Hey guys. I'm really sorry about not posting for a while. I've caught up with myself, so I have to post chapters as I write them now. I will try to follow my Tuesday Saturday schedule, but I make no promises. Do know there will be longer periods of time between posting.

Recovering

The sharp tip of metal sliced through the wood with ease. The upper half of the training dummy tumbled over with a satisfying thud. Though the victor didn't enjoy this satisfaction as much as he'd hoped. The scythe dropped to the floor, clanging as it fell. It's master knelt to the floor, holding his sides.

It had been several days since the incident at the bank, and Misako had finally let Cole off bed rest, allowing gentle exercises to prevent his muscles from growing too weak after not being used. The black ninja started with simple exercises; stretches, push ups, and all that sort of stuff.

After so many restless days and nights of lying in the same position, Cole felt more than eager to kill a couple dummies in the training room. He understood now why Misako said "gentle" exercises. The black ninja felt the muscles around his scar tighten up.

To try to ease the pain, Cole took a few deep breaths and did a few gentle stretches in hopes it would loosen the muscles. As the immense pain slowly dissipated, Cole ceased his stretches, and just laid down on the floor. Staring at the wooden panels covering the ceiling, the master of earth, felt a feeling of hopelessness weigh him down.

These evil other ninja were somewhere at their hideout, dojo, training area, or wherever they retreated to after a fight, probably training and preparing to take them out. Cole on the other hand could barely wipe out a few training dummies, his companions not much better off. Why can't these ninja pick on someone else? Maybe steal ice cream from a little boy in the park. Something that didn't involve the ninja.

As Cole continued to think about those other ninja and the party, someone else drifted through his thoughts. Those girls they met at the party. Zane looked pretty cute dancing with that Mia girl. Kai was clearly hopelessly in love with Melissa. Lloyd defiantly seemed to enjoy Rori's company.

What about that Skylar girl? She seemed to older than all the others, and pretty much taking charge over the others. She also appeared somewhat awkward around big groups of people, almost like she wasn't the type to speak out. Cole liked that about her. Then there was the other side of her he only heard about through her friends that seemed crazy and out going, but that seemed to only be the case when she was around people she knew. If only he'd gotten a little closer with her that night. Maybe he could help bring her out of her shell.

Maybe after they got those other ninja out of the way, he could try to find her. He wanted more than anything to destroy that earth ninja. Make him - no, her - feel the horrific pain she caused him that night. The horrific pain he could still feel now from not following Misako's instructions. Ok, maybe he deserved that for trying to get back into the swing of things too quickly.

The whole deal with the elements though was very peculiar. Though they were richly defeated, not even the other ninja seemed to have complete control over their spinjitsu. But other things weren't right either. Jay and the other lightening ninja couldn't control the electricity they bounced around the crumbling bank. Cole had no control over the aim or force in his punches, and the other earth ninja seemed to experience the same difficulties. Kai couldn't control the fire in his sword at all. Ok, maybe that makes sense considering that his sword was made of wood. How could his fiery brother overlooked that?

Not even that ice ninja's shuriken should've been able to create ice like that, especially since it wasn't one of the golden shurikens of ice. It shouldn't have been able to almost freeze Zane, and his leg. There was defiantly something wrong with this. Was there something that he was overlooking in the situation?

There are four new ninja. They have the same elements as the current ninja that are protecting Ninjago. They're also girls.

All these thoughts were getting crowded in his head. Cole got up off the floor, and rushed back to his room, grabbing a pen and paper off the dresser. The black ninja lay on the floor, and began scribbling down things from that night that might have lead to the elements misbehaving.

-Who;

•four new ninja

•girls

•same elements(earth, fire, lightening, ice)

•have a grudge on the ninja protecting Ninjago for some reason

•masters of spinjitsu

-Other possible factors;

•where; the city bank

•when; late at night

•Jay's stupid toilet paper ninja idea

-Notes

•other ninja only attacked ninja of the same element

•acted strangely around Lloyd, almost as if they are afraid of him

Cole read over his list multiple times, occasionally adding little notes here and there. What could this mean? Their behavior around Lloyd was defiantly odd. The other fire ninja wouldn't even attempt to land a blow on him. Did it have something to do with the fact he was the green ninja? Maybe Lloyd was the reason their elements were acting strange.

