Chapter Thirteen: Not as Planned
1
"I met Hikari and I know what we have to do now."
"How did you meet her?" Zane said.
"To save time, just tell us what we have to do," the leader of the group said before Blair was able to respond to Zane.
"We need to go to the temple and protect a gem called the Taiyō no doroppu (it means sun drop according to google translate)."
"What about your sister Lydia?" Nya asked.
"To tell you the truth, I am not really
sure. We will just cross that bridge when we arrive." The other ninja and Nya gave each other a worried look when Blair said this.
Sensei Wu told Nya to prepare the Bounty, they were flying her to the Temple of Light. Soon, the flying ship lifted off out of the mountainy region they were in and was flying above the mountains in the sky. Nya said the trip in the boat would take about eight hours so everyone had to find something to preoccupy themselves with. Wu meditated and drank tea, Zane trained a bit and then meditated, Nya, of course, steered the Bounty, the male ninja trained and played video games, and Blair, no one really knew what she was up to. She locked herself in her room to have some alone time consisting of practicing her light powers, a brief nap, and mostly thinking about what to do about Lydia. Blair had nearly dozed off to sleep again when she heard Nya call out "We're here!"
This brought Blair back into reality as she snapped her eyes open and shot up. The master of light knew she had to face her sister, but she was dreading it. With trembling hands and wobbly legs, she exited her room and tried to calm herself down before she saw Nya and the boys but, much to her dismay, Lloyd had turned the corner to retrieve her. Blair quickly tried to calm herself but Lloyd knew almost precisely what she was going through.
Adorned in his usual smile, Lloyd said, "Hey, don't worry. Your sister will be fine." Noticing that this did not seem to cheer Blair up in any way as she kept on walking past him, the green ninja added, "Well at least Lydia isn't totally evil like my father was. It could be worse; she will come back to us..."
"No, we don't know that she will come back. The prophecy states that either she wins or I destroy her; that's it," Blair said raising her voice louder and louder.
"There is always a third option if you think hard enough. Trust me." This being said, Lloyd turned around and left being followed by Blair.
When Blair joined the others and stepped onto the Bounty's deck, her breath was taken away. The once radiant and beautiful Temple of Light had become dark and dreary with a cloud of darkness and doom hanging around it. No one, not even Jay, knew exactly what to say; no words would have fit the sight.
Looking away, Sensei Wu said, "Once you are inside the temple, you must find the gem. It should be on a pedestal in the centre of the room."
"What about Lydia?" Coke asked.
Blair withdrew her gaze from the temple to look at her team. "You guys protect that gem and leave Lydia to me," she said with such firmness and authority in her voice that no one dared to even object.
Nya flew the ship as close as she could to the ledge of the temple for the ninja to jump off. Blair created as much light as she could so they could see the platform. Luckily, the darkness surrounding the temple was more like a mist that was easy to be done away with by Blair's light. The six ninja jumped from the edge of the Bounty yelling "Ninja-Go!" as they performed spinjitsu until they landed. Once they landed, Nya flew the ship away and there was a complete and utter silence.
Breaking the eerie silence, Jay said, "Is this freaking anybody else out?"
"This might be hard to believe but some people actually enjoy a little peace and quiet," Kai said. "But yes, this place is a little creepy."
"Just stick to the plan," Cole said as he started to walk forward. He quickly realized that he couldn't see all too well and could be about to fall off the edge. "Kai, maybe you should lead with your fire."
"I do not think that is a good idea, Cole. Lydia will be able to see the glow that is being admitted from Kai's flame, ruining our whole plan."
"Then was do you suggest? Walk around aimlessly and hope we are going in the right direction?" Kai said.
"No, I will lead us through ,because as a Nindroid, I can see well enough in the dark to guide us."
As the ninja were walking down the hallway, Lloyd realized a big flaw in their plan. "If this is like the a Temple of Darkness, then it will be just one big room. If it's just one big room, then Lydia will be in it. And if Lydia is there, how are we going to take that gem?"
"Oh," Cole said, "I hadn't thought of that."
Being last in their line, the others didn't notice Blair had stopped walking as they were talking about their flawed plan. The reason for her stopping was that she was pretty sure that she felt the floor cracking underneath her. This theory was confirmed when she could clearly hear a large cracking sound.
"What was that?" Jay said in his frantic voice.
"Um, guys, I think it was the floor," the female in the group answered.
"The floor?" asked Jay a bit louder.
"Yes, it was the flooooooooor!" Blair's "floor" turned into a scream as the ground beneath her crumbled and she fell through.
"Blair!" the others yelled in unison. They couldn't exactly see what happened or if their teammate was alright so they began to worry.
"I'm alright," Blair's voice echoed. "It wasn't very far; only a few feet."
"Where are you?" Lloyd asked.
"Hang on." Blair produced a small glow in her right hand to see where she had fallen. "It looks like I'm in another tunnel of some sort."
