Disclaimer: I do not own Ninjago or its characters, but I do own my characters! :D

Season 4

Chapter 44: The Corridor of Elders

"Gosh, dang it Chen. You just had to have us split up didn't you?" Jade mumbled as she sat in the driver's seat of the truck.

"Chen has-Kai, village-Everyone!" Nya's voice was heard in the truck.

"Nya?" Jade questioned upon hearing the samurai's voice.

"Attacked first-Nothing-Stop them!"

"Nya, what are you trying to say? I can't understand you." Jade said, trying to understand where she was needed.

"Hurry! -too late!"

"What's too late? What's going on? Where do you need us?" Jade asked.

The radio buzzed and Nya's voice was no longer heard.

"Nya? Nya?" Jade questioned before letting out a sigh. "I guess I have to find my way back to the city. Okay...so...first you have to-"

Jade turned an item which happened to look like a dragon head, starting the engine.

"Okay, I think that means the truck has started...now let's see how to get this thing moving..."

The protector looked around and clicked a button, activating the windshield wipers.

"Ah!"

Jade clicked the button again, stopping the windshield wipers. Jade let out a sigh of relief.

"Okay...that's not it."

After a few minutes of looking, Jade finally figured out how to get the truck moving and began to head back to the city.

As she drove, Jade looked down at her arms to see the cuts and bruises she had gained while she was still divided into the five wolves.

She sighed and looked back towards the road. "I need to tell him...before he goes. I can't let him be worried before he leaves."

Letting out a sigh, Jade tightened her grip on the steering wheel and continued her journey to find the city.

0o0o0

It had been quite awhile and Jade was still driving around aimlessly.

"Where the heck am I?" Jade questioned in annoyed and irritated tone.

She seemed to be in some kind of forest, driving around. Letting out another sigh, Jade stopped the truck.

Suddenly, she heard a voice in her head.

'Head to the Samurai X Cave.'

Jade smiled. 'I'm on my way.'

0o0o0

After what seemed like forever, Jade had (somehow) made it to the Samurai X Cave and was immediately greeted by both Xander and Edmund.

"You're back!" Edmund said.

"And you're okay!" Xander added.

Jade chuckled. "Yup, I'm fine."

Xander smiled. "Good, because I'm going to finish bandaging you up. Even though you'll probably just take them off anyway."

Jade rolled her eyes. "Fine..."

Xander's smile grew and he pulled out a few bandages and tape.

"How did you-?"

"Don't ask."

With that, Xander began to wrap a few more bandages with some help from Edmund.

"So why were we asked here? We should be fightin' snakes!" Turner said.

"Because anyone can fight. Only one side can declare victory." Sensei Wu answered.

"In the time it took you to get here, Chen has taken over the entire Eastern Seaboard and is moving inland." Nya informed. "With each village destroyed, they grow stronger."

Jade let out another annoyed sigh. "You had to remind me..." She mumbled.

"How are we supposed to stop them? Most of us have lost control of our dragons, not to mentioned we're outnumbered to ten to one." Gravis explained, Alice nodding her head in agreement.

"Actually, 62.4 to one." Zane corrected.

"Look, I'm scared like the rest of you. It may look like we've lost, but it's not over." Lloyd said as he walked over to his robotic teammate and placed a hand on his brother's shoulder. "When we thought we lost Zane, it nearly tore us apart."

Jade looked down sadly at the memory.

"But we didn't quit. We let it fuel us. We grew stronger!" Lloyd finished.

"There's hope. The Corridor of Elders." Sensei Wu said.

"Corridor of Elders?" Shadow questioned.

"I know we don't stand much of a chance taking on his entire army at once, but after he's controlled the East, he'll move west tomorrow." Sensei Wu explained. "and have to pass through Echo Canyons. Our best tactical position is to make our stand where it bottlenecks-"

Sensei Wu pointed to one of the areas on the computer screen. "-Here, at the Corridor of Elders. The monuments honoring our ancestors. It's the narrowest channel, but our greatest chance."

"If we can't stop them here, the rest of Ninjago will fall like dominos." Garmadon added.

"Karlof not like to lose, Karlof fueled!" Karlof exclaimed.

Emma chuckled. "Yeah!"

"Then we have one day to save tomorrow." Sensei Wu concluded.

Everyone let out a cheer, now ready to fight the battle with Chen and his army.

0o0o0

By now, the elemental masters had gathered support and were now at the Corridor of Elders, waiting for Chen and his army to come.

