Today just isn't Nova's day.
Also we are getting some nice Garmadon and Nova interaction. :3
A little info on Nova's darkness powers: It pretty much acts in the way when the oni showed up in "March of the Oni" season.
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*Early morning at the palace.*
Nova hardly got much sleep through the night as she couldn't stop thinking about Lloyd, so by the time the sun was coming up she was already very tired, and exhausted from everything that happened yesterday along with last night.
"I hate fucking mornings." Nova mumbled in a grumpy tone, getting out of her bed and turned on her voice changer, letting out a yawn.
*At the palace, an anacondrai cultist is serving the elemental masters food.*
"Next!" shouted Krait, it's Garmadon's turn but Krait doesn't give anything. "Nu-uh! Nothing for you."
"There's a valuable lesson here, son. If you turn your back on your first evil Sensei in an effort to go straight..." said Garmadon.
"Next!"
"...you may not be served creamy biscuits." said Garmadon as they went over to their table.
"Next!"
"If you shout one more time, I will fucking end you!!" [robotic] shouted Nova in pure rage, very much not in a good mood.
Everyone turned to look at her and they all had the same thought "I don't wanna be the target of this person's rage."
"Well, I know what we are being served. A whole bunch of baloney. This isn't a fighting tournament. It's an alibi for Chen to steal everyone's powers. But we still don't know why." said Lloyd.
"Isn't it obvious? Chen wants to destroy New Ninjago City. I don't know what it is, but that place has had a string of bad luck." said Kai.
"I'm not so sure. From what Sensei G's told us about him, I have a feeling it's something far more sinister." said Cole.
"And may I remind us, we still don't know where Zane is, which is why we all need to take care of our first rounds to give us more time. Don't look at me. I've already moved on." said Jay.
"Your opponent got himself kicked out." said Cole.
Nova gave a short nod. "I'm surprised I got myself a day off, though I wouldn't be surprised if Chen changed his mind." [robotic] She mumbled.
"Hehe, either way, it's my day off." Jay turns to the cultist. "Extra creamy biscuits. And don't skimp." They start walking away from the line.
"Taking a day off? And here I thought ninja never quit." said Cole.
"And I used to think a ninja wouldn't steal your girlfriend." said Jay.
Nova let out an annoyed sigh rolling her eyes.
"Whatever you have to say to each other, say it now, because harboring grudges hurts no one but yourselves." said Garmadon.
"He's right. You should be preparing to fight your next opponent, not each other." said Lloyd.
"What grudge? I already dropped it." said Cole.
"I dropped it first." said Jay.
"Did not!" said Cole.
"Did too!" They continue arguing, with Jay dropping his biscuits and drink.
"All this for a girl, for fuck sake whoever she is, you guys can't treat her as a trophy." [robotic] Nova said, a little annoyed by this.
"The tournament will test them, Lloyd. Either find a way for them to make peace, or neither of them will move on." said Garmadon.
Chen on an intercom. "The tournament of Elements continues. Fun time! Would the following Masters please make their way to their assigned arena? Speed, Gravity, Smoke, Nature, Mind, oh, and last and hopefully not least..."
"Huh, maybe we all got the day off." said Jay.
"Nope." [robotic] said Nova.
"...Fire!" Kai gasps. "Remember, only one can remain." The fighters are in their arenas. "Turner, Master of Speed, versus Gravis, Master of Gravity. Fight!" The two make their way toward the Jadeblade. Neuro and Bolobo begin their match. "Neuro, Master of Mind, versus Bolobo, Master of Nature. Fight." Neuro uses his Mind on his opponent.
"They call this a fight?" questioned Lloyd.
"Wait for it." said Garmadon as Neuro manages to dodge Bolobo's vines. Kai and Ash's fight begins.
"How and why did I end up sitting next to Lloyd, I mean I don't have anything against sitting next to him. But did it have to be this close? I wanna move but if I do I might make it a little awkward, but if I just stay here I feel like I'm gonna explode." Nova thought to herself, blushing behind her mask.
