Review Replies:

Isabella camovic: Yes, I'm still considering Echo having a birthday in the sequel and them taking him to build-a-bear. Yes, I still have all of your ideas in my notebook. 'Robot' isn't exactly a racial slur (just like how Niger is actually a country in Africa), but it's the way the guy said it. People have made 'Niger' into a racial slur, and I headcannon that there are some people- like that Black Rag- that believe robots should be servants and see Zane as the 'inferior ninja.' Of course Zane would be the most overjoyed at the reunion, the whole story's about them. I love puppies. It actually tells you what he shouted in this chapter- Echo's name. Haha, none taken. Every loves fluff. Afraid there's gonna be a few more chapters of drama and gore, but we will be getting to the fluffy stuff again soon! And I am actually planning on having them return to that pillow-pile with Echo. Nah, he's not gonna be fighting the Ninja. I originally planned for chapter thirty to be the reunion, but decided to change this chapter from what happens in the arena to a little part of insight on what happened to the Ninja. So chapter thirty-one or thirty-two will be the reunion.

TenshiHaou: Thanks! I'm actually planning on a sequal for Empty Echoes, so it's likely I'll be making more Echo-Zane stories!

CrazyRedmanelion: Glad you're liking it! My lips are sealed through ::) And yes, Lloyd is probably going to say something in Serpentine at some point, in the sequel if not this one.

TheAmberShadow: And so am I! ... I did mean to say key. I honestly have no idea how I wrote 'rusted guy' instead of 'rusted key.' And yes, they are, as revealed in this. Haha, I shall XXD No, they Serpentine aren't all stitched together into a giant Frankenstein monster, but that would be really cool and I'm annoyed that I didn't think of it. Ah, well XXD

EchoZane: Thank you! Sorry for putting you through hell XXD

Ebony umbreon: Ninjago just does not like snakes, huh? Which is one of the reasons I headcannon Lloyd being able to speak Serpentine but not telling anyone, especially the public. It would probably be seen as... sinful.

StoriesAreMagic: Heh, thanks, I try. No, I'm white (Scottish), but I don't think the 'n' word should be used as a racial slur, especially since there's actually a country in Africa called it. But I have, of course, replaced it for your comfort. I did hesitate in adding it in, and promised I'd take it out if so much as one reviewer found it uncomfortable, and so I have. You'll have to wait and seeee.

ABCSKW123-IX: No, this shall not end well. But not in the way you're expecting.

SO, SO, SO, SO, SO SORRY FOR THE LATE UPDATE! I know it's been months since chapter twenty-eight, and this isn't even that good a chapter, so I'm really really sorry. I would've had this up last night, but my internet was just being mean, and I've got my GCSE's coming up after Christmas, and my mocks at the end of this month, and so I won't be surprised if I start lacking updates in even Movie Mode. *sigh* So sorry, guys. Here's your chapter and, hopefully, I'll get the next one up soon.

Chapter Twenty-Nine:

Sins

Cole was not knocked out by the gas.

He hardly even noticed it at first, which made his friends suddenly bursting into ragged gasping and coughing all that much worse. When he finally noticed the quiet hissing, it was too late for him to even consider doing anything, and he almost phased right through a collapsing Kai in his horror.

Then light was spilling through the room, so bright and blinding that Cole automatically closed his eyes despite it not having any proper effect on him. The gas was an orange coloured mist, something he could tell even with a partly lidded gaze, and with only a half-solid hand he desperately covered Kai's mouth and nose, but his fiery brother's eyes had already rolled into the back of his head.

There was a clang of metal on metal. Cole squinted through the orange mist, making out three figures pounding the source of the blinding light into the ground. It took him a moment to realise it was Zane.

A mechanical gasp. The light died out.

For a moment, there was nothing. Cole's ghostly eyes darted around in a useless attempt to see through the pitch darkness, Kai's dead weight heavy on his side. He tried to call out for his friends, but all that came out was a strangled gasping noise. A plastic rim was pressed against the back of his head, so cold that it chilled Cole to his very core, a sharp intake of breath that wasn't necessary. He didn't need to breathe anymore, after all.

