(A/N) Double update! Here it is. The final chapter before the conclusion. I can't tell you how hard this has been, waiting for this moment. I am so excited! Also, there is important information at the end so please read the A/N at the end of the chapter!


Chapter 8

Seven Years Ago

"That's ridiculous," Jay scoffed.

The teachers were all gathered in the Element Room, discussing the events of the recent Initiation ceremony. Jay didn't see any sense in what had happened. "A stone platform doesn't just split under the weight of a kid that small! And the last time I saw him, Lex was nowhere near needing an extra-large gi!"

"Jay is correct," Zane added. "We gave him the smallest gi we had, and even then it was approximately 2.52 sizes too large for him. It is not physically possible for the weight of a child that small to break the platform's rock."

"I know what I saw," Skylor said firmly. "The platform split into the two halves of yin and yang. There was no mistaking it."

"But why would it do that?" Cole asked. "The platform is made out of an extremely strong rock. It only breaks under extreme pressure."

"So it obviously has something to do with whatever power Lex has." Nya concluded. "But I can't think of an element that can do that."

"Because there isn't one!" Kai shouted. "No element has the power to do that."

Lloyd coughed. "Energy can do that."

"Yeah, but Energy is a power exclusively passed on through the line of the First Spinjitzu Master! And you've only got one kid!"

"Dad?"

Lloyd turned toward the door. His daughter was peeking in. "Violet, sweetheart, what are you doing?! You're supposed to be in bed! It's four-thirty in the morning!"

"You might want to hear us out," she advised.

"Wait, what do you mean 'us'? Who's with you?"

Violet opened the doors all the way to reveal five people. All of the teachers stared. They recognized Drew and Lex, but the other three were complete strangers.

Until they noticed the uniforms.

The three strangers were wearing the exact same clothes that had been acquired by Mark, Gretta, and Ted at their Initiation. But their physical appearances were entirely different!

Gretta used to have a dark-ish complexion, with short, dark brown hair, and black eyes. But the girl in front of them couldn't be more different. She was pale-skinned, with bright blue eyes that seemed to sparkle. Her mid-length blonde hair was pulled back in a tight ponytail. Her face was less devious and more sincere.

The boy in Ted's gi also had blue eyes, but his hair was a dirty blonde instead of the brunette color Ted had. His freckles were gone from his pale face, and he wore a large grin.

The boy in the gi given to Mark had muddy brown hair instead of jet black. The eyes, once green, were now grey, and they had a brooding glare in them. His skin was a dark tan, a huge difference, considering the fact that Mark had a very rosy skin tone the last time they saw him.

The teachers were all giving them confused stares. "Drew, could you please tell me who these...friends of yours are?" Lloyd asked, looking at the strangers suspiciously.

"Sure. I'm assuming you all remember a certain event seven years ago?"


Violet watched as the confusion amongst the teachers turned into shock. Before they had come to tell the adults, Drew had told her the truth. At first, she had been dubious, but Drew eventually managed to convince her. Kai was the first to speak.

"How do you know about that?" he burst. Violet knew that her father and his friends, especially Kai, had worked hard to put the kidnappings behind them. It would take irrefutable proof to sway the former fire wielder into believing what Drew had to say. She held her breath. This was when Drew would drop the bomb.

"Because... I'm your son," he announced.

The room became so silent at that moment that one could hear a pin drop. All eyes turned to Kai. At first, he was stunned. Then, his face contorted with anger. "My son is dead," Kai said through his teeth. "I learned to accept that a long time ago. Don't get my hopes up! It's only a coincidence you have the same name!"

Drew looked at Violet. After he had told her about his past, Violet had insisted that they prepare for this exact scenario, because she knew it was bound to happen. She had remarked that although it was not obvious at first, Drew had inherited his father's facial features. The reason it was not easy to notice was because of his hair. Drew's brick-red hair grew in all directions and was in no particular style. However, Violet had a hunch that she could fix that.

"Purple ninja to the rescue!" she said with a confident smile. She whipped out a comb and a bottle of hair gel she had swiped from Kai's bathroom. Skylor had once told her that he used way more gel than he actually needed to get his signature spikes, so he kept a huge stock of them under the sink. Drew had expressed his concerns that sneaking around and stealing something from a bathroom that belonged to someone that you were not related to was a bit creepy, but Violet answered by simply saying, "So?"

"Hey! Where'd you get that?!" Kai yelled, recognizing the bottle. Ignoring him, Violet dragged Drew out of the room. About a minute passed, and then she reappeared in the doorway, grinning. "Friends," she announced, "I present to you proof that Drew is not lying." With that, she pulled Drew into view.

