Finished with one! Time to post the next! No reviews yet, so, no review replies. Obviously.

In case you're wondering, the reason the last chapter was a bit short was because I fell asleep while writing it. See, my sister and I share a room, and she usually wants to go to sleep way before I do (because I have writing to do), so I move to our large closet and write there. That night, though, I got really tired for some reason. Maybe because I got up 45 minutes earlier than usual to write that morning. So I got really tired and lay down on the floor and I apparently fell asleep, though I didn't notice it, 'cause when I came out it had been almost an hour and a half. I got in bed and lay there for about two hours after that wondering if I was asleep or not. Heh. I still don't know.

If you noticed the title of this chapter, I'm sure you've figured out that something bad happened. Anyway. TO THE CHAPTAH!

Chapter 34

The sun had been down for almost an hour, and the adventurers (minus Kai and Kayson) were crouching behind the wall around Minyeng, waiting for a chance to sneak inside. There were guards at every entrance, but the wall was short enough for them to easily get over it. As the last of the shopkeepers packed up his goods and left, Lloyd, who had been watching through a crack, gave the others an OK sign and they vaulted over the wall. Cole silently guided them through the town towards the prison, avoiding any people still out on the street. It didn't take long for them to approach the large, stone building, and Cole led them towards a row of windows on the south side.

"Morro!" Lloyd called as loudly as he dared. "Indigo!"

"Lloyd?" Morro's face appeared at one of the windows.

"Morro!" Lloyd ran to the window. "Are you alright? Where's Indigo?"

"I'm fine. Indigo's... asleep." Morro turned and glanced backwards in the cell for a moment. "You shouldn't be here." he said, lowering his voice to a whisper as he turned back to Lloyd. "There are guards everywhere. Get out of here, before, you're caught."

"We're not leaving you two here." Lloyd said firmly. "Which cell are you in? I don't want to wake up every guard in the area by yelling."

"You..." Morro's voice faltered and he sighed in defeat. "We're in Hall B, Cell 31. Be careful." Lloyd nodded and stepped away from the window.

"We will. Come on, guys." Lloyd gestured for the others to follow him and ran silently towards the jail's entrance. They passed through the open gate, which was devoid of any guards, and walked up to the front door. There didn't seem to be anyone inside, so Lloyd pushed the squeaking door open and the group entered slowly.

"Weird..." Jessica murmured as they walked into the silent building. "Morro said this place was swarming with guards."

"Maybe they left for the night?" Jay whispered.

"No... something fishy's going on here." Lloyd mused.

"Here's Hall B." Cole pointed to a door with a large "B" painted on it. Lloyd pushed it open, revealing a long, dark, corridor. They walked in quietly, searching for Morro's cell. Suddenly, the door slammed behind them and the hallway filled with light. As the travellers blinked in shock, ghosts with weapons surrounded them.

"It's a trap!" Lloyd shouted in alarm, summoning green energy in his palms. A grinning ghost stepped forward with a pair of Vengestone cuffs and snapped them on Lloyd's wrists, effectively cutting off any means of attack.

"Hey!" Jay yelled as he was roughly shoved into a cell. The ghosts proceeded to throw the rest of them in cells as well, with no small amount of laughing and jeering. Lloyd, after picking himself up off the floor of his cell, stared out at the ghosts through his cell door's window. What happened? How did the ghosts know they were coming? Lloyd could see Morro watching them sadly through his window. Did he know? Why didn't he warn them? As the last of them was shoved into a
Vengestone-lined cell, Lloyd could only be sure of one thing: Kai and Kayson were now their only hope.

ReturnToTheCursedRealm

"This is sooooo dull." Kai complained, idly tossing a rock in the air. "How long can a rescue mission take? They should've been back an hour ago!"

"Kai, have you considered that something might have happened to them?" Kayson asked, glancing sideways at them. "What if they were caught and captured?"

"Nah, couldn't have." Kai tossed the rock again, but this time he failed to catch it and it landed on his foot. "Ow!" He could've sworn that Indigo's cat laughed. "I mean, they've got a water ninja with them. How could they fail?"

