A/N: shifting gears for a second here while we revisit some of the canon story. again: trying not to spend too much time in canon, since we've been there, watched that.
tried to spice it up a bit! and of course Nya's experience in the Underworld is AU. i had to write about it, no one ever talks about the fact that this thirteen year old child was trapped in the Ninjago equivalent of hell for an extended period of time! hopefully i did it justice.
anyways! thanks for all your reviews, i love reading them :)
Before Nya gets the chance to say anything else, a voice comes from behind her.
"Hmm. Your metal is loud and heavy. Useful to slow one down. Useless in the art of stealth. All tools for a samurai, but nothing for a ninja?"
Nya whirls around, and her first thought is Yay, a customer! Her second thought is more along the lines of Hey, wait a second.
It's an old man—older than anyone she's ever encountered before. He's bent a little, hands clasped in front of him as the sun reflects off his whiter-than-white robes. An ancient-looking straw hat sits atop his head, shadowing his face enough that she can't get a good look at him. What really grabs her attention is the beard, because whoa. It's so long that it's almost brushing the ground. Nya tries not to stare. If they're lucky, this guy will buy something, so she's not gonna discourage that from happening—
Kai gives the guy a look. "Ninja? Ha. You're a long way from finding a ninja in these parts, old man."
Well. There goes courtesy.
Kai continues, sounding defensive. "And the shop is called Four Weapons, not For Browsing. Either buy something or go peddle your insults somewhere else."
Appalled, Nya drives her elbow into Kai's ribcage, letting him know she's not happy with him. Because hello, you can't just be rude to the elderly like that, Nya's not a monster.
The old man hmphs disdainfully. "Too bad. Thought I'd find something special here."
Before they can lose a potentially valuable customer, Nya swiftly motions for Kai to salvage the situation. She turns away then, eyes catching the approaching storm clouds again. Man, they are dark. Hopefully the old guy gets to shelter before the rain hits . . .
Kai's voice starts, "If it's something special you're looking for, lemme sh—" Then he cuts out. Nya is only vaguely aware of his pause.
"What is it?" she asks absently. Is that thunder she hears?
Kai mumbles, "He was just—forget it."
If she's being honest, Nya's already forgotten it, because these clouds are rolling in way faster than any normal thunderstorm. She definitely hears a distant rumbling, though, getting closer by the second. No lightning yet. Weird.
Nya resumes the day's work, only slightly bitter about Kai driving away another customer with his abrasive attitude. There's work to do and she hasn't even eaten breakfast yet, not that she even wants pancakes, because it just reminds her of—
Abruptly, a chorus of terrified screams rings out over the hill, coming from down the road where the farmland is. Kai and Nya's heads whip up at the blood-chilling noise. They barely have time to share a petrified glance before a roar of engines bursts over the hilltop and five—maybe six—monstrous vehicles are upon them, circling the shop at a dizzying pace. One vehicle screeches to a halt in front.
"What are they?" Nya asks. She can't tell from this distance—but she thinks—
Kai has already donned a helmet and chest plate, both of which were made by Nya, but if he's preparing for the defensive . . . he's expecting something offensive.
"I dunno. Stay here," Kai tells her, grabbing a sword from under the counter and edging out into the yard. Her heart skips a beat as she watches him leave.
Be safe be safe be safe—
The sky has turned a murky dark purple and there are still vehicles circling the house. A few have stopped now, and their occupants finally reveal themselves to be exactly what Nya was imagining—and dreading.
It's the Skulkin. There are so many. Nya backs a little ways into the shop, battling with what emotion she wants to feel. A lot of fear is gripping her right now, to be honest, because those glowing eyes will be haunting her dreams for years to come. But then underneath the fear, there's anger. A hot, boiling fury that takes the fear and crushes it. What are the Skulkin doing here?
