jay had been a ball of nerves, running over the plan in his mind, making sure that he hadn’t forgotten anything that would take away from the perfection of the moment. But, even with all his careful planning and preparation, Jay had skillfully avoided one of the quintessential (if a bit archaic) proposal moments: asking the parents.

It wasn’t just that Jay was scared. That would be weird. It was just that a) he had no idea how to get in contact with Ray and Maya, b) he had immediately considered Kai as the one to ask for Nya’s hand, and c) he was scared. 

So, when Nya begrudgingly told him that her parents would be visiting to help with her powers, which had gone haywire, panic ran in an electric current down his spine. He could count on his hands the amount of times he had spoken to Ray and Maya, with the outcome being a singular thumbs-down, which he was sure Nya’s parents would give him when they found out that they were engaged. That, or a harsh middle finger in his face. 

When Ray and Maya burst through the gates of the monastery, with Maya running directly to Nya to sweep her stiff body into a tight hug and Ray following close behind with a pile of suitcases (how long were they staying for?), Jay ducked behind his teammates so he wouldn’t be spotted. Thankfully, Maya was too busy rambling on about how good it was to see Nya and how sorry she was that everything was happening with her powers and how they were going to work it out together, to notice anyone but her two children. Her gaze didn't even pass over the cowering lightning ninja as she pulled Nya into the monastery. Before she was tugged through the door, Nya looked over her shoulder, her wide eyes pleading for Jay to save her.

She somehow managed to get away after an hour of her mother doting on her, telling her that she was going to wash up before dinner and then sneaking into her room, where Jay was hiding out. Nya had been digging through her drawers of clothes, trying to exert some control over the perfect outfit. The pile of discarded options around her had been steadily growing for the last hour. 

“Arghhh!” she groaned, slamming the dresser drawer shut and stepping over the pile, launching herself onto her bed beside Jay, flopping down on her back with a huff, throwing her arm over her eyes to block out the world. Jay turned, looking down at her with a tiny smile. 

“So… not going well?”

Nya yanked her arm away, shooting Jay a look. Her eye twitched, but he knew that her outpouring of emotions wasn’t directed at him. He was just her soundboard. “She’s just so… ugh!”

“Yeah. Moms, am I right?” Nya huffed out a chuckle, turning her head to face him. He took on a more serious tone, his own nerves bubbling to the surface of his mind. “Do you… um. How do you think we should tell them?” Jay asked, gesturing to the pendant hanging against Nya’s gi. She looked down at it, her fingers brushing along the metal. 

Nya shrugged. “I was thinking something like: ‘hey Mom and Dad, this is Jay. We’re getting married’.”

“But… do you think they’ll be mad that I didn’t, y’know, call them or anything beforehand?” Jay asked, wringing his hands. Nya glanced at him, taking in his anxiety, and sat up. She scooched across her comforter to sit beside him on her bed, taking his trembling hands in hers. 

“If they are, I don’t care. We’re not close... I barely know them,” she said with a sigh, remembering a childhood without her parents. It had hardened her, forced her into independence. She shook her head, smiling at Jay. “All that matters to me is what you think, and I highly doubt you’re having second thoughts.”

Jay shook his head, a tiny smile creeping onto his lips. “Never, ever.”

Nya pressed a quick kiss to his lips, pulling away and leaving him wanting. “Okay, then. We really should get down there, otherwise they’re gonna think you’re hiding out like a weirdo. Which… wouldn’t be wrong,” she said teasingly, standing up and pulling Jay along with her, keeping their hands firmly squeezed together as they walked to the kitchen. Nya knew that her mom was flitting around the space, she had smelled the cooking seaweed and tofu from across the monastery.

Between their intertwined hands, either Jay or Nya’s hand was sweating. Neither of them could tell whose it was, since one was just as nervous as the other as they stepped into the dining room, looking into the kitchen.

”Um… Mom?” Nya said quietly, pulling her mother’s attention away from the stove. Maya turned around, smiling once she saw her daughter. Her eyes flickered momentarily to her and Jay’s interlocked hands, and Jay swore he saw her lips quirk up. He latched onto it, taking her grin as a good sign.

”Hi, Nya! And hello Jay, honey,” Maya said, turning off the burner and taking the cast iron skillet off of the stove, leaving it on a hot pad on the counter as she walked over to her daughter, wrapping her in a tight hug. Nya’s fingers clamped down on Jay’s hand, startled by her mother’s touch.

