I'm back. I don't know how regularly I will be posting on this story, but I hope to post a chapter every Thursday or Friday over the next month.

Disclaimer: I do not own Ninjago or the lines from the episode An Unlikely Ally.

Chapter XV: An Unlikely Ally

The people of the fishing village were very grateful to Kai for bringing their fire back to them, but it was in danger of going out once again with the roof directly above being completely destroyed. That's why Nya and Jay went up to repair the roof at the crack of dawn. By noon, they were almost done, but they were getting so cold, they could hardly move anymore!

"Wow! It is cold up here!" Nya shivered as she watched Jay hammer another board down.

"Yeah, my hands are frozen. I can barely feel my-Woah!" Jay yelled as he began slipping off the roof.

"Jay!" Nya yelled as she tried to catch her yin, but it was too late. The lighting ninja had already fallen into Cole's pile of snow he had been working so hard to make. C.J. was making his own little pile with a very small garden shovel.

C.J. groaned slightly as he wiped some snow off of his face from Jay's little fall.

"Jay, do you mind?" Cole asked. "I'm trying to work here."

"Jay! Are you okay?" Nya asked as she looked down.

"Yeah," Jay groaned as he stood back up. He then noticed C.J., and asked, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," C.J. replied as he continued shoveling as if nothing had happened.

Jay then sighed before saying, "I'm getting a little tired of all this ice and snow!"

Nya then jumped down from the roof and faced the three boys.

"Hey, Nya, ice is water, right? Why can't you just, you know, use your elemental powers and clear away all this snow and ice for us?" Cole asked.

"Because I can't command water when it's frozen. It won't move," Nya replied.

"Aw. That's a bummer. You could have been really useful," Cole said as he began shoveling again, making Nya very mad and scaring Jay. "Wouldn't that be awesome? If she could just wave her hands, and presto! Job done! That would save us hours and hours of slow, boring, back-breaking work. Oh, well. We'll just have to do it the slow, boring, back-breaking way. Ahh!" Cole yelled when Nya threw a snowball at his face. "Hey!"

Both Jay and C.J. began laughing at the scene.

"Speaking of slow, where's Kai?" Jay asked.

As if to answer his question, a bunch of kids started running past them with fish in their hands and yelling "Fire Maker!" They headed towards Kai, who was in a nearby hammock and started asking him to cook their fish.

"Okay, okay. One at a time," Kai smiled as he lit his hand. He then cooked each of the children's fish in about a second, and they ran away happily.

"Hey! Where you going?" Kai called after them. "There's more where that came from! Fire Maker has more miracles."

"'Fire Maker has more miracles'?" Nya asked as the four walked over to Kai.

"Ah, just keeping the kids entertained," Kai told her.

"Ah, okay. As long as you're not straining yourself," Nya told her brother.

"Oh, no! I feel great! You know, this place is actually growing on me. It's really not so bad," Kai replied, clearly not understanding her sarcasm.

"Well, that's good," Jay added. "That's what it's all about, isn't it?"

"You bet! Rest and relaxation," Cole agreed.

"It is?" Kai asked, suddenly confused by his friend's words.

"No! It isn't!" Nya yelled before she took Kai's hammock and flipped it over so it turned around a couple times before dropping Kai on his face. She then stormed away angrily as Cole and C.J. laughed.

"Hey!" Kai exclaimed.

Nya stomped over to a nearby building so her friends would not see her and tried to calm down. Suddenly, Sorla came out of nowhere, and asked, "What troubles you, Nya?"

Nya sighed as she walked up to where Sorla was standing a few feet ahead of her.

"Nothing. I-I'm happy for Kai. His powers are coming back, and that's...great, I guess. It's just..." Nya sighed again.

"What?" Sorla inquired.

"My own powers," Nya replied. "In this place, they don't work. I can't do anything!"

"You are a water elemental, are you not?"

"Yes, but the water here is frozen. I can't control ice. They're two different elements."

"They are different but one. There can be no ice without water."

"It doesn't listen to me."

"Then you must speak more clearly," Sorla chuckled before she walked away.

Nya watched as Sorla left, trying to figure out how she could do that. She then looked at her hands before turning to some icicles above her head. She held her hand out towards them to try to feel the water inside, and she did! She tried to manipulate the water to break the icicle, but it wouldn't move!

"Ugh! Stubborn piece of ice!" Nya yelled as she kicked the building the icicles were on, only to have a bunch of snow fall on her head. "That's it! I hate ice! And I hate this-this place! And I hate-!"

"Nya?" Lloyd asked suddenly, surprising Nya.

