Chapter 105
Hidden Shadows in the Dark

.:Violet:.

When P.I.X.A.L mentioned that nindroids were here, Violet wasn't entirely sure how to envision them. The ninja of air expected either normal people – just a little bit robotic like – or actual robots like P.I.X.A.L. However, looking around she couldn't see anyone or anything for that matter of fact but she knew for certain that something is out there. Eyeing her team, she realised how everyone immediately got into a circle with their backs pointing inside. It didn't surprise her to see Kai standing particularly close to her.

"Don't do anything reckless okay?" He whispered towards her with a low voice but it still held warmth. She then felt cold metal against the palm of her hand. Looking down, she saw Kai handing her the Techno Blade that looked like a large dagger.

"I thought you were the more reckless fighter," Violet whispered back, earning a short-lived chuckle from the brunette.

"Last time we were in combat you got injected with a chip and the time before that you were severely injured and we all thought you were dead."

"You can't blame me for that," Violet muttered before redirecting her attention to the roof of Garmadon's monastery once she heard footsteps. Narrowing her eyes see could just make out the faint shadows that were on the roof. "They're invisible!"

And upon this announcement, one by one, a nindroid appeared. They would have been silver like P.I.X.A.L but their body shape was completely different to her's and Zane. While P.I.X.A.L had curves to represent she was female and Zane's body shape looked realistic to a human's, these nindroids were much squarer with broad shoulders, flat chest and a straight posture. Each nindroid wore a plain black ninja suit with purple trimmings however with every nindroid, their left arm and left side of their chest weren't covered with clothing, leaving their metallic body visible. But over their mask looked like a half-headset with a lens going over their right eye. Each were equipped with swords but turning around, Violet realise they weren't just on the roof of the monastery but literally a few meters from where they were standing.

Violet didn't waste any time and neither did the others. Instantly, she ran forward with her Techno Blade posed to fight. If these things can hack into the system, surely they can hack into the nindroids right? As she neared towards the nindroid, she saw it's hand move faster than the speed of sound and collided with her shoulder. Violet was thrown off balance and stumbled back, hissing as the pain from her shoulder travelled like shock waves to her fingers and toes. Before she knew it, she could hear another two nindroids coming her way. Barely having time, she just managed to dodge and allowed the two nindroids to barge into each other. It didn't take them long to recover.

"These nindroids are so much faster than u-!" She heard Jay yelled before he was cut off. She assumed he got hit by a nindroid. But instead of focusing on that, the purple-eyed girl kept a closer eye on her five incoming enemies.

They were much faster which Jay got right and with their hands and feet being metal, the blows will hurt much worse than a mortal's own hit. This made Violet wish for them to be fighting the Serpentine. Violet went in to attack again while making sure she didn't get hit but with the skill of combat these robots had, they were making it impossible for her to even hit them with the Techno Blade – whose white glowing blade retracted out a while ago. Just as she was about to use her elemental powers, Kai came out of nowhere and collided into her.

"Kai!"

"S-Sorry." She heard him groan, causing her to groan as well with the weight he placed on her much smaller body. But she gasped when she saw several more nindroid coming towards them, their weapons posed to kill. Immediately, she struggled to get her arms out from underneath Kai –who has yet to get off her- and once they were free, she casted her barrier around them both just as the six nindroids jumped.

"Kai, as much as I love you, you're freakin' heavy!"

"I'm getting there," he groaned and finally got off her. Immediately, she stood up and thrusted her arms out which caused gushes of wind to throw away every nindroid near them… and unfortunately Jay too.

"Hey! Be careful where you're blasting your wind!"

"Sorry!" She quickly called out. She then turned to Kai and gave him a nod before turning away and running off to the far side of the front courtyard and tried figure out how to shut down one of these robots.

Knowing that her Techno Blade won't do anything since she still isn't used to fighting with such a big blade, she took out her own daggers and tried to see if there were any loose cables that could be cut. If these were her birthday daggers Nathan gave her she was pretty sure she could cut through. Not with absolute ease but it'll cut through. However after trying to fight with two of them she couldn't find any weak spots.