”Are you busy? I was hoping to talk to you and… um, Dad,” Nya said over Maya’s shoulder, squeaking slightly as her mom hugged her tighter. Jay swiped his thumb along her wrist, then let go so she could delicately pry herself from her mom’s arms, flashing her a nervous smile.

”Of course I’m not busy, honey! I always have time for my girl,” she said, pinching Nya’s cheeks. Nya scrunched her eyebrows closer together. 

“Right…” she said quietly. “I think he’s in the game room with Kai, can we talk in there?”

Maya nodded, leading the way down the hallway. Despite not having lived in the monastery since she was the Master of Water, she walked around like she owned the place. Nya turned to Jay as they followed her mom, her chocolatey eyes full of nerves, all of the talk about ‘not caring what her parents think’ seeming to have vanished. Jay wiped the sweat (it turned out it had been his all along) off of his palm and reached for Nya’s hand, which she grabbed with trembling fingers as they rounded the corner into the game room.

”Oh, I got the power up! Get ready, Dad!”

“Rodger that,” Ray muttered, his attention locked in on the video game as his and Kai’s avatars bounced around it, knocking out two-dimensional bad guys over and over again with a simultaneous Fi-yah! and Scorcher! from the current and former Masters of Fire.

”Hey, um, Dad. Can I talk to you?” Nya asked from the doorway as Maya walked into the game room, plopping down on the armchair beside the couch.

”Oh, hey Nya. Can it wait? We’re about to break the new record,” her dad murmured, his eyes still glued to the screen. Jay’s fingers tightened around Nya’s palm, and she shot him a look that clearly stated this is how you are all the time.

Kai’s eyes flickered from the screen to Nya, then to Jay, then back to Nya. He raised hs eyebrow, silently asking if she needed backup. Nya squeezed Jay’s hand and shook her head. She had all the help she needed, all that was left was her father’s attention. Which Kai could help with. The Master of Fire paused the game and stood up with a casual stretch, ignoring his dad’s protest from the couch. 

“Well, I’m gonna fuel up. Dad, you want me to grab you anything from the kitchen?”

”But… Kai. The record!” Ray said, gesturing at the screen. Kai shook his head down at him.

”I’ll be like… ten minutes. It’ll give you and Nya some time to catch up,” Kai said, looking down at their dad with a purposeful look, widening his eyes slightly and then shooting a glance in Jay and Nya’s direction. Ray seemed to take the hint, putting down his controller on the coffee table.

Kai moved to exit the room, stopping as he passed Jay and Nya’s, resting his hand on her shoulder. “Good luck, sis.” Nya nodded in thanks as Kai exited the room, her tongue feeling like it was made of cement. She swallowed hard and pulled Jay through the doorway and over the threshold, where they ended up standing on the other side of the coffee table from her parents, shoulder to shoulder.

“So… um. Obviously a lot has changed since the last time we saw each other,” Nya said, choosing to cut right to the chase rather than dilly dally, which was sure to only heighten her anxiety. “A few years ago… Jay asked me to be his Yang.” Nya reached into the neckline of her gi, pulling out her half of their matching pendants.” So, when we finally catch a break from ninja-ing… we’re getting married.”

Jay flashed a nervous smile at Ray and Maya, hoping that one of them wasn’t about to pull out a shotgun and shoot him in the face.

The moment never came.

”Oh… honey,” Maya said, her face consumed by a soft smile as she stood up, stepping across the room quickly and pulling Jay and Nya into a hug, nearly knocking their heads together in the embrace. “That is such wonderful news!”

Nya and Jay’s matching stiff spines relaxed as Ray stood up from the couch, joint the group with a grin. When Maya pulled back, her eyes were sparkling with unshed tears that she had to clear her throat to relieve. Ray extended his hand to Jay, who looked down at it, shocked by the gesture before he shook it, a small smile making its way to his lips as Ray clapped him on the back, shaking a relieved laugh out of the Master of Lightning. 

“So, you’re not mad that I didn’t… I don’t know, call or write to you after? That I didn’t tell you sooner?” Nya asked, reaching into Ray’s hug when he stretched his arms out to her, glancing at her mom over her shoulder. 

“No, of course not.”

”And you’re not mad that Jay didn’t ask first?” Jay shot Nya a look, his anxiety re-spiking at the thought of Nya jogging Ray and Maya’s memories about not receiving a call for their blessing, giving her parents a reason to not like him.

”No! Not at all.”

Nya sighed, relieved. “Good. He was worried you weren’t gonna like him.”

