Disclaimer: I do not own Ninjago or the lines from the episode My Enemy, My Friend.

Chapter XX: My Enemy, My Friend

Back on the mountain where the Traveler's Tree was held, Cole, Jay, Nya, and Krag were all making their way down the mountain. Cole, Nya, and Jay were all using big bones they had found along the path as snowboards while Krag followed. It was rather easy for him to catch up. Especially when he started rolling down the mountain.

The three ninja decided to take a short break, but Krag caused all the ninja to roll like pins in a bowling alley when he rolled into them.

As everyone stood back up, they began cheering and laughing about how much fun that was.

"I still can't believe you found the Traveler's Tree, Cole," Jay said.

"Me neither. Who would've thought Traveler's Tea comes from a tree, right?" Cole replied.

Nya rolled her eyes at this before saying, "I wonder how we turn it into tea."

"Maybe that old lady in the village can help," Jay suggested as they began walking the rest of the way. "She probably knows a lot of weird stuff."

"Sorla? Yeah, hopefully."

"All I know is I am not losing these leaves again. I'm keeping them tucked right here. Safe and-" Cole stopped when he heard Krag growling at something.

The three ninja watched as he began sniffing the air.

"What's up, Krag?" Cole asked. "What do you smell?"

Suddenly, the sound of roaring caused all of the ninja to nearly jump out of their skins! They looked up to see an ice dragon flying overhead, and he definitely wasn't happy.

Jay gasped when he saw this. "What was that?" he asked.

"A dragon!" Nya exclaimed.

"Looks like it's heading for the village! We have to stop it!" Cole said as he began running after it.

Meanwhile, in the village, Bolma and Utaug were trying to get fish from the frozen stream in their village. As Bolma tried to break the ice, Utaug said, "You're doing it wrong. Let me try," he said as he snatched the device made for breaking the ice.

"The ice is just too thick," Bolma told him.

"Ah, too thick for you, maybe, but I'm stronger."

"Everyone knows I'm the strong one, Utaug. If I can't do it, you don't have a chance."

"What are you talkn' about? Look at my muscles. I don't even wanna flex, I like these clothes."

As they were talking, some kids ran past the fishers with some dried fish for Kai. As always, he was laying down in his hammock.

"Kai, Kai! Light our fish!" one of the kids told him.

"Okay, okay. One at a time," the fire ninja replied.

As he was lighting one of the kid's fish, a loud roar was heard overhead. The dragon the other three had seen earlier was already here. Kai quickly got up and was at the ready, although, he wasn't entirely sure what was up there.

"What was that?" one of the kids asked.

"Get inside. All of you!" Kai ordered.

As the dragon flew closer to the village, he began freezing everything!

"Run!" Kai told them.

Kai began running with the kids, hoping beyond hope that he could find his nephew. He didn't think anything of five minutes by himself, but he should've known something like this could happen. He should've known!

"Come on, Kai. You can do it. You can do it!" Kai told himself as he began making a little fire in his hands. It had to get bigger. It just had too! "Come on, Kai. Come on! Come on. Come on!"

Finally, Kai looked up to see that the dragon's ice was getting much too close, and he had to jump out of the way. When he looked back up, he gasped when he could see so many of the villagers frozen.

"Oh, no," he said to himself. Where the heck was C.J.? He had to find him.

He was taken out of his little daze when he heard screaming behind him. He ran in that direction to see Sorla, Bolma, and Utaug running away from the dragon.

"Run!" Sorla told him, but instead of running away, Kai ran towards her to save her, but he couldn't make it in time.

"Sorla!" Kai yelled. "No. No, no, no!"

He had to shake himself out of it, though, because he had to find his nephew.

"Oh, where is he? Where is he?" Kai asked as he looked around the village.

A sigh of relief escaped him when he saw C.J. crying in the snow near Sorla's home. The dragon was on the other side of the village.

"Oh, thank goodness," Kai sighed as he ran up to the toddler. He picked him up and placed him inside Sorla's home, telling him to stay where he was, hoping that the Aspheera incident would teach him to listen.

He then ran a few houses over and climbed onto one of the roofs before yelling at the dragon, "Here! Over here!"

As the dragon was making his way over to Kai, the fire ninja struggled to get a bigger fire lighting in his hand. Once the dragon had come over to ice him, he shot his fire, but it wasn't enough, and now, Sorla's home was beginning to freeze over.

"No!" Kai screamed as he ran for the house. He managed to open the door and leap inside right before it froze over. He then grabbed C.J. and jumped through an open window to get out.

"Are you okay?" the fire ninja asked his nephew.

C.J. just nodded, but he was clearly very scared.

Suddenly, the dragon roared again as he came to finish Kai off. There was nowhere to run or to go. The ice was too big to just avoid or step out of the way, so Kai placed C.J. on the ground and bent over him with his arms to his chest, hoping that somehow, he would be able to save C.J., even if he was frozen.

