"how many chapters do you have"

"69"

"oho you know what that means"

"*tearfully* I don't have enough chapters for chicken nuggets"

Uhh so... hi! It's an update! I've been mainly updating my other story, Oh the Things we Could Do, so if you haven't checked that out yet, it's much less OC heavy and still pretty good.

Review replies:

Ebony: Ray and Maya were kidnapped by Krux waaaaaaaaay before possession. It's not like they poofed into existence in season 7.

Guest: Haha me too.

Guest 2: I'll try to get some for you!

FlyingLemonCat: Haha yesss, their relationship went much better in this timeline. Also, Madilyn is the name of a kid who went to the VBS I was volunteering at lol.

cmonpeeps: I'm guessing you're the same person as guest 2, and I'll work on it!

and Israa, in case you read this: You have PMs off, so I couldn't reply directly, and sure! Do you have a preference as to which Morro? Also RideOfTheValkyrjur is fine! She's going to college full time now, and is just really busy.

Ye Old Long Awaited Chapter

Chapter 69

"What the heck is that supposed to mean?" Jay 1 demanded. "Are you just joking around?"

"No, I'm serious!" Indigo 1 crossed her arms. "We need to give up Ninjago City!"

"What?" Lloyd turned in his chair to stare at her. "Indigo, what the heck are you talking about?"

"If you'll let me explain…" She waited until they quiet down before continuing. "The Preeminent won't come to take us out unless she thinks she can get rid of us. And it's her we need to beat to win. If she's not gone, we can't win. We're at a stalemate. And she's slowly gonna kill people and build her army, eventually we'll be overrun. We need to sacrifice Ninjago City, then call back to Stiix and bait her into attacking us. When an immediate attack doesn't work, she'll come to make it an infinite battle, hoping to wear us down. Then we spring our trap," She clapped her hands together once. "the water masters either dumping water on her or sweeping her into the ocean." Lloyd rubbing his chin.

"That's… not a half-bad plan." He admitted. "But how are we going to lose the city without it seeming suspicious? I mean, she knows we won't just run at the first sign of danger."

"I don't know. You're the leader. You figure it out." Indigo plopped back into her chair.

"It's not hard." Nicole spoke up. "When they attack, we lose. We already sent one of our water masters to Stiix, we can just act overwhelmed and retreat."

"I guess." Lloyd frowned. "Man, I feel sorry for the people who live here. They were just freed, and… now we're just gonna give them up again."

"Hey, we're not all solid on that plan yet." Kai 2 protested. "What if we fail? What if the Preeminent doesn't show up? Worse, what if she does beat us? We won't have a safe place to regroup! We could lose! For good!"

"Kai, how could we possibly lose?" Nya 1 asked with an eyebrow raised. "We have- well, we will have two water masters and an entire ocean at our disposal. And a ghost dies to a single touch." Kai sighed.

"I guess. But she has others working for her too! What about Reena?"

"You really think Reena can singlehandedly take out a small army?"

"I guess not. But still, it's so risky! What if the ambush fails, or the Preeminent gets wind of it and sends an illusion or something in her place?"

"Morro- either one-" Lloyd started, turning to face the two. "Is the Preeminent corporeal?"

"Oddly enough, yes." Morro 2 replied.

"Then we can just fling a rock at her, and if it hits her she's real." The blond concluded. "Unless Reena is making us think that we saw it hit her. But I doubt she'll have the tile and/or reflexes to conjure up an illusion, much less for all of us. Still, we should check with each other to make sure we all see what happened if we end up doing that." The others murmured their agreement. "So, let's vote on it. Raise your hand if you like this plan." Most of the room raised their hands. "Raise your hand if you think this is a terrible plan and we were foolish to even discuss it." Nico slowly raised his hand.

"It's just really risky." He defended himself.

"Thanks, Nico. Great shot of confidence there." Indigo crossed her arms.

"Sorry, but it is!"

"Alright, 'yes' was the majority vote. Let's do it." Lloyd stood up. "Zanes, Jays, go check to see how close the ghosts are. Everyone else, get ready for departure. We're gonna need to go as soon as we 'lose'."

"Should we tell the people what we're doing?" Kai 1 asked.

"No." Lloyd shook his head. "We can't risk the Preeminent learning something from them."

"True." Kai sighed. "I just… they're going to lose the hope we just gave them."

"I know." Lloyd nodded sadly. "But it will hopefully be over soon. I just hope-"

"Hello?" The blond was interrupted by a vaguely familiar, yet unexpected, voice, echoing down the castle corridors. "Anyone home?"

"Over here." Kai 2 called back. "It's Ronin." He said in a normal voice. "Maybe he's got some more weapons to sell us." Lloyd nodded, but Kai's explanation did not prepare him at all for the five figures that appeared in the doorway.

"Mom?" Nya 1 gasped.

"Dad?" Kai 2 exclaimed.

"Tara?!" Indigo demanded. Ignoring Indigo's outburst, Kai 2 flung himself at the couple that had entered behind Ronin and Tara, who unmistakably resembled him and Nya. Kai and Nya 1 quickly followed suit, running over and joining the group hug. As the Smith family hugged, Nya's mom remarked,

"We seem to be missing one."

