Alright, I decided to skip the Explorer's Club since I had nothing new to add. Hope you guys like this chapter!

Disclaimer: I do not own Ninjago or the lines from the episode Vengeance is Mine.

Chapter XI: Vengeance is Mine!

"Again," Aspheera ordered. Another snake smashed himself into the door. "Again!" another followed after that. "Again!"

"Kaboom!" Char said once another snake did the same.

"Again!"

"Blamo!"

Aspheera gave Char a look that gave him the chills, shutting him right up.

"Again!" she yelled.

The ninja inside could feel the entire base shaking! It was terrifying, to say the least, and C.J. was on the verge of tears.

"We'll find a way out of this," Cole told his son.

Wu just sighed while Jay, Kai, and Pixal worked on the mech.

"Revenge!" Aspheera screamed from outside. It was so loud it echoed through the base, causing C.J. to whimper.

Cole rubbed his back to try to calm him while Kai noticed Master Wu still seeming unsure of himself.

"Master Wu?" Kai asked, mostly to make sure that he was alright.

"That is the sound of hatred," Wu replied, "and anger. So much anger."

Kai jumped down, and said, "We won't let her get you, Master. Or you, Little Buddy."

Kai held his fist out for a fist bump, and C.J. reciprocated happily.

"Yeah, she'll have to go through us first," Cole added.

"Affirmative," Pixal agreed.

Suddenly, the console began beeping loudly, followed by Nya's voice.

"Pixal, come in! Pixal?" she asked.

Pixal ran over to it and pressed a button allowing them to see Nya on the screen.

"Nya, where are you?" Pixal asked.

"I'm with Zane and Lloyd. We have the second scroll. Repeat. We have the second scroll!" Nya replied.

"Yes!" Jay cheered.

"About time!" Kai cheered as he gave Cole a high five.

"That is most welcome news," Pixal said, and she was smiling widely.

Another bang could be heard, but Wu ignored it as he said, "Nya, please tell Lloyd to be careful with the scroll. It is very dangerous. The less he handles it, the better."

"I understand. We'll be careful," Nya replied.

Suddenly, the banging grew louder, and the door began to creak. If they kept this up, it wouldn't hold for long.

Cole held onto C.J. much tighter as a way to calm both of them while the others gasped.

"What was that sound?" Nya asked.

Pixal turned back around to face Nya, and said, "The structural integrity of the doors is failing. You have to hurry, Nya."

Another loud creak could be heard, causing fear to spread in Nya's heart. They had to make it in time. They just had to.

"Hold on, Pixal! We're coming!" Nya said.

She then pressed a button, causing the Land Bounty to go dangerously fast, but desperate times called for desperate measures. When Zane saw this, he did the same with his Shuricopter.

"What is it?" Lloyd asked once Nya ended the call.

"We're running out of time! And, Lloyd, Master Wu said to be careful with that scroll. It's dangerous!" Nya replied.

"I'll be careful," Lloyd said as he unrolled the scroll and began to read its contents. Most of which was in ancient writing from when Wu was a little kid, but he could understand enough of it.

Nya noticed this and began to grow worried. Why did he have to open it up. He was usually smarter than that.

"Maybe you should wrap it up again, just to be safe," Nya told him.

"I said, 'I'd be careful'!" Lloyd yelled.

His voice seemed different when he held the scroll. A lot like what the Sons of Garmadon sounded like when they wore the masks, and that scared Nya. He was clearly under the influence of that scroll, and she had no clue what he would do to her if she angered him more. So she looked ahead at the road and didn't.

Suddenly, Lloyd seemed to realize what just happened. His voice returned to normal as he said, "Nya, I-I'm sorry. I-I don't know what came over me."

Nya felt a hint of relief wash over her hearing Lloyd speaking to her normally again.

"It's the scroll, Lloyd," she told him. "Put it down."

Lloyd walked back over to where the banner they took was and tried to put the scroll down, but it seemed more difficult than it should be. It was like his hand didn't want to release its grip, but he managed to force it to open up before he covered it with the banner and went back to his seat.

