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Chapter 13: What Happened?

Nya ran through the halls of the Pyramid frantically, looking for any sign of her brother and friends. The Dark Army left little trace of their presence, taking most of the torches and removing all the weaponry and tools they had brought with them. she ran down a long spiraling staircase as she called out for her brother. "KAI?! Where are you?!"

Down the large dark corridor which she now stood in, at which a small source of light could be seen, Kai's voice weakly responded: "Over here Nya."

She ran as fast as she could down the hallway, the dim light growing with every step, until the entire horrific scene was illuminated in front of her, to her immediate regret. Misako was supporting Clutch up from the ground, who was clutching onto his eye socket. Nya noticed the blood oozing through the palm of his hand. To the room's side, she saw Kai and Lloyd crouching on the ground around the broken pieces of Zane's body.

"W-w-what... happened?"

Kai couldn't bear to look at her in his anguish. Lloyd stared up at her with tears in his eyes. "We failed."

From behind, she heard a large clutter of footsteps approaching. The others had followed her inside, but didn't dare turn around. She could practically sense the other's shock as they saw what she was seeing. Misako, on the other hand, looked up as she stood with Clutch's arm around her shoulder for support, approaching them.

"Let's bring him home, everyone. Zane deserves as much."

The Sons of Garmadon generals and Time Twins stood at the base of the New Temple at the epicenter of the Golden Peaks encampment. While Ultra Violet and Killow in particular were not fond of taking orders from anyone besides Harumi or Garmadon, Mr. E showed no irritation with the Quiet One's instructions.

After he and his fellow bikers returned from their attacks on the Elemental Masters, he checked in on their prisoners.

The Emperor and Empress of Ninjago sat in their drudgery within their makeshift cell. The two Nindroid guards nodded at his approach, recognizing a fellow Nindroid as they allowed him to step up to the bars so that he could see the deposed rulers in the limelight. As he had expected, they looked desparate and out of their element. The other two prisoners that the Time Twins brought, on the other hand, were so stubborn he didn't even bother to check up on them before going up to the Temple.

Krux nodded at his approach. "Ah, Mr. E. Good. Lord Garmadon and the Sorcerers are about to arrive back from the city." On que, the five of them heard the sound of a Nindroid Gunship dropping down from the sky. Even before it landed and he got out, Lord Garmadon could clearly be seen from the open side door as the veins in his arms were glowing red.

"Lord Garmadon! Welcome back. Our operations here have continued without interruption, and we have received word from King Pythor that their forces are returning from the Pyramid, with a significant addition of allies. And I can see from Clouse that the spell worked for Chen's cultists. I am positive that they will prove themse-"

"And the prisoners?"

Acronix paused for a moment, clearly not prepared for the question. "Erm, they are still alive, my Lord."

"Good. I sense our allies from the Desert are approaching fast. In fact, they will be here..." The fast approaching rumble of hundreds of serpents, several vehicles, and a few airships coming up the mountain indicated their approach. "...now." The Dark Lord turned to the incoming Serpents, without any look of surprise on his face. Everyone else was a different case.

Harumi, Killow, and the Time Twins all stared at the Fire Fangs in shock. Clouse slithered forward towards his Serpent with a large smile on his face. The surrounding Dark Army members that stayed at the encampment walked forward in awe at their new fellow soldiers.

But Mr. E didn't care about any of that. He analyzed the vehicle taking up the rear, which General Cryptor jumped off of. The Nindroid General walked forward to his subordinates in a boasting manner, and gave the Biker General a mocking wink. Agitated and curious, he walked towards the group of Nindroids.

"...so now we have one more Ninja off of the board!" The roar of laughter echoed by the Nindroids only put Mr. E on edge as he pushed them out of their way. "Ereh no gniog si tahw?"

"Ah, Mr. E. It seems, despite whatever promises you were given by The Quiet One, that you missed your chance."

Under the red visor, Mr. E's narrow eyes widened. No. NO. NO!

"Yes, Mr. E. I killed Zane. Now, come on, boys! Lord Garmadon wants us to make the newcomers feel welcome!" Accompanied by his entourage, Cryptor left E standing alone at the edge of the camp, staring into the clouds. NO! Damn you Cryptor!

He took out his twin red blades and starting slicing at the air in a rage, before stopping to stare in the direction of Ninjago City. And damn you, Zane. You were supposed to die by my hand.

Several hours had passed before the Ninja and their allies managed to get back to the City. The DBX and Destiny's Shadow entered the city, driving through the empy streets. Cole noticed immediately how almost nobody was outdoors, besides a few cops on each block. "What the hell happened here?"

Dareth looked to the DBX's computers. "Police have ordered everyone off the streets. It looks like another portal opened."