"One move, ghost boy," said the Black Rag, voice rough and muffled, as though he were speaking from behind a mask. The frigid plastic against his head jerked upwards, the slosh of water in the toy guns barrel. "One move."

"What did you do to them?" he asked through gritted teeth. The cold, cold plastic nozzle was pressed further against his head, something like frostbite, only for ghosts, already starting to chip away at his transparent skin.

"Made 'em go beddy bye's what we did," a dark chuckle that rumbled in his ears, "Keep talkin' and you'll have a more permanent version of it."

Something hard was shoved over his head, but Cole preferred it a lot more than the wet nozzle of the water gun. Kai was torn from his arms and he yelled, twisting, but then something hit the thing over his head with a deep, metallic clang that made his ears ring. Cole was shoved forward, the wet nozzle on his shoulder now, a shiver wracking his spine like a frigid drop of liquid fire.

Deepstone. He had a deepstone bucket over his head.

Humiliation burnt his cheeks a deep green, chains hands curling into trembling fists. He was shoved forward again, numb feet stumbling over uneven ground, and Cole bit his tongue to stop himself from crying out when the wet nozzle was pressed further into his shoulder.

Another shove almost sent him to his knees. He forced himself to walk, pressing his eyes shut, praying even though he never prayed that his friends were close by. That they were okay.

Keep walking. Keep walking.

He couldn't breathe.

Even though he didn't need to.

Jay woke up screaming.

His eye was a blazing inferno, infection licking away at his skin with a blistered tongue, pus in place of saliva. He trashed and screamed and screamed his throat raw, the clink of chains, cuffs tearing open his wrists. Someone was speaking, a hand on his shoulder, but he couldn't hear them over his own screaming.

Then shouting, shouting everywhere, his head a swirling mess of pain, pain, pain. The cocking of a gun, a terrified scream, and something smacked against his head.

Jay gasped, choking on his own spit and tongue. Then it smashed against his head again, again, again, his one-eyed vision hazy and unfocused and glazed, skull cracking from the force.

Again. Again. Again. Drool and blood trickled from the side of his mouth. His screams had died to weak gaps. Someone was crying. He hoped they were okay.

He greeted the dark.

They spent hours in the room.

It was a small room, with no windows and no furniture. It was hot and dry and humid, and soon Nya's clothes sticking to her in uncomfortable places. The ground was hard and smooth. They were no longer in the labyrinth.

Jay's head was wrapped with bandages, provided by a slightly familiar Black Rag covered in purple tattoos and with bags under his eyes. She tried to think of where she might have seen him before, but all she could come up with was an impossible scenario. Chen's followers were long gone.

Cole and Zane took it upon themselves to aimlessly wander the room in search of a way to escape, but they found nothing. A part of Nya told her that she should get up and help them look, but a bigger, stronger part screeched at the prospect of leaving Jay's side, despite the smallness of the room.

So she remained where she was, running her fingers through Jay's hair, nails catching on dried blood. Kai was at her other side, arms crossed loosely over his stomach and face a grimace of pain that he had long since given up trying to hide. He hadn't said a word since he first woke up from the knock out gas. Lloyd sat across from them, eyes closed. She wasn't sure if he was even awake.

"How's he doing?" asked Cole, a quiet whisper, as though he were afraid to break the silence. He had already tried to phase through the walls, but his deepstone chains prevented him from getting very far.

Nya gave a tiny little shrug. She wasn't sure who he was referring to, but whether it be Kai or Jay or Lloyd, her answer was relatively the same.

She didn't know.

She wished there was something in the room. A chair. A bucket. A stick. Something to throw, something to smash, something she could lob at the closest Black Rag and break their neck to the point that bone was jutting out of their throat like jagged spikes.

But, alas, the room remained scarce of any objects. And Nya stayed where she was, fingers tangled in hair sticky with drying blood, not caring for the brown-red stains on her skin.