He looked a little pained, because it had taken a bit of work (e.g. hair pulling) for Violet to get Drew's hair in the right place, but as it turned out, it had all been worth it. Drew's hair was now spiked in almost the exact same way as Kai's was. Now the resemblance was unmistakable. Not only was it now much more obvious that Drew had his father's face, it was also easy to see Skylor's traits in him, too. He had his mother's brick red hair and bright amber eyes.

Skylor was the first to react. She ran at Drew and pulled him into a tight hug while weeping with joy. Kai was more cautious in his approach. He walked slowly toward his son, his boy whom he had been sure was dead and was never coming back to him. He looked carefully into Drew's eyes. It was as if he was looking at rings of amber melted by fire.

Fire and Amber. Kai's and Skylor's elements. There was no denying it now. This was really the Drew he had lost seven years ago.

"It's good to be back, Dad," he said with a smirk not unlike Kai's. The old ninja of Fire joined the hug, and the three were finally a family again.

"Don't you ever leave us like that again!" Skylor cried.

"Uh, Mom? I was kidnapped. I didn't leave you on purpose."

"Yeah, this is cute and all, but can we please get to the more pressing matter here?" Reed suddenly blurted, ruining the moment.

"Right," Drew sighed, breaking out of the hug. "Get comfortable, everyone, because you're in for a long story."


"...And that's how we all got here."

After the agents finished filling the ninja in on the story of their kidnapping, it's aftermath, and the current danger, each putting in their bit of the tale, the former heroes of Ninjago were in a state of shock.

"So they're going to blow up this place..." Nya said quietly. "What now?"

"We get the hell outta here, that's what!" Nick answered in his usual uncensored language.

"Ninja don't just give up like that!" Jay argued.

"You don't know the Black Dragons like we do," Drew said in a tone that dripped with hatred for the organization he spoke of. "Hold back? That's for cowards. Go easy on your enemy? Wouldn't even dream of it. Retreat? Never heard of it."

"As a weapons expert, I constantly visited the weapons development complex on Black Dragon Island," Emma piped in. "Trust me when I say that they have weapons that are perfectly capable of blowing this place to smithereens in one shot."

"But we can't just quit!" Kai fumed.

"We're not quitting, Dad," Drew said. "We have to escape to someplace we can use to prepare ourselves for coming back. We just need time. Right now, the Black Dragons are planning a direct assault on this place. We're gonna be facing an army of tanks in another few hours!"

"Wait, how do you know it'll be a few hours?" Jay screeched.

"Long story short, Drew and I hacked into the Black Dragon's network, the whole agency knows about it, and now they're probably deciding to start the attack earlier than they originally planned," Reed told his fellow lightning wielder.

"Dad, what do you think?" Violet asked her father. Everyone turned to the green ninja.

"I certainly don't like the aspect of giving up," he said, "but if it means saving hundreds of lives, then I'm afraid we have no choice."

"But where would we go?" Nya asked fretfully.

"I'm running all possible hiding places through my database," Zane informed. "Since there is a 92% chance the Black Dragons will take over Ninjago, no matter what we try to do, that means the only place they won't be able to find us at is Chen's Island."

"Actually," Skylor mused, "that's not a bad idea at all. It could serve our purposes for an academy even better than this place does. It could easily be turned into a fully functioning ninja academy."

"Then it's settled," Lloyd announced. "We must all pack as much as we can and leave. No one can be left behind."

Unfortunately, the Ninja didn't notice the small listening device tucked away in the corner of the room...


"...We must all pack as much as we can and leave. No one can be left behind."

In another room, Agent I listened intently to the conversation coming through his earpiece. He was impressed. Drew was much more unpredictable than he'd previously thought. Should he tell the Agency that the Ninja were escaping?

No, he decided. That would complicate - certain - desired outcomes. After all, rule number one of being a double agent was to never reveal everything to anyone - not even your closest allies.

Agent I smiled. I'm going to win this little game... he thought.


That night, the lights were left on in the now abandoned academy. Everyone had already gotten onto Chen's old fleet of paddleboats. That is, everyone but five certain now-rogue agents.

Drew, Reed, Nick, Emma, and Lex had stayed behind to get some unfinished business over with. They watched from the edge of the forest as an army of weapons crawled across the meadow towards the monastery. They had fallen for it. The lights inside had fooled them into thinking there were still people inside. The tanks stopped.

