A/N: Hello! Time to hopefully finish the prologue! Of course, if I don't finish the prologue, we have a problem. So in this chapter we WILL have the fire temple, Kai facing down Garmadon's shadow, Big battle in the Underworld, Garmadon being suspicious of Kai… what? Ok. Let's get on with the story.
Disclaimer: I own Nothing!
Prologue: Sensei and the Legendary Golden Weapons Part 3
Previously on Back in My Days…: The ninjas have unlocked spinjitzu, and have collected three of the four weapons. Kai has found out he can't handle the cold. The ninjas also discover they each can understand certain dragons; Cole is still scared of them. They only need to get the last weapon; the sword of fire. Thus we find our band of heroes sleeping around an old campfire…
I blinked as I stared out at the night sky. Something was out in the woods; I could feel it in my bones. Pushing myself into a semi-sitting position, I scanned the area for any sign that someone was watching us. I didn't see anything at first and laid back down… only to sit bolt upright when a large twig snapped nearby. Slipping away from the others, I grabbed a branch to use as a torch. Holding it out in front of me, I spotted a dark figure standing just out of my torch's reach. It looked me straight in the eye, before speaking in an echoing, whispery voice that sent shivers down my back.
"You do not belong here." Turning the figure bolted further into the woods.
Panic seized me as I realized that whoever that was, knew was hiding things from the others. So, I did the logical thing to do in this kind of situation, I chased after him. Dodging branches, I spotted him up ahead, in sight but just out of the torchlight. I growled lowly, not liking this at all. Suddenly, the figure disappeared into a temple that was sitting in the middle of the woods, rough stone sticking out of it suggesting it was built into a small mountain. Swallowing, I approached the thick double doors, pushing one of them open. Looking around I couldn't see the figure, just large pools of lava…and the sword of fire sticking out of a stone in the middle of a wide river of lava.
"What I said bugged you. Which means it's true. You are hiding something from my pathetic brother." The same voice from earlier called out, unintentionally telling me who it was.
"Garmadon." I spun around to face a shadow standing behind me, it was male, with deep wrinkles and glowing red eyes. He wore a helmet with a bone sticking out across from it on top.
"And yet, you pay attention to his every word." Garmadon mocked me.
""Give it up! You're not going to win!" I called out as I slipped into a defensive position.
"Oh? You think you can defeat me!?" He laughed as he waved his hand.
My eyes widened as my own shadow appeared in front of me…and started attacking me. Fumbling, I reached for my sword only to realize it was not on my back. I quickly glanced around for anything I could use as a weapon. My eyes fell upon the sword of fire, and my torch which was quickly burning up in a pool of lava. Whoops on my part. Just then, my shadow connected its fist with my face, knocking me down. A yelp escaped me as I quickly lashed out at it, only for my fist to go right through it.
"Great. You can touch me… but I can't touch you!" I sarcastically announced.
"Maybe if you just tell me what it is your hiding I'll let you fight me instead of your shadow!" Garmadon retorted.
"that's not an improvement! Besides…I'm scared of carriage rides. Fine outside of one, but terrified of being in them." I threw that fact out, knowing he probably wouldn't be impressed with me for it.
"What? There is no way that's your big secret! It's too lame!" Garmadon fumed, waving his hand, which caused my shadow to multiply.
"Wonderful Kai. Now you have to fight off ten untouchable shadows." I grumbled to myself, bracing myself for the hits.
Very soon I felt like a piñata at a rich kid's birthday party. Scrambling to my feet, I reached up and wiped blood from my mouth. I really should have brought back up. This thought barely flickered through my mind when Sensei's shadow appeared…and it was placing each of my shadows back into their places. Looking up, I glanced over to the other side of the lava river to see Sensei controlling his shadow with a fierce look on his face. Eventually he scared off my two remaining shadows by making his hands into a shadow falcon, chuckling to himself all the while.
"It's over Garmadon! Surrender now! The golden weapons are safe, and where you will never get them!" Sensei called out to his older brother.
"Are you sure about that. I see you protect one, but not the others." Garmadon did something with his hands, which showed the campsite overrun by skeletons, tying up the others.
"No!" Sensei and I both yelled in unison.
"Samukai, bring the weapons to the fire temple immediately." Garmadon ordered the four-armed skeleton.
"Hmm…if Garmadon intends to bring the other weapons here, then I must take the sword elsewhere." Sensei jumped to where the sword was.
