The Great Camping Incident, AKA Why To Never Take Smith Camping Again

The Great Camping Incident, AKA Why To Never Take Smith Camping Again

@kittydemon9000 CLOCKING IN AT MORE THAN 500 WORDS MORE THAN THE PREVIOUS TWO FICS COMBINED, I PRESENT:  The Gang Takes Smith Camping and it goes about as well as you’d expect.

Enjoy.

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Smith Forge was never allowed to go camping again, not after the great Camping Trip Incident.

Allow me to explain.

It all started with Lloyd oh so innocently asking Smith if he wanted to join him and the gang camping. There was a spot in the woods not too far from the city in case the Garm-Alarm sounded, private and bare of other campers.

Smith, of course, agreed, and Lloyd found himself with a pat on his head from his mom as she dropped him and Smith off at the campsite for the night. As usual, she and Smith exchanged some strange emotion in their look, though this time Koko seemed to nod ever so slightly at whatever she saw staring back.

The others arrived shortly after.

It all started with the tents. Specifically, the fact that Smith seemed mystified that they weren’t going to simply sleep on the ground next to a campfire on the sleeping mats Koko had lent them.

Apparently, all he knew from camping was an extreme version of ‘roughing it’. And he meant extreme.

“YOU’VE SLEPT IN A SNOWSTORM?!?”

Yep, that would be Kai.

“The probability of surviving that is…”

Zane, right on cue.

“How much of an adrenaline junkie are you?”

Nya, sounding a little bit awed as if she wanted to try it sometime on her own.

“Are you crazy?!?”

And that would be Jay to round them off, Cole just staring at Smith speechlessly.

Smith shrugged. “A snowstorm, the top of a mountain, near a stormy wasteland…”

“And no tent?”

“No tent.”

Lloyd didn’t know whether to be impressed, angry, or concerned. He settled for all three.

After that, and some help teaching Smith how to pitch a tent, came the gathering of supplies for camp. Cole gathered the stone circle for the pit, Nya set up their water filtration system by the river, and Kai and Smith both volunteered to gather sticks for the fire.

It was on this walk that Kai and Smith got to chatting.

Or, well, Kai did most of the chatting for the first bit, while Smith just nodded and stared into space a little.

“You okay?” Kai finally asked when they passed a bush of yellow flowers that Smith seemed to glower at with loathing.

Smith turned sharply, scar crinkling as his face twisted in surprise. “I-” He sighed. “Sorry, just… lost in thought.”

Kai silently prompted him to continue if he felt comfortable.

“I just… it’s been a while since I was last on a trip like this,” Smith started. “And the last time I slept in a forest like this… I… I made this stupid, impulsive mistake, and the people I care about paid for it. We managed to save them in the end, but… it could have ended up a lot worse. And it did lead to some pretty nasty consequences that might have been avoided if I had just stayed in camp instead of running off on my own.”

Kai nodded. “I get that. Nya and I went camping with our parents when we were younger, and… I wanted to go stargazing. I climbed up a tree to watch in the middle of the night and fell asleep. Boy, did I get an earful from those three when I woke up to their search party.”

Smith cracked a small grin. “Impulsive and instinct-driven to a fault, huh? That sounds familiar…”

“Yeah…”

Smith glanced over at Kai’s quieter tone. The latter quickly hid it with a bright smile. “But hey, that’s what life is! A series of adventures strung together by action.”

“...you’re worried you worry others too much.”

Kai blinked. “Huh…?”

Smith shook his head. “You’re impulsive and a little hot-headed sometimes. It’s protective, it’s loyal, but it’s also stubborn and puts you and the people you care about in harm's way. And you catch yourself wondering if you hadn’t done that action, what would be different. What would be better. And you start to beat yourself up over your impulses but at the same time you can’t get them to simply stop and think.”

Kai was silent.

“But…” Smith said, staring down at his hands. “Your instinct can also be something great. It reacts before anyone else. It warns you when something is wrong, that gut feeling that says don’t go there, don’t trust them, but also yes this is a safe place and that is a trustable person. It’s an invaluable tool. Don’t wish it away. Learn how to work with it and listen. That in turn will help you control your anger and impulses.”

Kai stared at Smith for a long minute. His eyes were wide as moons, his posture slack yet attentive.

Then he swore once, quietly and fiercely under his breath, before tipping his head back and laughing. “I can’t believe I got a Smith ChatTM. I bet Nya that Jay and Lloyd would both get one before me.”

Smith shrugged with a smile. “What can I say, I learned from a wise teacher.”

