Okay, so some of you (back when I was a wee little FanFictionerdlette XD) may remember a story I wrote called Darkness: A New Vengeance. If not, hey there! XD New story for y'all XD

Enough wid dat XD So yeah, some of you may remember Darkness: A New Vengeance. No, I did not decide to rewrite it, just republish it the right way, since I had no clue what I was doing putting up ten chapters at once XD

Before you read: better give you some preliminary stuff:

-This story takes place after Possession (so Skybound does not exist)

-The Ninja are married and have kids, which are the main characters in this story

-This story takes place in a universe where Ronin was not involved in Possession (very important fact, remember that!)

-The only encounter the Ninja had with Ronin was via Shadow of Ronin, which most Ninjago fans will recognize as the popular Ninjago video game and app (also important: drum this into your head! XD)

-Sensei Garmadon is still alive!

-The Ninja have also adopted children

This story may be crummy since I started writing it about a year ago, and the style may be different from the way I write now. If any of the Ninja seem out of character, that may either be from character maturity or bad writing skills on my part (e.g., Jay. Yes, I'm acknowledging that I may have wrote Jay really out of character in this chapter)

Since I didn't wanna put you through the trouble of figuring out the OCs I use to ship with the Ninja in my "wartime" sorta universe, I used strictly canon ships.

So . . . my poll winner is: Gold Rush! And I put up a new poll that I REALLY need people to check out! Twenty-five votes, pweeze? XD

Welp, see ya laters alligators!

Chapter I: Troublemakers

"CADIO MARCUS!" Sensei Cole Brookstone stormed through the Temple of Eight Whirlwinds. "When I get my hands on that kid-"

Sensei Jay Walker peeked out of his classroom. "Cadio causing problems again?"

Cole nodded. Jay yelled back to his students, "Break until I get back! And don't smash anything! That means you, Kelvin, or you won't be able to sit down for a month!" Then he joined his friend as they walked down the hallway. "What did Mr. Marcus do this time?" Jay inquired.

Cole scowled. "He stole my best staff!"

Jay sighed. "Which one?"

"The Golden Staff of Dragons."

The Master of Lightning's eyes widened. "Oh, geez, if Cadio gets anywhere with that thing, this dojo will probably cave in!"

Cole nodded. "And if that wasn't bad enough, he blunted one of my best katanas trying to chop down a tree in the courtyard."

"Was it a cherry tree?" Jay joked. "You know nothing good really came of that for old George except that he learned that honesty is the right way to go." Then he sighed. "I'm not having much better luck with Kacey and Kelvin. Kacey acts like she knows more than my kids, and she can barely do a somersault without getting dizzy. And Kelvin . . . well, most of the time I can tape his mouth shut, but sometimes he can evade even me. He talks like a pompous brat, and it disgusts me so much that sometimes I want to throw up."

"Trying to parent teenagers and foster a particularly rebellious one is a lot harder than I thought," Cole agreed. "Sometimes I think Cadio should have been named 'Cardiac' because he's gonna give me a heart attack at some point."

"You're tellin' me, pal. But we can't just sit around while Cadio-Cardiac Arrest destroys this place. Let's hightail it!"

While Cole and Jay were hot on the trail of a dangerous Cadio, the other Elemental Masters were having no better luck with their adopted students.

Sensei Kai Fiero shook his head in dismay. "How in Ninjago were you able to destroy a perfectly good tatami mat in less than FIVE minutes?!"

Gilligan shrugged innocently. "It wasn't me, Sensei Kai. It was Phoenix who done it."

"Did it," his sensei corrected him. "And no, Phoenix did not do it. She's not even here. This has your handwriting all over it, Gilligan Mueller, and this time, you're not getting away with it!"

As Kai approached, Gilligan took a pen from his pocket and caught his teacher's robes by the sleeve. Then he deliberately scribbled all over Kai's sleeve. "Now that's got my handwritten' all over it!" he exclaimed triumphantly.

"ARGH!" Kai shrieked in frustration. Even his sons, Matthias and Hiro, had to stifle a laugh at their dad's irritation with Gilligan.

"Kai, what-" His wife, Skylor, looked into the classroom.

"Nothing, it's nothing," Kai said hastily. "Nothing I can't handle, right?"

