Chapter II: New Beginnings

Zane tossed and turned in his bed. Lost in his dreams, he slept nervously, wandering through incoherent snippets of thought, as if jagged shards of his memory were doing origami with reality, bending and folding images in random orientations; a mirror maze of deception. What seemed like a daydream at first was merely a disguised nightmare, which unnerved him. Despite his apprehension, he noticed that of all the glimmering slivers that danced elegantly, one appeared to outdance the rest, which lay at the end of this enchanting limbo, a sinister but magnificent pale lime twinkle thrusting its sword of light towards him, glittering with such grandeur that not even the cold and calculating nindroid himself could resist it. Like a moth attracted to a light bulb, he approached the object, its enthralling radiance pulsing through him. As he drew nearer, he could meagrely, but visibly, distinguish a reflective object with a spotless sheen, burnished to a smooth finish. He couldn't quite pinpoint its nature, but it almost seemed crystalline. At this rate, he had drifted close enough to be subjugated by its wicked glow; there was no going back now. An entranced look of admiration swept across Zane's face as he reached out with a quivering hand, spellbound by its magic, consumed by its power. Grasping desperately for the slightest chance to touch this mysterious item, he felt an insatiable desire to uncover its secrets, but to no avail; it was as though destiny itself was shielding him from its splendour. He continued to push with more vigour, adamantly refusing to give up his vision. Slowly but surely, his fist neared the artefact, which glowed and shone brighter and brighter, filling the entirety of his vision with a blinding green light that seemed to penetrate his entire body. Moments before he discovered the truth, this entire universe disintegrated into blackness, and Zane heard a loud thud.

Panicked, Zane sat up. He had fallen out of his bed. Confused as to how he had ended up on the floor, he groped around for something to grab on to, and slowly picked himself up using his wooden bedside table. His room was dark, so he concluded that it must still be early in the morning. Squinting, he looked down at his hands, scanning for any signs that his vision had left some sort of mark. He knew that all his visions had come true in the past, like the one of Aspheera wreaking havoc in Ninjago, and his vision of the Ice Emperor's castle. This one felt more distant however, less vivid. Distant in what respect he did not yet know, but he could sense that it would bear significance in the near future. The nindroid glanced at the digital alarm clock which lay on his bedside table, next to a framed picture of the love of his life, P.I.X.A.L., whom he had met during his first visit to Borg Tower in down-town Ninjago City many years prior. It was 5:43 in the morning. Zane frowned slightly, confounded as to whether he should go wake up his fellow Ninja at such an hour – he did not find the energy or motivation within himself to be able to deal with Kai's morning rage especially after such a vision – yet his conscience told him it was critical to warn everyone of a potentially imminent threat.

As Zane was contemplating what could have caused him to have such an illusory dream, and whether he should create a commotion in the Monastery about a potentially non-existent future, a somewhat quiet but nevertheless noticeable knocking came from his bedroom door. He did not know who would be knocking so early in the day, as he had assumed that the other Ninja would still be deep in their slumber. Who in Ninjago could be awake at this time? Whoever it was, it had to be urgent.

A rasping, whispering voice came from the keyhole.

"Zane! Wake up! Zane!"

Zane rolled his eyes facetiously, with a modest smile temporarily superseding his inner concern. He knew instantly, from the high pitch of the whisper, that it was Jay's voice that he had heard, trying to awaken him. Lethargically, the nindroid plodded towards the door, his head sunken, and his eyes darting from side to side, still brooding over the mysterious and captivating oracle he had just experienced. His perception circuits were an incoherent mess of perplexed electrical signals, and as a result, Zane was in loop-de-loops of an emotional rollercoaster, sloshed in a stormy sea of mental dilemmas. He was so utterly lost in his thoughts that he had almost collided with his clothing dresser, which lay at an angle to the wall, drawers half-opened and clothes draping out in an unfolded heap; a reflection of his dream. Stopping abruptly, he almost lost his balance and had to grapple at the circular knob of the top drawer. He pulled himself forward lazily, and finally reached the door after what felt like a full hour, though his internal clock corrected his belief; only about a minute had passed, and Jay was getting restless at the door – the knocking was getting louder and faster. He could almost feel the panic in the knocking, the fear of whatever Jay was waking him up for expressing itself through the relentless tapping. The Lightning Ninja clearly was under the impression that Zane was unresponsive and was still asleep, so Zane revealed himself, replying in a soft but slightly shaky voice.

