I know that normally, I split up each adventure that I do into multiple chapters. I thought about doing that for this one, too. But whenever I did, I only ended up with about two in my head. And neither of them were that long. So, I decided to combine them into one long chapter. The last chapter for this book. The last adventure I've had until now. I've been writing this for a long time, and this was the last part of everything Harumi set into motion. Everything was about to come to a head here. Let's finish this.
Normally, I'd say something about being upset that I let myself think we were at peace ever since we defeated my father. But the entire time that we were waiting for this to happen, my father's words hadn't left me. I don't know why, but I felt that something was coming. Ever since this started, everything came back to the First Realm. Harumi revived my father with the Oni Masks. The ninja and Wu went to the First Realm to save themselves from Garmadon, and it was by the dragon's power that they managed to get back. My father was brought back as the Oni blood that he had. And when Wu got back, he said they enver found the Oni, even if Iron Baron claimed to have fought them to gain the respect of the dragon hunters. Even before my father and I foguth, I should have known one day, I'd have to face the Oni.
Of course, that wasn't what was on my mind the entire time that we were waiting for something to happen. I was busy helping the city. Everyone was praising us for helping, but I felt guilty. I'd been part of why this all happened, so being praised for it, didn't feel right. It wasn't right of the city to give me praise after Garmadon had only come back thanks to me. So I tried my best to help out. I mainly worked with going around Ninjago and helping out with the villages that the SOg had spread out to and still had locked down. It seemed that Harumi had built up a network all over, just to make sure that the main force in Ninjago City would be able to operate without them. The number of villages I had to fight to free was more than it should have been.
During all of this, Wu declared he wanted to rebuild the Monastery. He said after connecting to his father's realm again, he wanted to honor his legacy and remake the home that he'd spent his life in. I know until now, I've talked about it in a weird sort of way. I think that's because I didn't have a connection to the Monastery. Again, I was the one that burnt it down, so I never even spent a day in it. The ninja knew it as their first home too, but it was Wu that had the most connection to it. Wu said he didn't want to wait, that we had to go and do this now before our time ran out for it. I don't know what time was running out, but the ninja said Wu was still feeling like his younger self. Of course we helped build it when he asked.
Rebuilding the Monastery was an odd experience. Until now, we'd lived in the Bounty. It was sort of the final nail in the coffin to Yang's Temple… which, we still sorta just abandoned. We had barely even moved into it when we left. Cole said he went and talked to Yang or something, but I still think that was a lot better of a base. We could move it wherever we wanted, after all, and it was useful to just move to a location and use the Bounty to go somewhere faster. Plus… that temple was huge. I don't want to knock the Monastery, but Wu rebuilt it, really small. After saving Ninjago, I was sorta hoping to get my own room. We have to share. I mean, they're my friends so it's not like I'm mad but… come on Wu, you couldn't have just built a little more in there? Just one more room?
Well, either way, when we worked to rebuild it, Wu said he also wanted to commemorate our history. After everything that happened, we needed a record of it. Again, the ninja said that Wu was still feeling young. I don't think I ever really minded, though. Having Wu back, and having him act less… cryptic and vague than usual was refreshing. It was like he almost understood us more, which I don't think I can complain about. We all pooled together everything we remembered about our previous adventures, and that's how we made it. We gave all we had to some painters that Wu brought on, and Wu went about making everything for us.
Wu declared that from now on, we'd honor our legacy. He even made us new ninja suits that were sort of like a fusion between our first ones and the new ones we had. I liked them, but they were a little weird. He kept saying they were legacy, but, they weren't? They were new suits. I mean, I remember during Day of the Departed, we had some new suits that were closer to that sorta thing. I mean, I guess it doesn't matter, I'm just overthinking things.
While we rebuilt the Monastery, the city was rebuilding. I heard Nya say that construction companies get a lot of money from all our adventures, and I'm sure that's true after seeing what Garmadon did to the city while he was in a rampage. It wasn't even a full day, and he destroyed several blocks just swinging that Colossus around. I'm just thankful that most people had already fled the city when that happened. I was serious about what I told Harumi about making more of her. I didn't want my father to make other people suffer. Jay and I have talked about why people still want to live in Ninjago City when it gets wrecked up every few months… and I guess it's like why we always rebuild the Bounty. Even if it's doomed to fall, we like to have something we can call our own. Each time we rebuild, we get stronger. Oddly, the Oni didn't actually destroy the city, just froze it. So I guess this time, the people got out of that one.
