CHAPTER ONE

Jay was the first to awake.

There was something heavy crushing his back left leg, and his side hurt like crazy, but other than that he appeared to be perfectly fine. Blinking through the rubbish and debris, he struggled to see who else was around him. What did he remember? What had just happened?

Suddenly it all came back to him.

The plane…oh gosh, the plane.

Had it crashed?

Well, that was a silly question. Of course it had crashed. The question was: where? And…was he the only survivor, sheltered by the luck of the pilot's seat?

A shriek came from the top of the ridge, and Jay exhaled, struggling to pull his leg from under the debris of the plane. So he wasn't alone. Phew.

"Hello?" he called out, hearing his voice echo back at him. Did that mean they were in some sort of cavern? Why were there trees growing around them, then? "Is anyone else there?"

"Someone else is awake?" cried a shrill, clearly female voice. "Please, I need your help! I can't get my brother to wake up!"

Breathing hard, Jay tugged the remainder of his leg from the debris and winced as he tried to put weight on it. It stung like fire and wasn't going to be a whole lot of fun to walk on, but he was alive…he was alive. Like some of his passengers might not be.

"Can you yell again?" he called to the girl that had screamed earlier.

The voice came back almost instantly – it actually was an awfully pretty voice, but Jay had to push that aside in his mind as he limped towards the echoing sound. The entire plane had been smashed from a hard landing, but the nose had taken the most brutal hit. Jay figured it was a wonder he was still alive, and shuddered at the thought of how close he had to had come to death.

Finally the girl came into view, leaning over a motionless figure that had to have been her brother.

Jay stopped and stared.

She was gorgeous – a long red tunic contrasted with her quite pale skin perfectly, while her short, raven-black hair glimmered in the sunlight. She turned when she heard him coming, and the relief in her eyes made his breathing quicken rapidly.

"Thank goodness," she gasped. "Please, I need your help! He's not getting up!"

Jay hardly said anything; he simply nodded and leaned over the girl's brother, a tall teenager who honestly couldn't have been much older than himself, with frizzy brown hair that spiked up in all directions and an angry, furrowed face, even in sleep. The pilot felt the other's pulse; he was breathing, but roughly. "He's alive," he said to the girl's sister, trying not to make direct eye contact. "Probably just got hit on the head or something. He'll wake up in due time."

"So relieving," the girl breathed. "I don't know what I'd do without him." She blinked and looked at Jay curiously. "Sorry! I'm so rude, not introducing myself. I'm Nya, and this is my brother Kai."

Nya. A gorgeous name, Jay had to admit. "I-I'm Jay," he mumbled, glancing down at the ground.

Nya smiled but said nothing. In such a tragic event – caused by him? Was it caused by him? – there was really nothing to say or do, and he most certainly couldn't flirt if her brother was knocked out on the ground!

She broke the silence after a while. "I like your suit."

Jay blinked and looked down. He had forgotten he was wearing his blue pilot's suit today – his absolute favorite one, as blue had always been his favorite color. "Thanks! Heh, yeah…thanks."

"Blue is my favorite color," Nya giggled.

Jay felt his heart soar – YES! SCORE! – and was about to continue talking when they heard a moan from between them.

Kai was waking up.

xxx

Kai felt his eyelids flutter open; blinking, he realized that the rain had stopped, and he was lying on something lumpy, and hard, and his back hurt like hell. Something was on top of one of his arms, and he could see Nya in front of him. But she wasn't looking at him.

She was looking at some random boy.

"Hey!" Kai yelped, causing both of them to flinch. "Nya, what're you doing?"

"Waiting for you to get up." She crossed her arms and watched as he struggled and failed to lift the debris off of his arms. "You should not scare me like that again."

"Well, it's the pilot's fault the plane crashed," Kai grumbled, pushing with all of his might at the huge pieces of airplane seat and winced as one of his palms dug into a piece of glass, presumably from the shattered windows. The boy Nya had been talking to – a kid with a devilish smile on his face and slightly ruffled brown hair – openly flinched. Kai grunted as he shoved the final bit of leather seat off of his arm. "Stupid…pilot!"

Sitting up, he glared and poked the other boy in the chest. "And who do you think you are?"

Obviously taken aback, he stammered, "Um…I'm Jay?" The words were spoken almost like a question. Even his voice sounded lighthearted, like he could make a joke out of anything.

Right away, Kai decided that he hated this kid.

"So where are we?" Nya wondered, helping her brother struggle to his feet and looking around. They appeared to be in some sort of huge canyon, with bushes and trees spurting out of the sandy ground, occupied by very small amounts of grass and the wreck of one huge plane.

Jay shrugged. "I have no idea, really. Guess I could check the GPS on my phone, but I'd be astonished if the phone didn't break during the crash."

Kai groaned. "Well, this is just great. We're stuck in the middle of nowhere with a ruined plane, probably a bunch of dead people, and some trees. How are we supposed to survive now?"

Nya sighed and whispered to Jay, "He's very pessimistic."

Kai felt his temper flaring up. He hated it when Nya had to speak for him – and for some stranger that seemed as unpredictable as a wild bear, of course. "She doesn't need to speak for me," he snapped, pushing one finger into Jay's chest. "And don't you forget it," he mouthed to Nya, who simply rolled her eyes in response.