"Alright guys, our masters need our help. We have to be ready to defend them and their home. We'll stay in the back in case the Anacondrai pass. But, air support, you are allowed to attack when they come. Are you guys ready?!" Jade exclaimed as she stood in front of the protectors.

All the protectors let out a cheer as some of them activated their powers.

Jade chuckled and looked up at the sky. She was upset that Xander and Minda had to go before the battle, not giving the protector any time to say her goodbyes.

She suddenly felt something tap against her leg. Looking down, she noticed that it was the boy that she had saved way back when the Stone Warriors were terrorizing Ninjago City.

"Max!" Jade said happily and bent down. "You've grown a but since the last time I saw you."

"Yeah! I've missed you, where have you been?" Max asked as he gave Jade a hug to which she returned.

"Let's just say...I've been out of the city. So, are you here to help fight?" Jade asked as she pulled away.

"Yeah!" Max exclaimed, raising a wooden sword that he had in his left hand.

Jade chuckled and ruffled his hair before standing up. "Then let's do this!"

Suddenly, the ground began to rumble beneath them.

"They're coming..." Jade mumbled as she got into a fighting position.

She looked to her left to see that the other protectors were ready for battle. She then looks to her right to see both Edmund and Max and fighting stances.

Edmund glanced over at Jade and gave her a quick smile. "Let's do this."

Jade nodded and looked ahead to see Lloyd create a line in front of him using an energy beam before turning towards the other fighters.

"We fight for each other. We fight as one!" Lloyd stated.

Everyone let out a cheer.

"Hold..the...line." Lloyd ordered, raising his hand up.

Everyone quickly got into a fighting stance. Some of the protectors flew up into the air and remained where they were.

"Hold the line." Lloyd repeated as the Anacondrai headed towards them.

Jade let out a growl as she transformed into her wolf form while Edmund shifted to his (snake-like) cat form.

With the other protectors, Emma turned herself into metal while Blitz crouched down. Other protectors got into fighting stances.

"Hold!"

Suddenly, some of the Anacondrai fell into a hole in front of the fighters.

"Now!" Lloyd ordered.

Zane stepped forward and froze the hole.

Jade waited until an Anacondrai came before tackling them to the ground. Growling, she set herself on fire, scaring the serpent below her.

The Anacondrai let out a yelp and quickly pushed Jade off him, slithering backwards and away from her.

To her left, Jade noticed that Max needed a bit of her help. She slowly crept up behind the Anacondrai he was fighting and froze him.

The continued to fight until all the Anacondrai had retreated.

Jade turned back to her human form before looking at the fighters. She saw that they were now trying to push back their opponent while the opposing side did the same.

"Hm.." Jade mumbled as she decided that they didn't need her help at the moment.

But that decision changed when noticed a few bladecopters in the sky.

Jade's eyes widened and she cupped her hands over her mouth before letting out a howl.

This caught the attention of Emma who immediately flew over to the protector.

"Try and stop them. We can't let them get to the city. Gather help if you need to." Jade explained.

Emma nodded and let out a caw before flying towards the Bladecopters and attacking some of them.

"Jade! Look out!"

Said protector turned around to see an Anacondrai heading towards her. Startled, Jade stood there. Unsure what to do.

Before the Anacondrai could attack her, Edmund came and attacked the Anacondrai.

Jade stood there for a moment before shaking her head. "Thanks Edmund!" She yelled before taking off to attack a few more Anacondrai.

After awhile, Jade was starting to get tired but made sure to keep the Anacondrai from gaining an advantage.

"Watch out!"

Jade looked to see that one of the statues was falling towards the fighters. Quickly she ran over and created a forcefield, preparing to feel the statue hit it. But to her surprise, it didn't.

Opening her eyes, she saw that Gravis and Alice had used their power to stop the statue from falling on the fighters.

Jade let out a sigh of relief before making her forcefield disappear and ran back to her position. There, she noticed that the Anacondrai had crossed the line and were coming in numbers.

"Shoot..." Jade mumbled before letting out another howl.

Once she gained the attention of some of the protectors, Jade gestured to the Anacondrai. "We have to stop them!"

Suddenly, Jade was tackled to the ground.

The protector let out a yelp and looked up to see an Anacondrai, his sword raised and ready to strike. Out of instinct, she closed her eyes and held her hands up as a defensive mechanism.

Suddenly, the area around Jade had changed. Instead of the canyon that she was once in, she was in a forest that was covered in snow. Confused the sudden change of feeling of the ground, Jade opened her eyes and looked around. She saw that the Anacondrai and protectors were still in the area, but the fighters were different and the protectors looked a bit younger.