Pulling it out, he quickly jumped across the river of lava to stand next to me. An angry growl escaped Garmadon.
"No! Creature of the deep, they are stealing the sword of fire!" Garmadon cried out, desperate to stop us from leaving.
My eyes widen in shock when Flames, a brilliant red fire dragon, rose up from the lava and blocked Sensei from leaving. Closing his eyes briefly, he considered his options. Snapping them back open he flipped backwards onto the stone slab at the end of the river. Moving the sword of fire so that it was pointing down at the weak point in the stone, the place that if it broke off would cause the stone to float away, and looked up.
"If I intend to stop Garmadon, then I must take the sword of fire to the underworld, for he is bringing the others here." Sensei then stabbed the slab, sending the rock floating away, towards a fall of lava.
"Sensei, no!" I cried out in horror.
"No you fool!" Garmadon yelled angrily, not wanting his own brother to mess up his plans.
A minute later Garmadon made his shadow disappear, leaving me alone with Flames. Rubbing my face, I groaned as I slowly turned to face him.
"This is what happens when one does not think things through apparently Flames." I locked eyes with him.
Flames immediately snapped his head back, shock flashing in his eyes. "Kai? But how… it has been a long time. How have you been? Made any non-junk swords recently?"
"No. I've been training to be a ninja with Sensei Wu… you know, they guy that placed the sword here in the first place. Same guy who was holding the sword less than five minutes ago?" I folde my arms, arching my eyebrows at him.
"Sorry. I wasn't trying to block you two. I heard Garmadon's voice and was trying to stop him." Flames bowed his head in shame.
"It's fine. Just, next time about we both think things over more carefully. Can you still cross over to the underworld?" I decided to get a plan going to help Sensei.
"Yes. But, I am not as young as I used to be. It will take more out of me." Flames thoughtfully tilted his head.
"Great. Any idea where Garmadon will be hiding?" I asked him hopefully.
"Throne room. If memory serves correctly, you've never been down there before." Flames gave me a wry smile, catching on to what I was suggesting.
"Worth a shot. Now, I suggest you cover your ears." I slipped past to look at the wide open night sky. Taking a deep breath, I tilted my head up to the sky. Opened my mouth real wide…and roared just like a dragon.
A minute later, Flames was grumbling about how his ears hadn't been covered when I had screeched suddenly, while Rocky and our other new dragon friends, Shard (Ice) and Wisp (Lightning), were settling down in front of the temple. I glanced over to the direction of camp wondering if it will be safe yet for me to go rescue my fellow ninjas. Only to see them running up to us.
"Kai! Where's Sensei! Who am I kidding? We heard Garmadon tell Samukai that he has gone to the underworld with the sword of fire." Cole grumbled as he checked me over for any serious injuries.
"I'm fine. And I think the dragons want to help us or something." I glanced back at Flames, silently begging him not to give anything away about our past adventures.
"I have made a proposition with Kai. You see, us dragons can travel between dimensions. We can take you to help our old friend in the underworld." Flames announced, glancing over to his fellow dragons.
The other dragons quickly translated what he said to the other ninjas. After Zane and Jay agreed to the plan, we threw Cole on top of Rocky, climbed onto our respective dragons. And took off. After a rather dizzying flight, which was full of Cole screaming for mercy, we skidded to a halt in a dark cavern. Slipping away from the dragons, who by the way all needed rest, we peered down at the entrance to where we were going. Two skeletons were checking everything that was going through the gate for us. Zane suddenly nudged us, pointing up where long pointy rocks were hanging from the ceiling. Understanding what he was suggesting, we all nodded in agreement, before leaping forward. Moving quickly, we jumped from one rock to the next, getting ever closer to our designation. Only for us to make the mistake of looking up, not down, and realizing we had run out of rocks and were now hanging onto giant spiders. We all did the most logical thing in the world when one is dangerously high up, we let go of the legs and fell to the ground. Within seconds we were surrounded by the skeleton army, and several giant spiders.
"What do we do?" Cole asked no one in particular.
"This is not good." Zane stated in his monotone voice.
"Rrhnrrnhrnrhr." Jay attempted to say something, but couldn't seeing as he had lost his voice somehow, Cole wouldn't explain how to us.
"Uh..you feel a weird sensation?" Zane questioned Jay.
"Nnn. Rhhrrhnnnrhnhr." Jay tried again.
"Oh! I know! Two aunts on vacation!" Cole cried out.
Shaking his head, Jay opened his mouth on more time…"TORNADO OF CREATION!"
