Disclaimer: I do not own Ninjago or the lines from the episode The Message.

Chapter XVI: The Message

Lloyd had left the village two days ago, and there was still no sign of another Blizzard Samurai attack, which was great! The people of the fishing village were safe, the ninja had time to rest before the next attack, and everyone was happy. Admittedly, it was also kind of boring, though. So Cole had set up a puppet show (the puppets were just drawings of him and his friends) so he could tell the story of how the ninja ended up in the Never-Realm to the kids of the village.

"Put down your staff, and surrender, Aspheera. Your days of evil are over," Cole said, holding up a Zane puppet.

"Never!" the Aspheera puppet showed up next to the ice ninja. "I will have my revenge if it's the last thing I do! Take that, Wu! Zap! Zap!"

Aspheera began to hit the Wu puppet a couple times when the Zane puppet suddenly popped up, and said, "No! Look out, Master Wu!"

The Aspheera puppet began to beat up the Zane puppet until it broke.

"Zane is gone!" the Jay puppet screamed.

"What did you do to my friend?" Cole asked.

The Aspheera puppet began laughing as she said, "Take that! I banished him to the one place from which you can never return! The Never-Realm!"

Hearing this, one kid passed out while the rest started crying. C.J. seemed to be confused by this, though, as he had the biggest smile on his face.

"Wait! Whoa, whoa, whoa! Hey!" Cole called after them. "It's okay, look! It's not real. I-it's a story." As he was waving the Aspheera puppet, it broke, and he began running after the kids.

"It's just paper! I drew them!" Cole yelled after them once they were all outside, but they were much too far away and too scared to hear the earth ninja.

Seeing that he wasn't going to get through to them, he threw his stick down in frustration just as Kai, Jay, and Nya were walking over to see what was going on.

"What did you tell them, Cole?" Kai asked.

"Nothing! I was just telling them about Zane and Aspheera, and about how she blasted him into the Never-Realm," Cole replied.

"You think that story is appropriate for little kids?" Nya asked.

"Yeah!" C.J. exclaimed in response.

"See! He likes it," Cole proudly told her.

"That's different," Nya said.

"And how so?"

"He lived through it!"

Cole opened his mouth to respond, but he stopped when the ninja heard Utaug yelling, "Look! Over here! Come quick!"

The first thing that ran through the ninja's minds was that the village was about to be attacked again, but when they saw what was in Utaug's hand, their hearts almost stopped.

"This is Lloyd's!" Nya said once Utaug handed her the green material from his gi.

"Uncle Lloyd?" C.J. asked as he looked at what was in his aunt's hand.

"Where did you find this?" Cole asked.

"In the snow on the other side of the forest," Utaug replied. "There were signs of fighting and an avalanche."

"What do you think happened?" Kai asked.

"You think he's okay?" Jay asked nervously.

"I hope so," Nya replied. "Because there's nothing we can do from here. Lloyd is on his own."

C.J. whimpered slightly, hoping that his uncle was okay.

C.J.'s hopes were met as Lloyd was perfectly fine. He was currently walking towards where the tracker was leading him. To pass the time, he talked to the wolf about many things he had been too embarrassed to talk about before. It was very comfortable to talk about these things with someone who couldn't understand him.

"So, yeah. That's my dad," Lloyd told him. "Garmadon, Lord of Destruction, King of Shadows. I wouldn't normally confide this stuff to someone I just met, but I can tell you. You're just a wolf. It's kinda nice to get this off my chest, actually. Hmm, but I can't keep calling you 'wolf'. You ought to have a real name. Hmm. How about Rover?"

The wolf suddenly looked up from where it had previously been sniffing and turned its head away from Lloyd as if to give him the cold shoulder.

"Uh, don't like that, huh?" Lloyd asked as it kept sniffing around. "How 'bout, uh, Buster? Buddy? No, those don't fit. What about Red? 'Cause, you know, this?" Lloyd said as he gestured to his cheeks where the wolf's marks would be on his own face.

The wolf looked back at Lloyd and barked happily at his new name.

"We're making progress, Red," Lloyd said happily.

Suddenly, the tracker began beeping again, louder this time. He took it out of his pocket and saw that the mech was very close by!

"The mech's signal is getting stronger! This way!"

The green ninja and the wolf ran into some fog in front of them, but they slowed down when they realized they couldn't see anything.

"We're getting close, Red," Lloyd sighed, but Red had already stopped. He was beginning to whine and bark at something.