”Nya!” Jay hissed, widening his eyes at her. She gave him an apologetic squint in return, tilting her head slightly. 

“How could we not? Look at the two of you,” Maya said, her lips quivering as she gestured to Nya and Jay, putting her hand on her daughter’s cheek. Surprisingly - even to herself - Nya didn’t pull away from her mother’s gentle, warm touch. “We may not have been around for most of your life, but this is still the happiest I’ve ever seen you.”

”Plus, Kai’s been dropping ‘Jay’s a good guy’ hints all afternoon.” Ray shrugged as Nya laughed, imagining Kai telling stories about Jay picking up cars and saving cats from trees like a cartoon hero. “They were peppered in between complaints about how annoying you are, but I got the point.”

”Yeah… he’s pretty obnoxious,” Nya said, snaking her arm around Jay’s waist and continuing before he could open his mouth to complain. “But I still love him.” Jay looked back at her, his lips twitching into a smile as his electric blue eyes softened. Then, Nya turned to her parents, who had been watching the couple with their own gooey smiles. “And I’m sure you guys will, too.”

Chapter Text

“I don’t think this is going to work,” Nya said, leaning against the arcade game as Kai slammed his fist into the buttons, his other hand working with precision to shoot the on-screen aliens. He didn’t take his eyes off the screen.

“It will. If you build it, they will come. Even if they have no memories.”

Nya sighed, pushing herself off the side of the game and walking around to join her brother, staring at the screen over his shoulder. She sure hoped he was right in his haywire plan to lure Jay to them through a video game, but she highly doubted it. 

It took Kai the entire afternoon to beat Jay’s high score. Nya grinned as she watched Kai bound around the arcade triumphantly, high-fiving Wyldfyre before he scooped Nya up in a hug, then turned back to the machine. 

“Ha ha! Oh, I finally beat ya, Jay!” he said as he typed his name into the top of the leaderboard. “Time for you to defend your high score!" 

The trio turned to the arcade door, as if Jay would magically appear out of thin air, ready to defend his title as video game master. But he didn’t. Nya sighed, walking to the edge of the platform that the game sat on and plopping down, her legs dangling off of the makeshift stage as she waited. She kept her eyes on the door, holding on to the tiny ember of hope in her heart that maybe, just maybe, Jay would appear. 

Across the merged lands, something shifted in Jay’s shattered heart. 

He was in the middle of collecting a sculpture from the Wyldness, which he had been told he had once resided in, but had no memory of (like everything else), when a shooting pain hit him in the chest. Jay grabbed at his chest, wondering if he was dying, then moved his fingers up to check his pulse through the layers concealing his face and neck. It was all normal.

“What the…” he muttered, his voice coming out garbled through the mask. Then, a buzz came from his wrist. Jay pulled back the sleeve of his uniform, the watch projecting a small holographic message that made his stomach flip. 

Galamorph X-Post. High Score: KAI - 9998.

“No!” Jay shrieked, kicking at a dirt clod in front of him. There were only a few things left in the world that he cared about, and his GXP high score was one of them. He would not stand for being dethroned. 

Jay unlatched the satchel from his back, slipping the statue into it and resituating it so that it wouldn’t get caught in his wings as he took off, zooming back to the abandoned cave-turned garage he had been camping out in. His delivery could wait. With his status, any client would learn to live with his lateness. 

As soon as he flew into the cave, Jay unclipped his wings, letting them fall to the ground, and threw off his bag, making a beeline to his workbench. It was covered in plans for unbuilt mechs and the blueprints to an impressive flying pirate ship - whoever had occupied the garage before the merge was clearly a fantastic engineer - and his own makeshift video game console, which he had been tinkering with ever since he had gone rogue. After months of hard work and not cutting his hair, Jay had been able to jig the machine so that it could connect to any GXP across the merged lands, making him reigning champion over all the realms. It was a title that he took very seriously. 

Jay sat back in the spinning chair behind his desk, his fingers flying along the buttons and knobs of the game, shooting two aliens at a time like he always did. Whoever was trying to dethrone him was going down.

“There’s someone playing remotely,” Kai murmured, his eyes glued to the flashing screen as an invisible force guided the shots across the game. “That style… two blasts after each rocket boost…” The ember of hope in Nya’s heart was fanned by her brother’s words. She couldn’t take her eyes off of the screen, as if Jay was about to pop out of it at any moment, hurling himself into her arms. “There’s only one person who plays GXP like that…”
Nya grinned, her smile uncontrollable as they watched the game continue. Somewhere out there, Jay was there. So close she could almost reach out and touch him.  

