Hello! Long time... no see. Well, this is awkward. Ish. Whatever. All that matters is that after multiple finals, one driver's license, one drastic haircut, one sorta-boyfriend, one coming out of the closet, and one college acceptance later, here I am! With the next chapter! Please don't hate me!

WARNING: This chapter is unbeta'd because my beta is on vacation. I didn't want to wait for her to get back before giving this chapter to you.

Special mention to Jade, who now has her own account! My biggest fan, you still amaze me.

It was only once Kai was unable to breathe, body cushioned by stone and cold gems that he looked up at the shadowed sky and wondered, 'What could I have done differently? Where did I go wrong?'

'Could I have saved her?'

Wu had loved Misako, once.

They had been young, too young, playing games together, Wu, Misako, and Garmadon. The Royal Palace, high in the mountains of Ninjago, where everyone had a title and a place in the great prophecies of the age. Wu, the Golden Prince. Misako, the Scholar Princess. Garmadon, the Destined Prince. Destined for what, they had no idea, learning and growing to harness their powers innocently. Until one day Garmadon had climbed a wall, in search of a lost katana. He had come back changed, bitten and infected with darkness. The Prophecies opened to him. He was no longer young after that.

When Wu came of age, was crowned King in his tainted brother's place, he was told the Prophecies. His brother ran off with Misako. Darkness and a crown. A delicate boy of gold, a Destined Prince like his father, carried into the Palace by his mother, the returned Misako. A few months of bliss, during which a second Prince, a boy of mechanics and oil was delivered to be Lloyd's protector. And then. Misako, disappeared on a quest to find some way to help her son survive.

It had been years, years since they had met when they found themselves together in the dungeon of Lord Garmadon.

She smiled gently. "Hello, Wu."

He swallowed the lump in his throat. "Misako. How did you get here?" he asked.

She shrugged. "A portal, on the Dark Island. You?"

He shrugged as well, for a lack of something better to do. "Traveler's Tea."

Her smile was like a ghost. "Ah, yes. I remember, you and tea…"

"Tea and I…" he echoed in a strange form of agreement, just looking at her. Reveling. "Would you care to… fill me in on anything I've missed?"

"It is a long story," Misako said.

He waved towards the prison walls around them. "It appears time is on our side."

Garmadon and Misako's son, destined to lead four men against his father. Garmadon, fearful of the prophecy, finding a helmet that connected to dark forces beyond the shadow realm, in an attempt to gain a victory over his son without killing him. The stone army, under his control. Lloyd, of age for the prophecy. Misako, spending her life on the Dark Island, translating the old prophecies. Zane, gears and oil for flesh and blood. Gold and fire.

When she was finished with her tale, Wu leaned back, one hand stroking his beard. He closed his eyes and shook his head. "I am getting old," he said, and the sound of her laughter, the way she placed her hand on his, made him feel like he was a young man again. Full of hope. It had been so long…

"What are we going to do?" he asked her, and she sobered up and once, removing her hand from his. He ached for it to return. She stood up tiredly and began to walk softly around the cell, looking at her feet as she went.

"Garmadon will go through the portal and attempt to conquer the Empress's Palace to assert himself as the new ruler. And we will be left here." She tried one of the bars on the door. Solid. "We will need to get out, find Lloyd, and, if he has not already defeated his father, try and get them back into conflict." There was an unspoken hesitation in her words.

"What is it?" he asked.

"The darkness that Garmadon is going to for aid…" she said, "it is… ancient. Dangerous. It was the evil that gave birth to the very concept of destruction."

He finished the thought for her, "and you think that it is using Garmadon for it's own purposes."

"It will not be content to let Garmadon sit on a throne while it sits dormant in his head," Misako agreed. And she looked at him. His heart sank; he could read it in her eyes—she still loved him.

He gathered himself, taking a few slow breaths to even out his thoughts. In the quiet, he focused all of his energy on listening. After a moment, he picked out something that Misako could not hear and smiled slightly. "Can you still handle yourself in a fight?" he asked her.

Her smile was dangerous and familiar. "Why? Interested in trying to win back your honor from when we were kids?" her joking gave way to actual curiosity. "What are you planning, old friend?"

The roar of the dragon, echoing to them, was answer enough.

Dareth caught himself staring worryingly out to the mountains for the third time that evening and shook himself out of it. The four men, the Empress, and the Prince had all left that morning, and although he did not expect saving the world to be handled in only a few hours, it was still worrying that they hadn't yet come back. He kept his eye on the tree line, waiting for any sign that his captain would—

Someone was walking out of the jungle.

