...

I actually don't have anything to say right now.

Chapter 4 – Fight Lost, Ninja Found

All of the other Elemental Masters were gathered around the board that displayed who's competing against who next, and they were all making a bit of a fuss over it…which concerned the ninja as they went to check out the board too.

"What…no…they can't do this!" Cole said as he was breathless with shock.

What they saw on the board was just terrible; the next challenge was going to be…Jay vs. Cole. The ninja immediately regretted looking at the board now.

"They already did," Lloyd sighed.

"But…then we have no choice but to fight EACH OTHER!" Cole went on.

"Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no! I may hate your guts, Cole, but I don't want to fight you!" Jay said while panicking.

"Ditto!" Cole added.

"Is there a problem here?"

The dark voice of Clouse made them all turn towards Chen's right-hand man as he came walking up to the board too.

"This isn't fair! You can't just change the brackets like this!" Cole snarled.

"Oops. I must've gone a little dyslexic again," Clouse shrugged sarcastically, and then turned away to walk away while chuckling darkly.

But that was when Garmadon decided to show up.

"Dad, what do we do?! They can't fight each other!"

"You cannot undo what has already been done, Lloyd. My only advice to you all is to wing it."

"WING IT?!"

Jay was now all up in Garmadon's face.

"One of us has to fucking lose now, and you're telling us to just wing it?! Oh Jesus, I'm totally going to be the one to lose! I don't have unnatural strength! Quick! Someone tell me: WHAT DO I HAVE?!" Jay panicked.

"Calm down, Jay. You have us; you always do. But maybe we won't have to worry about this next fight if we just keep trying to look for Zane and then get off this island," Kate reassured.

"Kate's right. The fight isn't until late tonight anyway," Star added.

But then Kai placed his hand on his chin as he thought of something.

"And I think I have the perfect person in mind to help—and I think he already knows that."

The full moon had risen into the sky, as it's beautiful light had also touched Chen's island.

Out in a center plaza outside of the temple, Neuro was out alone atop a boulder while holding his hands to his head again; he was there because he knew he needed to be.

"We need your help, Neuro."

The husky voice of the Green Prophet was not needed to make Neuro aware of his and the other ninja's presence.

"You think I can get into to Chen's mind, and then help you find your robotic friend so that you can leave the island before the fight," Neuro said without even turning around or opening his eyes.

"But we-," Kai started.

"You still need to find out what Chen's hiding."

"Impressive, Nerd-o," Jay joked.

That was what finally made Neuro turn and open his silver eyes.

"It's Neuro, Jackass. Master of the Mind, too," Neuro said angrily but calmly, "oh, and Cole thinks Jay won't last two minutes into the fight."

"What?! You think that?!" Jay snapped.

"Hwy, you said it yourself that you'd lose!" Cole snapped back.

"Yeah, but you're not supposed to friggin' believe it!" Jay said as he elbowed Cole in the stomach, but Cole didn't want another fight to start before the real one.

"No offense, Cole, but Jay thinks you're the LEAST valuable ninja on the team," Neuro added.

"Is that so?" Cole asked slowly and angrily as he grinded his teeth and glared at Jay.

"We want you to help us, Neuro, not make things worse," Lloyd cut in angrily while splitting Jay and Cole apart.

"Oh? And why would I do that? You're only mere competition to me; the sooner you're all out, the better for me."

"You think we're in this just for us? We're not, it's about everyone here now. Look into my mind, and you'll see why," Lloyd demanded firmly, and Neuro didn't waste time to see if Lloyd was lying or not.

But Neuro didn't expect to see Chen stealing Karloff's metal powers down in secret chamber.

"It's only a matter of time before Chen steals you power too, Neuro," Kate added.

"So are you in?" Lloyd questioned.

"Hmm…"

Despite being a machine, Zane was almost breathless while he was still trying to pull and break free from his shackles.

"Zane, you are built very differently. You need to search DEEP within yourself!" P.I.X.A.L. called down.

Zane sat quietly for a minute to regain energy, but that was when he felt on odd sensation in his right wrist. He observed it, and he soon triggered a little panel which then revealed a little spinning saw in his wrist.

"Yes! Yes, that's it, Zane! You're remembering!" P.I.X.A.L. said with joy as Zane used the little saw to start to cut through the shackle, as he then operated the saw in his other wrist.

"Who are you bettin'?"

The voice from a guard pulled Zane from his glance at that chains being cut.

"Eh…definitely Cole, man."

Zane could tell that the guards were getting closer and closer, which made him panic as he looked at the little window on his cell's door and back at his shackles. But luckily, before a guard could peep inside, Zane had already put the saws away, and he pretended to go back to sleep.

It wasn't long before the guards lost interest, as they left with a suspicious growl.

"It's not faith. You have to break out of here before the fight!" P.I.X.A.L. added with fear.

