Guest: Yes, I am still accepting ideas for the C.J. Style One-Shots, and I will update it. I just wanted to get Prime Empire out of the way before I continued.

Disclaimer: I do not own Ninjago or the lines from the episode Stop, Drop, and Side Scroll.

Chapter XII: Stop, Drop, and Side Scroll

The ninja sped away as fast as they could from the racetrack until they realized that the Red Visors weren't actually following them. They were around, though.

To avoid getting spotted, Lloyd led Jay and Nya through a series of alleyways. They ran from alley to alley until they noticed a red glowing dot on their chests. They pressed this, and a map showed up.

"What's this?" Lloyd asked.

"It's a map of the whole city of Terra Technica," Jay replied. "It only shows up for players with the first two keytanas."

"And what's that?" Nya asked as she pointed to a yellow dot close to them on the map.

"That's where the third keytana is. That way!" he said as he pointed to an alleyway across from the one they were currently hiding in.

"What are we waiting for," Lloyd whispered.

He peered around the corner of the alley to see four Red Visors patrolling the area, but there was a spot behind them, perfect for the ninja to run across to the next alleyway.

The three began running towards their desired location but stopped when they noticed a screen showing a replay of the race. Specifically, a replay of how two certain players got cubed.

Jay couldn't stop looking at the image of his cubed friends. Why did they have to get in that crash? All because of a stupid glitch? Cole knew more about video games. He was an important asset to the team, and Kai was the most reckless of the bunch. If anyone was to have any crazy ideas, which was needed in a game like this, it would be him. But most importantly, he missed them.

"Our friends wouldn't want us to give up," Lloyd said as he looked back down to a Red Visor, who still hadn't noticed them. "We have to keep going."

Jay was angry at this stupid game for taking his friends. He would beat this game. Even if the only way to win was getting cubed himself.

"We'll find a way, somehow," Jay told them, hoping that was true. He needed his brothers back. "We're gonna find a way and bring them all back."

"Okay," Nya said, sounding pretty out of it. It was understandable. After losing her brother, they one who raised her, Jay would be worried if she wasn't distant right now. "What's next?"

"Terra Domina," Jay answered, referring to the place on their maps. "That's where the last keytana is."

The ninja continued running until they made it to their destination. In it was an arcade cabinet, just like the one they had to enter to get to Terra Kerana. Except this one was red, and instead of showing a beautiful green land inside, there was nothing but fire.

"It looks a little...intense," Lloyd nervously stated when he saw this. "We must be getting close to the end of the game."

Jay didn't say a thing as he walked up to the cabinet and pressed a button, opening it up.

"Well, see you on the other side," Jay shrugged before he walked in.

Lloyd looked to Nya, feeling pretty shaky, but she just nodded towards the cabinet to tell him to follow, which he did before she entered as well.

Once they were in, the three were greeted by a whirlwind of colors all cycling above an impressive looking temple.

"Holy cow! Unagami's Temple of Madness!" Jay exclaimed.

"I'd go mad too if I lived here," Nya remarked.

The three walked into the temple to see so many floating platforms they were clearly supposed to jump on.

"Okay. That's freaky," Jay said when he saw this. All he could imagine was how many could possibly go out while they were on them.

"We should head back," Lloyd told the team. What if the same thing that happened to their brothers happened to them? "Scope out the dangers and come back with a plan."

Suddenly, the platform they were currently standing on began to glitch out.

"Did you guys feel that?" Lloyd asked.

"Feel what?" Jay asked.

"I don't know. Thought I felt something," Lloyd replied. "Whoa!" he exclaimed when the platform gave out, causing them to drop onto one right below them.

Suddenly, the platform they were on began disappearing, and they were forced to jump to the next one.

"Hey!" Nya exclaimed as they all did what the game wanted them to do.

"What's happening?" Lloyd asked as they jumped to another. "Where's that music coming from?" as video game music started to play.