Aspheera had her snakes crash into the door so many times, it now had this huge dent in it!

Jay screamed as he shook Kai.

"What do we do?" the lightning ninja asked.

Cole noticed a manhole in the middle of the base. Most likely where Pixal had the electrical wiring stored to fix, but it was a good hiding place.

"In there! Come on!" Cole said as he dragged Wu over in one hand while carry C.J. in the other.

"It's working," Aspheera said as she noticed the dent. "Send them all!"

"All?" Char asked.

"All!" Aspheera screamed.

"All! You heard her! Go!" Char screamed to the snakes.

They all listened to Aspheera and began charging at the door.

"Pix! Come on!" Jay called as she refused to move from her work.

"I just need a few more seconds," Pixal replied.

"We're out of time," Kai told her as he noticed the door. It looked like it was about to explode. "Pixal!"

Kai stopped when she didn't answer and hopped into the manhole with Wu, Cole, C.J., and Jay.

Suddenly, the door burst open, and Aspheera and her Pyro Vipers entered, but she saw no one in there. She and her army slithered up to the open space in front of the computer, mech, and near the manhole the ninja were hiding and turned to Char, asking, "What trick is this?" She looked furious.

C.J. began whimpering at the sound of her voice, but Cole turned to him and put a finger over his own mouth to gesture him to me quiet. C.J. stopped and nodded, but he still seemed scared so he snuggled up into Cole's lap to hide even further.

"A...tricky trick?" Char replied.

"Where are they? Show yourself, Wu! Face me, if you have the courage!" Aspheera yelled.

She banged her staff on the lid of the manhole, causing dust to fall towards Jay, and he was about to sneeze.

Cole immediately put a finger under his nose to stop him from sneezing. Jay calmed down, and it looked like it had worked, so COle removed his finger, only for Jay to immediately sneeze afterwards.

Aspheera smiled as she opened the lid to see the ninja and more importantly, Wu, hiding. C.J. hid himself even further in Cole's lap while Cole put a protective hand over his head.

"At last. I dreamed of this moment, Wu," she said. "I dreamed of it!"

"Keep dreaming," Pixal said as she walked up to Aspheera in the mech they had been working on.

Asspheera turned around in surprise to see the white and green mech towering over the Serpentine.

"Get away from them, You Witch!" Pixal shouted as she used the mech to hit her across the room.

"Who are you?" Aspheera asked.

"Pixal, and you should step away from my friends," Pixal replied.

"Yeah!" Jay cheered as he looked up at the fight.

"Let her have it, Pixal!" Cole yelled.

Aspheera shot a blast of fire at Pixal's mech, but she held a blade that was connected to the arm to block the shot, and it reflected right back to Aspheera.

"What are we waiting for?" Kai asked as he climbed over Jay's and Cole's heads to get out. "Let's get out there and help!"

Kai, Wu, and Jay all climbed out of their hiding place, but Cole went down and saw a small tunnel that C.J. could fit through inside the manhole.

"C.J., you see that blue wire over there?" Cole asked as he pointed through the tunnel to the wire he was speaking of.

"Yeah," C.J. replied.

"I need you to stay there. I don't want you getting hurt," Cole told him.

C.J. looked like he was about to cry, so Cole gave him one last hug before saying, "I'll try my hardest to make it back. Okay? I would hate it if you got hurt, though."

"Okay," C.J. replied before he toddled over to the wire and sat down.

"Good job," Cole smiled before he hopped out to fight with his friends.

The ninja all got their weapons at the ready and put their hoods up, waiting to see if Pixal had it covered or not.

It wasn't long before Aspheera screamed, "Attack!"

Wu ran at a Pyro Viper and began fighting him off with his staff while Cole channeled his power through his hammer to knock the Vipers after him out. Kai then jumped over Cole and used the force from his jump to knock another over with his sword.

