NYA

A/N: This is my first fanfiction (go easy on me). Please, feel free to give feedback or let me know if I made a grammar or spelling error. 

Chapter titles are the POV. 

This story takes place shortly after the event of The Hands of Time. 

Thanks for reading!

 ~

Nya crouched down, her back pressed against the wall, waiting for Lloyd's signal. She took a deep breath. The thugs terrorizing the small village should be an easy mission. Still, Lloyd insisted the entire team came. It was good practice as they hadn't had any major problems since Aconix and Krux attacked. 

Nya's knuckles were turning white from her tight grip on her spear. The other reason everyone was present was in case they found Master Wu.

Nya forced her sadness downward. Right now she had to focus. Not worry about her missing Master. 

By her side, Kai began to twitch. Waiting never came easy to him. Kai muttered under his breath about Lloyd taking forever to give them the signal to attack. Nya looked over her shoulder and peered out from her hiding spot. Cole must've been thinking the same as Nya as he peered from his spot as well. Zane was with Cole, but he had no issue hiding behind a rock and waiting for Lloyd.

 The Green Ninja was standing a few leagues away from a gang of thieves. He was wearing a hood to disguise himself. 

The low-life thieves were discussing which innocent citizen they wanted to intimidate. They'd do anything to steal a few coins. . Nya quietly growled at the crooks. She hated thugs who took advantage of innocent people.

Finally, the thugs pointed at a farmer passing by. The six criminals shouted at their chosen victim. Nya's adrenaline kicked in when she heard Lloyd yell to get the thugs' attention. Kai shot to his feet but didn't jump out as Lloyd hadn't uttered the signal yet. Nya closed her eyes and listened to the usual exchange of banter between the bad guys and the heroes. Her eyes sprung open upon hearing Lloyd shout: "Ninja Go!" 

She jumped out of her hiding place, along with her fellow ninja. Her team had the thugs surrounded.

 "Zane! Get the citizens to safety!" Lloyd ordered. Zane ushered the farmer to safety. 

Kai was the first to charge. Nya noticed the poor choice of Kai's recklessness, as the thugs sidestepped the attack that Kai had called out. Nya reacted. She pounced upon the closest thugs that evaded Kai's attack. She used the blunt end of her spear to push him toward Kai who already recovered from his fleeting attack. He swung his sword at the criminal. 

Lloyd continued to shout orders. She heard all of her friends' names called out: Kai, Cole, Jay.

 However, she only reacted when she heard her name called: "Nya! Don't let any of these criminals escape!" 

Nya stepped back to see the entire scene unfold. Her mind started to locate each of the six crooks. 

Cole punched one of them, sending him flying towards Nya. She jumped backwards as he crashed in front of her. She searched her surroundings for something to detain the criminal. A rope was lying on the ground, a few paces away from Cole. 

"Cole!" she called pointing to the rope. While Cole dived towards the rope, Nya summoned water to create a wall to stop a fleeing thug. 

Another thug raised his weapon towards Cole, who had the rope in his hands. The thug swung his blade. Lloyd jumped forward and locked blades with the thug. Cole thanked him and threw the rope to Nya. 

She tied up the two thieves she cornered. Kai was careful to not allow anyone near her as she tied up the criminals. Nya rejoined the fight, standing close to her captives. She didn't want their friends to free them. 

Nya's focus snapped towards Lloyd when he announced: "Their blades are made of vengestone. Don't let them touch you or you'll be without Elemental Powers until you heal up." 

Kai jumped back immediately. He used fire as a ranged attack. Nya rolled her eyes. 

"Cover me, Kai," she said. Unlike Kai, she wasn't scared of a little blade. She could live without water for a few days while a scratch healed up. She engaged one of the final two thugs, spear against dagger.

She looked for an opening to take down the thug. She glanced around, looking for Jay. He must've gone with Zane. She wanted to soak him and have Jay use his lightning to incapacitate him.

 As she tried to spot Jay, the thug caught her off guard. She stumbled back, avoiding the dagger's swipe at her. She gasped. A fiery spinjitzu knocked him over. After Kai saved Nya, he rushed to her side. 

"You okay, sis?" Kai said. Nya nodded. 

Cole tackled the thug, and Lloyd had finished with the other. All the thugs struggled against their new bonds. The ninja had won.

After turning the criminals over to the proper authorities, they searched the village for their lost Master. Nya looked around for Jay as well. She wanted to make sure he was okay (not that she didn't think he could handle himself. He didn't always try which meant he tended to get hurt by his laziness). 