"Zane!"

"No Lloyd, you can't use your powers! It'll only strengthen them!"

Upon this, Violet looked around to see Lloyd and Nya in the middle of the courtyard and Zane only a few meters away from her. Rage boiled inside of her when she saw eight of the nindroids have decided to team up and beat up the former nindroid. She instantly dodged her current opponents and dashed over to Zane before waving her arm to the side, making blasts of air push away the nindroids from Zane. Instantly Violet crouched down by his side and felt worry pull her at heartstrings when the warm icy blue eyes she usually sees were concealed away by closed eyelids. She struggled pulled him onto her laps. He was much much much heavier than Kai.

"Zane, wake up please!" She shouted before looking away and threw one of her daggers towards the closest incoming nindroid. She groaned with defeat when the little weapon simply bounced off the metal, enraging the robot. Whipping her head around, Violet felt lost of what to do with the incoming eight nindroids. Her element is clearly not damaging them unless she goes crazy over the top but there was the risk of damaging Garmadon's monastery and also her teammates. It was defiantly not a risk worth taking. So she held Zane closer and kept blasting away the nindroids who eventually got the idea to stab their swords through the damp soil and kept themselves stable.

"Crap crap crap crap!" Violet groaned and she could feel her legs getting sore from having a heavy nindroid on her laps. Clearly, this wasn't the best idea she have come up with.

But just in time as well, a golden tornado appeared out of nowhere and knocked back the nindroids. For a moment she thought it was Wu's spinjitzu since his was golden but once the user stopped in front of her, it didn't really surprise her to see Lloyd. With no words exchanged, Lloyd quickly crouched down in front of her and lifted Zane.

"What the heck does he even eat?!"

"Now you know how my legs feel," Violet groaned as she stood up with a wobbly start. But once she saw beams of red light coming out of the nindroids' lens, she quickly put her barrier once again over her and Lloyd. When the beams made contact with the barrier, they immediately ricochet off. Some came hurdling back towards the nindroid. When they made contact the nindroid exploded!

"Finally, a way to get rid of them." She heard Lloyd sighed with relief.

"Not really."

"What do you mean?"

"There's way more!" And she pointed towards the waterfall that was way off to their side that had nindroids jumping off with gliders attached to their back. From the distance they were currently at, the waterfall had been like a silent white stream cascading over the rocky outcrops. But if they can't hear the deafening roar of the water Violet knew they were far away enough that it'll take the nindroid a little bit more time to make their way over here. Their gliders weren't that fast.

"Seriosuly?!"

"Seriously." But a groan took their attention away and they both looked to Zane.

"Zane?"

"I-I'm okay…" The pale blonde muttered as Lloyd got him onto his feet. But once they heard Nya's cry that they needed to get away, Violet quickly put Zane's arm over her shoulder –even though he was a good foot and a half taller than her- along with Lloyd and they quickly followed the others into the monastery. Immediately, seeing the struggles the shortest person was having trying to support the tallest, Kai took over for her.

"Thanks," she said before quickly hanging back in the monastery as the others used the back door. Swiftly, she created a hurricane within the monastery and shot it at the wave of nindroids. Upon contact they were all thrown back or into the sides of the monastery. After that she quickly left to join the others. She was just in time as well to see the others jump into the mill wheel. She quickly jumped into one of the buckets and as she did, Cole dislodged the wheel.

.:Kai:.

Out of all the plans Cole has ever made as team leader (which Lloyd is now somehow….) they could never compare to this one. It's not that Kai is saying he's dumb or anything like that but the plans was always simple and the same. 'Travel in shadows and then attack when they're least expecting'. Although rolling down in a mill wheel wasn't the most comfortable idea it worked effectively. Once the brunette got out, his aching back sighed with relief that he would no longer be in that position.

"It won't be long until they figure out that we have used autopilot."

