In the tunnel, the Ninja move along as they pass by a knocked over cart. "There's another symbol." Gewuji said, pointing to it.
"Huh, looks like it only gets darker the deeper in we go." Cole replied.
"Then it's a good thing we have a little light." Kai said, noticing 7 lanterns.
"Wait!" Maggie yelled. "What if this is one of the tests?"
Jay gasps. "Yeah, Dragon said the tomb was going to be protected by three deadly tests." He said. "Maybe if we pick the wrong lantern-" Kai goes for the lanterns that were hanging and prepares to grab the middle one. The others back away a bit before Kai takes it.
He soon scoffed. "Nope, just a lantern." He replied before moving on.
The others, except for Jay, each take a lantern before following Kai into the tunnel as Jay came up to the last one before he quickly takes it. "Like I thought. Just a lantern." He soon goes to catch up with the others. "Wait!"
They come up to a tunnel on the right. "Looks like there was a cave in." Geoff said.
Jay soon sniffs. "Eugh! What's that smell?"
"Wasn't me." Gewuji said.
"My senses pick up traces of kethanol, a highly flammable gas released from deep well mining." Zane said.
Cole laughs a bit. "Sure." He replied sarcastically. "Bet that's what all Nindroids say."
Zane then felt offended by the sarcasm. "If you're implying that smell came from me, or even Gewuji-"
"Look, some of these rocks appear to have been recently moved." Kai cuts him off as he looked on. "Maybe Morro's already been through here." They soon head inside.
On the Bounty, Tania looks at the Caves of Despair from the deck as Dragon came up to her. "Is something troubling you, Tania?" He asked.
"Nothing, Master Wu." She replied.
"Now, I've known you long before you were tricked by Chen during the First Serpentine War, there is something you're not telling me. Besides, my father once taught me this: It is better to tell the truth than to keep it and then regret it for the rest of your life."
Tania soon sighed. "It's my fault that Morro ended up in the Cursed Realm in the first place."
"What?"
"Remember what I told you about not finding Morro before the Serpentine War?" He nods. "I lied. I did find him. In that very cave, at the start of the war."
Over 40 Years Earlier
In the tunnels of the Caves of Despair, Morro, looking ragged and having longer hair, looks around the cave before growling. "He was so obsessed by the time I found him." Tania's present voice was heard.
"It was never here!" He yelled.
"Morro!" Tania's voice was heard as he turned to see her at the entrance.
"Tania?"
"You'll never find it in here. It will never be found."
"Did you come here to tell me that?"
"No, Master Wu sent me to find you. The Serpentine are declaring war on us and he needs every Elemental Master alive to help the people." This gets Morro to think a little. "After the war, you can continue your search."
"Don't you get it? If I do find the tomb, then I can find out if I'm the Green Ninja and save Ninjago from the Serpentine."
"That was when I had no choice." Tania's present voice was heard.
"Then, I'm sorry, Morro." Tania said, holding her hands out.
"What are you doing?" Morro asked.
"This cave will be your tomb."
"No!" Morro holds his hands out to her, emitting wind, which knocks her back as she fires both sand and glass at the cave entrance, causing a cave in. "Tania!" Tania gets up to smell the kethanol gas seeping out. "Tania, help!"
"You don't deserve a life!" Tania soon takes off, coughing a little.
"Tania, get me out of here! Tania, you bitch! YOU BITCH!" Coughing was soon heard from behind the rocks. "Help! I can't breathe! This cave is filled with kethanol gas! Tania!"
Present
"I never forgave myself after that." Tania said as she lowered her head. "Even before being sent to the Cursed Realm, I could still hear his cries of despair, calling me a 'bitch' and swearing revenge on my descendants. I think they're walking into a trap."
"We have to find a way to reach them." Dragon replied before they soon head for the bridge.
In the cave, the Ninja move along it before putting their hoods on as they see a geyser and some grey stuff as Maggie picks up a pile and lets it move off her hand. "Ash." She said. "Everything here has been burned."
"Perhaps one of the traps?" Kai asked.
"The kethanol geyser." Zane replied. "We cannot stay long. It may ignite again at any moment."
"Look." Cole said, seeing a skeleton. "Whoa!" The skeleton had ragged clothes which degraded during the skeleton's entrapment as well as black hair. "Whoa!"