While we were talking about the murals, Jay started going on about how he and Nya remembered fighting this Djinn that was a pirate named Nadakhan, and that he had broken into our vault in Hiroshi's Labyrinth. We decided as a group that we wanted to have all of our artifacts somewhere safe so that we couldn't get them stolen from us without our knowing. So, when Borg came to us asking if we could do something, we pitched him an idea. A few days later, Borg had already worked in a full high tech vault into his new plans for Borg Tower's reconstruction.
Oh yeah, Borg. I don't know why, but when all this started, he just disappeared. I… assumed Garmadon might have killed him at first. I know that sounds dark, but he didn't show up at Kryptarium. I think he said that Garmadon just had him prisoner inside Borg Tower and didn't let anyone know about it, since he could be an asset, something like that. I guess that makes some sense, but anyways. This is important, since it meant that everything we had was now inside Borg Tower.
All the time that we spent rebuilding, I thought about what happened. I was messed up from Harumi and Mystake. My father had left me with words that meant I couldn't relax. I couldn't get what he said out of my head. I couldn't relax. The ninja kept trying to get me to do something, and even when I did, it didn't help. I couldn't help it. After everything that happened, I couldn't just go back to normal. Harumi had destroyed everything about me and… just putting it back together so I could be the Green Ninja again was easy to do when I was fighting my father. Now that I had to go back to normal… I couldn't.
I couldn't stop thinking about Harumi. I still can't. I know that I've talked about it before, but I don't want to make it seem like I moved on. I can't help but feel guilty over her. If I have regrets in life, she's one of the biggest ones. I know that I couldn't have helped her, she did that to herself. She… she put herself in harm's way like that. And she worked to bring my father back. But I know she was only like that because of me. Because of what I did, all the way back when I was a kid. I know that I can't help what happened to her.
That was also when it set in that Mystake had left us. I didn't really feel it at first, during everything. I was hurt, sure, but I was hurting over a lot. That was when I started to, feel guilty that I didn't get to know her more. I wanted to know more about her, but I never would. It was like Harumi. I could only do so much to try to get past them, but it didn't help. I was just going to keep feeling this way. Keep feeling, bad like this. I was messed up and… I don't think I'm all that okay now either. Knowing the last time I saw Mystake was when I was sending her off to go and deceive my father, and that the last thing I saw of Harumi was…. I don't want to think about it.
I knew one thing, though: it was all my father's fault. I'd come to accept that he wasn't the man that I knew him as. I know that he's technically my father. He's, the man that he once was, in a way. But Harumi hadn't brought him back in a way I could remember. He wasn't, the man that I wanted. And so, I didn't want to see him as my father. I think that's why I kept trying to call him Garmadon in my chapters. I wanted to, well, not think about him. But I can't. I can't help but see him as my father. And that's… that's why I hate him so much. I hate what he did to me. What he was planning to do to me… and that I was willing to listen to him.
Right before this all started, he called me to his cell to talk to him. They really didn't spare anything with designing his cell. From what I heard, the guards were terrified of him. He had changed since being put in prison. Everything about him had changed. I don't know why. Maybe without the fight to fuel him, he had to do something else. But I know that when I came to talk to him, he wasn't angry. He almost seemed… like a bit of his old self. He was toying with me the entire time. He wasn't frowning much at all. He wanted to cause trouble by making me doubt myself. I know that was true. And so when he started talking to me about the Oni… I listened.
Meeting him that day brought everything back that I wanted to get rid of. Just standing near him was like reminding me of being on top of Borg Tower again. I'd beaten him, but I don't think I truly defeated him. I felt that when he laughed at me, joked with me. I don't know why, but just seeing how he was always joking with me, playing with me, I almost feel sad for him. I don't know why I'm sad. But, I do. And then I get angry at him again. I don't want to hold this against him, because I know that Harumi did this to him. But that doesn't mean I could forgive him. He'd tried to kill me, he'd hunted me like an animal, murdered people, and I couldn't forget that. I wasn't going to forget that. Thanks to him, I'd never forget it.
He told me that the only way to beat back the darkness that was on its way, was to have him, an Oni, there to stop it. The Bringers of Destruction were coming. They would swallow this realm in darkness. He didn't say that exactly, but it's what Wu later confirmed. He wanted me to let him out, since I'd apparently just 'wasted time' with rebuilding things. I'd let our preparations go to waste. He said his power was all we could use to help save the city. No matter what, we'd have to stop the Oni with him, or fall without him. Again, he didn't say this exactly, but it's what he meant.