"You mean WE have to break out."

…

"Of course."

Chen's Kabuki were all 'putting on their faces' in their dressing room, but it was also Chen's dressing room…perfect for Neuro.

The said Master of the Mind was sneaking around, trying not to get caught by any of the girls, and it was then that he spotted Chen's larger dressing room that was just for him.

"This area is restricted."

Clouse's voice startled Neuro, but he didn't show it. Neuro was soon face-to-face with Clouse himself.

"Clouse! I-I was just leaving," Neuro said as he forced a smile.

"Don't think I didn't see you talking with the ninja. Wouldn't it be such a shame if the other fighters found out you were—helping them?"

"Forget about it. I'm Neuro, Master of the Mind; I'm smarter than that," Neuro replied softly, only distracting Clouse as he was secretly sending brain waves to Clouse's mind, thus reading it.

And with that, Neuro was able to leave; Clouse's red eyes not leaving him until he was completely put of sight.

Finding Zane before tonight's fight just wasn't possible because the fight was now just about to begin.

Chen, Clouse, Chen's cronies, the ninja along with Garmadon and all of the other Elemental Masters were all gathered inside of a large stadium that was a few good yards away from Chen's temple.

Of course, everyone already knows that the fight is between Cole and Jay, and their challenge is to see who can fight for the Jade Blade that's wedged between the jaws of a snake statue that was winding down and around a tall wooden pole in the center of the arena.

Jay and Cole each sat inside a small barred chamber on opposite sides of the arena to separate them before the real fight.

Jay was inside of his chamber, but he wasn't sitting doing nothing, oh no. Jay was punching a slug-bug…with Cole's picture taped to it for 'motivation'.

And outside of Jay's chamber was Kai, as the fire ninja was keeping an eye on him.

"He thinks he's got an easy fight…well, I'll show that bastard!" Jay grunted as he continued to punch Cole's picture. But he soon had enough of just punching, so Jay used his lightning to fry and explode the slug-buddy.

And at first, Jay was laughing at what he did…but when he looked down at the almost burnt picture of Cole on the ground, he started to realize that he might've taken it too far.

But just like how Kai was watching over Jay, Lloyd was looking after Cole in his chamber as the Master of Earth was also punching a slug-buddy as it also had a picture of his opponent.

But when Cole landed one last hard punch and sent the slug-buddy flying back, he made a mistake when he turned around victoriously as the slug-buddy came swinging back and knocked Cole against the bars.

"Ow! Son of a bitch!" Cole grunted angrily as he had enough and started to use Spinjitzu to finally take down his slug-buddy…but when he stopped spinning, and he looked down at Jay's picture that was almost completely drowning in dirt…he regretted it.

But it was right around this time that Neuro came running into the arena, almost out of breath.

"You were cutting in really close. Did you get into his head?" Kai asked as Neuro was catching his breath in front of him.

"I'm sorry, but couldn't get past Clouse."

"Good. That only leaves a chance for Cole and I to finally end our feud," Jay cut in angrily.

"But…I did see something. For a brief moment, I was able to look into Clouse's mind; what I saw was a thick, old book that was chock-full of ancient spells. For what? I have no idea, but Clouse was reading an odd spell that's on page one-hundred-forty-nine," Neuro added with a smile, but then his smile turned into a frown, "I am truly sorry I was not able to stop the fight. If I could have done, I would have."

"It's ok. You did what you could," Kai said as he placed a reassuring hand on Neuro's shoulder.

Meanwhile, even if Lloyd and Cole couldn't hear what Neuro and Kai were saying, they could tell by their body language that it didn't go well, making Lloyd sigh.

"You don't have to say it, Lloyd. It was inevitable that we were going to have to face each other at some point," Cole sighed as he placed his hands around the bars.

"I know, but…this just wasn't what I had in mind. I can't just 'wing it' like my dad told us to, but that doesn't mean you and Jay still can't make peace with each other," Lloyd said firmly yet sadly, "we don't have control of who or when we fight here, but we have control of HOW we fight. Jay is not your enemy, Chen is."

"Ya know, Wu once said that the best way to defeat your enemy is to make them your friend—but how are you supposed to defeat your friend?" Cole pointed out.

But just when Cole finished his sentence, the bars on his and Jay's chambers started to go down. The fight was starting.

Since Jay and Cole decided to wear their ninja gis for this event, they pulled up their ninja masks over the lower halves of their faces as they walked out into the arena, and Kai, Lloyd and Neuro headed to the stands to watch.

"You did your best, but now the rest is up to them," Garmadon said firmly as Kai and Lloyd took their seats with Garmadon, Kate and Star.

"I just hope they know what to do," Kate pleaded softly, so Lloyd pulled her close to comfort her.

"Let the tournament continue! Jay, Master of Lightning vs. Cole, Master of-!" Chen tried to announce, but Cole and Jay didn't let him finish as they sprinted out towards each other; they clearly didn't want to waste time to start this fight.

