Have some Season 10, fellas. I have a ton of ideas for filler/fluff during and after it, but for now I'll just post this one and see if anyone starts employing force to stop me. :P

This is working under the assumption that a full night passed while the ninja were rescuing citizens from Ninjago City and fetching Garmadon from Kryptarium.

Obviously, I don't own the characters or the property!

The nighttime was deceptively quiet. Only a few dozen miles away, Ninjago City was roiling with Oni, but the monastery atop the mountain was silent, peaceful. The twitter of crickets and frogs drifted up from the farmland far below.

"Anything?" Wu appeared in the doorway, the lines on his face accentuated by the candlelight. Misako looked up from a welter of scrolls.

"No, nothing. It seems your book was the only ancient text to speak of Oni at all."

Wu sighed, nodding resignedly. Misako shifted aside and motioned for him to sit next to her.

"What about the ninja? They haven't come home yet?"

"They just radioed," said Wu. "They evacuated the last citizens they could find escaping the city. A little more than four hundred, altogether."

"Four hundred?" Misako blanched. Wu nodded grimly—that was a horrifically tiny proportion of Ninjago City. There was a heavy silence.

"What about all the rest?" Misako whispered. "Are they . . . ?"

"I do not know," said Wu.

They were quiet again. Neither spoke, but they were both thinking the same thing: the Oni were creatures of Destruction. The chance that they left their victims alive was pitifully small.

Eventually Wu shifted and placed his hand atop Misako's.

"Even if the worst has happened," he said, "we must still focus on saving the rest of Ninjago. We must not let the Oni extend their reach."

"What can we do?"

"We can prepare the monastery to be a place of shelter," said Wu. "And in the meantime, the ninja say they are going to Kryptarium. They hope that my brother, as an Oni himself, will be able to help them."

Misako bit her lip at the mention of Garmadon, her eyes roving over Wu's rough hand. Eventually she turned her palm over to interlace her fingers with his. Wu squeezed lightly, and she sighed and leaned against him, letting her head rest on his shoulder. There were too many dark memories to count, right now.

"You should get some sleep," murmured Wu at last.

"So should you," said Misako.

Wu hummed in concession. As Misako reluctantly pulled away, he eased to his feet, leaning on his staff.

"I should probably check on Faith first," he said. "Is she all right?"

"As well as you could expect, I guess," said Misako. "I just checked on her myself half an hour ago, don't disturb her. She needs plenty of sleep."

Faith was not asleep. She had closed her eyes when Misako looked in on her, and every now and then the healing potion and-or the pain of her injuries would put her halfway under, but there was no chance in the Cursed Realm that she was actually going to sleep. She was staring through the darkness now, tracking the pounding of blood in her head.

She had a feeling the nausea had nothing to do with her injuries. Maybe she could blame Wu's tar-flavored healing potion. Maybe. Every time she closed her eyes she saw flashes of advancing Oni, hatred glowing in their purple eyes; swirling black tendrils swallowing up the people she'd learned to defend, to care about; dragons struggling and screaming as the darkness pulled them under. Most often she saw Muzzle. He'd fallen when the smoke vines took the dragon he'd been riding, and the cloud of darkness immediately swarmed greedily towards him. Faith only had time to meet his gaze, see his eyes go wide and haunted—then he was gone.

Everyone was gone.

Dizzily she pushed herself upright, ignoring the colorful explosions that shot across her vision. She couldn't lie still. The more she lay still the more she remembered things. She was pretty hardy, there was a lot she could put up with, but apparently this mental slideshow was not on the list. Screw resting. She had to move.

Slipping her feet to the floor, she slowly shifted her weight onto her legs, testing if they would support her. They did. She tried to push away from the bed entirely, and for a second she swayed, feeling the room whirl unnaturally around her. But still, somehow she stayed upright and gradually got used to the spinning sensation. It hurt to stand, but that was okay. It hurt to exist in general, anyway.

A couple of the slash marks in her side reminded her very forcefully of their presence every time she took a step. Teeth gritted, she limped across the room, then slouched against the doorframe, already desperate for rest. Well, this was kind of pathetic. Everyone better be asleep already.

Without any knowledge of the monastery's layout, she ended up shambling through several unnecessary hallways until she found a door leading to the central courtyard. If she'd known there was a sliding door leading straight to it right in her room, she would not have been too happy. One way or another, though, at least she was outside.