Kai suddenly pulled Smith into a hug, knocking their meagre gathering of twigs to the ground. The hug was tight, warm- extremely warm, actually, like hugging a hot water bottle, though Smith unknowingly gave off the same feeling- and honest.

“...Thanks,” Kai whispered.

Smith ruffled his hair. “Anytime.”

The two continued walking down the path after that, laughing and chatting. Smith grew a little brighter, as if he needed to hear his own words.

And if the pair trampled any yellow flower bushes for Smith’s sake, well, who’s the say?

---

The second-worst part of the evening was what was henceforth known as ‘The Great Marshmallow Incident’, and was only known as the second-worst after the evening because the top worst had yet to come.

It had started with the hardest event to get wrong; roasting marshmallows. Everyone was having a fantastic time trading jokes (and memes, in Zane’s case), laughing, and enjoying fluffy goodness.

Until one marshmallow, carefully roasted to perfection over countless much-focused minutes, decided that just as it got to that perfect golden brown that now would be a lovely time to take a vacation to the far-off lands of the campfire.

Now, normally such a tragedy would simply end with sadness and a couple laughs, but this was not normal company. And as such, Smith said “I got it!” and plunged his hand into the flames.

There was a moment of stunned silence.

And then the forest filled with yelling.

The first to react was Nya, sitting between Kai and Smith. The only reason she was faster than Lloyd was that she’d honed her reaction skills for these specific scenarios with her brother who did not understand the concept of ‘hot things are hot, do not touch’. Her hand shot out and yanked Smith’s arm up and out of the flames, Lloyd joining a moment later to almost throw Smith out of his seat.

Smith’s eyes were wide. “Whoa, what-”

Lloyd immediately started fussing over his hand (the hand that still clutched the gooey marshmallow that had started it all). “WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT???”

Smith had the audacity to cock his head a smidge and look confused. “Do what?”

“THAT!” Lloyd gestured wildly at the fire. “FOR A MARSHMALLOW!”

Smith stared at the fire with a furrowed brow, slowly taking in the expressions of horror, panic, and worry staring back from around the campfire. The only one who matched his bewilderment was Kai.

“It does not appear he sustained a burn,” Zane spoke. “The sudden way you pulled him from the fire seems to have prevented an injury. I suppose you could say that was quite ‘lit’.”

It took a few moments for the first person to groan once the adrenaline spike from Smith’s actions wore off.

Lloyd let out a tired sigh. “Just don’t do… that, again!”

Cole nodded in agreement, and based on how Jay was rambling into his scarf and tugging at the frayed end, he agreed too. Zane helpfully pulled up a guide started to explain fire safety while Nya lightly whacked her brother in the back of the head before he could reach into the fire too.

After a while, the group returned to eating marshmallows and telling stories. Smith told a particularly riveting tale of a marsh where a type of snake apparently spit hallucination-causing venom.

It was when the sun began its slow march towards the horizon and each person retreated to their tent with varying degrees of hesitation and stubborn refusal (Koko had issued a bedtime, and even the most reluctant of the group were determined to follow it) that the worst incident of the entire camping trip came to be.

Though the effects of the lone person patrolling the camp boundaries out of habit would not be felt until morning.

Kai was the first victim of the incident, though he would be the last to figure it out. He’d wandered out of camp in one of his classic sleepwalking maneuvers, and his body had chosen that the best possible place to stand still was with one foot in the loop of rope perfectly hidden on the forest floor.

Somehow the rope trap catching him like a fly and swinging up upside down to dangle above the ground didn’t wake him up.

The sound did, however, wake up Cole, who poked his head out of camp and took just one small step too many in Kai’s direction, which was how he found himself at the bottom of a pit trap that had somehow been dug overnight. Normally holes like this never bothered him, though it was surprising to find himself suddenly sitting at the bottom with no idea who had dug the trap (especially with its perfect cylinder edges- had some kind of spinning drill dug it out?

Lloyd woke up a little later and started searching for Kai, Cole, Smith, and Nya, all of whom were missing from the camp. Nya he found not far from where Kai was asleep upside down, pounding at the bars of the stick cage that somehow was professionally built enough to keep her stuck. But when he ran over to help, his hand got caught in some invisible thread.

And then his foot did.

And suddenly Lloyd was trapped in a web trap, one much more expertly crafted than any of the pranks from school.

Well then. This was a thing that was happening.

When he looked around, he spotted Cole struggling to climb out of a pit trap with smooth, almost melted walls of dirt. A small spark of light turned his attention a little further off, where he saw Jay caught in a net and panicking from the height. Ironic, considering he flew a jet.

Based on the monotone ‘ouch’ behind him, Zane had also fallen victim to the traps. Lloyd craned his neck; a lump was caught under one of the tent tarps that had been reused as a net since the only true net was already in use.