The two ninja started to use their Elemental powers, but they only dodged their attacks.

"Ha! Is that REALLY the best you can do, Cole?!"

"EAT DIRT, BLUE-BELL!"

And with that, Cole fired more dirt at Jay, only for Jay to fry the dirt with his lightning, and it just went on.

And back up in the stands, Chen was bouncing in his throne.

"Ooh, Clouse, go get me some popcorn! This is turning out better way better than I ever thought!"

The chains and shackles that used to hold Zane were now empty as the said titanium ninja was now using the little saws in his wrists to cut away to bars on the hole, so that soon Zame could get into the room P.I.X.A.L. was trapped in.

"Hurry Zane! The guards are about to make their round!"

But right after P.I.X.A.L. finished her sentence, Zane had already cut through the last bar, and then he crawled through and fell a few feet down into the room.

"Don't worry. I'm through now," Zane said in a hushed voice.

Now Zane had to look around for P.I.X.A.L., but…all he saw was the faint light of a single computer monitor, and there were scraps of very familiar robot parts either scattered across the desk of in boxes.

"P.I.X.A.L….you were…"

"Scrapped. I know, but how could I tell you when you needed to get out of here?" P.I.X.A.L. sighed sadly as Zane went around the desk, and he was greeted by a small image of P.I.X.A.L. on the monitor.

"My journey ends here, Zane—but yours continues."

Zane was quiet.

"Zane, please understand that you must go alone and save your friends. And don't worry about me—I will always be a part of you."

Zane could only hug the monitor, but then what P.I.X.A.L. said hit him. And so he looked at the chip that was most likely what contained P.I.X.A.L. as it was plugged into the computer.

"You're right. You will ALWAYS be a part of me," Zane said as he smiled and reached for the chip.

"What are you-u-?"

But before P.I.X.A.L. could finish talking, her voice glitched out and the monitor went dark as Zane removed the chip from the computer and…he placed into a slot in the back of his head.

After a few seconds, a digitalized panel appeared in the upper corner of Zane's vision, and on that panel was P.I.X.A.L.

"Zane…you've taken my neural drive and imputed it into your processor! You are ingenious!" P.I.X.A.L. said with joy.

"Not ingenious, upgraded. I'm sure there are many other things you and I can find out together, but until then-," Zane explained, but P.I.X.A.L. clearly saw something he didn't as she made a flashing, red, warning light appear in Zane's head.

"ZANE, LOOK OUT! BEHIND YOU!"

But P.I.X.A.L. was too late.

By the time Zane turned around, he had already been touched by the charged end of a tazer in Clouse's hand, and soon the high frequency of electricity made Zane shut down, or in other terms 'pass out'.

"I suppose it was my mad master's fault that he thought you wouldn't be able to cut through those chains," Clouse growled, "but if it weren't for his childish request for popcorn, I never would have found you."

The fight between Jay and Cole only continued, as the two continued to throw their elements at each other.

"Don't make promises your mouth can't keep, Cole!"

"Oh, but I'm lookin' forward to the best peace and quiet I'll ever experience when you're out of this FUCKING TOURNAMENT!"

And with that, Cole used a large blast of heavy rocks, and it knocked back Jay; luckily he wasn't that badly hurt…but Cole still wished he hadn't done that.

"What the hell are we doing?! I-I never wanted you out! I realize that you're not my enemy, Jay! Chen is!"

"Oh, sure…you think you can play me that easily? You think that you can lower my guard by suddenly pretending to be my friend…you're a terrible actor, and you're so FUCKING PREDICTABLE!"

Jay then produced more strands of lightning, but he kept them towards the ground and close to his sides as he walked closer to Cole.

"Jay, I don't wanna hurt, and I never would…not if I knew it would destroy our friendship…and everything I said, I take back!"

"Well, then…if we're being completely honest right now, I was really scared of losing Nya, but I take blame for that…I was more scared to lose you, Cole. We were always such good friends."

"The best, even. We should never had bottled this up."

"Agreed," Jay said as he started to calm down, and even his lightning started to fade away, "but now what are we gonna do? We can't BOTH win!"

"Maybe they'll call it a tie if we just trot it out. Attack me, but…not hard!"

And with that, they ran towards each other, bit neither of them used their powers; they only tried to land hits on each other, only to dodge each one on purpose.

"What in sane hell is this?! This is boring!" Chen complained as he threw his popcorn at one of his cronies' faces…but then Chen grinned and pressed a button, "RELEASE THE CONDRAI-CRUSHERS!"

This totally ruined Jay and Cole's first idea because now, numerous other doors were opening all around the arena. And what came out of the doors were four very odd fighting vehicles with dark purple and black paint, they had bodies in the shape of a snake's head, there was a pair of spinning saws at the front, and they even a tail that looked like a scorpion's tail.

