*Phew* Now we're really getting into some heavy stuff. From here on out, things are really going to deviate from the original, so some updates might be a little skewed depending on how fast I can pump them out. Anyway, your support is greatly greatly greatly appreciated. Thank you to all of my wonderful reviewers, and thank you for the lovely messages :) But most of all thank you for taking the time to read.

- Fell_and_Fallen -

"Dad?" I call out into the surrounding darkness. Even with my radiating heat the cold is biting, and my hands light up with a puff of fire to keep warm. "Are you there?"

The forest is silent as I stare up at the towering oaks that surround the clearing. I wonder for a second if I'm in the wrong spot, but this is definitely the place where my dad and I used to train. So where is he?

Something snaps in the forest behind me, and I nearly jump out of my skin. I turn around and raise a glowing hand to the darkness, staring into the tall, overgrown, and eerily empty thorn bushes. I start to lower my hand when something lurches in the corner of my eye. I turn toward it again, but it disappears.

"Who's there?" I call into the darkness as my flames curl around my arms. They crackle and tug at my willpower, feeding off the anxiety that churns my stomach, but I keep them under control.

A dark arrow answers me, flying out from the bushes and straight toward my face. I duck and it hisses over my head, stirring my hair as it thuds into a tree behind me. I straighten up just as another arrow flies, but this time I stand my guard. I raise my arm and obliterate the black wood in flame, scattering a shower of ashes onto the dark ground. I push the fire away from my body and illuminate the entire clearing in a bright orange glow.

"Show yourself!" I yell into the dark woods. The flames spark and scatter, and I almost lose my grip on them. I tighten my fingers against my palms and they settle.

"Is that really the way to greet an old friend?"

My stomach lurches as a dark shape appears from behind a shadowy tree. It grasps a long shape in its hand, and as it steps into my light I realize it's a tall, black longbow.

"That's impossible," I take a trembling step back as Hale approaches, his blond hair shining gold in my firelight. The last time I saw him, he was just a burning shape disappearing over the side of the Bounty. Even if he somehow managed to survive that, he should be a charred husk of himself, huddled in a hospital somewhere. But he looks… healthy. "You should be dead."

"Don't worry, I'm not a ghost," he assures me with a soft smile. "I just happen to have a few friends in high places. Granted it took me a long time to heal, but as you can see I'm good as new."

"What are you doing here?" I demand as I raise my palm toward him. A fresh coil of fire surrounds my hands as I stare him down.

"I'm here to help as always, Ash," he says. His eyes watch the flames that crackle between my fingers. "I see you're finally making use of your powers. It was hard watching you waste so much potential." He laughs humorlessly. "I'm glad I forced you into the contract to kill those pesky ninja. I mean, without me you'd still be out here, wouldn't you?"

"You did nothing," I growl as the flames rise with my emotions. "You tortured my father and took control of my body. You're just a spineless worm who can't do his own dirty work. You deserve to be crushed underfoot."

"I know you're still angry with me, and with all you've been through I'm not surprised," he shakes his head. "I mean first the annihilation of our hometown, then your father's disappearance-"

"You know nothing about me," I snap.

"Actually I think I know most everything. Probably even more than you do," Hale's eyes shift to something over my shoulder. "Isn't that right, Desmond?"

My arms drop to my sides and the clearing goes dark. My eyes adjust to the dim moonlight as I slowly turn to something I haven't seen in four years.

"Dad?" I can hardly believe my eyes, but there he is- my father sitting like a wise owl in a tree high above us. His dark hair is peppered with silver now, same with his close shaven beard, but he is exactly the way I remember him. Everything around me disappears as I stare up into this familiar eyes, still shining the same way they did when I was a kid. My chest fills with a thousand different emotions and it's all I can do not to burst into tears.

"It's been much too long, Iris," he smiles down at me. "You've grown a lot since the last I saw you."

"I've grown stronger too," I say as I quickly compose myself. I glance back at Hale, who stands with his bow held loosely in his hand. "But what are you doing with him?"

"Don't you know? He's my apprentice," my father answers calmly, and Hale smirks slightly. "He and I have been training together for quite some time now."

I shake my head. "Dad, I don't know what he's told you, but Hale is evil. He blackmailed me into killing the ninja that protect Ninjago, and when I wouldn't go through with it he used his mind-control powers to try and force me to do the job."

"Of course he did, Iris," my father laughs. "He was doing what I asked of him."

The world comes to a screeching halt. "What?"

"Really, Iris, I thought you would be smarter than this," my father shakes his head disapprovingly. "I told Hale to find you and give you the assignment to kill the ninja. I knew you could never bring yourself to hurt another person, so when you finally used your abilities to save your friends, you won the ninja's trust and became a student of Sensei Wu. Don't you see, Iris? All I wanted was for Sensei Wu to train you to harness your powers."

