Dua Lipa
••• End of an Era •••

the sweetest pleasure
i feel like we're gonna be together
this could be the end of an era
who knows, baby? this could be forever, forever

•••••

I must've fallen asleep beneath the stars, because the next thing I remembered was waking up late into the morning and alone in Lloyd's bed.

It was raining. The sound coated the outside world and rapped along the rooftops of the monastery in sheets, soaked with the sun through the drawn curtains. Content, I stretched out beneath the warm duvet and inhaled the lingering scent of my boyfriend. My heavy eyes closed again.

My hand crawled up and clasped around my matching Yin medallion. I ducked my head beneath the covers with a smile.

Did that really happen? I held the proof of it in my hand but still couldn't wrap my head around it. Last night was so perfect that it felt like a dream. How could any of it have been real - the aurora, the vow, Lloyd's loveliness? Maybe I'd hallucinated it all.

The weight of the medallion resting against my fingers proved otherwise. I held it against my chest and willed my heart to slow down but alas, it refused to listen.

Where was he, anyway? I reemerged from beneath the duvet and glanced around his definitely-empty room. A small dragon sculpture and note on Lloyd's bedside table caught my searching gaze.

Gone for a mission. Be back soon, love you ♥
                                                         - hero

I smiled dopily at the hurried, messy scrawl of his handwriting. Love you, too.

I slipped out of bed and stretched. I was still wearing my clothes from the night before, and the waist of my jeans and my bra straps dug into my skin uncomfortably. My jacket was hanging from the back of his desk chair and my socks were in his hamper. I smiled to myself. It seemed that was his moral limit.

Did Lloyd fret about undressing me before deciding against it? Of course he would've. He was a gentleman.

I pulled open the drawer of my clothes and picked out a new set for the day, humming to the tune of an old Taylor Swift love song stuck in my head while I changed. I opened his closet and pulled out one of his hoodies. My arms wrapped around myself and I buried my face into the neckline, pretending it was Lloyd who held me. He hadn't even been gone for long and yet I yearned for him.

I wiped my old make-up off (that Lloyd seemed to have made an attempt at cleaning for me, if the missing concealer from my chin and cheeks was any indication) and washed my face in the bathroom. The rain continued to pour. It still felt like I was floating.

Someone who wasn't enjoying the rain, however, was Cole. I stumbled across him in the games room, sitting in the same spot I did when I first visited the monastery. He leant against the window and watched the water dripping from the leaves. Dozing in a circle at his feet was Meowthra.

I hesitated at the door. I hadn't spoken to Cole one-on-one in a while. He was never at school, obviously, and when I was here I spent my time either in training or with the entire team together. The last time it was only us was when Cole had just been turned into a ghost. He looked as forlorn now as he did back then.

"Hi," I said.

Cole looked up at my voice. His melancholy broke into the same warm smile he always gave whenever he was greeting a friend. "Hey, Y/n."

The rain grew louder. I took a seat beside the cat and scratched her between the ears while I wracked my brain for an icebreaker that wouldn't upset Cole. He bet me to it.

"Did you say yes?" Cole asked with a hint of tease.

I blushed. So he knew about Lloyd's grand plan, too. Everyone was great at keeping secrets, but I supposed that was their entire life. Meowthra stretched out and rolled onto her back. I smiled down at her. My fingers turned to the irresistible fluff of her belly.

"Yeah," I replied. My hands narrowly missed the feline's claws when she suddenly went for me. "When did you know?"

"The day after Axon," Cole answered. "He asked me if I thought it was a good idea."

"Did you?"

He sent me a squinted-eyed smile in apology. "I said no. You two hadn't even known each other two months when he asked, and you'd been dating for even less. I thought it was too fast. I told him to wait."

I could understand his hesitancy. Lloyd told me that his parent's responses were of similar nature. "And he went forward with it, anyway."

"He knows what he wants." Cole rolled his eyes with amusement.

My heart skipped a beat - as if I hadn't already known that. As if Lloyd hadn't reinforced that a thousand times over the night before. Meowthra begrudgingly allowed me to pet her fur again.

We looked out the window when a distant crack of thunder echoed through the forested valley. I peeked up at the ghostly form of Cole before me.

"How are you coping?" I asked.

Cole sighed heavily and made a sound of thought. His transparent gaze cut across the glistening-wet garden.

"I'm usually kept so busy by the Senseis that I don't even really notice it," he said with a wry smile. "I don't miss school but I do miss my team, and..."

Cole sighed again. My heart grew heavy at the toll his expression had taken.

"It's the worst when it rains," he mumbled. "There's only so much they can keep me preoccupied with inside. It starts to get a little lonely."

My fingers curled around Meowthra's soft fur in gloomy contemplation.

"Do you think you'll find a cure...?" I quietly asked.

Cole sent me a strained smile. "I'm still holding onto hope. It's the only thing I can do." He picked himself up from the window seat with an exhale. "I think Wu's out getting more research for us to go over. I should make sure the scroll room isn't a total mess."