Skylor gave him a look. "Ri-i-ight." Then, she returned to the hallway, sliding the bamboo screen door shut behind her.

"You're gonna pay for that, you little-" Kai charged around the room after his hysterically giggling student, eyes blazing with fury.

"Da-a-ad!" Hiro complained. "We're supposed to be studying karate, not 'how to give Gilligan a permanent rug burn'!"

"Lesson plan changed, Hiro," Kai replied, charging after Gilligan, who promptly knocked over a bonsai plant with a "Whoopsie!", before skittering out the door, followed closely by his furious teacher.

In another part of the monastery, Sensei Zane Julien was having problems of his own. Someone had taken the liberty of "forgetting" to tell him someone had "accidentally" tossed his white robes in with Kai's red ones in the wash, and now Zane's robes were a bright shade of pink.

Borrowing some spare robes from Jay, Zane tried to bleach out his pink robes. While doing so with utmost fervency, he overheard some students talking in the hall. "How'd ya manage to do that?" He first heard Cadio Marcus's voice.

"It was pretty easy." A second voice, the one of his own adopted student, Monty McLean, replied. "All I did was sneak into his room after dark, when he's meditating somewhere else, grab his robes, and boom! One pink ninja!"

"Hee, hee, hee!" A third voice, Gilligan Mueller's, giggled. "You shoulda seen what I done to Sensei Kai's robe sleeve!"

These three were part of what the children of the Elemental Masters aptly nicknamed, "The Troublemakers." The other members were Kacey and Kelvin Delancey, and Opal Stonesthrow.

Zane stalked out of his classroom and caught Monty by the collar at the same time Cole and Jay tackled Cadio and Kai seized Gilligan. "You boys just earned yourselves a month of probation," Cole said sternly. "Cadio, you should know better than mess with Ninjago's most dangerous staff, AND blunt a perfectly good katana for a ridiculous purpose!"

"You first shredded a perfectly good tatami training mat, then wrote all over my sleeve with permanent marker, then knocked over my surprise for Skylor!" Kai exploded at Gilligan.

"You sneaked into my private apartment without permission, stole my robes, and no doubt snuck into Kai's apartment and threw my robes in with his laundry, knowing all the while they would turn pink!" Zane was furious. "If it weren't for Jay, I'd probably be even more infuriated AND humiliated since I would have to wear those ridiculous pink robes!"

"Thanks, Zane," Jay said. "Now, if you gentlemen would excuse me, my Kelvin buzzer went off." With that, he dashed back down the hall like a bolt of greased lightning.

"'Kelvin buzzer'?" Kai frog-marched Gilligan toward the principals' office, followed by Cole and Zane, both firmly holding onto their students' shoulders.

"It's his nickname for the 'Kelvin's gonna get in trouble' instinct," Cole explained.

Zane couldn't stifle a chuckle. "It's hard believing you two are best friends again. You used to be at odds about nearly everything."

Cole had to laugh. "That was before I met Seliel."

In yet another part of the temple, Sensei Lloyd Garmadon, the Green Ninja, was having even more problems. "Where did that girl go?" he muttered. He told his three children, Saige, Lloyd Jr., and Harrison, "Stay here and keep an eye out for Opal, kids. That girl's in big trouble."

Saige groaned. "What did she do this time, Dad?" She was the Heir to the Green Ninja, as she was Lloyd's oldest, while her brothers inherited two Elements each.

"She stole a recording from the Restricted Section of the library," her father replied. "'Tales From the Glaive', I think."

Lloyd Jr. raised an eyebrow. "You mean the Obsidian Glaive that Ronin used to steal the Elemental Masters' memories? That Glaive?"

"One and the same." With that, Lloyd Sr. turned and headed out the classroom door into the main corridor.

"What's up with Dad?" Harrison wondered. "He's been really quiet lately, especially when dealing with Opal."

Sapphire, Opal's younger sister, shrugged. "Opal can stress anyone out, even the most powerful Spinjitzu Master in Ninjago."

"Sometimes it's hard believing you two are related," Lloyd Jr. noted. "I mean, she's sort of a show-off, and you're so modest and quiet."

"It's hard believing I'm related to her on my end too," Sapphire agreed.