I struggle to find my voice. "Wha- but why?"

"Why do you think?" my father sneers, any and every trace of compassion completely drained from his face. "I couldn't train you myself- your powers were too volatile even for me. Besides your father, Wu was the only one capable of shaping your power. I knew I had to get him to teach you control, but before I could do anything more rational you came into my room screaming. You'd been snooping around my old journals and found out about your birth parents, and you wanted to 'know the truth'. You forced me to act. I wiped your memory of that day, but the resulting confusion threw you over the edge and destroyed the village." He shakes his head. "After that, I knew I had to find a better path."

"So everything Sensei told me," I force out through a wall of pent-up tears, "is true? My real parents, my powers?"

"More or less," he shrugs.

"So you kidnapped me," I look up into those dark eyes that have turned shallow and cold. "For what?"

"For my wife," he clenches his hands. "We were just advisors, but your wretched parents drove her into the ground. She was up at all hours of the night on 'special missions' and would come home crippled with exhaustion and pain from no source. All I could do was watch as she died slowly and in brutal agony while your parents did nothing to help. Your parents killed my wife, so I killed them. And soon I will destroy the only thing your parents ever loved- Ninjago."

Bile forces its way into my throat. "You-you killed them?" I clench my hands and struggle to imagine how my real parents must have felt, watching someone they trusted obliterate everything they knew. I have a hunch it feels a lot like what I'm feeling now.

I glare up at my father, no, Desmond. "Then why didn't you kill me too? Why did you take me?"

"Because you were a child," he answers. "You had no alliance, and I knew I could sculpt you into something great. A weapon that would bring all of Ninjago to its knees."

"A weapon? Is that all I am to you?" my hand sparks with furious fire. "A tool for revenge?" I shake my head and my hair crackles with flame. "Everything you said to me- about my mother, my childhood, your life- everything was a lie? Just to get me on your side?"

"You're making me sound like the villain, Iris," he says in a mockingly soft voice. "I saved you. If it weren't for me, your parents would have killed you the same way they killed my Diana!"

"Enough!" I scream, and a wide circle of flames bursts away from me. "You're a monster! What you've done is-is unforgivable! No matter how much you hated my parents, that doesn't justify murder!"

"Calm yourself, Iris," Desmond's eyes grow cold. "I expected you to be more grateful. For what I've done, for what I am preparing to do. Your parents were parasites and they deserve to watch their world burn."

"I won't!" I shout. "Just like I wouldn't kill the ninja, I will never turn against Ninjago!"

"They are not your friends," his gaze glowers into mine. "Wu and his band of amateurs are nothing but tools. They see you only for your potential, for what they can use you for. They do not love you the way I do."

"This is love?" I shake my head. "Murdering my parents, leaving me alone for years, almost killing me-"

"You do not understand, Iris, you are still not ready to face the destiny laid out before you," he growls. "You are guided by petty emotions and hastened loyalties. You must overcome these if you are ever to join my cause."

"My petty emotions are what kept me going when you left me, what kept me from staying my blade when I was supposed to kill the ninja," I say in a voice quieted by bottled anger. "My petty emotions mean more to me than your words ever will."

"So that is your decision? You would choose the monsters of your parents over the man who raised you, defended you, showed you everything you know?"

"I don't know my parents thanks to you," I growl. "So I choose my own path. I choose to stand by my friends and protect Ninjago from anyone who wants to harm it." My fire rages to life in my hands, burning and throwing the clearing into a crimson shadow. "I will stand against you so long as you threaten my home and my friends."

Desmond laughs like I've just told him the funniest joke in the world. "So self-righteous," he coughs. "It's sickening. You are still a child, my darling Iris. I know you'll see my side soon. Go. Return to your friends and think about what I've said. Think about what I've given you when you decide which way you sway."

He pauses and a chilling smile touches his face. "But, of course, not without a parting gift." Something malicious flashes in his eyes. "Hale, you know what to do."

I hear the faint sound of tense wood, and I turn around just as Hale lets an arrow loose. The bladed tip slices through the fabric of my shirt and rips open my side in a scatter of brilliant scarlet blood. I scream as my stomach explodes with searing agony and I collapse onto the cold grass.

"Return to your friends and show them what I am willing to do to get my way," Desmond hisses from above as I shove my hands against the wound, ignoring the pain as I try to stop the pulsing blood flow, "and don't forget, Iris. Everything you are is because I saved you. I created you."

A harsh wind blows through the branches, followed by a deafening silence that hangs over me as a blanket. A few swollen tears fall down my face as I'm left alone and bleeding in the middle of the woods.