At first, I wanted to just dismiss him. I told them to leave him there. I refused to let him out to help us. He was just a shadow that I had to put behind me. I couldn't rely on him. And maybe, there was a way that I could've done this without fighting him. Maybe I could have found something to help the people. But I didn't. And that first talk… just makes me angry. Because I know that I was the one that listened to him. I didn't want to listen to him.
The minute that I left, it felt like everything was happening at once. I went back to the Monastery and found that apparently, Firstbourne had returned, carrying Faith with her. That was the first time I met her, and I could understand just from what little time I spent with her that she'd been someone that helped them. But she told Wu that the darkness was coming. Something had gone out and hurt the Firstbourne, the dragon that was the mother of, well, all of them. The Oni had apparently returned in force and swallowed up all of the dragon hunters. The Oni were on the march.
I barely had time to marvel at the fact that the city had remade the Bounty for us. I was too focused on what was happening. My father was right. Wu confirmed from her words that the Oni were on the way, and that was when we heard it. The city was under attack again. Darkness had emerged from, everywhere it seemed, and people were getting swallowed up by it. The Oni had come faster than I wanted to even think about. We had to go and help the people… when it felt like we'd just saved them already. They really shouldn't have thanked us.
When we arrived, the city was already under attack. The entire way there, I felt sick. I knew that this was something big. My father, the man who took over the city, wouldn't have been afraid of the Oni without reason. The darkness that attacked the city wasn't even the Oni itself. It was just their magic, being sent forward to clear the way for them. When I learned that… it was clear that the Oni were an actual threat. They were here to hurt us. To really, truly, take us over. And the only thing we could do at first, was just try to get the people out as fast as we could.
The first time we even faced the darkness, we couldn't do anything to it. We had just found the Commissioner and helped him and his men up onto the Bounty. We threw all of our powers at it, trying to push it back. Not even my green power did anything. Nothing was able to stop it. I could cut it with my sword, but it would just keep coming at me. It was like, a cloud that was coming to really drag everyone into it. The Oni were darkness, and wanted to make everything into their own domain. That smoke they made… it was more than enough for just that.
It felt like it was only a few minutes before the city was overtaken. I know it was less than an hour. The darkness was pouring out of the Realm Crystal in Borg's vault, and that was infecting the entire city. It turned the city into a wasteland in a matter of minutes. Everything looked sick and dead. I don't know what the Oni smoke does, but it didn't even look like the city anymore. We'd barely even heard that the Oni were coming, when this happened. It felt like hardly any time at all had passed.
All this time, I'd thought we could do this. That we could fight back the Oni. But they'd shown us without even showing up, they were stronger than us. Our powers did nothing to it. Cole was touched by it and said that it was the coldest he'd ever felt in his entire life. I could see a few people, frozen in place before the cloud got too thick. The Oni were truly taking the city over. We didn't have a choice at that point. The Oni had really come for us.
The entire way to go and get my father, I didn't want to do anything. I knew that this wasn't a smart idea. I knew that this man, changing as he was, wasn't going to be there to help us. He was there to serve his own needs, which just so happened to be clearing out the Oni. He said he could survive the darkness, but we'd succumb to it. We needed someone to help us. I'd fought so hard to get rid of him. I'd put him away. I'd had my time to try to reflect on everything and… and try to move past this. But I couldn't. I couldn't even do that. He was going to come crawling back into my life. I couldn't just leave him behind when he was the only thing that could help stop the Oni. So... I did it. I released the man that had taken over the city and… done everything to me.
Once we freed him, our first priority was getting back to the city. He insisted that he wouldn't do anything to us, and was just going around to explore. Everyone around me was tense. We all didn't want to have him on the Bounty with us. The others wanted me to tell them to put him back. I wanted to put him back. But I knew we couldn't. This threat… these Oni, they were something else. Something that had been festering inside me for too long. Ever since I'd fought him, his words were there. In my head. I couldn't let him get away.
We weren't wasting any time. Garmadon just wandered around, getting in our faces and observing our tasks. He acted, almost like a little kid. I don't know if that was an act or not. Harumi didn't bring him back to be a person. I almost think, maybe the reason he got sarcastic and angry at things was, he didn't know what else to do. I mean, that's just me making some random guesses. I'm not sure what was really going on in his head. He never let on what he was thinking. And I didn't want him there. I wanted to throw him over the ship and back into that cell. He didn't have his power… but I still didn't want him there.
