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

Chapter VIII: The Real Fall

King Vangelis couldn't take his eyes off of the pit. The one his daughter jumped into. She should've known that she could never save them. That would only be putting herself into more danger. And how would she fair without her father to guide her in the outside world? He thought of her as a fool, and it made him angry, maybe even remorseful, thinking that she could've continued on with her life of luxury instead of throwing it all away for a ninja. Part of him wanted to go after her, and his skull sensed that.

"Nothing comes without sacrifice," it told its "master."

Letting the voice of Hazza Du'er overcome him, he found that he no longer cared for anything other than the task at hand. He flew over to his throne saying, "My subjects will want to know what happened to their princess."

He placed the skull back in its box before continuing saying, "Luckily, I have the perfect scapegoat, or should I say, dragon. Guards! There has been a terrible accident," he informed the three who arrived on his call. One of which was Hailmar, one of Vania's closest friends. "The princess fell into the pit."

"How?" Hailmar asked. The image of his dear princess falling threatening its way into his mind. How could such a thing have happened?

"It was that-that creature!" Vangelis exclaimed pointing to his daughter's pet. "It turned on her and attacked her! I want it locked up!"

"The princesses dragon? Chompy?" Hailmar asked. How could it do such a thing?

"You heard me! I want the beast locked up! Now!"

The three guards rushed over to the dragon and seized it. Wondering how such a sweet creature, loved for many years, could commit such an act against their dear princess.

Cole was falling. Like he had many times before. In previous situations, he had no time to think and hit the ground before he knew it. This hole, however, was deep enough that he could process everything going on around him. So he decided that screaming may lift his stresses. It did, and when Master Wu was done doing the same, Cole flipped himself over so he was now looking above him and yelled, "Master Wu, are you okay?"

"What?" Wu asked.

"I said, 'Are you okay?'"

"For the moment, yes!"

"Speed up! I can't hear you!"

"I'm falling as fast as I can! You have to slow down!"

"How?"

"Use your elemental powers!"

"What?"

"Your elemental powers! Use your powers to slow down!"

Cole still could not hear his master but he did see him doing this weird bird like motion with his arms. Thinking he wanted Cole to do that, he asked, "You really think that will work?"

"Yes!" Wu answered, as if it was obvious.

Cole shrugged saying, "Okay, here goes nothin'."

He began doing the odd motion, but it did not work. Wu was very confused by this.

"It's not working!" Cole panicked.

"Master Wu! Cole!" Vania's voice suddenly echoed through the hole, but so did C.J.'s laughter.

"Princess Vania?" Wu asked.

"Why did you bring C.J.?!" Cole screamed, panicking even more now.

"I wasn't about to leave him with that monster!" Vania shouted back.

"So you brought him to watch me fall down a hole?"

"Well, at least he knows you're okay!"

"Not really!"

"If you two are done bickering, we are still falling to our doom," Wu sighed with his arms crossed.

"Oh, right," Vania sighed sheepishly. "You're going to have to slow down!"

"How?" Wu asked.

"With your arms. Like a bird."

Wu did the same thing Cole did earlier before saying, "Oh, what am I doing? It's no use! That won't work!"

Cole began looking around the rocky surroundings to try to find anything that could help him slow down, and he did. There were some vines located near his head, if they led to the bottom, maybe they could be safely brought down.

I've got an idea!" Cole yelled to the three above.

He grabbed the vine, but it almost immediately broke due to how fast he was going. He dropped this, and it ended up hitting Wu in the face.

"I need another vine," Cole told himself.

He grabbed another and this did stop him long enough to swing him face first into the rock wall before breaking.

The black ninja began screaming again as his surroundings became blurry for a moment. Wu was now at his level, though.

"Daddy!" C.J. yelled.

"I'm fine," was Cole's groggy assurance as everything started becoming semi-clear again.

"Cole, stop playing with those twigs and stay with me!" Wu yelled.

The two reached for each other's hands so that they would no longer be separated before hearing Vania above yell, "Hang on, I'm almost there!"

Vania flew as fast as she could to the three but as soon as she got close enough, Cole realized what she was trying to do.

"Wait!" he yelled.

"What?"

"Are you sure those things will hold all four of us?"

"No, but it's our only chance!"

"If those things break, C.J.'s falling with us!"

"What do you think we should do then?"

"I-I don't know," Cole admitted.

Vania turned to Wu who only said, "I am unsure as well."

"C.J.?" the princess asked.

The toddler shook his head and looked as if he was about to cry, but it was then that they all suddenly hit a gooey, sticky substance and became stuck in a giant spider web.

Cole screamed suddenly when he opened his eyes, only to see multiple skeletons around. Vania covered the blond's eyes in response.

"This is not an improvement," Wu sighed.

Both Wu and Cole tried their best to free themselves from the sticky substance, but it was no use.

"This-this is not working!" Cole exclaimed. "I'm just getting more and more stuck."

"We have to calm down and think," Vania started as C.J. began squirming as her hand was still over his eyes. She took a deep breath before saying, "I read in a book by the highly acclaimed adventurer and explorer Clutch Powers that the key to staying calm is to do vocal exercises like-Agh!"