Lloyd looked back to see that Red seemed scared.

"What's the matter?" Lloyd asked. "Look, I gotta go this way. You coming or not?"

Red whined and barked again as he sat down stubbornly. He didn't look like he was going to move anytime soon.

"Come on. Please," Lloyd begged.

Lloyd could've sworn he saw Red roll his eyes before reluctantly getting up to follow him through more fog.

They kept walking farther and farther into the fog until they heard a crunch from under Red's feet. When Lloyd didn't stop, Red started barking at him to get his attention.

"What is it?" Lloyd asked as he turned around to see that Red was growling at some animal bones. It looked like some sort of graveyard in there.

"Bones?" Lloyd asked. "What happened here?"

A big shadow suddenly flew overhead, scaring Lloyd. "What was that?" he asked, immediately on high alert.

A giant eagle suddenly dove down through the sky to attack, but the two ducked right before he had the chance.

"Run!" Lloyd yelled as it began to dive down again.

The two ran until they found some rock columns to hide behind. The eagle flew a little past them before turning around to attack again. He seemed desperate to eat the two.

On his way back over to Lloyd and Red, he knocked into some rocks above Red's column, and they began tumbling down, nearly crushing the wolf!

"Red!" Lloyd yelled.

He used his powers to shoot the rocks into tiny pebbles to save him.

"You alright?" Lloyd asked as he ran over to the wolf.

Even if Red could talk, he wouldn't have a chance to say anything because the eagle dove down to attack again.

The two ran as fast as they could to get away from the bird until he pounded his talons into the ground, causing Lloyd to fall over. It then tried to peck the green ninja with his beak, but Lloyd was too fast. He stood back up and began to run away, but the eagle was quick too. He grabbed Lloyd's backpack with his beak and pulled him backwards, shaking him like a chew toy.

"Get off me!" Lloyd screamed, grabbing Red's attention.

As the eagle began flying back up into the air, no doubt to get to his home, Red ran up a very high slope and jumped off, landing on the eagle's face. He jumped on him a bit until he dropped Lloyd. Red then jumped off of the bird and landed on a couple rock columns to get down and catch Lloyd on his back just in time!

The eagle was not done yet, and it kept on chasing Red for its meal. Luckily, Red was getting faster by the second.

Suddenly, Lloyd spotted something.

"There! A cave!" Lloyd told him.

The eagle swooped down and knocked Lloyd off of his companion. Luckily for Lloyd, he was able to quickly get up, and he began running to catch up with Red. He ran and ran until finally, the bird swooped down once again, forcing him to dive into the cave.

The eagle screeched as loud as it possibly could as he tried to get his head into the cave. Lloyd was too slow this time, though, so Red grabbed the green ninja by his backpack and dragged him further into the cave and out of the eagle's reach.

After a couple seconds, the eagle gave up, knowing he would never find his way into the cave.

Lloyd sighed in relief that the eagle was finally gone, but his relief was soon replaced by dread when he heard a load of static coming from the tracker. The eagle must've broken it.

"Oh, no!" Lloyd exclaimed. He tried to fix the tracker, but Red seemed preoccupied with a new threat. Lloyd turned around, and asked, "What's there, Red?"

In the next section of the cave, there was a giant thing that looked like it may be another creature like the eagle, but it wasn't moving.

"Who are you?" Lloyd asked the thing.

When he obtained no response, he lit his hand up with green energy and began walking forward.

"Show yourself!"

But when he looked up in his newfound light, he saw that it was the mech!

Lloyd laughed as he put a hand on Red's snout, and said, "It's okay. This is what I've been looking for. This is it!"

Lloyd hopped up to see into the cockpit, and yelled, "Zane!" He really hoped that Sorla was wrong about him being with the Ice Emperor, but his brother was nowhere to be found. "Zane! Where are you?!"

Lloyd began looking around the cave when he noticed some machinery in a corner.

That doesn't belong in a cave, Lloyd thought.

He let go of his light and let it float up in the air to light up the entire cave while he ran over to the machine. It looked a bit like a television monitor, and there were a couple cables along with a box the cables should connect to. Lloyd connected everything to their correct position, and the monitor began to light up and crackle before showing a video image of his lost brother.

"Zane?" Lloyd asked as he looked at the screen in front of him.

"Greetings, Friend," the recording of Zane said. "If you have found recording, then I am no longer here. My name is Zane. I am a stranger in this land trying to find my way home." Zane's recording sighed. "It is difficult to keep track of the days in this place. It feels like I've been here a long time, but I refuse to give up hope."