It wasn't Captain Cole.

Dareth's sword was in his hand and he called out quickly for the men to take up defense positions. But there was only one person coming out of the jungle, and, upon closer inspection, it was just an old man, toting a large wagon of some kind behind him, which was covered with a tarp.

Dareth cautiously waved the men down and approached the man, sword at the ready. He was a pirate after all. He had been a teacher before that, but, well—some things were better left unremembered when you were intent on threatening someone.

The old man looked up through wire-rimmed glasses. "Ah! Good! I had hoped to find you all still here. How are the repairs coming?"

"Repairs? How did you-? Who are you?"

"I am Zane's father," the man replied, puffing his chest out. "Dr. Julien."

"Zane's father isn't the King?" Dareth grasped at straws. He had no idea that anyone else would be on this island.

"And 'father' is a loose term, though 'creator' is a bit harsh—"

"Creator?" Dareth broke in. "What, is he a robot or something?" his incredulous laugh was cut short by the look on the man's face. "Oh."

"Anyways," Dr. Julien sounded a bit ticked off, to be honest, adjusting the lay of his glasses on his nose. "I am here to aid in your repairs. We may need a quick getaway."

"You know how a flying ship works, old man?" Dareth asked, finally relaxing and sheathing his sword.

The old man's smile was dangerous and somehow the bone gleaned like metal. "Oh, you could say that."

"What are you planning on doing?" Lloyd asked Cole, voice edging towards a worried tone.

The pirate was looking down into the mass of congregating Stone Army. "That one," he said, pointing towards their leader, General Kozu. "He almost killed Zane. I plan on ripping his arms off."

"Good plan," Kai agreed, a hint of sarcasm in his words, "if you want to die, too."

"We are in the technical afterlife already," Jay spoke up, "who knows if we can even die in here?"

"Do you really want to risk testing that?" Zane asked, raising one pale eyebrow. Jay clammed up.

The six of them were all lying on their bellies at the edge of a small outcropping; below them, on a cliff top clearing, members of the Stone Army marched in unison, all at some silent command that they could not hear. And watching above it all was a man-shaped creature, skin unnaturally black, wearing a tall crowned helmet. Kai couldn't place his finger on what exactly worried him so much about what they all identified as Lord Gamardon's headwear. The mere sight of it simply burrowed into his brain like a bad memory.

Their current attempts to think of a plan all came up short. Nya wanted to try and sabotage them somehow before making their presence known, Cole wanted to just smash, and Zane seemed adamant on the idea that Lloyd would stay back until they had subdued Garmadon themselves, and then come in for the final blow. Lloyd had shot that idea down as Kai had been agreeing to it. It was too dangerous for them to go without him, he had argued. It's too dangerous for you, period, had been Kai's rebuttal. They had argued quietly into a standstill, and so they all watched and waited for inspiration to strike. Long, long minutes passed, before Lloyd took in a shaky breath for courage, and stood up.

"Hey!" Kai whisper-shouted, tugging on one leg of his golden pants. "Sit back down!" he felt like a scolding teacher, and Lloyd simply gave him a look and shook him off. He began to calmly walk down the incline, and they made a sight, all of the rest scrambling after him, weapons out and ready. Now or never. The final confrontation.

All of the stone army stopped as one, and looked at them. The leader, with the four arms, saw Cole and snarled, and then gave a stony look of surprise to see Zane up and walking still. The nindroid lifted his chin in defiance.

The tension hung in the air, stiff and hard to breathe. Slowly, meticulously, Garmadon approached their small band. They moved as well, keeping him at a distance. They moved, together, towards the cliff, realizing too late that their reluctance to let him get close placed their backs against the edge. From their initial vantage point they had no way of seeing the huge drop down to the sea that lay beneath them now. Jay glanced backwards and cursed under his breath.

Lloyd glanced at all of them. Kai barely managed to give him an approving nod. This was what they came here for. They could find some way to handle the army if they chose to attack… it was all focused on Lloyd, now.

Lloyd licked his lips, and moved into position, planting his feet. "Father," he said, and it was equal parts identification, greeting, and apology. Perhaps, if he looked at his father a certain way, at a certain angle, he could find some kind of resemblance swimming beneath the unnatural skin… his eyes were sad, and far too young, as he looked at his father. Garmadon gaped at his son. It had been so long since he had seen him… and now, it came to this.

"I'm sorry," Garmadon said, and Lloyd felt that he meant what he said. "I'm so proud of you. My son." And he raised his hands.

