OK, so the reason the chapters are so long now is because I am LITERALLY rewatching episodes of Ninago as I type this, and so each of the chapters are written for each episode. My fingers are killing me...but there's a good chance I might be able to finish this story tonight. I will be starting my 4th Ninjago story very, very soon!


Chapter 9 – Old enemies are new friends

The ninja and the girls finally arrived back in the totally lost cause of New Ninjago city.

"What happened here?" Kai asked as they all slowly walked through the quiet and empty streets.

"Nothing could've happened; there's no power, remember?" Cole replied.

But then they heard the yelling of people as the citizens of Ninjago suddenly appeared from piles of hover-cars…and they were dressed as savages.

"Thy shall not pass until thy have spoken with The Post-man!" the savages chanted, and then the one they referred to as 'The Post-Man', who was actually an old police officer, showed himself.

"Return…to…Cynder!" The Post-Man called, and they all shouted with him.

But that's when Cyrus Borg rolled in on his wheel chair, and he smiled when he saw the ninja.

"Oh, thank the First Spinjitzu Master you're finally here. I-ignore these savages; their imagination has known no bounds since the power went out," Cyrus explained as he wheeled closer, and he was even more surprised when he saw P.I.X.A.L. alive.

"P.I.X.A.L….you're still alive! How?" Cyrus asked with a amazement as P.I.X.A.L. walked up to his side.

"It was Zane. Ha sacrificed half of his power source to me," P.I.X.A.L. replied and smiled back at Zane.

"Zane, you don't know how thankful I am for this. But what's more important is that without the Over Lord's hard drive, the Techno Blades can do nothing to reboot the system as long as we don't have it," Cyrus explained sadly.

"Don't worry, we already know a few things. The one that stole the hard drive is Serpentine, and they were last heard from being sealed in a tomb beneath the city," Jay said with a smile.

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go down there and get that Serpentine," Cole said as he pulled off a cover to a manhole.

They all began to make their way down the hole, but when Zane and P.I.X.A.L. were left, Cyrus was confused.

"P.I.X.A.L….if it wouldn't be so much trouble…you have power now, and there is good to be done with that power. Please, come with me," Cyrus asked politely.

The she-droid first looked back at Zane for his approval, and he nodded.

"As you wish, Mr. Borg," P.I.X.A.L. said softly, and took one last look at Zane before walking away, and Zane looked back at her too.


"Never thought I'd here the spine chilling name of the Serpentine again in my life," Kai said, and the ninja used the tips of their Techno Blades as a light source in the dark sewers.

"Says the one who doesn't still have a mysterious Serpentine necklace around their neck that connects them to their cell/soul-mate," Kate said sarcastically.

"That reminds me, Kate. If you and Lloyd can't go that far away from each other without that jewelry pulling you back…how are you two able to separate this much now?" Cole questioned.

"Although it was not enough to actually break the necklaces' curse, Lloyd's golden powers were enough to allow us to travel much farther away from each other now…just as long as the necklaces don't sense that we really are going to separate forever, we're fine," Kate explained.

"Oh."


The white cloaked Serpentine was skimming through some filing cabinets below his computers.

"Why are we just sitting here doing nothing when we know exactly where the Golden One is?!" the Over Lord asked angrily.

"Before we can take down Lloyd with his almossssst unbeatable golden powers, we must first re-stock on our Electro Cobrai energy…ah, here it issss!" the white Serpentine said as he finally found what he was looking for, and pulled out a colorful brochure to an aquarium in New Ninjago City.


Garmadon wasn't lying when he said Horoshi's Labyrinth was very thick as he and Lloyd were making their way through it.

"If no one could make it out of this jungle, then how was one person able to do it?" Lloyd grunted as he pushed a large leaf out of his face.

"He who has as much power, such as you, has extreme obligation, Lloyd; this is the perfect place to hide and protect you and your powers," Garmadon explained, ignoring Lloyd's question.

"Yeah, I know…I just miss my friends…and Kate," Lloyd said sadly as he sulked his head.

"Kate's a strong woman, and you know that; she'll be fine. C'mon, shoulders back. It is said that there is a jewel hidden within this jungle; the most beautiful oasis and yet no one, not even Horoshi, has ever been able to find it. Who knows…maybe we could somehow stumble upon it?" Garmadon said with a smile.


The ninja continued to make their way down the sewer, but then they finally came up to the huge stone door of the tomb…and there was light coming from the inside, and the door was left slightly cracked open.