For a second she paused, stunned at the sky. The First Realm had, like . . . maybe fifteen stars, tops. And they were pretty tricksy, sometimes they just switched places or went out on ya. Seeing Ninjago's massive spread of sky glitter, for good measure from a mountaintop, was something of a shock. For a second she wondered if she was delirious—or getting more weird side effects from Wu's healing potion—but no matter how much she squinted, blinked, or rubbed her eyes, the crisp pinpricks of light overhead didn't change. They must be for real.

Huh. Jet Jack would have some fun out here. She'd been spending a significant portion of her life screwing with Chew Toy's head by bringing home shiny rocks and claiming she'd stolen them out of the sky on one of her flights. Chew Toy would always get panicked and start yelling for her to put them back, they had few enough stars already, and—

—Actually, better to scrap this train of thought. Not very productive, seeing as both Jet Jack and Chew Toy were most probably dead.

Pulling her gaze from the sky, Faith limped across the courtyard, towards the tall double gates leading outside. Every second she braced for some monastery resident to wander by and catch her, but to her surprise nobody did. That wasn't very sensible. They really should have someone guarding this place. Well, but maybe they didn't need to, since the gates were probably—

—Nope. Unlocked. One of them was slightly ajar for good measure. Faith paused to catch her breath and shake her head at this level of imprudence. Maybe she shouldn't be surprised . . . She was willing to bet Wu was in charge of this place. This was just the kind of naivety she'd expect from him.

Worked out well for her, though. She knew she'd really hear about it if anyone caught her trying to stagger around in this condition. Heck, she knew it was stupid, the gash in her side had been very considerate about reminding her so. Screw it all, though. Still doing it.

Leaning one hand on the doorframe, she squinted through blurry eyes, taking in the incredibly long, rail-less, serpentine stairway stretching before her.

Hooooooooo boy.

In retrospect, she was never sure how she made it down those stairs alive. By all rights she shouldn't have; she was half-drugged on the healing potion and half-delirious from all the stuff it was supposed to be healing. She could probably have pitched right over the edge of the stairs and not even noticed till she reached the ground. Every now and then she became a little more lucid and would pick up strange random details, distorted through the fever haze. Sometimes she'd become aware of the cool breeze, and be seized with panic that it was about to blow her off the stairs. Occasionally a snippet of the frog-and-cricket song reached her, corrupted into a bewildering, hellish buzz. The stars alternated between fading to nothing and flaring up searingly bright, till she could have sworn she felt their heat washing over her.

Finally she reached the end of the stairs. She promptly went sprawling; the motion of putting one foot below the other had become so mechanical that she forgot how to deal with a level surface.

On the bright side, hitting the ground did a fantastic job waking her up. Top-notch.

Gritting out a curse, she shifted her arms underneath herself and pushed herself onto her elbows. It took some convincing, but after a moment she managed to roll to her feet as well. There. Dignity not exactly intact, but she had actually gotten beyond the point of caring. Now . . . why was she down here again? . . .

Oh, right. Setting her teeth, she began to drift along the base of the mountain. She'd worried she would have to circle a long way, but luckily she'd only gone a few hundred feet when she spotted a familiar dull-red form. Firstbourne was still curled where she'd fallen, half-mired in irrigation ditches. For a moment Faith thought she might be dead, but when she got closer she felt breath puffing from the dragon's nostrils. Good, so she didn't come all this way for nothing.

Sighing, Faith placed a hand firmly on the tip of Firstbourne's snout, knowing the space between the nostrils was sensitive enough to wake a dragon. Firstbourne's breath hitched, and her eyes slid open warily.

"Hey," said Faith quietly. Firstbourne relaxed again, her eyes sliding back to half-shut. She sighed in greeting, her breath ruffling Faith's hair. Faith dipped her head in reply and scratched under the dragon's chin. This was familiar, at least. Someone she knew from home. She was already forgetting how much everything hurt.

"They treating you all right?" she murmured. Firstbourne rocked her head ambivalently, clearly too drained to tell the difference. Faith limped past her head, trailing one hand along Firstbourne's scales to let her know where she was, and searched for a couple of new injuries she knew she would see. She flinched at a long, grisly wound in the dragon's side, being held together with stitches as long as her hand. It was good that they'd treated that, but the stitching must have hurt. Getting that cut must have hurt. Faith had seen the Oni dragging his spear through Firstbourne's ribs. Then again, right after that she'd seen Firstbourne whirl around and just sorta deftly snip the Oni's head off, so . . . repaid in full, anyway.