"Kai, Master of Fire, versus Ash, Master of Smoke. Fight!" The two dropped the Jadeblade on a rock under them.
"Come on, Kai, you can do it." said Lloyd.
*The Masters watch Neuro and Bolobo's fight.*
"Never underestimate the power of the mind." said Garmadon.
Neuro gets trapped in Bolobo's vines. "I didn't see that coming!"
"In Man vs. Nature, Nature usually wins." said Lloyd.
"I'm gonna have to agree with sen–Garmadon on this one greenbean." [robotic] said Nova, quickly catching her slip up before anyone noticed as she let out a yawn.
Lloyd looked over at her with a raised eyebrow. "How come you are still tired?"
"I'm not a morning person." [robotic] said Nova with another yawn.
"What? Can't keep up? I'm over here. Can't catch me." said Griffin as Gravis levitates some of the flowers from the tree. "This doesn't look good."
"Ninja, go!" Kai goes on to use his Spinjitzu.
"Come on, Kai. Use your power." said Lloyd.
"Fire!"
*Neuro uses his Mind to give Bolobo a headache, freeing him and using another vine to climb the rock and grab the Jadeblade.*
"Yeah!"
"Winner! Loser!" Bolobo screams as he falls under a trapdoor. "Master of Mind moves on."
*Gravis levitates the Jadeblade, but Griffin grabs it.*
"Yeah!"
"Winner! Loser!" Chen opens a trapdoor, dropping a sandbag on Gravis, who is still floating in midair.
"Whoa. How many buttons does that man have?" Griffin asked.
"Master of Speed moves on." Clouse is about to use his Dark Magic on Kai and Ash's battle when Chen stops him.
"No Magic. I'm enjoying this." Kai breaks the bridge with his Fire. After a brief fight, Kai grabs the Jadeblade. "Winner! Loser! Master of Fire moves on."
*Later the ninja and Nova approach the elemental masters, who are gathered around the bracket.*
"What's all the commotion?" Jay asked as they gasped when they see Cole and Jay in the same bracket.
"No, he can't do this." said Cole.
"He already did." said Lloyd.
"We gotta fight each other." said Cole.
"But why does it say I have to fight Cole? It didn't say that before. I'm not ready to fight. It was supposed to be my day off!" said Jay.
"I tried to warn you, but you never listen! Talk? Yes. Listen? Not so much" said Cole.
"Who the fuck is Karl!?" [robotic] shouted Nova in a mix of confusion and anger as she looked at the bracket, and saw that she was also on there and she was against the master of soil.
"This wasn't part of this season, and I know there wasn't any master of soil, what the fuck is going on here!?" Nova thought to herself frustrated as she just wasn't in the mood for any of these changes, let alone how tired she was.
"Is there a problem, ninja and Delta?" Clouse asked, coming over.
"You cheated! You changed the brackets." said Cole.
"Who the fuck is Karl, and since when were it decided that I needed to fight today!" [robotic] Nova shouted in frustration.
"Oopsie." Clouse laughs and walks away.
"What do we do? They can't fight each other. We came here to become whole, not fall further apart." said Lloyd.
"You can't undo what's been done. My only advice is to be at peace with it." said Garmadon.
"Peace? One of us has to lose! Oh, my gosh. It's totally gonna be me. He's got super strength and what do I have? Quick, tell me! What do I have!?" shouted Jay in a panic.
Nova sent in a glare along with an angry growl which seemed to shut him up. "Another word out of you motor-mouth, and I will kill you." [robotic] She warned him.
"Don't listen to my dad. We find Zane, then none of us have to battle. Your fight isn't until tonight so we still have time to figure out what Chen's up to and stop this." said Lloyd.
"I think I know just the person who can help. And I think he already knows." said Kai.
"Well until you guys get to talk to this person. I have to go and get ready for my fight." [robotic] said Nova in a grumpy tone, walking away from the group.
