Disclaimer: I do not own Ninjago or the lines from the episode A Fragile Hope.

Chapter XXI: A Fragile Hope

"Zane?" Lloyd said as he saw the Ice Emperor standing before him. Even though ice was covering up just about every feature of his body, he knew that this was his missing brother. "I-I don't understand. How is this possible?"

"What did you call me?" the Ice Emperor-Zane asked. His voice was so raspy and deep, but it was him. Lloyd knew it.

"Zane!" Lloyd replied. "Your name is Zane. Don't you remember?"

Lloyd tried to step forward but was surprised to be met with two spears blocking his way.

"Step back," Vex told him. "You are addressing the Ice Emperor."

"I came here for you, Zane! I came here to bring you home," Lloyd told his friend, ignoring everyone else in the room.

"This is my home," he replied.

"No! Ninjago is your home."

"Nin...jago?" he said it as if he had never heard the name.

"Think, Zane. Try to remember. We were all together. We were fighting Aspheera, and-and she banished you with her staff."

"Don't listen to him. He lies," Vex told his emperor.

"It's the truth!" Lloyd protested. "Zane, you have to remember something, or... someone! Master Wu or Pixal or-or...Kai?"

"Who?" the Ice Emperor asked.

"Kai! Remember when I threw his reds in with your whites and all your clothes turned pink? And you had to dress up like a pink ninja? Remember?"

The Ice Emperor looked like he was trying to recall such an event happening, but after a moment of silence he turned his cold-hard gaze towards Lloyd and said a simple word that shattered all hope. "No."

"He seeks to deceive you. To confuse you," Vex warned. "Let me deal with him, my Lord."

As the Ice Emperor looked at Lloyd in confusion once again, Lloyd noticed his staff. It looked a lot like the Scroll of Forbidden Spinjitzu.

"You were holding the Scroll of Forbidden Spinjitzu when it happened," Lloyd told him. "It-it must've corrupted you somehow. How long have you been here, Zane? How long have you been holding that?"

"Many...decades," the Ice Emperor answered.

"Decades?" Lloyd asked. He then sighed as he said, "Time must be different here. I don't understand how, but-but, Zane, the scroll has corrupted you, corrupted your power! You have to put it down!"

"He seeks the scepter," Vex said.

"Don't listen to him, Zane! This isn't you! You're a good person! You're my friend. You have to trust me! Put it down!" Lloyd told him.

"See?" Vex said. "He desires it for himself! Seize him!"

The two warriors began making their way towards Lloyd with their spears out.

"No!" Lloyd yelled as he dove in between the two.

One of the warriors quickly turned around to get him, but Lloyd did a back flip and kicked him in the face, knocking him backwards. Lloyd then kicked another behind him down and grabbed a third's spear, spinning him around to get him to let go. Once he succeeded, he jumped up at the Ice Emperor and tried to grab the scroll, but he used his ice to knock Lloyd unconscious.

"Behold his treachery," Vex said. "One moment he speaks of friendship, and the next, he tries to steal your scepter. Allow me to destroy him, my Lord."

"Lock him in the dungeon," the Ice Emperor replied. For some reason, he did not want to see this man die like so many others.

"But, my Lord-" Vex protested.

"You heard me!"

Vex had to stop himself from disobeying the Emperor as he turned to the samurai, and said, "You heard the Emperor. To the dungeons with him!"

The two warriors that brought him in began carrying him out in the same manner, Vex greatly disturbed as this stranger could mess everything up for him.

Meanwhile, Krag, Cole, C.J., Kai, Nya, and Jay were all making their way through the snow hoping to find the Land Bounty when Krag stopped and started growling quietly.

"Krag?" Cole asked. "What's wrong?"

"I think he smells something," Nya told him.

"Like what?" Jay asked.

Suddenly, they heard the sound of wolves growling behind them. They turned around to see that it was probably the whole pack this time!

"Oh no. Not these guys again!" Jay complained.

"What do we do?" Cole asked as he picked C.J. up.

He then noticed that Krag was getting ready to fight right next to him.

"Krag, don't. There's too many," Cole told him.

Jay suddenly got what he thought to be a very smart idea.

"Stay calm. Do exactly what I do on three," Jay instructed as he got into a fighting position. Kai and Nya followed while Cole got ready to defend C.J. at all costs. "One, two, three!"

