Ok, so I'm dividing this chapter into two too. I know, there's too many "to's".

Chapter 6 – A Message in the Fortune

The red eyes of the giant portrait of Master Chen in his dark purple robes and blood red throne glared down with an evil smile at the poor Elemental Masters whose powers were stolen and were all now working in the miserably boring food factory…but despite the misery that was air-born among the masters, Cole was whistling happily while monitoring fortune cookies go by on a conveyer belt with Karloff and Jacob.

"What's got YOU so happy, Dora?"

"If you must know, Karloff, I found a dead friend—a-and he's alive! Just gotta get myself outta here, get Zane out, and that's all there is to it," Cole replied with a smile while turning a cookie to face like the others.

"It's not that easy. Beyond that little door out of factory is snake-guarded labyrinth."

"Don't be such a Negative Nancy, Karloff," Cole protested.

"I'm no negative, I'm realistic."

"Really? Well, Mr. Common Sense, tell us how to get out."

"Shut up, Blind Mouse."

"Guys, fighting won't get us freedom! All we have to do is somehow make contact with Zane; when we do, he'll be able to figure out ANYTHING," Cole cut in Karloff and Jacob's bickering.

"Karloff wish HE had friend like that."

"First thing's first: I gotta let the gang know I found our metal amigo," Cole said in a hushed voice while grabbing out a strip of paper and snatched a fortune cookie off of the belt; afterwards, shoving the paper with writing on it carefully into the cookie.

"A message? In cookie? That's absurd!" Karloff said with surprise as Cole placed the special cookie onto the platter of other fortune cookies that Karloff was about to deliver.

"I said the same thing—at least, with better grammer," Cole said while trying not offend Karloff, and the giant man soon walked off with phase one of Cole's plan right on the platter he was carrying.

"Special! For banquet!" Karloff called to the closest guard, thus handing it off to him as the guard walked up to the door…only for the next guard to lick his lips and reach for none other than Cole's fortune cookie, making Cole and Karloff worry.

Luckily, the guard carrying the platter followed the rules that none of the merchandise should be eaten, so he slapped the guard's hand away and walked out. And it was then that Cole and Karloff noticed the ring of keys clasped to the door guard's hip.

"Karloff, I think our own fortune just cracked open," Cole said with hope.

A trio of Chen's Kabuki giggled while walking passed a pair of cheeky guards that were guarding the entrance to one of Chen's temples…but high up on a hill, well hidden with the DV-Expresses' cloaking mechanics, Nya and Darreth observed quietly…at least, Nya was quiet.

"I say now's our chance; let's move, Darreth," Nya whispered to the brown clad man while she reached for her door handle, only for Darreth to suddenly grab her wrist.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Wait a minute there, Missy!"

"Darreth, what the hell are you doing?" Nya whispered with surprise as Darreth forcefully dragged the raven-head into the back of the vehicle.

When the two finally reached the back, Darreth let go of Nya while grabbing a large, black, hand-held case. he then pressed a little button on the side, and five panels of all kinds of rows of different make-up flung out.

"Ok, make-up is a red flag for me," Nya whimpered.

"Oh, c'mon ol' girl, I'm a master of make-up…a-and besides, it's for men!"

Darreth then began to 'work his magic' with Nya as he brushed his make-up brush all over Nya's face and even her hands.

And not even ten seconds later, Nya managed to wave the powder out of the air to see…and she saw that she was not only wearing the white and colorful make-up of a Kabuki, but she was also somehow dressed like one.

"How did you change my clothes without me knowing?!"

"Ah-ah-ah! A true ninja NEVER reveals his secrets," Darreth replied slyly while grabbing out a comb and combed his big, fluffy brown hair; making Nya roll her eyes.

Speaking of Chen's Kabuki, a large group of them were carrying platters of exotic foods around a grand table that was placed elegantly in the middle of Chen's throne room.

One Kabuki even carried a plate of gooey egg things that were slathered in honey to Lloyd.

"Won't you try the horned wasp eggs, 'Son-In-Law'? They're—to die for," Chen called to Lloyd in a playfully dark tone as Lloyd poked the 'horned wasp eggs' with questioning.

"Uh…yeah, I'll pass on that."

"Lighten up, will you? It's not a trick, it's a celebration of the lot of you who remained in my tournament!" Chen said happily while another Kabuki placed a huge bowl in front of the ninja; it was full of a brown, gelatinous soup that had the fresh dead bodies of bright green worms hanging out of the side.

"Relax, Lloyd. You're not the one with the broken hand and having to take aspirin, after all," Kate sighed as she once again lifted her pale left hand to show that it was still safely clasped in a dark green cast.