“Oh no.”

Lloyd struggled to turn his head enough to face Smith’s voice. He hoped his friend hadn’t also gotten caught like the others.

A knife suddenly cut through the webs keeping Lloyd trapped and he tumbled to the ground with sticky strings trailing along his arms and stuck in his hair. He blinked, groaning, as a hand helped him up.

Lloyd shook his head. “Thanks, Smith. Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Smith said. He glanced at the others with his face twisted with worry, concern, and some weird form of exasperation. “But the others-”

“We’ll get them down,” Lloyd assured him. A faint ‘please’ came from Jay’s direction. “And we’ll figure out who managed to set so many traps so fast.”

“Actually...” Smith scratched the back of his neck. “That would have been me. Sorry.”

Lloyd blinked. Then blinked again. “You…?”

“Yeah. Old, uh, habit. Couldn’t sleep and decided to, uh, fortify the area… sorry, I forgot to warn everyone.”

Lloyd glanced at his team of ninjas, all caught in traps laid by a normal student. “I’d consider them pretty warned now.”

Smith brandished his knife (where had he gotten a knife, Lloyd swore he hadn’t seen it packed). “I’ll… I’ll get them all down.”

And get them down he did, starting with freeing Zane from the tarp. Jay was caught by the robot fellow teen when Smith scaled the tree and cut the net holding him hostage in the air. Cole was helped out of the strangely shaped, literally unclimbable pit trap. Nya was released from the cage (the look on Smith’s face was priceless, a perfect mix of ‘I’m so tempted to tease her’ and ‘Oh First Master she’s gonna kill me’). Finally, the group managed to get Kai down, and only when he was on the ground laying in their arms did he finally wake up.

Smith promptly apologized to the group and everyone laughed it off, though the incident would forever go down in history.

The lesson? Never take Smith camping.

Ever.

All three let’s gooOOOOOOOO

reblog if you’re asexual, support asexual people or really really want a crossbow for literally no reason.

:D Glad you liked it!

The Beginning of Heatstroke, aka Red’s Villain Origin

* crashes down from the ceiling * I HAVE FINALLY FINISHED ONE OF MY 5+ CURRENT WRITING PROJECTS! BEHOLD, A WRITTEN VERSION OF THE ‘Red’s Villain Origin AU’, also known as RVO / Heatstroke AU

To summarize the AU for SPBNR for those that don’t now it: 

“Who’d be the biggest conspiracy theorist out of the M!Ninja? The one who drinks 5 hour energy at 3am and spits off the craziest theories and then actually gets it right but nobody gives the theory any merit because the rest of the theories are too crazy?”

The answer: Red / M!Kai

Red: Okay hear me out: Smith is actually an alternative version of one of us sent here from another dimension.

The other M!Ninja: You’re just saying that because Smith’s cool and you want him to be your counterpart

Based on the M!ninja making red cork boards trying to figure out ‘What Is Up With Smith’: Red gets increasingly accurate and nobody will believe him (all pre shogun reveal) and he eventually snaps and takes up a secret villain persona to fight Shogun like 'if they won’t believe me I’ll do it myself’ and it gets awkward when he accidentally does too much damage and catches not only Shogun’s attention like planned, but also the rest of the Ninjaforce, and now he has to keep his own identity a secret

So, without further ado, I present… Heatstroke

————

Red blamed the 5-hour energy coffee blend at 3:00am for this.

It was no surprise that between ‘Operation: What’s Going on with Smith’ & the sudden appearance of Shogun that the resident Bounty red-stringed ‘joke’ cork-board doubled in size and seriousness. It also was no surprise that Red had a corner all to himself and that his theories were… in the words of the others, ‘wildly inaccurate and implausible’.

But this time, he was sure he’d gotten it right.

Smith is Shogun sent here from another continent/planet/dimension with the goal of protecting Ninjago City.

The latest string of laughs and scoffs at his theory was the last straw. He’d show them. He’d prove it!

Which was why he was currently standing on the roof of a noodle house, awkwardly adjusting the spare motorcycle helmet he’d ‘borrowed’ from Nya and painted black and orangey-yellow (red had seemed too obvious). He’d exchanged his Ninjaforce outfit for a soot-burned cross between a bomber jacket and a leather jacket. Down his back jutted a row of flames like the spines of a monster, courtesy of one of Nya & Jay’s unfinished inventions Red had modified- surely nothing bad would come of that!

For tonight, the Red Ninja was off-duty. For tonight, it was Heatstroke’s turn.

