In the beginning, it looked like we never stood a chance.

Considering all that he'd been through, he hadn't had a bad life.

He'd met such wonderful friends, people who were more willing to give the clothes on their back for anyone else-including himself-and who were always stepping up to the challenge. Strong, independent young men. Together, the five of them had toughed it out to fight some of the greatest (and not so smart) villains this world has ever seen, adapting from every challenge they'd been thrown (but not without what difficulty), and overall, he realized it was safe to say that every adventure they'd endured, from the Skulkin to the ever-present Overlord, had given him such a great strength inside of himself. Without his best friends and everyone he'd ever met on this journey, he never would've made it so far. He never would've become the Green Ninja without them, never would've discovered his origins. Never would've risen up to his destiny and decided he'd embrace it instead of run from it. Lloyd Garmadon never would've become the man he was today if it wasn't for all the people who'd guided him throughout his life.

And now, he owed it to them to protect them-all of them.

Around him was just chaos. The destruction among a torn apart world that he'd once called home, and now hell was being unleashed, ashes falling from the sky from all the building fires there'd been in New Ninjago City, all the torn-apart statures of everyday life crumpled at his feet as Nindroids attacked. Underneath his feet were mounds of asphalt, torn up from the ground, and he stood on it like a king atop his pedestal, overlooking the mass destruction he'd created. But he wasn't the enemy here. He hadn't even scratched the surface of infiltrating where the true leader was hiding, tucked away in the shadows and barricaded by all the bodies that were piling up from the tragedies that were occurring here. Those led underneath its rule were the problems at hand, a swarm of black-clad robots creating problems near the edge of his unholy pedestal. They were the first and foremost issue he knew he needed to deal with. Then, later, when they'd all been disposed of, could he truly focus on the real enemy here. That was the only way this would work.

Lloyd looked down one last time, and he watched the only brightly colored forms in the sea of black moving heroically through, making small dents in the population of misguidance, but that didn't even amount to the work that needed to be done.

They all thought that the end of the world had come-

the greatest evil that ever existed was here, and it was here

for blood.

The rapid movement of a red body through the masses lit on fire in a pillar of hot orange before it was dispersed. Lloyd could only keep his eyes on Kai as the God of Fire unleashed hellion on the nindroids huddling around him in a circle. The look on his face had gotten frustrated. He felt it too, then. How the odds were trying their best to work against them and every possible outcome they could reach. It was almost as if the universe itself was starting to strike out and move to the side with the upper hand: the bad one.

But Kai didn't take even a moment to sigh. The fire that his hands commanded from his sheer will pirohuetted around him elegantly, and there were shrieks of discomfort and pain from the nindroids. Their metals were melting in on themselves and caused them to collapse to the ground, in so much pain that they ripped their masks off in a last effort to look at their melting bodies before they stopped crying altogether. Faces, faces that were once so human, fell to the ground in death. Was it pleasant for them? Did they feel it leave them, the life? Did they question their choices? But it wasn't even their fault...it wasn't their fault they'd been programmed this way. It wasn't their fault evil had a genius mind captive at their side that was wielded improperly.

Lloyd had much faith that Kai would be okay. His eyes tore out toward the dark blue, jumping shape in the road, and he felt a tenderness toward the God of Sky. Jay wasn't appearing to have many problems more than common flusteredness, overwhelmed by the amount of enemies he had to deal with. He could even hear little spouts of Jay's laughter when he electrocuted the life right out of the automatons, but he couldn't tell if it was real joy, or if it was more of an automatic trait. The lightning danced between his fingertips, deadly but momentually striking to look at. The bobbing redhead only served to draw life directly from the nindroids surrounding him. No, he wasn't in trouble, either.

People doubted just how well a group of guys could

fend off an army of repurposed robots and a demon

sent straight from the pits of hell to kill us.