Instead of the ninja and citizens, it was the past Elemental Masters who were fighting.

"What the...?" Jade said before she felt herself splitting up.

Suddenly, she had split up into the five wolves.

Phoebe looked over at her sisters and nodded towards them.

As if knowing what to do, the wolves immediately starting attacking the nearby Anacondrai.

Dusty let out a bark to which Flare responded with another bark. Flare lowered her back while Dusty ran towards her from behind. Dusty then jumped up and lightly jumped onto Flare, who gave the earth wolf a boost in the air.

Dusty then pounded the ground as she landed, causing a rock to lift a couple of Anacondrai in the air.

Frostbite quickly froze a few while Storm electrocuted the rest.

Phoebe looked around, having to be surrounded by Anacondrai. She smirked and created an energy orb, she then let out a bark. Making the energy orb to explode.

The Anacondrai let out a yelp as they were thrown to the ground.

Phoebe took this as a chance to escape and ran towards her sisters. As she ran, Phoebe let out a bark which caught the attention of all four of them.

Meanwhile, the ninja were continuing to hold off the Anacondrai. They couldn't see what the protectors were seeing so it confused them when they suddenly began to attack aggressively. That and the fact that all of the protectors' eyes were glowing according to their master's element.

Except for Jade, who's eyes were rapidly changing color to represent each of the ninja.

"What's gotten into Lloyd and the protectors?!" Zane asked frantically as he and Kai, along with the others, continued to push back the Anacondrai.

"I don't know, but it's too late! We can't stop them now!" Kai answered.

Everyone continued to fight and hold off the Anacondrai.

Jade growled as she clawed at one of the Anacondrai, causing blood to deep out from his wound.

While she wasn't looking, one of the Anacondrai Warriors tackled Jade from behind.

Jade yelped as she was thrown to the ground once again. Turning around, the Anacondrai didn't hesitate to attack and managed to cut the side of Jade's face. The Anacondrai continued to attack the protector, who was trying her best to protect herself, when they suddenly heard a roar.

From above, a familiar silver dragon flew in and grabbed the Anacondrai with its claws, throwing him to the ground.

Jade slowly got up and looked at the dragon, identifying it almost immediately. It was Xander.

Suddenly, everyone had stopped fighting and looked up towards the sky to see a figure as well as a blue beam of light.

Jade changed from her wolf form, which she was previously in, and reverted back to her human form. "Is that...Garmadon?"

She watched as a purple light, presumably Garmadon, traveled upwards along the blue light and into what seemed to be a portal of some sort.

The purple light shown a bit brighter before it disappeared and along came 7 green figures out of the portal. They floated around the Bounty for a moment before reading towards the army.

Jade let out a small gasp of fear, unsure what the figured were or what they were going to do.

It turns out the Anacondrai Generals were cursing Chen and his army.

Jade smiled as the army was being cursed and taken to the portal. She looked to her left to see that Edmund had returned to normal.

Once all of Chen's army, including Chen himself, was in the portal it had closed off.

There was a moment of silence before everyone started cheering.

"We did it!" Jade cheered as she jumped in the air.

When she landed, Edmund had caught her.

Jade looked at Edmund and gave him a hug. "You're back to normal!"

Edmund smiled. "Yeah and we defeated Chen's army!"

"Well, the Anacondrai Generald did but we helped!"

The two chuckled until they heard something land behind them.

Jade turned and gasped. "Xander!"

She quickly jumped out of Edmund's grasp and ran over to hug the silver dragon. As Jade hugged him, Xander turned back to his human form to return the gesture.

The two remained like that until they finally pulled away.

"I thought you left." Jade said, breaking the silence.

"I couldn't just leave without saying goodbye to my best friend." Xander stated with a smile to which Jade returned.

Jade then looked to her left to see that the other protectors had gathered.

"Excuse me...I need to say a few things to the other protectors. Do you mind?" Jade asked.

Xander shook his head. "Not at all."

"Thanks."

Xander watched as Jade ran over to the others and began to speak to them. He let out a sigh.

"It's going to be hard to say goodbye, isn't it?"

Xander looked behind him to see Minda standing as she slightly leaned against the Elemental Staff.

Xander let out another sad sigh. "Yeah...I just want to know if I'll ever be able to see her again."

Minda walked over and placed a comforting hand on Xander's shoulder. "Don't worry, I have a feeling you'll see her again."

Xander smiled.

"Come now, we have to go." Minda said.