*Later everyone is gathered to watch the fight between soil and darkness.*
"Here you will fight each other while trying to grab the jadeblade, at the very tippy top of the pillar in the middle of the arena. That will also be changing at random! And remember, only one can remain. Now fight!" Chen laughed excitedly.
Nova let out an annoyed groan from hearing Chen's voice. "I hate this so much."
"So you are the infamous Delta the thief, I've gotta be honest.....I thought you would be taller." said Karl with a smirk on his face. "I didn't think I would be fighting a child."
Nova now looked very pissed off by that comment about her height as she let out a low growl.
*The arena they were in was surrounded by nature, with a barrier around them so they couldn't leave the place.*
Karl went for the first move by charging towards Nova, raising the soil and turning it into solid blades, sending them flying at her.
Nova quickly dodged the soil blades that were coming at her while trying to block Karl's attacks.
It wasn't long until the ground under them changed into large spikes that kept popping up, and then going back into the ground. Having both of them keep moving while fighting.
But being exhausted and very tired Nova, was slowly losing speed as she just barely dodged a soil blade that ended up cutting through part of her clothes and something else.
"Is that a plushie?" Karl pointed at the now sliced up plushie laying on the ground, only for a spike to come up and pierced right through it. "Wow you really are a kid." He along with everyone else but the ninja started laughing.
But as soon as the laughter came, it soon went away from the eerie feeling that was coming from Nova, who was just standing there completely still.
The screen part of Nova's mask started glitching as dark purple like smoke started surrounding her.
"This doesn't look good." said Jay, getting a little nervous.
"I'm having a very bad feeling about this." said Cole.
"Dad, what is going on with them?" Lloyd asked, looking at his father.
"I believe Delta finally snapped, from what I'm guessing they still seemed very tired. So mixing it in with something very important to them getting destroyed, might have been the worst thing that could happen." Garmadon explained.
"Oooh! This is gonna be good!" Chen was excitedly eating some popcorn, but he couldn't help feeling a little nervous.
Nova looked over at Karl and within a second she used her speed boost, coming right into his face punching him with a ball of darkness right into his stomach. Knocking him backward into the spikes, until he hit against the barrier.
"I'm gonna erase you from the fucking existence you MOTHERFUCKING ASSHOLE!!!" [r̴̛̖͕̱͇̥̥̾̋̓̒ơ̷͙̼̯͈̠̮͆̇̇b̶͔̱̃o̸͔̱̲͛͊̐͜t̶͇̰̄̉͊̿͠ï̵̡͈͖̙̩͋̒̈c̴̺͚̼̱͈͎̉̀̍] Nova screamed at full volume.
Nova went on to use her darkness to make a ball around Karl, trapping him inside it and he began screaming inside the ball of darkness, much to everyone's shock and terror.
"Delta stop! didn't you want to be anything but the Overlord's shadow!" Lloyd shouted, now standing on the other side of the barrier.
Nova snapped out of her rage when she heard Lloyd's voice, causing her to look at what she was doing. She went on to remove the ball of darkness to show Karl, having his left arm and right leg turned to stone.
".....Sorry" [robotic] Nova said, before turning around and running over to the pillar, using double jump to easily get to the jadeblade.
"Winner! Loser!" said Chen as he opened a trapdoor under Karl as he went down screaming.
Nova let out a heavy sigh as she went over and picked up her now destroyed plushie, and while the others couldn't see it because of her mask. She had slowly started crying since the only thing keeping away her nightmares, along with her panic attacks at times was her plushie.
She walked out of the arena as everyone else kept their distance from her after what they had just seen.
"Del?" said Lloyd, slowly coming over to her.
"...I need some time *sniffles* to be alone." [robotic] said Nova in a sad tone, walking away and heading to her room.
"That plushie must have meant a lot to them with how they reacted." said Lloyd with a sad expression.
"I'll go and have a talk with them." said Garmadon, putting a hand on his son's shoulder before leaving to follow Nova.