"Oh- yeah! You just missed her!" Kai 2 pulled away to look up at them, grinning. "She went back to Stiix to help defend it. And we're going there soon, so you can come with us and see her then!"

"Hey, what's going on here?" Jay 2 interrupted. "Can't someone fill us in?"

"Oh. Guys, these are Nya and my parents!" Kai 1 stepped back, gesturing to them. "Um, well... technically not my Nya and I's parents, but- you're alive! And I guess Ronin filled you in on the timelines thing, since you're not reeling in confusion?" Kai's father laughed.

"Yes he did. I'm Ray, and this is my wife, Maya." The older man gestured to the woman beside him, who Nya was still clinging to.

"I don't believe it." Kai 2 shook his head. "How are you alive? And where have you been all this time?"

"It's a bit of a long story." Maya replied. "Do you have time to hear it? I hear there's a ghost army marching towards the city."

"Yes-" Kai started, but Lloyd interrupted.

"We don't, actually. We're getting out of here as soon as the army arrives. We need to prepare."

"Right." Kai sighed. "I guess you can fill us in when we get back to Stiix."

"Good idea." Ray nodded.

"Did you want something?" Tara asked Indigo, who was staring at her incredulously.

"Yeah. What are you and Ronin doing together? In my universe, you can't stand him!" Tara laughed.

"Well, her loss. He's my husband. And this is our daughter." She lifted a bouncing, giggling toddler into her arms. Indigo's eyes went wide.

"Child."

"Guys, let's not forget about the giant ghost army coming towards us." Cole 2 spoke up.

"We're not." Lloyd stood up. "Sorry Mr. and Mrs. Smith. You came at a bit of a bad time."

"The last couple years in general have been a bad time." Maya said with a sigh. "Ronin, Tara, will you be coming with us?" Ronin shook his head.

"We're going back to our safe house. And no, I'm not telling you all where it is. Best for it to remain a secret." Lloyd nodded.

"Fair enough. I doubt the Preeminent is happy about you helping us. If she knew where you hid out, she'd find you and kill you.

"Exactly." Ronin took his wife's hand. "Good luck, ninja." With that, the three took their leave. There was silence in the room for a minute. Finally, Nicole said.

"Okay, contrary to what I said earlier, it's gonna be kinda hard to convince the Preeminent that we were actually forced out of the city."

"Yeah…" Lloyd frowned. "We might have to do something really dramatic. Maybe lose someone. Anyone wanna volunteer to get captured and cause the rest of us to freak out and run?"

"It'll have to be a ghost." Kai 1 pointed out. "Humans could get possessed and reveal our plans."

"Yeah, and it'll have to be a ghost from the other dimension." Kai 2 added. "Or else the Preeminent can read their mind." Everyone stared at him. "What?"

"Kai… you're a ghost native to this dimension." Lloyd said slowly. "Can the Preeminent read your mind?" Kai's eyes widened, but Morro 2 spoke first.

"Not from this far away. The Preeminent can communicate with anyone at a close enough range, and ghosts from a fair range, but she could only read my mind from anywhere because I was pledged to her. We just can't let her get close to him."

"Well that's a relief. Then again, it makes sense, since we have… a decent amount of native ghosts in our party, so if she could read their minds a lot more of our plans would have been ruined."

"Does it even matter if we're native to this Realm?" Indigo 1 spoke up. "We're still ghosts."

"It does, actually." Morro 2 explained. "When people become ghosts, they're sort of attacked to the Cursed Realm, and since the Preeminent merged herself with the Cursed Realm, they're connected to her. You, the other me, Cole B… you're not linked to her, so…" He shrugged. "You can't be used as a pawn."

"That's comforting. So are we going with the volunteer bait idea?" Indigo glanced around at the others. "Because I feel like I'm the ideal bait."

"No." Morro 1 said immediately.

"Morro, I'll be fine. I've already been kidnapped a dozen times, and nothing terrible has ever happened to me."

"That's no guarantee something won't happen this time! Besides, the Preeminent would use you as bait to try to draw us out of Stiix, and simply letting one of us get captured isn't necessarily enough to convince her we're genuinely fleeing anyway. We need to do something else." Morro shook his head. "Giving you – or any of us – up has too many risks."

"I guess." Indigo sighed, crossing her arms.

"One would think you want to be kidnapped." Morro 2 raised an eyebrow.

"I just want to be helpful." She huffed.

"Being helpful doesn't necessarily mean putting yourself in danger." Morro 1 put an arm around her shoulders. She sighed, but didn't argue.

"Fine."

"Let's just… try to hold them off, but flee when they get through our defenses." Lloyd suggested. "That should work reasonably well."

"A bit underwhelming, but yeah. The Preeminent might be suspicious about how little a fight we put up, though." Morro 2 warned him. "She's very smart."

"I know. But I guess she'll just… assume she frightened us off with the sheer size of her army." Lloyd shrugged. "Let's just get packed up. Once the ghosts get past the outer defenses, we're gonna need to get out of here."

yikes

this could be the endgame guys

~FFF