"She's right, Lloyd. Now that most of the other masters trust us about Chen's evil plans, our alliance is better and safer than before," Kai reassured from the other side of Garmadon.

And speaking of the other Elemental Masters, the rest of them were having their own private conversation on the other end of the long table.

"I swear, Shadow's up ta somethin'," Turner whispered to Skylar, as the said Master of Shadows was sitting on his other side.

"If you plan on stopping Chen, you'll need EVERYONE in on this with you. Each time that one master loses, then each time Chen will only grow more powerful; he'll grow TOO powerful if we don't act soon," Garmadon explained firmly to the ninja.

But as Lloyd cautiously watched Shadow, little did he or the others know that the guard carrying Cole's cookie with his message on the platter was being handed to a Kabuki, who was now walking around with the cookies.

But that was also when Kate sensed something with her 'gift'.

"Guys…it's Cole."

"Cole? What do you mean it's Cole? He's not here," Jay pointed out.

"I know, but he's trying to make contact with us. Keep your eyes peeled," Kate protested quietly.

"Ooh, ooh, bring the fortune cookies to me!" Chen called to the fortune cookie-carrying Kabuki, and she didn't disobey Chen.

"Those are for you 'guests', Master."

"Oh, hush, Clousy! I'm not going to eat them, I'm going to read the messages inside; they're the best part!" Chen giggled as he grabbed Cole's cookie and was about to slip Cole's message out, only for Clouse to luckily yank it from his master's clutches in time.

"Need I remind you that the masters LOVE whispers? And it's not for your food. I hear tell about an—alliance. The ninja are going to end up being a blockade to our plan, Master."

"Even the spell?"

"I highly doubt they know about that too, but let's not take any risks."

With that, Clouse handed the cookie back to his master in hopes that he would put it back on the platter for his guests; in which he reluctantly did. So the Kabuki continued around the table with the fortune cookies.

"Now, I have been hearing rumors of me stealing the losers' powers—I am!"

Chen's sudden announcement didn't make the ninja jump in their seats with surprise like the other Elemental Masters.

"But it's all for THIS STAFF…" Chen continued as he clapped his hands…only for his Kabuki to do the wrong command and flitter their fans in front of him; angering the lord of the island.

"No, no, no! Not people staff! Stick staff!" Chen growled angrily as the woman put their fans away and the smarter one went and grabbed Chen's staff while carefully handing it to him.

"In the crest of this staff are all of the past Elemental Masters' powers—and they soon might be yours if you are not careful! The last one that survives my tournament will not only get to keep their powers, but they will also be dubbed the greatest warrior in Ninjago history!"

Usually, everyone but the ninja would have cheered and laughed with Chen…but they weren't laughing as much now as Chen was squirming happily in his throne like the mental child he is.

"You. Fucking. Liar."

Everyone heads turned in Lloyd's direction, but none were as surprised or curious as Chen.

"We know about the spell!"

"Spell? What spell?" Clouse lied while shaking his head in denial.

"Don't play koi! Neuro read Clouse's mind; t-tell them what you saw, Neuro!" Lloyd said firmly while turning towards Neuro, and it only got worse for the poor Master of the Mind as everyone looked at him in wonder…especially Clouse.

"I…I…I d-don't remember. I-I'm more interested in that beautiful staff," Neuro said while keeping his cool.

"And why should we just suddenly believe you? How do we know your not just tryin' to get the staff all to your self, Buster?!" Turner questioned angrily as he and Skylar took a fortune cookie from a Kabuki, just like everyone else had been doing.

But the main thing was that now it was back to square one with everyone negatively whispering about the ninja. And this made Clouse and Chen grin.

"Good. Their alliance is crumbling again," Clouse said quietly.

"We've been put in hot water again, guys," Kate pointed out with fear.

"Why would they believe him over us again?" Lloyd questioned.

"We need proof if we're gonna be convincing anyone," Jay started as a Kabuki started flittering her fan in Jay's face…for some reason, "we need to…find that…spell-WILL YOU GET THAT THING OUTTA MY FACE?!"

But Jay had no idea who he was actually glaring at.

"It's me: Nya," Nya the Kabuki whispered.

"Nya?" everyone said in unison while jerking back in their seats, only to lean back forward again to do a double-take.

"What are you doing here…and dressed as one of Chen's gestures?" Lloyd questioned with concern.

"I'm completely out of my element, I know. But I didn't do this; Darreth's here too," Nya said as she brought out her ruby-crested, golden band bracelet/walkie-talkie.