"How long do you think these guys have been active?" Nya jumped, twisting around to look at Kai, relief lighting her chest, if only a little. She locked her free hand with his, her older brother weakly squeezing it.

"What do you mean?" asked Cole, sitting down across from them, besides Lloyd. Zane remained standing, arms crossed loosely over his chest, eyes glued to the door. Kai lifted his shoulders in a weak shrug, grimacing at the small action.

"This has never happened to us before," he pointed out, "These guys may not look it, but they have resources. How else could they have made that bomb? Built that labyrinth? Created a group this big?"

"So they've been here for years," concluded Nya, eyes widening, "Perhaps even before the Serpentine Wars."

"But why?" asked Cole, frowning, "Why go after us? Why kidnap all those people? Why take Echo? Why do any of this?"

A silence stretched throughout the tiny room. No one had an answer.

"They've taken Serpentine," Lloyd spoke up, startling his siblings. He opened his eyes, bleary, as though he was reluctant to do so. "I saw a bunch of them just before Seamus- Carrot- knocked me out."

"Serpentine?" repeated Nya, "Why Serpentine?"

Lloyd shrugged, then shuddered violently. Zane finally tore his eyes from the door to frown at him, concerned. Cole shared a look with Nya.

"They- They were hanging from cages," Lloyd continued, wringing his sleeves, looking sick at the mere memory, "And they'd- I dunno why, but they'd chopped- chopped them up. Mutilated them. Some were children."

They looked at each other, horrified. Lloyd took in a shuddering breath, swallowing what was probably bile. Kai's fingers tightened around Nya's.

"This doesn't make any sense," Zane said, speaking up for the first time in a while. He shook his head slowly. "None of it adds up."

"Kidnapping a thousand people at once, torturing Serpentine, Seamus or- or Carrot, or whatever the hell his name is," Kai released a long breath, "And trying to get to us. It always comes back to us, doesn't it?"

"It's been that way for a while now," muttered Nya. Lloyd stared at his lap, rubbing the goosebumps along his arms. He was still too pale, too slow, too unaware to be healthy. Nya had to resist the urge to smack him for keeping his concussion a secret. She wanted to smack herself too for not noticing it sooner.

It seemed so obvious now.

"What do you think they're gonna do with us?" asked Lloyd, so quiet that Nya almost didn't' catch it. Zane shifted, something odd flashing across his face, and he slid down to the floor on Lloyd's other side. Cole sighed, wrapping an arm around the Green Ninja's shoulders.

"I dunno, buddy."

They spent hours in the room.

Shouting. Cheering. So loud that it caused Jay's ears to throb, his head to pound. He was hardly aware, hardly awake, and one of the bandages wrapped around his head was poking him in the eye. He was sore, he was tired, disoriented, and he felt as though he were about to pass out at any moment.

To his right was Cole, to his left Lloyd, who looked no better than when he'd been lying in a puddle on the floor at his feet. He could make out Zane, Nya and Kai on the other side of some sort of throne, all crouching like they were, all wrapped in chains.

All with someone standing behind them, wearing their colours.

Jay was being horribly reminded of the Bizzaro Ninja.

Damn. That was a long time ago.

Even in his only partly aware state, Jay knew Ouroborus when he saw it. Except it was different in some aspects; pillars and walls had been roughly repaired, the arena below still held signs of the Great Devourer smashing through the ground. The repairs must have taken months, maybe even years, even with all the Black Rags that had undoubtedly been put to work.

It made Jay wonder just how long ago this had been planned.

Then the man came out and Jay couldn't breathe. A green and silver snake mask hid his face. Mangled hands, that had torn Echo apart piece by piece, all recorded on a video camera and sent to them.

As a warning. As a message.

Jay still didn't know.

"You!" Zane screamed, leaping to his feet. The White Woman- Yuki, according to her symbol- brought her first down on the back of his head with a metallic clang! Zane grunted, falling back to his knees, and sent the masked man the most hateful glare Jay had ever seen on his face.