He fiddled with one of the weapons he’d ‘lent out’ from Master Wu. It resembled a small arm canon, like a smaller version of the Ultimate Weapon. The plaque under its post had read ‘Elemental Focuser’, which, in cryptic Wu speak, probably translated to ‘you can use an elemental power like something out of Avatar: The Last Airbender’. So far he’d only figured out how to activate a focused jet of fire. Well, at least it was on brand. He hoped it would help him catch Shogun’s attention so he could unmask him.

He’d tried confronting Smith at school, of course. But there were only so many ways of saying ‘are you the new vigilante helping the ninjas’, and Smith has a genuine talent for dancing around the topic. Red could confront him with the name Shogun to get a proper reaction, but that would mean explaining how he knew the name and outing himself as the Red Ninja.

So fake villainy really was the only way.

His plan was to use the Elemental Focuser to cause some minor petty damage, just enough to attract the new vigilante. Perhaps set a trash can on fire, block an alleyway with rocks (if he figured out how to change the setting from fire to earth), small things that could easily be repaired.

Of course, plans were never actually stuck to. One way or another, something was always improvised.

Red’s improvisation just happened to involve him accidentally setting the entire alleyway on fire.

He’d only been aiming for one dumpster, honest! And maybe he’d spotted a couple fliers for a SoG meeting on the ground and happened to burn those too. And a newspaper article blaming Lloyd for the recent Garmadon attack, again. And an article about those ‘Damn Ninja Menaces’ by a S. Sonah Sameson. And-

Okay, so maybe Red had aimed the fire at a few small targets. But just a few! And with good reason and good care, but…

Well, fire liked to burn. Give it enough kindle and it’ll continue to grow, stretching like reaching branches towards each other to join in a massive bonfire. 

So now the entire alleyway was on fire, and Red was panicking. 

He’d luckily chosen an abandoned part of town near the beaches where Shogun sightings seemed most frequent, but with the stupid Elemental Focuser not switching from fire mode to water mode or ice mode or something that didn’t have the potential to burn Ninjago City to the ground, Red had no way of stopping the flames.

And more flames meant more destruction which meant a bigger audience.

Which was why his previously muted comm suddenly flared to life, the only warning Red had before Nya’s water strider mech slid around the corner.

Red scrambled onto a roof as the mech drove past, spraying water at the bonfire to dose it. His sigh of relief was just as quickly dosed as Lloyd’s voice came over the comms; “Status, Grey?”

“Flames are out,” Nya replied. “Pursing the joker that set it ablaze.”

Uh oh. Red took off across the roof, leaping from building to building. Tiles creaked, pebbled and dust scattering underfoot. The sounds of the mech’s engine roaring behind him echoed through alleyways below to create the illusion the mech was everywhere at once. 

As the chase grew on, more mechs started to join in. Red ducked into a narrow avenue to avoid Zane’s tank, then under a cafe overhang to throw off Jay and Lloyd. His heart hammered in his chest and he groaned, filling the inside of the motorcycle helmet with steam. Saying this was going ‘bad’ would be the understatement of the century. 

What had he been thinking? Oh wait: he hadn’t. Seriously? ‘Oh I’ll just pretend to be a villain real quick, that should get Shogun’s attention and not the attention of literally my entire team of fellow ninjas!’ Stupid, impulsive, this was why everyone was always calling the red ninja the ‘hothead’ when he really tried not to be- Lloyd’s voice over the comms snapped him from his thoughts. “I can’t catch them! It’s like they know our every move!”

Red winced as he climbed up a banister and leapt from balcony to balcony. Sorry, Lloyd. 

He didn’t miss how the others asked Nya where Red was. And how she made up excuses the others bought so easily- granted, he’d told those excuses to his sister before setting his plan into motion, but still, ouch. They acted like he was simply being at best too busy and at worst lazy and selfish.

He just wanted them to know the truth! Why couldn’t they at least try to believe him when-

Of course, that was when Shogun dropped out of the sky and tackled him.

Red shouted with surprise as he tumbled down from the second floor, slamming into a few softer bags of garbage to break his fall before rolling and slamming into the unforgiving concrete. A crack formed in his vision as the visor of his motorbike helmet smacked into the concrete ground. One of the fire jets on his back sputtered and sparked, sending a thin wisp of smoke into the air.

Shogun pinned his wrists to the ground and growled. “Who are you?”

Red tried to break free, agony turning his muscles and bones to fire with the movement after his fall, but the vigilante was too strong. Damn, how often did this guy train?

“Who am I?” Red said, a nervous tinge to his voice. He quickly smoothed it over with faked confidence. “Who are you? Who are all of us, really?”

Shogun narrowed his eyes behind his hood. “Did Garmadon send you? Or someone else?”