  "I'll keep an eye out, too," I said determinedly. "You know I'm great with research."

  And Naomi still really, really likes you. I wished I could say that, especially after having found out Cole's own affinity for my friend, but I couldn't betray her confidence. It would have to be up to one or the other to make the first move. How to shuffle them closer when they were worlds apart to do so was beyond me.

Cole chuckled. "Don't you have enough on your plate with your training and schoolwork?"

"I'll always make time for research."

He shook his head with a snicker at my resolve. After we bade farewell and he left for the scroll room, I continued down the monastery's hallway. Meowthra sauntered alongside me. She ran her head against my calf and almost tripped me over more than once.

Despite the despondency of Cole's situation, I didn't feel dulled with sadness as I'd once been. It was hard to when he kept searching for a cure with unwavering commitment. It was even harder when he was so warm a person. Instead, my chest felt even lighter after having our catch-up.

The monks I passed by on my way each eyed me curiously but didn't stop to talk. It was baffling. Seriously - was there anybody here that didn't already know about the Yin-Yang proposal?

I found Misako and Garmadon having tea in one of the sitting rooms. The sliding doors to the garden had been opened right up, letting the earthly smell of wet dirt and fresh rain drift inside. In the corner of the room, Kashu gnawed on a homemade dog chew one of the monks had made. Meowthra caught sight of him and turned away.

Lloyd's parents looked up at my linger in the doorway. They smiled.

"Y/n, darling," Misako greeted brightly. She patted a spare zabuton on her left. "Join us, won't you?"

That was all the invitation I was looking for. I approached and took my seat with a smile. I thanked Garmadon when he passed over a fresh cup and sniffed its contents curiously - jasmine tea with a hint of honey. It tasted divine. The rain slowly ceased.

Kashu's puppy growls were barely enough to sheath the anticipation that had been entrenched in the atmosphere of the Garmadons. They sipped their tea in quiet bliss but I felt each shift of their focus on me. Did Lloyd not tell them my answer?

"Thank you for the medallion," I said.

Misako gasped with delight and turned to me.

"You said yes!" Garmadon dropped his tea cup onto the table with an ungraceful clatter and eyes that sparkled. "Great news!"

"Oh, sweetheart!" Misako brought me into a firm hug that was close to being as strong as the ones her son gave. She pulled away and fondly stroked the backs of her fingers down the side of my face with a smile. "I'm so pleased."

I giggled at their elation. "Did Lloyd not tell you?"

"Unfortunately not," Garmadon grumbled. He crossed his arms and sent a huff in the direction of Kashu. "That boy left too early for us to ask. You would not believe our suspense."

I recalled how Lloyd's surprise almost drove me crazy from trying to figure it out and my smile grew with amusement. I had a pretty good idea of how they felt.

Misako gathered my hands in hers. "Tell us how it all went. Did you have a good time?"

"Did Lloyd mess up his speech? I heard him practising it during his kata," Garmadon added.

He practised what he was going to say? My heart fluttered at the thought - just when I thought it wasn't possible for him to get any more perfect. I wished I could've seen it.

"It was amazing," I gushed. I mentioned how nice I found the fancy restaurant and thanked them profusely for giving us their reservation, which they both waved off with nonchalance. I told them about the Southern Lights and how breathtaking they were, and how sweet and lovely their son's speech was.

No, he didn't mess it up. Everything was utterly and absolutely divine. It was a dream come to life.

"And your names?" Garmadon eagerly asked. "Did you put them on the rock?"

I nodded. His face wobbled with emotion. Misako dabbed at her teary eyes with the edge of her sleeve and sniffed. My chest warmed at their reactions, at the overwhelming care they had for their son and extended to me. The Garmadons were all such sweet people.

"And you're okay?" Misako double checked. "You didn't feel pressured?"

"Not one bit." I pulled the medallion from beneath my hoodie and held it with a soft smile. "I was honoured. I am honoured."

"Oh." Misako held a hand over her heart and inhaled shakily. "Oh, sweetheart, I'm so delighted that you're both happy. This was all I could've wished for."

Garmadon reached around his wife and squeezed my shoulder with gentle affection. "We haven't thanked you enough for all the support you give our son. Especially within these last couple of months..." Garmadon looked a little uneasy at the reminder that so much trouble had inflicted Lloyd in so short a timeframe. "Nonetheless, I do not believe he would have been half as recovered without you."
 
And my life wouldn't be half as full without me having met him. I wouldn't have made new friends that all welcomed me with open arms. I wouldn't have expereienced the dizzying amount of love and devotion that Lloyd gave me. I wouldn't have discovered who I really was. Just as I was about to respond with my thoughts, Garmadon looked out at the garden and toward the cloudy sky.

"They are returning." He cleared his throat and turned to his wife with a cheeky smile. "Now we may berate our son for leaving us in such a state."

Misako shook her head with a roll of her eyes. My smile was amused.

