Disclaimer: I do not own Ninjago or the lines from the episode Ancient History.

Chapter IX: Ancient History

Aspheera laughed from the rooftop as she took in all the chaos around her. The chaos she had caused.

"Look at them," Aspheera told her loyal servant, Char. "Scurrying like frightened field mice."

"What is your command?" Char asked. "Shall we conquer the city? Build you a new empire?"

"I have no desire to rule a weak and timid rabble. I seek one thing," Aspheera replied. "Revenge!"

"Revenge? Yes! Wonderful, sweet revenge! Against whom?"

"Who do you think? Against the Treacherous Deceiver who betrayed me! Who imprisoned me for ages inside a crumbling pyramid!"

"Ah! Him, him. That's what I thought. Just-just checking."

"I will repay his treachery tenfold. With the power of the Forbidden Scroll, I will banish him to the most forsaken place in all creation."

"But how will you find him?"

"With this," Aspheera said as she looked at the scroll rolled up on her staff. "It belonged to him. It bears his scent.

"Bring him to me! Lead me to the treacherous deceiver! Find him, Fire Fang!" Aspheera ordered her giant snake she had been riding on.

Fire Fang sniffed the scroll and began to turn different directions to sniff out the Deceiver. He roared loudly when he found the direction he was in.

"He has it! He has the scent!" Aspheera told Char excitedly.

Fire Fang tilted his head down to let his queen board him as she said, "My revenge is at hand! Go, Fire Fang. Lead me to the one who betrayed me. Go!"

Meanwhile, Lloyd and his friends were trying to clear as much rubble in the building as they could so they could get outside.

"That way!" Lloyd said as he pointed to the door. "Come on!"

All of the ninja followed Lloyd to the doorway but stopped when they saw Fire Fang wreaking havoc across the city.

"We gotta stop that thing!" Lloyd announced before he began to run towards it.

"Wait, Lloyd," Zane stopped him. "Aspheera has beaten us twice, and with the scroll, she is more powerful than ever."

"We can't just give up," Lloyd protested.

"I am not proposing that," Zane replied, "but Master Wu taught us to think before rushing into battle. We need to know more about her and this...Deceiver. Perhaps then we will find a way to defeat her."

"You're talking ancient Serpentine history," Kai said.

"Yeah, who do you plan to ask?" Cole questioned.

"What about Scales?" Jay suggested. When all eyes were looking at him he said, "Well, he's Serpentine. Maybe he knows."

"The Serpentine don't usually get involved," Nya replied.

"Only one way to find out," Cole told them.

"Okay, Jay, Cole, and Kai, you guys track down Scales. Find out what you can," Lloyd told them.

"Well, what are you gonna do?" Kai asked.

"We're gonna see if we can slow Aspheera down and get that scroll back," Lloyd answered. "Come on!"

"What about me?" a small voice asked from behind Kai.

Kai turned around to see none other than, "Jake? You were following us?"

"I didn't know what else to do," Jake replied. "My home's kind of far from here."

"What? You were thinking of walking back home in all of this mess?" Jay asked.

"Why not? This isn't the first time I've been stranded somewhere during an attack like this. Getting home from school has taught me a thing or two," Jake said.

"Even so, we cannot leave you to go home by yourself," Zane replied.

"What's your address, Kid?" Kai asked.

"2220 Malbury Street," Jake answered.

"The sewers would be a safer way of traveling," Zane said as he looked at the three tasked to find Skales.

Jay sighed. "Guess the kid's comin' with us," he said.

"The ninja are going to take me home!" Jake gasped.

Kai chuckled a little while Cole said, "You bet you are!"

"Alright. Let's go!" Lloyd said before everyone ran off in their specified directions.

Cole lifted off the lid to a manhole before everyone jumped in, Jake hanging onto Kai's back while he jumped before hopping off. Jay took out a flashlight and immediately crinkled his nose from the stench.

"Oh, why does Scales have to live in a sewer? Doesn't the smell bother him? It smells like Cole's socks," Jay said.

"Hey!" Cole exclaimed while Kai stifled a laugh.

As they were walking through the sewers, Jake said, "I still can't believe I'm with the ninja! This is awesome!"

"Glad to do it, Kid," Cole replied.

Jake was silent after that as he appeared to be thinking about something.

"What's on your mind, Jake?" Kai asked.

"Oh, well, I was just wondering, who was the baby at the party after you guys defeated Garmadon?" Jake asked.

Cole was slightly nervous to answer that question. He had been very careful to keep C.J. out of the citizens minds in case a nut-job like Harumi came into the picture once again. He even had a conversation with Gayle Gossip to make sure that he stayed out of the news, so not many people knew about him. But Jake seemed trustworthy enough.