Red sputtered. Really, the nerve! Garmadon? The thought turned his insides to disgusting mud. “Nobody sent me!”

“Then why are you here?” Shogun spat.

“Why am I here?” Why was he here again? Oh right, the bright idea on how to reveal that Shogun was Smith. “It’s, uh… a valid reason! That I don’t have to tell you!” He tried for a villainous laugh. Stay in character, don’t blow your cover, you got this!

Shogun was unimpressed. “Nearly burning down my home was a valid reason?”

“Well, I wasn’t trying to set everything on- wait, WHAT?” Uh oh. “You LIVE here?”

Now it was Shogun’s turn to look uncomfortable, though the expression was quickly wiped from his face. “Nothing wrong with this district.” 

Red nodded. “‘Course not. Uh, sorry about that… wasn’t my intention, I swear.”

Shoot, he could hear Jay’s jet getting closer. He had to get out of here, but Shogun, annoyingly, didn’t seem to be in the mood to simply let him go. “Then what is your intention?”

“Well, for starters, it’s getting out of here. This really isn’t going to plan and I’d rather just be home right now, or even inventing a time machine like in that book ‘Hands of Time’ to slap my past self in the face for even thinking about this stupid idea in the first place-“

Jay wasn’t the only one that could ramble under pressure, it seemed.

Shogun leaned closer. “What idea?”

Red shrugged as best he could with how he was pinned to the ground. “Well, for starters, I just wanted to prove to my friends that you’re Smith, and things just kinda escalated from-”

The words were out of his mouth before he realized what he said. 

Shogun lurched back, letting go of him. His eyes betrayed a kaleidoscope of emotions; surprise, worry, suspicious, hurt, fear, realization. 

“…Kai?”

Well, f!ck.

“I-“

Red was about to badly attempt to bullsh!t his way out of his identity reveal before it suddenly dawned on him that Shogun had not denied his theory. 

Which meant Shogun was Smith.

And it also meant Smith instantly recognized him as Kai, which, considering his disguise, was aptly concerning. Sure, he was the first one in his group of friends people would think to do something this extreme but give him some credit! Zane was a regular detective, he’d do the same if it meant answers! Or, well, at least something similar. And Nya could be an adrenaline seeker. And Lloyd- well, maybe not Lloyd. Or Jay, either. Cole had his head just enough on his shoulders that he probably wouldn’t do this either.

But come on, instantly guessing it?

Well, at least Smith/Shogun didn’t know Kai was the Red Ninja. That would be a catastrophe.

Right. Back to the current catastrophe at hand.

Shogun- Smith- still had a look as if he’d been slapped, and Red hated it. He hadn’t meant to hurt his friend. Shogun… Shogun hadn’t wanted them to find out his identity. And then Red had gone and done it, just to prove that he could be the smart one, or a leader, or the protector so they didn’t get hurt, or literally anything but just the ‘hotheaded one’. 

…And he’d done it in the most hotheaded, impulsive way possible.

He really was an idiot.

The cracked helmet hid the look on his face, a twisted mess of distraught and shame. But it didn’t help hide how he took stumbled to his feet and away from Smith, nervous that any second he’d spill another mistake and mess up again, like how he always freaking messed up on everything. Don’t pick this fight, interject there instead, no, not there, idiot, there, FMS why are you so useless-

Focus, focus.

Lloyd’s voice, sharp in the intercom and full of static from his tumble, snapped him from his thoughts. “Anyone got eyes on the arsonist?”

Red caught Smith’s eye as he raised his hand to his own communicator. He was so screwed, so busted, so doomed… Smith would report it, and the others would know, and they’d think he was just messing around in an alleyway with some stolen devices and weapons out of curiosity or rage, - and-

“None yet, still looking.”

…What?

Smith stared at him, gaze searching. He looked shaken, more so than Red- who’d just taken a fall from a second story, mind you, it was a miracle he wasn’t more injured than a couple small scrapes and some future bruises-, yet everything from the set of his jaw to the softening of his furrowed brows suggested a change in emotions. Well, not quite change; more like repress and replace.

“You wanted to prove yourself, didn’t you.”

Red flushed, hand instinctually clamping into a tight fist at his side. The still-working fire jets on his back ignited without him pressing any buttons; faulty activation from the fall or something. 

Palms up and hands raised, Smith silently asked to defuse the situation. “Didn’t mean it as an insult. This wasn’t about venting some anger, was it.”

