Well, I wasn't sure whether I could do this or not, but I set my mind to it, so at least part of this will be done before Halloween.

So, basically, I'm adapting William Shakespeare's Hamlet into the world of Ninjago. Mainly because I was reading it recently, and I couldn't get Sam Vincent's Lloyd voice to stop mentally reading Hamlet's lines. And . . . well . . . you can kinda see where that went.

Since the original English is . . . well . . . difficult to understand sometimes, I've translated it into modern English (thanks to Shakespeare Made Easy), with some usage of the original language sprinkled throughout. I'll include the characters who appear in the scene at the beginning of each chapter, and if there is language that needs to be explained, I'll include it at the end of the chapter.

That being said, I do recommend that you read Hamlet in the original language at some point - it's really good, if you can learn to grasp it.

And now, enjoy the show.

Characters (in order of appearance)

Dareth - Francisco, a member of the King's guard

Zane - Barnado, a member of the King's guard

Jay - Marcellus, a member of the King's guard

Kai - Horatio, a visitor from Jamanakai, friend and schoolmate of Prince Lloyd

Act I: Ghost Story

Scene I

Night had fallen over the empire of Ninjago. The capital city, which bore the same name as its country, was in a silent, peaceful slumber. In its center towered the Imperial Palace: a gorgeous arrangement of red brick and green tile, gold trimming shining silver in the light of the pale midnight moon.

Armed watchmen patrolled the great wall guarding the Palace, for while the city might sleep in tranquility now, it may have to rise speedily at the first sign of danger.

One of the palace guards, a young man named Dareth, yawned and scrubbed at his eyes. He was tired and earnestly waiting for another soldier to relieve him of this tedious post. However, he started alert as he heard footsteps approaching him.

"Who's there?" a voice, soft and smooth, called out from the shadows of the rampart.

Dareth shifted his stance in an attempt to appear threatening. "No―you tell me first!" he called out, hoping he sounded menacing. "Halt and identify yourself!"

"Long live the Emperor!" came the swift reply.

Dareth squinted as the speaker stepped into the moonlight. "Zane?" He lowered his hands.

"Yes." Zane was another guard, tall and fair-skinned. His icy blue eyes shone clear in the light of the moon, and he ran a hand through his close-cropped blond hair.

Dareth heaved a sigh of relief. "Oh, whew! You're right on the dot."

"Of course I am," Zane responded calmly. "Off to bed with you, Dareth."

"Thanks for relieving me―it's freezing out here." Dareth shuddered and rubbed his arms. "I think I would'a gone crazy if I was out here another minute."

"So it's been an uneventful watch?"

"Haven't seen as much as a swamp rat."

"Well, good night." Zane stepped past the shivering Dareth, holding his weapon of choice: a bow and quiver of arrows, into a guard position. "And if you see Kai and Jay, tell them to hurry." He cast a glance up at the sky.

"I think I can hear them." Dareth thumbed toward the darkness. Sure enough, two more sets of footsteps could be heard coming closer. "Halt!" he called. "Who goes there?"

"Friends―"

"―and loyal subjects of the Emperor of Ninjago!" Dareth and Zane recognized the voices to belong to Kai, a friend of the Emperor's son, and Jay, another member of the Royal Guard.

"Well, good night to you, then." With another yawn, Dareth shuffled to the staircase heading down into the palace courtyard.

"And good night to you, soldier!" Kai called after him. "Who relieved you?"

"Zane―good guy." With that, Dareth disappeared down the stairs.

Once Dareth had gone, Jay, a handsome youth with a thick crop of auburn curls and bright blue eyes who wielded a set of nunchuks, called out to the blond guard. "Hey, Zane!"

"Hello, Jay!" Zane called back. "Is Kai with you?"

"Some of him!" Kai laughed, extending his hand to the guard. He too bore looks as fine as those of his companions: fiery amber eyes and thick, spiked brown hair. A pair of katana swords were strapped to his back.

Zane nodded, smiling politely as he shook Kai's hand. "Welcome, Kai―welcome, Jay."