The masked man- Soren, his name was Soren Jerhys- ignored them in favour of standing before the crowd of Black Rags seated throughout the stands. The cheers and shouting burst back into life, Black Rags whooping and leaping, and Jerhys spread his arms as though to bask in the glory of his Basilisk's. Jay's chest swelled with hatred.

"Basilisks!" Jerhys yelled, impossibly loud, loud enough that he could clearly be heard over their yells, "My loyal followers! My wondrous outcomes! For many a year have we sulked in the shadows, have we crept through the sewers, waiting. Preparing. Plotting."

The shouting was beginning to die down. The Black Rags were leaning forward in their seats, peering over heads, shushing and whispers in a language Jay had never were hanging so far over the edge Jay suspected they were about to fall down into the arena and get impaled by one of the many spikes.

Excuse him for hopping it happened.

"For many a year," Jerhys continued, "We have watched. For many a year, we have been kicked, we have been spat on, we have been thrown to the streets like common rats scrambling through mud, like something disgusting, something hideous!" shouts burst into life; Jerhys shouted over them, "And what do we say to that? What have we done? What, my glorious Basilisks, my wondrous pets, have we created?"

A silence came upon them. Jay's good eye was as wide as a saucer. Jerhys splayed his hands, gesturing to his surroundings. "We have created salvation!"

Shouts and cheers burst forth. Black Rags scrambled atop each other, like wild dogs having spotted a piece of meat, wild animals, banging pots and pans and rusted, flimsy weapons.

"We have created," continued Jerhys, "Our own society. Our own world. We have cheated death itself!"

Screams, loud, wild. Jay's brain felt as though it were about to explode in a burst of matter, painting the walls and floor a disgusting red. Bile rose to the back of his throat. His knees were starting to ache.

"This world," said Jerhys, "Is broken. This world is one where the queer are 'accepted', where the disabled are praised instead of helped. Where a boy can mistake himself for a girl and be refused the help that he so desperately needs!"

Jay felt sick, and it wasn't just from the infection licking away at his empty socket, nor the fever that burnt his skin. The cheers were loud, boisterous, shouts in a language he didn't understand. He wasn't sure if he really wanted to know what they were saying.

"This world is where a man can marry another man," Jerhys continued; Jay imagined the inside of his mask was covered in spittle, "Where a woman can date another woman, where the unborn are slaughtered within the womb! This broken world is made up of broken people, this broke society degrades those who desperately try to fix it!"

Jerhys breathed deeply, as though to catch his breath. The Black Rags clapped and cheered and whooped their agreement, shaking fists, banging pots. Jerhys raised his hand to point to the bright sky.

"But today," he said, "Marks the day that the new world begins. Today marks the day that we finally bring society back to its former glory. With me as your leader, and with life and death at my fingertips, we shall perfect the world that has been down spiralling for years!"

Cheering. Jerhys turned sideways, so that he was still facing the crowd, and gestured to the people in their colours. "With me as your leader, and your new Ninja as your protectors, we shall brighten this world, and we shall bring back those who were never meant to have left us!"

Jay's heart dropped to his stomach like a stone, mouth popping open. The crowd was cheering wildly, louder than before, and Jay was almost certain he'd blacked out for a moment. Jerhys raised a hand to the large metallic doors on the other side of the arena.

"But before that new world shall begin," he said, "We must feed the beast that squirms in our stomachs, the monster that slithers through our throats. And what is it that the beast eats?"

The Black Rags shouted- no, chanted. It took Jay a moment to realise it was in English.

"Sins! Sins! Sins! Sins!"

"That is right!" Jerhys shouted, throwing a mangled fist into the air, "That is right, my loyal, beloved followers! The sins that course through our veins, that contaminate our blood, that pump through our very hearts! Cleanse yourself! Feed them to the beast!"

"Feed the beast! Feed the beast! Feed the beast!"

"My Basilisks!" Jerhys called, "My precious children!" He pointed to the doors.

"I present my sacrifice!"

The doors began to crank open slowly, loudly, and yet hardly audible over the deafening screaming. Jay tried to breathe. Breathe. Why couldn't he breathe?