Nya doesn't care what Kai told her, she's not staying here. Not when these monsters were the ones that murdered—
She can't bring herself to finish that thought, but Nya searches quickly for a weapon, eyes landing on a bamboo staff in the corner. Not ideal, but she's on limited time here, it'll have to work. She snags it on her way out the back door, tossing a glance out the window to see how Kai's doing. Things seem to be going fine on his part, if his exaggerated fighting noises are anything to go off of.
Nya sneaks out the back door and approaches two skeletons from behind. There's only a moment of hesitation—a moment that she remembers they're monsters and freaky—but then she shoves the feeling down and knocks the two creatures over in seconds. Man, she doesn't know her own strength.
The skeletons are circling around her brother, so Nya shoves her way over and joins him. He tosses her a dismayed glance.
"I thought I told you to stay back!"
Yeah, and she's almost wishing she would've. Nya hates the Skulkin, they're creepy and oddly shaped and loud—they make awful squealing noises and rattle when they walk—it's downright horrific. But she wasn't about to let Kai get pummeled out here alone.
"And what?" she asks smugly. "Let you have all the fun?"
It's not fun, it's not fun at all, but she can't look scared in front of Kai. She doesn't want a lecture about it later. About how she should've just stayed inside if she was gonna be a chicken. Plus—Nya has a lot of pent-up aggression that's been building up for a while now, so.
She and Kai get separated by the hoard of skeletons that swarms around them, but Nya knows he can handle himself. The fear starts to leave her. This is like one big therapy session, and she's allowed to hit and kick things. The skeletons glare and jeer at her, swinging hits with their bony hands, trying to find a weak spot in her defenses. But Walter taught her most of these moves, and they work.
She's caught up with a particularly persistent skeleton, holding him off with all the strength left in her arms (ew, it's touching her) when Nya catches a glint of golden light in the corner of her eye. Promptly, the old rickety water tower that's always been behind their house comes crashing down in an explosion of wood and dust. Nya and her opponent pause for a second to stare wide-eyed at the wreckage.
Hopefully Kai didn't have anything to do with that . . . but Nya isn't sure. She ditches the skeleton there and bolts to where she thinks Kai is, but she can't see him. There are more Skulkin now, crowding in from every side, and Nya is backed into a metaphorical corner. Her fingers grip the staff a little tighter as she prepares for the worst—
Or, what she thinks is going to be the worst.
If you asked Nya what had happened next, she wouldn't have been able to provide very clear details. She remembers seeing the old man, white robes standing out against the wood of her house. She remembers someone saying "Lord Garmadon", and she can even remember finally picking out Kai in the crowd. His expression is terrified, mouth open like he's about to say something.
Then there's something large and cold and skeletal clasped around her body and the ground just disappears from under her feet, the shop growing smaller as she's yanked violently backwards—
Nya can't help the panicked scream that escapes her, and Kai's frantic, "Nya!" echoes across the road. At some point, the staff falls to the ground, forgotten as Nya squeezes her eyes shut to keep herself from feeling dizzy—
She slams back into something solid—
What feels like fingers is still keeping her there, like a suffocating prison barely big enough to breathe in—
Nya opens her eyes and wishes she hadn't. The whole world is tilted on its side and she's curled up in a fear-induced ball, hands on her head out of reflex. Everything underneath her heaves a mighty rumble and suddenly Nya thinks she knows what's happening and—
Oh HECK NO—
As the vehicle takes off at a strictly inhuman speed, Nya grabs onto the claw hand around her and holds on for dear life, feeling it shake and bump along the cobblestone road. The car picks up speed faster than anything Nya's ever experienced, and soon they're practically flying, zooming so rapidly that Nya's hair is whipping painfully against her face. She's too shocked to do anything but hold on, not trusting that ugly claw to keep her from falling off the vehicle and smacking the ground.