"Jay, is… is that you?" said Zane, fearfully.

"Yeah! Get out here right now, it's an emergency!" whispered Jay in response, with an alarming urgency in his muffled voice.

As soon as Jay uttered the words 'emergency', the nindroid froze in place. Could this have some correlation with his dream? The thought rippled through his circuits, a terrifying sensation that chilled him to the core, freezing even his heart of ice. It convinced him in telling the others about his vision. Rubbing his eyes, he put on his gi hurriedly, and opened the door with a fast and graceful swoosh, revealing Jay just wearing his underwear and nothing else, a toothbrush in his mouth, with toothpaste dripping down the side of it, and a blue plastic comb somehow tangled up in his wavy, slicked brown hair. Jay seemed completely indifferent to his indecency, as he had a stern and intense look on his face.

"Where are your clothes, Jay? And why do you have a comb in your hair?" asked Zane, with a look of surprise and scepticism on his face, confused as to why he had been approached by Jay in such an inappropriate manner.

"No time. Just come. It's important." As Jay spoke, he spat toothpaste out of his mouth, which landed on Zane's face. Slightly disgusted by this, Zane slowly wiped it off with his hand.

"Wait – Jay, I have something to tell you. Remember the vision I had-"

But before Zane could even utter a word, Jay swivelled around, and started walking towards the living room, where the muted sound of a group of people speaking could be detected emanating from the corridors.

"Are you even going to put on any clothes?!" Zane called after Jay, quite bothered that he hadn't even been given the chance to explain what he saw. The last time this happened, a powerful Serpentine sorceress had laid siege to the city and had caused millions in property damage! Fearing a repeat of this whole ordeal, the nindroid ran after Jay. He knew he had to warn the other Ninja, because he could sense that in the void left behind after the Overlord's defeat, a new dark power may have been rising because of the Ninja's idleness.

Jay walked into the living room where Kai, Cole and the other Ninja were standing in a group, muttering to themselves and staring at the television. With a concerned expression, Jay said, "I woke up Zane, he should be coming soon." The other Ninja all turned their heads slowly, with raised eyebrows and a side-eye glance. "What?" asked Jay, with the toothbrush still hanging out his mouth, now dribbling saliva down his neck.

"Put on some clothes Jay," said Cole monotonously, "and brush your teeth. Your breath stinks."

"Hey!"

"Guys, guys! Now is not the time for this. We have much more pressing matters to deal with at the moment, which require our full attention. Speaking of pressing matters, where's Zane?" asked Nya. "You just said you woke him up," she said to Jay through gritted teeth. She was clearly losing her patience, as not only had he burst in shirtless, but he hadn't even been able to complete the basic task of waking Zane up.

Just as she was about to go wake Zane up herself due to Jay's incompetence, he barrelled into the room, panting. Surprised, and slightly taken aback, Nya shrunk back, confused as to why Zane was so flustered. The nindroid was bent down, holding the Shoji doors with one hand, with the other on his knee, trying to compose himself. His electric blue eyes were wide open, the vision he had experienced bashing itself against the walls of his mind, screaming and begging to get out. After a few seconds, the other Ninja started talking amongst themselves again – and as Zane slowly stood up straight, he noticed that Master Wu was missing from the group, and wondered why this was the case; surely in such an extreme circumstance, Master Wu would be the first to be awakened?

"Where's Master Wu?" asked Zane in a loud voice, attempting to gather the attention of the rest of the Ninja.

Silence instantly swept through the room.

Why was nobody saying anything? Zane repeated himself, this time with more intensity in his voice.

"Where is Master Wu?"

"We couldn't find him anywhere." said P.I.X.A.L., revealing herself from behind Cole and Lloyd, who were standing next to the sofa. She was holding her electric torque wrench, while Mini-Pix 7 floated behind her, a token of gratitude for when the insignificant robot had saved her life, as well as Master Wu's and Skylor's, when, about a year ago, the Council of the Crystal King had destroyed the Monastery with their spider bombs.

Zane turned to look towards the front of the room, and saw that the doors were wide open, with a cold and biting wind ripping through the courtyard, aggressively fluttering the lanterns that hung down from the wooden framing. Even though it was summertime, dead leaves swirled in miniature tornadoes, while the golden knocker of the entrance door banged in random intervals. What felt like the heartbeat of the Monastery, was now undergoing cardiac arrest with the spontaneous and aggressive clanging that rattled the temple throughout.