"You heal fast, don't you?" she said, leaning surreptitiously against Firstbourne's side. Freaking healing potion, it had no right to make her this lightheaded. Firstbourne grunted, not moving.

"The darkness is going to come here next," continued Faith. "I think it's already hit. It might already be spreading. We don't have long to get back into form."

Firstbourne grunted again, shutting her eyes. This was weirdly noncommital behavior for her, considering it was Oni they were talking about. Faith waited for a more typical response, still placing more weight against Firstbourne's side than she liked to admit. The dragon queen didn't move, however.

Biting her lip, Faith limped back to Firstbourne's head.

"You miss your spawn, don't you?"

At this angle she could only see one of Firstbourne's eyes, but that one slipped open now and fixed on her balefully. Faith tried to make reassuring eye contact, to let Firstbourne know she understood, but apparently it only gave Firstbourne the motivation to finally move. Snorting crisply, she heaved her chin off the ground just long enough to turn her head away.

Well, that said enough all on its own.

"I know," said Faith quietly. "I miss everyone too."

She felt the giant form tense beside her, but there was no other response.

"I would say it's not your fault," continued Faith. "But you know I'm not stupid enough to lie to you. Yes. I know. It's your fault. It's just as much mine. We were both supposed to protect our own, and we've both failed."

Silence. Firstbourne shuddered violently. For a moment Faith couldn't go on; saying it out loud made it all a little too real. She swallowed bile and waited silently.

After the nausea had passed a little, she took a deep breath and forced her voice above a whisper.

"So if we've failed," she said. "What do we do now?"

More silence.

"Are we giving up?" It wasn't rhetorical. At this point, one word and Faith was ready to.

The silence stretched on. The seconds ticked by, each one bringing them closer and closer to a wordless "yes."

Just as Faith was about to accept the silent assent, Firstbourne twitched. Her ribs heaved as she drew in a breath, then a growl rumbled up into her throat. It peaked into a primal snarl, then dipped back into a steady, angry rumble, uninterrupted by breaths, like an engine had been ignited in the dragon's chest.

Faith breathed out a sigh, suddenly so weak with relief that she was forced to catch herself against Firstbourne's neck. They weren't giving up. The queen's rage still prevailed. If she still had the will to fight on, so did Faith.

"So we're going to avenge them." Faith rubbed one hand along the dragon's jawline, feeling it quiver in time with her growling. "Every last one of them."

The growl rose in pitch and fervor.

"We'll make the Oni pay ten times over, won't we?" she continued. Firstbourne heaved her head up again and brought it back around. She couldn't keep it lifted for long, but she leaned in, rubbing her cheek against Faith's, still snarling steadily. Faith rested her head against the rough scales, feeling the sound vibrating through her ribcage, alongside her own heartrate steadily speeding up to match it.

"That's right. We'll show them what regret looks like. Either we'll win and paint every inch of this realm with their blood, or they'll win but spend the rest of eternity remembering us with fear. Right?"

Firstbourne's snarl rocketed into a gutteral roar of hunger. Smoke spurted from her nostrils and the tip of her tail lashed fitfully. Faith half-smiled, though she wasn't sure if it was from shared bloodlust or a kind of cruel amusement. They must cut a pretty pathetic picture right now. Both of them barely able to stay awake and upright, sinking slowly into the muddy loam around the irrigation ditches, swearing almighty vengeance to each other as if they stood some kind of a chance. Stupid. But it kept them alive, at least.

Firstbourne's strength finally gave out, and the growling stopped as her head lurched and sank back to the ground. Her head alone weighed as much as a small truck, so the uncoordinated descent was enough to knock Faith back several feet. Firstbourne grunted in apology, panting.

"I'm not firing on all cylinders," said Faith tartly, picking herself up. "The First Spinjitzu Master's son has some really irresponsible healing potion."

Firstbourne nodded breathlessly. Good excuse; she was gonna go with that too. Totally chalking all of this up to that barrel of sludge Wu made her drink. Faith gave her another wry smile, then winced and shifted her weight away from her wounded side. She tried to keep her hand from drifting to the injury.

"All right," she said. "You rest, heal up. I will too. When I see you tomorrow we'll both be in fighting shape, eh?"

Firstbourne blinked, then flicked one eye over Faith in a silent question.

"No, I can't stay." Faith kept her tone businesslike. If her heart was suddenly melting, Firstbourne didn't need to know. "They think I'm not fit to get out of bed. If they find out I came all the way down here, they're going to lose their fool minds, and that's the last thing any of us need right now. Besides—" she whapped the back of her hand lightly against Firstbourne's scales "—how would we explain this?"