After he nearly murdered us by turning off the ignition switch to send us hurtling towards the ground, I ended up having to stay by him just to keep him from doing that again. He was just there to cause trouble. He wanted to push us. He knew that we'd been the ones to defeat him… I don't know if he was testing us, or just getting petty revenge. But I had to follow him. Being near him made me feel sick. I wanted to be anywhere, but with him. I wanted to just get away. All the time. I hated it.
I think the one moment that made me really think about how Harumi had messed him up was when he demanded to go into our cabin. When he saw the pictures we had of all of us as a group, he kept asking if they were of some conquest, victory, stuff that someone who only cared about fighting would care about. It was like he couldn't understand it. Harumi hadn't bothered to care about giving him those feelings. A monster didn't need them. He found my picture of me and my father on Chen's Island, the picture I'd held onto ever since we took it. It was my memory of my father. I'd hunted it down after losing it when I went to Kryptarium. I'd spent days looking for it. I hoped, maybe, when he saw it… he'd remember.
...He smashed it. Right in front of me. He told me that sentimentality was just some weakness. Some… something I didn't need. It felt like he'd broke me when he said that. I'd hoped maybe, somehow, there was something inside him I could latch onto. He took the only picture I had to remember him by, and smashed it. I was so angry, I wanted to hit him. That was my picture. The thing I'd gotten back. And then he just… I don't know how he could do that. How he did that without even batting an eye. I hated it. I hated him. I hated having him there.
Thankfully, I didn't have to keep him around for much more. We had to get right to work. My father explained that the Realm Crystal had to be where they were coming from. If they were there, we had to destroy the thing. If we did that, we could close the breach they were using, and maybe stem the darkness. We had to destroy the thing that was in the middle of Ninjago City, which had already gotten completely swallowed up by darkness.
My father tried to say he'd go alone, but I wouldn't let him. I didn't trust him… and I think I was right to. Even if he did want to keep this realm safe for himself to conquer, I didn't know what he could do. Mystake had made clear that I was part Oni. I could survive the darkness. He insisted that was a foolish assertion to make. But I wouldn't let him sway me. I was too angry to let him. And I think I was right to be angry.
When we arrived, the darkness was already trying to come up and destroy the Bounty. It wanted to grab anything it could. Garmadon insisted that we give him a weapon and let him go down to do what we brought him out for. If it'd been any other situation, I wouldn't have let him. He was a man that was fueled by the fight. But I had to let him do this. I was prepared to go down there with him, and he was right in that he would need a weapon to destroy the crystal. So, I had Cole give him a sword. And the first thing he did was attack us.
For some reason, I knew he wasn't trying to betray us. When he managed to get us all ready to fight him, his power started to return. He was fueled by his anger and his will to win. Harumi's power she'd given him was, terrifying in a way. Like, if you think about it, as long as you fight him, he'll only get stronger. The only way to stop him is to not fight him. I knew he was drawing power from me, but he just jumped off the moment he had his power. If he could get the fight going with us, he could be ready for the bigger fight. Knowing that, I had to go after him, I couldn't let him get away. I was so angry at him, I didn't think about what would really happen to me if I couldn't survive down there. He'd just attacked my friends. He couldn't be trusted.
When I landed in the city, for the first few steps, everything seemed okay. But breathing in the smoke, made everything about me feel cold. I couldn't breathe. It was like the smoke was going inside me and making everything in me just, go numb. I could hardly even think. It was like suffocating, but without ever touching water. And all I could see in front of me was my father, playing with his power as if just seeing what he could do. I was dying a few feet from him.
I didn't do anything to stop it. I just felt my body adjusting to it. I think I had just enough Oni blood to actually make it. It wasn't enough to make me comfortable, and the air felt wrong, but I could fight and keep up with my father. Of course, the first thing he did was scold me for jumping down after him. If he thought I was going to leave him behind, he was wrong.
The city wasn't anything like I recognized. You couldn't see any sunlight. The only thing that let off any light was the purple magic that seemed to just, pulse over everything. I don't know what it was, but I knew being grabbed by it wasn't a good idea. The black tentacles that had tried to grab Cole didn't approach us at first. I think they were only there to grab things that didn't have Oni blood. I felt like at any moment, though, they'd suddenly turn and decide I was their next target. We had to get to the Realm Crystal as fast as we could.
Everyone around us was frozen. It was like the life had been drained out of them. They were pale and blue, and they had these purple veins all over them. One of the first ones I even found was Cyrus Borg. Seeing him like that was horrifying. The Oni werne't destroying people, they were poisoning them. It reminded me of when Skylor had used my father's power. It hurt anyone who touched it. I wanted to get them out of there. I demanded that we help get Borg out of there. I thought if we got him back to Wu, he could make something to help him.