Red’s lack of response only confirmed it. Smith continued. “I won’t say anything about this if you don’t tell anyone my identity. Deal? I know finding it out was important to you, but-“

“Deal,” Red interrupted. Guilt ate away at his core, like a wave of water dousing a candle. “Smith, I-“ He swallowed hard and stared at the alley floor. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to… to…”

Smith’s hand was suddenly on his shoulder and he flinched before relaxing as Smith didn’t move further, nor did the grip tighten. “I’m a little hurt, you’re right. But I’m not mad. And I won’t tell the others, so you can relax. But you better get out of here and get yourself an alibi. We can talk at school or something.”

Wow, he was handling this rather calmly. Red was struck by the sudden memory of- what did Jay call the word? Right. Compartmentalizing. That… wasn’t healthy. But at the roar of Lloyd’s mech somewhere nearby, he didn’t comment further. Instead, he shot Smith a grateful nod and ran down the alley, sticking to the shadows and blind spots of the flying mechs and the tight alleyways where the land mechs couldn’t reach him. 

When he got home, miraculously without further incident (though Shogun leading the others on a wild goose chase over the comms certainly helped there), he ditched the outfit in a bag hidden beneath a loose floorboard in the shed. He’d return the weapon to Master Wu’s ship later, and… well, hope Nya never searched for the missing supplies. There wasn’t a way of fixing it without involving her or Jay, and neither was an option.

Heatstroke was back off duty, and so was the Red Ninja.

For now, he could just be Kai Smith. And there wasn’t any issue with that.

…

Right?

—————

yooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

THIS IS AMAZING REHJJGFHDESFXJVZ

and ah yes, good ol trauma and compartmentalizing, we love to see it

Shattered Dreams & Broken Phones (Smith Garmadon)

So you guys remember the ‘Smith Garmadon AU’ from SPBNR? Where Smith wakes up on M!Garmadon’s volcano with amnesia and proceeds to get adopted by the Dark Lord & his generals? And he has a phone with a ton of videos & pictures of his original family that he can’t remember? So there were some ideas thrown around in the Discord server, and (credit to Mink, who’s amazing comic directly inspired this) yeah, now we got this. Enjoy :3 credit to @kittydemon9000 for the original SPBNR

———

The plan, as plans often were, was crude yet simple. Smith Garmadon, adoptive(?) son of Lord Garmadon, had a phone. A phone full of recordings. 

The problem was, nobody knew what those recordings were. And the danger was that those were recordings and photos for Garmadon, including clues onto the ninja's identities.

And for the safety of the group, Nya and Zane couldn't let those get back to the Dark Lord or his generals. So they devised a plan.

It took a lot of convincing to get Jay to 'accidentally' bump into Smith, hoping that they could retrieve the phone under the guise of repairing or returning it, deleting the videos with evidence, and subtly returning it. And the plan didn't even work the first time; nothing broke, and Smith was quick to retrieve it.

When Zane and Nya went for attempt number two, Jay wasn't having it. "Why do I have to do it?" He asked, fingers fraying the ends of his scarf. "Why do we even have to do it all? Maybe he's friendly, we don't know. He's got this look when he stares at the phone, I don't think we should mess with it, you know? And what if he gets mad, or we actually do some damage, or-"

"That's why you gotta do it," Nya assured before he could spiral. "You're one of the closest to him. My brother would spill the beans or refuse, and Lloyd couldn't lie his way out of a paper bag."

Jay squared his shoulders back for once. "No. No, this is a terrible plan. I won't do it. Smith's our friend, and whatever he has on information isn't worth it-"

"And what if he has our identities on tape?" Nya countered, throwing her arms in the arm. "What then? We have to get rid of that evidence, or else we could all be in some serious danger!"

Despite the look of panic on Jay's face at her words, he merely ducked his head into his scarf. His rambled excuses grew muffled.

Zane, who'd been keeping an eye on the hallway, suddenly snapped his head to the side. Smith turned the corner, phone clutched in one hand as he watched something with a small smile. It was now or never; the last period of the day, and if Smith left the school, the data would be in Garmadon's hands. 

That. Couldn't. Happen.

Seeing their plan about to fail, Zane made a split-second decision and a mental apology. 

He tripped Jay.

The blue ninja pinwheeled his arms, surprise and hurt flashing across his face like lightning. He slammed into Smith, who barely caught him with nearly inhuman reflexes before they could both tumble to the floor. The phone tumbled from his hands and-

Landed on his shoe, bounced off, and skidded down the hallway, completely fine. No, no, that wouldn't be enough-

Lloyd, Cole, and Kai rounded the corner just as Smith said, "Whoa, Jay, careful! You okay?"

Jay stuttered out an unintelligible response, a thousand words tumbling over themselves and meshing into one jargoned mess. 