What's happening where's Kai where is this thing going why am I here—
The thoughts flash through her head rapid-fire. Nya's eyes are closed, so she doesn't see anything happen, but she feels a sudden shift in the air—like someone just dunked her in a bucket of cold water. She cracks one eye open and almost has a heart attack on the spot, because—
Because she's not in Ninjago anymore—
There's just swirling purple and black, thick smoke churning above her, horrible noises, screeching, clawing, growling—
The vehicle jerks to an abrupt halt and Nya knows it's a miracle she didn't get whiplash from that alone. There's silence. Now that she's not moving anymore and can think properly, the events start to catch up to her and Nya replays it in her head. Everything is still blurry, it happened so fast—
Holy heck, she's been kidnapped.
So—wait, now what? What should she do, she's never been kidnapped before, there has to be some kind of action she should be taking right now. None of the books she's read prepared her for this, why does she know nothing, why is there a skeleton walking towards her—
The claw hand snaps open, and Nya, a victim of gravity, drops to the ground with a very concerning thud.
"Ow," she manages, pushing herself up on one elbow. Ohhh ow, something has to be broken, she definitely just hit her arm at a weird angle. The ground is solid rock, jagged and uneven, reminding her of the cliff back at home—
Home.
How far from home is she? In fact, Nya would be content to just know where she is, because the darkness and unfamiliar cave-like surroundings are not something that exists in Ignacia, she knows that much.
She's still on the ground, but as she's trying to stand, a pair of spiked boots appears right in front of her. Nya looks up. A freaking Skulkin is standing right there—
Two hands grab the back of her shirt and yank her upright, and before Nya can process that a skeleton is holding her, a shadow stirs along the wall. That's . . . mildly alarming. She wants to ask where she is and why she's here and what the heck did she ever do to them—but can they talk? Can she talk? Feels like her tongue is plastered to the roof of her mouth.
The hands start dragging her backwards, tugging until she's forced to take steps, but she's facing the wrong way, where is she going—
Nya has two options here. She can be a scared little chicken and follow along, or she can remember that she's angry right now.
Nya decides to be angry.
She reaches behind and grips the skeletal arms with surprising strength, and the Skulkin cries out.
"Hey!" it says. Nya almost screams because she wasn't aware they could speak. But—hey, they can talk! She can communicate.
But first Nya tries to move away from her invisible captor, and in doing so, there's a shocking pop! and something rips away in her grasp.
No one is holding on anymore so Nya whips around and—
And she's holding—
Oh FIRST SPINJITZU MASTER, there's an arm in her hand, she's holding an arm—!
Now Nya does scream, and she tosses the bone-arm to the ground, leaping backwards as she wipes her hand on her pants to get the creepy skeleton germs off.
"Ew, ew, ew, that's disgusting—" Nya says, backing up until she's fairly sure she's hidden. The skeleton isn't watching her—he's too busy picking up the arm and clicking it right back into place, grumbling frustratedly.
Shadows line the sides of the cavern and Nya sticks to them, keeping one eye on the skeleton as she slowly makes her way backwards. The Skulkin looks as though it's forgotten she was ever there in the first place, because it looks around confused, gives an indifferent shrug and walks away.
Huh. Not the brightest creatures, then. That's good! She can use this to her advantage. If they're too dumb to realize she's missing, maybe Nya can escape and get back home—
It's at that moment that Nya realizes why she should've paid more attention to that shadow on the wall.
"Boo," says a gravelly voice behind her.
Nya jumps away from the wall, only gasping and not screaming this time, which is progress. When she turns to see what has possessed the cave wall, Nya sees the enormous, hulking form of another skeletal creature, all four arms (four—FOUR—) spread out like it's going to pounce on her. It emerges from the shadows and Nya is left with zero words in her mouth.
"Samukai, Skulkin General. Pleasure to make your acquaintance," he says, bowing exaggeratedly. Nya can only stare with wide-eyes, mostly focused on the glowing red orbs that sit where his pupils should be. Samukai is a good deal taller than her, and much bulkier too, considering all the armor he's got on. Nya should run, she should totally run, but this information only crosses her mind briefly. Her legs simply will not cooperate. She's rooted there, indefinitely, maybe forever.