It then occurred to him; Master Wu was gone.

Trying to come up with some logical reason as to why Master Wu had left them all and disappeared on his own, Zane stood still, as if he had redirected all power to this futile computation. There were a myriad of locations that Wu could have gone to, and each of them were equally likely; analysing such probabilities was useless. He cancelled this thought process and returned back to the group, as he shuffled back around to face them slowly. It was clear that without their Master, the Ninja seemed lost, hopeless and fractured. Could this situation get any more dire?

It most definitely could.

Zane looked up. He saw what all the other Ninja had been so concerned about, and just like Kai, a wave of electrical adrenaline rushed through him. Chaos had broken out in Ninjago City. Crime had skyrocketed, as delinquents rampaged through the streets, rioting and raiding anyone in sight, sometimes even each other. The police commissioner was nowhere to be seen, and law enforcement seemed non-existent. It became abundantly clear that the failure of the Ninja to remain faithful to Ninjago, as it had remained faithful to them, was causing shifts in the balance; only now were they becoming aware of what was happening in the outside world. Secluded for so much time, and demotivated due to the loss of their elemental powers, the Ninja had created a bubble for themselves inside the Monastery, unaware of this madness that had gripped the realm. Having been hypnotised by their own isolation, it was only now, in the aftermath of Wu's disappearance, and Cole having accidentally switched to the news channel when he sat on the remote, that the Ninja had finally woken up to reality.

Zane almost forgot about his dream when he saw P.I.X.A.L.'s reflection in the polished blade of a dagger that was embedded in the wall. This instantly reminded him of the shards of memory that had had been pirouetting around him, and so before he lost himself in his own confusion again, he spoke out.

"Everyone, I have a really important thing that I need to tell you," announced Zane in a loud tone.

He was ignored. The other Ninja, as well as P.I.X.A.L., were talking amongst themselves on the other side of the room, and paid absolutely no attention to the nindroid. Lloyd was speaking to them all about what should be done.

"Cole, Kai, you two head to the library at Domu to see if Master Wu is there. Nya and I will find Garmadon and see if he has any answers, Jay, Zane, and – wait, where's Zane?"

Lloyd looked around wildly, to find Zane standing on his own. He seemed disconnected from everyone, as if he was in his own world. Kai was getting impatient, as in times like these his hotheaded nature was greatly amplified.

"Lloyd, we don't have time for this! Where do Zane and Jay need to go? People could be getting hurt down there!"

"Zane, come here. We're discussing our plans to find Wu and deal with the crime," explained Lloyd in a stern voice.

Zane walked over to them slowly. He stood next to P.I.X.A.L. "I had a dream last night, and I wanted to warn-"

"Not now, Zane!" interrupted Kai, raising his voice over Zane and cutting him off. "We don't have time for your silly little visions. Let's go Cole, the library is far from here so we should set off before the others."

Cole nodded in approval, and they both left the room to fetch their weapons. Cole took a large metal hammer, which had a golden decoration across the handle and a jet black head. While taking the red and gold katana that he fought with when Miss Demeanour had ambushed him in the abandoned subway system, Kai also slipped his trusty, ultra-strong hair gel into one of his pockets; it came in very handy for keeping his hair up during past missions. Again, in a force of habit, he slicked his hair back up, as a singular strand of his thick brown hair had drooped down over his eyelid. He admired himself in the mirror for a good minute, and just before he went back to meet Cole outside in the courtyard, he practised one last flirtatious wink.

Meanwhile, Lloyd continued take charge of the group, explaining the next course of action. "Jay, Zane and P.I.X.A.L., you two go to the city and try to find the commissioner, and calm down the rioting." Jay gazed longingly at Nya, disappointed that he couldn't go with her to find Garmadon.

"Let's hope we still have our ninja skills," joked Jay, trying to lighten the mood, "hey – Lloyd, could I go with Nya-"

"No."

Nya raised an eyebrow at him but smiled. She had a peculiar affinity for Jay's humour and romantic obsession with her. The others didn't react at all and just stared blankly at him.

Jay grinned, shrugging off the awkward silence. They all proceeded in their own directions to their own rooms, taking their belongings and their respective weapons. In what felt like an instant, they had all left the Monastery, leaving it completely deserted, with the doors still wide open, and the television still on.

Christofern saw as the Ninja waved each other off, and hoped, for the sake of the balance, that Ninjago could finally be lifted from this robotic cycle of darkness.