GAH I'M LATE AGAAAAAAAIN. Sorry for like, hardly a twenty-four hour wait, but here you go!
Gimungus thanks to Grammarosprey, ProfessorYeti, and ColdWaterChicken for reviewing! You guys are too nice...
Grammarosprey— *slowly slides cookie back* Thank you, but I'll stick to my outline, thanks. XD Though, I suppose that would be a bit more interesting! Haha yes, I totally agree with you there, but it's a kids show... so I guess the writers kinda get away with it? Thank you for reviewing!
ColdWaterChicken— Ah, OK. Sounds frustrating! I would be down in the dumps too. But thank you, I love writing Zane (along with everyone else, Jay is my ultimate favorite, hence the name) and I'm glad you like reading! Oh, I'm sure a lot of people on this website care, it just depends on the people you talk to. ;) Thank you for reviewing!
ColdWaterChicken (2)— Cool! Yes, since my mother and grandmother are piano teachers me and my brother get lessons for free, so we have to, but I love doing it (I'm currently playing Für Elise!). Haha, I meant Conya, which is Cole and Nya, but yes, I agree with you there too. I'm just not a homosexual, um, supporter? It's not right.
. . .
Kai.
Kai's eyes opened slowly, and he blinked repeatedly to focus. His eyelids were heavy, and felt as if they were coated in molasses. His legs were numb, his arms were sore, Cole was snoring a few feet away, and he couldn't see a thing.
"Kai."
There it was, that voice again. His eyes opened fully, and he forced his sore arms to prop him up so he could look around. The fire was completely dead. The rest of his team and his sensei were still fast asleep, Jay at his head, and Wu, Cole, and Zane at his feet. No one else had heard the voice, but he had, because he knew that voice.
"Kai!"
And there she was, standing a few yards off. Her raven hair was still neat and cropped to her chin, her sea-blue eyes dim in the dark but wide nonetheless, and still in her ruby red kimono. He stood up, wobbly but forcing the blood to flow back in his legs so he could stand properly.
"Is that..."
"I have to go," she told him. Then she whipped around, and booked it.
"Nya! Wait up!" he whisper-yelled, trying not to wake his sleeping comrades. He chased his sister through the dense woods of the Forest of Tranquility, but he nearly lost sight of her in the dark. "Slow down... why are you running so fast?"
Then he burst into a clearing.
"Nya, where are you?"
In front of him stood an ominous, blazing volcano, just at the edge of the woods. Lava poured from the mouth of the volcano, pooling into a sea of the stuff, flowing into massive rivers surrounding him, and blocking his path to the volcano. A single rotting, crumbling stone bridge was in front of him, crossing one of those rivers, and leading right to a building settled into the mountain.
Kai knew what that building was. It was where he and his team were headed, where the Sword of Fire laid.
The Fire Temple, he thought. She must've gone in there.
He crossed the bridge, the unsettling warmth of the lava basking the whole area. It was a weird warmth, not comforting like his forge at home. But, kinda terrifying, like an omen of death. He didn't care for it.
The door creaked open, revealing a temple overrun with lava. At the end of the room was the sword, but he was focused on his sister, who stood directly in front of it.
He grinned. "Nya!"
"Don't worry. I'm... right here... brother."
But, she changed, her voice distorting into one that chilled him through his skin into his bones. Her body shifted into the large shadow of a man with hollow eyes. Kai took a step back, horrified. The shadow's wicked laugh echoed through the temple.
"Garmadon," Kai realized, reaching for his katana— but his fingers didn't reach anything.
The shadow sneered. "Forgot something?"
"You can't hurt me here," he took another step beck. "You're banished! Trapped in the Underworld!"
"And that is why you are going to remove the Sword of Fire for me."
Kai growled. "I don't think so!"
"Are you sure about that?"
A rattle of chains was heard, and Nya (the real Nya, he hoped) was lowered over a pool of magma. Metal chains were wrapped around her midsection, leaving her feet dangling just above the scalding liquid. He could see in her eyes that she was glad to see him alright, but in their situation, it just wasn't the time.
"Kai!" she called.
"Nya—"
Garmadon's voice again echoed through the temple, but Kai couldn't get his eyes on him. "If you don't remove the sword, how else will you cut the chains to save your precious little sister?" the shadow asked.