*Back at Nova's room.*
Nova was sitting in her room on her bed looking at her destroyed plushie, upset until she heard a knock at the door.
"Delta it's Garmadon, may I come in?" said Garmadon on the other side of the door.
It took her a few minutes until she finally opened the door, giving a small nod before letting him inside and closing the door after.
Once they were finally alone, Garmadon turned around to look at her only for Nova to run over and hug him, while deactivating her mask now crying into his chest.
Garmadon had known that it was Nova all along, since the first day when Chen announced her to be the master of darkness. But he hadn't said anything since it wasn't his decision to make.
"It's okay little butterfly, just let it out." said Garmadon rubbing her back, trying to comfort her which seemed to help a little.
"I didn't mean to.....I-I just snapped a-and then I just...just used my stupid cursed darkness powers on an innocent person. When I swore to never use that power again!" Nova cried into his chest, tightening the hug.
Garmadon simply listened while still rubbing her back as she let everything out. "It was a simple mistake, which you can only learn from. But don't see your elemental powers as a curse no matter who or where you got them from, in the end they are yours and only you can decide how you wanna use them."
Nova slowly looked up at him with still a few tears in the corner of her eyes. "But what if I can't control them? What if I hurt someone again with my darkness? What if I can't use them for any good."
"You wouldn't know the outcome until you have tried, and should you make a mistake then you can only learn from it, and adapt to it Nova." He said, patting her head with a soft smile.
Nova, still a little upset, just gave a small nod before ending the hug. "You always know what to say Sensei and trying to help me, even now." she said, smiling at him.
Garmadon lets out a small chuckle, glad to see her in a better mood. "It's nice to see you actually without the mask on, you seem to have grown a little since I last saw you. Along with those oni parts growing."
She gave a shy smile, rubbing the back of her neck. "Yeah, after Lloyd defeated the Overlord, I ended up growing more of my oni form though not completely. Since it seemed to have stopped after all that."
"Hmm I don't think so Nova, while you haven't gotten more black spots on your body. I was able to feel two tiny horns slowly growing from your head." said Garmadon.
".....What?" Nova looked at him before slowly moving a hand to her head, feeling around a little until she was able to feel something that seemed to be horns.
Her eyes widened before letting out a long annoyed groan. "Argh! Come on, can't I get a break from this? I'm so tired of all of these changes." Nova complained, crossing her arms.
Garmadon chuckled a little at her being annoyed by that. "I think it's a good thing butterfly, maybe when you get your real body back. You might be able to use your oni shapeshifting powers to change into your human form."
"Well I hate it." said Nova with a huff walking over to her bed, sitting down and crossing her arms before looking back at her destroyed plushie.
Garmadon gave a soft smile walking over and sitting down next to her. "I'm guessing that plushie was very important to you."
Nova nodded a little. "I keep getting nightmares or sometimes panic attacks, so I always keep that plushie on me. As it always helped me....but without it I have nothing to help me." She let out a sigh.
"Hmmm, I could try and repair it for you." Garmadon suggested.
"You know how to sew?" She asked, looking at him with a raised eyebrow.
"When you live as long as I have, you learn a thing or two through the years." said Garmadon.
Nova giggled a little. "Okay sure, you can try and repair it. I would be very happy about that."
Garmadon nodded, taking the destroyed plushie. "By the way, have you told Lloyd about who you really are behind the mask?"
Nova started blushing by the mention of Lloyd's name. "N-no.....I don't feel.....r-ready yet to tell him."
Garmadon noticed the blush on her face but didn't mention it. "Okay, well until you feel ready I wouldn't say anything." He said getting up.
Nova smiled a little. "Thanks, Sensei." She said before getting up and giving him one last hug.
"Anything for my favorite student." Garmadon said returning the hug, before walking over to the door.
Nova smiled happily at that and went on to turn her mask back on along with her voice changer.
"See you tonight, Garmadon." [robotic] said Nova when he opened the door.
"You too, Delta." Garmadon said before walking out of the room, closing the door behind him.