To show me just how far my father had fallen, Garmadon refused. He acted like I was an idiot for wanting to. I guess, in a way, I was. It wasn't a smart idea to go and try something like drag someone who couldn't move with us on our way to destroy something the Oni were pouring out of. But just the way he spoke to me was enough to make me angry. I hated it. I hated hearing his voice. I hated how he acted like I was a child. He was the child. He was acting like all he could do was fight. All he was doing was just making me want to throw him back into his cell. But I knew I needed him.
It wasn't too deep into the darkness that we found two Oni. I'd never seen what Mystake looked like, and from what Syklor described, Mystake was the exception and not the rule. They had faces that looked like the masks, which I guess makes sense. They all looked like black creatures that'd crawled up from the abyss and tried to drag us down. They made my father look like a normal one. I wanted to sneak around, but Garmadon wouldn't let us. Instead, he marched us right to them and told me to attack.
Fighting the Oni felt like fighting my father up on top of Borg Tower. They felt like trying to hit a brick wall, and their magic was enough to throw me off my guard. I didn't even last a few seconds against them before Garmadon had to step in. They were strong enough that even my Spinjitzu just made them blink. I could barely see them too, since they blended into the darkness so well. I could really only see my own power and my father. And even that was… well. That was hard to really understand. They were powerful. And I had to be saved from them. Saved by him.
He claimed the only reason he did was because two of us were better than one. I don't know why I kept hoping there was more than that. I thought maybe ther ewas some part of him taht still cared, but that was stupid to think, apparently. I shouldn't have thought about that. He just dragged me into Borg Tower and told me to get going. We were heading right into the heart of it.
The deeper we got towards the Realm Crystal, the less and less like Ninjago it looked. Without the light, you could only see different shades of darkness. The tentacles that were coming from the Realm crystal were all over the walls, but they didn't look like shadows. It was like the closer we got to their magic, their magic was just getting stronger and stronger. I don't know why. But it was like something out of a nightmare. Being underground, with almost no light to see, and being surrounded by demons that wanted to pick you off from the shadows… I don't know how anyone can stand it.
When we finally got to the Realm Crystal, it felt like we'd been walking for hours, even if it hadn't been much time at all, really. It wasn't even the Realm Crystal at that point. It was pitch black, and shadows were just pouring from it like a fountain. The room felt like the magic was at its strongest, and I could barely breathe. Standing near the thing felt like trying to stand up when being hit with a wave. I knew that was it. That was what we had to stop.
If only it was that easy. My father tried to hit it, but that was when he emerged. The Omega. The leader of the Oni. I don't know anything about him. He was the strongest of all of the Oni, though. He tossed aside emy father like a doll, and when I tried to fight him, he punched me so hard out of Spinjitzu I felt like he'd broken all my ribs. If my father was a monster, that thing was an eldritch horror. I could barely make out what he said. All I know is he told us if we were the protectors of this realm, we would fall. And with my father, the man that had nearly killed me, beaten in just a few hits, I thought that might be possible. We were in the belly of the beast, and that thing was ready to devour us like he had everyone else in the city.
The Omega wasn't like the other Oni. He was like a wall. No matter what we did, we couldn't beat him. Normally, being beaten up is not something I'm really all that scared of, but seeing my father getting beaten up, the man that summoned the Colossus, I knew we were screwed. He shrugged a blast of my father's power, the same one that nearly blew me off Borg Tower, right off like it was something like a slap in the face. It was always that which let him throw me into the next room, where I found the Sword of Sanctuary. He also was able to completely shrug off me trying to use it on him too, in case you were wondering.
I was, however, able to destroy the Realm Crystal. It wasn't really as dramatic as I thought it would be. I don't regret doing it, even if it didn't help. Apparently, it was just opening the gate, and since the Omega was already here, it wasn't worth shutting it. I guess it was like closing off the floodgates before the flood. We had basically already lost, in his eyes.
Just to show us how outclassed we were, the Omega showed that he was the one summoning the Oni by making that weird smoke stuff just, spawn the things. That was when my father told me that we should run. We kept going through all these artifacts we'd given to Borg to keep safe. I have to remember to tell Borg to make the walls able to withstand the power my father was putting out, since he was just blowing right through each one.