Strangely, when Jay screamed "three" it sounded very far away. They turned around to see that Jay had begun to make a run for it, and the four were quick to follow.

"That was your whole plan?" Kai asked once he managed to catch up to his lightning brother. The wolves were on their backs, and the ninja could definitely not run this fast forever.

"Where are we even running?" Nya asked as she looked around for any kind of shelter, but there was none.

"There! Look!" Cole would've sounded overjoyed if he wasn't panting so hard.

The ninja looked up to see that Cole was pointing to a very wanted sight.

"The Land Bounty!" Nya gasped.

Krag managed to jump ahead of all the ninja so he could push open the broken door, allowing them to all run inside.

"Hah! Not this time, Guys," Kai laughed as he pressed the button to close the door, but it didn't work. He kept pressing it, hoping that it would work, but the door wouldn't budge.

Krag tried closing the door by hand, but it was much harder than opening it. Seeing this, Nya grabbed a fire extinguisher and threw it up into the air.

"Zap it!" she told Jay.

He did so, and it exploded, scaring the wolves away. At this, everyone sighed in relief.

"That won't scare them off for long," Kai said.

"Then we better get this tub of bolts working again. Fast," Nya replied.

Lloyd groaned as he sat up from the ice-cold floor. His wrists were freezing, his face was freezing, his chest was freezing. Although, the last part would make sense as the last thing he remembered was Zane shooting him in the chest with a bunch of dark ice. That must mean he was in the dungeon of the castle.

Lloyd stood up and immediately began pulling on these chains cuffed to his wrists. They were made entirely of ice, and they were so cold.

Suddenly, he heard a kind yet hopeless voice ask, "Are you awake, My Friend?"

"Yes. Who are you?" Lloyd asked.

"A prisoner. Like you. What is your name?" the voice asked.

"Lloyd."

"Welcome to the Ice Emperor's dungeon, Lloyd. I am Kataru."

Lloyd had heard this name before. It was the name of Akita's brother. She had told him the story of how she and her brother had discovered their animal forms. She could change into a wolf while Kataru could turn into a bear, but Akita told Lloyd that he was long gone.

"Kataru? Akita's brother? The bear?" Lloyd asked.

"How do you know that?"

"She told me. She told me all about you."

"My sister is gone! She was frozen, along with the rest of my people, by the Emperor's ice dragon!" bitterness was evident in Kataru's voice as he said this, but Lloyd decided to ignore this and share the good news. He'd believe him eventually, right?

"No, no. She's alive. We came across the ice together," Lloyd assured him.

"Do you swear it?" Kataru asked. He was honestly afraid to believe it, for fear of being let down. "Do you swear she is alive?"

"Yes! She's alive! Actually, she thought you were dead. She thought the dragon took you."

"Boreal," that same bitterness from before was back. "It did, but it didn't destroy me. It brought me here, a prize for its master."

"How long have you been here?"

"I-I do not know," Kataru answered as he looked at the tallies that covered every inch of the four walls that surrounded him. "I made marks at first to keep track of the days and months, but after a while, I gave up. There is no escape from this place."

"There is always a way," Lloyd replied as he turned around, trying to find any sort of weakness he could find in the foundation, something sharp to pick the lock of his cell and handcuffs, or something that could at least warm the place up a bit, but he was interrupted when he heard someone clapping behind him. He turned around to see that Vex had come to visit.

"Oh, that's the spirit," he said. "So hopeful, so confident, but, alas, there are a few troubling details you don't know, such as the shackles around your hands. They are made of corrupted ice. If they can prevent a formling from changing shape, then I think they can also contain your powers."

Lloyd tried to activate his powers as he grabbed hold of the bars. If it wasn't for the corrupted ice and the prison door separating the two, Vex would most likely dead by now. Vex was right. He couldn't use his powers any longer, but they couldn't contain his fury. "You coward! You liar! I don't know how you tricked Zane into believing you, but he'll see through you eventually. He'll see what you are."

"What I am?" Vex asked. "I'm his trusted advisor while you are nothing but a traitor and a rebel spy. And sooner or later, I will deal with you as I deal with all who stand in my way."

Vex laughed maniacally as he walked away, sliding his hand on the bars of Kataru's cell as a means to taunt him, but he was much to used to it already.

"I am sorry. My Friend," Kataru said. "I wish I could give you some hope, but there is none in this place."

"There's always hope," Lloyd replied. "Akita's still out there, and my friends are out there. And if I know one thing, it's that ninja never quit. They never give up. Ever."