"Mission failed." Kayson said slowly. "Ambushed. Requesting backup."

"Huh?" Kai glanced over to see Zane's falcon perched on Kayson's arm. He had been too busy talking to notice it fly up. "A trap? But how?"

"I don't know." Kayson shook his head. "But what I do know is this: we can't rescue them. Not just the two of us. And there's no backup to be had, unless we go all the way back to Ninjago. I don't know what we're going to do."

"Perhaps I can be of assistance?" a familiar female voice asked. The two teenagers spun around and Kai's mouth dropped open.

"Tara?"

ReturnToTheCursedRealm

Indigo sat against a wall in a cold, stone cell, her arms hanging limply from where they were chained to the wall with Vengestone chains. She sighed sadly as she heard the ninja shouting outside. The trap was sort of her fault. Just as Cole had left town to tell the other ninja where she and Morro were, Bansha had come into their cell and revealed that she had been watching them throughout the entire encounter. She demanded to know who Cole was, but both Indigo and Morro had refused to tell her. Finally, Bansha ordered two of the guards outside to take Indigo to a different cell, threatening to hurt her if Morro didn't cooperate. Indigo had taken the chance to escape, though, by sucking the energy out of the two guards as soon as she was out of the cell and making a break for it down the passage. Unfortunately, she had been caught by a large ghost with a scythe and a small vocabulary who had locked her up in these Vengestone chains and put her in here. Morro had probably broken down and told them everything after that. He did seem to really care about her. She definitely cared about him. She actually might... love him. She wasn't sure. After all, emotions was one of the subjects that she wasn't exactly an expert in. It felt like love, anyway. She always felt safe around him, and her skin tingled when he touched her. If that was love, she really really hoped he loved her back. She wasn't sure she could stand any more heartbreak in her life.

ReturnToTheCursedRealm

"They threatened Indigo?" Lloyd frowned.

"Yes." Morro said dejectedly from across the hall. "I didn't have any choice after that." Most of the guards had left after the ambush, and the ones who remained were mostly asleep. The ones who were awake didn't mind the prisoners talking.

"I understand." Lloyd nodded to his friend. "I would've done the same thing."

"Do you think Kai and Kayson will be able to rescue us?" Jay asked from a few cells down.

"I doubt it." Alex murmured. "There are just too many guards."

"Well what the heck are we supposed to do then?!" Jay exploded. "Are we just going to be stuck here forever?!"

"There's nothing we can do, Jay!" Jessica snapped. "You guys' elemental powers are useless, we're outnumbered ten to one, and we're all trapped in jail! There's nothing! We! Can! Do!"

"She's right, Jay." Lloyd sighed. "We're beaten."

"You are beaten." A raspy, female voice agreed. The prisoners' heads turned to see Bansha leading Indigo down the hallway by her chains. "The girl is correct. There's nothing you can do but sit here and rot. But since there's nothing more I need with her..." Bansha opened Morro's cell door and pulled Indigo inside, chaining her to the wall while two other guards made sure Morro didn't escape. "You can have her back." Bansha floated back out, and, after locking Morro and Indigo inside, floated back down the hall.

"Are you okay, Indigo?" Cole asked once Bansha was out of earshot.

"Yeah. I'm fine." she replied quietly. "Did anything important happen while I was gone?"

"All of us got locked up." Jay said boredly.

"All of you?" she sounded sad.

"Except Kai and Kayson, who stayed behind. But I doubt they can take on all these ghosts as once." Morro said slowly.

"I don't think we can get out of here." Nya said dejectedly. "Face it, guys. We've failed.

Dun dun DUUUUUUUN! Oh no! They're trapped forever and Tara is their only hope! Oh well.

And there I go again, trying to describe the physical feelings of love. I really wouldn't know, though. After all, I've never been in love.

FFF: Well, no one reviewed on the last chapter yet, so there are no questions.
Kai: Again?!
FFF: Again.
*everyone silently waits for reviews*

~FFF