"This door should be sealed shut, and yet the door is open," Zane pointed out.

Suddenly they heard whistling, and they turned to find the one and only…infamous Skales.

"Ah, no, not you again!" the Hypnobrai general said in fear as he clutched his satchel that was strapped over his shoulder.

"Check his satchel; his plans are probably in there!" Cole commanded.

And Kai was first to go for Skales' satchel and he dug through it.

"No, no! Thisss iss harassssment!" Skales hissed, "what did I do?!"

"Don't play koi! We know you stole the hard-drive!" Jay snapped at him.

"He's got…groceries…just groceries and Ninjago's latest Times…" Kai said with embarrassment and stepped away from Skales.

"Ok, ok, I admit, I am sssuch a ssssucker for the cross-wordsss," Skales sighed.

"Daddy?"

They all heard a small voice.

What they saw was a young Hypnobrai standing in the doorway. He had a large white cobra-hood, and he wore a light blue jacket and white jeans.

"Daddy, are you ok?" the young snake asked.

But suddenly another Hypnobrai, bit with bright red and pink scales instead of blue, suddenly stepped out too.

"Sssskales Jr. I told you to sssstay inssside," the female, pink Hypnobrai.

"He'ssss fine, Sssselma," Skales said to his wife and slithered up to his family.

"Skales Jr.? This is your family, Skales? It's beautiful," Kate questioned, but said the last part in a mumble for no one else to hear.

"We have been quite busssssy sssince we've lived down here, and we prefer to sssstay down here," Skales said.

"Isss thissss about the Golden Massster, Daddy? He won't hurt ussss…will he?" Skales Jr. asked in fear as he grabbed his dad.

"Don't worry, Ssssson. You know that isss only a ssstory. And they were jusssst leaving," Skales said as he hugged his son, and glared at the ninja.

"What do you mean 'Golden Master'? Are you referring to Lloyd?" Zane questioned.

"We have our own legendsss too, you know? And it doessssn't matter if you believe them or not…becausssse you're the bad guyssss in our sssstories," Skales added.

"What legend, scaled shit-head?" Star asked darkly.

"We both know they have a right to know. If we are to truly share thisss land, we must ssstart by opening our home to the humanssss," Selma pointed out.

Skales groaned and rolled his red-ringed eyes.

"Fine. Come, Ssssurface Dwellersss, if you wish to hear the tale of 'The Cursssse of the Golden Massster'—which issss a hell of a made up sssstory—then follow me," Skales groaned, and he walked through and opened the large door even further for the ninja.

The ninja hesitated at first, but they eventually agreed to step inside the Serpentine's tomb.


"Just because there's no power, doesn't mean we can't have octopi and sharks!" the manager told the kids that were entering his aquarium, and Darreth trailed in behind them.

"Mr. Darreth, why do we have to come this lame aquarium?" one kid whined.

"Because I'm in charge, and I'm only trying to keep all of you safe. Now, single-file through the turn-style," Darreth replied, and the kids went through the turn-style into the aquarium.

But just when Darreth was the last one through, and there was no one else…the turn-style mysteriously turned again on its own, as if letting another person through.

The kids watched as at one second there would be fish, and then there would be sharks chasing after them.

"This way to the shocking Electro Cobrai, kids!" Dareth called and lead them down the hall. And then they reached the huge room, with tanks full of Electro Cobrai.

"U-uh, M-Mr. Darreth…who's that?" one girl whimpered, and Darreth looked to find the white cloaked Serpentine from the sewers was appearing out of thin air.

"You're no student of mine!" Darreth said firmly.

"No…I'm not," the cloaked Serpentine said as he removed a large drain cover. And then he pulled out a large, odd and purple whist;e, and when he blew it, the pitch got higher, and higher, and higher until the glass fish tanks suddenly broke and shattered.

Water and fish were everywhere. The Electro Cobrai swam down the drain the Serpentine had uncovered.

But even when it looked like it was safe, the sharks were swimming towards Darreth and the kids.

"Stay back, children. I got this," Darreth said with confidence and swam up to the sharks, stopping them in their tracks as Darreth caught their attention by…squawking and cackling like some bird.

It was then that when Darreth was done 'talking' to them, the sharks turned tail and swam away.

"Whoa! Did you really just talk to them? What was that, and what did you say?" a child asked excitedly.

"That, young one, was the art of the fish—and I told them they'd better back off before I decide to have smoked salmon for dinner," Darreth replied.


