~~Ch31:Fri2, Hope ~~

Koko had pushed aside her research on Lloyd's hospital visit and recovery to lay out the Green Ninja scroll. She delicately unrolled it all the way, which took up her entire rather large desk.

"I may have missed something. I probably missed something. No one has all the answers," she murmured softly.

Her eyes scanned the ancient characters, the message and warning within.

She flipped open her notebook and began taking the characters one by one, looking for hope instead of dread.

What was still open to interpretation?

Lloyd's identity was pretty much set in stone. The other Ninja as well. The picture made that clear. Lloyd was the Son of Good, so logically the Father of Evil had to be Garmadon. There was no getting around that.

War or Battle. She felt a shudder go down her spine at what the next two characters meant. But she took a deep breath and forced herself to think academically. Literally, End Fight. End. Fight. If Lloyd had his way, there would be an end to the fighting. That was interesting.

Victory of Good, that was always a good thing. Maybe she should think about what Lloyd, or Good, would consider a victory. An end to the fighting would definitely be a victory.

But at what cost? What sacrifice?

She frowned at the next two characters, sketching them in her notebook.

Suffering/Loss. Death/Offering. She wrote the modern Ninjagian characters beneath them, then parentheses around them with the modern character for Sacrifice above.

Those were scary words, either in ancient or modern Ninjagian. Sacrifice. A painful offering, a loss, a giving up of something precious, but not necessarily death. But permanent, or at least willing to let it be, or it wouldn't be a sacrifice.

Something bothered her. She glanced down at the latter part of the prophecy, and her eyes fell on the small symbol that joined Rulership and Evil. Then the top, how the characters were stacked to show them equivalent or representing each other. They both translated to 'of'.

Victory was connected to Good, but Good was not connected to Sacrifice.

The sacrifice was not necessarily Lloyd's to make.

Koko felt a relieved sob work up in her throat. It wasn't much. Sacrifice was still connected to Large, so whatever it was, whoever had to make it, it would definitely be substantial, painful.

But it did not have to be Lloyd. And it did not have to be death.

She swallowed and wiped her wet eyes, moving on.

Rulership of Evil, Eternal End. Yes, that sounded foreboding, but it did not say the Father of Evil would come to an Eternal End, but his Rulership of Evil.

Maybe, perhaps she was being overly hopeful after talking to Lloyd, but maybe it could refer to him willingly giving up evil? Fighting for or in the name of evil?

Her eyes moved to the next section. The warning.

Sacrifice. Great. Not. Death/Offering, but without the Suffering/Loss. If the great sacrifice is not made, not offered...

Victory, connected to Evil.

Ninjago, connected to Eternal End, or destruction.

Death, connected to the number symbol for thousands times thousands - today they would say Millions, but back then it just meant a number beyond all counting.

The warning was every bit as serious as she remembered. But she clung to the idea that the sacrifice didn't have to be Lloyd's.

Even though the lighting in her room was just fine, Koko turned around and lit a candle. Staring into the flame always helped her think. Plus, the small flame helped her study even the smallest details in ancient scrolls and artifacts.

She held the candle close by the holder, extra careful not to allow any wax to spill, and bent to study the painting of the six Ninja at the beginning of the scroll.

And cried out in shock as the faintest hint of new characters appeared around the Fire Ninja's figure.

She stepped back and made sure she wasn't shaking before leaning forward again. The candle light flickered over the scroll. Most of the characters were too faded or blurry to read, but one she could make out easily.

Hope.

There was a secret message hidden in the scroll! Her eyes fell on the candle. She blew out the flame and the hint of characters died.

And they could only be revealed with elemental energies!

She had to talk to Wu!

~~ ! Go Ninja Go ! ~~

We were roughhousing in the Warehouse when Mom came running in.

Literally, like I had Kai pinned, and he had Cole in a chokehold, and Jay had just leapt on my back. Zane was trying to squirm out from beneath Cole, who had him by the legs, and Nya - who was not to be left out - crashed into Jay, which sent the whole pile of us crashing down in a laughing pile of teenage ninjas.

We were on the mats, so Uncle Wu didn't seem to care. He actually walked past us when we first started drifting from training to messing around and just shrugged, smiling all the while.

"I win! Queen of the Ninja!" cried out Nya happily, climbing to her feet on top of Jay. And thus on top of all of us.

Yeah, that's when Mom ran through the doors.

"Wu! I have to-" and she froze, staring at Nya and then the rest of us in bewilderment.

Hehe. "Uh, hi Mom?" I called out awkwardly from the middle of the pile when her eyes fell on me.

That seemed to be permission for all the other ninjas to speak up.

"Hi, Mrs. Irondragon!"

"Lady IronD! What's up?"

"Lloyd's Mom! Need something?"

"Greetings!"

"Lady Irondragon! Did you see? I beat them all!"

"You did not! We didn't even know you were playing!"

"It's called strategy, ha!"

Uncle Wu smoothly interrupted. "Hello, Koko. Was there something you needed?"

"I have to show you something!" Mom told him, looking actually really, really eager about something. She pulled off the strange bag, more like a tube, across her back and hurried to the table in front of the couch.

