Chen was waiting for them, seated on a throne of some sort. He smiled as the group lunged at him and pressed a button.
Jay screamed as he was snatched by apparently nothing, being yanked away from everyone else before they could react. He slammed into a glass wall like the one they'd just released Lloyd from. It seemed to be connected to one of the six massive coils arranged in the room. When he tried to move, he seemed to be completely stuck.
"I can't move! It's like a magnet or something!" he called to the others, close to panicking.
The others started to charge forward, but a shimmering shield of Green appeared around them, sealing them in place.
"Lightning?" mumbled Lloyd, trying and somewhat succeeding in keeping his wavering gaze on the coil connected to the glass trapping Jay. No one really paid any attention to him in the chaos.
"How nice of you!" cheered Chen, not in the least fazed by the group facing his throne. "I was just planning to invite you all. You saved me so much trouble! Even brought my little pet over for me, so I wouldn't have to fetch him on my own."
Cole nervously shifted his grip on Lloyd and stepped back, away from the madman. The others stepped forward, blocking their son, nephew, friend, and brother from view.
"It will never work, Chen!" shouted Wu. "You won't be able to break the seal with just Energy!"
Chen looked puzzled, then outright laughed. "Heeheehee! Oh, Wu, I always loved how you're so sure you know everything, when you know NOTHING! I didn't collect Green to release the seal. I collected Energy to create traps for your precious Ninja."
He slapped several more buttons. The shield dropped, and this time Kai, Zane, and Nya all screamed as they were yanked right off their feet and across the room, just as Jay had been. They all smacked against strange glass panes attached to different coils, seemingly glued in place by forces they didn't understand and couldn't fight.
The room echoed with the sounds of their struggles as they fought the forces pinning them down, as they tried futilely to summon their elemental powers or use their spinjitzu to break free.
Skylor tried to force herself to calm down, but panic was quickly drowning her. Wu has been wrong. This was a trap. They'd walked right into it. Her father had been ready and waiting, had known their every move and thought, as he always did.
Her father always won. He was always ten steps ahead and laughing at everyone else so far behind. Why had she ever thought she could fight him?
She slunk to her knees in surrender. In failure. They'd lost.
"Well done, daughter," began her father. And everyone turned to stare at her. What?
"Just as I asked of you. Good girl. Now, be a dear and finish it."
What was he talking about? She'd betrayed him. And, meeting his eyes, she recognized that glint. He was angry beneath his facade. She would pay.
He hadn't been ready, she realized in a rush. He was trying to turn the others against her, force her back to his side. Which means there was a critical flaw in his plan.
"Daughter. Like we talked about before. Bring me Lloyd Garmadon, before that oaf crushes my new pet."
Cole's arms protectively tightened around Lloyd's weak form. He glared at Skylor before turning his glinting eyes back to Chen on his throne.
Lloyd seemed to be a little dazed, staring blankly in the direction of the coils and mumbling to himself.
"Hand him over, Earth Ninja. I assume Clouse used the old equipment on him? If you broke through Green while he was connected to it, he won't recover for weeks. If I push your button while you're holding him, he'll be crushed, without any powers to save him. I would hate that to happen."
"Don't move, Cole," ordered Wu, narrowing his eyes at Chen suspiciously. "Ninja do not surrender."
Everyone stood in silence for a long minute. Finally, Lloyd reached up shakily to get Cole's attention.
"Give me to Skylor, Cole," he said softly. He stared into Cole's eyes, begging his friend to trust his judgment. "We're not surrendering," he added. He woozily glanced over in Chen's direction. "I'm calling his bluff. Green failed to break the seal on its own... only then did he come up with this plot to trap everyone. I bet your button isn't ready yet - not enough time. Skylor can take me and you can fight."
"Believe what you want," scoffed Chen. "My daughter will obey me."
"I trust her," countered Lloyd softly, but firmly. With the full strength of his belief behind his words.
Skylor shakily got to her feet and took a couple steps towards Cole, who glared at her, but reluctantly lowered his defenseless friend into her arms.
Chen smacked a button, but instead of sweeping Cole off his feet, the Green shield sprung back up. This time with Lloyd and Skylor outside of it.
"So I don't have the Earth button ready," admitted Chen. "So what! I can just use Amber for that! Or did you think it was normal for my daughter to be able to carry another teenager so easily!"
"On me," Lloyd whispered in her ear as she supported him, stepping further back from a fiercely glaring Cole. "Energy, use it on me... I've got none."
Skylor turned bewildered and terrified eyes to him. "You won't hurt me," he said, so simply, so matter of fact. "Play along with your father. But, instead of Earth, use Ice."
She wanted to argue, but her father would notice if she said anything. Her mouth wasn't hidden like Lloyd's, with his face against her shoulder.