Silence passed. Nya looked at Kai, as if knowing he would know what to do, while Kai continued to glare at Jay, watching his every move, and Jay snuck little glances at Nya out of the corner of his eye. The silence went on for much too long, and clearly Nya couldn't take it anymore.

"Why don't we go check to see if anyone else is…you know…alive?" she asked nervously. Jay nodded instantly, while Kai grunted a short yes, still keeping one eye trained on Jay. He didn't trust the kid, and he didn't like the look of him either.

And where was that awful pilot that had crashed the plane anyways?

They were all startled out of their skin by a voice remarking behind them, flat and emotionless, "So I am not the only one that is alive, then? That is a pleasure to hear."

xxx

Zane said the words with ease, not expecting the three in front of them to leap up and turn around like he was going to bite them. But that was what they did, and he decided to stand up and introduce himself – after all, that was what was proper, and that was what he had been taught.

"My name is Zane," he declared. "Droid for others, sent for study, able to do and conceive many things. Who, may I ask, are you?"

The spiky-haired kid continued to stare at him in shock, but the boy in the blue suit wasted no time. He walked over and extended one hand. "Hey! I'm Jay, nice to meet you."

Zane took the hand and shook it, feeling warmth in its grasp. His hands never held warmth like that. "A pleasure." He bowed his head, just as he had been programmed to do, and waited for the others to introduce themselves.

The girl stepped forward next, eyes shining. "My name is Nya," she announced, holding out her hand. Once again, Zane shook it, feeling the same warmth radiate through his system.

But when the final boy shook his hand and grunted, "Kai," Zane gasped. A flash of fire whipped through his vision. Kai's hand seemed to rage like fire itself, hot and flaming to the touch. The other two watched as the droid staggered backwards, eyes wide.

"What's wrong?" Kai wondered a little nervously, gruffness forgotten for the moment.

"I…I…" Zane shook his head and looked up, forcing a smile onto his face. "Nothing is wrong. Perhaps my system is suffering from a glitch from the plane crash. I'll have to look at it. Please excuse me."

Jay and Nya nodded, while Kai blinked at him as Zane pulled open his control panel and peered at all of the cogs and bolts, trying to see if one – perhaps his temperature signal – was out of place. But no, it all appeared to be correct. Zane closed the panel, thinking. Strange…

"So are we the only ones that have lived?" he asked, looking back at the others.

"We haven't had time to check yet," Nya muttered sheepishly. "We probably should now."

A sudden call from Jay made them all look up. "Hey! Hey! Guys! I've found someone! And he's still breathing!"

xxx

Cole felt like there were tons of rocks on his chest. Lots and lots of rocks. But he was strong, so he could push them off, right?

Struggling to get up, the black haired teen pushed and pushed, but it was like his arms had made a magical transformation into limp spaghetti noodles. He wrinkled his nose in frustration and pushed even harder, wincing as a jolt of pain shot through his left arm. Something was wrong. Where was he?

All of a sudden it all came rushing back. The plane, the storm, the tilt, the rain, the hail…

…the crash…

Cole felt bile choke up in his chest, but couldn't bring himself to release it. Was he the only one here? Well, the only one here that was still…alive?

Feeling sick at the thought, Cole leaned over and closed his eyes.

When he next opened them, there was a kid about a year younger than him leaning over his face and staring.

Cole yelped and tried to jump up, but then remembered the debris, and his weak arm. "Who are you?" he grumbled, irritated.

The words must have been really soft, because the kid flat out ignored him and instead yelled, "Hey! Hey! Guys! I found someone! And he's still breathing!"

There were more survivors? Cole looked up at the faces rapidly surrounding him – three others, besides the first kid. One was a spiky haired boy, standing close to a black haired girl, and a little farther away was a white haired teenager.

"So I'm not the only one who lived, then?" he asked croakily, wincing as he tried again to lift the boulders off of his chest. The others noticed this and moved to help him, taking the rubbish by twos and moving it off, allowing Cole to breath steadily again.

"Nope! Looks like we're all lucky. I'm Jay, by the way," the first boy said, picking up one of the smaller rocks and pathetically tossing it to one side.

"I'm Kai," the spiky haired boy announced, "and this is my sister, Nya." Nya gave a little wave as her name was announced.

"And I am Zane, droid for others, sent for study, able to—"

"We heard all that earlier," Kai grumbled. "This is Zane. And who are you?"

Cole lifted himself up, feeling another jolt of pain rush throughout his entire body. "…Cole. Cole's the name. Cop and international strongman." The words seemed to bring a certain kind of energy back into him. He was Cole…yeah, he could do a good job – a great job at figuring out this whole stupid situation!

But he was startled out of his wits by another voice behind him. "Please! Somebody help! My mom isn't getting up!"

xxx

Lloyd was panicking, Garmadon was sitting there, claiming he was trying to help (but he was actually doing nothing but staring), and Misako was knocked out on the ground. Lloyd could see dead people all around him, and it scared him, to be honest. The woman with her three children? All dead, with limbs displayed in awkward angles and blood still gushing out of their wounds. It honestly made him sick.