The only reason we survived was because we ended up accidentally backing our way into the room with the Golden Armor. I picked it up and realized that we could use it against the Oni. And… now that I think about it… the fact I was able to touch it was, pretty stunning. I mean, I guess maybe it wasn't at full power? Like, the Golden Master had used most of its power, right? But, I dunno. I understand my father being able to hold it, since he's Oni and the FSM who made them was only part Oni. But I should have just, popped out of existence the moment I touched them. Maybe my power made me safe? I don't know. I wasn't thinking straight. We were deep underground, surrounded by Oni, and had nothing left. The fact they were cowering from the Golden Armor was important enough to just grab it and run.
We managed to get out of the building, at which point Pixal picked us up. The ninja had gone off to save the people at the NGTV station, so Pixal stayed behind to grab us. Since apparently we can't just get away without issues, she was almost out of fuel too. She even waited until we were literally being dogpiled by Oni to grab us and fly us into the air. And then nearly crashed into Borg Tower. It was kinda just, well, her adding to a tense situation. We've made sure that we never go into any battle without full fuel now.
And now… I have to address this. So, the only people that know about this are the people we saved from the NGTV building, but during the evacuation, Cole was on a ladder from helping people up. We found out earlier the switch to turn on the thrusters was wired wrong, so pushing forward made it go backwards. Nya hit it forward and caused the thruster to point right at Cole, then pulled it back and caused Cole to get blown completely off into the cloud. Given that he fell from the top of a skyscraper, and was blown off into the darkness… he should be dead.
Okay. So this is sorta like with Cole being a ghost. I want to really sit here and be respectful. I really do. But I don't know how Cole survived that. We all went into the end of this, thinking he was dead. And I was hurt. I didn't know what to think. It was like one last gut punch after everything else. And that hurt. A lot. But he didn't stay dead. And so it makes this whole episode… kinda, weird, in retrospect. What is it with Cole and nearly dying/turning into things on us?
Like, I thought about it, and I don't have much to say. I thought he died. I was hurt just like with Mystake and Harumi. He came back a few hours later. Somehow. And that's really it. I can't even really understand how he did. Nd, I feel kinda bad for saying it, cause I know that it wasn't a good experience for him. But he just was okay in the end1 how? I don't know! And just… I guess maybe I'm a bit sick of feeling like everyone around me is always in danger like that? I was already dealing with the Oni, I didn't need that on top of it.
What really made it upsetting was my father telling us to immediately start going back to work. He didn't care that Cole had died. He just brushed off everything we were feeling, and said that we had to survive. We had to take the armor and do something. It didn't matter to him that Cole had died. We were just people helping him. He didn't care. And that's when it really set in for me that he wasn't even really a person anymore. He didn't have the ability to feel things. Harumi really had just brought back a shadow of who he was. And him saying we had to keep going, that we just had to survive… I snapped at him and stormed off.
While I was grieving over Cole's (apparent) death, I had to just accept it. That Garmadon wasn't someone I could trust anymore. I couldn't even really see him as a person. It was just, a shell of who he was. He wasn't even really my father, but I saw him that way. I thought of him as my father. And that angered me. We'd lost to the Omega, barely survived, Cole was gone, and all of Ninjago was going to get covered in darkness and get completely swallowed up by the Oni. I didn't know what to do. I didn't have any ideas. And the fact this felt like what it was like when I was fighting my father in the city didn't help things at all!
When Kai came to me and said he had a plan to reforge the Golden Weapons, I didn't really care. I was numb to things. It wasn't just Cole, but more so a lot of things. It was all these things hitting me at once, refusing to let up after all this time. Since Harumi had come into my life, I thought maybe, just maybe, I had a chance to relax. Even if this entire time, I thought that my father wasn't lying about something coming. But now it was here, and we were losing. It was all just happening so fast. The fact this was all in the span of one day didn't help things, at all.
You know, maybe the reason I don't think a lot about how Cole nearly died was because other than those few minutes I had on the Bounty while we were running away, I didn't really have anytime to think. From the moment that I got on the Bounty to when the Oni showed up at the Monastery is all sort of like one giant blur. And I think that's because the Oni were just that strong. When we got back to the Monastery, we only had enough time to tell Wu what happened, then Kai had to get right to reforging the weapons.
So, two things. Firstly, I thought that Garmadon seeing Wu and Misako like this again would be more of a thing. Since, well, the last time he'd seen Wu he was a young man returning from the First REalm, and Misako had been captured for most of the time he was in power. All they really said to each other was… a few small things, and then we were moving to it. I guess that's just how stressed we were. I guess I was expecting him to go and try to fight Wu, sorta like how he fought us to get his power back. I guess it just wasn't important to him. And it was true that Harumi didn't care to bring back his love for his wife either.