"Sup?" Darreth asked over the radio.

"And don't worry, we've been protected in my mobile base," Nya added.

"So wait, have you seen any sign of Star? She disappeared not too long ago without warning," Kai added with concern.

"I'm sorry, but no I haven't seen her…or anyone else out in that bloody jungle, for that matter," Nya sadly replied.

"Nya, with your stealth, do you think you can uncover Chen and Clouse's spell?" Lloyd cut in, "the only thing we're aware of is that it's on page one-forty-nine, and that it's most likely in Clouse's room."

"I'm sure I could do something…but you've got bigger problems," Nya pointed out with worry.

"How so?" Jay questioned.

"How do you think they found out that you knew so much? Someone's not to be trusted in your little group," Nya whispered, but then she noticed how Clouse was suspiciously watching her, so she danced away from the ninja and continued to innocently flitter her paper fan.

But that was when Skylar came walking up to the ninja and got Kai's attention by placing a hand on the Fire Master's shoulder.

"Do you know that servant girl?"

"U-uh…nope, not at all, 'Princess Clara'," Kai sarcastically joked.

"Ha-ha. Very funny, 'Foxxy'. My fortune said, in terrible hand-writing, that friends Cole and Zane will be breaking out…ya know, you're lucky this note didn't end up in the wrong hands," Skylar explained in a hushed voice as she handed the note to Kai and walked back to her seat…but the one that was focused on the red-head the most was Kate, as something just rubbed her the wrong way.

"Kate? Kate, are you ok?" Lloyd asked while nudging his wife to shake her from her thoughts.

"Y-yeah…yeah, I'm alright."

"It's Zane! Cole found him! Oh, thank you so much, Skylar!" Kai called happily to Skylar as she sat down and smiled back at the fiery brunette.

"Remember guys, Nya said there's someone we shouldn't be trusting. Who do you think it is?" Jay whispered.

"I have my suspicions," Lloyd replied while glaring back at Shadow.

It was a lovely mid-day in the humid jungle on Chen's island, but far off to the east of Chen's temples, Darreth remained hidden in a secret cave behind a waterfall while dancing around in the DV-Express with loud rock music on the radio.

But suddenly the communication system in the front started to go all static.

"Darreth…Darreth. Are you there?"

Darreth stopped dancing and darted to turn the music down when he heard Nya's hushed tone on the radio.

"Right here. Talk ta me, Babe."

"Bloody No-. Don't call me that! Listen, I need you to contact Sensei Wu and tell him our objectives are set. As I find the spell to prove that Chen and his cronies are up to no good, the ninja are searing around for the culprit spy in their alliance."

"Got it, Samurai-X. Brown Ninja Out!"

With that, Darreth hung up and then started to dial and call Wu.

"Breaker, breaker. Come in old man. 'The falcon has landed'."

Cole had been secretly waiting for the loud ding in the factory that signaled that half of the masters' shift was over, and that included Cole.

"Time to go, Karloff," Cole said confidently.

"But shift not over until five more hours," Karloff protested with fear.

"Maybe for you, big guy. But not for me," Cole protested as he then glared over at the noodle chopping station, "oh, this has been on my bucket lit for years!"

Cole then pounced over the fortune cookie conveyer belt and sprinted over to the noodle station; angry guards now trying to surround. And Cole's bucket list item was the jump up onto the moving conveyer belt and constantly eat the noodles as they moved toward him and as he ran on the belt.

When Cole had his fill of flavorless noodles, he jumped down to deal with the guards, and though they thought they had Cole cornered, they were dead wrong.

Cole pulled a huge cart from behind him and shoved it to successfully run over about a quarter of the guards. And every other food station he came upon, he ate the food he got a hold of and used the supplies to hit the guards.

It went from heavy boxes of sweet buns being lunged through the air, to kicking scalding hot egg rolls off of their conveyer belt into the guards' faces, and finally to banging each on-coming guard in the face with a thick metal sheet. And no matter how many times the guards tried to hit Cole with a spear piercing the air, Cole always dodged them.

And soon the said once Master of Earth grabbed another thick vine of noodles and used it as a rope to shoot and tie it around a high-up support beam as he pulled himself up to safety.

"GO COOOLE!" Karloff couldn't help but cheer, as did the rest of the powerless Elemental Masters…but it was not to last.

Cole's noodle rope wasn't such a good idea as the noodles couldn't support a full-grown man and snapped as Cole was climbing.

This all amounted up to Cole getting tossed back into his cell. But he waited with a smile when he heard the guards' footsteps grow softer, and when he knew they were gone, Cole chuckled.

