Chapter 92
Clouds of Darkness

.:Violet:.

Only minutes ago the sky was a baby blue colour but now, the icy grey sky restlessly grumbled. The thick blackened clouds were dragged down by the heavy rain which it held in its delicate frame. The clouds which struggled to withstand the burden of the weight which the rain held, soon gave in. The rain poured down over the beach with a roar. The sound of emptiness was disrupted by the loud gregarious boom of thunder. The cold icy rain pierced her skin. Violet sat underneath one of the trees along the tree line of that forest that bordered the beach, her posture weakened by the weight of her soaked ninja gi. The quality of darkness shifted in the sky but the rain kept pouring. The harsh rain obliterated the crystal reflection of the sky and turned it into a disorientated chaos.

Only moments ago Violet arrived back with the items she could savage from the Bounty: the necklace Kai made for her and her birthday daggers. Everything else: the birthday presents she retrieved from her friends and the journals from her parents were gone or water damaged and unfixable. The necklace was around her neck while the daggers were fastened to her waist.

"The battle between good and evil will be decided today…" Sensei Wu's voice gravely spoke through the harsh downpour of the rain. Everyone's eyes were cast to the faint silhouette of Ninjago through the deluge.

"But we can't even get to the fight." The ninja of fire muttered from right next to her. The two took shelter underneath a short palm tree while the others were underneath their own tree. Violet was grateful that Kai tried providing as much warmth as he could, the freezing rain started to make her shiver. "Much less get off this island. Sensei, I don't understand. The prophecy said the Green Ninja would defeat the Dark Lord, why didn't we win?"

"I… don't know." The sensei muttered as he tilted his head down. That was probably the first time Violet ever heard him clueless in her whole lifetime.

"D-Don't know?" Jay spluttered as he got up from the rock he was sitting on. "You're Sensei! You always know, you have a long white beard!"

"There must be some message to learn, a lesson, a word of wisdom… just a word, something."

"For once, I'm afraid there's nothing to learn; only that evil has won…"

And it went silent from there among the team, only the downpour of rain splattering against the ground and leaves as well as the crackle of thunder in the sky as lighting dashes along.

"Well, if Uncle doesn't have a lesson then I do. I used to be nothing but trouble but then I met you guys. You took me in; you showed me the importance of being brave, the importance of being strong and most importantly, being good. When this battle first began, when the First Spinjitzu Master fought the Overlord -and his back was against the wall and he knew it was all over – did he quit? No. He found the way to keep the fight going; he passed his elemental powers down to us of all people– a bunch of kids. There must have been a reason he chose us." Lloyd started as he limped around. Upon these words, Violet's mind went back to her father's letter and his confessions of the elemental powers. What Lloyd said was true, the Spinjitzu Master passed his powers down but not to them straightaway but their parents. "I like to think he chose us because he knew we'll never back down and we'll never give up. We have learnt the ancient ways of the ninja and ninja never quits."

"He's right." Violet added as she stood up and walked towards Lloyd who stood far from the shelter the trees provided from the rain. "We are ninja; we serve with honour and never give up. When we all first accepted Sensei Wu's invitation to the Monastery and to train as a ninja, we all were aware of the responsibility to become a ninja and we still accepted it. We saw it on the walls of the Temple of Light building-"

"-Violet-!"

"-that Fate wanted us to be the elemental ninja that saves Ninjago which is what we would do. Yes we may have lost today but that doesn't mean it games over for us, it means Fate has given us another chance and we will redeem that chance today and we will win this war-"

"-Violet!"

"What is it Misako?" Violet asked, deciding to answer the urgent woman now.

"You're a genius."

"Huh?"

"The Temple of Light, how come I didn't realise this before? There's a scroll with five blades looking like the ones you guys retrieved. I've never realised what it means until now. We need to head over to the Temple of Light."

.:Mabel:.

As she was roused from her heavy slumber, the young girl was first aware of the coolness of the air and its loamy fragrance. The ground is lumpy as if she were on a bed of earth and rocks and her clothes felt as damp as a flower in the dew of the dawn. Mabel half wondered if she still dreaming as she sat up to take in the shafts of light that burst through the gaps in the dark and grey leaf canopy above. Groaning, the young girl slowly sat up from her current position and looked around. The central park of Ninjago was empty of life. The lights that shone in the dark of the night was barely glowing any light, perhaps it was glowing grey. Slowly, Mabel stood up and walked around with her small arms around her.

Her young mind travelled back to what happened before she woke up. Okay then… I was with mummy and daddy…. Oh! And she then remembered the agonising pain in her head as if something was crawling in it and the scary voice. Could it be something was trying to take control of my mind like in those movies? Maybe I managed to get rid of it. She thought as she rubbed her forehead to get rid of the dull ache that was still there. While Mabel was deep in thought, her feet took her to an abandoned alleyway.

The dim light that oozed through the narrow gap made it look unpleasant and gloomy. The vines that crawl up window sills and the crumbling plaster that envelope the old stone bricks appear daunting. The darkness lurked every corner inside the labyrinth of narrow passages and dead ends. Litter is dumped on the street and birds nest amongst the sprawling rot. Upon this sight, Mabel's body was frozen over with fear. She couldn't breathe; it felt as if someone was choking her. Her heart was racing and all she wanted to do was curl up into a ball and wait for someone to save her. But no one would, no one was there. A choked cry for help forced itself up her throat, and she felt a drop run down her cheek. It seemed as if this was the end of the road for her.