Just as I finished my cup of tea and stood to greet the team back home, I found them already walking down the hallway toward us. They were all completely dry despite the rain (clearly Nya's touch) and Kashu excitedly bolted toward the team for pats. Lloyd spotted me in the doorway and beamed. It illuminated his entire face like the sun.

My reaction to seeing him was bodily. I felt myself fill with content at the bright, merry gleam in his red eyes and the single dimple beneath his smile; a carefree, happy look on him I'd so dearly missed. He hadn't been this cheerful since before Morro. His own half of our medallion dangled from the cord around his neck.

His approach was calm - a cunning scheme to take me by surprise when I was suddenly swept into his arms and swung around so that my stomach got left behind. The startle of it made me do a ghastly grunt, which Lloyd snickered at when I was set back on my feet. He promptly buried his face into my neck.

The others chuckled as they passed along and onto the direction of the kitchen. My cheeks burnt terribly.

"Just incase we thought they weren't inseparable before," Kai playfully lamented to the others. They must've been told about my acceptance of Lloyd's Yin-Yang proposal, because they all looked entertained but unsurprised.

Lloyd ignored their teasing. When he inclined back to look at me with such sappy, lovesick red eyes, I found my own embarrassment swiftly twirled into obscurity amongst the fluttering of the butterflies in my stomach. His gloved fingers brushed down the side of my face with reverence.

"Did you miss me?" Lloyd whispered. I nodded, and his eyes softened even further. "I missed you."

My blush deepened with giddy heat. I was sure I was grinning foolishly big, I could feel it in the ache of my cheeks and the squint of my eyes. If this was the start of my future, then I couldn't have wished for a better forever.

The clearing of a throat behind us made me jump. Garmadon and Misako stood in the doorway, brows raised and waiting, displeased stares blasting Lloyd into splinters. I relinquished myself from the hold of their guilty-looking son. He knew exactly why they weren't too happy.

"There was an active robbery in downtown," Lloyd sheepishly defended.

"You could have texted," Misako said. "I thought that would be the least to expect after giving up our reservation and passing down the medallions at your request."

"I didn't ask for the reservation!"

Misako's brows raised further at his backtalk. Garmadon raised a hand to cover his cough of stifled amusement.

Lloyd sighed with defeat. "Sorry. I should've told you before I left."
 
"So you should have," Garmadon sternly said, before his facade broke into the same wide smile he gave me before. Lloyd made a sound of complaint as he was squeezed into a breath-robbing embrace by his father. "I'm so pleased!"

Misako couldn't keep up the act, either. She joined the hug and blinked quite purposefully in an effort to curb her tears. Squeezed even tighter, Lloyd sent me a disgruntled look from between his parents' heads. I could only grin with humour.

"I trust the vow went well?" Wu spoke up from behind us. I turned and found him approaching with a gentle smile. Beside him walked Cole, his arms full of scrolls. "How fortuitous. You must tell us how it all went."

Lloyd's stomach audibly grumbled. He worked himself from his parents' hug with a hand over his belly. "Can we talk over some breakfast?"

"I'm always down for a meal," Cole happily agreed.

"Come along, then." Wu ushered us toward the dining room. "I want to hear everything."

Lloyd gave the ceiling an exaggerated look of weariness. "Should've gone back to your place," he told me, and earned a swat on the shoulder from his mother.

Lloyd regaled the events from the night before while feasting on a breakfast of steamed rice, chicken and grilled veggies. I jumped in with my own accounts from time to time. Lloyd admitted that he was more than nervous for the entire evening, which was greatly amusing to all of us. Lloyd's cheeks grew redder the more he was teased.

"Alright." Exasperated, he'd had enough. Lloyd took my hand and stood. "We have training to do. Leave us alone."

"Can't go anywhere without each other," Nya jested.

Jay joined in with a mischievous grin. "I bet training is just code word for 'snogging'."

They all snickered and snorted, and my own lips pursed to stifle my smirk. Lloyd's expression twisted with tired frustration. With a snarky, red-cheeked glare shot at his family, he turned and tugged me from the room, ignoring my own giggles.

"They really can be the worst, sometimes," Lloyd muttered.

"Are we actually training?" I innocently asked as we marched down the hallway, "or is it code word for 'snogging'?"

Lloyd stopped short and shot me a halfhearted glare that spoke more than he needed to voice. My smile grew at his unamused frown. I reached up to pinch his freckled cheek.

"You're just too easy to rile up," I said sweetly. I rose on my toes and pressed my lips to the side of his chin. "You're so cute."

His ire faded at my token of affection. His arms stole around my waist before I could step back, drawing me even closer to his chest. My pulse spiked at our sudden proximity, thrummed through my veins at the way he held me tight with a look of adoration so potent that my skin shivered. My fingers carded through the curls at the nape of his neck.

Lloyd bumped my nose with his, a patient request - as if he'd ever need to ask. I met his kiss eagerly and grinned to myself. Jay was right.

A muffled cough from a passing monk made me flinch away and for Lloyd to freeze. I met his red gaze and bit back my unabashed smile. My heart raced.