Saige was silent during the conversation. "Sis?" Harrison waved his hand in front of his older sister's face. "Yoo hoo, Ninjago to Saige, you still here?"

Saige blinked. "What? Oh, sorry, just thinking."

"What about?" Then, Harrison smirked. "Ohhh, is that what, or should I say who you were thinking about?"

Saige blushed furiously. "No, that's not it." She sighed heavily. "All this responsibility I have for being the heir to the Green Ninja is raising a lot of questions for me, that's all."

Lloyd Jr. raised an eyebrow. "Then why don't you talk to Dad about it? He's the Green Ninja until he dies, after all."

"My questions are so confusing that even Dad wouldn't understand them, not even Grandpa Garmadon or Great-Uncle Wu." Saige tried to shove the thoughts out of her mind. "And besides, Dad said to keep an eye out for Opal. We should do that instead."

"Then look no further, my Green Ninja friend." A figure dressed in blue entered the room. It was Jayjay Walker, the oldest son of Sensei Jay. "I caught Opal sneaking into the Restricted Section of the library, even though she already filled up her library card," he said, depositing a disgruntled Opal Stonesthrow, hands bound behind her back with shock-cuffs, one of Walker father and son's inventions. He undid the cuffs, and they vanished into his pocket with a crack of lightning.

"And I think your dad wanted this." Jayjay handed Saige a weather-beaten leather volume that Opal had hidden in her satchel.

"'Tales From the Glaive'," Saige read the title imprinted on the cover. "Yeah, that's the one. Thanks, Jayjay."

"No problemo. Now, if you pardon me, I can hear Kelvin yelling at Dad again. I'd better hear what Mr. Motor-Mouth has to say this time." With that, the young ninja trainee darted down the hall like a bolt of lightning.

Saige sighed dreamily. Lloyd Jr. groaned. "Seriously, Saige, you're gonna have to pay more attention to what's happening," he said, catching Opal by the collar as she tried to sneak back out. "Otherwise, Jayjay would have swung by for nothing."

"Yeah," Harrison chimed in.

"Grr. . ." Opal grumbled.

After telling Sensei Lloyd about Opal, Jayjay Walker backtracked down his footsteps to the Lightning classroom. He could hear Kelvin talking back to Sensei Jay. Yep, he had been right. Kelvin had done something else now. What was it this time?

When he stepped into the room, Kelvin pointed at Jayjay. "Get my point? Even your son doesn't know how to enter a room without making a fool of himself. And you call yourself a master of Spinjitzu? Seriously, Mister Walker-"

Jayjay was indignant. "I didn't slip on a banana peel, buster," he snapped, "and if you're trying to insult my family name, let me tell you something: the Walkers are one of the most honorable families of Ninjago, defending this country from the grip of evil-"

"Oh, save the speech, lightning-mouth," Kelvin retorted.

"Who're you calling 'lightning-mouth'?" Jayjay demanded. Uncharacteristic of the Walkers, Jayjay had a somewhat short temper, more common to the Fiero family. He inherited it from his mom, Miss Nya Fiero. "You're one to talk, hypocrite! First you insult my family, then you try to make me look like an idiot-"

"STOP!" The two boys turned to Sensei Jay. His arms were folded across his chest, and a fierce scowl across his face. Jayjay had never seen his normally cheerful father so angry and disappointed at the same time.

"Kelvin, enough is enough, but this time you've taken it too far," Jay said. "You've tried to disgrace my family's name, telling me lies to my face that have never, and will never, happen. Then you accuse my son of being a cheating thief, when in truth, you're the thief, stealing a person's sanity with your heartless words. I'm ashamed and very disappointed in you."

"So what?" Kelvin scoffed.

"You should be more grateful to my dad!" Jayjay exploded. "After all he's done for you and your sister, you should at least respect his authority as your adopted father and your martial arts master! Instead, you treat him, and us, like we're inferior to you, bragging about your skills when you can barely smash a board in half, daring me to do things you know would get me into trouble, or worse, talking back to Dad when he's trying to help you, and the list goes on and on. I've had it with you, you ungrateful pompous little LIAR!"

With that, Jayjay turned on his heel and stormed out, face red with anger.