Chapter 20 – I found you
The sun was just barely up over the Bounty. The old grounded ship was quiet, until a stray door slowly creaked open; destroying the silent halls. Wu was the one to emerge from behind the door with his staff in hand. But Wu barely made a sound as he made his way towards the main deck. It wasn't until Wu had just exited the ships cabin that he was interrupted.
"What are you doing, Sensei?" Kai's voice yawned. Wu calmly turned and looked at Kai who was standing sleepily.
"I am simply going to find a friend. A friend that may want to help us rescue Lloyd and Kate," Wu replied.
"And who is this friend?" asked Kai.
"An old one of mine," Wu said sadly, "but that doesn't concern you, for now. Go back to sleep; I'll return soon," Wu said as he suddenly perked up, but just a bit. Kai yawned and turned to head back into the ship's cabin.
"Safe travels," Kai said groggily as he walked away. And Wu turned and sighed as he walked off the ship. Wu walked a great distance away from the ship until he stopped. Wu looked around before he grabbed out a packet of tea, and it had a label on it that read 'Travelers' tea'. Wu opened the packet and turned it upside down so that the tea leaves would spill all over him. He lifted it above his head and let the tea leaves sprinkle all over his face as he leaned his face upward. As soon as the leaves hit his skin they burst into tiny blue flames, but they didn't seem to hurt Wu as the flames multiplied and connected with each other. Pretty soon Wu's entire body was engulfed in blue flames, but suddenly his body burst into ashes and he was gone as the desert winds blew out the remaining flames.
The sun was much higher in the sky by the time Lloyd and Kate could barely see the Bounty and the dragons far in the distance.
"Well, at least I didn't have to use a bullet on our way back," Kate sighed a she looked at the gun in her hand.
"I kinda wish you did. Why didn't kill that desert fox?" Lloyd asked angrily.
"It was just a baby," Kate protested.
"So what? If I'd gotten any closer to the animal I would've thought it was a dessert fox," said Lloyd.
"You're such a baby," Kate scoffed.
"I am not!" Lloyd snapped.
"Yes, you are," Kate said back in a sing-song voice.
"No. I'm. Not!" Lloyd said loudly and slowly as he balled up a fist, and out of the blue his fist caught fire. Kate gasped at the red and orange flames dancing on Lloyd's fist, but Lloyd didn't notice at first as he scowled at Kate. But then Lloyd noticed Kate's gaze and followed it slowly, and when his eyes landed on his magical flaming fist, he screamed.
"Ah! Put it out! Put it out!" Lloyd shrieked as he jumped around and flared his flaming hand around. Kate stood there with a dull look on her face, and she suddenly grabbed Lloyd's wrist with the flaming hand and that took Lloyd by surprise, so he fell while his wrist was still held up in the air by Kate. Kate breathed in some air and shot a spit wad at Lloyd's fist; putting the fire out.
"Ew," Lloyd said with a cringed face as he stood back up and Kate let go of his slimy hand.
"Hey, it was either that, or I could've amputated your hand," Kate simply said, making Lloyd's eyes go wide as he clasped his said hand, "like I said: a baby," Kate continued and simply kept walked toward Destiny's Bounty. Lloyd ignored what Kate said and stared at his hand as he caught up to Kate.
"Why did my hand catch on fire?" asked Lloyd.
"Now that I think about it, yeah. Isn't Kai supposed to be the master of fire?" Kate said with realization.
"This whole 'fire catching' thing is very new to me," said Lloyd.
"You don't say," Kate said sarcastically.
Cole and Kai were in the computer room, using the giant computer to play Call of Duty, and Zane was just sitting in another seat polishing his golden Shurikans of ice. But suddenly Jay walked in, and he wasn't amused.
"What the-?! My precious baby is not a video game console!" Jay shouted with worry as he rushed in front of his 'precious' computer and jerked Kai and Cole's Play Station remotes' wires out of the console.
"Aw!" both Kai and Cole groaned and glared at Jay, and Cole flipped Jay off.
But as the obnoxious boys in the ninja team made each other mad, Zane continued to polish his golden weapon, until he noticed they started to shake in his hands and even gave off a slight green glow.
"What?" Zane said with wide eyes as he gawked at his weapon. But suddenly the sound of a gun being cocked was heard, making everyone freeze and stay silent. The boys turned slowly to look at the door way, when suddenly Kate hopped into the door way with the gun pointed in the room.
"Kate?" the boys said in unison. Kate's eyes went wide and she put the gun down just as Lloyd appeared behind her, "Lloyd?" the ninja said with surprise once more.
"You guys are ok, thank goodness. We thought that if the Serpentine kidnapped us, they must've taken the ship afterwards," Kate explained as she smiled.
"Wait, you two were captured by the Serpentine?" Cole questioned.
"Yeah, and they took us to some huge ancient city out in the desert," Lloyd replied.
"Ouroboros," Zane said out of the blue, making everyone give Zane questioning looks, "the City of Ouroboros was the ancient city in which the Serpentine inhabited during the Serpentine Wars long ago," Zane explained. Kai suddenly noticed something different about Kate and Lloyd.
"Uh, Lloyd? Kate? What are those things on your necks?" asked Kai. Lloyd and Kate followed Kai's gaze and looked down at each others' necks only to find the enchanted necklaces bestowed on them have appeared, as well as the magnetic purple line.
"Pythor planned on making it impossible for us to escape the city. So he put these magical necklaces, ones that only he knows about, on us," Kate explained.
"But Slithraa helped us escape. But not without the fact that we don't know how to take these things off and until then, we're stuck together due to a magnetic force," Lloyd explained. Jay snickered.