Aspheera then used the scroll to disconnect a stalactite from above and knock it into Pixal's mech. Aspheera did this again, and the mech fell over, nearly crushing Cole!

Pixal was about to get back up when Aspheera used the power from the scroll to try shooting her with sheer power. She used the bladed hand of the mech to block this blow, and it was destroyed!

"Warning. Mechanical failure. Mechanical failure," the mech told her as everything began to go offline and smoke filled the cockpit.

Pixal opened the hatch and exited the mech as she couldn't see or really do anything from inside there now.

"Go!" Aspheera ordered her army.

Three snakes immediately surrounded Jay. The lightning ninja kicked one of the snakes away, but the other two and, eventually the one he kicked, came back and tackled him to the ground.

Kai noticed this and began to go forward to help his brother, but he was soon surrounded by Pyro Vipers with swords against his neck. Along with all the others.

As the vipers began to surround Wu, he dropped his staff in defeat. He deserved this, after all.

Hope filled the ninja's hearts, though, when they noticed Zane in his shuricopter. He shot a bit of ice at the vipers a few times while the Land Bounty came up into the base.

"Aspheera!" Lloyd yelled as he showed her the second scroll in his hand.

Aspheera gasped.

"The second scroll?" she asked. "Impossible!"

"I'm full of surprises," Lloyd told her.

The three ninja jumped down to face Aspheera while Lloyd got ready to fight with his new toy.

Aspheera almost immediately went into her very powerful tornado, and Lloyd followed with an almost equally as powerful one.

The two tornadoes fought for power a couple times before they both exited. Aspheera tried to throw the staff over her head to strike Lloyd down, but he held his staff in a horizontal position to keep it from coming closer, and he even managed to push her off. The two fought valiantly with the help of their scrolls, but eventually, Aspheera got the upper-hand and hit Lloyd in the chest, causing him to lose the staff and fall to the ground.

Jay responded to this by grabbing the staff and starting his spinjitzu. The two kept fighting, but when Jay made a mistake in his form, something Aspheera seemed to notice, she didn't hurt him like he thought she would. Instead, she exited her tornado and smiled as she noticed something a little ways away. Jay looked in that direction to see that the small tunnel C.J. was put in apparently led behind the computers, where C.J. was watching the fight.

"No!" Jay yelled, but Aspheera had already pushed him out of the way using spinjitzu on him when he wasn't ready and knocking the scroll out of his hands.

Aspheera then slithered up to C.J. and grabbed him.

C.J. immediately began to cry out in fear.

Panic filled the ninja at the sight, but Jay knew what to do. He ran back up to the scroll he had dropped and threw it over to Cole. When the earth ninja caught it, he began glowing with orange fire much like Lloyd's green, and electricity surrounded him. The scroll seemed to channel his fear and anger towards Aspheera to make him even more powerful.

He ran up to the snake and tried to strike her down with the the scroll, but Aspheera put C.J. in the way! Cole had quick reflexes, though, and easily moved down a little, but Aspheera used her staff to block his shot. She then went into a spinjitzu tornado, Cole following quickly, and she shot him away, causing him to lose the scroll, but Aspheera lost C.J.

During the spinjitzu, Cole had managed to grab his son from Aspheera, and he was now laying on his back, C.J. in his arms.

"I told you to stay where you were," Cole said. He couldn't even use a strict voice with him without getting choked up by his own tears.

C.J. just cried as he held onto Cole's neck.

Luckily, Aspheera didn't seem to notice the little family reunion because Kai now had the scroll in his hands. Problem was, without a power, it was useless to him.

"Kai!" Wu exclaimed.

"Look out!" Zane yelled.

Kai ran at Aspheera to fight while she used her spinjitzu, but he was no match for her and was immediately shot across the room and into Wu. The scroll fell at Zane's feet.

Aspheera then sent a burst of power from the staff and towards Wu, but he and the other nearby ninja got out of the way only to witness it destroy the mech right behind them! Pixal was devastated and terrified to see her work gone in an instant. There wasn't even a trace of it, and it made Zane mad to see this and Aspheera messing with his friends, C.J., Wu, Pixal! This had to be stopped.