"Mummy, Daddy!" She called out as she broke down onto the ground. She couldn't stop shaking. The Ninjago City she knew was full of life, colour and people, now it was a ghost town. Her sobs echoed within the alley, scaring her even more. Immediately, the girl got onto her feet and ran. As she ran onto the busy streets of Ninjago City, what she saw scared her.

The people weren't people but they looked like zombies, the number one thing Mabel was most petrified of. Their usual creamy skin was grey like ash, their eyes were dull and dark with no life behind them and their body stance was slouched over. She couldn't control herself, a scream came from her lips and she turned and ran. Immediately, beastly growls were heard from the zombie like people that walked after her.

Could it be that thing that was trying to get into my head earlier has taken over everyone else? Including Mummy and Daddy? But how come I'm not like them?

But Mabel was forced to snap out of her thoughts when she heard someone else yell over the growls of the zombies but she could hear an evil crackle of laughter as well as what sounds like a canon being constantly shot. Suddenly, a man dressed in brown turned onto the street she was on and headed her way. At first she was confused how come he wasn't a zombie like her but nevertheless, he ran towards her and picked her up, continuing his running.

"Where's my mummy and daddy?" She asked as the porky man put her over his shoulder so she could see behind him. She wished she hasn't because she could see the army of stone men from a couple days ago and a canon like truck chasing after them.

"Hey calm down, you'll be okay because you're with Grand Sensei Dareth, the best martial artist in Ninjago City." The man told her. Immediately, she felt safe but she didn't understand why the brown man was running away.

"I want my mummy and daddy…"

"We'll find them. For now, we need to run."

.:Violet:.

For the first time in what feels like forever, the ninja of air felt at ease as she lay back on the Ultra Dragon's white scales. The salty air whispers like a lover, placing salty kisses on her cheeks and tousling her long caramel hair. A smile appeared on her lips as she stretched out her bare hand like a star-fish to feel the air wrap around her slim fingers. Violet was glad that they now had a way to get off of the Dark Island and away from the rain but she didn't look forward to the events that are yet to happen. She had no doubt that they would lose today but she worried for the cost of their victory.

"I see Ninjago! We're not far away!" Kai shouted over the loud roars of the wind as the dragon's strong wings flapped and soar through the air.

"Are you even sure that's Ninjago?" Cole questioned. From up in the air, it looked nothing like Ninjago.

In the thick and dark fog the city is blurred like an old painting. The buildings were silhouetted black and two-dimensional. When they got closer to Ninjago City, they all could tell it doesn't smell right at all, in fact it smells of nothing but the damp trees not yet in bloom. It was silent except for the bass horn that would blow like an eerie alarm. The ease the ninja of air felt earlier before is now gone without a trace.

.::.

The ninja of hair couldn't believe what she was seeing. All the people of Ninjago looked like Nya after the Ultimate Weapon was used on her. All of their skins were grey as if ashes were rubbed on and deep, black bags were set underneath their haunted and dull eyes. Their body postures resembled a zombie, hunched over and slow with their faces looking at their shuffling feet.

"He turned everyone evil… Just like Nya." Kai whispered from next to her and it wasn't long until the bass horn like sound boomed out, the low note making the gravel vibrate underneath her feet. Immediately, Violet's eyes travelled to the direction to where she heard the horn from, which was atop of Garmatron. Then, a large, thick cloud of dark purple smoke was shot from the top; it reached high in the sky and when it was at its highest peak, it stopped and hovered there for a second before it fell, aiming towards them.

"Take cover!" Cole shouted but the best they could do is press themselves against the wall of the building and hope that the distance should be enough. As everyone closed their eyes, Violet kept her's open and watched as the cloud of smoke hit the ground. Immediately, it was like a ghost and disappeared as if it went through the ground, only leaving behind a dark stain on the road.

"The metamorphosis is complete, the Overlord changed into his original form." Misako informed them as they all looked to the large dragon whose wingspan was larger than the building's width.

"But we can't fly up there without being shot down and turn out like them." Cole stated as his large hand pointed to the people that were walking on the other side of the building the ninja were taking cover at.

"But we have my father's Mech; we have to draw their fire to help Lloyd use the Mech against the Overlord."

"We hear you loud and clear."

Sorry for another short chapter but this writer's block is killing me and I want to post a chapter on time… I'm sorry everyone. But thank you all for the reviews and massive thanks to: Kai4Ever, ALookIntoMyWorld, Ninjagymnastgirl, ImaginationOverdrive, MMM, FlameNinjaofDarkFire, bebe fou5, MortalNinjas, CarlyShi208, ElementzGirl7, Mihoshi 2.0 and all the silent readers!

ALookIntoMyWorld: You did ask but only the future can answer that question ;)

bebe fou5: None taken but he will soon in a few chapters.

And I'm super super super glad you all love the sunset scene so I hope you liked the raining one as well, it seems I can write landscapes really well. Unforunately, this is the 3rd time of year when my assignments are going to be thrown at me so there may be no updates next week due to me being super busy. Plus I've found out the next 2 years for school are going to be so chaotic since my results will determine whether I get into university and my career path. Because of this, coping with volleyball and violin is going to be hard with the extra homework and essays and everything else. So updates will probably be super slow for the next two years and I apologise for that. But thanks to everyone who read, reviewed and read this super long author's note, I'll see you all soon. Xoxoxo – ZaneLoverFan88