"Jace," Lloyd greeted, still eyeing me. The points of his ears were pink.

"Lloyd," he replied.

Lloyd peeked out the side of his eyes, watching the retreating red robe of the monastery's attendant. When he'd turned the hallway corner and was subsequently out of sight, Lloyd cupped my face and dove back down for another kiss. My exhilarated giggle was muffled and shrill with delight.

"Too many people-" Lloyd began to smooch a line from my jaw to my temple. "- in this goddamn home."

I laughed again. It tapered off when Lloyd stole another kiss, rendering me breathless and pliant. My fingers carded in his hair. My nails dragged along his scalp. His sigh at the sensation was one of bliss and reverie, a dreamy musical piece.

"Should've gone to my place," I whispered.

"Should've gone to yours," he agreed with a groan.

I grinned against him. Lloyd was easy to frustrate but quicker to forgive, and kissing me like this after having just been teased was yet another example. He made it so fun. The outcomes were so rewarding.

His hands bunched my shirt into his fingers, pinning me to him by the small of my back. His lips searched mine with fervour, as if my kiss held the secret to eternal happiness - or maybe he'd just be happy to kiss me for eternity. I wouldn't mind a life like that.

"You know-" I cut myself off to kiss the corner of his lips. "- they only tease you because we keep getting caught. How many times have you been late to training?"

Lloyd scoffed. "For your information, sweetheart, I said we have training because we have training."

My brows raised in doubt. "Really?"

Lloyd pointed out the window beside us. I followed his finger to the tops of the first of the woods, but couldn't see much through the mist. After squinting my eyes and searching, I made out an elevated obstacle course in the trees. My heart sank with horror.

"But it's just been raining," I said.

"And we still have to fight in the rain," Lloyd answered. "I won't be putting you in fight like that until you can do something like this."

I sent him an exasperated look. Never mind, I didn't like training after all. Those prophecies could go suck it. Lloyd smirked at my expression.

"Get into your workout gear, baby." He patted my hip twice and began toward his room to do just that. "We're going up into the trees today."

And just as I always teased Lloyd, he always got his revenge. I stared up at the obstacle course and broke into a cold sweat. Maybe it would start raining so badly that we'd have to cancel? I had no such luck.

"Uchū, have mercy," I whimpered, before turning toward Lloyd's room to find a change of clothes.

🍃🍂🍁🍂🍃

After nearly falling to my death more times than I could count, I finally managed to get halfway through the course before Lloyd gave me mercy and called it a day.

My limbs were shaking with adrenaline and exhaustion by the time I made it back to solid ground. After my shower and refuelling on some protein-rich lunch Lloyd made us, I was feeling only half-dead. Mum had insisted my return that afternoon - it was her turn to hear how the evening went and texting, she declared, was simply not enough.

I flexed and clenched my stiff hands in the cab of the truck while Lloyd drove us to my home. They ached from all the use of tree-top parkour. I'd managed to pleasantly surprise myself - I was stronger than I thought. Even if Lloyd was being easy on me.

"You almost killed me," I complained again.

He grinned at the road. "For the last time, you had a harness. The worst that could happen is you dangling from it like a disco ball."

I sniffed. "I would've made a good disco ball."

Charmed, Lloyd huffed at my grumpy admission. "The best."

As if hearing my earlier plea and spiteing me, it'd finally began to rain again. The chill that cascaded from over the Alps was sudden and intense. Lloyd took my hand from the heater to blow hot air onto my cold fingertips and it was so sweet that I dropped my facade of annoyance. The windshield wipers squeaked against the glass. The gravel of the driveway crunched beneath the tyres. My unoccupied hand held my half of our medallion.

"Did you tell my dad about the promise, too?" I asked.

"Do you think I'd still be alive if I told your dad?"

I sent Lloyd an amused smile. "You know we're going to have to tell him."

He made a sound of contemplation and kissed my fingers. "Can we make sure he isn't in reach of a gun when we do?"

I laughed and nodded. Lloyd sent me a smirk with another peck to my knuckles. My hands had grown much warmer.

"We're going to have to tell Naomi," I said.

"And Skylor," Lloyd added. I nodded in agreement. "Neuro, too?"

"And Jonesy." I groaned at our growing list. "It'd be easier to just write it in the sky."

"I could find a way to do that if you wanted me to."

I snickered, watching as the raindrops got swept aside by the windscreen wipers. "I'm all miracled out, thanks. What about a mass text? 'Yin-Yang Vowed. Kiss, kiss.'"

"'Congratulatory gifts welcome,'" he continued. "'Lloyd wants a paid-for tour of the comic book studio where they write Batman.'"

Of course he would. Lloyd grinned boyishly at my expression of overdramatic disgust.

Mum was sitting on the porch swing, passing the time for us to arrive by reading a book. She dropped it onto the seat as soon as the truck pulled into the driveway. By the time we rolled to a stop and the engine was killed, she was at my door. I was yanked into a hug before my feet were even on the ground.