"Sis! Now!" Reed hissed to Emma.

"No. Not yet," she whispered back.

"What are you waiting for?"

"The right moment."

There were mostly tanks in the incoming assault, but there were also some agents carrying an assortment of dangerous-looking explosives and guns. Reed spotted Vladomir's tank leading the charge.

"Do you think he's in there? What if he stayed behind?" Reed asked nervously.

"Vladomir wouldn't miss something like finally defeating your greatest enemy," Nick assured him. "He'd want to witness the destruction."

A general ordered to prepare to fire. There was a deafening silence, then a huge blast from one of the tanks as a missile flew across the field toward the place the agents once called home.

BOOM!

The missile exploded upon impact with the building. Fire began to consume the place. There were cheers from the army of agents in the grassy field. Emma knew she needed to move now. Now they were vulnerable in their celebration.

"Alright, guys, it's time," she whispered. Drew took out a box of matches. Nick fished some vaseline and a cotton ball out of his pocket. Reed took out a pair of nightgoggles. Lex took out a notebook, flipped to a certain page, and copied some math equations and a carefully measured angle on a tree. Finally, Emma took out one of her arrows. She rubbed the cottonball in the vaseline and fixed it to the arrowhead. She put on the night goggles and lowered the arrow behind the bushes. Drew struck a match and ignited the cottonball in the shelter of the leaves, so that the flame would not be seen.

"This is it. You've got one shot, sis," Reed reminded his sibling.

"I know that! You don't have to tell me," she hissed. She took aim with her bow and arrow, careful to match the angle on the tree. She paused for a moment, then fired.

The arrow flew up into the sky, reached it's peak, then began its decent. Only when it was too close to avoid did the agents notice the projectile. There were a couple of people filling up the fuel tank of Vladomir's tank. When they saw the arrow coming straight for them, they jumped out of the way. The arrow plunged straight into its target: the gas tank. Almost immediately, the flammable gasoline inside exploded the tank. Team Nightprowler's mission was accomplished. The five rogues ran from their hiding spot before the Black Dragons could figure out where the arrow came from.

They ran for the docks, following the path laid out by Reed's GPS. "Kinda weird, isn't it?" the technology expert asked his friends.

"What's weird?" asked Drew.

"We just committed an act of revenge."

"Yeah?"

"We aren't supposed to do that as ninja."

"Well, then, let's make sure it'll be our last. We aren't agents anymore," Nick announced.

It took some time, but they finally reached the docks outside of the city. The fog covered them as they crept toward the ship that stood waiting for their arrival. The rest of Chen's fleet had already left, but Lloyd had arranged for his ship to wait for the former agents. The team boarded the boat before collapsing on the floor from exhaustion. As soon as they were all on board, they set sail.

When the agents had recovered, they found Sensei Lloyd below deck.

"You made it," he remarked with a smile.

"Yeah. We accomplished the goal," Drew panted, still a little short of breath.

"Drew, may I speak with you alone? I have some questions," the Sensei asked.

"Uh, sure," Drew agreed slightly surprised. What did he want to know now? He'd already revealed his secrets.

Except for one, a small voice inside of him said.

After Reed, Emma, Nick, and Lex had left, Lloyd sat down on the floor, and Drew followed suit.

"Drew," the teacher began, "I feel something is still bothering you. Have you told us everything?"

Drew sighed. "No," he admitted.

"Would you like to tell me?"

Drew took a deep breath, and began to recount what he hadn't told his teacher.

"The Black Dragons didn't kill Heather. Here's what really happened..."


(A/N) Aaaaaaand cliffhanger!

Anyway, I said this would be important, so here it is: Neverender is going to have a rewrite. Why? Because I lost a huge majority of viewers (about 3/4) in the introduction, and I think I know why. It's because nowhere did I mention the Ninja, nor did I mention that we were even in Ninjago. So the rewrite is going to be the same fic, just with a bunch of tweaks. The sequel, therefore, will be on hold until the rewrite is finished.

New shoutouts go to ninjagirl99204 and JudithArt! JudithArt, thank you so much for the suggestion about the contest, but it looks like I may have to drastically expand Neverender if I want to enter it into the contest. I will see if the rewrite will be long enough, but I'm not sure. Also, thanks again to woodswolf, GarmadonJr, Trinitymistressofhealing, BlackNBlue39, Arima Lucari, Princess Bunny, iluvninjagoTNSBFWgirl, and the M.C. Cake Reviewer.

Review! And don't forget to vote on my poll!