Were the voices he had heard really just figments of his own mind? That didn't seem right. They couldn't be. They sounded real enough. He decided to call again, just to be sure. "Please! Anybody!"

A voice came back at him this time, female and calming. "Don't worry! We'll come right over!"

A few seconds later the speaker appeared: a girl older than him, perhaps sixteen, with shoulder-length black hair and a long red tunic that was torn from running throughout the rubble. Lloyd waved, coughing as dust flew throughout the air. The storm may have passed them by, but it was windy.

Following the girl came a few others; a boy in a blue suit who looked to be about seventeen hopped on one leg, supported by another boy, maybe eighteen, with white-yellow hair and a stiff sort of walk. A spiky-haired kid and a black haired boy followed them.

Lloyd pointed at Misako, feeling tears sting his eyes. "Please help me," he begged, feeling his lip quivering with the effort of choking back crying. "Will she be alright?"

The girl leaned down and placed two fingers on Misako's vein on her wrist. "…she has a pulse, she'll be alright. Just get her out of the debris and lay her down – she'll wake up at some point."

"Thank goodness," Lloyd murmured, beginning to move some of the debris off of his mother. Her glasses had broken; snapped right in two. They had been her favorite glasses and he knew that she would sorely miss them.

Together the group began to life the debris off of Misako – even Garmadon, which quite surprised Lloyd, though he decided not to say anything about it. Everyone managed to pitch in, though several people looked disturbed by the bodies littered around them. The kid in the blue suit looked like he wanted to throw up, while the one with black hair turned around, blocking his eyes. The white-haired android went around to check all of their pulses.

"I have come up with zero results," he announced as he walked back up to the rest.

"Nice try, Zane," the black haired boy shrugged it off, but he was put down. Lloyd could tell by the stoop of his shoulders and the sadness in his gaze. He had always been good at reading emotions like that.

That was when the voice came from behind them.

"Good…very, very good."

xxx

Wu stood up from the debris, seemingly not a scratch on him. Pulling his long wooden staff from the debris next to him, he sat up. Lloyd smiled at him, nodding at his uncle, but Wu ignored this and continued onwards.

"You are all ready for the big challenges, then?" he asked the spiky haired boy, Kai. Kai glared at him.

"Why do we have to take orders from you, old man? And what big challenges?"

"That's my uncle you're talking to!" Lloyd yelped angrily. "He's no old man…he's quite wise."

Kai rolled his eyes as the android, Zane, stepped forward and nodded. "A pleasure to meet you."

Nya did the same, smiling, probably just relieved to find there was another survivor, even though Wu knew he was the last one. These eight and himself were the only ones to have survived the plane crash out of over a hundred people. It was honestly a very horrible thing.

But it was perfect. It worked, and that was all that was necessary. Wu took a few deep breaths in and smiled. "Come. We have much to discuss." Slowly he began to walk away from the wreckage of the plane.

Jay leapt up in shock and, limping through the pain in his leg but moving quickly nonetheless, caught up to Wu fast. "Hey! Hold on a minute here – what about all of these people?" His eyes stung. "What about the plane?"

Wu turned; he recognized the boy as the pilot but decided not to say anything, in case the others got upset with Jay. He couldn't have that. They needed to get along. "We'll have to leave them, is all."

"But where are we going?" Nya asked, catching up; with a grunt, Kai followed, careful to step in-between his sister and Jay.

Wu stroked his long white beard and smiled. "To the plane's original destination, of course."

"What?" Cole piped up for the first time. "How are we supposed to get there? No change of clothes…no food…" His eyes widened, and he looked around him, as if wondering who would have to die first.

Wu sighed. Though he knew they were the correct ones, they had to be tempered with to be made ready. "We will find a way, through the spirit and emotion of you all." Slowly he tapped each of them on the head, including the unconscious Misako and the unwilling Garmadon, who had finally gotten up and was standing with the others. "Together we must live, together we must soar, until we find what we are looking for."

"Live together?" Jay asked excitedly.

"Live together," Wu replied.

"Live together," Kai grumbled, shooting an irritated glance at Jay, who was beaming. Wu watched this all with amusement, knowing this would indeed be a journey to behold. He had chosen well.

"It is time to get a move on," the old man said, surprising everyone from their little mini stupors – the only one who didn't look instinctively at Wu was Kai, who seemed a little reluctant about the whole thing. The others mainly just wanted to stay alive. "We must get there soon. Thousands of miles await us, you know."

"Thousands?" Cole winced. "How will those of us with injuries fare?"

Sensei Wu smiled, and repeated the mysterious sentence he had spoken earlier. "We will find a way."

And so the adventure of a lifetime began – the adventure that was soon to shatter into a million pieces, each one being something that went wrong...

Author's Note:

Thanks for the positive reviews on the prologue! It's my first time writing Ninjago, EVER, and so I was really pleased! A lot of you seemed shocked by Sensei's point of view, and all I can say is that he is a man of mystery, and you'll discover it may have been part of his plan, but certainly not all of it. :3

Read and review, please! :D

~Driz