"He's my son, C.J. We've been pretty careful to keep him out of the news, so you can't tell anyone, alright?" Cole replied.

"You can count on me," Jake said as he placed a hand over his heart.

"Thanks, Kid."

The three ninja and Jake continued their journey through the sewers until they made it to three different tunnels with Serpentine symbols written over top.

"Oh, great! I don't suppose either of you knows how to read Serpentine," Cole said.

"Nope."

"Not me," were the replies he got.

"Oh, we should've brought Zane," Cole complained.

"We might as well flip a coin," Kai suggested.

"Oh, what's the difference? Which tunnel was it again?" Jay asked.

"You guys have been here before?" Jake asked.

"Yeah, but it was a long while ago," Kai answered.

"I say we go back and-" Cole screamed when he turned around just to see a dagger's edge a mere inch from his face.

The owner of the dagger was a Hypnobri with two others behind him. Guess they didn't want visitors.

"They must be heading for the south side of the city," Zane said as he ran with Lloyd and Nya through the city.

"But why? There's nothing there," Nya replied.

The three jumped over a ring of cars before Zane said, "We must assume the deceiver is there."

"Zane? Can you plot us a shortcut? So we can get ahead of her?" Lloyd asked.

"Cross-referencing alternate routes," Zane said, trying to calculate where Aspheera was most likely heading. "I have plotted the fastest route," Zane announced when he got an answer.

"This way!" Zane said as he pointed to an alleyway to their left.

The ninja ran through the alley and to a point where they could see a beltway, mostly unaffected by Aspheera's army of snakes.

"Jump!" the nindroid ordered.

They did so, slid down a small ramp and jumped onto a moving vehicle! They stayed on the vehicle for a moment longer before they made it to their destination.

"So what's the plan?" Nya asked.

"I have an idea," Zane replied before he began running off in another direction.

"But Aspheera's over there," Nya told him

"I will return," the ice ninja assured.

"You distract her while I try to get that scroll back," Lloyd told Nya.

The two ninja then put on their hoods and ran in two separate directions.

Lloyd hopped onto a car that had been turned onto its back and jumped to a fire escape. He then jumped over to a lamppost, back to the fire escape, and jumped onto the roof of the building he had been climbing in this process.

He looked down to see a very long fall if it were too happen and backed up saying, "Here goes nothing!"

The green ninja then jumped to the next building, activating his elemental shield in case he didn't make it, but it turned out that he didn't need it.

Meanwhile, Nya was confronting a few serpentine that the people of Ninjago City referred to as Pyro Vipers.

"Hiya, Fellas," Nya announced.

One of them immediately tried striking her down with its sword, but she jumped out of the way and picked him up, spinning around enough to knock another down when she threw him into the other. She then took out her trident and used it to protect herself from the swords of two other Pyro Vipers in front of her. She managed to push them off of her and duck right when one tried to strike and jumped up when the other did the same. While in the air, she put her trident on the ground and spun around to take out these two Serpentine, but it wasn't enough. All four of them, plus a brand new fighter charged at her, so she used her spinjitzu this time.

Aspheera scoffed when she saw this.

"Again?" she asked. "These ninja are a plague! Fire Fang, destroy them."

Fire Fang lifted his tail and tried to hit Nya with it, but she jumped over it and began flipping away when Fire Fang used his fire breath to shoot fire balls at her.

Once that was over, she noticed a fire hydrant nearby.

"Sorry, but I have other plans," Nya told her.

She used her trident to increase the water pressure before using her power to direct the water towards the snake, but Fire Fang used his breath to fight back and eventually knock her over. It was then that she noticed Lloyd on a close enough building to Aspheera to jump onto her head.

"Lloyd," Nya whispered. "I hope this works! Hey! I'm not done yet, Fire Worm!" Nya said as she used her powers to lift the water from the dam behind her.

"Destroy them! Nothing will stand in the way of my vengeance!" Aspheera yelled as she used her staff to lift some nearby cars up and burned them with her fire. She then shot these at the rapidly approaching water so it couldn't get to her.

"Hang in there, Nya," Lloyd said as he jumped onto one of Fire Fang's spikes on his back.

"Again!" Aspheera ordered. "Blast it again, Fire Fang!"

"Surprise!" Lloyd yelled as he kicked Aspheera in the face, knocking her over. The scroll flew up into the air, and both the green ninja and Serpentine witch jumped up to grab it and both did. They spun around in the air as they both felt the power surge through them. They spun so fast, Lloyd had to hold fast with both hands before Aspheera did spinjitzu mid-air and threw Lloyd off into a billboard. He knocked off of that and onto a building before he caught himself on another and did some ninja moves to get safely back on the ground.