Firstbourne gave a wry snort of concession. Fair point. Couldn't have these tiny squishy Ninjagians thinking she and Faith did anything more than tolerate each other.

"All right," said Faith again, seemingly to herself. She took a few dogged steps, then came up short, her teeth gritting. Firstbourne eyed her in concern.

"I'm fine." Faith waved her off. "I'll be fine."

She waited for a moment, hoping her left leg would become a little more amenable to bearing weight and her nausea would subside. Every time it seemed to be getting better she'd think of all those stairs, upwards this time, and—ugh. This was going to be fun.

Firstbourne gave a worried growl now, turning her head to study Faith more thoroughly.

"Healing potion," insisted Faith, but finally shook her head in defeat. "I don't know, maybe I'll—maybe I'll just catch my breath."

Firstbourne huffed in approval and withdrew a little to give Faith space. Faith limped over and leaned against the dragon's neck resignedly, letting herself slide to the ground.

"Just a few minutes," she said. "I'm not staying."

Firstbourne snorted slightly.

"I mean it," retorted Faith. "It's not my fault if I've been half-poisoned."

Firstbourne snorted again. Faith considered smacking her, but decided against it. You didn't push your luck with a critter this proud and this massive. Besides, they'd just been getting along for a change.

Sighing, Faith leaned back and let herself go limp for a moment. In just a second she'd take those stupid stairs. No problem. And anyway, she was still glad she'd come down here. If she hadn't, she and Firstbourne might have both lain awake all night cursing their losses, and by morning they would have beaten themselves down into despair beyond salvage. Now instead they'd stirred each other back into a proper murderous rage. Hopefully they could keep running on that till they faced the Oni, and if they survived past that, then they could mourn and blame themselves later. Good plan.

She started, chagrined at the realization that her eyes had been closed. This wouldn't do. Time to clear out of here, before she—

—The next thing she knew she was waking up. And she was waking up not of her own accord, but because she'd just been set not too precisely on a hard cobblestone surface. That didn't do her side much good.

Once the fireworks had faded from her vision, she looked around, disoriented. Wait, this was the courtyard of the monastery. How had she—

Startled enough to forget her injuries, she rolled over and looked up. Sure enough, Firstbourne was balancing precariously on the stone stairway, her head towering high over the monastery wall. Oh. Of all the—!

"I was going to walk!" hissed Faith, furious. Firstbourne rolled her eyes in an alarmingly human manner.

"Don't you patronize me. I would have made it!" Faith wasn't sure if she was more angry at the indignity of getting carried back up to the monastery, or at Firstbourne dragging herself up this whole frigging mountain in that condition.

"What are you going to do now?" she whisper-shouted, navigating to her feet. "You can't even turn around here! Are you going to sleep draped over the wall like that? When they catch you in the morning, they'll lose their—"

Firstbourne's head withdrew from above the wall. Faith heard the leathery flap of spreading wings. Oh, she was not about to—

"No!" barked Faith, diving for the monastery doors again. She was just in time to see Firstbourne, wings braced, toss herself gamely off the stairs. The lizard was crazed. She could barely keep her head off the ground, and she thought she could fly?

By some miracle, she didn't drop like a seven-ton rock. With her wings cocked at different angles, she lapsed into a magnificent death spiral, corkscrewing down into the darkness. Faith could only watch in blank disbelief.

Finally she heard a faint thud, far below. She couldn't see much down there, but suddenly there was a bright arc of flame, leaping and vanishing just as fast. A flare to prove Firstbourne had made it down all right. Now she was probably going to flop over and bleed herself to sleep. Dear FSM, for the queen of Creation and an elder being of the universe, you'd think that dragon wouldn't be such an incredible idiot—

This healing potion of Wu's was fantastic stuff, though. You could blame it for everything. If Faith couldn't remember the last time she'd felt this close to crying, it was definitely the potion's fault.

A/N: *Somewhere nearby, Wu, lying awake in bed*: Somebody is knocking my potions. I can feel it. }:[

Kinda chapped, though. Why is it that the character list for this archive includes random background characters who only spoke a single line, and obscure one-page characters from the Greg Farshtey comics, and ghost minifigs who never even appeared anywhere besides the playsets, but it doesn't have Firstbourne? That's no way to treat a dragon queen, y'all. I may have to see about this.