As soon as his job was finished, the dragon left, not noticing the three ninja and yeti entering the village.

"Oh, no!" Nya exclaimed as everyone began running through.

"Kai!" Jay called.

"C.J.!" Cole yelled.

The four ran through the village, trying to find their friends or anyone who wasn't frozen over.

As they were looking, Jay noticed one person all clad in red and completely frozen over.

"Kai!" he screamed as he ran over to his brother. He punched and kicked the block of ice, trying to save him, but it was no use. He couldn't save him.

"Uncle Jay?" a small voice suddenly spoke from below. Jay looked down to see the blond crawl out from his hiding spot underneath the block of ice. Kai had saved him!

"C.J.!" Jay exclaimed as he hugged his nephew. "Guys, I found C.J.!"

Somehow, Jay was loud enough to be heard throughout the entire village, and Cole, Nya, and Krag were quick to come, but they were devastated to find their brother like this.

"C.J.!" Cole yelled as he ran over to wrap him in a huge hug.

"Kai?" Nya asked as she slowly walked over to the block of ice and traced her fingers over it. This couldn't be her brother. It couldn't! "His powers weren't fully back yet. We should've never left him here by himself!"

Jay placed a hand on his yang's shoulder, and said, "It's okay. We can still save him. He's still alive. They all are."

"I can't believe this happened," Cole said as he looked around at the village, still hugging C.J. as if he would never let go. "What should we do?"

"'Do'?" Jay asked. "We can't do anything! They just took out the master of fire!"

Nya just nodded slowly but suddenly; they heard the sound of cracking ice. Everyone turned around to see Kai beginning to glow a bright red. It got brighter and brighter and suddenly; he was free. Extremely wet and struggling to catch his breath, but he was free!

"Kai!" everyone exclaimed as they all gave him a hug.

Kai groaned as he looked up at everyone. They were all asking questions like, "How did you get out?" "What happened?" And "Are you okay?"

Kai didn't answer any of them as he sat down. He looked like he felt awful.

"Are you alright?" Cole asked him.

"I couldn't do anything...to stop it. I-I tried, but...my elemental powers weren't strong enough," he told them. "I-I couldn't stop it."

"Maybe not, but you managed to save my son," Cole told him, "and you managed to get out."

"'Get out'?" Kai asked.

"You were frozen, and you managed to get yourself out," Cole explained.

"I-I did?" Kai asked.

"Yes!" Nya exclaimed happily.

Kai walked over to one of the frozen people and used his fire to try to melt the ice like he thought he might've done for himself, but the second any ice melted away, more took its place.

"I don't-I was supposed to protect them. I can I-I need to help them!" Kai suddenly yelled. He tried and tried to save them with his fire, melt the ice away, punch it, kick it, but nothing helped.

"Kai! Kai!" Cole exclaimed as he grabbed the fire ninja's shoulder to get him to stop. Even with his super strength, it was hard to restrain him. "Maybe it can only be helped from the inside."

"No!" Kai yelled as he pulled himself away from his brother. "No, that can't be true. I can't be the only one who was able to get out! It's not fair!"

"Kai!" Nya yelled. "If the Ice Emperor's the one who did this, defeating him might reverse it."

Kai sighed as he looked down and made a fist. "I think it's time we took the fight to him," he said.

"What?" Cole asked.

"Lloyd wanted us to distract the Ice Emperor, to give him a chance to sneak in and find Zane. What better way to distract him than to find the Land Bounty, fix it up, and drive it through his front door?" Kai told them.

"As much as I love this plan, how are we supposed to do this with C.J.?" Cole asked.

Kai sighed before reluctantly saying, "We've taken care of him in a dangerous realm before."

"And the Land Bounty would probably be the safest place to keep him," Nya added. "It's too cold here."

Cole thought for a moment. He didn't want to take C.J. anywhere that would be too dangerous, but they definitely couldn't stay here. They needed to get him to the Land Bounty. "Alright then, let's do it," Cole shrugged.

"Yay!" C.J. exclaimed.

Suddenly, Krag roared in agreement, scaring Kai and causing C.J. to notice him. For a second, Cole feared that he'd scare C.J. as well, but instead, the toddler just ran up to the yeti and began to hug him.

"Fwuff," C.J. said as he began petting him.

Everyone laughed at this while Krag just seemed confused.

That evening, as the sun was setting, Lloyd and Akita had finally made it to the Castle of Ice. They just had to get past a frozen glacier.

Akita changed to her human form, and asked, "What are we waiting for?"

"It's gonna be dark soon. We'll have a better chance crossing the glacier by daylight," Lloyd explained.

Akita nodded, and they set up camp nearby, which was really just the two of them sitting by a heat lantern.