In the back of the DBX, Misako and Nya were treating Kai, Lloyd, and Clutch, who all lay down on the vehicle's floor. With Kai's help, they managed to cauterize Clutch's eye, which was by far the worst of their injuries. The explorer was only semi-conscious, while Kai and Lloyd were fully awake and firmly aware of the situation. The Red Ninja stood up and approached the front of the vehicle towards the front. "What did you say?"

Dareth stood up from his seat, blocking his way. "You need to rest, Kai." The Red Ninja shook his head and looked to the screen in front of them. "What was that about a portal?"

Sighing, Dareth decided to explain. "Before we received the alert that the Dark Army was approaching the Pyramid, Cole, Nya, Pixal and myself responded to some sort of temporal alert that Borg's Early Emergency System picked up. Before long, some sort of small portal appeared over the City Square, but only for a few moments before it collapsed in on itself."

Kai, Lloyd, and Misako all had wide eyes from the news. "And another one appeared?!"

Dareth nodded. "It appears so, Lloyd. And based on the high alerts I'm seeing, I think..." His long pause put everyone else on edge. "You think what, Dareth?!"

"I think something came out of it this time."

A long silence followed before Skylor's voice came in from the computer. "Where are we going, guys?"

"To Borg tower, Skylor. There, we will get more answers."

"Red lightning? That's what came out of the portal?" Ash's question was echoed through the minds of all the other Elemental Master's and Ninja as they stood in the Central room of Borg Tower, where Borg, Mystake, the Commissioner, and the students had explained the preceding events. Pixal, on the other hand, was somewhere else in the tower in her grief at the sight of Zane's parts.

The Commissioner nodded. "Yes, that's what I said. The portal opened, and after a few moments of it expanding, a massive bolt of red lightning blasted through and up in the clouds. Then the portal collapsed in on itself."

Cyrus Borg wheeled forward towards the room's main computer. "But that's not all. After the System alerted us of another portal, I had the scanners prepared to analyze the frequency in which the portal originated. Unfortunately, it collapsed before I could get a full readout, but I managed to decrypt the first half of the frequency and trace the energy signature."

Skylor looked to both ends of the room to see if anyone knew what he meant. "And that means?"

"*Sigh*" Pressing a few buttons, he summoned images of the portal to the room's main screen so everyone could see it. "It means that now, we have the groundwork laid out for us to create a synthetic portal, without the realm crystal. Now, there's no telling how long it would take, it could be years! But it's a start."

"Wait, but what did you mean by energy signature? I thought we were already able to detect anomoly's without them."

"True, Lloyd, but I wanted to analyze the signature and compare it to every known signature in our database, in hopes of discovering who was behind the portal. And after an analysis, I have found TWO matches." He pressed a few more keys into the system, then everyone gasped at what, and who, appeared on the screen. "Is... that...?"

"Yes, Dareth. The energy signature of the portal matches those originating from the Dark Island, and The Overlord." The students clamored in fear, the Elemental Masters had looks of confusion, and the Ninja stamored in shock.

"How? We've patroled the Dark Island a dozen times over, have satellites keeping an eye on it 24/7, and erased every trace of the Overlord's presence there! And he's back in his depleted state! If he got out, we'd know!"

"Yes, all of those are true, Kai. I don't think this portal actually came from either of them, but they each share one thing. The portal was somehow powered by a form of Dark Matter."

Pixal couldn't bear the sight of Zane's parts. Upon her first gaze of them, she ran down towards the production line within the tower, now ironically the quietest place in the building. She was currently crouched on the floor by the control panels, crying.

"Zane... why? Why did you do it?" Based on Kai's description of what happened when he sent her the message of his defeat by Cryptor's hands, she knew what Zane's plan was: To attempt to bargain with the Serpentine Queen by handing himself over as an exchange for Clutch and Misako. But that never came to fruition before the Nindroid General's ego kicked in.

She would never experience compatibility like she had again with Zane, despite the obvious gaps of advanced machinery between them. Their relationship was on a more symbiotic level of trust and understanding, which is what freed her from the Overlord's control of her initially. "And now you're gone."

BEEEP.

She almost jumped at the sudden indicator that the computer screen had turned on. By itself? The screen jumbled to life, with flashes of blueprints displaying themselves all over the monitors. A static voice played from the speaker.

"zzt- No one's ever really gone. -zzt" Her eyes widened at the sound of the voice.

The lights over the production line also began to flicker to life, before the actual moving pieces did their job. Within seconds, the entire factory room was in action, smelting pieces of titanium and molding them into shapes before adding circuitry to them.

"I don't believe it..." Overhead, Pixal heard the door slide open, where she saw everyone enter to see what was happening, Cyrus leading them. "Pixal, what is going on?"

With a huge smile on her face, she extended her arm to point towards the scene before them. Now the pieces from each line were being picked up and wired together, forming a pair of titanium legs. Then a torso. Then the arms. Until finally, a distinctly-shaped head was placed on top, which opened its glowing blue eyes and smiled.

"Hello, Pixal. Are we compatible now?"

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