"Oh, man. I was afraid of this," Jay told them. "We've entered the world of old-school platform games."

They moved to another one as Nya asked, "And those games force you to run towards chaos?"

"Technically side-scroll toward chaos, but yeah," Jay answered before hopping to another one. "There's rules to these games. One, you can't go backwards. Two, everything speeds up the further you go." Jay stopped talking when Nya took a jump too early and nearly fell, but Jay was there to catch her and bring her back up to safety. "Three, all the obstacles are pre-programmed, so if you learn the timing, you can evade the danger."

The three practiced this on an upcoming, hopping lava monster. They managed to either slide under or jump over, depending on where he was at the time, and continue moving.

"But the most important thing to know is if you die, we have to start over at the beginning," Jay explained.

"Wait. What do you mean we start-" Nya stopped when a giant spiky hammer suddenly swung into her, knocking her off the platform she was on.

Lloyd and Jay didn't even have any time to react before they were all on the starting platform again.

"Okay. I see what you mean," Nya said as she looked at her lives only to find out that she, just like Jay, only had one life left. Lloyd still had two.

"We have to do all that over again?" Lloyd asked in disbelief.

"All of us? How's that fair?" Nya asked.

"If we pay attention, we won't make the same mistakes twice," Jay said, ignoring both of their questions.

They jumped over to the next platform, doing the same things they did before, but this time, Nya dodged the swinging hammer by jumping to another platform before it could hit her, and they were able to continue. Then, there was a whole row of platforms with swinging hammers, but they were able to pay attention to the pattern and avoid these. Once Jay was across, he began celebrating with a dance but was nearly crushed by a falling tile obstacle. He avoided this and began cheering, but it was then that he heard a very familiar voice screaming, "Look out!"

Nya and Lloyd both gasped as Jay felt himself being pushed to the ground. He looked behind him to see none other than Echo Zane!

"Echo!" everyone exclaimed happily.

"Do not let your-yourselves to get distracted so ea-ea-easily," Echo was glitching out, but he didn't seem to notice.

"Are you-How are you-?" Lloyd began as he and Nya came over.

"No time," Echo replied before he began jumping above and onto each falling tile to avoid them. "Jump up!" he suddenly yelled as he double jumped over an oncoming wall, but Lloyd did not register what he said in time and ended up falling, bringing everyone, even Echo, to the beginning.

The nindroid gasped when he saw that everyone only had one life left.

"Oh, no!" he exclaimed.

"It's okay. We'll just pay attention," Jay said, although he was mostly telling himself.

"Just follow me," Echo told them.

The three ran through the course, following every move their nindroid friend made. Every tile he jumped on, they made sure to jump on too. Every time he slid under an obstacle, they did so as well. Every time he double-jumped, they followed with a double-jump of their own. It was tiring, but they soon made it to the platform right behind the wall.

"Whew!" Lloyd breathed a sigh of relief as he saw that there were no more platforms. "No more scrolling!" He turned to Echo to ask what the heck was going on, but Echo interrupted saying, "It's not over yet," as fast video game music began to play.

"What could possibly be left?" Lloyd asked.

"Much, much more," he answered as some platforms began stacking on top of each other.

"An infinity maze," Jay gasped.

"Let's hope not. Infinity means forever," Lloyd replied.

"Follow my every move!" Echo yelled before he jumped over to the next platform. He continued jumping from platform to platform and on every trampoline they came across. Soon, Nya realized something.

"Is someone throwing bricks at us?" Nya asked.

"Those aren't bricks! They're bombs!" Lloyd realized when he saw this.

"U-U-U-Unagami will do any-anything to k-keep us from the key-key-keytana," Echo replied as the bricks exploded.

Another one exploded, causing Jay to get flung over to another platform, where a bunch of spikes were pointing towards him.

"What are those?" Jay asked.

"Look out!" Echo called to him as he did a back flip to get away from the spikes coming his way.