"Alright, just let me say my goodbye's to Jade." Xander said as he walked over to the protector who was laughing with Emma.

"It's funny how we fought against each other in the beginning and now we're friends." Emma said.

Jade nodded. "Yeah, I- Oh, hi Xander! What do you need?"

Xander gave Jade a sad look which made the protector frown.

"Oh..."

Xander nodded.

Jade instantly hugged Xander, burying her face into his chest.

"I'm going to miss you..." Jade said, muffled.

"I'm going to miss you to..." Xander replied, resting his chin on Jade's head.

Jade pulled away, wiping away a few tears that had formed.

"Aw...don't cry." Xander said as he gave her a reassuring smile.

Jade chuckled in a sad tone. "How can I not? After finally meeting you again, you have to leave me once more. This time, I don't know if we'll ever see each other again. I just don't want to lose a friend again..."

Xander let out a light chuckle. "Don't worry, I'll keep in touch with you. Okay?"

Jade gave a slow nod.

Xander sighed and pulled Jade into another hug. Jade slowly returned the favor and everything became silent.

"Hey, I have something for you." Xander said, pulling away.

"What is it?"

Xander smiled and handed Jade her purple cloak.

"My cloak..."

"Yeah, you sort of forgot it. Again."

Jade smiled and looked up at Xander, pushing the cloak towards him. "I think you should keep it so you can remember me."

"Xander let's go!"

"That's my cue..." Xander mumbled.

"One last hug before you go..." Jade said and gave Xander a quick hug before pulling away.

Xander have Jade a sad grin. "See you later..."

He then changed into his dragon form and picked up Minda before the two disappeared into the sky.

Jade watched them go, tears threatening to spill. "Goodbye...my guardian..."

0o0o0

On top of a statue, Nya, Sensei Wu, Misako, the Ninja, and Jade were gathered around a fire.

Lloyd had the spell book in his hand as he looked at the fire in front of him. Misako walked over and placed a hand over her son's shoulder.

"To the Anacondrai, the greatest warriors of their time." Kai said, breaking the silence.

"Yeah! And now it's our turn to make our ancestors proud!" Jay said, happily.

"Because we're proud of those who were here before us." Lloyd stated. "To show us the way. Goodbye, father..."

Everyone bowed their heads in respect.

"His loss, will affect us all." Sensei Wu said.

"Not his loss, his life. He made us stronger and brought us together." Misako corrected as she and the others looked up towards the sky for a moment.

"I am Lloyd Garmadon, son of Lord Garmadon."

"Student, of Sensei Garmadon."

"He made me who I am today. He was my father, he was adversary, but in the end he was my friend." Lloyd stated as he glanced down towards the fire.

"Because of him, we will live to see tomorrow." Zane said.

"and for every tomorrow, we'll live to honor it." Kai added.

At that moment, Lloyd tossed the spell book into the fire.

Jade's eyes glowed a fiery red as she made the flames increase in size. Her eyes changed back to normal as she looked at the others, who had turned to look at Garmadon's statue that was being built in honor of him.

Jade smiled and joined the group.

"And because of him, we'll be ready for whatever comes next." Jay stated.

"Skeletons, snakes, Nindroids, and Anacondrai wannabe's. If they can't stop us, what can?" Cole questioned with a smile on his face.

"That's for tomorrow to decide. Today we say goodbye, to a legend." Lloyd answered.

Jade smiled and castes her glance to the sky. "We also say goodbye...to a friend." She whispered.


*Is in the middle of crying* Oh...uh...I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. I apologize if you didn't...Sorry for not updating for a whole week, I've been sort of stressed out and my brain just decided to not give me inspiration. That's why this chapter kind of sucked..Anywho, thanks for the birthday cupcake, KRR! :D To answer your question(s) BubbleEwa, Minda was Jade's caretakers when she was little and yes, the wolves were in human form when they hugged. Oh and Happy Late Halloween! Ok, so I saw something on Friday that made my day. I was helping out at my old Elementary School when I saw someone dressed as Jay (but he had Zane's symbol XP) and a red ninja. I freaked out and took a picture of the kid. XD I also became friends with the red ninja and asked him if he knew Ninjago. He told me that he used to watched it and I was like, "I watch it everyday. It's my life." XD Anywho, I'm also thinking of creating a Ninjago RP forum because I've been in the role playing mood for awhile. *shrugs* I'm also thinking of writing another Ninjago story. YES! TIME TO WRITE SEASON 5! Until next time! (#TeamKai)

Question to my fellow ninja: If the ninja were animals, what do you they would be?

~AI