"You can do this," said Lloyd, shakily setting a hand over her uninjured one where it wrapped around his shoulders. Shielding it from her father's sight.
Well, if the Ninja are anything to go by, part of being a hero was trust. Just jumping in. She concentrated, dividing her focus between Earth, to continue supporting Lloyd's weight, and Energy, just a little bit to her covered hand. Just enough to travel from her hand to Lloyd's to do... whatever he wanted with it. She didn't really understand Green very well, even for all their playing with it.
Wait. All their playing with it.
Almost immediately, Lloyd's body stopped trembling. He turned his eyes, glowing green again with his pupils rapidly shrinking back to normal, to her and had the nerve to wink. "Keep playing," he whispered. "Remember, Ice."
She fought back a grin. Got it.
"Daughter. To me," ordered Chen casually. Apparently believing he was in full control of the situation.
"Yes, father," she agreed obediently. She stepped forward towards the throne, slipping into her professional spy guise. She didn't care about these people. She only followed orders. She must've been doing a good job, because she heard Garmadon actually growl behind her back.
Chen gestured to a large dog bed beside his throne, and that was just needlessly insulting. But she carefully kept her face blank as she laid Lloyd down in the center of it. There was even a collar and leash.
Her back was turned to her father, so she dared to meet Lloyd's eyes. He nodded firmly. He was looking slightly better every second, but was still laying, playing?, limp and exhausted. She took a deep breath and quickly buckled on the collar and attached the leash, as her father undoubtedly willed. At least it was a normal dog collar - just for humiliation, no actual purpose besides that. If she hesitated, if she refused, her father would suspect and who knew what he would do.
If he caught on, if he called his armies, they wouldn't get another chance. She had to stick to Lloyd's plan. It was a good plan. She just had to put on the best act of her life.
I do not care, she told herself. I do not care about any of them. I obey my father without question or hesitation.
The other Ninja and Garmadon were shouting out insults and calling her a traitor, not having a clue what she and Lloyd were up to. She reassured herself that they would catch on pretty quickly. At least Kai's voice was noticeably absent, as well as Wu's. Koko was mostly silent except for one single curse.
She couldn't let that affect her. She was a professional. She'd betrayed people a hundred times over. Skylor kept her mask firmly in place as she rose to her feet and turned to her father, waiting respectfully for further orders.
Chen was grinning in glee. She had to fight to keep calm. It would be too easy to slip up now, and who knew what other buttons her father had on that throne of his.
He rose from his throne and stepped forward, hands on his hips as he surveyed the room. The five coils equally spaced around the edge of the room, each attached to a glass panel. All but one with a Ninja stuck to it. Trapped like flies in a spiderweb.
Each of those five coils was slightly different, though it was possible no one but Lloyd, Skylor, and Chen had noticed. After all, they were all green and all glowed. But the Green Energy crackling around the coil attached to Jay's glass panel was in the form of lighting, around Kai's coil was fire, and so on. The one standing in the center was just Green, though it felt more powerful than any of the other five.
Chen was using the same odd principle of Green that Skylor and Lloyd had discovered. That Green, in the form of an element, drew that element to it. The question was, did he know what else the two teenagers had discovered? Even if he did, had he prepared for it?
Earth plus Ice would be nothing on its own. But Earth Energy, or rather, Green in its Earth form, had a rather... 'unexpected' reaction the previous day when Skylor had used Ice.
Chen was eyeing her suspiciously, but for the first time in her life, seemed to be satisfied with what he saw. He ever so subtly relaxed and gestured flamboyantly towards the remaining coil, eagerly turning his attention to the large, circular pattern engraved in the floor of the room.
She'd managed to trick her father. Until this moment, she hadn't thought it possible. Keeping her face blank and emotionless, she approached the remaining glass panel, ignoring the pleading of the five Ninjas and Koko to please just stop, raised her hands, set them flat against the panel, and used Ice.
A loud CRACK sound echoed through the room, followed by a crack, crack, crack - Skylor ran for cover, throwing herself behind the throne with Lloyd - BOOM!
The Earth Coil exploded in an immense shower of scraps. Somehow, at the same instant, the Green around each coil had expanded to protect the Ninja still attached to it, and Garmadon, Wu, Koko, and Cole were still protected behind the shield.
Chen alone was blasted across the room, littered in small injuries from the flying scraps and concussive force. He groaned over the ringing in his ears and sat up, to see a cocky Lloyd Garmadon making himself comfortable on his throne. And his daughter smiling at the boy's side. The two brats high-fived. As Chen watched, Lloyd unbuckled the collar around his neck and tossed it to the side.