Then, Jay jumped up to the platform above but screamed when he noticed how hot it was. He jumped up to the one right above right as the platform he was just standing on caught on fire.

"And apparently the floor can just burst into flames," Nya said.

The ninja and Echo continued jumping, dodging fiery platforms, falling bricks, and oncoming spikes. It was tiring, to say the least.

"I'll never make fun of old games again," Jay panted. "This is hard."

"No wonder this game was never released! Who wants to play something called 'Spiky Bomb Brick Hot Floors'?" Lloyd asked.

"Who cares what it's called? It's endless!" Nya exclaimed.

"Hopefully not," Jay replied.

"What if it is? What if there's no way out?" Lloyd asked.

Preferring not to think about that, Nya quickly changed the subject saying, "Guys! Look! A loot box!"

Everyone watched as Nya jumped from spike to spike and jumped onto the loot box, giving her a cyclone in her inventory.

"Uh, cyclones are not a good thing," Nya said when she saw this. "They're whirling clouds of chaos that obliterate everything in their path."

"Whoa!" Jay suddenly exclaimed before he pushed Echo, who was right in front of him forward to move him out of the way of some falling bricks. Nya and Lloyd did so as well.

"Maybe the only way to beat this maze is a force of nature!" Jay said.

"Only one way to find out!" Nya replied.

She opened her inventory once again and tapped on the cyclone, surrounding her in it.

"I think this gives me the ability to use airjitzu!" Nya exclaimed.

"Great, but it's only temporary. The flashes are speeding up!" Jay told her.

"If you can airjitzu, you can get to the top of this maze!" Lloyd said.

"But what about you guys?" Nya asked.

Lloyd and Jay nodded to each other before Jay turned back to her and said, "Go without us. It's better than none of us making it."

Nya smiled as she shook her head. "I got a better idea," she told them. "Hang on tight, Boys!"

She grabbed onto Jay's hand, who immediately grabbed Lloyd's hand while he grabbed Echo's

"Cyclondo!" she exclaimed as the four of them began flying up the maze. Jay began cheering at the sound of his old nickname for the art, and the four made it safely to the end of the maze. In front of them was another temple.

"Guess it wasn't so infinite after all," Lloyd said.

"Then they should call it the 'Super Long and Incredibly Annoying, but Eventually There's an End to it Maze'," Nya said, feeling very frustrated with this whole thing.

"Yeah, just rolls off the tongue, doesn't it?" Jay replied with a smile.

Nya smiled back, but it was then that she noticed that Echo hadn't said anything in a while. She turned to the nindroid, who seemed rather dazed.

"Echo?" she asked.

"Red 59 reporting for duty," Echo replied.

Jay gasped. "Unagami's rewriting his code!"

Nya hurriedly ran over to her friend and opened up his programming. She fixed all the code that was glitching out to the best of her ability, and before long, he was back to normal. Or, at least the closest to normal a nindroid could get in this game.

"Thank you, Nya," Echo said with a smile.

"What happened?" Lloyd asked. "How are you alive?"

"Everything was gone," Nya looked as if she was about to cry. "Your memory drive was split in half, we couldn't find the source of your power anywhere!"

"To be perfectly honest, I'm not entirely sure. What I do know is that the Quiet One took a liking to me. She made sure to keep my file on a backup. I do not know how I ended up here," Echo said. "All I know is that my mere presence here has caused problems in the game. Unagami has been trying to rewrite my code for weeks, and my fighting back has caused issues in the game's code. I-" Echo faltered a moment before saying, "I created the glitch."

Jay shut his eyes tightly, thinking about how the glitch took his friends from him. He knew that Echo had no way of knowing that his self-defense would create such a problem, and even now, Jay wasn't sure if Echo had any choice. Releasing a painful breath, he looked up to the nindroid he hadn't seen in so long and said, "I'm sorry we didn't come back for you."

