Hello! Although this piece will be relatively short, I hope I can brush up some lore and do some fun alternate character development in a way you'll enjoy. This is mostly a preview of sorts while I figure out my story line and work on my other piece (sorry that's taking forever, I lost some of the episodes D:). I will be working on this on the side whenever I hit a block or just can't write my other piece, so hopefully you'll always have something to read from me :) Hopefully.

Anyway, I hope you all enjoy and thank you for reading!

- Fell_and_Fallen -

Disclaimer: I think it's obvious which characters I personally own and which ones I don't.

"He…lp… them..."

…

"Pl…ease… you…'re …our on…ly hope."

…

"C…an you… hea….r me?"

…

"Pl…ease."

…

"Help!"

The word explodes in Wu's mind like the blast from a cannon and he wakes with a barely suppressed gasp. Sweat pours down his weathered face as he struggles to control his breathing and his rapid heartbeat, focusing on the boards above his head and forcing himself into a calm state of mind. He sits up carefully, wiping his face on the sleeve of his robe as his nerves slowly start to settle.

He glances up at the clock on the wall. 3:00 AM. He'd gone to bed only a couple of hours ago, but that seems to have been enough to give him disturbing nightmares. He blinks and the dream returns.

A young woman called to him from a distance, her blond hair shining like a beacon in the darkness that surrounded her. Something about her seemed familiar, but he couldn't quite place it as he struggled to make out her words.

She was begging him to help her, no, someone she called 'them'. The desperation in her voice was clear: whoever 'they' were, they needed his help.

But it was only a dream, he tries to tell himself, repeating the phrase over and over in his mind. But his instinct tugs in an altogether different direction. In his experience, dreams are rarely only dreams.

Wu pulls himself from bed, snatches up his walking stick and straw hat, and heads for the ship's control room. The early morning air is dark and cuts straight through his weathered body as if he were just a sheet of loose fabric. He pulls his robe tighter around him as he crosses the deck and enters the Bounty's heated control room.

He approaches the main computer and leans his walking stick against it before bringing up the main search engine. He pauses with his hands over the keys. What was doing? It's not as if he could search for the source of his feelings. No. He will have to search the old-fashioned way.

Wu sits himself down at the head of the table and pulls his walking stick across his lap. He takes a deep breath, closes his eyes, and starts to meditate.

A few hours pass with little insight into his vision or the feeling in his core other than now he remembered something strange on the woman's arm. A tattoo perhaps. But that still didn't reveal what he really wanted to know: the woman's identity, or her reason for reaching out to him.

The sun is up by the time Nya enters the control room, balancing a clattering box of objects in her arms as she closes the door behind her.

"Good morning, Sensei," she greets him as she sets the bag down on the table. "I found some cool things in the Bounty's old storage rooms if you want to take a look."

Wu pries open an eye as she starts pulling things from the box and setting them on the table. Most of them are trinkets- old scrolls, painted telescopes, thick volumes- but then she sets out an object that jars something in Wu's memory.

He stands from his meditation pose and snatches up the simple dragon carving, staring down at it until something rushes back to the forefront of his mind.

"That's it!" he exclaims, ignoring Nya's puzzled expression as he sets the carving down and flies to the computer.

"What's it?" Nya asks as his fingers start tapping at the keyboard in ways they haven't done in a couple of decades. "Sensei, what's going on?"

"I'm not sure yet," Wu answers. "But there are old legends of a line of extraordinary warriors, warriors my father trusted to guide Ninjago when he no longer could. Most of their existence has faded into children's stories, but there are a few who believe they still exist. Who believe that they live."

Information flies across the screen before the map scrambles and solidifies onto a single location, lighting it up in a brilliant blue light.

"Uh, Sensei, that's the middle of nowhere," Nya says as she moves to stand at his shoulder. "It's just empty woods."

"Those empty woods are the seat of power for the ancient rulers of Ninjago," Wu says. "And if my visions are correct, they will need our help very soon."