"We now have enough Electro Cobrai to power your device. We can now go get the Golden Ninja; summon your bessst Nindroids," the white cloaked Serpentine said as he stared at the numerous Electro Cobrai he had just gathered were infesting the tanks on his boat in the sewers.


The Serpentine tomb was actually much nicer than the ninja thought it would be. It was actually a rather beautiful place with its sparkling stalactites that were covered in glowing crystals that seemed to be the light source throughout the tomb.

"Assss we remained trapped down here, we watched as thessse horrifying ssstalactites became beautified with crysssstals. And we let that be a lesssson to usss that even ssssomething asss awful asss ourssselves, can change in a good way. And we've been bettering ourssselves since," Skales explained as he and his family lead the ninja through the underground chamber that had belonged to the Serpentine for a long time.

"Just because most of you have looked for the light, doesn't mean you don't have one bad apple to ruin the bushel. Don't you Hypnobrai and Fangpyre have white scales?" Kai questioned.

"Yesss, we do," Skales replied.

"We just wanna know which one of you are working with the Over Lord?" Cole cut in.

"Ah, yesss…the Over Lord. I am quite glad we misssssed that little messs," Skales said dryly, "no, if you couldn't already tell, we have no dessssire to meddle with what goessss on above. We have our perfect world down here, and we want to keep it perfect for the next generationsssss," Skales hissed as they continued to go further into the tomb.

"Pleasssse, do have a sssseat. Who knowssss what you could learn about your beloved Golden Masssster?" Skales said as he lead them to a fire place in the center.

Kate was having some trouble finding a spot, but then she felt a tug at her pants leg. She looked down to see Skales Jr. smiling brightly up at her.

"You can ssssit with me, missss," Skales Jr. said ina tiny voice, and lead Kate to sit with him.

"Oh…well, thank you, Skales Jr." Kate said while still a little confused as to why her enemy's child was showing her so much compassion, but she kept her smile.

"Hello, hatchlingssss…tonight, I will gladly be telling you the tale of The Curse of the Golden Masssster," Acidicus, general of the Venomarai tribe, said as he slithered up to them.

"You know, when the Firssst Spinjitzu Massster was firssst creating Ninjago, were you ever aware that he alsssso created the Ssssserpentine deep underground? Even ssssince the firssssst dawn, our eldersss had already known about the Golden Massster's Cursssse; his powersss would be unmatched and he would change the world forever. But when the Ssssserpentine tried to warn the ssssurface dwellerssssss, they sssaw usss as the enemy when we were only trying to help them. When the Great Devourer failed to frighten the people to the sssssafety of the underground…it wasss usss who retreated below the ground to never return to the surface again."


Cyrus was busy hooking P.I.X.A.L. to his main computer in his office. And when he pressed a button, his computer had power again.

"Oh, thank you, my dear P.I.X.A.L. This will be a great advantage for us," Cyrus said with a smile…but P.I.X.A.L. wasn't smiling, she seemed confused.

"Sir, you created me and even gave me life, so I belong to you. And yet Zane saved my life; I feel…a connection when I'm around him. It was like…freedom," P.I.X.A.L. explained.

"My dear, sweet P.I.X.A.L. you should know that no one owns you. You belong with whomever you wish, and if that someone id Zane, then be with him," Cyrus said softly, and P.I.X.A.L. smiled, but the moment was ruined when an alarm was sounded on the computer.

"It's picking up Nindroid power signals…but that's impossible. It says they're right here, and closing in fast. Twelve feet. Eight feet. I don't understand," Cyrus said while almost panicking.

"Unless…they're under us," P.I.X.A.L. said with realization.


"How can they think Lloyd is the Golden Master who wants to bring a curse upon Ninjago?" Kai questioned.

"Well, he is still the son of Lord Garmadon," Jay added.

"I wonder…if none of the Serpentine here stole the hard-drive…then who did?" Nya asked out loud.

But no one noticed the fact that Kate wasn't even a part of this conversation. She seemed distant and stressed as she was practically pacing and had her arms wrapped around herself as it if were some nervous tic.

But she then felt the familiar tug at her pants, and she once again saw Skales Jr. at her feet. She smiled sweetly and bent down to his eyes level.

"What is it, Skales Jr.?" Kate asked softly.

"I wasss about to asssk you the sssame thing, Mrssss. Garmadon," Skales Jr. replied.

Kate couldn't believe how kind this little snake was.