"Hey, no worries, no harm no foul, right? Here-" Smith helped Jay back to his feet, and slowly started to turn. "My phone's okay, it just landed on my foot, I'll grab-"

His head turned in time to see Nya stomp on the technical device hard, shattering the screen and spilling the wires and broken chips across the floor. Shattering like Smith's heart in a single moment, broken memories dropping to the ground and splintering into unrepairable pieces.

His phone. His phone. All the memories of his... his family... 

Gone. 

And it wasn't an accident.

Behind him, through the crackling and roaring in his ears, he heard a quiet, hissed "What?" from Kai, heard the sharp intake of air from Jay who looked like he couldn't breath, heard a faltered misstep from Lloyd, heard Cole's footstep's freeze, heard no movements from Zane, and heard the crunch of the final few tech pieces of his phone under Nya's shoe.

Smith took two steps toward Nya and dropped to the ground at her feet, hand shaking as he reached toward the broken device as if his hand would be crushed next if he wasn't careful. Tears, too hot for normal water, filled his vision and broke over his cheeks, turning to steam as it hit the bottom of his jaw. He slowly tilted his head up to look at Nya, who looked-

Unapologetic. 

"...why."

Nya didn't say anything. Her gaze darted over to catch Zane's eye. With heightened senses, Smith was aware of Cole barely holding Kai back from storming over, of Lloyd standing there slack, of Zane's blank, oh so terribly blank expression, and of Jay, who was much too quiet other than a few choked attempts at breath.

At that moment, Smith's full attention went from grief and disbelief to fiery anger, a cold, burning anger not too unlike the sounds of Kai struggling to butt in behind him. 

He stood, hands clutched in tight, shaking fists at his side. Nya finally looked at him, eyes wide, as he held his shattered phone, his shattered memories, in one hand. "Let's be clear," he bit out, snapping as harshly as a wildfire consuming a smouldering tree. "I did absolutely NOTHING WRONG. And you-"

The words grew thick with emotion, and Smith exploded. Nya jerked back, not from his yelling, but from the way his eyes glowed with fire. 

"YOU DESTROYED THE ONE THING I HAVE LEFT OF MY FAMILY! OF THE LIFE I HAD BEFORE I WOKE UP ON THAT VOLCANO WITH NOTHING! NOTHING! I HAD A FAMILY, PEOPLE WHO LOVE ME, AND I HAVE NO IDEA WHO THEY ARE OR WHERE THEY ARE. EVERYTHING I KNEW ABOUT THEM WAS ON THAT PHONE, SCRAPS OF VIDEOS AND PHOTOS THAT I THOUGHT WOULD SPARK MY MEMORY. BUT IT HASN'T YET, AND THANKS TO YOU, IT NEVER WILL! THOSE VIDEOS ARE GONE. EVERY SCRAP OF MEMORY OF MY FAMILY IS GONE.”

His voice died, and he laughed once, lacking humour or emotion. "Gone. It's gone. I don't know where home is, and I never will."

Behind him, Jay bolted, a blur of blue so fast no one could catch him as he rounded the corner in a blink and vanished. Kai broke from Cole's hold, and Smith didn't even have the energy to turn to face the attack he'd face for yelling at one of the Smith siblings-

Kai stormed past him and shoved Nya. "What the F!CK did you do?"

Nya opened her mouth, then closed it without a sound. Her expression reeled at Smith's words.

It was Zane who spoke for her. "We- we just-"

Kai whirled on him, entire posture ablaze with his anger. "Just what? What excuse could you possibly have?"

"We just wanted to protect-" Zane's voice cracked for a moment on the word protect. "We were trying to protect ourselves from Garmadon."

Kai's hand was suddenly on Smith's shoulder, surprisingly gentle despite the amount of fury hissing in his throat. "Well, congratulations. Come’on, Smith, let's get out of here."

"I know a shop where we can try to repair the phone," Lloyd jumped in suddenly. "I've broken a ton of phones and they're great at fixing them."

Cole looked indecisive on which side to join, eyes flicking from Nya and Zane to Kai and Lloyd. He stepped back, avoiding both sides, and awkwardly gestured to one of the hallways. "I'm gonna... try to find Jay."

He slunk out of the hallway. Kai shot him, Nya, and Zane a scathing look before guiding Smith, who'd gone cold and nearly slack as the full extent of his own words hit him, down the other hallway, Lloyd joining on Smith's other side.

Zane walked to Nya's side. Both didn't look happy with their actions, but what was done was done.

Their identities were safe, if they ever even were in danger. 

But at what cost?

YOU CAN’T JUST BRING THAT UP AND NOT DO IT.