The second thing is about the weapons. Now, I'm impressed Kai was able to do that. I mean, to be honest, the fact he used to be a blacksmith hardly ever came up in the temple. We had most of our weapons just, sorta produced by Wu. But I think what's really shocking here to me is that Kai did it in such a short amount of time. The weapons he made weren't any jokes either. He infused them with each of our elemental powers to restore them to what they used to be. There was barely enough gold for them, and I guess the reason he was able to do it was because the Golden Master really had depleted some of their power since Kai was also holding them. Or maybe Zane… ugh, I don't know. I don't know why I'm even focusing so much on this. But him remaking the Golden Weapons to fight the Oni was a smart move. It was the smartest thing we could've done.
And then… the Oni were there. They were marching on the temple. Like I said, barely any time at all. We went outside and vowed to make our stand. They couldn't come past the gates. Wu and Garmadon came out to help us. Mom wanted to help, but I made her stay inside to help the others. Faith came out to help us too. Kai gave the Scythe of Quakes to Nya to use. We didn't have time to mourn Cole. We had to move on and fight them. If the Oni overtook us here, that was it. We'd fall, and Ninjago would be it.
So… I've thought a lot about why I consider this to be my last adventure. And, I think it's because it feels final, in a way. After everything that happened to me, this feels like the end of a lot of things. It was the last time that I saw my father. It was the last big fight for the fate of Ninjago that I've taken part in. I guess, in a way, the Oni were the last thing that was tying us to the First Spinjitzu Master.
Like, okay, I might be reaching here, but I thought a lot about this. Ever since the start, this had been about Garmadon. He'd been the reason that I opened the tombs. He drove me to become the Green Ninja, and then I drove him to the Dark Island. The Golden Master was the last attempt by the Overlord to fight us for a destiny that was based on his unfinished fight with the FSM. Chen and Morro were both tied into Wu and Garmadon's past. The Time Twins were directly a result of the Serpentine Wars. And then, finally, Harumi came along thanks to my actions in opening the tombs, and brought my father back. It was like everything, in some way, tied back into my father. And given how this ended, I felt like this… this was it. It was the ending. This was the threat to Ninjago that we had to stop, no matter what. And, well, this battle wasn't that long… but it meant everything. The battle was a big blur aside from a few moments… I'll talk about what I remember.
The Oni were all coming for us. My father took on the Omega, and I lost sight of him. They were everywhere. No matter how many you threw back, another one was there to fight us. I kept losing track of my friends. We kept having to fight to thin their numbers. Nya couldn't use the Scythe, so I was trying to give her backup. I almost lost my head trying to save her before Wu helped us out.
Cole came back in his driller and we gave him the Scythe. I had no idea what to think. I was kinda a mix of confused, happy, scared, elated, all of that stuff. Or, is elated even a word I'm supposed to use? Either way, he was back. We were all together again. I thought we could fight as a team again.
My father was fighting the Omega. I could hear it down there. It sounded like when I fought him on the tower. He was giving it his all, and showing all the power he possibly could summon. I was still being swarmed by Oni. Faith threw a few off me and let me jump around just in time to see my father being blasted up the mountain. He had this weird Oni face when I ran over to see if he was okay. I don't know why I was worried, but that got me blasted off into the gates.
The Oni kept coming. We held out at the gate, but it was too much for us. If not even my father could take down the Omega now, we were screwed. We retreated inside the gates and sealed them. I wonder if that's what it felt like for Wu when the Time Twins came for them. The Oni were smashing against the gates and working to get in. Their darkness was already trying to get over the wall to attack us. It was horrifying and felt like the end.
Jay asked Nya to be his Yang. He thought it was going to be his last chance to do it. I don't blame him. We were all that remained in Ninjago, it seemed. I was looking around for something. We needed something to turn the Oni back. We had to. That's when I saw the painting of the Tornado of Creation. The Omega had said he was the bringer of destruction. We would have to face it. I told the others we had to use the Tornado of Creation. Kai was the only one who protested at first, but once the Oni broke the gate, we didn't have a choice.
I tried to get my father to join us. We all had to. He refused. I told him he was as much apart of Ninjago's history as the rest of us. The Oni were already pouring into the Monastery. I didn't have time to argue with him. We all came together to do the Tornado. I'd never done it before, but I knew how. Wu joined in with us. I could feel everyone's power around me as we tried to come together, but it wasn't enough. For a few moments, I thought we didn't have enough.