Samukai (that's his name, right?) takes one step closer, glancing at her up and down, like she's disappointing him.
"Huh," he says. Nya feels like she should be offended by that.
"What?" she asks.
(She can talk! That's good to know.)
The general raises his two bony bumps that serve as eyebrows and narrows his eerie red eyes. "I just thought that—since we went through all that work—you might be more of a threat."
Okay now Nya is offended. She almost yells, "I'm a threat!" but that . . . doesn't seem like the best option, so she settles for crossing her arms and glaring instead. Samukai looks like he's unsure of what to do with her.
But Kai's still at home, probably worried sick about her, and there's work to be done and a shop to run and Nya is out of patience.
"Alright, what's going on?" she finally asks, arms flying out for emphasis. "I never did anything to you, and then you attack my house and fight my brother and KIDNAP me, and for what?" Nya's sick of this, if she has to be in this ugly cave, she wants to know why, thank you.
Samukai growls. "Lord Garmadon asked for you, specifically."
Garmadon. That name rings a bell, where has she heard it before? It must've been recently . . .
"Who's that?" Nya asks, frowning. Better not be a creepy old guy, because that would just be messed up on so many levels—
"Lord Garmadon!" Samukai roars. Nya steps back. "God of Darkness, King of the Underworld, Bringer of Destruction!"
Nya's heart skips a beat. None of those titles sound particularly uplifting. And—wait a second—
"Underworld?" Nya manages. "Wha—don't tell me this is—that I'm—"
Apparently fed-up with her already, Samukai grabs one of Nya's arms and starts walking, dragging her behind him like a rag doll. Nya protests rather loudly, digging her heels into the ground. Her feet have zero traction on the uneven stone floor, so she just stumbles along behind the skeleton monster, tugging at her arm the whole way, even though she knows she's not getting anywhere. This guy is ten times stronger than the other skeleton.
They travel down a flight of jagged stairs, and the already-dim hallway only grows darker, the barest flicker of illumination visible in the distance. It's a glowing, purple sort of light bouncing off the walls, like it's from a fire. Purple fire? Purple fire? What next, flying sheep—?
Samukai pulls Nya through an arched doorway, where the purple flicker bursts to life in the form of torches, casting eerie shadows across the walls. Despite the torches, it's dark. Nya can't explain it. It's not the type of dark that really has anything to do with the amount of light. It's—it's an implied darkness, an atmosphere of unstable energy. Dark energy. Evil energy.
Frick, Nya is gonna die down here, isn't she?
Samukai flings her forward so she's sent staggering in front of him. There's a narrow walkway suspended over what appears to be infinite nothingness, dropping off into thick black fog. Nya edges carefully backwards, but she bumps into the Skulkin general and goes rigid. Looks like she's stuck here, then.
To be honest, Nya's not afraid, really. She's confused, and irritated, and vaguely concerned. But not scared. She's dealt with weird stuff before. Sure, not as weird as being dragged to the Underworld, but still. She's been doing fine so far.
Until she catches sight of a shadow within the shadows, the vague outline of something gigantic and tall, shaped almost like a—like some sort of throne. Nya's never seen a throne in person, of course, so she can only assume, but—
"Lord Garmadon," Samukai rumbles, taking a moment to bow reverently (way more believable than the one he gave her). "I've brought the girl."
The girl. Briefly, Nya is angered by the condescending term, but then she remembers that name. Garmadon. The—the Bringer of Destruction and all those other unsettling titles that, honestly, sound really dramatic—
"Excellent," says a voice. It must be Lord Garmadon. And Nya wasn't scared before, but now—
Garmadon's voice is absolutely chilling. It's not gravelly like the Skulkin, it's—it's deep and smooth and compelling, in a way, but not in a good way. It's compelling in the Come one step closer to me and I will murder you way. And now that Nya thinks about it, that doesn't really make any sense at all—
She decides she doesn't like Garmadon. In fact, she's terrified of him and she hasn't even seen him yet—
Luckily, he seems happy to solve that problem for her.