"Cole, get Jay," directed Lloyd casually, being sure to smirk at Chen all the while, to all appearances entirely healed. He gestured with a hand and the shield around his parents, uncle, and strongest brother disappeared.
"Skylor, if you could get Kai? Then Kai can release Zane, while Jay frees Nya. Don't worry, guys, none of the other combinations explode."
Chen's eyes were glued in horror to the Green Ninja, the old man unable to move as the reality hit him that... he'd lost.
Garmadon approached Chen, grinning in delight, massive sword swinging down from his back. Koko Irondragon didn't look much more forgiving, smiling as she also approached, twirling her spear casually. Wu spun his staff as he joined them.
Chen fainted.
"Hey! No fair!" complained Garmadon sulkily.
Skylor started laughing. Soon all of the Ninja were gathered around her and Lloyd, giving hugs or reassurance to the two of them.
The adults were busy tying Chen up. With a look of savage glee, Garmadon retrieved the dog collar and secured it maybe a couple notches too tight around Chen's own neck. Koko smirked, but released the collar by a notch so the old menace wouldn't suffocate, then used the leash to secure his arms to his sides and his wrists behind him.
"Well done, Masters of Green and Amber!" Wu praised Skylor and Lloyd, visibly impressed. "You have discovered elemental opposites entirely on your own - I don't believe anyone else can lay claim to such a feat!"
Skylor was leaning against the throne, smiling like she'd never be able to stop. Lloyd pulled his legs up and groaned, resting his head against his knees. She set her hand against his forehead, not particularly worried. She had a hunch what this was about.
"While I'd love to brag, uncle, I think my acting is at its limits. Green managed to get that drug through my system and give me enough of a boost to shield all the guys, but that collapse Skylor warned about earlier is coming on pretty quick. Can I take a nap now?"
"Go ahead," comforted Skylor gently, interrupting what would probably be a negative from any of the others there. After all, it's not like he could... yep, and there he went, slipping right off into a deep, restful sleep. She felt worried eyes on them, and quickly explained. "He's crashed, but he'll be fine when he wakes up. Meanwhile, what do we do? We've still got an island full of my father's followers, plus that one remaining coil," she gestured at the last glowing coil in the middle of the room. The one that held just Green. The other five were very dead.
"I know what 'I' want to do!" cheered Garmadon happily - and he up and ran off, waving his sword and screaming a jubilant battle cry. They all heard hysterical screams within seconds.
Wu laughed at the hopeful looks all turned his way by the remaining Ninja, Chen's daughter, and Koko. "Oh, go have fun. Though at least offer them the chance of surrender before pummeling them unconscious. I'll get Lloyd and Chen to the Bounty and contact the police chief. We'll decide what to do with that terrible device when Lloyd awakens, in his own time. He deserves a break."
Obviously using Earth, Wu lifted Lloyd gently with one arm, supporting him so his nephew's head was comfortably pillowed against his shoulder. Then he not so gently lifted Chen and tossed him over his other shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Humming to himself, Wu set off back for the Destiny's Bounty, listening to the music of his family's vengeance as he made his way through the halls.
~~ ! Go Ninja Go ! ~~
The police would later inform the Ninja that they didn't know about any glowing green coil - the room they'd described had a coil in the center alright, but it was as dead and lifeless as the rest of the broken coils in the room.
No one was too worried. After all, even though Clouse had escaped, Chen and most of his army were in prison. Lloyd had made a full recovery and was eagerly teaching the other Ninja what he and Skylor had discovered about elements and Green. Skylor took over the family restaurant, though she'd had to hire an entire new staff, since the last had all been arrested.
Everything went back to normal. Well, a new normal. With a Master of Amber on standby if the Ninja Force should ever need her, and a Green Ninja more powerful than ever.
Still, every now and then, Lloyd would wonder, just where did all that Green Energy go?
~~ ! Go Ninja Go ! ~~
"Delicious..." hissed a black shadow, creeping up through a crack in the floor. It lurched towards the massive coil above it, eagerly absorbing the Green Energy. The shadow seemed to darken and enlarge as it gorged itself. When it finished, a single red eye slit opened and surveyed the room.
"Where... can I find more...?" pondered the Overlord aloud. It would need much more than that little snack to overshadow Ninjago. To destroy the descendants and chosen ones of the First Spinjitzu Master.
~~ ! Go Ninja Go ! ~~
Author's notes: And there we go! That's it for Battery, everyone! Hope you all enjoyed, and please review!
Final thanks to, of course, my wonderful beta Sunny Lighter! Also thanks to my reviewers: EMPFangirl02, Carrie2sky, Bookkeeper2004, lloydskywalkers, Fabro de Omres, and Watcher321, and everyone else who has been there for me since chapter one! You've all been great and I'm truly hopeful that you loved reading this last chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it!