The nindroid picked up the scroll, immediately feeling the anger succumb him, along with a much greater surge of ice flowing through his veins just begging to come out.

"Leave my friends alone!" Zane yelled as he ran up to Aspheera. Two Pyro Vipers tried to strike him down, but he easily jumped over them before freezing two more coming at him in solid blocks of ice. He then hit the scroll to the ground as hard as he could. This spread ice from his hands, to the scroll, and across the ground until it reached Aspheera and froze her! The rest of the Pyro Vipers attempted to flee, but Zane wasn't going to let any of them leave, and he froze them solid too.

"Holy cow!" Cole exclaimed as he finally got up, C.J. still in his arms.

"H-ho-how'd you do that?" Jay asked.

"It's the power of the Scroll of Forbidden Spinjitzu," Wu replied as he walked up to Jay. "Zane, give it to me."

Zane turned around and looked at Wu skeptically. He felt the power surging through his veins, and he kinda liked it. What he could do to Aspheera and her army in a matter of seconds was more than any of his friends could. He could defeat any of their enemies before they were even a threat. In his hands, Ninjago could be at peace, and he knew that all Wu would do would be to put it away or worse, put it in hiding. He couldn't let Wu have it, but the smallest voice inside of him told him that he should.

"Zane!" Wu yelled when he noticed the nindroid's hesitance.

Zane looked at the scroll one last time before looking at Wu.

"Whatever you want, Master," Zane thought, feeling that this was a stupid decision. Why did he have to give him the scroll?

He walked over to Wu and still felt hesitant to give it to him when Aspheera's hand was freed from the ice. The same one holding the scroll.

C.J. screamed in fear when he saw that she might be freed while Lloyd screamed, "Look out!"

Every questionable thought immediately flew from Zane's mind as he saw the burst of power coming from Aspheera's staff and right towards Wu!

Zane didn't hesitate for this. He pushed Wu out of the way and was hit with the same power that destroyed Pixal's mech! Zane was gone, and Aspheera dropped the staff as she succumbed to the ice.

"Oh, no!" Nya yelled as she ran up to the spot Zane had just been. "Zane!"

"Zane!" Cole yelled as he ran up to the same spot.

"Uncle Zane?" C.J. asked as he began petting the spot.

"No!" Pixal yelled as she tried looking for any sign of her boyfriend, but he wasn't there. "Zane."

Jay put an arm around Nya, and the two held each other close as they tried to comprehend what had just happened.

Their innocent, lovable, friendly nindroid was really gone. He had sacrificed himself for their master, and they didn't even get to say goodbye.

It was about a week later when Wu went to Kryptarium Prison to visit Aspheera. She was in the same cell they had used to keep Garmadon in. Now that he was no where to be found, Aspheera took the highly secured spot with no way out unless let out.

"Ah, Wu," Aspheera said when she noticed his presence. "How fitting. Here we are again. You are free, and I am unjustly imprisoned."

"Unjustly?" Wu asked, anger immediately coming over him. How could she say that? "Zane was innocent. He had no part in this. He was one of the kindest, bravest souls I have ever known, and you destroyed him!"

"Destroyed? You think I wanted to destroy you?" Aspheera laughed as she slithered a little farther away from Wu in her cell. " I didn't want to destroy you," she said. "I wanted you to suffer as I did...only worse!"

"What do you mean?"

"I didn't destroy your friend. I banished him to the one place where you cannot help him. To the Never-Realm!"

Wu gasped when he heard the name again, and immediately ran off. He had to tell his ninja. Fast!

"What will you do now, Wu? What will you do now?" Aspheera screamed before laughing manically.

She did get what she wanted. Now, Wu was suffering knowing that he could not help his student. At least, not in time.

Hope you guys liked that. Feel free to leave a review if you'd like. Next up, A Cold Goodbye.

Have a great day/night!

#God'sNotDead