"You know it's a trap!" Nya cut in, tugging furiously at her chains. "I can... free... myself—" her hands slipped, but the chains wouldn't budge. "Okay, that's right."
Then her chains dipped closer to the lava, and she screamed.
Kai couldn't bear it. He rushed forward out of instinct, closer to the sword.
"Tick tock, tick tock..." Garmadon teased. Kai slowed down for a mere moment, then front-flipped forwards and pulled the Sword of Fire from its Excalibur-esque resting place in one swift movement. He used his fiery Spinjitzu to slice Nya free, and catch her, bringing them both down safely on the other side.
"Stay close," he told her.
Nya huffed. "Trust me, I'm not going anywhere."
. . .
Somewhere, in the back of Cole's mind, he knew something was wrong. Something was going to go wrong, he knew it, but he had been so caught up in celebrating their victories, he had ignored his gut.
He wasn't exactly sure what had woken him up that night, whether it had been a noise he hadn't fully processed or something shook him, but whatever the case, his sleep-addled brain had told him to wake up. His eyes opened, and though his vision was still foggy, he could clearly see two bony feet standing just in front of him.
Cole shot up instantly, reaching for his scythe— but it wasn't there. Another Skulkin wove it smugly a few yards away. Glancing at his surroundings, he knew immediately what happened.
The Skulkins had raided their camp. The Golden Weapons were gone, along with Kai and Wu, and he could see Jay and Zane struggling under tightly-knotted ropes.
He gulped. He wasn't sure why they had left him for last, but it certainly reminded him of his failure as a leader.
. . .
"You can't hurt us! You're only a shadow!"
Garmadon's chilling laugh rang through the temple once again. "Even shadows have their uses."
Kai started when his own dormant shadow started to move, now sporting crimson eyes that told him it was under Garmadon's control. It phased past them and stood in front of him, brandishing the phantom of the Sword of Fire.
Nya gasped. "Kai, look out!"
Shadow Kai swung his sword— a bit clumsily, but he could tell it still had power behind it— and Kai pushed Nya farther behind him. "Stay back, Nya," he told her.
"Stay close, stay back, make up your mind!"
Kai took a few swings at the shadow, but his sword phased right through it. Then Shadow Kai through three well-aimed kicks at his stomach, and Kai could definitely feel a force behind those. The air was knocked completely out of him and his breathing spasmed as he tumbled backwards.
His sister gasped behind him, then turned furiously to the shadow. "That's not fair!"
"Oh. Am I being too harsh?" Garmadon asked, just as Shadow Kai multiplied, a long line of shadows exactly the same materializing behind the first one.
Kai growled, getting up and running headfirst into them all, swinging uselessly at them with his sword, only to get beat up by them right after. Eventually, he dropped his sword, and it fell to the stone floor with a clang. One of the shadows reached down and picked it up, raising it victoriously over its head...
When it was suddenly knocked down. In the middle of them stood a shadow of Sensei Wu, who really stood on the opposite side of the room. He knocked out most of the shadows with his own, and scared away the rest with a grand shadow of a falcon he made with his hands. Once the sword was free, he ran over, and took it himself.
"Brother," Garmadon's shadow snarled. "I see you protect one, but what of the other three?"
"They are safe. Far from your grasp, Garmadon," Wu replied.
He sneered. "I wouldn't be so confident."
And then, Garmadon showed them a scene with Cole, Zane, and Jay tied up, suspended from a tree, and Samukai with three of the four Golden Weapons. Sensei Wu frowned.
"My brother must not unite the four weapons," he said. "We must keep them apart."
The three of them headed to the center of the temple, when Garmadon bellowed, "Awaken, guardian of the deep! They're stealing the sword! You must not let them escape."
The head of a dragon the same as the earth dragon, the lightning dragon, and the ice dragon from before rose out of the lava. Its scales were the color of rubies and carnelians, its eyes slits of black surrounded by yellow, and its long, sharp teeth glinted in the dim light of the temple lava. It was more of a wyvern than a dragon, similar to the one they faced in the Frozen Wasteland.
It roared, and Nya screamed, and its massive tail caused stone to seal the entrance and trap them inside.
"There's no way out," Kai realized. "He's taken away all our options."
Sensei Wu bowed his head. "All, but one."