"Oh! That makes more sense." I muttered while Zane patted him on the back and congratulated him on getting his voice back.
"Yeah…but Sensei said if done incorrectly it would lead to disastrous consequences!" Cole pointed out.
"We're about to have a disastrous consequence right now!" I snapped back, gesturing to the skeletons and spiders ready to attack.
Nodding in agreement, Cole took a deep breath. "Earth!" Cole spun into his spinjitzu tornado.
"Fire!" I spun into mine, barely able to see through to the others.
"Lightning!" Jay's voice called out.
"Ice!" Zane.
Taking a deep breath, I mentally counted down to three before yelling in unison with the others, "Tornado of Creation!" Still spinning, we merged our separate tornados into one big tornado. We spun our way through to get to the gate. Once there, we dropped out of it, to find the spiders gone and the skeletons riding a thing that slowly spun, and had lots of twinkling lights.
"Ok…we just built a Ferris wheel out of nothing." Cole blinked as he stares at the ride.
"Come on!" I charged past him to locate the throne room.
After going down what must have been a million steps, we found Sensei battling Samukai. Garmadon was perched in his throne, laughing as he watched the battle for the weapons take place. I hesitated, recognizing this as a battle of honor. We could not interfere.
Reaching my arm out, I stopped Cole from leaping into the fray. "No. This is Sensei's fight."
Cole looked at me for one minute, before nodding in agreement and went to watching the fight nervously. Samukai was using the three weapons he atole from us to battle Sensei, who in turn was using the sword of fire. I bit my lip as I watched Samukai use the shruikens to freeze the sword. He then got ready to zap Sensei with lightning from the nunchucks, only for Sensei to roll away at the last minute. The battle continued, with Sensei unable to land a blow onto Samukai. After awhile, Sensei lost. Now in possession of all four weapons, Samukai turned to face Garmadon.
"Good. Now bring them to me." Garmadon beckoned him forward.
Samukai looked at the four weapons one at a time, before looking up at Garmadon. "I don't think so. Time for things to change around here."
Garmadon burst out laughing suddenly. "Fool. You have fallen for my trap. No one is powerful enough to hold the power of all four weapons. Not even I."
As he spoke, Samukai began shaking and glowing. After awhile, he lifted up into the air and started spinning as well. He spun faster and faster until suddenly he was gone and a vortex was in his place. Still laughing, Garmadon leapt onto the ledge between them and the vortex, walking into the spinning vortex.
"Brother! Father would not want you to do this!" Sensei called out desperately, to stop Garmadon from leaving.
"Father? Father would stop me from recreating Ninjago in my own image! You. You were always his favorite." Garmadon pointed his finger at Sensei accusingly, before the vortex swallowed him up.
"He will be back." Sensei warned us as we leapt onto the ledge to find the four weapons lying there.
Looking at each other, I felt the smallest of sparks. Not just any spark. The spark of belonging…of friendship. Of purpose. And I knew that the others felt it too. "We will be ready for when he does return." I flipped my hood back up, for the first time completing the ninja look. The others quickly following my example as we held the weapons up to the sky.
…
I stretched out across the roof, watching Cole and Jay train together. It's been two weeks since we found the golden weapons. A lot has changed… but a lot of it is the same. We now have pens for the dragons underneath the monastery, and we ride them frequently. Cole has gotten over his fear of dragons finally; in fact, he spends more time with Rocky than the rest of us. Sensei has decided to let us use the golden weapons as our weaponry, due to the fact we had that particular element 'inside of us'. Life was good. Too good to last long. But I intend to take advantage of that, learn what I can about this new world of science. Smiling, I turned to look up at the clouds and wondered what my childhood best friend would say if she were here. Probably that she was in heaven. I snorted to myself.
"Kai! Come down here and join us! Zane needs a sparring partner!" Cole suddenly called out, pulling me from my reverie.
"Coming!" I quickly jumped down, pulling the sword of fire out from its new sheath on my back.
Yeah. Life's pretty good right now.
A/N: And done! Finally! I mean… not done with the story. Done with the prologue. So… Kai met Flames before, probably why he knew all that about dragons. Also, he can speak dragonese as well as understand it. (That was why Kai's lines where bolded when he was talking to Flames.) Garmadon escaped, but the ninja have the weapons. Their training, for now, and Kai is reflecting on how great life is here. He also mentions his old friend (*cough*Nya*cough*) and how she would love it here.
Till next time!
SkyTalon