No, Cole quickly realized. Lloyd has fought beside them many times, but this was something new that wouldn't be affected by Lloyd unless he tried something different he hadn't done before. The black ninja mentally crossed that thought out, and tried to move on to another fact.

The ninja only attacked the ninja of the same element. That was indeed strange. Probably just to avoid a different element's property from affecting their own. Like how fire would just melt ice.

Not having any other ideas, Cole decided to bring his list to Sensei Wu. Maybe he could see some connection between these factors that didn't appear so obvious to the black ninja. Cole felt much better now though thinking this out more. Writing the list almost helped him in recovering. He felt much closer now to figuring out the mystery behind that night.

The earth ninja delivered a hard jab to an imaginary punching bag. She was practicing while she awaited the arrival of her teammates. There was something they needed to discuss. The defeat of the ninja.

As the earth ninja continued to punch and kick the air, that night at the party came back to her. Everything that happened, and how. Well, she didn't quite know how everything happened. The elements were indeed acting very strange. Though she had yet to bring that up to her sensei.

A wave of shame came over her when she remembered. Her sensei had worked out every part of their plan, even putting her in charge of the team. The earth ninja was instructed to attack the earth ninja protecting the fabled green ninja. Her companions were too told to only fight the ninja of the same element, and to destroy them. As for the green ninja, her sensei was to be the one to destroy him, preventing the prophecy of the green ninja destroying the darkness from coming true. Her sensei never said anything about their elemental powers taking to a mind of their own.

Feeling the heavy weight of guilt on her shoulders, the earth ninja could no longer continue her practices. She had to tell her sensei.

Stepping out if the training room, the earth ninja walked down the dark stone hall. Each individual stone smoothed down, obtaining a shiny black appearance. It was warm enough to be just above comfortable room temperature.

At the end of the hall stood two massive double doors. The golden doorknob stood out against the black door, emanating an audible creak as it turned. Through the doors was a giant black room. At the center stood a massive throne, seating her precious sensei. The earth ninja was quite intimidated by his tattered leathery wings and glowing purple eyes. They were the one thing that still made her nervous. They were after all the one thing that ruined her life several months ago.

"Why if it isn't my faithful earth ninja," her sensei smirked, giving the girl unease. "What brings you here on this fine morning?"

"Sensei," she started, before stopping to bow respectfully to her teacher. "There is something that I must tell you. That night at our first attack on the ninja... There is something I didn't tell you."

"And what would that be," the sensei asked, sitting up in interest. With the massive dark dragon looking down on her, the earth ninja felt even more ninja.

"W-when I was fighting with that other earth ninja, I... I couldn't quite control my element," she stuttered.

All her self confidence was gone now. Though she respected her sensei, he still scared her. She knew just how much power he had. She watched him kill her parents, forcing her to toughen up if she wanted to survive. If she continued to live her former life - hiding in her seat on the school bus, trying to ignore the hurtful comments made about her by her peers, never once standing up for herself or anyone - her sensei might kill her too, the same way he killed her parents.

"What?" Her sensei gasped, anger visible in his inhumane purple eyes. "I trained you to control this gift I bestowed upon you. Are you trying to suggest I didn't train you well enough to take down our enemies? Or maybe you aren't worthy of the title, Earth Master."

"No, I don't mean anything like that," the earth ninja replied hurriedly. This is the reaction she was afraid of. "None of us could control the elements. Not even the other ninja. Do you have any theories on why that could be?"

"Hmmm," her sensei thought, his voice rough and raspy. "I do not know the reason behind the misbehavior of your element. All I can say is this should be taken as a learning opportunity. Instead of looking at this as an impassable obstacle, let's think of it as a training exercise. We must try to find a way to perhaps use it to our own advantage."

"But sensei. How would we do that?" The earth ninja was quite confused by what her sensei was trying to say.

"I will not bring our operation to a halt because you can't control your element," her sensei replied, his tone hardening. "We must keep pushing on. I'm moving our attack forward. You have to lead the attack Saturday night. The sooner you get those elemental swords, and kidnap the green ninja, the better. When one divides, two will collide."