"When you have rescued your friend Zane, what will you do?" Akita asked as they warmed their hands.

"Go back to Ninjago, if there's a way," Lloyd answered. "What about you?"

"I do not know," Akita answered. "The forest is my home."

"Maybe you can come with us," Lloyd offered.

"Do you have formlings in Ninjago?"

"No."

"Then I would be alone there too."

"You wouldn't be alone. You'd be with us. We have a really cool monastery. Videogames, a hot tub. There-there's just these chickens you have to watch out for."

Akita laughed when she heard this but stopped when she smelled something familiar. Not familiar in a good way, though.

"What is it?" Lloyd asked as she stood up.

"Something is coming," Akita answered before changing to her wolf form.

Lloyd ran over to the mech and hopped in right before they could hear a roar. They both hid under a ledge so they could go unnoticed while an ice dragon flew off to the Castle of Ice. Lloyd sighed in relief when he realized that the dragon didn't see him, but when he opened his eyes again, the dragon was coming straight towards them!

"Akita, get behind me!" Lloyd ordered as he ran up to the dragon to attack.

He used the blade on the mech's arm to block off the icy attack from the dragon and even push it back a little. The dragon then circled around and used his icy breath to trap Lloyd in a cage of ice.

"No!" Lloyd exclaimed as he realized what was happening.

Akita barked, hoping to get an answer out of Lloyd when she saw that he was trapped, but the dragon was the only one to face her.

"Come on! Come on!" Lloyd yelled as he tried getting out, but just about every part of the mech was offline.

As the dragon breathed his ice, Akita ran under him to get away.

Finally, Lloyd got almost everything back online, and broke out of his icy prison. When the dragon tried freezing him again, he grabbed his jaw and flipped him over to his back. The dragon whipped his tail into Lloyd's face as he got up, though, before flying up. Lloyd managed to grab onto his tail to prevent him from getting away, but instead, it froze his hand, bringing Lloyd up with him.

"No!" Lloyd yelled when he realized that he couldn't get off. "Not good! Not good!" he yelled as the dragon began trying to shake him off, and he could do nothing about it. He was trapped.

"Warning. Hull integrity at 40 percent," the mech told him.

The dragon then flew down and began dragging him along the mountains.

"Thirty percent," the mech said. "Twenty percent. Warning. Warning. Hull integrity at ten percent."

Lloyd muted the mech and said, "I can count down to my own impending doom, thank you."

Lloyd gasped when he saw what the dragon was leading him to. He tried to get out of his grasp, but the ice was stopping him from going anywhere. That was until the dragon came to a grinding halt and flung Lloyd into the mountain in front of them.

Lloyd groaned as he got out of the mech. At this point, it wouldn't be much help. It was completely destroyed now. He weakly looked up at the dragon as it came up to the green ninja and got ready to freeze him again, but before it could, Akita ran up to the dragon, climbed on its back and grabbed its mouth. She was so small, she was like a fly to the dragon, though. All it had to do was shake her off into the mountain just like he did with the mech.

"Akita!" Lloyd exclaimed, but the dragon didn't care. He was about to freeze Lloyd right where he lay, but Vex spoke to him through his seeing ice.

"No," he told the dragon. "Bring him to the Ice Emperor."

The dragon obeyed and grabbed Lloyd with his talon before flying back to the Castle of Ice. All Akita could do was watch for she was much too weak now to do anything about it.

The dragon flew to the Castle of Ice and dropped Lloyd to the ground in front of Vex and the Blizzard Samurai as if he was a dog playing fetch.

Vex smiled as he looked at the limp ninja. Unconscious and helpless.

"Pick him up," he ordered the Blizzard Samurai behind him.

They did so, each using one hand to lift him up by the shoulders. The dragon growled, ready to attack if he were to suddenly wake up while Vex walked over to the ninja. He grabbed onto his chin and lifted his head so he could see his face. He was younger than he thought he was, but that didn't matter. He was too good at fighting, came too close to the Castle of Ice to go unpunished.

The two Blizzard Samurai followed Vex into the castle, all the while, dragging Lloyd until they dropped him onto the floor in the throne room for the Ice Emperor to see.

"My Emperor, behold, the stranger in green," Vex announced as Lloyd began lifting his head to look around, but his sight was much too blurry to see clearly.

The Ice Emperor broke the ice that kept him in his throne and walked down the steps to get a better look at Lloyd. They both looked each other over, wondering why they seemed so familiar. Even the way the Ice Emperor stood seemed so familiar to him. He looked at his staff and at his glowing, blue eyes and knew exactly who the Emperor was. Even if ice was covering just about every facial feature.

"Zane?"

I hope you guys liked that. Leave a review if you'd like. Again, I'm sorry that it took so long, but the next chapter should be out very soon.

Have a great day/night!

#God'sNotDead