"Ew!" Jay was disgusted. "You think it's him?"
"The First Spinjitzu Master." Gewuji said.
"But where's the Realm Crystal?" Kai asked.
"I don't think that's the First Spinjitzu Master." Geoff replied, coming up to the skeleton and moves a piece of cloth back, showing a symbol. "It's the Master of Wind."
"Then these are the remains of Morro's mortal body." Zane said.
"He must've died here." He soon sees a bit of paper that looked very old and brown close by the skeleton and picks it up. "I think this might explain what happened to him." He opens it and looked at it. "It's too old and dirty to read. Zane, have P.I.X.A.L. scan this and say it aloud."
Zane shines his lights over the paper. "Scan complete." P.I.X.A.L. said from inside Zane's head. "Uploading contents of paper."
"'My name is Morro Ventus, Master of Wind." Zane said as he recited the translated letter. "I am close to dying by inhaling kethanol, so these are my final words. When I was just a-"
Over 40 Years Earlier
"-a kid, among many others who lost their families to the Sporae Flu, I was among many kids to scavenge some bins at the Monastery of Spinjitzu, which other kids were too scared to do due to the high altitude." Morro's thoughts were heard as he writes the note before briefly stopping to cough. "Tania, a fellow orphan, and I were soon brought into the monastery by Master Dragon Wu, a son of the First Spinjitzu Master, who took us in, like a father. When he discovered we had Elemental Powers, he thought one of us would be the Green Ninja. When the Golden Weapons didn't react to one of us, I chose to find his father's tomb to prove that I am worthy of being the Green Ninja." He starts coughing again. "I tired my best, took me years, but in the end, I found myself here, in the Caves of Despair, where I thought I finally found it. That bitch, Tania, left me here to die and so now I will haunt her and her children and her children's children forever. If Master Wu finds this, or you know him, I want him to know that, I'm sorry I wasn't a good student. His aggressive teachings weren't aggressive, they were to strengthen me, which I am doing, by writing this letter throughout my dying breath. You have to know that-"
Present.
"-you can only save those who want to be saved.'" Zane finished reading the words in his head.
"I think he realized he would never find it." Geoff said as he looked at the letter.
"But, in the end, he still wanted to find it." Kai said.
"Dragon told us he never came back from looking for the tomb, so if he's here, that means-" Jay is soon cut off.
"It is trap!" Ghoultar yelled as he was near the entrance, making Geoff drop the letter. They immediately turn to him. "Now, bitch's children and friends suffer same fate!" He slams his scythe into the ground, causing boulders to come down as they try to run for the entrance, throwing their lanterns aside as they do so, but it was too late as a boulder lands in front of the entrance, causing them to cough.
"There's no way out. If this was a test, I think we certainly failed it."
Jay and Gewuji start coughing. "And all this gas is making us a little light headed." Gewuji said.
"This cavern's a virtual oven." Geoff replied. "If those geysers decide to ignite, we'll be cooked."
Zane soon shined his lights to look around their surroundings. "P.I.X.A.L. has located an opening." He said. "The cave-in must have created a gap."
"But a gap to where?" Jay asked. "For all we know it could be a dead end. And for the record, that's another one of my least favourite words. Dead end."
"We'll end up dead if you don't pull yourself together, Jay!" Maggie yelled as Cole sees the geyser bubbling.
"It's too late!" He yelled before running over to a nearby giant rock.
"Cole!" Zane yelled as Cole puts the rock over the geyser. "No!"
"Ha! Solved that problem."
"Correction, you made it worse. Now the pressure will compact the explosion, multiplying the damage tenfold."
"Oh, what are you trying to say?" Gewuji asked.
"When that rock goes, every cave in a 10 mile radius will be filled with a wall of fire so hot it will incinerate everything in its path."
"Guess we better get hot on our heels." Kai said.
They soon do Airjitzu. "Cyclondo!" Jay yelled as they head for the gap.
They climb out through the gap and start running down a path.
Back in the geyser cave, the rock is soon shot out as lava starts emerging from the geyser, which burns the old letter and melts Morro's skeleton before it starts rising up for the gap.
In the pathway, Geoff looks back to see the lava flames coming at them. "Hurry!" Zane yelled as they soon came to a stop at a hole.