The water ninja stopped her little tantrum and turned to Lloyd, who was coming up from the other side of a frozen river.

"You okay?" he asked her.

"I-It's nothing," Nya told him. "I just feel...useless without my powers."

"You're not useless!" Lloyd said as he began walking across the ice, only to begin slipping and nearly falling over. Luckily, he managed to stay upright and walked carefully forward. "In fact, that's what I wanted to ask you. I need you to protect the village with the others in case those Ice Samurai come back."

"What about you?" Nya asked as she helped get him back to snowy land.

"I have to go away for a while," Lloyd replied.

"Going after Zane? I hope you don't think you're going alone. We're coming with you."

"I've thought about this, Nya. There's only two ways into that castle: by force and by stealth, and force won't work. You've seen how powerful the Ice Emperor is."

"So we sneak in, like the crafty ninja we are."

As Nya was saying this, Lloyd noticed Cole, Jay, and Kai playing with the hammock Kai was on while C.J. watched from a little distance away. He saw as Cole pushed the hammock a little too hard, so that when it came back, it hit both him and Jay. By the time Nya had turned around, Cole was about a foot away from his son, laying on his back, Kai was face-first on the ground underneath the hammock again, and Jay was in a tree.

"One of us has a better chance than five, and the Ice Emperor will be watching you guys, not me. He'll send more of those Blizzard Samurai here. Which is why I need you to stay and protect these people," Lloyd explained.

"So we draw his attention while you sneak in and find Zane!" Nya realized.

"Exactly!" Lloyd told her.

"It's risky, but it could work."

"It will work. Trust me."

A while later, the village had come to the gate to say their goodbyes.

"At least take this with you," Nya said as she gave the tracker to Lloyd. "It's keyed to the mech. If you get close enough, it should start beeping."

"Okay. Thanks," Lloyd said as he took the tracker from her.

"And you'll need this," Jay said as he handed Lloyd a fish on a stick.

"What's that?" Lloyd asked.

"Dried fish! Not as bad as it sounds. Kind of like beef jerky, actually," Jay replied.

"You want me to light it for ya?" Kai asked as he lit his hand again.

"No, thanks. I'll save it for later," Lloyd answered.

"Oh, good. 'Cause I'm actually kinda wiped. My powers aren't fully back yet," Kai replied.

"Watch your back out there," Cole told him.

Lloyd put the fish in his pack and began to walk away when he felt something tug his pant leg. He looked down to see none other than C.J.

"You wanna hug?" Lloyd asked.

"Yeah," C.J. answered.

Lloyd stooped down and gave the toddler a hug before saying, "I'll be back soon with Uncle Zane."

C.J.'s face lit up when he said this. He then ran back towards his dad and began waving to his Uncle Lloyd.

Lloyd smiled one last time at his friends before he turned around and began his long journey.

Meanwhile, at the Ice Emperor's castle, Vex had noticed that Lloyd left the village, and he knew exactly where he was going, so he decided to speak with the prisoner. The only prisoner they had ever kept.

"You will be pleased to know that you may soon have some company," Vex told this one and only prisoner. "A stranger from another realm, clad all in green."

The prisoner lifted his head at this.

"Whoever he is, he will, of course, fail, as all who stand against the Emperor do, but if you join us, perhaps his life could be spared. A warrior with your...abilities could prove most valuable," Vex continued as he slid a tray of food over to the prisoner. "The Emperor rewards those he values. What say you?"

The prisoner responded by angrily throwing his tray of food at Vex without so much as a grunt. His cell door protected the ugly samurai, though.

"Stubborn to the end," Vex said. "So be it. The green one will perish."

That night, Lloyd was walking through the woods his friends had traveled through on their first day in the Never-Realm when he could've sworn he heard something moving behind him. He looked back but saw nothing, so he continued walking. As he looked down at his map, he heard a similar sound, but much louder. It was most definitely a wolf.

Two wolves began surrounding Lloyd. The green ninja was ready, though. He took out his sword and got ready to fight. Just as one of the wolves tried to pounce at him, another one, this one was as white as the snow underneath his feet, tackled the wolf and scared them both off.

"Wow. I've never seen a wolf like you before," Lloyd said as he noticed the wolf's three tails. Each one was white with a little bit of red at the tips. He had three red stripes on each side of his face as well, but Lloyd didn't question any of this when it started growling at him. "What do you want?" Lloyd asked. "I bet you're hungry. Well, don't even think about it. I fight back!"