To Kai, the rest of what just happened came in a blur. Wu made a dash for the open tunnel opposite of the entrance, where all the lava pooled into who-knows-where. He let himself float on a loose chunk of rock, where he sat down cross-legged with the sword on his lap.
"If he is to bring the other weapons here, then I will take the Sword of Fire to the Underworld," he explained. "It is my sacrifice to bear."
Kai was at a loss for words. "No, it's mine! I shouldn't have come on my own," he argued, practically begging his sensei to stay. He didn't know what to do without him... Wu had done so much for him. "You don't have to do this! There has to be another way!"
But, Wu didn't answer. Instead, he pulled out his signature holly blue teapot, and poured himself a cup, before his chunk of rock fell down the tunnel. Garmadon followed him suit, and Kai fell to his knees. The hot stone burned his palms, but he didn't care.
"It's all my fault. Sensei won't be able to hold up for long," Kai told his sister.
Nya chuckled nervously. "Forget Sensei. What about us?"
Oh, that's right. The dragon.
. . .
"Why didn't you wake me up?"
"For the last time, we were focused on other things—"
"You could've warned me! I could've grabbed my weapon before they caught me and gotten the upper hand on them!"
Cole went silent as a wave of dizziness rushed over him. The blood had run completely to his head, and he was sure Zane felt the same way, because they were upside-down, and Jay was not.
While the Skulkins were cheering for themselves, they had hung the three ninja, who were tied a little bit closer to each other than they'd consider comfortable, from the branch of a nearby conifer. Cole and Zane were tied the opposite way Jay was, and he just had to be the one hung upside-down.
I'm pretty sure he deserves some of this, Cole though glumly, choosing to ignore the pressure building in his head. But, then his attention was drawn to the Skulkin leader.
Samukai raised the golden scythe, nunchucks, and shurikens that were held in three of his four bony hands over his head, and leered. "To the Fire Temple!" he announced.
The Skulkins cheered.
"My brother has taken the Sword of Fire to the Underworld," a new voice told Samukai. Garmadon? Cole wondered. "Hurry! Return home and unite the weapons before it's too late!"
Samukai was silent as the shadow took off. He turned to his army. "Uh... change of plans. To the Underworld!"
The Skulkin army hopped on their vehicles and drove off, most likely to where Garmadon had told them: the Underworld. Cole coughed, the pressure in his head growing unbearable.
"Great! Now what?"
Jay chuckled, struggling with something in his hands. "Er... now, we get outta here!" He pulled out an all-too-familiar Skulkin sword, one he must have snatched from a skeleton when it wasn't watching. Cole and Zane's eyes widened.
"Uh... Jay?" Cole began slowly. "Before you do that, you might wanna—"
Without waiting to listen, Jay cut them down, and they collapsed on top of each other in the dirt. Cole— again— was on the bottom.
"—warm us."
Zane got up first, and pointed to where the Skulkins had gone. "Let's go!"
The three pulled their masks down over their faces and got moving. By jumping from tree to tree, they eventually caught up with the Skulkin trucks. Cole slowed the main truck down, giving Jay and Zane enough time to hop on and wrestle with the skeletons. Zane knocked two off the truck, then Jay knocked off two, then Jay spun into a raging blue tornado and knocked off two more. He tried to free the Golden Weapons from their spot locked at the back of the truck, but nearly broke his knuckles trying.
Cole used the blunt end of his scythe to fight a group of Skulkins, when a flash out of the corner of his eye drew his attention and he swung it back into his attacker's throat...
"Hey Cole— ack."
When he coughed in surprise, however, Cole realized in horror that he had hit Jay. He was lucky Cole hadn't used all of his strength in that swing.
"Jay! Sorry, I didn't see you," he replied quickly. Jay's voice was raspy and incoherent, so he only nodded, shooting him a thumbs-up.
Despite the ninja's valiant efforts, the Skulkin truck was headed straight for a tall, rocky plateau, and it sped up considerably. The three were thrown off the truck, forced to watch, lying in the mud, as the vehicle sped through a fiery portal to the Underworld.
A clap of thunder was heard, and rain began to sprinkle from the dark clouds in the air. Cole stared helplessly where the trucks had disappeared.
"We dih— ack, nt stahp them..." Jay rasped, clutching his throat.