"Maybe we should just give up," Cole said. He, Kai, Nya, Jay, Krag, and C.J. were all trying to get the Land Bounty up and running again after falling off a cliff when they had first arrived in that realm, but Cole was getting tired of digging it out of a bunch of snow when it couldn't even start up.

"Huh?" C.J. asked as he looked up from where he was digging. Krag seemed to be equally confused.

"I mean, Nya's good at fixing things, but this is ridiculous. This vehicle is a goner," Cole explained. "The only thing it's good for is to provide a warm shelter, but it's not even very good at doing that."

"Ninja never quit," C.J. told his father. Though, Cole could only understand him because of how long he had known him.

"I'm not saying we quit entirely, just quit on the Land Bounty. Or, better yet, scrap it so Jay and Nya can build something better. Maybe a little smaller but better."

Just as Cole said, Nya was trying to fix the Land Bounty, but it wasn't going very well. Jay and Kai were her frightened supervisors.

"Okay, try it again," Nya told Jay.

Jay tried to start the engine, but all it did was sputter a little before shutting off again.

"Whatever you're doing, I think you're getting warmer," Jay tried to encourage.

"Definitely warmer. It lit up that time," Kai said. He was a little better at hiding his fear than Jay was.

"Okay. Good. I think I got it now. Try it again," Nya said.

Jay tried, but the engine didn't even work this time. Just, sparked up in his face.

"Colder. Much colder," Jay told her.

"Really? Okay, okay. I'm going to reverse it. Negative to positive, positive to negative, and let's get this out of here," Nya said as she threw something behind her.

"Uh, don't we need that?" Kai asked as he looked at the weirdly shaped item part.

"Yeah, are you sure you should be just ripping things up like that?" Jay asked.

"If you think you can do better, you're welcome to give it a try," Nya replied as she threw a wrench at Jay.

"Nope. You're doing great," Jay said nervously.

"She's probably just yelling at Jay and Kai too. She always gets so tense when she doesn't know what to do," Cole continued as he kept digging. He stopped talking, though, when Krag started sniffing the air again. "What? What's wrong? You smell something?"

The answer to that question was soon met when Cole, C.J., and Krag saw the wolves coming back.

"Ah!" C.J. yelled.

Cole picked his son up and jumped up to the Land Bounty to warn the others.

"Guys? Guys! We got a problem. They're back!" Cole said as he put C.J. down into the Bounty.

Jay tried pressing the button to close the door, hoping it would work this time, but it was still fruitless.

"Nya, whatever you're doing, do it faster!" Jay yelled.

"And let's get rid of this. I don't even know what that does," Nya said as she kept throwing parts out of the controls.

"Oh, those were probably just the breaks. Who needs those?" Kai responded.

"Try it now," Nya told him.

Kai obeyed, and this time, the engine sputtered while it sparked off before quickly shutting down again.

Suddenly, the wolves began running at Jay and Cole, but Krag grabbed one of them, causing all of them to stop in fear. Krag then roared in its face and thew it off to the side to scare it, but it didn't work. They started running towards the ninja, all the while, Krag was protecting his friends as much as he could, but it was apparent that he was struggling.

"Krag!" Cole exclaimed with worry. "This is not good. Not good!"

Jay gasped when he noticed a wolf that had made it past the yeti and was about to attack them.

"Nya! Cole is right. For once," Jay called to his yang.

"Hey!" Cole exclaimed, clearly offended.

"Come on you piece of junk. Why won't you start?" Nya asked as she began hitting it with her wrench, and it looked like it was beginning to finally work.

As the wolf lunged at them, Jay used his lightning to defend his friends while another tried attacking Cole. He just grabbed it and threw it off, though, surprised that he wasn't bit.

"Krag, get in!" Cole yelled. "Go! Go!"

Krag threw the wolf in his hands off to the side before jumping into the Land Bounty, so Cole could finally press the button to close the door.

"We're gonna be okay, Bud," Cole told C.J. as he sat down next to him, gaining a smile from the toddler.

"Hold on, Everyone! We're getting outta here!" Nya said as she got ready to drive.

Everyone began cheering as she drove away and due north. That had to be where the Castle of Ice and Lloyd was. The Ice Emperor wouldn't even see it coming.

Hope you all liked that. Leave a review if you'd like!

Have a great day/night!

#God'sNotDead