The monitor suddenly gave out, and all Lloyd could hear or see was static.

"No! No, no, no!" Lloyd yelled as he began shaking the box. Something inside must have needed to be moved a little because when it did, the monitor turned back on.

"The mech's processing unit is damaged," Zane's recording explained. "I may be able to fix it, but it requires running a diagnostic. I will attempt to connect to the mech's processor."

It went out again, but quickly came back.

"As long as the cable is not disconnected, I should be okay."

"Come on," Lloyd said as it gave out again. He banged his fist on the box a couple times, bringing it back somehow.

"But if anything goes wrong," Zane's recording said, "if this should be found one day, please relay this message. This is the last recording of Zane, Master of Ice, son of Doctor Julien, student of Master Wu. I was built to protect those who cannot protect themselves, and I have tried to fulfill this purpose. I have no regrets. I have the best friends anyone could ask for. Pixal, I love you. Farewell."

The monitor went out again, but this time, Lloyd didn't turn it back on. This time, he knew that it was gone. The recording was over, and Zane seemed to truly believe that he was never getting out of this realm alive.

"Zane?" Lloyd said as he looked at the monitor solemnly. He wiped at the tears that were threatening to come out, replacing his sadness with a new form of determination. If he knew his brother, Zane was out there somewhere, still fighting for his life, and he had to save him.

Lloyd looked up at the mech, and said, "I may not be half the builder you are, Zane, but I'm twice as stubborn, and I will get this thing working if it's the last thing I do. That's a promise. Right? You with me?" he asked Red, who just whined in confusion.

"Yeah!" Lloyd said excitedly as if that was what the whine meant.

Lloyd spent about an hour trying to figure out what was wrong with the mech. He messed with wires, tried to start it up with his powers, but nothing seemed to be working. Finally, Lloyd checked the battery and noticed that, somehow, it was already dead.

"I wonder..." Lloyd said as he looked at the machine Zane's recording was on. He grabbed the cables and connected them to the battery. Then, holding the other end, Lloyd managed to charge the mech using his powers.

The green ninja then jumped into the cockpit of the mech and finally got it to start up as a fully functioning machine!

"Yes! Did it!" Lloyd cheered.

It wasn't long before Lloyd used the mech to crash right through the ice that kept the cave entrance safe from the eagle, which got his attention real fast. It screeched loudly at Lloyd as it got ready to attack.

"Want some of me? Come and get it, You Overgrown Parakeet!" Lloyd said as he put the mech in a fighting position.

The eagle flew up into the air and swooped down, grabbing the arm of the mech, but the mech was much stronger than Lloyd and easily knocked the bird off of him and onto the ground. The eagle landed on its feet, though, and immediately jumped back up into the air so it could dive back down towards Lloyd.

"Oh no you don't," Lloyd said. He pressed a button on the mech, allowing it to grab the eagle right as it came down. The eagle ended up scratching the right arm of the mech, though, making things very difficult.

"I'm trying hard not to hurt you, but I hope this stings a bit!" Lloyd said as he pressed another button. The mech swung the eagle around a few times and threw it into a wall of rocks. The eagle quickly got up, though, and screeched again. He didn't seem like he was done.

"Is it sinking in yet? I am not your next meal!" Lloyd yelled as he activated a blade on the left arm and sliced a nearby rock clean. This scared the eagle, and once Lloyd turned back to him, it flew away.

Lloyd sighed in relief as he watched the eagle leave. He deactivated the blade and turned to his wolf companion saying, "It's safe. You can come out." He lowered the hand with the blade down so Red could get on. "Come on. Hop aboard." But Red seemed scared. "It won't hurt you, I promise. We'll be able to move a lot faster this way. Come on."

Red moved up to the hand slowly, still feeling a little unsure. He sniffed it a moment before hopping on, but he still seemed rather tense, and Lloyd could feel it. He hadn't meant to scare his friend.

"I'm sorry about that," Lloyd told him. "I wasn't going to hurt him, just scare him off. I won't hurt you."

Red seemed content with Lloyd's words, and he sat up proudly in his newfound spot.

Lloyd smiled now that he had made his friend comfortable again and began walking towards the castle, according to the map Sorla had given him.

"Ready, Pal?" Lloyd asked. "We're coming, Zane. We're coming."

Hope you all liked that. Leave a review if you'd like. Next chapter should be out next Thursday or Friday.

Have a great day/night!

#God'sNotDead