This tunnel was different from the one she had previously had been in. The one on top had smooth walls and floors. This tunnel was more rough, and upon closer examination, the tunnel had a black substance all over the walls, floors, and ceiling. It doesn't really matter which you call them because the tunnel was round so there was not a specific floor, walls, and ceiling. This black on it was like soot and strangely reminded Blair of something; she couldn't quite place her finger on what until she subconsciously began twisting the ends of one of the locks of her hair. Finally, it clicked in her mind. The black powder-like substance reminded Blair of the ends of her hair when Lydia's darkness destroyed the ends.
"Lydia, I really think that you should stop now," Blair said now standing and moving towards her sister.
"I can't stop, it just keeps getter larger and larger," Lydia said without taking her eyes off of the darkness in between her hands.
"Here, maybe this will help," Blair said.
Blair made a light in the palm of each hand and leaned forward so as to place it on Lydia's darkness. As she leaned forward, her hair (it was a bit farther than halfway down her back) touched her twin's darkness. She at first didn't notice because her light seemed to do the trick at vanishing Lydia's little bit of darkness. The girls did take notice when the darkness spread on Blair's hair so it was all around the edges and it was crawling its way up her hair.
"Oh no! Blair, your hair! Hurry put it out!" Lydia said in a panic.
Blair promptly created a bigger mass of light on her palms to put out the darkness that was consuming her hair. When it was put out, Blair's hair was now a little shorter than shoulder length with no other signs of damage. It was very strange that it had been broken off so evenly, but it was a good thing it did because her hair has never grown even an inch since then.
Blair's mind was drawn back into the present when she heard Cole shout down, "Grab my hand and I will pull you up." He was able to see the hole she fell through because of the light Blair was producing.
"No, it's alright. Lydia made this path, I just know it. If I follow it, it will lead me straight to her. You guys keep going as planned and protect the Taiyō no Doroppu."
The ninja gave questioning glances at each other before finally assenting.
Blair had to decide if she should go left, or go right. She ended up choosing to go right because tgat was the direction she had been going in the other tunnel. Without Zane to act as guide, Blair had to keep a small bit of light in her hand so as to not fall into any more holes or run into a wall. She knew that Lydia would be able to see it but that's what she wanted-Lydia to see her, right?
As the ninja of light kept walking, she felt as if the tunnel would go on and on forever. The mountain was a lot bigger than she had thought; it felt like it had been hours upon hours. This feeling had to do with her nervousness. If there was one thing this girl liked, it was a solid plan. Blair had absolutely no plan whatsoever or even any idea what to do. So many questions were running through her mind. Should her and Lydia just try talking it out? Should she attack? Will Lydia attack? By now, Blair was sick of questions and just wanted a simple answer.
While Blair thought, she had zoned out of the real world until one of her footsteps echoed louder than before. She was now out of the tunnel and in an open room. Any sort of details in the room were lost to Blair in the darkness, but there was one thing that was clear and visible to her vision. That thing just happened to be Lydia, her twin sister, sitting on what appeared to be a throne across the room.
2
"Once we get this gem, I'm not even going to attempt to say its name, should we go help Blair out?" Jay asked as the male ninja continued in their tunnel. Now they were walking a bit slower and more careful to ensure the floor wouldn't cave in again.
"That would probably be a good idea," Cole, the leader, said.
"We shouldn't interfere much because the prophecy was between Lydia and Blair, not us helping," said Lloyd.
Much like Blair, the ninja were surprised how big the mountain actually was. Eventually, they did make it to the large room where the gem was supposed to be. They asked Zane if Lydia was in there but, much to their satisfaction, she wasn't.
Cole used his quakes to seal up the entrance from the tunnel they were just in and Kai made a fire in his hands. He was quickly able to locate some torches that were hanging on the wall and had them all ablaze in no time.
Zane walked up to the pedestal in the centre of the room and said, "I believe this is where the Taiyō no Doroppu is located."
"Ok, but where is it?" Kai asked.
"I am not sure; there must be some sort of switch or button that opens it"
The ninja began to look for this button or switch all around the pedestal. They were about to look someplace else until Kai leaned up against the button and they saw the gem.
"Woah, look, there it is! It's so pretty," Jay said. He was right; it was very beautiful. The gem was an orange-yellow color and it seemed to glow a bit in the middle.
Kai took off his mask, picked up the gem, and placed the gem in his mask, wrapping it tightly around. "Let's bring this back to the Bounty," Kai said. "Then we can go help Blair."
The ninja headed toward where Cole temporarily blocked until they felt the floor shake. "Was that you, Cole?" Lloyd asked.
"No, that wasn't me," he answered.
The ground the ninja were standing on gave way, sending through it with a yell.
And there you have chapter thirteen and a big cliffhanger. I tried not to make this chapter as rushed but if it is, please tell me so. There is a possibility that I won't be able to update next week but I will update the Friday after next week for sure.
Once again, thank you everyone who has read my story and ZaneLoverFan88 for reviewing. Don't be afraid to review and tell me what you think even if you didn't like it. I want to know if there was something you didn't like in the story and trust me, I won't be offended or anything if you say you didn't like it. It's not like I have loved everything I've read.
ZaneLoverFan88: I don't think I would do an AU story but that's about the only preference I have. My main question is what fandom to make my story about.
There is a Ninjago fanfiction by AreiaCananaid that I would like to recommend to all of you. I enjoyed reading it and thought you guys should enjoy it too. God Bless!