"It is alright," Echo nodded. "I-I reacted poorly."

"No! Nya wanted to come back for you, and I said 'No'! I-I was selfish, and-and I wouldn't blame you if you didn't forgive me."

Jay closed his eyes tightly, once again, awaiting the worst. In two seconds, he'd be cubed. Echo would take him out, and he would deserve it. After a while, though, he realized that he was still here. In fact, Echo had taken him in a tight embrace.

"It is alright," he said again. "I forgive you."

Jay looked at the nindroid, mouth agape, wondering why. Why would he forgive him for such a horrendous act? He looked to Nya, confused, as she said, "You missed a lot while in the First Realm."

Echo smiled at this. It was nice to have his friends back with him. He then turned to Nya and said, "With the new coding you implemented in me, I should be alright for the next few hours. Let us try to beat the game before then."

"Alright," Nya replied. "Let's go."

The four walked into the temple to see a big area that Lloyd recognized as a fighting pit. It was very similar to the one he found Kai in a couple years back, except this one was shaped like a square. As soon as the doors closed behind them, some fast music started to play.

"The music again?" Nya asked. "How can it get harder?"

"This must be the final boss battle," Jay replied.

Echo shook his head. "No," he told them, "but you are close. One of you must enter the arena and fight a villain that Unagami chooses, but he will use any past mental or physical damage he can to try and win. Be careful."

"Choose your champion," the announcer said.

"How many lives do you have left, Echo?" Jay asked.

"The game won't let me play," Echo replied. "They didn't give me any."

"What?!" Nya exclaimed.

"I'll take this one," Lloyd said.

"Are you sure?" Nya asked. "You only have one life left, Lloyd."

"Same as you," Lloyd replied.

The three backed up and nodded for Lloyd to go. The green ninja smiled at this before he turned around and picked his icon.

"The champion has been chosen. Unagami will now choose your opponent," the announcer said as Lloyd entered the arena. A technological barrier prevented Nya and Jay from entering behind.

Lloyd took out his sword, ready to fight as Unagami went through many different villains. Suddenly, he had chosen, and Lloyd was not ready for who it was.

"Lloyd," the white-haired princess said. Her beautiful green eyes hidden behind that stupid red face makeup. She was wearing a new outfit that the game had given to her, but she looked and sounded exactly the same as the day she died.

"Ha-Harumi?" Lloyd asked.

"It's good to see you again, Lloyd," Harumi said as she began walking forward.

"How?" Lloyd asked as he did the same.

Jay, Nya, and Echo's hearts nearly stopped when they heard this. Lloyd was falling for Unagami's tricks.

"It's not her, Lloyd! It's just a trick!" Jay yelled as he tried moving forward, but the barrier kept him from being heard. "A force field!"

"Lloyd!" Nya yelled.

"No, no, no!" Jay exclaimed as he began banging his fists on the force field, trying to get in.

"It's no use. It's designed to keep even the most powerful foe to Unagami out," Echo said.

But the ninja didn't listen. They continued screaming Lloyd's name and trying to break free, but it was no use.

"Did you miss me, Lloyd? I think about you so much," Harumi told him. "Sometimes I wonder if things could have been different. Maybe in another time or place? Maybe we can be together again. You and me."

It was then that Harumi suddenly struck Lloyd in the chest with her sword. Lloyd groaned at this, but it brought him back to reality. Harumi was still as horrible as ever.

He backed up, not wanting to fight her. As she tried to strike again, Lloyd brought his sword up to block the attack before pushing her back.

"I can't fight her!" Lloyd yelled to his friends.

"It's a simulation! It's not her!" Jay called back, but it sounded muffled to the young green ninja.

Harumi spun around before trying to strike again, but Lloyd dodged this. She then did a back flip to get to him, but Lloyd used his sword to block before pushing her back again. Not before she managed to strike again, though.

Lloyd groaned as he placed his sword to the ground and grabbed his chest in pain. Maybe he could talk to her. Maybe, just maybe she'd finally listen to him.