The vehicles called 'Condrai-Crushers' all circled around Jay and Cole, and the two were trying to think as to what they should now.

"This looks bad! You've got my back, right Cole?!"

"Only if you have mine!"

But suddenly, one of the Condrai-Crushers changed its course and started to speed towards the two Elemental Masters. But Jay and Cole only used Spinjitzu to quickly move out of the way, and so the crony driving ended up in a terrible accident as he probably died when the vehicle crashed into the arena walls.

"Looks like I'm not the only one that listens to you," Lloyd said with a grin to his dad, as the two of them and the other ninja were cheering to see Cole and Jay finally make up and fight together.

Meanwhile, now that there were only three Condrai-Crushers, Chen's cronies knew they had to step it up. So one also started to drive towards Cole and Jay.

But Cole was going to let him have it as he ran in front of the vehicle, jumped up into the air and smashed his fists back down onto the ground, creating an earthy ramp for the Condrai-Crusher to fly high up into the air.

And while that one was in the air, Cole grabbed the rail of the second one, so that when the first came falling back down, he smashed the two together and they ended up smashed against the wall and good as dead like the other guy.

Now, the last crony driving was freaking out, as he did NOT want to turn out like the other three. But he knew facing Chen or Clouse would be worse, so he kept driving and then started towards Cole and Jay.

But now it was Jay's turn. Jay ran and used the running start to jump up and over the last Condrai-Crusher. And Jay wasn't aiming for landing behind it, he landed on the vehicle right behind the drover, and the window for escape was not an option for the driver as Jay not only used his electrical powers to hack into and stop the vehicle, but he was also frying the driver.

And just when the Condrai-Crusher had lost all of its power and stopped just before it could run over Cole, the driver had also exploded from too much power; his guts and blood flying everywhere, except somehow Cole and Jay. Those two didn't get a speck of blood or guts on them.

"ENOUGH!"

Chen's shrill voice silenced everyone in the arena as he angrily stood from his throne.

"I know what you are trying to do! So if neither of you will try to win, then BOTH of you will lose!" Chen shouted as he reached for the panel of buttons on his throne, and cheers started to arise back up from everyone, except the ninja and Garmadon.

But this meant trouble for Jay and Cole. As Chen started cascading his arms over every button, hundreds of pieces of the floor in the ring started to drop, leaving standing-grounds dwindling into single digits. So Jay and Cole had to use their elite ninja skills to jump onto the next best place to stand, but it wouldn't last long.

Cole then looked up at the Jade Blade that was stuck between the statue snake's jaws.

"Chen's right, there an only be one!" Cole called.

"Then it should be you! You were right, I'd never have a fighting chance!" Jay shouted back, "just take the blade!"

And with a lot of reluctance, Cole ran up to the pole while jumping over any holes that suddenly appeared, and then he started to climb to pole. But though it wasn't long before Cole reached the top and grasped the Jade Blade, he knew it just wasn't mean to be his victory…so he tossed it over to Jay, and Jay had no choice but to catch it.

"Winner: Jay! Loser: Cole! The Lightning Master moves on!" Chen called.

"She's yours, Jay. I should've bailed out that long ago—win this," Cole said firmly yet softly a he climbed down the pole, and just before he could place a foot on what ever ground was left, Chen pressed a button and Cole fell down.

"It's about damn time," Chen growled as he plopped back into his throne.

"Cole may be out, but he never lost. Let what he did be a lesson: Know thy enemy, but more importantly—know thy friend," Garmadon reassured the ninja, "Cole fought like a TRUE ninja."

Driving out on the only desolate road that cut through the Sea of Sand was the DV-Express as Nya was driving it alone. But as she was watching the road…an old friend came flying up in front of the wind-shield and landed on the hood of the vehicle.

"Why did you come back?" Nya questioned as she took a quick glance at Zane's falcon, and then she went back to watching the road.

It was then that Nya looked at one of the computers in front of her that held a map of Ninjago, for she had tried to type in numerous codes to locate the ninja, but never found anything…until now.

When Nya pressed the reset button, the map when all over the place, but it wasn't long until the locator stopped on a small dot on the map that seemed to be many miles from the coast.

"That…that can only be Zane's signal, and it's strong…but that's impossible!" Nya said with shock, but then she dialed a number in the DV-Express' built-in phone.

"What is it, Nya?"

"Sensei Wu—I think I found the ninja!"

That he did, Garmadon. That he did.

Now, Maniac at Midnight did have an absolutely wonderful idea as to what can happen to Star...don't worry! It's not Death! All I'm saying is thank you, Maniac at Midnight...but I said I MIGHT use the idea if no one else can come up with any more ideas. C'mon guys, show me what'cha got!

But until the next chapter, I'm TRikiD, bye-bye!