Then, for a brief moment, I thought I felt my father's power. I think he joined us. He wanted to help us win. I don't know why, but I was happy when I felt that. But that was only for a moment. The moment we were all connected, I suddenly didn't feel anything anymore. Everything went white, and it was like I was surrounded by a cloud. I couldn't feel anything, nothing at all. The others were giving it everything they had. The last thing I remember hearing was the Omega roaring in anger at us.
And then, I died.
When the tornado ended, the Ninja said they found me under the gate chunks. When Wu felt my body, he said I was gone. That I had died. Somehow, the attack had taken everything from me. From what I understand, the Golden Weapons used all the power they had left, along with the Tornado of Creation, to channel it to destroy the Oni. The Omega fell, and with it all his darkness. The city and all the darkness in it returned to normal the moment that we made that attack. We'd beaten the Oni, at the cost of my life.
...I feel… I feel that's not it, though. I… I don't know why. I've had dreams of this. I… I was in this… this place, some, some green field. And… and there was a dragon… or… something. And then, I saw someone. I… I don't know why, but I think it was the FSM. I don't know what he said. I, don't even think I ever saw his face. But… but I know he was holding his hand out to me. Somehow… in that dream, in that way, he'd… he'd done something for me. He was… he was offering me something. I… I think…
...I don't know. The ninja told me that it's just a dream, and I hit my head hard. But, Wu said that all of a sudden, it was like all the life I had just rushed back into my body. Like, I was just revived from the dead. Somehow, it happened. And… I don't know what it was. I wish I did. I've tried to think about it… but nobody can explain it. All Wu said was that he knew that for a few moments, I stopped being with them. And then, I was alive again. I'm trying to think of how, but I don't know. And… for some reason… I think what I heard in my dream, was really important.
When I woke up, though, my father was gone. Wu said he slipped away while I was just waking up. After everything that happened, he left. My father had taken over the city, hunted me, killed Harumi and Mystake, fought me and fought along side us in the final battle and then… he just left. He walked out of my life just like that. He's out there, somewhere, in Ninjago. And one day… I think that I might see him again.
I don't know why, but him just leaving after that feels… fitting. Almost like, him just leaving like that was what he was supposed to do all along. I don't get it, though. Why he was fighting with us in that last attack, I mean. Why? He said he didn't care. He'd shown me already that he didn't have empathy for us. He didn't care for anything other than surviving. Was it because he wanted to survive? Or, was it something else? I know he gave us the final push to finish the tornado. He… he helped save Ninjago. And then he left. If I could ask him something, one last thing, that would be it. Why he helped us.
But having him just walk away has left me with a lot of questions. I don't know what he's doing now. I don't know if he's planning something, or just exploring things. Is he out there, helping someone? Plotting to take over? Thinking about me? He isn't, the man I wanted. And I know if he stayed around, I'd keep getting angry that he wasn't him. I'd keep being upset that he was still acting like this. He would be a lingering reminder that Harumi, was always there. She'd always have that influence on me. No matter what. And, maybe we'd be able to overcome that? Maybe. But, would it have been a good idea to try? Or… or am I just… sad that I never was able to spend time with him again? Did the man that tried to kill me… make me feel lonely again?
Well… with him aside, that was it. Ninjago was saved. We'd beaten back the Oni. We painted a new entry on the wall in the Monastery. After everything that happened, that was it. We'd won. It was… it was over. It, really was over. Everything since Wu had vanished had finally come to its end. And… I was the Green Ninja, again.
And… that's where I'm ending it. That's where I'm ending this story. That's where I'm ending it. There's a lot left in my life. I know there is. But that's where I feel that I want to end this book. Maybe I'll add to this later on. I'm still young, after all. But, right now, that's what I wanted to say. From the start of this… this is where I wanted to end it. And I guess, there's just one more thing left for me to say. It's time for the epilogue.
Author's Note:
And thus, we have hit the end of the story! I have the epilogue queued up for next week!
As I mentioned before, I decided to end this one at S10 for a few reasons. The first one was that at the time I started, Season 11 hadn't aired yet. But more over, I felt that S10 was the end of a lot of things. I think post S10 has been a different era for the show. While I still love and enjoy it, I just didn't think it translated that well into this format. I may go later on and make smaller appendices to this, with him reflecting over and entire season later, but right now I wanted to close the book on this before I ended up falling into the trap of never having an end goal for this story. Stay tuned for the epilogue!