(also ‘a game of catch’ seems to be how M!Garmadon bonds with his son(s) lol, let’s get a fifth person into this custody battle for Smith)

Would M!Garmadon be chaotic enough to go along with the 'Slip of the Tongue' scenario, making it even harder for Smith/Shogun to prove it was a lie/live it down?

oh my god you're right he absolutely would-

Tbh this reminds me so much of this clip and I'm half tempted to draw it-

As someone who recently finished season 9 (Hunted) may I just add that Jay canonically went insane during the first week in the First Realm? The wiki straight up says he ‘temporarily lost his sanity’ - that CANNOT be healthy! Dude was in denial (the kind where you say you’re ‘going with the flow’ and ‘accepting reality’ when really you did a 360 and are right back at denial) and disassociation for a concerning amount of time. 

He and Kai both use denial as a coping mechanism; Jay with saying the situation is fine, Kai with saying he’s fine. And I wouldn’t put it past the others to start saying that too because they know everybody else has a lot on their plate and don’t want to ‘burden them’.

Just... please, get them some therapy. They’re gonna need it based on the spoilers I’ve seen for the later seasons

The Ninja and Their Traumas

Kai:

Kai has abandonment issues. They mostly stem from when his parents disappeared, but they’ve also been compounded over the years; first by Zane’s death, then by how easily the whole team seemed to drift apart after.

He’s also got some pretty damming body-image issues. Like, he always made sure that Nya had enough to eat growing up, often to his own detriment. So he’s gotten good at making it look like he’s getting enough food himself, despite spending years consuming >~10 meals per week.

Kai’s also extremely insecure about how he’s perceived. He’s spent so much of his life keeping up appearances for the sake of keeping him and Nya safe, that the very idea of anyone thinking he can’t handle something sends him spiraling into a panic attack.

Because of how isolated he was growing up, he craves physical touch, but he also hates the very idea of needing anything, so he never acts on his needs…at least, not consciously.

Nya: 

Like Kai, she’s very anxious about resources such as food, but she’s not as bad as him.

Nya hates the idea of having to depend on someone else, mostly because of how much suffering she watched Kai put himself through just to make sure that she would have enough.

The one thing that she does do is take the time to give Kai a hug and close physical contact whenever she can. She knows that he needs actual contact, and hates that he never voices his needs.It hurts even more that she knows that she can’t actually call him out on this, because he will absolutely shut down if she does.

She also can’t talk to Zane about his father without having an anxiety attack! Her and Jay had talked about telling him about Echo, but the way he practically worships his father, and with the number of personal traumas Zane’s gone through since have them constantly putting it off…

Cole:

The boy has performance anxiety. I mean, yeah; his parents loved him, but they pushed him a little too hard to become a performer, so now whenever he’s put on the spot where he has to play a part, he freezes up.

He loves to dance, but doing that in front of others sends him into a spiral of self doubt and angst!

Ever since he was turned into a ghost, he’s become increasingly scared of water. I mean, it was lethal before, but now that it’s safe, he’s even more afraid of what will happen the next time he dies!

His mother loved to cook before she got sick, though his father was a terrible cook. The one thing he remembers the most was her cakes, so whenever he sees one, he can’t help but think of Lily.

The boy is TOUCH STARVED! He spent waaaay too long as a ghost, and thus, not able to touch anyone. Now that he’s human again, he can’t help but touch the others subconsciously.

Jay:

Out of all of the ninja, he was probably the most well-adjusted at the beginning.

But falling in love, constantly being the damsel in distress, discovering he was adopted and nearly loosing the Nya to poison have left him with some pretty stubborn PTSD.

Like, he still won’t even say the word “wish” and visibly flinches whenever anyone says it.

He’s argued with Nya multiple times about telling Zane about Echo, but every time they get ready to talk to him, something comes up and takes precedent.

Zane:

He has a love/hate relationship with his late-father. It’s like, he gets why he did all of those things to him with his memory switch, but he still can’t help but feel a little hurt and abandoned.

He considers the ninja and Bounty his family and home, mainly because that was were he really became who he is today. So any threat to them makes sets him on edge.

Zane is absolutely terrified of losing his identity, especially with how easily he was easily he was manipulated in season 11.

Lloyd:

OH BOI! Does he have abandonment issues!

I mean, he went through so much abuse at Darkley’s, but then he got bullied by the Ninja right after he left!

Then he was outed as the “Chosen One™” and forced to fight his dad!

Then he sacrificed his childhood and aged himself up just to save his adopted family!

It’s obvious who he turned to and decided to take after the most when it comes to all of the ninja and how he deals with his trauma (*cough*Kai*cough*) but he still knows that he has them when he needs them!