"Harumi! Please! Don't do this!" Lloyd begged.

"You left me, Lloyd!" Harumi yelled. That same hatred still lacing her voice. "All the people you save, and where were you when I needed you? Where were you?"

Lloyd sloppily dodged and blocked Harumi's attacks. Those same accusations Lloyd couldn't help but believe. He was the green ninja. Why did he release Pythor? If he hadn't released the Devourer, Harumi would be better. She would be the person he knew before.

Suddenly, he noticed that Harumi was spinning once again. She jumped up into the air and tried to strike Lloyd, but he used his sword to push her off and knock her off balance before he kicked her across the arena, taking away some of her health. A lump formed in Lloyd's throat when he saw this, but he had to save his friends, and the only way to do that was to beat her.

He ran at Harumi and struck her with his sword a few times, and Harumi getting a few hits on him. The two clashed swords multiple times, but one of those times, he could feel that she was getting weaker. She looked up to Lloyd and said, "Lloyd. I don't have long, but I wanted to say, I'm sorry."

Lloyd's grasp on his sword weakened when he heard this.

"I'm sorry for everything," she said. "If you could only give me another chance?"

"Harumi?" Lloyd asked, finally seeing the light he heard she showed in her last moments. That news report of her saving that boy and his family. She wasn't a monster anymore. "Is it really you?"

"No! Lloyd! It's not Harumi!" Jay screamed as he banged on the force field once more. "The computer is just trying to get into your head like Echo said! It's nothing but a program!"

Lloyd really couldn't tell, so he decided to test her. He pushed back softly so that he could move his sword to his side without her hurting him and said, "Harumi. What did we do the first night we were alone together?"

"Watched the sunset?" the girl in front of him asked.

Lloyd's face fell. It really wasn't her.

"Listened to music?" Harumi asked.

"We went to the canals in Ninjago City to give food to the poor. The real Harumi would've remembered that," Lloyd replied. "You're not Harumi!"

Lloyd immediately ran at her, this imposter Harumi doing the same. They both jumped up, but Lloyd knocked her down quickly by striking her. She jumped into the air and sliced his side slightly, but he came back with a more powerful hit to the back, and she practically flew across the arena. She managed to get back up safely and come back with a powerful attempt, but Lloyd quickly moved out of the way. Harumi noticed this and started hitting him repeatedly, taking away a lot of health. She then did a double front flip to try to get a powerful hit on him, but Lloyd struck her across the arena once again before she could hit him. The two were now on opposite sides of the arena. Harumi gave an angry cry as she ran at Lloyd, Lloyd doing the same, and they both struck each other at the same time.

Harumi took a breath. She exhaled, but as soon as she was finished, she was gone. Lloyd did the same. He felt so dizzy and could feel himself going down. He tried to catch himself by walking forward, but he never knew if he succeeded because the next thing he knew was darkness.

"No!" Jay screamed when he saw the cube in the center of the arena.

"Lloyd!" Nya yelled.

Echo sighed sadly before the three ran into the arena to get to their brother's cube, but a drone had already taken it.

The trio was nearly in tears as the final keytana was presented to them.

"Jay," Nya started as she looked to her yin. They were in an all too familiar position. "What do we do?" she asked.

"We do what we have to do," Jay responded as he took the keytana. Anger and grief trapped in his voice. "We get our friends back, and we stop Unagami."

ECHO'S BACK BABY! I know some of you were pretty upset about me killing him off in Hunted, and after seeing a beautiful edit by Gold07 Arts on YouTube, (You may want to check her Echo Zane vid out). I realized that I HAD to bring him back.

Anyway, I hope you liked that chapter. If you'd like, please leave a review. Like I told Guest, I am still taking requests for C.J. Style One-Shots, but I'm not going to update until after the rest of this story is out.

Have a great day/night!

#God'sNotDead