"There! Get them!" Char yelled from right in front of Lloyd.

Snakes began attacking each ninja so they ran over to each other to regroup.

"Lloyd!" Nya exclaimed when she saw him.

The two turned around to face the snakes that were just chasing them, ready to fight.

"Where's Zane?" Lloyd asked.

"Beats me," Nya replied.

As the snakes charged at the ninja, spikes of ice shot out of the air and in the snakes' ways.

Everyone looked up to see Zane in his Shuricopter.

"You!" Aspheera exclaimed.

Zane flew his Shuricopter behind the ninja and began to create an ice barrier to protect them.

"This grows tiresome," Aspheera said. "Fire Fang, destroy them!"

Fire Fang began to use his fire breath to destroy the ice, and it began cracking fast.

"Hop on!" Zane yelled as he lowered the grapel. Lloyd and Nya jumped on just in time as the ice had just broken.

"What now?" Nya asked as they flew away.

"I sure hope the others are doing better than we are," Lloyd said.

As this was happening, the others had just been thrown to the door of one of the Serpentine places very roughly.

"Hey! Watch it!" Cole yelled.

"Yeah, we're friends with Scales, you know," Jay told them.

"And he's not gonna be happy when he hears you were shoving us around," Kai added.

Suddenly, the door opened and Scales slithered out.

"Is that what we are?" the Serpentine asked. "Friends?"

"Eh, sure we are, right, Pal?" Kai asked.

"Every time you come down here, it's because someone is trying to destroy the surface world," Scales answered.

Cole chuckled sheepishly at this comment.

"You're right. We're here because someone's attacking the surface world, and we need your help. Okay?" Kai told him. "We need to know about Aspheera and the Treacherous Deceiver."

"Aspheera is part of our history, but this other name...Treacherous Deceiver. This, I have never heard," Scales said, "but there is one who may know. Follow me."

The ninja and Jake followed Scales through the doors to see probably the biggest and most beautiful library ever made.

"This is Acidicus," Scales introduced the Venomari general to the ninja since it had been a long time since they had seen him and never really obtained a proper introduction. "He runs our library. He loves books.

"They wish to know about Aspheera and the Treacherous Deceiver," Scales told the other Serpentine.

"Aspheera, who tried to overthrow King Mambo the Fifth, and the Treacherous Deceiver, who betrayed her. Yes, I know this tale," Acidicus said in his incredibly raspy voice as he picked up a book.

"In the time of the First Spinjitzu Master, there was a truce between humans and Serpentine. Humans were forbidden to enter the valley of the Serpentine, and the Serpentine were forbidden from human lands, but one willful child disobeyed the law. A boy went among the Serpentine and was caught. He would've been punished, but he was rescued by a Serpentine girl. The girl and the boy became friends, but the boy was evil and corrupted the Serpentine girl. He turned her against her own king and was betrayed by the boy."

The ninja saw a picture in the book of a scroll illuminating above the girl, who was lying on the ground.

"Hey," Cole said as he realized something. "Does that look familiar to anyone?" he asked as he looked at the picture.

Kai rolled his eyes before saying, "That's the scroll Aspheera stole from the museum."

"It is the Scroll of Forbidden Spinjitzu," Acidicus told them.

"Oh, boy. I think I just realized who the Treacherous Deceiver is," Jay told them.

"Who?" Cole and Jake asked.

"Yeah, spit it out," Kai told him.

"Ugh. Think about it! Who's like, super, super, super old and is treacherous enough to befriend and snake and then betray her?"

"Garmadon!" Kai and Cole realized at once.

After the ninja quickly dropped Jake off at his house, they went as fast as they could to get to the monastery and ran into Wu's room without even knocking. C.J. was with him and was overjoyed to see his dad.

"Daddy!" C.J. yelled as he ran up to him. "You back."

"Of course," Cole told him.

The earth ninja then looked up to Wu and tried to tell him what happened, but Jay beat him to it.

"There's an evil Serpentine sorceress called Aspheera attacking the city!" Jay told him.

"Aspheera?" Wu asked.

"Yeah, Garmadon betrayed her and locked her in a pyramid for a thousand years!" Kai told him.

"And she is ticked off. She's not gonna stop until she finds him," Jay added.

Wu sighed. "She is not looking for Garmadon. She is looking...for me," the master told his students.

I hope you enjoyed that little Jake tid-bit in there. Next chapter should be out next week.

Have a great day/night!

#God'sNotDead