"Oh, you are all such dumbasses," Cole laughed as he grabbed out the guard's ring of keys he managed to steal.

Zane didn't know why, but he was back in the ice cave with the familiar, transparent dragon. But lucky for the titanium robot, the beast was asleep…but he was also sleeping almost completely in Zane's, which is going to make it difficult to sneak out with out awaking it.

But first Zane had to focus on breaking out of the shackles he was chained in, though it wasn't long before he finally broke the last shackled on his right wrist, and he now had to worry about the dragon as its snore were like growls.

Zane looked up and saw the sparkling snowflakes falling gently through the hole that he caused and fell through the first time he was here, so he then started to tip-toe his way passed the dragon and began to carefully climb his way out.

But the dragon sensed something was wrong, so it snapped its glowing white yes open, thus startling Zane with a loud growl and even caused him to tumble back to and back within reach of the dragon's massive jaws.

And just when it seemed things couldn't get worse, a pair of icy limbs burst out from the ice wall behind him and grabbed him while starting to violently shake him.

"ZAAAANE!"

The shaking ice limbs and the dragon was all just the continuation of Zane's dream, as the one actually shaking him was Cole as the orange-clad man was leaning forward with a vice grip on his shoulders and their faces just inches apart, and Zane realized he was still in his prison cell. And Cole's face lit up when he saw Zane finally open his eyes.

"Oh, thank goodness. Don't worry, buddy; I'm gettin' us out of here," Cole said happily but was careful to be quiet as he also presented the stolen ring of keys and started to work on the rusted key-holes of Zane's almost unbreakable shackles.

"Cole. You have returned?" Zane said while starting to smile as Cole finally unlocked the locks and helped Zane to his feet.

"Of course I did, ya tin-can. I don't break all of my promises…now c'mere!" Cole replied happily as he suddenly grabbed Zane in a big hug, only to confuse the robot, "feel the brotherly love?"

"Uh…no. but the longer we wait here, the less time we have to escape."

So with that, the two ninja made their way out of the cell.

"Ya know, you were always the mart one of the team," Cole pointed out as he playfully slapped the back of Zane's head, but then Cole reached the door and looked both ways to make sure there were no guards or snakes in the halls, "let's go!"

But at the same time, the guard that originally had the keys jut now noticed that the keys he was supposed to by keeping watch over were no longer clipped to his waist, so he went into a panic and pressed a large red button on the wall that activated a loud siren throughout the factory and the rest of the underground caverns.

Nya had managed to sneak passed as a part of Chen's staff while making it up to the private parts of Chen's temple and made it into Clouse's private library. So she slowly pushed one of the heavy wooden doors open and tip-toed in while nervously glancing around.

"There's a million thick and dusty books in here; how am I supposed to know what one has the spell?" Nya quietly monologued.

It was hard to see since the whole room was dark, except for one spot which was a reading table with a single lit candle…and a thick, old book. So Nya assumed it might be the one and instantly started flipping through the pages in search of page one-forty-nine.

"Here it is!" Nya happily whispered as she found it, but her smile quickly turned to a shocked frown as she reluctantly found out more when she was dragging her finger along the ancient text, "by all the serpents of the Black Pit…this is not good."

But there was trouble when Clouse was going to pay a visit to his library; luckily, a guard came sprinting up to Clouse and stopped him before he could enter.

"There's been a breach in the underground; the Master of Earth has escaped!" the guard huffed while he was breathless from running all the way up to find Clouse.

"Release my pet; she'll 'take care' of him," Clouse ordered the guard, in which he ran off, and then Chen's right hand man remembered his first objective.

Meanwhile, Nya was alerted of Clouse being right outside the doors. So she quickly ripped the page with the spell and ran to hide within the many dark book shelves as Clouse then suddenly entered.

Clouse had no idea he wasn't alone as he walked up to the table with a single lit candle…but he noticed that his book was open when he remembered leaving it closed. But that wasn't the only thing he notice that was off; when he closed his book, there was white Kabuki make-up in the shape of a hand smudged on the front cover.

Clouse hummed to himself as he picked up his special book and carried it off with him out of the library; relieving Nya.

The only thing I really have to say is THANK YOU GUYS! Thanks to you readers, Legends of Ninjago: Rise of Evil now has more views than there are stories in the Ninjago fanfiction archive! And the numbers are still slowly growing! So I have nothing to just say but thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!

Actually, there's one more thing. I'd like to see who can be the first to find the reference in this chapter(Hint: Pay attention to the dialogue between Kai and Skylar).

Until the next chapter, I'm TRikiD, bye-bye!