Author's Note: Welcome to the first chapter of "Nature Versus Nature!" I'm so excited about this story, you have no idea. Anyway, the key song and its section for this chapter is "Greatest Love of All" by Whitney Houston, "I believe the children are our future." The other songs and their sections for this chapter are "Love Like You by Rebecca Sugar, "I always thought I might be bad, now I'm sure that it's true, 'cause I think you're so good, and I'm nothing like you"; "Welcome to the Black Parade" by My Chemical Romance, "We'll carry on, and though you're dead and gone believe me, your memory will carry on"; and "Teach Your Children Well" by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, "Don't you ever ask them why, if they told you, you would cry, so just look at them and sigh, and know they love you."

Beneath the deserted desert city of Ouroboros, deeper than where even the bravest adventurer would dare to go, a cockroach scuttled through an old empty tunnel. A tunnel that was empty for the moment, that was.

Lights appeared around a nearby corner, drawing close to the bug. It ran away, instinctively fearful of both the light and the creatures carrying it.

The shadows shivered and drew back as a small parade came slowly around the corner, simple torches held by humanoid snakes. They slithered as slowly as they dared, reluctant to get to the goal set upon them.

But the snakes kept going. They had to, and they soon reached a large door set in stone. It opened creakily when the one in the lead knocked three times.

The Serpentine, for of course that's what they were, walked single-file into a large dark room. They spread out, hissing to each other in anticipation.

At the front of the room in a throne-like chair sat a man with four arms and blood-red eyes. That was the leader, Lord Garmadon, who was generally terrifying, completely out of plans, and occasionally chucked pebbles at people with bad ideas.

Garmadon sighed and leaned forward in his chair, rubbing his temples. "Does anyone have any ideas to defeat the ninja?"

"Oh! Oh!" One Constrictai foot soldier raised his hand eagerly. "How about a giant ham sand-"

"NO GIANT HAM SANDWICHES!" Garmadon yelled, and he threw a rock that hit the Constrictai on the head.

"How about a giant sssalami sssandwich?" A Hypnobrai scout suggested, licking his lips.

Garmadon didn't even deign to give that a reply (other than a pebble, which he threw extra hard). "Now. How about something that actually has a chance of working? Hm?"

"We could steal a Grundle skeleton and bring it to life to hunt the ninja," a Venomari soldier offered.

Garmadon groaned, using one of his upper arms to hold his head wearily. "We already did that. Didn't we just do that? Yes, we just did that just the other day. It did nothing. The Grundle didn't even come to life."

"That'sss not entirely true," a Fangpyre scout said slowly. "The Grundle came to life and wasss defeated, but only by accident, becaussse the ninja had sssome ssspecial tea or sssomething."

Lord Garmadon looked up, confused. "What?"

"It wasss in the newssspaper," the Fangpyre scout explained. He held up a newspaper. "Sssee? The Grundle attacked sssome random kidsss at a comic book shop."

"Let me see that!" Lord Garmadon demanded.

The Fangpyre scout with the newspaper scurried up to Lord Garmadon and handed it to him.

"Those aren't some random kids," Lord Garmadon realized, holding up the newspaper and pointing to the photo on the front cover. "Those are the ninja as children! But how?"

The Fangpyre scout shrugged. "I guessss turning back the clock on the Grundle turned back time on the ninja too sssince they were sssso clossse to the Grundle when it happened. But it sssaysss in the article that the ninja showed up too, ssso the weird tea that turned the Grundle back to bonesss mussst have turned the ninja into, well, ninja again."

"So the ninja were children for a short period of time," Lord Garmadon mused. "Perhaps we could use that to our advantage."

"But they're normal now, and even when they were kids they knew how to defeat usss," a Hypnobrai soldier argued. "And they ssstill beat the Grundle."

Garmadon stopped pacing. He whirled around and pointed at the Fangpyre. "Say that again."

"They ssstill beat the Grundle?" The Hypnobrai wondered.

"No, before that," Garmadon stated.

"But they're normal now?" The Hypnobrai asked.

"No, after that," Garmadon said impatiently.

"Even when they were kids, they knew how to defeat usss," the Hypnobrai repeated.

"Exactly. They recognized us as the enemy and acted accordingly," Lord Garmadon thought out loud.

"What are you saying?" Skales asked, slithering up behind him.

Lord Garmadon smiled. "I'm saying that if the ninja didn't remember who to fight and how to defeat them, or even better, if they could be convinced that my brother is the enemy, we'd be home free."