Cole sighed. "You don't need to say it. I know. We've lost.
. . .
"Easy, easy there, buddy," Nya cooed, placing a gentle hand on the wyvern's warm scales. "We're on your side."
The dragon made a noise deep in his throat, but not a threatening noise. He lowered his massive carnelian head and poked Nya playfully in the shoulder with his nose.
Kai chuckled, caressing one of the dragon's wings. Once Wu and Garmadon left, the dragon had, almost instantly, cooled off. He didn't immediately attack him and his sister, and Kai hoped he never would, because they hadn't done anything to harm him. It was kinda funny, he was just like any dog or cat, because all he wanted from them was attention.
Nya sighed. "What are you gonna do?"
Kai hesitated. "I don't know. If Sensei Wu and Garmadon and the Skulkins are all in the Underworld, what can we do? I'm stuck up here. Mortals can't go there, and even if Sensei did, I'm pretty sure he's not entirely mortal."
"But... but remember what our parents told us about dragons?" she continued.
He scoffed. "That they can travel through realms? I've seen some crazy things this past week, and... I guess if dragons even do exist, what's there to lose?"
Nya grinned. "I—"
"Wait! Listen..."
Kai looked to the entrance of the temple, or what used to be the entrance, and heard voices. Familiar voices, three very familiar voices. He grinned.
"Get on the dragon."
"What?"
"Just do it! My team's here, lemme hoist you up..."
The wyvern realized what they were doing, and lowered himself so they could climb on, acting as if he had done this a million times and enjoyed it. Kai sat closest to the dragon's long neck, and Nya sat behind him, when Kai remembered something.
"Oh, yeah," he turned to his sister. "Jay's crazy for you, even if he hasn't met you yet. Just a warning."
Nya looked shocked. "Really?"
Then, Kai recognized the voice closest to the door. It was Cole.
"Ugh, great. The one place no mortal can cross over."
. . .
"We might not be able to cross over..."
Jay jumped. Was that... Kai? But, Zane just said that he was in the Underworld!
The Fire Temple suddenly opened up from the sides like a sort of dollhouse, revealing a dragon guardian just like the last three they had to deal with. But, once the smoke cleared, Jay saw Kai sitting on top of it, and, clutching his midsection, must have been his kidnapped younger sister.
She looked just like Kai, like, just like him. She had the same fiery eyes, cocky grin, and determined expression as their hotheaded roommate. Her hair was darker than Kai's, however, nearly black, and cut to her chin. Jay found himself struggling to get his eyes off her. Was he really that taken?
"...but a dragon can!" Kai finished.
The creature roared, and Cole jumped about fifteen feet in the air, let out a startled shriek, and ran behind an outcropping of rock. Jay would've laughed if his throat wasn't so sore.
"Our father used to tell us stories about the dragons," Kai's sister explained. "They were mystical creatures that belonged to both worlds and ferried between them."
"Wha— are you insane?" Cole sputtered.
Kai laughed. "Once he realized we were trying to protect the Sword of Fire, he actually became quite the softie," the dragon poked at Kai with his snout, making him laugh even more. "Knock it off!"
Nya giggled, and Jay turned to her. Now was his chance, he— he had to ask her.
"D'yoo ike bloo?" Jay rasped. He coughed, cheeks flushed.
Zane stepped in. "He cannot talk, but he wants to know if you like blue."
Jay nodded, grinning up at her hopefully. Thanks, Zane.
Nya smiled back, though she looked a little puzzled. "It's my favorite color."
"Yes!"
Kai rolled his eyes, but he turned to his sister, suddenly sullen. "Nya..."
She frowned. "This is goodbye, isn't it?"
He nodded.
"Come back to me in one piece, okay?" she asked, smiling weakly. "I don't wanna have to run the store on my own."
Kai hopped back on the dragon. "I promise, I won't be gone long."
"I'll keep a candle lit outside our shop until you return."
Jay and Zane climbed up on the dragon as well, but Cole stayed back.
"Uh, you guys go on ahead," he proposed. "There's not enough room for all of us on that... thing..."
But Kai grinned, almost wickedly. "You're right, Cole. But I've got a way to fix that."
. . .
Next chapter it gets even more exciting! I will get into more of how they tamed the dragons and, y'know, became friends with them.
Thank you for reading! And please review!