After the greetings had been exchanged, Kai inquired dryly. "Well, has your fabled thing appeared again tonight?"

"I haven't seen anything," Zane replied, eyebrows knitting into a frown.

Jay sighed. "Kai thinks it's just our imaginations and still won't believe me―even though we've seen it twice." He shuddered. "Brr, just thinking about it gives me the creeps. But that's why I've got him on our watch tonight: so if that ghost comes again tonight, we can prove that we haven't been seeing things." He shrugged. "Who knows? Maybe he can talk to it."

Kai rolled his eyes. "Really, Jay," he said scornfully, "whatever it is won't appear again."

Zane sighed. "Sit down, and even though you've insisted that you don't believe us, I'll tell you again what Jay and I saw."

Another eye-roll from the brunet. "All right, fine." The three settled themselves on the rampart, and Zane began his story.

"Last night, when the star that's to the west of the North Star had moved to where it's shining now―" he pointed upwards into the night sky, and following his finger, Kai could see the star he spoke of "―Jay and myself, when the bell struck one―"

He was interrupted by a yelp. Jay's face had gone white as death, and he pointed a quivering nunchuk handle at something behind them. "Shh! There it is again!"

Zane and Kai whirled around; Zane gasped and Kai's blood froze cold in his veins.

Standing behind them was a figure, ashen and wispy, like shreds of smoke twisted into a human form. He was tall and regal, with a well-chiseled face and thick gray hair; his pale eyes just barely shining with a greenish tint. His transparent clothing showed signs of once having been fine―he was robed in the armor belonging to a great ruler―but they were ragged and battered, with traces of blood still staining the cloth and metal.

"And as before, he looks like the dead Emperor!" Zane whispered, eyes fixed on the figure in a half-terrified, half-fascinated stare. "Doesn't he, Kai?"

"Yes, he does," Kai murmured. He was in a state of disbelief. They actually had been telling the truth, he thought, blinking and getting a shock to see the spectral shape still standing before them. "It sends chills down my spine. . ."

The figure turned his face towards Kai, his hollow green eyes narrowed into a scowl. "I think it wants to be spoken to," Zane murmured nervously.

Jay nudged Kai forward. "Go on, ask it something!" he hissed.

The brunet stood to his feet, keeping a hand on the hilt of one of his swords. "Who are you to intrude upon us at this time of night, dressed in the armor of the late Emperor?" His voice came out timidly at first, but strengthened as he went on. "Speak!"

The ghost did not reply, only meeting his eyes with that terrifying glare. Then, wordlessly, he turned and began to stalk away. "I think you offended it," Jay mumbled, anxious.

"Stop!" Kai shouted after it. "Speak! Speak! I charge thee to speak!"

But the ghost had already vanished from sight. "Well, there it goes―it's gone and it won't answer." Jay sighed.

Zane turned back to Kai, who had abruptly sat back down. "Well, Kai? Your pale countenance and trembling state suggest that like we told you, this is something more than mere imagination. What do you think of it now?"

"As the First Spinjitzu Master's my witness, I wouldn't have believed it unless I had seen it with my own eyes," Kai breathed, pressing a damp palm to his forehead.

"And didn't it look exactly like the Emperor?" Jay added, still quivering with fear.

"As much as you look like yourself," the brunet replied. "I swear he was clad in that exact same suit of armor when he fought old Karlof of Metalonia. He wore that same scowl when he defeated the Djinnjagonian army." A sharp wind bristled past him, though it was not the cold that made him shiver. "It's frightening."

"He has done this twice before," Jay wrapped his cloak tighter around his shoulders, "at this precise time. He passed us on our watch, walking with the Emperor's military gait."

"I don't know what to make of it," Kai raked his hands through his hair, "except that it means our world's in some sort of unnatural disorder."