"There's a secret message!" she declared excitedly, pulling out an ancient looking scroll and laying it out. "On the," She suddenly hesitated, glancing at me nervously, but she turned back to Uncle Wu and finished, "Green Ninja scroll."

My friends all gasped and their eyes darted to me. I cringed and started maneuvering to try climb out of the pile. The others started disentangling themselves too, except Nya, who just had to hop off.

Kai reached me first, seriously meeting my eyes. "Do you need to leave, Lloyd?"

I shook my head, glancing toward my mom excitedly talking to my uncle, now in softer tones. Probably for my sake.

"No. No, I, I guess I'm the Green Ninja, like it or not. Might as well see for myself, right?"

Ninja all have way too good hearing. Even my mom paused in what she was saying, looking over to me with a bright smile. She gestured me over.

The scroll was open to a painting. An incredibly detailed painting, almost photograph quality. Of me and all my friends.

Yeah, my mouth dropped open. So that's what they meant by irrefutable. That was undoubtedly me, just in the green gi with the hood down.

"Koko says there's a secret message," explained Uncle Wu to all of us teenagers now gathered around. "There was a hint of characters appearing around Kai's figure when she held a candle near the scroll. Which should mean..."

My uncle held out a hand and - whoa! My dad never said Uncle Wu could do THAT! His hand was enveloped in flames. Kai stared at it in awe, so I guess he hasn't mastered his ability yet.

Characters in ancient Ninjagian appeared around the Fire Ninja on the scroll.

"Do not lose hope," I read aloud, not able to hide my smile. In light of everything going on in my life, that was beautiful.

Mom and Uncle looked delighted and my friends super excited, both at the words and at my translation.

"You can read the script of our ancestors!" cheered Zane.

I shrugged self-consciously, but I was still smiling. "My dad has tons of old scrolls stashed away. No friends, I got bored. Anyway," I gestured back to the scroll.

My uncle nodded. He held out his hand again, and this time an orb of water appeared around it, faintly glowing and not a drop spilling.

"All become one," read my mom aloud.

"One? Like, unified? On the same team?" asked Nya.

"Maybe," said Uncle Wu. The water over his hand froze over, glistening and sparkling. Ice.

"Anything is possible," my mom read softly.

The next element my uncle summoned was odd, a sort of orange brown and flickering. His hand visibly trembled and it was obvious he was struggling slightly to hold it rather than unleash it. Oh, of course, Earth.

The message revealed this time was puzzling. "Regain what was lost," I read.

My mom and uncle were frowning slightly. Uncle Wu actually grimaced as if forcing a thought out of his head, holding his free hand over his heart at whatever thought had passed through his mind.

And last, Lightning. A bright, crackling orb of white and yellow lightning appeared around Uncle's hand, and wow that looked dangerous! Not that the others weren't or couldn't be, but yikes!

I glanced down. That couldn't be right. I looked over at my mom and uncle, who both also looked bewildered.

"Copy the Mirror?" I asked, sure I was reading that wrong.

"That's my interpretation too," answered my mom. We both glanced at Uncle, who shook his head. Same thing.

"Why do I always get the weird stuff? Is this a Lightning thing?" whined Jay, wringing his hands.

"What about Green?" asked Cole casually, gesturing to my figure in the center. "Surely there's a message there too?"

"I cannot use Green," explained my uncle, looking over to me.

Whoa, whoa, whoa! I held up my hands and stepped back. "I can't do anything like that!"

"I might have an idea," interrupted my mom. "Green is supposed to contain traits of all the main elements, yes?"

Uncle Wu nodded, though of course that was news to me.

"How about if we use all the main elements on the scroll at the same time?"

Uncle Wu frowned thoughtfully. "That might work. But I can only use one element at a time." He looked up at his students. "Are you ready to attempt this, young Ninja? One mistake and you irreparably damage a unique, one-of-a-kind treasure that could be our only clue to preventing the end of our world as we know it." And then he smiled sweetly. "No pressure."

Yikes. I think I kind of prefer my dad as my spinjitzu master.

Cole, Zane, and Jay all looked nervous, but each held out a hand over the scroll. With a bit of focus, their hands slowly lit up with their unique elemental energies.

Kai and Nya looked at each other. They frowned and, away from the scroll, held out their hands. Kai got a bit of a flame that slowly grew into a fireball just larger than his fist.

Nya got nothing. Angry tears rose to her eyes, but she stepped back as Kai stepped forward to hold his flaming hand over the scroll.

Uncle Wu stepped forward in Nya's place, water around his own hand. He placed it with the others, and something strange did happen on the scroll.

The image seemed to flicker, and there certainly was a character next to my figure, but it was too faint for me to make out. My mom exchanged glances with me, but she shook her head too.

Everyone stepped back with a sigh of relief, letting their elements disperse. Cole especially grimaced, massaging his shoulders. The vibrations must have been killer, wanting to escape to form a minor earthquake or tremor.

"So there is something there," said Zane thoughtfully.