Lloyd did the same. The bright golden corona that formed between his fingers illuminated his face, set in a mask of determination. This was his destiny. This was him. The light grew, bright and golden and pure, and the four men and Nya all stopped and gaped at it. He was a child no longer. He held immense power in his hands, and he was so much more.

What Garmadon made, the power he controlled, was as vicious and black as pitch, a more complete darkness than anything they had ever seen before—the weak light of the gray sky shied away from it. The power in his hands was not creation, it was a great consumption. And it was hungry.

The powers surged through the air, straight and true. The connection was animpossibility; the two of them in tandem was a push and a savage pull. Two opposites. One could not exist as the other did. The powers and the savage battle they incurred sucked all of the oxygen. Kai was short of breath just watching.

And then.

The darkness consumed an inch of light. Then another. And another. Kai looked at Lloyd, and saw the sheen of sweat on his face. He could feel the way the Prince ground his teeth in concentration, bone giving way against bone. Planted in the dirt, one of his feet slipped slightly to one side. His legs and arms shook.

Cold, pure horror filled Kai. The darkness edged closer. It was expanding so quickly—soon there would be no resistance to it. Another inch. Another.

Zane's fearful call broke through the shocked and attentive silence that filled the still cliff top. "LLOYD!" he screamed, and it was the call of an older brother forced to watch his sibling die.

Garmadon made no noise. He only tightened his hands. And the darkness rushed forward, like a dam breaking, water moving over everything, crushing everything, destroying and consuming and it was so dark-

Like a fearful child closing their eyes before they slept, he light fell away to the darkness. It hit Lloyd, full-force, and he fairly flew across the open area. Lloyd hit the ground with the sickening sound of bones snapping.

"Lloyd!" Kai shouted. He started forward but hands of iron held him back, seeing what he did not—that if he went now, he would simply be torn apart by the stone army, as they now brought themselves back to attention, raising their weapons. The small boy in the golden robes rolled and lay worryingly still on the ground.

Garmadon stared at his black hands in disbelief. "N-no… you… promised me that with your power I could stop—"

His face began to bubble and roil beneath the black skin and bared bone, the flesh contracting and then lengthening all in a few quick seconds. Fangs were bared and his eyes flashed red. The helmet began to melt, dripping blackness across his face, joining it. A mask fell and fell and fell, smothering, dark and absolute—and Garmadon screamed. And then he stopped, abruptly. Like a body jumping and then hanging from a noose, it stopped.

The voice that spoke through the newly formed snout of the… creature was not Garmadon's. "I promised you many things," it hissed. "And you promised me control." There was a moment, a horrible moment, where even though the body didn't move, there was the sense of it contorting, of bones twisting, of a soul being wrung and stretched and shredded…

Kai didn't hear Garamdon's final scream; he felt it, like the earth shaking and the air being sucked from his lungs, he heard Garmadon screaming and ripping into his own mind in an attempt to take back control of his body. But whatever was controlling him… the scales were tipping, tipping, oh so visibly tipping as the body straightened, grew stronger, and the screaming raised in pitch, not a roar of a battle but the sound of a foot stomping lungs into the dirt—and continued to press down for an eternity.

Zane had one of Lloyd's arms wrapped around his shoulders, and he was drag-carrying his younger brother out of the line of fire, to the defensive line they had made at the cliff's edge. Nya was by his side, daggers raised, and Jay was on her other side, hollering and goading the stone warriors to try, just try and make a move, and Cole's breathing was hard and even like stone. Zane and Lloyd huddled together, two Princes watching the end of the world.

Garmadon, his face twisted and warped, turned to their small party, and he grinned, all black fanged teeth and lowing purple eyes.

"Ninjago…" a thousand nightmares were drowning in that voice, "… will be mine."

He was more than just saturated with darkness, like Garmadon had been. Through the helmet, through his very essence he commanded the darkness. And he raised and closed one black hand, and the ground beneath them began to shake.

Nya threw one of her daggers at a stone warrior, and it skittered off of his chest, sparks flying. The warrior next to him, the one with four arms, snarled and rushed at her. It was barely a second. Barely a second. She raised her final dagger in defense and he latched onto her arm with two hands, the other two disarming her, and before Kai could even breathe she was gone, dragged away. Screaming. His empress, his little sister, screaming.

His little sister's eyes were on him and he felt cold, so cold.

"Nya!" Kai shouted, but the air captured his words, ripped them from his lungs, as the earth fell away beneath him and he was falling away, through space.

Falling.

All he saw was the sky, and it was black as pitch.