"We don't need a ghost to tell us that," Jay muttered. "But speaking of disorder, can someone please tell me why on earth we abruptly have this strict of guard duty every night? Why we've been manufacturing so many cannons and gaining so many arms? Why every shipwright in the city is being drafted to seven-day weeks without rest? What's the threat that brought about this increased, round-the-clock activity?"

"I can explain, at least what's been rumored." Kai breathed deeply, attempting to settle his agitated nerves. "You remember that our former Emperor, Sensei Garmadon―"

"―who showed up as a ghost tonight, I know," Jay nodded.

"―was dared to single combat by Karlof of Metalonia," Kai continued. "When the Emperor killed Karlof, his death forfeited all of his lands to him. But his son, young Karlof, has recruited Metalonian mercenaries in an attempt to probably try and reconquer the lands his father lost. That's my best guess as to the sudden increase in security: it's in preparation for possible war."

"It makes sense," Zane mused thoughtfully. "The spectre appeared to us clad in armor, and in the form of our previous Emperor, who was, and still is, the central issue of this impending war."

Kai's nerves tensed again as another thought came to him. "In the golden days of the Roman Empire, just before the assassination of Julius Caesar, graves flew open and shrouded corpses haunted the streets of Rome and terrified its citizens with their demented screams. Comets with tails of fire red as blood shot from the sun, and the moon was almost completely extinguished. Warnings like this, predicting dire catastrophe, have been delivered to our country before. . ." He trailed off, abruptly rising to his feet. Startled, Jay and Zane joined him, drawing their weapons defensively. "Shh!" He placed a finger to his lips. "There it is again."

Indeed, the ghost of Emperor Sensei Garmadon stood before them, once more fixing the trio with that fierce, haunting scowl. "I'll cross it, though it blast me," Kai muttered.

The ghost spread his arms wide, but Kai drew his swords, pointing one at the spectre's chest. "Stay, illusion!" he shouted boldly. "If you can talk, speak to me!"

The ghost made no reply. "If there's some good deed you'd like done that might bring peace to you and grace to me, speak!"

Still no response. "If you know of a trouble that may befall your country, but can still yet be avoided, speak!"

A third frustrating silence. Kai scowled. "Maybe you're forced from death's rest because you've hidden ill-gotten treasure during your lifetime! If you have, tell me! Stay and speak!"

Finally, the ghost lowered his arms. Kai waited eagerly for an answer. But just then, the sound of a rooster crowing broke the quiet - dawn was fast approaching. As the crow faded away, the ghost turned to depart from them again. "Stop it, Jay!" Kai yelled, more frantic than ever to get a response. "Strike it if it won't stay!"

Jay moved forward to swipe at the shade with his nunchuks, but it was already beginning to fade with the light of the coming sun. "It's over here!" Zane called, pointing to one side of the wall.

"No, it's over there!" Kai pointed to the other side. But by now, the ghost had long gone.

Jay heaved a frustrated sigh. "It's not like I could have done anything by hitting it - it's like the air, we can't harm it. All we've done is scare it off."

"It was about to speak when that rooster crowed." Zane muttered a curse against the bird.

"And when it did, it was startled by it, like someone guilty responding to a challenge." Kai's brows knit into a frown. "I suppose the legends are true, then: when the rooster crows, it both wakens the god of the sun and warns the wayward spirit to return home. I didn't believe them before, but the ghost proved it."

"Then maybe the legend of the rooster crowing during the Christmas season is true too," Jay mused. "Supposedly the rooster crows all nights leading up to Christmas, so absolutely nothing evil or unnatural can be done during that time: keeping it sacred."

"So I've heard, and I'd believe that now." Kai looked up over the wall. "But the sun is rising quickly." He pointed to the east, where the rosy fingers of dawn were slowly creeping up over the city and the green land surrounding it. "I think we should tell Prince Lloyd what we've seen here tonight. I'd bet anything that if the ghost will speak to him, even if it won't to us."

Jay and Zane nodded in agreement. "I know where we can find him this morning," Jay added. "Let's go!"

With that, the three young men, sheathing their weapons, ran down the staircase into the courtyard and towards the Palace.