She never did finish what it is she wanted to say because a giant spider suddenly came in, and he looked very hungry.

C.J. squirmed even more at the noise, and Vania hugged the boy close, hoping to protect him from this horrible thing.

"You good, Buddy?" Cole asked.

"Yuh-huh," C.J. replied.

"Good because-Agh!" it was Cole's turn to scream when the spider went to the biggest person in the room, which happened to be Cole, and grabbed him up.

"Daddy?"

"Hold on, Cole!" Wu exclaimed.

The spider had now wrapped Cole up in a cocoon made up of webs, and he was now screaming, "Get me out of here!"

"Cole!" Vania exclaimed.

"Can't get it off!" Cole was currently screaming, but luckily for C.J.'s current protector, they were muffled screams. The second spider's screech was not, though.

"What that?" C.J. asked Vania when he realized that she would not be removing her hand from his face any time soon.

"I can't see anything!" Cole asked near the same time.

"That's probably for the best," Wu remarked.

"There's two spiders fighting over a cocoon!" Vania tried to explain so that C.J. wouldn't find it too scary and Cole would know what was happening.

"What? Get them away from me!" Cole screamed.

"Uh, they have large fangs, and they both look very hungry."

C.J. laughed at the way Vania said this to which Cole responded by saying, "Yeah, yeah, very funny. Get me out of here!"

"Oh! But the good news is they just dropped the cocoon and are now fighting each other!" Vania exclaimed happily.

Suddenly, a third spider showed up.

"Uh oh," Vania started.

"Uh oh? What does 'Uh oh' mean?" Cole asked.

"There's a third spider, and he looks even more hungry than the others!" Vania explained.

"Now what's going on?" Cole asked.

"It's about to eat the cocoon!"

"Uh oh," C.J. whimpered.

"Do something!" Cole screamed.

"I am doing something!" Vania yelled back as she forced her stuck hand from the web, grabbed a skeleton's foot and threw it at the spider with the cocoon (Cole) in its mouth, alerting it of Vania's presence, and it was now coming after her and C.J.

Vania screamed when she saw this and quickly unstuck herself from the web, grabbing another skeleton foot in the process and throwing it at the spider. This caused it to drop Cole, who began screaming in pain this time instead of fear.

"Uh, oh no!" Vania exclaimed as the spider lifted one of its legs up, and a very sharp one at that and tried to stab Vania.

She did a back flip to get away just in time before noticing a Shintaran spear in the hands of a decomposing Shintaran.

"Hang on to me," Vania instructed the toddler.

He quickly listened so she was able to cover his eyes with one hand and fight with the other.

As this was happening, Wu managed to free himself as well.

The spider continued charging at Vania, but when she threw the spear at its face, it did nothing but confuse it. It stopped a moment, looking at Vania before continuing to charge. Seeing this, she decided to grab a shield this decomposing Shintaran was also holding and throw it.

She used her wings to fly above it a bit, but it started climbing the walls, hoping to eat her and C.J.

"Bad spider! Bad!" she scolded.

Vania then noticed Wu running towards the webbed cocoon, so she flew down towards the web below and threw a spear at him, so he could use it to free his student.

"What do we do?" Vania asked, the spider still coming for her and the other two joining in hot pursuit.

"I'm thinking," Wu replied.

"This can't be good," Vania squirmed as the spider was getting much too close for comfort.

"I have an idea, but I don't think you're gonna like it," Cole started.

"Just do it!" Wu exclaimed.

"Uh, if you say so," Cole replied as he took the spear from Wu and poked a hole into the web, causing he and Wu to begin falling.

Vania followed as quickly as she could but not without getting cut by the tip of a spider leg.

She removed her hand from C.J. eyes, who immediately noticed the drips of blood on her fair skin.

"Aw," he groaned in sympathy for her. He thought it must hurt.

"Are you okay?" Cole asked her.

"Don't worry. It doesn't hurt too much," Vania smiled.

"What about you? Are you okay, Ceej?"

"Yeah!" C.J. replied.

Cole smiled back at his son before looking to Wu, who seemed rather displeased.

"What?" the master of earth asked.

"We're falling again," Wu sighed.

"I told you you wouldn't like it."

It wasn't long before they landed, though, but down a very rocky slide.

"Take my hand! Before we get separated!" Wu yelled to Cole as Vania gripped C.J., who seemed to be enjoying the incredibly dangerous ride, very tightly.

Wu and Cole and Vania, and C.J. did end up getting separated, though. Wu was stuck on a path by himself while the other three were in their own group. Wu's hat ended up on Cole's head. The four ended up passing by each other and the hat was passed back on to Master Wu.

After a moment, Cole became worried for his master so he called his name to make sure he was still here.

He soon got a response in the form of his name to which Cole tried to strike up a conversation.

"Are you still falling?" Cole asked.

"More like sliding!" Wu called back.

"Okay! Just checking! We are too!"

Suddenly, everyone began sliding backwards before falling into the water.