The wolf began to whimper in fear when he heard this, making Lloyd feel a little bad, if he was being perfectly honest. He slowly, hesitantly put his sword back in its sheath on his back and gave the wolf his fish.

"You can eat that," Lloyd told him. "Okay? Truce?"

The wolf seemed rather docile now, so Lloyd turned around and took out his map once again. It hardly took him any time before he finally made it to, "Mala-Wojira," Lloyd said as he looked at the pass Sorla had told him about. "'If you make a sound, Wojira's wrath will strike you down'. Okay. No sound. Quiet as a breeze."

Lloyd began walking carefully through the pass, which seemed much more like a gorge. He was pretty sure he could be quiet, until a sneeze came out of nowhere, causing a bunch of snow to block the entry way. Lloyd held his next sneeze in painfully. Even as he walked, snow began crumbling from where it lay, despite the fact that his shoes had been created for stealth.

The fog near the end of the pass made it so hard to see. So he used his powers to light the way only to see five Blizzard Samurai right in front of him! He lit his other hand with his powers and shot it at two of them while another tried to tackle him, but he shot him and kicked another. He then took out his sword, but another samurai grabbed that arm, causing him to drop it. They all began to pin him down. Except there were much more than five now. The samurai that had grabbed his arm began freezing it with what he assumed was the dark ice Sorla had spoken of before. Seeing this, he kicked the two holding his feet down and used his powers to punch another into oblivion, breaking the ice off of his arm, as he did so. He then used his spinjitzu to get the last one off of him, but he stopped when he noticed that snow was beginning to fall just like when he sneezed, but worse. Since he was trying to be careful now, the warriors easily overtook and was about to strike him down when he noticed more snow falling.

"Wojira's Wrath?" he asked himself. He then screamed, "Wojira's Wrath!"

His voice rang throughout the pass and an avalanche of snow began falling. Lloyd tried to get out in time, but it was too late. The snow had buried the entire pass and everything in it.

Lloyd didn't know how much time had passed when he had woken up, but when he did, he was right outside of the gorge, coughing and panting for breath, and he heard whining. He looked up to see the wolf he had fed earlier. He seemed worried, in a way.

"You saved my life!" Lloyd told him gratefully. "Thank you. My name is Lloyd."

The wolf just started panting happily in response now that Lloyd was safe. Lloyd sighed.

"What am I doing? I gotta be crazy. You can't understand me," Lloyd said as he stood back up.

The wolf began to run off, but he turned back to look at Lloyd as if he wanted him to follow him before he began running again.

"Guess he wants me to follow," Lloyd said to himself.

He followed the wolf a little ways until the wind started whistling. It had been hours sinc ethe sun had set, and it was getting too cold to stay out for much longer.

"It's getting colder," Lloyd shivered. "We need to find shelter!"

The wolf looked at Lloyd. He then looked ahead, through the snow and the wind to see something that made Lloyd rejoice.

"I don't believe it! The-the Land Bounty!" he exclaimed as he saw their crashed vehicle in the snow.

The two ran as fast as they could to the Land Bounty. It was a little beat up, so Lloyd had to shove the door open to get inside, and then he had to shove two other doors open to get to the controls. He began pressing some buttons, hoping that he could turn on a heater at the very least.

"Pl-please...work," Lloyd shivered.

The Land Bounty started to turn on, but it was too weak to stay on.

"Oh, what a mess," Lloyd sighed. "Scopes are down, systems are fried. This is hopeless."

At least I have shelter now, Lloyd thought.

He grabbed a med kit, a blanket and a lantern that provided some heat and set them both down in the middle of the room. He sat by it with the blanket over top of him.

"Even if I rescue Zane from the castle, we still have no way home," Lloyd told himself. "What was I thinking? I can't do this alone."

Suddenly, the wolf walked into the room and whined slightly at Lloyd as if trying to comfort or reassure him.

"Easy for you to howl, you're a wolf," Lloyd told him. "Tomorrow, I go back to the village and make a new plan."

The wolf began sniffing the ground a little before he plopped himself down to sleep. Lloyd decided he should get some shut-eye too, but they both woke up when they heard beeping. It was the tracker!

'What?" Lloyd asked as he looked it over. "The mech? Wait. The mech! If it still works, that would give us a chance against the Ice Emperor! What do you say? You in?" Lloyd asked his new friend.

The wolf barked excitedly in response as he sat up.

"Awesome!" Lloyd exclaimed. "Hang on, Zane! Here we come!"

I hope you guys liked that. Leave a review if you'd like. I should be back with the next chapter next Thursday or Friday.

Have a great day/night!

#God'sNotDead