He expected a monster. Giant, with fanged teeth and curling claws, bright red eyes and a deformed face. But it was not a monster, it wasn't even terrifying, and yet Jay found himself more terrified than he'd ever been in his whole life.

For what stumbled forth on rusted legs, fogged yellow eyes wide as he took in his surroundings, clockwork heart tick-tocking in his chest of metal gears, was a face he hadn't seen in person for what felt like an age.

"Sins! Sins! Sins! Sins!"

Echo-Zane's mouth moved in a shout, but it failed to carry to them over the noise of the ecstatic Black Rags. There was the clink of pulling chains, and Jay saw Zane leaning forwards, held back by Yuki, eyes so wide they almost looked too big for his face. "ECHO!"

Jay couldn't breathe. Couldn't breathe. His whole world began to spin, nothing but the screaming and the clang of pots and pans and swords and sticks ringing in his ears. The woman in his colours grabbed the back of his shirt as he slumped forwards, forcing him upright, but Jay hardly even noticed the unnecessarily violent action, nor the way his collar dug into his throat. He couldn't breathe.

"Sins! Sins! Sins! Sins!"

Lloyd twisted, yelling, and rammed his elbow into the green one's- Chikara- guts. Chikara grunted, but otherwise made no noise, kicking the boy in the side and sending him to the ground. She smashed her foot into his face, the disgusting crack of his nose breaking. Blood leaked from his nostrils.

"Don't you touch him!" screamed Cole. Doro hit him.

"Sins! Sins! Sins! Sins!"

Jay clenched his eyes shut, trying to focus on his breathing. A laugh escaped his throat, and he wanted to scream, scream and scream and scream, uncaring of the tears that leaked from his only eye.

"Sins! Sins! Sins! Sins!"

"They're gonna kill him," Jay giggled, Cole's eyes boring into his skull, "They're gonna kill him."

("Jay, where's my brother?)

He couldn't breathe.

("Sins! Sins! Sins! Sins!")

He was being strangled.

("It's not your fault, Jay.")

He couldn't see.

("Sins! Sins! Sins! Sins!")

Everything was too loud.

(The ice cream scooper dug into his eye socket)

He was laughing.

("Sins! Sins! Sins! Sins!")

He couldn't stop.

("Why don't you go get some more things to burn for another fire?")

Pus leaked from his socket.

("Sins! Sins! Sins! Sins!")

Noise.

("You can take Echo-Zane with you.")

This was all his fault.

("Sins! Sins! Sins! Sins!")

He couldn't breathe.

(As delicate as standing frost)

"Jay?"

Sins.

This chapter was originally supposed to be about what happens in the arena, but I decided to change it for a bit of insight on the Ninja, 'cause I felt like I hadn't explained enough about what happened to them. Next chapter is when we find out what they wanted the Serpentine for.

Again, guys, so sorry this took so long to get up. And that it's so short. Next chapter's gonna be way longer, I'm sure. I'm also sorry for ending it on such a cliffhanger (again). And I would like to apologise in advance because the next chapter will be ending of an even bigger cliffhanger.

Okay. Well, it's finally up! It's finally done. And I'm also considering trying to give myself an update day- I've already got one for my MCSM story, Movie Mode, which I have updated every Friday for the past seven weeks. I am considering trying to update Empty Echoes every Monday. However, what with my GCSE's on the horizon, I am also considering updating Empty Echoes on Fridays, and then having Movie Mode be updated the following Friday, then Empty Echoes, then Movie Mode, so on, so forth.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter, despite its terrible length. Annoyingly, I haven't actually seen the Ninjago Movie yet, mostly because I'm a bit embarrassed to ask my dad to get me it (he thinks LEGO shows and movies are dumb because they're only made to get people to buy more LEGO sets. Plus, I'm almost sixteen and I'm pretty sure he was very unimpressed when I decided to spend my Christmas money on Ninjago sets last year). But I've asked my mum if my little sister and I could go to the theatres and see it sometime soon, and she's looking into it, so yay!

Again, sorry for the late update, hope you enjoyed the chapter, and I'll see you in the next update!