The smile on Nova's face behind the mask slowly faded away with a sigh. [robotic] "It was nice getting a moment to talk with him again, while he is still already."
*At night, the ninja and Nova went to see Neuro.*
"We need your help, Neuro." said Lloyd.
"You think I can get close to Chen to read his mind, so you can find your robotic friend and not have to fight." said Neuro.
"Don't forget—"
"You still need to know what Chen's up to because he's hiding something." said Neuro.
"That's really impressive, Nerdo." said Jay.
"It's Neuro, master of the mind. And Cole thinks Jay won't last long in a fight." He said.
"Pfft. You think that?" said Jay.
"You just said it yourself." said Cole.
"But you didn't have to believe it." said Jay.
"Don't be offended, Cole. Jay here thinks you're the least valuable ninja." said Neuro.
"You don't say." They start pushing each other.
"Damn, you just make it worse." [robotic] said Nova standing to the side.
"And Delta here thinks about when she should reveal her true identity." said Neuro.
Nova's eyes widen before sending him a glare along with a lot of threats in her mind.
"She?"
"Her?"
"We wanted you to help, Neuro, not make things worse." said Lloyd.
"But why would I help? You're competition. The sooner you're out, the better for me." said Neuro.
"If you want what's best for you, just look into my head and you'll see what this tournament is all about." Neuro does, and sees Lloyd's memory of Chen stealing Karlof's Metal. "It's only a matter of time before Chen steals your power too. So are you in?"
*Nova went to join Garmadon and sat down waiting for it to start.*
"Are you feeling better Delta?" Garmadon asked, turning to look at her.
"Yeah a little, doesn't mean the others feel that comfortable being near me." [robotic] said Nova with a sigh.
"That's understandable after they just saw you snap, but give them time and they should get over it." said Garmadon.
*The battle is about to start. Lloyd, Kai, and Neuro go back to the audience.*
"You tried your best, the rest is up to them." said Garmadon when Lloyd came over.
"I hope they can see that too." said Lloyd, taking a seat between his father and Nova who had moved to make space for him.
"Let the tournament continue! Jay, Master of Lightning, versus Cole, Master of—"They start fighting.
"Haha! That's all you've got? Least valuable ninja!" said Jay.
"Eat dirt, Blue-Belle!" said Cole.
"Oh, Clouse, go get me popcorn. This is turning out better than I anticipated." said Chen.
Nova yawned watching this and since she already knew who was gonna win in the end, she simply laid her head on Lloyd's shoulder not really carrying at the moment. She closed her eyes and soon enough fell asleep. Without knowing Lloyd blushing, let alone him thinking about Neuro revealing "Delta's" gender after reading her thoughts.
*By the end of the fight.*
Nova was having a nice nap until the sound of Chen's voice woke her up.
"Winner! Loser! Master of Lightning moves on." said Chen.
"She's yours, Jay. I should've bowed out long ago. Win this thing." said Cole.
Chen drops Cole in a trapdoor. "About time. Phew."
"Cole may be gone, but he did not lose. Let what he did here today be a lesson for us all: know thine enemy, but more importantly, know thy friend. He fought like a true ninja." said Garmadon.
"What did I miss?" [robotic] asked Nova as she tried rubbing her eyes before remembering that she was still wearing her mask.
"We just lost Cole." said Lloyd with a sad look on his face.
"Oh...yeah that's not good." [robotic] said Nova knowing either way, it wouldn't have changed whatever it was Jay or Cole there lost.
"By the way Delta, I have a question." said Lloyd looking at her.
"And that is?" [robotic] Nova asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Are you a girl?" Lloyd asked.
At this point Nova simply froze when he asked that question. "Fuck you Neuro, I know you can read my thoughts right now and let me tell you this, if we ever get put in a fight against each other. I'll make it my personal mission to end you."
"Oooh would you look at that, I think it's about time for dinner." [robotic] Nova got up and speed walked away, not giving Lloyd time to ask her anything else.