“So… are you not going to say who it is?” Wyldfyre asked after a moment. Kai rolled his eyes at her. 

“It’s Jay…” Nya said quietly as the last rocket blast pushed the player over the edge of Kai’s score into a new record. Kai groaned, complaining about how he had worked all day to make the achievement, but all Nya could focus on was the leaderboard as the player typed in their name. JAY - 9999 . Butterflies erupted in her stomach as she reached out, running her fingers along his name. “It’s really him.” 

“Take that, Kai ,” Jay muttered, placing the console down gingerly and leaning back on the chair, looping his hands behind his head and smiling smugly into the cave. It was weird, though. Even though he had beat the high score, the mission that distracted him from the mission he was being paid for, the strange feeling in his heart didn’t subside. It was like something was missing, something was wrong. 

Jay looked back at the video game, seeing his name glowing at the top of the leaderboard. It flickered slightly, as if someone was messing with the pixels somewhere far away. How odd.

Chapter Text

“It’s gonna rain,” Nya said, looking up at the clear sky. Jay looked at her sideways, unconvinced, but knew better than to say anything about Nya’s intuition with the weather. She knew better than anyone. Neither of them made an effort to get up and find shelter, even with her prediction. Nya kept her eyes on the sky, awaiting the storm.

Like clockwork, clouds rolled into the sky above the clearing, darkening with condensation before spilling to the ground. Jay chuckled as the rain shifted from a gentle drizzle to full-on pouring in seconds.

“You were right,” he said with a chuckle, standing up from the picnic blanket and moving to collect their things before they got soaked. Even though they were positioned under the trees at the edge of the clearing, the leaves weren’t enough to keep the water off of them. Nya stayed seated, her head tilted up to the sky, a smile on her damp face. Jay shook his wet curls before too much water got in his eyes, reaching out his hand. “C’mon, if we’re out here for too long, we’re gonna catch a cold.”

Nya turned her head slightly to Jay, looking at his hand as he reached out for her. “No we won’t, it’s warm,” she said, shaking her head slightly at him. Then, her smile widened and she grabbed Jay’s hand, using it to pull herself up off of the picnic blanket. Instead of helping him gather their things, their date crashed by the weather, she dragged him head-first into the middle of the clearing. 

“Nya!” Jay squealed, a giggle escaping his lips as the warm rain soaked through his clothes, adhering them to his skin. Nya turned to him, her bangs plastered to her forehead and her grin wild as she squeezed his hand. She turned so they were facing each other in the middle of the clearing, using her empty hand to reach out for him. 

“May I have this dance?” 

“It’s pouring, and there’s no music!” 

“ Jay ! Come on!” She opened and closed her hand, prompting Jay to take it and humor her request, her smile bright against the dimness of the cloudy afternoon. Jay couldn’t refuse. He grabbed her hand, looping their damp fingers together, and pulled her in. 

Jay shifted one hand to Nya’s hip and she put her empty one on his shoulder, her dimples filling with rain water as she beamed at him. Nya led for a few beats, the pouring rain serving as a melody as they twisted and swayed around the clearing, then Jay raised his eyebrows at Nya, warning her of the next move, and dipped her, his hand moving to the small of her back to cradle her above the muddy ground. She giggled as he pulled her back up, the two of them spinning around in the storm, letting go of one another only for a few moments before reaching back to the sound of the rain. Jay grinned as he swayed with the girl he loved. There was nothing better than this. 

It was only when Jay tried to twirl Nya that things went wrong. In a flash, Nya and Jay’s legs tangled together, sweeping out from beneath them and sending them hurling toward the damp, muddy grass. Nya landed half on top of Jay with a groan, which quickly turned into a giggle, then a full-on laugh that Jay had no choice but to follow. It bubbled free from his lips, shaking his chest as Nya buried her face in it. 

She pulled back, her hands resting in the grass on either side of Jay’s head as she looked down at him. “Maybe you were right, maybe this was a bad idea,” she said, grinning as Jay shook his head. 

“No, it’s my fault for trying to pull off that move,” he said, his cheeks creasing as Nya moved to cup them, pressing a quick kiss to his rain-soaked lips. “It’s too advanced for outside-of-a-video-game dancing,” he muttered as Nya brushed the mud she had left on his cheeks away and shook her head, leaning down for another kiss. Jay wrapped his arms around Nya as he kissed her back, holding her close as the rain beat down around them.