"You know, Skales Jr., I think we humans and Serpentine have a lot more in common than we think; we're just too scared to see it."

"Yesss, I have occasionally dreamed of what it would be like if we lived in harmony together, all of ussss."

"Can I tell you a secret, Skales Jr.?" Kate whispered, and Skales Jr. nodded his head excitedly, "when I ever have kids of my own, I want them to be as saintly as you are."

Kate and Skales Jr. suddenly looked up in surprise when Skales came slithering over, and he heard their conversation.

"Ssson, I wish to sssspeak with Kate alone, pleassse," Skales said, and his son walked away, "my, how you've grown, Kate. I ssssee that my ssson has taken quite a liking to you…perhapssss, we could live in harmony; like how the Firssst Sssspinjitzu Massster—and my sssson—imagined it to be, hmm?" Skales continued…and he actually smiled at Kate.

"You can be the first one to tell when I say I have had numerous visions of this generation of humans…and Serpentine…living together…in peace," Kate said as she smiled back, "after all of this is over, maybe we could make that possible?"

"I would like that," Skales said with a nod.

But the moment was not to last…

"We're under attack! Protect the hatchlingssss!" a Venomarai screeched throughout the tomb.

And the ninja couldn't believe it when they saw Nindroids pouring into the chamber.

"Not these dick-heads again!" Star whined.

"Protect the Serpentine!" Kai reluctantly called out, and he, Cole and Jay did Spinjitzu, but Zane couldn't.

"I cannot perform Spinjitzu without P.I.X.A.L.," Zane reminded himself out loud.

The smile that Skales had once worn was turned to a dreadful glare as he glared at Kate.

"You brought them here," Skales hissed, and quickly slithered away before Kate had a chance to say anything.

"Jr.! Jr., where are you?!" Selma panicked as she looked everywhere for her son I a frantic.

"Mommy! Mommy, I'm over here!" Jr. called out. He could hear her, and she could hear him, but they just couldn't see each other.

And to make it worse, Nindroids were laughing darkly as they began to surround poor little Skales Jr.

Kate saw this, and she put on a game face. She wouldn't let Jr. die this way; she would protect him as her own first. She would no longer stay back while everyone else fought. So she sprinted towards him, and as she did, her fists lit up on fire, like Kai's.

And when she dove into the group of Nindroids and covered Je. With her body, she caused a big, fiery explosion.

Soon after, Jr. allowed Kate to pick him up and rush him to Selma. When Kate found Selma, she handed the young Hypnobrai to his mother.

"Go! Hide and don't look back…and be safe," Kate said firmly.

"Thank you…thank you," Selma said meekly, and ran off with Jr. in her arms, and Jr. was waving back at Kate the whole time.

After that, Kate then noticed the changes about the Nindroids. There were weird tanks that were filled with water and Electro Cobrai.

"Electric eels? Is that what they're using as an alternative power source?" Kate asked herself, but then she heard Skales' battle cries.

But when she looked up, she found that Skales was in need of help when fighting against the Nindroids, as he was loosing.

So she ran towards him, and this time she used ice as she put up an ice shield that blocked a laser just in time. And then she shot ice spears at each of the Nindroids.

Skales was surprised that Kate helped him after he blamed her and the other ninja for bringing the Nindroids here.

Kate then looked at Skales.

"We apologize. We had no idea we were being followed," Kate said as she helped Skales up.

"I will accept your apology ssssince it isss the leasssst I could do after you sssaved me," Skales admitted.

"If we could figure out what was powering them, this would make this a whole lot easier to fight them!" Jay cried, as he was in the same state Skales was in before Kate helped him.

"On their backs! They're using some sort of electrical energy from eels on their backs!" Kate called out for the rest of the ninja to hear.

And since they did hear her, they then noticed the tanks of the Nindroids' backs. Now that they knew how to deactivate their power source, they had the upper-hand again.

So they all fought to either break or unplug the tanks on all the Nindroids' backs. Once they did, the dead robots all toppled over like dominoes.

"Ha, ha! Yes!" Jay was the one to cheer for everyone, but when they thought it was over, one Nindroid who still had the slightest bit of power grabbed Zane's leg.

"You insolent Nindroid, why are you helping the wrong side?!" the Over Lord's voice poured from the dying Nindroid's mouth.

"Over Lord," Zane said darkly.

