Disclaimer: I do not own any of the original Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu characters, nor do I own the original settings.

Long Live the King

Do not for ever with thy vailed lids
Seek for thy noble father in the dust:
Thou know'st 'tis common; all that lives must die,
Passing through nature to eternity.

Hamlet — William Shakespeare

Prologue — "Reward"

I always used to wonder: if I had the chance to rewrite a mistake, would things change for the better or would it be worse?

In time that one question quickly became real, and the answer I got wasn't what I wanted at all. But sometimes the most difficult questions are the ones with answers no one wants to hear.

The answer to my question couldn't have been bestowed to me in a more deadly obvious way…

"We should have been the ones to ruled the Surface! NOT YOU!"

The wrath that dripped so venomously from my words, and the hatred beating vehemently in my chest as I shouted at the old man with a beaming smile of absolute triumph. Yet he only stared at me with a disapproving grimace. He knew what I had done better than I did at that moment.

If I had known then what I do now — what Skales and Wu had both forewarned me of — I would have thrown that plan to the sharks.

…No. That's not true. Even knowing, I wouldn't have stopped. I'd have gone through until my bitter end. There was a small ounce of hope I clung to, praying they were wrong about the Devourer. Warnings from my doubt were whispered to me numerous times, and not just from my own head but from legends and history. The same outcome was there, in different forms and words.

I refused to believe, refused to even consider the chance that I was wrong. My anger consumed my mind, and I was slowly drowning in my vendetta. But I never realized I was. I had deceived, fought, manipulated and cheated my way to power. Those before me were merely stepping stones.

All these things were done with a smile on my face. But I believed they would have been worth it in the end. Those who seek good must commit malevolence sometimes, don't they? The closer I grew to my goal, the more I told myself I was doing the right thing; for myself and Serpentine alike.

It was only when I finally achieved my "goal" I realized what I had done…

The city of Ouroboros started to crumble. Through the splitting floor I looked into the eyes of the horror I had awakened. Terror shot through me, and inside awakened my own true self. I tore away from its eyes and tried to escape.

The old man, Wu, forced me to stay. I can't remember his words exactly, but I know it was along the lines of:

"Stay to see what you have awakened!"

I fought him back, empowered by my desperate desire to escape. Each time I pushed or shoved him off, Wu came right back. He finally had me pinned when he wrapped his arm over my neck and held me in place. Shrieking like a frightened child was the only thing within my power.

The floor shattered when it shot up from beneath. Further and further it climbed for the sky, an endless, unfurling mass of evil and destruction. When it stopped, it looked down at Wu and I; our fear left us immobile. There was no sign of recognition as the Great Devourer looked at me.

That feral, hungry grimace still haunts my dreams.

The nightmare went on — one moment the beast was staring at us, and then the next it came at us. And we were swallowed by complete darkness. All I could hear were screams. At first I thought the Devourer had eaten the Ninja after us. That thought was momentarily comforting, at least more than one was going down with me. But I quickly realized the screams were my own.

If someone was to ask me, how terrified was I of being eaten alive? I would say, terror couldn't describe how I felt. I believe…petrified is the better word. It's beyond terrified, if I'm correct.

Ironically, we Anacondrai were the only species capable of swallowing our prey whole. I never imagined how frightening of an experience it was.

Another word to describe how I felt was hopeless. Absolutely hopeless. There was little to nothing I could do to escape that tunnel of an esophagus, but I still tried, nonetheless. The only thing I could think of was to try to bury my claws into the flesh so I could stop sliding and attempt my long climb up the throat, or — at the very least — choke the monster to death.

But the saliva was too thick. It carried me downwards. The esophagus was wide, just a slippery hole to death.

I couldn't think, couldn't breathe. All I could do was wait, as I screamed my way all the way down to the bottom. I plummeted all the way down into the bottomless lake of a stomach. The acid burned all over my skin; my fear morphed into hysteria at this point. I thought the throat was terrifying enough, but this was much worse. Having poor swimming skills and no legs made it extremely difficult to keep myself aloft.

I neither saw nor heard any signs of Wu in there with me. I assumed he was either lost somewhere in the esophagus or melted straight away the moment he landed in the acid. To my knowledge, I was alone. Left to burn or drown to death, whichever killed me faster.

Have you ever had your life flash right before your eyes and you see all the good and bad things that happened to you, and suddenly this heaviness weighs on you? It hit me hard, as if someone dropped a bolder in my flailing arms to lift. I saw my life simply fleeting before me. I had to briefly relive all the terrible things that happened to me. The worst was seeing through my years in that forsaken tomb.

I saw them, I saw them all again. Those starved looks, their dripping mouths…I was watching them tear each other apart a second time. Just like before I was helpless to stop it. They attacked whoever they saw first, whether it was a close friend or even a brother or sister. There was no emotion, only the desperate need to end the pang of hunger. Countless Anacondrai toppled over another, all wrestling to pin down the other to get the advantage. They bit, clawed and hissed at their fellow prey. Blood seeped from gashes, or mixed with the saliva streaming from their mouths.

Their screams…their screams!

Then the flashes left the tomb, but I was forced to relive my humiliation of defeat: from unlocking the Venomari tomb, becoming king and uniting the tribes, and then to my final moment with the Great Devourer.

The weight grew heavier. All that hard work, all that devotion…all for what? Only to be swallowed whole by a deadly monster and die alone in its belly. How pathetic. And who would remember me? Skales, after he warned me to not rely so much on legends? The Ninja, who did everything in their power to stop me? The other Serpentine, whose hopes of obtaining the Surface were crushed?

The humans certainly wouldn't, nor would they have cared to. The wars had given them terrible impressions of Serpentine. We were nothing but animals in their eyes. There was no place for us in their hearts, no good things said about us in their words.

So who was left?

No one.

No one would remember dear old Pythor P. Chumsworth.

So I had no other choice but to just, simply, sink to the bottom…

Sorry, guys. That's all I'm posting for now. I've still got one I need to finish up, but this idea has just been wracking in my brain for way too long and I had to get it out of my system some way. But I promise as soon as I've finished with my first story, I'll get right on this one.

So tell me if you like it or don't like it. Maybe even shoot me some ideas if you'd like ;)