"Ugck - Mum!" I yelped my complaint when she squeezed me too tight. "What are you, a constricti?"

"Sorry, sorry." Her apology was so rushed that I doubted the sincerity of it. She released me and I took the chance to gather the air that I had lost - and a good thing, too, because not a moment later she attacked me in a second embrace. "Oh, my baby girl! You're growing up too fast!"

I sent Lloyd a silent plea for help, but just leant against the truck's hood with his arms crossed and smirked. I scowled. My face began to drip from the rain.

When I was finally given freedom and we moved inside for shelter, Mum sat us down at the kitchen table with an already-brewed tea kettle and cups. We sipped on chamomile while repeating the events of our evening yet again. We showed her the interlocking medallions. Mum had to keep touching her sleeve to her eyes to soak away the occasional tear.

"I can't believe you knew what he was planning and didn't tell me," I said with a huff of disbelief. "You were so coy!"

Mum shrugged and rubbed her flushed nose. "I wasn't about to ruin Lloyd's surprise."

"Unbelievable." I shook my head. "Where's the camaraderie?"

"Right where it should be," Lloyd said between content sips. He smiled back at the pout I sent him.

I sighed in defeat. I really did hate surprises, though this one was certainly the best. I just wouldn't admit it out loud. Again.

Lloyd had to leave soon after, pulled from the warmth of the living room by another mission calling his name. I gave him a quick good luck kiss at the door and watched him disappear into the rain. My thumb rubbed the smooth dragon engraving of my white medallion.

When he was gone and the door shut to keep the chill out, I turned and found Mum leaning against the hallway door. She was watching me with a wistful smile. I smiled back.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Nothing." She shrugged airily. "I just don't think I've ever seen you look this happy before. And calm."

I softened. My fingers clasped my medallion with cherish. "I really love him."

"I know you do." Mum picked herself up from the door and approached, placing her hands on my shoulders. "Can you see yourself having a future with him?"

"Easily." As easy as breathing - even without having spot a glimpse of our future in the reflections of Uchū's tomb. My answer would've remained the same either way. Mum smiled sweetly.

"I can see it, too," she said. Mum pressed a kiss to my forehead and turned back into the lounge with a grin. "Y/n Garmadon, Lloyd L/n. Both have a nice ring."
 
My face ran hot. "Mum!"

Her cackle rang through the house, ignited by my embarrassment. She always knew how to spin a sweet moment. I looked out the entrance window one last time, though knowing I wouldn't be able to spot him. I still searched, briefly.

Deep into the evening while the rain fell full tilt, I sat at my desk and studied. I kept getting distracted, my focus an ever-shifting typhoon, flowing with the sheets of night storm that raged outside my cosy bedroom. My pen tip doodled in the margins of my notebook as my favourite moments from the evening before played on repeat behind my eyes.

My cheek rested on my palm; curled in my fingers, my Yin.

My notebook was filled with my name before Lloyd's last.

🍃🍂🍁🍂🍃

A few days after the Yin-Yang proposal, I finally convinced Lloyd to join me in calling my father to tell him the news. We sat on my bed and put him on speaker. I did all the talking, because if Lloyd broke the news, I'm sure he would've had a big enough fit to put him at risk of a stress-induced heart-attack.

Even still, he wasn't exactly pleased.

"You're engaged at seventeen!?" my father seethed with rage.

"It's not an engagement," I calmly explained. That did nothing to subdue his fury.

"I'm going to wring that boy's neck the next time I see him!"

"Dad, please," I groaned, pinching the bridge of my nose.

"Gonna have to catch me first," Lloyd said smugly.

I shot him an irritated look. "You're not helping!"

Lloyd shrugged, amused and unbothered by the threats Dad yelled down the line at his arch-enemy. I rolled my eyes in weariness. They were both just as bad as each other.

Even when Dad was all the way in Ignacia, his grumpiness was palpable - and Lloyd's sassiness that never failed to emerge only irritated my father further. Whatever progress his and Lloyd's relationship might have made since Stiix had been set back disastrously.

March blipped by in a blur of training, homework and tests, and then April approached with an unrelenting speed that took everyone by surprise. With it came darkening evenings and colder winds, and Lloyd sneaking into my room at midnight after missions. Mum and I had given up on asking him to use the door. We both agreed he must've been allergic to them.

"It's just easier," Lloyd had reasoned.

Mum sent me a dry look. "This is because you keep encouraging him."

I didn't know where she got that idea from. I only left my window unlatched and welcomed him in with open arms and sleepy kisses.

But far more importantly, with April came my visit to the dig site with Misako.

My excitement knew no bounds. I stayed at the monastery the night before the visit, but I could barely sleep, rest evading me like a game of tag. Lloyd had to cage me still in his limbs just to keep me from wriggling beneath the sheets with anticipation. His rough-voiced, disgruntled grumble of warnings in my ear didn't persuade my mood to settle.