Garmadon rises, and now Nya can see his outline, too. And it's been about ten years since she's peed her pants, but nature nearly changes that when Nya sees Garmadon.
At first she thinks he has horns, and that's horrifying, but then she realizes it's actually some sort of devilish hat. His eyes glow red, just like the Skulkin, and his entire body is deep black, mixed with violet with something like tattoos across his whole face. He's—hardly human, he can't be human. But then what is he? He's—
He's crossing the walkway, steps slow and deliberate, menacing eyes fixed on her like a lion stalking its prey.
Holy FSM, I know I haven't been the best person but please don't kill me today, I promise I'll try harder, I'll stop making fun of Kai—
Garmadon reaches her, and Nya silently realizes he's so much taller than she thought. There's something a little weird about the shape of his body, almost uneven, a little bit—
"A pleasure," he says. Then words tumble out of her mouth before she can stop them.
"Okay, listen, if you're gonna kill me just do it now and get it over with, but at least make sure Kai knows what happened so he's not waiting for—"
"Kill you?" Garmadon laughs, and Nya flinches back. "Quite the contrary. I need you alive."
Oh, so it's a ransom situation?
"Well, we don't actually have that much money, so I really don't think my brother's gonna pay—"
"It's not money I'm after."
Nya blinks. "Then . . . what am I here for?"
Garmadon leans down so the word falls right in front of Nya's face. "Bait."
Bait—?
It seems like things should be falling into place, like Nya should understand what's going on here. But she's still wildly confused. And what's she supposed to do? Ask the Lord of Darkness what his evil plan is? She doubts he'll launch into a monologue for her, and even if he did, does she really want to know?
Apparently she does.
"What kind of bait?" she asks, frowning. Garmadon looks down at her with those piercing eyes of his and tilts his head to one side. Nya holds eye contact, even though it's uncomfortable. His eyes . . . they're not just glowing orbs like the Skulkin's. Garmadon's eyes look almost normal, minus the whole being red thing.
His eyes are the one thing that humanizes him, just a little bit. Nya isn't sure how to feel about that.
"In time, all will fall into place."
That's all he says. Then Samukai takes hold of her arm again and starts dragging her out of the room. She moves with a little more compliance than before, but her eyes are on Garmadon as she exits. He watches her, too. And there's something in his expression, for just half a moment, that almost looks like . . .
She can't label it. It's sympathy and guilt and understanding all rolled into one, but only for the barest of seconds. Then it's gone, and Garmadon turns around, striding back to his shadowy throne.
The expression sticks in her mind, though, and Nya wonders if, perhaps, Garmadon was human once. She doesn't really know anything about things like that, but she imagines it's possible . . .
"The whole plan is a little far-fetched, if you ask me," Samukai says suddenly. He sounds absent, like he's talking to himself more than to her, but Nya grows interested.
"What plan?"
"Lord Garmadon isn't interested in you at all," the general says. "He wants the Golden Weapons."
A memory flashes through Nya's mind like the flick of a switch, but it's gone before she can really see it. Golden Weapons? She—she knows that, somehow she's heard the term before . . .
"What're the Golden Weapons?" she asks softly.
Samukai glances back at her briefly, still pulling her along through another dark hallway.
"The most powerful objects in all of Ninjago."
They don't talk anymore after that, because Nya is busy contemplating what that could mean for the world. If a person like Garmadon . . . gets his hands on the most powerful objects in all of Ninjago . . .
And suddenly, Nya realizes her little bubble of a life is actually part of a much bigger one. One that she's now a key part of, whether she likes it or not.
A/N: how's THAT for AU, huh? *slams hands on desk*
i had so much fun writing this chapter, the next few are equally entertaining, if not a little sad. but you signed up for angst when you clicked on the story, so i regret nOTHING.
have a good one, folks!