And she figured some alone time with Jay (albeit alone searching for their Master) would be good. Ever since they started dating, it was hard to find time to be alone. Between missions and Kai interrupting them, she hardly had time to appreciate that she had a boyfriend. 

After a half-hour of searching, Lloyd, over the headset, announced: "Enough for today. Everyone, meet back at the Bounty." 

Nya shrugged, she'll find time to be alone with Jay eventually. 

She looked at the ship in the sky. It was quite far away. Nya focused on summoning her Elemental Dragon. She saw Kai rush upon his Elemental Dragon towards the Bounty. Zane followed after him. But Cole and Lloyd didn't follow. 

"Um, guys?" Cole said over the headset, "Not all of us can summon an Elemental Dragon right now." Ever since Wu's disappearance, Jay, Lloyd, and Cole couldn't summon their dragons. Nya could, but only for brief moments. And Zane was having trouble too. The only one who seemed to be normal was Kai. 

Zane's dragon turned around and came back to the village. He picked up Cole and they flew towards the bounty. Lloyd came up from behind Nya. "Care to give me a ride?" he asked bashfully. Nya nodded.

 "Jay? Do you need a ride?" Nya said into her earpiece. 

"Jay's on the Bounty," Kai responded. Nya frowned. How'd he get up there so fast?

 Nya and Lloyd were the last to come aboard the Bounty. Jay's face was bright red, which meant he was angry. Kai was cackling to himself, while Cole was trying to calm Jay down. She and Lloyd landed on the deck. Lloyd didn't seem to notice Jay's anger.

 "Good practice everyone," Lloyd said, "That was some of our best teamwork. If we continue to work like that, we'll be ready for whatever is in store for us when we find Master Wu."

 "Best teamwork," Jay said sarcastically. Finally, Lloyd took notice of Jay's attitude. Jay crossed his arms and stared at the floorboards of the Bounty. Kai was still laughing. 

 "Who knew Jay's best teamwork is when he doesn't do anything at all," Kai teased, giving Jay a playful push.

 "You forgot me! You left without me!" Jay declared. Nya's guilt overtook her. How did she not notice?

 "Seriously? None of you noticed you were short a man?" Jay said. He gazed around the circle of ashamed friends but stopped when he reached Nya. Of all people, she should've noticed. She assumed he was fighting elsewhere.

 "I thought you were with Zane," Lloyd echoed Nya's thoughts.

"And I thought you were with the others," Zane said. Jay threw his hands dramatically up in the air. 

"I told you, Cole, that I left my nunchucks in the cabin! And then you left without me," Jay said.

 "Should've been more prepared, buddy," Cole said, "Next time." 

Jay continued to shout as he walked away from the others. He went below deck. Kai laughed. 

"Can't you be a little more sensitive?" Nya scowled at her brother.

 "What?" he said defensively, "Jay will get over it." Nya took a deep breath. Kai was right.

 When Nya saw Jay next, she had to remember to apologize. But for now, she figured to let him have space to be angry. 

Sometimes, when she was angry, Jay doted over her. She tried to explain many times that she needed to be by herself. He never fully comprehended that she wanted to be alone. She debated whether to follow Jay. He might prefer that over her leaving him alone. 

"Nya, should we plan our next course," Lloyd said, breaking Nya's contemplation. Everyone had moved on from thinking about Jay. Nya sighed and let the matter go. 

 Nya followed Lloyd to the bridge. P.I.X.A.L. greeted them from inside the screen. She congratulated them on a successful mission. Then Nya and Lloyd looked over crime reports to see where they would go next. Who else in Ninjago would they protect? 

~

The next morning, Nya returned to the bridge to scan Ninjago for more crimes to stop. She and Lloyd hadn't been able to find any that might pose a challenge. Taking out thieves and thugs was fine, but they needed a challenge if they wanted to improve their ninja skills. All of them had noticed their sloppy form as of late. Most of them were without Elemental Dragons. And she couldn't remember the last time any one of them used Airjitzu. 

"Hey sis," Kai said, "Do we have a course yet?" He yawned and leaned on the equipment. 

"No, not anything fit for a ninja to get involved in. Petty crime seems to be the only problem in Ninjago. It's getting boring." Nya pushed Kai's elbow off of the control panel.