When morning came, I was out of bed before Lloyd and unpacking and repacking my backpack while murmuring to myself. Half of my belongings were strewn about the floor. Dazed and half-awake, Lloyd watched me meticulously proceed about my bag's contents as if deciphering rocket science.

"Good morning!" Misako chirped when Lloyd finally managed to convince me that my seventh repack was fine enough. Seeing her made our upcoming excursion feel even more real. "Excited?"

I grinned brightly, heart racing. "So excited!"

"Glad to hear it." She handed me two muesli bars and a banana. "We're eating in the car. Be ready to leave in ten."

I could be ready in two minutes if it meant I'd get to the site sooner. I firmly nodded, my seriousness unwavering. Lloyd sighed with a soft smile.

We stood at the entrance ten minutes later. The air was chilly but the sky was pristinely clear, the perfect conditions for an archeological dig. Misako packed the car full of equipment that she insisted she didn't need help with while I gave my goodbye to Lloyd just as the early morning sun began peeking through the trees. It caught in his blond hair and set aflame into molten gold.

"Have fun." Lloyd tilted his head with a pout. "And promise you'll come back to me, okay? I don't want to lose my Yin forever to a dig site."

I shook my head in mock conflict. "I can never decide whom I love more."

"Ouch, sunshine." Lloyd drew me closer by my hip until his nose skimmed mine. "You're gonna have to kiss me better for that one."

I grinned up at his prismatic red eyes, dark and teasing. "Promise?"

He exhaled through his nose in amusement before touching his lips to mine. My heart skipped in thrill, rattling in the cage of my chest for more. I would kiss him forever if I liked history a little less - but I didn't, so I quickly pecked his lips again, then his cheek, before dashing down the steps.

Misako had just finished putting in the last bag when I reached the silver sedan. She planted her hands on her hips and sent me a smile.

"Ready?" she asked.

I was so exhilarated I could barely breathe. "Born ready."

"Let's hop to it, then."

The dig site was outside a national reserve, and I was told with intricate detail just how difficult it was to get the legal procedures in line to set up an excavation site. It was all started five years ago by pure happenstance when someone had stumbled across pottery sherds while walking their dog - ancient, fragmented remains of a bowl hidden in the dirt where their tennis ball had landed.

After another few years of negotiations excavation had finally begun at the start of summer, but things were only starting to really get interesting now. They'd discovered the sealed entrance to an old man-made cave dug deep into the side of the mountain - so, PhD Dr. Misako Garmadon had been called in to investigate on-site.

"The trick to becoming respectable in your field even when nobody likes you is to always be nice, speak loudly and never be wrong," Misako said as we wove through the motorway traffic. "They can't ignore you forever."

I wrote that down on my phone.

After an almost two-hour drive, we finally made it to the site. I seriously swooned when Misako handed me my own personal trowel, holding the rusty tool with the reverence of the Holy Grail. We put on our sun hats, signed in at a portable office and walked past the wired-fence barrier that kept the public out. I was practically shaking out of my skin with excitement.

"Have you been to an active site before?" Misako asked.

"A few," I replied. My eyes caught sight of someone pushing a wheelbarrow full of mallets and shovels past. "But just places like Ouroboros. They don't let people who aren't part of the dig get too close." I'd never been confident enough to ask to volunteer.

Misako grinned. "You'll love this, then."

She led me through a crowd of khaki-wearing, sunscreen-slapped, sunhatted archeologists and volunteers. A few nodded at Misako in stiff, distant greeting, the rest electing to ignore her. We stopped at the edge of an excavation unit - a large square of ground dug down a good handful of centimetres. Three people were crouched inside, soil-stained trovels and brushes in hand.

A middle aged, dark-skinned woman in a baseball cap looked up at our approach. She broke into a bright beam and rose to her feet, stepping aside her colleagues. She was the first look of kindness either of us had gotten since our arrival.

"Doctor Misako!" The woman stepped out of the excavation unit and clapped both hands over hers. "It's been too long."

  "Too long indeed." Misako smiled warmly. She patted my back to urge me a step forward. "Y/n, this is Doctor Kaya Onai. She's the excavation director, and an old friend."

Dr. Onai held out a hand for me to shake. Her grip was calloused and firm, as unflappable as her unwavering energy. "And who might you be?"

"I'm Y/n," I shyly answered. I stared at her as if she were Uchū himself.

Dr. Onai nodded with interest, silent in her wait for me to speak more. Alas, my words had abandoned me yet again.

"Y/n here is my son's girlfriend," Misako continued, picking the conversation up when I failed to. "She has a great interest in history and archeology."

"You must be pleased," Dr. Onai said. She sent me a kind smile. "Good choice in interests, Y/n. Allow me to show you something."

Dr. Onai stepped back into the excavation unit. I hesitated, torn between yearning and anxiety. My glance at Misako asked for guidance. Her smile back was soft with amusement.

"Shoes off," Misako said.

I looked down at my tramping boots with surprise. "Shoes off?"