"Go!" Geoff yelled as he caught up. "Go! Go!" They soon jump down the hole as the fire passed by it.
They land on a mine cart, causing them all to groan before the cart starts to move on its own. "Great!" Jay yelled. "Now what? How do we stop this thing?"
The cart soon goes down the rails as they all scream from the shaking and the speed as Zane looks ahead. "Obstacle." P.I.X.A.L. said in Zane's head.
The obstacle was a broken rail track which they fly off of, causing them to yell as they are flown in the air before the cart lands on the other side and they land in it, except for Jay, who hangs onto the side. He looks on concerned as he moved his legs about before Geoff grabs him. "Almost got you." He said before pulling him up, but a bump causes Jay to fall back, but Zane catches him.
"Hold on, Jay!" He yelled before they soon bring him back onto the cart.
Up ahead, they come across two tunnels with a rail switch up ahead as Zane has P.I.X.A.L. analyse them. "Take the left tunnel." She said from inside his head.
"It is the left tunnel. The left tunnel!" Cole gets out his Aeroblade and strikes the rail switch, unaware that the track was leading left, but had turned it to right and they go through the right tunnel. "No, Cole! P.I.X.A.L. said left! The left tunnel!"
Up ahead, Ghoultar emerges onto the tracks, humming at his supposed triumph over the Ninja before he gasps when he sees them, coming on the cart and growled at them. Jay soon got out his Aeroblade and throws it at Ghoultar, hitting him and causing him to disappear as the Aeroblade returns to Jay while they pass through Ghoultar's scythe before it disappears. "Looks like we're coming to a dead end." Cole said, noticing a closed gate.
"Oh, there's that word again." Jay replied. "Never say that word!" They soon crash through the gate as they keep going down. "What do I do? What do I do?"
"The brake, quick!" Zane yelled as Geoff soon applied the break, but the handle soon breaks off.
"Big mistake, Zane!" He yelled.
"Figures." Gewuji replied.
"We'll have to use the Aeroblades as brakes then." Zane said as he, Kai, Geoff and Cole got out their Aeroblades and jam them behind the back wheels.
"It almost feels like we're...going faster!" Jay yelled, pulling the tape that snagged onto him, over his eyes as they look on and yelled as the tape came off of Jay's face before they see another broken track and go off it.
They fall down what appears to be the inside of a volcano, down to the lava as something soon showed up and a ladder comes out. "R.E.X.!" Geoff yelled as they soon grab hold of the ladder and look up.
Cole laughs in happiness. "I could kiss Ronin!" He said. "After I clobber him for getting us into this mess."
"Not before I break his nose again!" Gewuji replied before they start climbing up.
Once they were inside, they find the pilot's seat empty. "Oh, autopilot!" Jay said. "Of course he's too scared to show his face."
The screen soon came on. "Hey, Ninja, if you're getting this message, I'm sure you'll have some choice words for me." Ronin's image was on the screen.
Cole laughs a bit. "You got that right." He replied.
"But I wanted to tell you, that wasn't me who sent you to this trap. I was under the control of Morro. Now, I know you think I'm a crook by taking the sword, and I want to make things right by offering my airship R.E.X. as a peace offering. I know it's not what you had in mind, but I've remotely entered the location of the tomb. The real one this time." The screen soon showed a beacon on a map.
"Look at that!" Kai said. "The reason Misako never found the tomb in Ninjago was because it was never there in the first place! It's under the ocean!"
The screen soon turned back to Ronin, but reception started to go bad. "Morro has a head start, but R.E.X. should get you there in a jiff. And if it's any consolation, this'll be the last you see of me. Geoff, I'm sorry for leaving you on the Dark Island, half of me wanted to return for you when I got the money. And if Nya wants to know a reason, tell her it's-" The screen starts turning to static. "-it's because I care. Ok. Good luck. And go make things right." The screen soon showed nothing, but static.
"Looks like we're headed to the tomb."
"Time to buckle up." Geoff said as he and Gewuji get in the pilot seats as Geoff had his hands on the control. "Ok, R.E.X., just like the good old days." R.E.X. soon flies up to the top as the fire grows intense.
R.E.X. manages to make it outside as the canyon starts emitting explosions and takes off for the tomb. "Now, bring me that horizon."