my kittens are such a floof

Review replies:

Ebony: Morro 2 needs to eat a brick. Also... nothing is ever that easy. And nothing is as it seems.

ninjachief: everyone loves garmadad ;) also yayy

MLGbillcipher: We'll see :)

NinjagoMLP: I'm sure she'll be fine. :D

Zena: Lol

Nicktastic: About time amiright?

Amber: xD Yes. Kittens.

Chapter 19

"Well that was exciting," Indigo remarked, leaning back against the wall of the building they stood behind.

"Indeed." Bansha muttered, staring out at the city with her staff in hand. After escaping their prison, the three had fled up to the surface level, taking refuge behind a building to keep from being spotted by a patrol. "Charlie, where do we go from here?"

"Well, where do you wanna go? Ninjago City?"

"No, we need to get back to the base." Indigo frowned. "You wouldn't happen to have a submarine, would you?"

"No, but I do have something better." There was a click from the gun.

"What's that?" The void mistress tilted her head.

"This!" Charlie spun around and fired, the bullet whistling past Indigo's ear. She heard a gasp from Bansha, and whirled around to see the older ghost crumpling to the ground, a black bullet embedded in her lower leg. Indigo's head snapped back towards Charlie, her mouth open to demand why she had done that, but froze at the sight of the gun pointed at her head. "Unless you have a death wish, put your hands on your head. Now!" the human girl barked, and Indigo grudgingly obeyed. "Both of you!" the void mistress turned to see Bansha shifting her weight to her good leg, grimacing as she set her hands on top of her head.

"Every time…" the older woman muttered under her breath.

"Okay, first question, how did you shoot Bansha? She's a ghost!" Indigo snapped, her eyes narrowed.

"You think I would work in a world full of ghosts and not carry deepstone bullets?" Charlie smirked, putting her free hand on her hip.

"Fair enough. Second question, why?I thought we were on the same side! We helped you escape!"

"Think it through, you stupid ghost. They're the good guys. If they had me locked up, what does that make me?"

"Still, we helped you escape!"

"I was using you! You were dumb enough to break me out, that doesn't make us buddies!" Indigo clenched her teeth.

"Fine. Third question, what are you gonna do to us now? Shoot us and leave us for dead?"

"Oh, no, no. I'm going to turn you in to Bansha's army, which, by the way, I am a part of. They'll see to it that you get a suitable punishment for defying Morro."

"You backstabbing little-" Bansha started, but Charlie cut her off."

"Quiet! Or I'll shoot you again!" She waved her gun threateningly. "Now get up! I'm not leaving to-" The dark-haired girl broke off in surprise as the ground began to shake. A low rumbling filled the city, then, to the girls' shock, the ground began to fall into the sea, starting from the center of the city and spreading outwards. Indigo moved to stand up, to flee, but Charlie cocked her gun, focusing it on her head. "Don't move!" She snapped. "Or I'll-" The platform underneath her collapsed, and she fell into the churning ocean with a scream. Indigo scrambled to her feet, grabbing Bansha's sleeve and trying to pull her upright.

"Come on!" She urged her. The blademistress struggled to her feet, stumbling along as the smaller ghost dragged her away from the collapsing floorboards. Finally, the city shuddered, and stopped falling apart. The two ghosts collapsed behind a stack of boxes, Bansha clutching her injured leg with one hand as Indigo flopped over on her back.

"Well that was intense."

"Hnn." Was all Bansha said in reply. The void mistress looked up at her, frowning at the sight of the bullet embedded in her leg.

"Do you think you can walk?"

"I can, but it's not easy, and very painful."

"Oh. I can try to find you a crutch or something, or you can lean on me."

"What's the point?" Bansha shook her head. "We don't know where Morro and Lloyd are. We don't know if they made it back. We can't get even close to the base, or we'll get captured again. I don't know what in Ninjago we're going to do." Indigo sat there in stunned silence. Yeah, it did seem kinda hopeless.

"…we should at least try to get that bullet of your leg." She said at last.

"And how do you propose we do that?" The blade mistress snapped. "Find a human and just have them rip it out of my leg?"

"I don't know." Indigo lay down again, rolling onto her side and hugging her arms to her chest.

Bansha was right, there was no easy way to get it out without hurting her. The ghost girl rested her head on her arms, staring at the crashing waves through a crack in the floorboards. Bansha was also right about another thing: she had no idea what in Ninjago to do now.