"But we don't know what it is," added Kai, groaning.

"What we do have is amazing though," interrupted my mom, eyes shining happily. She dug into a pocket and pulled out a notebook, quickly jotting down what we'd learned into it. "Don't lose hope. All become one. Anything is possible. Regain what was lost. Copy the mirror. And something more, maybe that ties them all together. The final key, as it were."

"Way better a message than the rest of that depressing prophecy," said Nya, gesturing almost angrily at the scroll.

"I actually think much of it may be open to more interpretation than previously thought, especially in line with this secret message to the future Ninja!" Mom replied eagerly.

"Rest of the prophecy?" I asked innocently, delicately unrolling the scroll and letting my eyes... read... over... Oh.

Oh. Wow.

That's bad.

My mom's hand was out like she'd been about to stop me but was too late. My uncle's eyes were wide in pain, and, and... fear? My friends looked... guilty.

I shakily took a couple steps backward to sit on the couch. "That... explains a lot," I whispered, voice a little forced.

Kai plopped next to me and gathered me in a hug. Zane sat on my other side and joined in.

Nya, Cole, and Jay sat on the floor in front of us. All in touching distance, as if just in case I needed them.

"Don't lose hope," suddenly said my uncle. "Anything is possible. Maybe the initial prophecy is a warning, but the secret message is one of hope."

"All become one, regain what was lost," added my mother, and she looked at Uncle Wu with a expression that was almost painful in its desperation.

"Could it be Garmadon?" she asked timidly. "What was lost?"

Uncle Wu brought his hand up to his chest again. "That's... no, Koko. That's too... no."

"Anything is possible," she repeated back to him.

He had no reply, but the look on his face was one of a heart broken beyond repair. He shook his head again and actually left, taking his staff from where it had been leaning against the wall and just, just leaving.

"What do you mean, Dad being lost?" I asked Mom, squirming slightly so Kai and Zane would let go. They sat back.

Mom chewed her bottom lip for a second, then flipped to the front of her notebook. She pulled out a photo and passed it over.

It showed a much younger Uncle Wu, only recognizable by his staff and hat, and wow, Uncle had been as blond as me! He was laughing with a strange man I'd never seen before. Handsome, kinda like a movie star. Black hair, thick and glossy. Huge muscles. Quite a bit taller than Uncle Wu, about a head's worth. Unusual purple eyes, almost seeming to glow. There was something about those eyes, about their shape. If I just pictured them...

Red. Lava bright. Those were my dad's eyes. A different color, but of course I knew them.

"FSM!" exploded Nya. "That's your dad! That's Garmadon!"

I couldn't say a word. Couldn't move a muscle. Couldn't even blink. My dad had once been...

Normal? Not quite. He was still huge and muscled and had weird eyes. But more than that...

Happy. He looked so happy. I've never seen my dad laugh like that. Uncle Wu looked so happy, too.

"I never knew the man in that picture," said Koko softly. "I would see hints, sometimes, glimpses. But, I guess... I guess you could say that's what Wu lost. His brother."

Nya squished onto the couch next to Kai, grabbing his arm and squeezing tight. Probably imagining herself in Uncle Wu's situation.

"And it hurts too much for him to hope?" whispered Jay, reaching out to touch the photograph, as if to confirm to himself that it was real.

Zane looked from the photo to me. "I did not notice before, Lloyd, but you have your father's eyes."

I blinked, startled out of the serious turn my thoughts had taken.

"Totally!" agreed Jay. "Just picture them green!"

"Same hair too, looks like," commented Cole. "The part is in the same place, and that weird curl?"

Somehow the mood had totally shifted, and all my friends chimed in on how I resembled my dad, or even my uncle, in some way or other.

It was... strange. I've always been the weird one out. I never thought I had anything in common with Dad. To have this, this sort of place where I fit in, to look back and see where I came from...

"You can keep the picture," said my mom gently. "Just don't let your dad see it. He hates pictures of himself before the bite, says he was lame but I think it just hurts and makes him self-conscious."

Do not lose hope. Anything is possible. Regain what was lost.

Maybe the rest didn't make sense. Maybe I was jumping the gun, especially when the prophecy itself seemed so doom and gloom. But...

I couldn't help staring at the photo and smiling.

Maybe?

~~ ! Go Ninja Go ! ~~

Author's Notes: Secret messages are awesome! And yep, every piece of that message means something, though some won't make sense until the climax! You also won't learn what the last part of the secret message is for quite a while, but feel free to guess!

Oh, and what do you guys think of the photo? I had a fun time coming up with a younger movie version of Sensei Garmadon. I loved the idea that he had unusual eyes even before!

Next up, the golf tournament! Complete with kitty ears - I can't wait!

And thanks to everyone who reviewed last week - Lea1985, ThisMARVELous galaxy, Bokkeeper2004, Mars (guest), Carrie2sky, Beaner97, Pitch'snieceanddaughterofMew, Watcher321, Dyphen, EMPFangirl02, Silvermags, and Sunny Lighter! I couldn't believe all the support, especially for a chapter I was so uneasy about! Thank you all so much!