"And a new evil is born," the earth ninja agreed, bowing again. "I will make the plans with the others now."

With that, the earth ninja left her sensei, returning to the training room. In the training room, her three fellow ninja were warming up with stretches. The prophecy her sensei had said entered her mind as she watched the others finish their warm up.

When one divides...

Two will collide...

And a new evil is born...

The earth ninja herself was unsure of its exact meaning. Her sensei knew what it meant, but he told her it might jeopardize the plan if he shared it with her. He admitted that he shouldn't have even told her the prophecy in the first place. He put her under specific instruction not to share it with any of the others.

When one divides...

The thought hadn't crossed the earth ninja's mind until now, but could that possibly mean the elements? The way they couldn't be controlled? Was it possible that had to do with the prophecy?

Two will collide...

The line almost made her think of Yin and Yang. Was there anything that resembled the ancient symbol. The earth ninja thought long and hard about this before it finally hit her.

The light and dark islands of Ninjago! On the few maps she'd seen, they looked almost like Yin and Yang but split in half. But how could they ever collide?

Or maybe they could. If the first master of spinjitsu was able to divide Ninjago in two all those years ago, was it possible they could rejoin? Or maybe the prophecy was referencing when the first master of spinjitsu divided Ninjago. Maybe that was When one divides. Then what was Two will collide?

"Hey!" Shouted a voice in her ear.

The earth ninja was immediately broken of her thoughts.

"Huh? Wha?" The earth ninja stuttered as it occurred to her that the other ninja had been trying to bring her out of her thoughts for several minutes now.

"You're late, we have to plan our attack," says the white ninja plainly.

Yeah sure, I'm late, thought the ninja of earth grumpily. She'd been in the training room waiting for nearly an hour before she went to see her sensei. If anything, she should be yelling at them for being late.

"Right, gather around and we'll start with assessing the situation," the black ninja nodded, taking a seat on the black training mat that rested on the cold stone floor.

"Sensei has informed us that we must lead an attack on the ninja if we are ever to get our hands on the elemental swords," the blue ninja of lightening stated joining with the fire ninja on the mat next to the ninja of ice. "Then there's that green ninja that also has to be dealt with. Man I wish sensei would allow us to attack him."

"You know he has control over all four elements," the ninja of fire reminded the blue ninja. "None of us would stand a chance against him. Sensei said that he would deal with the boy."

"I've spoken with sensei," the earth ninja started to explain some of what she discussed with her sensei. "We have to move the attack to be as soon as possible. We must ambush Destiny's Bounty Saturday night."

"Saturday," the fire ninja seemed very uncertain about this date. "Isn't that rather soon? Surely we shouldn't wait a little longer before launching such a big mission."

"Those are our orders," the earth ninja persisted, meeting the fire ninja with a firm gaze. The fire ninja diverted her eyes, looking rather uncomfortable. "I sense you have another reason you don't want to launch the attack Saturday."

"Is everything ok sis?" the ninja of ice asked the red ninja.

"Yeah, I'm fine," the fire ninja shook her head. "We can attack Saturday."

"Good," the earth ninja continued, choosing to ignore the fire ninja's odd behavior. "Now, we have to get to the elemental swords. The ninja will put up a good fight to protect them. But we can't let us stop us."

"What about the green ninja," the blue ninja piped up. "Surely he won't be putting up a good fight too. How will we deal with him?"

"Sensei's on top of that," the earth ninja confirmed for the youngest ninja. "All we have to worry about is the ninja. We must destroy them tonight."

Oo, I sense some plot reveal here. Naw, this plot is so confusing, I don't even fully understand it. But as you can tell, this will be big. So these new ninja are planning to steal the elemental swords, and then there's this talk of kidnapping the green ninja. Then of course you can't forget about the misbehaving elements that seem to have everyone talking. And we're seeing that prophecy Kai ignored a few chapters ago. Oh Kai, you shouldn't have tossed that one aside. And to add to all this, there is our reluctant other fire master who doesn't want to launch the attack on Saturday night. I wonder why.

Any thoughts on all this information, please leave a review. Follows and favorite appreciated as well. :)