TheDarknessReturns

"What… happened to Stiix?" Kai 1 asked, his voice stunned. None of the others had answer. The entire center of the city had collapsed, pieces of wood floating in the water with people still clinging to it. The only part of the city left was the outside: a ring of half-intact building and walkways.

"Oh, the missile!" Morro spoke up. "I told the other Morro that our base was in the center of Stiix, underwater. When he tried to blow that up, he blew up half of the city!"

"And our real base is unharmed. Ca-ching!"Jay pumped his fist into the air with a grin. Beaming, Lloyd turned to see his father's reaction, and was surprised to see him scowling at the remains of the city.

"Uh-Dad? You okay?" He asked. His father blinked, then shook his head a bit.

"Ah, of course. I was just… appalled, that Morro would destroy almost an entire city just to take us out." Lloyd frowned.

"Yeah. He is pretty ruthless."

"Indeed." Garmadon started towards the bridge. "Let's get going." The others nodded and began to file across the bridge behind him. When he reached the other side, Lloyd's father stopped, glancing back and forth.

"What's the matter?" Cole 2 asked.

"I, er, don't remember the way back." The elderly man admitted. "Though I'm not sure if it's just because of the collapse of the city or not."

"Probably the change of scenery is messing you up. I'll take point." Kai 2 shrugged, moving to the front of the group. Garmadon nodded, falling into step beside Lloyd.

The party picked their day through the remains of Stiix, going completely unnoticed in the chaos. Their journey was mostly uneventful, until they got close to the base and heard a voice call out,

"Morro! Lloyd!" Someone slammed into Morro from the side, knocking him to the ground, and Lloyd whirled around in alarm to see Indigo on top of him, hugging him tightly as she buried her face in his neck. Morro chuckled, returning her hug.

"Careful. I'm not quite healed yet."

"You're okay!" She continued as though she hadn't heard him. "Bansha and I were so worried when you didn't show up! What happened?"

"It's a long story. Where is Bansha?"

"Oh, she's over here." She climbed off him and stood up. "She got shot."

"Shot?" Lloyd echoed in surprise.

"Also a long story. C'mon." Indigo waved them on as she headed down an alley, and Morro and Lloyd followed her. After a moment, she lead them into a dead-end passage, mostly blocked off by boxes, behind which was, sure enough, Bansha, her hand on her swollen leg. She looked up as Morro and Lloyd came into view, eyes narrowed at first, then widened in shock.

"How…" She trailed off.

"We were heading off to base and Indigo ran into us. What happened to you?" Morro asked, kneeling next to her.

"I got shot by a traitorous snake of a girl." The ghost woman hissed, clutching her leg tighter. Morro and Lloyd exchanged glances, then Lloyd bent down and picked her up.

"We need to get that bullet out of you…" he muttered.

"How?" Bansha asked, shifting so her head was pillowed on his shoulder.

"Well, the best way would probably be just one of us reaching through you and pulling it out, since the alternative is digging it out with a knife or something." The ghost woman grimaced.

"I suppose."

"Good. Now let's get you back underwater. Once we're in the base, we'll be safe."

"We can only hope..." Bansha muttered, closing her eyes. Indigo followed behind Morro as Lloyd lead them back to the others, stopping next to him once they rejoined them there.

"Is the base nearby?" She asked. "We lost track of it when we were running away from the collapsing part of the city."

"Yeah, it's close." Jay 2 nodded. "We can exchange stories – and have a talk with Lloyd about running away – once we get there." The blond boy chuckled awkwardly, shifting Bansha in his arms.

"Er… yeah. I mean, it was Bansha's idea."

"But I wasn't specifically ordered not to." The ghost woman spoke up coolly.

"…right." Lloyd shifted his weight from one foot to the other. "Yeah, um… Morro was in trouble. You guys refused to believe it, so…"

"I said once we get back." Jay 2 started walking again.

"Whatever." The green ninja started walking in the direction of the base again. With any luck, they would get back to safety without any more trouble.

Wow, it... actually looks like something good happened for once.

What are the odds of that amiright?

~FFF

P.S. Not sure if I'm gonna work on this or the rewrite of RttCR (because I was paging through that again and boy is it cringy) next so I can't guarantee this will be updated promptly

At least I'm not leaving you on a cliffhanger :D