"Yeah, I could go for more of a challenge," Kai said. Kai stared at the screens. He was wanting to help Nya find a mission. Judging by his furrowed brow, he wasn't sure what he was looking at.

"Anything Nya?" Nya turned and saw Cole joining them. She shook her head.

 "I guess we get the day off then," Cole said with a grin.

 "Or you could train," Nya suggested. Cole stretched.

 "Nah, rather take the day off," he said. No wonder they were out of shape. 

"What about that?" Kai said pointing to the screen. 

"That is a purse snatcher. If you want, you can take him on, Kai. But I rather face a real threat," Nya said. 

In the reflection of her screen, she saw a blue gi approach. She had run through her apology a million times in her head during the night.

 "Just so everyone knows, I'm here too. I know none of you know when I'm present or not," Jay said. He was still grumpy. Should she apologize if he's angry? Maybe that would make him feel better.

 "You're still not over that?" Kai said. 

"Look, Jay, we're sorry. Let's move on," Cole said. 

"I just came to see if we had a mission today. Because apparently if I'm not constantly on top of things, no one bothers to tell me anything. Like that they are leaving!" Jay looked at Nya. He was silent. He expected something from her. Although, she wasn't sure what he wanted. 

 "Uh, no mission today," she said. Jay remained still. Was this the time to apologize? She hated that part of being Jay's girlfriend: having to know how to best comfort him. She was still trying to figure that out. 

"I don't know why I have to say this, because we're supposed to be a team, but let me know if that changes." Jay turned and left.

 "Sheesh, he's sensitive," Kai said.

 "Maybe go easy on him," Cole said, "Obviously this upset him."

 "Why? We didn't even need him for the mission," Kai said, "He should be happy he got to play video games instead of working." 

"I think that's why he's upset," Nya said, "Not that we left him behind. But that we didn't notice he wasn't there. We didn't need him." Kai and Cole took a second to soak in Nya's observation. 

"I'm going to talk to him," Nya continued, "Maybe I can get his mind off whatever is bothering him." Kai's eyes narrowed at Nya. 

"What do you mean by that?" Kai's voice was sharp. Nya ignored Kai. 

"You need to get over them dating," Cole said.

 "I am! It's just weird. My sister. And... Jay," Kai said. 

"What's wrong with Jay?" Nya said defensively. 

"Nothing. I love him like a brother. It's just... he's Jay," Kai said as if that cleared everything up. Nya pushed past Kai as she left. 

She followed Jay into the recreational room. He was planted on the couch staring at his video games. She never understood the appeal of video games. Jay had amazing ninja skills in real life. Why did he want to spend time simulating fights when he could be in real ones?

"Hey," she said plopping down next to him.

 "Oh! Are you talking to me? I wasn't sure you could see me," Jay said. 

"I'm sorry, Jay," Nya said, "You know how it is when you're fighting. It's hard to keep track of everyone." 

Jay paused his game. His arms drooped and he lowered his head. "I always know where you are when we're fighting. I can't focus if I don't." 

Nya's heart skipped with joy. That was her Jay. An adorable mess of warmth and love. 

"If it's any consolation, I did look for you. And I was worried about you. I just assumed when I couldn't find you that you were with Zane. And I know you can handle yourself."

 "Thanks, Nya." Jay half-smiled. Nya reached out to grab Jay's hand when the cabin door swung open. Both Nya and Jay glared at Kai as he meandered into the room.

 "Oh hey guys," Kai said nonchalantly, "What's going on in here?" Nya and Jay exchanged a glance of annoyance. 

"I was just about to ask Jay if we wanted to continue to work on Project Avian in the hull." Jay and Nya had been working together to build vehicles for each of the ninja. Since they couldn't rely on their Elemental Dragons anymore, they needed to come up with a new form of transportation. Nya happily took up the task when Lloyd asked her to build something. And Jay was more than happy to help her when she asked him. He hardly ever got to invent and tinker since he became a ninja. Between all of his hobbies, and being a full-time ninja, it was impossible to keep up with all his interests. 

And it was a great project they could work together on. While neither of them said it they both agreed that was the best part: working together.

 "Project? What project?" Kai said. Although he knew very well about the project. 

"We'd invite you, but you'd set all of our work on fire," Nya teased. Jay made an explosion noise with his mouth and flailed his arms around. 

Nya took Jay's hand, all the while glaring at Kai. She pulled Jay behind her and left. She knew that Kai would soon follow. But she didn't care. He had to learn that she was dating Jay and there was nothing he could do about it.