"We don't want to step on anything fragile and break it, do we?" Misako toed off her sneakers and stepped down into the dirt. "The secret to dig sites are that we go barefoot. Or in jandals, if we must."

I bent down and hurriedly undid my laces, set them neatly to the side, before carefully walking to where Misako and Dr. Onai were bent over a section in the ground. The soil was dense and dry beneath my toes. My heartbeat danced on my tongue.

"Have a look at this, Y/n." Dr. Onai gestured me closer. The other two archeologists glanced warily between Misako and I. "Do you see what these are?"

I peered at the disturbed ground where she pointed. A glazed clay lump of something stuck out from the dirt, having been partly excavated with utmost care. Another smaller figure was not ten centimetres away.

"Are they statues?" I asked.

Dr. Onai nodded. "That's right. Offerings."

"Offerings?" Misako asked. "Do you think this place was a shrine?"

Before Dr. Onai could answer, a young man in a jumpsuit and a woven sunhat raced up to the edge of the pit and startled us into turning toward him. He looked greatly alarmed as he panted for breath.

"The noise..." He pointed back the way he came. "We heard it again."

The other two archeologists shared a worried look. Dr. Onai's rose to her feet while her expression turned grim. Confused, my eyes shot to Misako, but she seemed to be just as clueless as I.

"Thank you, Nicolas," Dr. Onai said. "Can you tell the team that Dr. Montgomery will be over shortly?"

"What noise?" I asked, standing upright.

Dr. Onai sighed and turned to me. "A few weeks back, we discovered a man-made tunnel leading into the mountain and managed to unblock its entrance. But ever since, we've been hearing... some kind of noise coming from within." She glanced at her colleague. "It's why I asked you to drop by."

Misako nodded. "Lead the way."

Quickly stuffing my feet back into my boots, I hurried to follow after the two adults. Dr. Onai brought us across the site and toward the base of the mountain, where an uneasy group of people were standing in a cluster and murmuring to one another. The area was taped off, keeping everyone back. Dr. Onai ducked beneath it and held it aloft for Misako and I to follow.

"It took a long time just to break ground here," Dr. Onai muttered to Misako in a state of barely-visible distress. "The last thing we need is some mysterious thing halting our progress before winter sets in. What if we have to shut down the excavation?"

"It might not come to that," Misako reassured.

We stopped at the edge of a man-height opening through the rock. It was cut so perfectly that all it was missing were hinges and a door. Misako brushed her hand along the faint carve marks. The pathway into the mountain was dimmer than a night sky without the moon.

"And if it does?" Dr. Onai shot Misako a look of stress. "Years of backbreaking work down the drain."

Misako grasped her friend's hand and squeezed it with support. "We won't let that happen, Kaya."

But Dr. Onai's face remained steadfast with her worry. She was only distracted by a volunteer approaching her with a clipboard full of documents that she needed to look over. Misako pulled out a flashlight from her backpack and turned to me with an encouraging smile.

"Let's check it out," she said.

She flicked on the flashlight and peered inside. Content with the lack of apparent danger, she ventured through the opening. I keenly followed after, hesitant only by slight caution. I turned on my phone's flashlight to investigate by myself.

"So... you were called out here because of a noise?" I asked.

"Archeologists wear hats with many feathers," Misako chirped. Her light swung around the small cave we dawdled around. "I... have a reputation with the unusual." She sent me a smirk over her shoulder. "I'm sure you can figure out why."

I smiled back.

The cave was of a reasonable size, the ceiling rocky and toweringly tall. The walls were rounded and almost completely smooth, if not for the occasional divot where an ancient tool might have been dug with a little too much vigour. A singular pedestal and basin sat in the centre of the room and was connected to the floor, eluding to the room being carved around it. A darkness to the far side suggested another offshoot.

I peered down the dark walkway that seemed as though to disappear into an abyss. Even my phone light couldn't penetrate it. Misako wandered over to the pedestal and basin and investigated inside.

"It is a shrine," Misako commented. Her voice bounced along the walls, echoing in circles around us. I returned to her side and followed her gaze, where a small number of oxidised coins sat in the bowl, congealed together with age.

"More offerings," I guessed. "Is it a shrine for Uchū?"

Misako cocked her head to the side in consideration. "Possibly. But this place isn't like any shrine to him I've ever seen. Let's keep moving."

Before we could even take a step, a low, deep rumble trembled through the earth around us. I flinched, at first thinking it to be a freak quake, but when the hair on my neck stood on end I knew it was not. Dust rained from the ceiling and clouded the room as the grumbling drone rattled on.

When it finally subsided and the world returned to normalcy, my brain caught up to my instincts. That wasn't the earth. A creature had made that sound. I turned to Misako for answers and found her looking pale in the light of my phone. She was entirely stiff with fear.

"What is it?" I asked.

Misako didn't answer. She promptly took my wrist and hurried us out of the cave. Dr. Onai stood by, half-focused on the reports she was still going over, half on us marching toward her.