They came up quickly, and Cole immediately turned his head to look to Vania and C.J. The princess, who was now wearing Wu's hat, was having trouble staying up.

"Give him to me!" Cole yelled to her as he swam as close as he could possibly get.

C.J. jumped to his dad the second he could, and he was quickly placed on the earth master's back.

"This is outrageous!" Wu exclaimed.

"There's nothing to hold onto!" Cole realized. They were just floating wherever the river took them.

"Grab onto those rocks!" Wu yelled the second he saw the opening.

The black ninja obeyed and everyone else held onto him, but the river was too strong for him, and he ended up having to let go.

"Hold your breath!" Cole could barely get out before everyone went under. He came up as soon as possible, and C.J. began coughing.

Cole soon found another nearby rock formation and climbed on. He then helped Wu and Vania on before tending to his son.

"Is he okay?" Vania.

The boy was violently coughing a couple times before spitting some water out, and he seemed okay. It wasn't too much water, but they had to find a way to get to dry land.

Unfortunately, this wasn't going to happen anytime soon because they were apparently on a creature made entirely of rocks. He threw the group off his back, trying to eat them in the process but just missed because they were already back in the water. They soon fell down a waterfall and were in a small cave filled with water trying to go down the drain.

"Help!" Vania cried as she struggled to stay above water.

"Stay on!" Cole called up to his son, who was grabbing onto his father's shirt with all his might so as not to get whisked away by the water. The master of earth tried to swim to the princess, but the water was too much for him.

"Now what?" Wu asked.

"It's a whirlpool!" Cole exclaimed. "It's like a giant toilet that's been flushed! Except in this case, we're the-"

"I know, Cole!" Wu cut him off, and C.J. laughed. "Just swim!"

The three began swimming against the current when Wu noticed something.

"Cole, the stalactite!" he yelled, referring to the one directly above the hole they would be sucked into. "Break them off! Use your powers!"

"How? I can't reach them!" Cole yelled.

"You can do it! You have to try!"

Cole stopped trying to swim and instead activated his earth punch to try to feel for the stalactite. He would never admit this to anyone, but it hurt when he was in the water like this. It felt the same way as when he was a ghost and a drop hit him. It stung like no tomorrow and when he was using his power, it turned out that it was much worse, but if he was going to get him, his son, master, and the princess out of here, then he would have to endure.

"Cole, you can do it," Wu encouraged. "You are surrounded by earth. Connect with your element. Your powers should be stronger than ever!"

"Concentrate, Cole!" Vania told him.

The master of earth felt for his element around him. He felt it begin to bend to his will, and he felt as it started to obey. The final crack was probably the most painful thing he had ever done, but it was a sound that brought relief to everyone as the stalactite came crashing down and blocked the hole, stopping the water from spinning.

Everyone groaned as they pulled themselves onto the ledge. Cole, panting for breath as he dropped C.J. to his own feet. The toddler came over to his father and began patting him on the back as he had seen his uncles do to each other when the other had pushed themselves too hard during training.

"I-I think we're safe now," Wu sighed as he fell to his back.

"We just need to find a way out of here," Vania replied as she threw her now broken wings to the ground and fell on her own back, "and let's avoid going farther down."

"How could we get any lower?" Cole asked, falling on his own back. The impact causing the rock they were on to break, and the four of them fell into the water below.

The master of earth had blacked out for a moment, but when he woke up, he freaked. Where was everyone? He swam as fast as he could to the blond when he saw him and swam back up to place him on the ground. At least the others knew to hold their breath when they went under. He then went for Wu and Vania and came back a moment later, them regaining consciousness nearly as soon as they were on solid ground.

As soon as everyone was okay, Cole ran to his son, who was currently coughing. The earth ninja pat him on the back a few times until water came out of his mouth, and he was soon breathing as normal.

"Are you-are you okay, Ceej?" Cole asked, grabbing his son in a protective hug.

"I'm okay," C.J. replied.

"Hey!" an unfamiliar voice suddenly exclaimed.

Quickly, Cole scooped C.J. up into his arms and stood up, ready to face this new adversary.

"Hey, relax," a man in a blue hood and mask said. He had brown eyes, but it was difficult to tell what his other facial features were. His body language told Cole that this was someone he could trust, though.

Suddenly, a giant spider jumped at Cole, and both he and C.J. screamed in terror.

"Hey, it's okay," the man reassured them. "The name's Plundar, and this is Adam," he said as he gestured to the spider. "He's harmless."

"You are safe here," a Metalonian with red hair and a big ax added. "You are among us. The Lowly."

"Huh, what?" Cole asked.

"We are of Rock Bottom. There is no further to fall," a wizard with a bushy mustache explained.

"Might as well get used to it because there ain't no way back up," Plundar continued. "This is your new home, Pal."

Cole was too exhausted to listen anymore. He curled up on the floor, C.J. with him, and they were asleep in seconds.

I hope you all liked that chapter. Next one should be coming out soon! Leave a review if you'd like.

Have a great day/night!

#God'sNotDead