"Oh, you don't know how bad this looks. You two are at each other's throats, and now you're being held together by the throat," Jay said while laughing.
"Interestingly, he's right," Zane pointed out, "and I'm sorry to say my computer data has no information on how to take the necklaces off either. But what my knowledge does know is this: if the possessor of this necklace is unaware of its partner's whereabouts; this necklace will help find it," Zane said firmly.
"Yeah, by dragging us down together," Kate mumbled.
"Where's Uncle Wu?" Lloyd said as he noticed his uncle was nowhere to be found.
"Kai said he went to go get some friend in hope of finding you two. Guess he left for nothing," Nya said as she suddenly walked in the room and joined the conversation.
"Wait a minute. Boys, get your golden weapons, now," Zane demanded as he eyes widened. Afterwards Kai, Cole and Jay, and Zane too, grabbed out their golden weapons and placed them together on the table in the room.
"What are you getting at, Nindroid?" asked Jay.
"If I remember correctly, before we noticed Kate and Lloyd were gone, Wu said that all four of the golden weapons will give off a sign when in presence of the Green Ninja. Just a moment ago my Shurikans had a weird reaction; possibly when Lloyd and Kate had just came back," Zane explained, and as if to prove his point, all four of the weapons began to let off a green glow, just like Zane said.
"But, that would mean…" Lloyd began until his voice trailed off.
"One of you could be the Green Ninja of Creation," Nya said as she looked at Lloyd and Kate. Though no one noticed, Kate sighed and closed her eyes as she stepped back, leaving Lloyd more exposed to the golden weapons. And just as Kate did so, the weapons glowed brighter and suddenly began to float around Lloyd. Lloyd was taken back by this. Kate sighed a happy sigh as she smiled and put a hand on Lloyd's shoulder, causing Lloyd to lose interest in the floating weapons around him. Lloyd looking away apparently had an affect on the weapons, so they each stopped glowing and dropped to the floor with a loud CLANK.
"I knew it was you. And you're very worthy, Montgomery," Kate said softly, making Lloyd smile at her. But Kate wasn't expecting Lloyd to suddenly just hug her, but Kate hugged back eventually. The ninja team and Nya smiled at Lloyd and Kate's embrace. But no one paid attention to the fact that the magic necklaces on Lloyd and Kate's necks went away once more, but they also quickly shimmered a bright white light before out of sight.
In a land where it seemed to be always dark, and the moon was low but blood red, there was a lump on the dark yet rich soil. The lump began to emerge from the dirt it was covered in, and it was actually Wu. But Wu was still intact, he had his sun hat and staff as he stood up proudly.
"Is this the dark land he came to?" Wu asked himself sadly. Wu walked forward as he saw many huge shadows of mountains, and he could hear distant thunder rumbling. But Wu didn't notice the familiar shaped shadowy figure a few yards behind him.
"It is, and it was the place I chose to come to," an evil and familiar male voice said. Wu's eyes widened as he turned and found Garmadon standing there. Garmadon looked different. Now Garmadon looked a tad more buff and even wore armor over his torso and back.
"Garmadon," Wu said, and Garmadon heard him.
"You know, for a sad old man, you have good memory. But it's too bad that will go to waste, little brother," said Garmadon, and he laughed darkly, "and during my short time here I've grown—much stronger," Garmadon continued as another pair of arms unfolded. Garmadon now had four arms just like Samukai.
"Garmadon, please, hear me out. I'm not the one that needs help, but I want to help you," Wu pleaded.
"Why would I want help, and any from you, at that?" Garmadon questioned angrily.
"It's L-," Wu began but the sound of horrible and muffled shrieks were heard. And soon the muddy grounds Wu was standing on, that he didn't notice before, began to move unnaturally.
"Yes! Feed my pets! Leave nothing of him left!" Garmadon cheered to the mud as the mud formed into giant mud blob creatures with arms, a mouth and large buggy eyes, and they towered over and surrounded Wu.
"No, Garmadon. I was trying to say…" Wu tried to call to Garmadon, but the mud creatures began to drown Wu in their massive mud bodies, "Lloyd's in danger!" Wu shouted just before he pulled farther into the mud. This made Garmadon's red eyes widened as he gasped.
"My son," Garmadon said to himself, and suddenly rushed to Wu's aid. Garmadon used all of his strength to pull Wu out of the mud, and onto dry land, where the mud creatures could not go, so they returned back to their muddy home. "If there's one thing mud doesn't like, it's drying out," Garmadon said, and then looked Wu in the eyes, "what happened to Lloyd?" Garmadon questioned.
"Pythor and the other Serpentine have gotten loose and have reunited. And they kidnapped Lloyd and Kate," said Wu.
"Impossible. Those tombs we locked them up in were to be sealed forever, how did this happen?" Garmadon said angrily.
"Your son happened," Wu replied sadly. Garmadon sighed.
"I never wanted my son to be like me," said Garmadon.
"I know, but he's learned. And right now he needs his dad," Wu said reassuringly. Garmadon began to nod.
"If we hurry we can get to the distant Mountains of Madness before it gets really dark, so we'll have a safe journey," said Garmadon as he looked off into the horizon toward the highest mountain ranges.
"Why wouldn't it be safe?" Wu questioned as he and Garmadon began walking.
"It may seem dark now, but when the moon goes down it gets much darker than this," said Garmadon.
"How could it get darker than this?" Wu asked as he looked around.
"Brother, this place is as dangerous as the Under World in which I use to live, so more dangerous creatures will dwell here too. And they certainly don't miss a meal. That being said, we must travel quickly and subtle like," Garmadon explained.