Lloyd watched a straight white form ducking in such contrast from the black sea, a pure form of one of the most innocent but deadly aspects of life brought into one soul: the God of Snow. Zane was a thin guy that was stronger than his light weight presumed, and it showed in the way that he could move through the shroud of beings so similar to him as if he was liquid. His elegant motions didn't seem so threatening on their own, but combined with the hostile actions of his brethren in black, he was a force to be reckoned with. Ice sprouted from the movements of his fingertips and laced around them, holding their feet and hands in place, to glue them to the spot, too frozen and too weak to break through. Some were chipped into blocks of ice and pushed to fall down on top of others and crush them. A good foot of distance was maintained between Zane and the nindroids; he didn't need help.

It was much harder for Lloyd to find Cole in the mass of writhing black; his black suit matched that of the nindroids attacking him. His senses followed the rhythm of heavy footfalls and soon was able to make out brute force bringing out its owner from the crowd, a dark shape that was quickly moving among its surroundings. The God of Earth struck the nindroids down in one punch a piece, shattering the clockwork and metal into irrepair that could not function any longer. He had to keep his quick, broad body moving through the crowd to avoid a largening accumulation of bodies clustered in one spot. Of course, the way that he moved as a blur amongst the threat wasn't easy to follow with Lloyd's eyes, but he could very so often find him taking out yet another-and another, and another-enemy that was in sharp pursuit of him with ease. He was doing fine on his own.

For a while, we doubted ourselves too.

How could we defend ourselves against something

so impossibly indestructible?

Lloyd could see that his best friends were doing just fine on their own. None of them were struggling with the physical task before them, more so the frustration of an endless supply of enemies to bash than the actual concept itself. He had his doubts when his eyes dragged toward one of the newer individuals in his destined ensemble, a light green shape that he worried would be struggling to hold his own. But Lloyd didn't consider himself surprised to see that the God of Flora was tough enough to fend off those surrounding him. Yuki brought forth from the torn ground lush foliage that wrapped around his enemies and all but consumed them, crushing their pieces in the tight ropes until the satisfying screams of metal bending came to an end. When the tendrils recoiled back to the ground, nothing was left but a pile of scrap metal and black cloth hiding the worst of the damage. He wasn't suffering, either.

It was no contest that the monster howling triumphantly to the wind was something that Lloyd needn't question. A more reluctant member of his team couldn't have made it more clear that he didn't want help from anyone, but was rather enjoying himself, which Lloyd figured that was sickeningly expected of him. He looked down toward the God of Darkness and watched him move almost as a pasty afterimage through the nindroids. Noel swiped his clawed fingers and impaled robots by the twos, yet it felt strangely fitting for his humanesque appearance. His abnormally black hair and white skin looked so much unlike him in contrast to the lime green eyes that swept from enemy to enemy instants before they were torn apart with his bare hands. The darkness he could've unleashed upon them all was still hidden within his core. Hidden, because Lloyd's light never revealed itself, and wouldn't until it had done so.

But we needed to take this chance.

We couldn't let evil win.

It was in our destiny to fight this

battle-for all those who couldn't

protect themselves.

Lloyd clenched his gloved hands at his sides and could only make his eyes move sluggishly up toward the horizon, where Borg Tower stood in a dark shadow, once the emphasis of the city and all the reform it had endured after the Final Battle. It was there where his destination presided, and he'd have to weave through all the destruction and powerless aspects of the city to reach it, but he knew he needed to get there. He couldn't stop the Gates to Hell from being opened; he knew that much. It was gathering everything he could together so he'd be ready for the moment where destiny finally came together in a strange arc. The stories that had been painted onto paper with black ink and a brush generations ago were now only instances from coming to life and expanding into reality. He was only moments from the beginning of the end.

The clock starts ticking

now.

To any new readers, please check out the first book in the "Nightmares for a Ninja" series, "Shadow Dancer"! Thank you all so very much for reading, and as always, go have an AWESOME day/night!