Kai expected his back to break, expected to hear the sound of bone crunching against the ground, but he heard Cole's frantic yelling, and the earth yawned up in a wave to meet them, catch them in a way until he was laying there, back cushioned by stone and soul-jewels, the dead whispering through the haze of shock into his ear. He looked up at the shadowed sky, seeing nothing.

Shakily, Kai sat up.

His heartbeat was ringing dully in his ears, and his breathing may have been disrupted, but he was up and he was looking around, counting heads and coming up one short. Nya. Nya. He craned his head back to stare up at the sheer cliff face, and before even thinking about it he was dragging his hands against the raw stone, scrabbling and struggling for a foot or handhold. Beside him, Jay was doing the same thing, but unlike Kai, he was screaming as he did so, Nya's name filling up his lungs and bursting out like a storm. Skin tore and their blood dribbled down the rocks.

An arm, a cold arm, wrapped around his torso and pulled him away, and he fought, numb and endless. Nya. Nya. It was only when he heard the sound of a fist connecting to a jaw that he stopped, and took in the scene around him:

Lloyd, sitting with his injured leg stretched in front of him, watched with hunted, injured eyes. Zane was holding Kai in place as blood dripped down his fingers, and Jay stood, feet planted, panting, looking down at Cole, sprawled in the dirt with one hand on his jaw. Jay looked around, breath rattling in his chest, and met Kai's gaze.

Shaking overtook anger, and Jay sat down hard, tangling his bloodied hands in his hair. "I could have… I should have…" he muttered and mumbled.

Kai shrugged Zane away with barely any effort, and limped over to the Sheriff, sitting down beside him in solidarity and loss. Cole and Zane let them have their silence.

"The Overlord," Lloyd said in a small voice. "The creator of all things evil. I let him go free." He buried his face in his hands and his back shook. It broke his heart, but Kai didn't have the strength to carry him anymore. He sat and watched the Prince he was destined to protect break down on a beach littered with souls and their own failure. How long ago had he just been nothing more than a samurai? Now he was sitting in the ruins of his destiny, in the realm of the dead, while evil walked free.

"We must… we must…" Zane tried to find a grasp on the necessary words. "We have to get out of here."

"How?" Lloyd croaked. "I had my chance, Zane, and I failed."

The Prince shook his head. "No. No, I do not believe that. There must be a way. We need to."

"There's nothing." Lloyd's voice was on the verge of tears, thin and cracked. His eyes were shattered blue shards as he stared up at the man in white. "What else is there, Zane."

"There is…" Zane trailed off.

"There's the Imperial Palace."

Everyone looked at Cole, who looked at his hands as if he had not spoken. But then, he opened his mouth again. "The people you love there, you still have them." He shook his head. "It's more than some of us have." All of them saw the smoke, heard the ghostly memory of I love you.

"You have the Bounty." Kai barely recognized Jay's voice. "Did you forget about your own crew?" The acid in his voice was harsher than he had intended. Cole's head snapped up and his defiant eyes were like knives.

"Giving up on your pretty girlfriend already, Sheriff?" Cole sneered, and then his face went slack as he realized what he had just said. "Shit, I didn't—"

Jay was at him in an instant, fists seeking weak points, seeking to harm, to kill.

"Stop!" Zane's voice had no effect on them, and Kai was up and helping him pry them apart before he knew what he was doing.

"Stop!" Lloyd's call stunned them all into silence. The Prince stood up, wobbly on his injured leg, nothing more than a child in a borrowed body and bloodied golden robes. His face paled and he wavered, but waved off any of them trying to help them. "I'm sorry… I wasn't thinking before. But, mentioning the Bounty…" he looked at Cole, blood leaking from his nose and mouth. "The Overlord can't teleport. It'll take him time to get to Ninjago, to the mainland. Do you think that, if we get to the Bounty, we can keep up with him?"

"Fastest ship there is," Cole said in a quiet gasp, the realization breaking over all of them like a wave. Zane and Kai let the Pirate and the Sheriff go, and the two parties simply stayed where they were, now intent on this new burgeoning idea. "If it's been repaired by now."

"It might… work…" Jay sounded like he was trying not to hope too much.

"How are we supposed to get back?" Cole wondered in a small, gravelly voice. "Even if the Bounty is ready for flight, it will take us hours to get back up to the portal and then to the ship. What will we…" his eyes focused on something far beyond them. "Oh no. Not again."

Kai turned to look out over the horizon with him.

A dragon was flying their way.

Since it's summer for me, I'll definitely finish this, probably in the next month or so. Thank you all so much for sticking with me!