"Little did you know that this whole ambush was merely a diversion to distract you…while I will soon be plucking the Golden Ninja up, and he will finally be in my claws!" the Over Lord said and was about to laugh evilly, but the Nindroid has already died before he could.

"You ssssee? The boy holdsss too much power, jussst like in the legend!" Skales pointed out.

"I ssssense the end of Ninjago isss very near," Acidicus added.

"We HAVE to get to Lloyd before the Over Lord does. Are you sure you can't help us?" Nya begged.

"They already said that they took an oath to never return to the surface, Nya. Was must respect that," Kate answered for Skales, and Skales even smiled again at Kate.

"But we do wish you good luck," Skales added, and the ninja began to walk out, "oh, but one more thing! Asss far asss we know, there isss only one Sssserpentine who'sss alwaysss had a hissstory of being ssso fond of Electro Cobrai."

"Who?" all the ninja asked in unison.


There was a beautiful spring that Lloyd and Garmadon were approaching in the jungle. They had found the jewel of the jungle.

"It really is the most beautiful oasis," Lloyd said as he relished in the beauty of the spring.

"See? What'd I tell you?" Garmadon asked with a grin, "even in the most depressing and sorrowful of times…there can be new life."

But suddenly the loud sound of chainsaws were heard as they were getting closer. Trees were being cut down.

"No…I don't know how, but they found you. You must go now, Lloyd! Go!" Garmadon demanded, and Lloyd was reluctant to run away.

The source of the cutting was Tech Wu as he drove out on a hover-craft that had a giant, circular saw blade on the end of it.

Tech Wu then jumped out and began to fought Garmadon, and Garmadon had to defend himself and Lloyd.

"Brother…why must we always be on opposite sides?!" Garmadon cried.

Lloyd had just managed to climb to the top of the water-fall above, but it was pointless because there were Nindroids up there too.

But Lloyd knew he could easily escape, and so he created a large motor-cycle with his golden powers.

"Lloyd, no!" Garmadon shouted, but Lloyd only ignored him as he turned around and sped off through the jungle.

Even when Lloyd saw that there were flying Nindroids chasing after him, he was able to dodge them, and he used the jungle to defeat them as the Nindroids all crashed, one by one.

But then Lloyd not only reached the edge of the jungle, but also the edge of a cliff right outside the jungle. And so Lloyd skidded to a halt. And that's when he saw it again: the Over Lord's draconic ship, and what he on board the ship was even worse. Tech Wu had Garmadon held captive.

"Don't worry about me, Lloyd…just keep going forward…never look back!" Garmadon demanded, but Lloyd stayed, and he made his motor-cycle disappear; soon beginning to create another energy ball in his hands.

But while he was distracted with that, he didn't notice that the white cloaked Serpentine was approaching him from behind, and he had let loose a snake-like device that slithered towards Lloyd.

When it reached Lloyd, it wrapped itself tightly around Lloyd, enabling him to use his golden powers. And after Lloyd was defenseless, the white cloaked Serpentine slithered out of the jungle and up to Lloyd.

"How long has it been…" the white cloaked Serpentine began, and then paused to remove his hood, "…old chum?"

It was Pythor. But he looked so different with bright white scales with dark purple and black scale design.

"No…Pythor," Lloyd said with disbelief, "how…how are you still alive?!"

"I didn't die…I only suffered the unimaginable in the stomachs of the Great Devourer. Asss you can see, it can wreak havoc on one'sss complection," Pythor replied as he looked at his ruined white scales that were once a beautiful shade of purple.

It wasn't long before Pythor had loaded Lloyd onto the Over Lord's ship.

"Finally, I have the Golden Ninja. My transformation can now be completed!" the Over Lord shouted with joy.

"Dad, I'm sorry. I didn't listen to you…and I let you down," Lloyd said sadly.

"Enough of this! The old man is of no use to me…throw him over-board!" the Over Lord demanded, and pretty soon Garmadon was thrown like a rag-doll down to the ocean far below.

"NOOOO! DAAAAAD!"

SPLASH!

Garmadon's body made a huge crashing sound when he hit the water.

Lloyd didn't want to believe that he could've truly lost his father now, and he tried to fight back his tears.

But it wasn't until the ship had already turned and flown off when Garmadon breeched the surface…alive.

"Be strong…Lloyd…be strong," Garmadon said between breaths.


I'd say my favorite part of this chapter was when Skales and his son befriended Kate. It was so sweet. You guys agree?

Until the next chapter I'm TRikiD, bye-bye!