"Do you understand what we're dealing with?" Dr. Onai asked.

"You need to evacuate the site," Misako firmly ordered.

The reports in Dr. Onai's hand slipped and fell back onto the clipboard. "It's that serious?"

"Far worse than you can imagine."

Dr. Onai briefly showed fear before corralling her expression back into command with a clear of her throat. "Understood." She pulled out a walkie talkie from her back pocket and relayed the message down the line. When it was done, Dr. Onai turned back to Misako. "What do you propose we do next?"

  "Next, we call the authorities," Misako said.

I sent her a look of disbelief that she expertly ignored. The authorities? Was it really that dangerous?

Dr. Onai shared my shock. "... okay. We'll set up lunch outside the excavation gates and wait for them to arrive."

When Dr. Onai left to sort that out, I watched the site-goers leave their work in varying states of confusion. I couldn't blame them. I was just as confused by the turn of events. I'd known that archeological digs were hardly a predictable thing, but this seemed extreme for even that.

Misako stared at the gaping, dark entrance with an apprehensive frown. She looked concerned but her stare was sharp with thought. She was in the midst of conjuring an intellectual battle strategy.

"What's inside the mountain?" I asked.

Misako's brown eyes turned to me. She held my gaze for a second as if in contemplation, before looking back at the entrance with a drawn-out sigh of stress.

"... a dragon," she answered.

I almost dropped my phone.

"A dragon?" I echoed in disbelief, before lowering my voice even further. "A real one? Like - like the 'eat people' kind?!"

"Yes, precisely."

"But why call the authorities?" I asked. "Why not the ninja? They know how to deal with dragons, don't they?" What good were the police going to be against a dragon?

"How might I explain my connection to the ninja?" Misako asked. "Not all my friends know who my son is."

I supposed that made sense.

We sat with the rest of the crew outside the excavation site's gates and ate lunch with a quiet dolefulness. This wasn't how I expected my first site visit to go, and the idea that a flesh-and-blood dragon sat beneath the very mountain that towered over us made me uneasy. I could handle the Elemental Dragons fine, Bentley was my magic reptillian puppy dog, but this beast was so overwhemingly different than Bentley.

"A dragon," Dr. Onai repeated to herself beneath her breath. She sat beside me and stared at the ground with a distant look of awe in her dark eyes. "I thought they were all gone... who would have thought? A dragon..."

Misako stood aside where no-one could overhear her talking privately on the phone. I imagined she was calling Garmadon or Wu, someone who knew just as much as she did on the subject. I thumbed the small paperback I brought with me but was too anxious to read. It'd been almost an hour since the excavtion. The dragon had growled and rattled the earth another couple of times since. My heart kept bolting like a horse out the starting gates.

My brows furrowed at the sudden tug on my gut. What?

"Are those the ninja?"

My gaze snapped to the sky at the volunteer's words. Two dragons came soaring toward us, one the colour of basalt and the other a familiar green. I blinked in shock. How did Lloyd and Cole know to come? Were they who Misako called?

The rest of the volunteers and archelogists stood, watching the descending magic dragons with amazement. I remained seated, cheeks flushed and flustered with slight panic. I'd never had to act that I didn't know the Green Ninja in front of other people before. Well, aside from Chen; but look at how that turned out. I swallowed sharply and made sure my Yin medallion was safely tucked away.

The dragons disappeared as soon as they touched ground, dispersing with a swift burst of colour. Even more amazing to the crowd was Cole. They'd unearthed ancient temples and bones older than most cities, but they'd never seen a ghost before.

"The ninja?" Dr. Onai said in surprise. "What are you doing here?"

"You called for the authorities," the Green Ninja said, and if it weren't for the fact that I knew him most ardently, then I wouldn't have noticed the tinge of pride that dripped from his voice. "We're here on official authoritarian business."

Good to know that Dad didn't revoke his support of the team after learning of Lloyd's proposal. I hesitantly stood and entered the back of the crowd. If I remained sitting, that would only look more suspicious, right? Misako silently appeared beside me, her expression a look of naive interest pulled so well that it almost fooled me.

I watched Lloyd, fascinated by how at ease he looked when he was in his gi. The mask freed him. He didn't have the same constraints as he did when he was Lloyd Garmadon, when he was shy and subdued and beaten down by the same people who adored him. People liked the Green Ninja. People loved the Green Ninja, and it wasn't hard to see why. Charisma oozed from him, cocky sureity and kindness dripped from his very words. But it was all just another one of his masks.

   He was showered with praise and worship. How did he feel when he knew it was all so empty? That they turned their noses up in disgust and spat on his name? My hand itched to find my medallion, to rub my thumb over the carving and recall his promise, as I had a thousand times since. Everything in me pushed to be closer to him but I resisted the craving. He was a magnet I was inconceivably drawn to, a soul the perfect fit to mine. I forced my feet to stay planted where they were, my hand to remain at my side. It almost hurt.

The Green Ninja's eyes found mine through the people vying for his attention. He felt a million miles away.