"Especially not when my chip is tracking us here," Violet sighed from his side when she finally got out. "I think it would be best if we split up."

"Not again…" Kai groaned as he looked back at his future wife. Violet was stubborn. That was absolutely undeniable. She was more stubborn than him when she wanted to be. It was like his side of the matter would never matter to her. At least he would consider stuff she would say whereas she wouldn't whenever he was being 'stubborn'.

"But Violet, is that the best idea we have? We obviously can't even handle one nindroid and let alone a whole army for a smaller group. We actually fled; we all knew we had no chances of winning," Cole started but Kai watched with unease in his gut as Violet immediately groaned.

"Because I led them here. I reckon the safest plan to have is for us to split. At the moment I'm tracking Overlord to the two things he wants desperately: the Techno Blades and Lloyd."

"So what do you suggest then?" Misako piped up.

"Keeping Lloyd and the Techno Blades is basically giving a present to the Overlord. Easy and no trouble."

"Well I'm staying with Lloyd. If the Overlord wants my son, I'm not letting him out of my sight," said Garmadon as he placed an over the young blonde's shoulders.

"What? Aren't you guys listening to yourselves? Splitting up is the last thing we need right now until we know a way we can defeat this stupid robots. Not that I'm saying you're stupid Zane," Kai argued and rubbed his temple. "Like Cole mentioned earlier, we can't even handle a single nindroid by ourselves so if the army happens to find one of the groups and assume everyone is together and send all their nindroids, that group won't even stand a chance."

"Which is why I'm going alone, so I can lure them away from Lloyd and the Techno Blade so that doesn't happen," the short girl argued back at him, making the blood boil in his veins.

"You can die by yourself!"

"It's better than having the Overlord having a real body and killing countless more people!" She yelled back at him, frustrating him more. "Look, we don't have much time and I don't see anyone coming up with a plan."

"Kai," Nya said softly, drawing his attention away from Violet, "this is the best way to go. Everything she has said seems to be the best answer."

"Who's side are you on?" The brunette asked with a low voice but he could see sadness over his sister's face.

"Look everyone. I know this is hard for us to accept Violet going off by herself but just like she said, we can't risk losing the population of Ninjago City," the samurai sighed before casting a look at Violet who then nodded. The brunette's sister then looked at Lloyd. "Zane's falcon knows the secret location of my Samurai X cave. You and your father go and take what you need to get as far away from us as possible."

"Listen to yourself Nya! Do you really think this is the best choice?" The brunette argued once again.

"I don't think it's the best choice but it's the only choice we have," the girl sighed.

"But -no offence Garmadon or Lloyd- you're sending the only person that can turn the Overlord real by himself with his father. A group of two isn't even a group! Especially not against the nindroids-"

"Kai, will you just shut up for a minute?!" Nya exploded, only making the ninja of fire groan and 'patiently' waited for her to finish. "That's why we will shut down the power. I remember P.I.X.A.L mentioning how droids are hooked up to the power while Zane runs on his own battery source. If we shut down the power, we shut down the nindroids along with the tracker in Violet. But like she said, she'll have to go alone-"

"-but-" He stammered but got completely ignored by his sister.

"- by doing this, this will draw the Nindroids away from us making it easier and quicker for us to shut down the power and hopefully in time before Violet would have to deal with them," Nya concluded and looked to Violet once again. The ninja simply nodded. "So who's in? And be quick, we don't have much time."

"I am," Violet immediately said. Kai could only just sigh and let it go. Now that Nya said that they would shut off the power, he felt a little bit more reassured by this plan. At least he knows that Violet will not definitely die on this plan but that still didn't make it okay. After a couple seconds, a few more 'I am' chorused only leaving him to decide.

"Does it really matter what I say? The plan is already in favour."

"Alright, it's decided then-"

"Wait, hold on," Kai quickly interrupted, "at least make it that I go with Violet."

"No." Was the immediate response, making him groan. "Listen, we don't have time to discuss this at all. It's already decided and agreed on." And she passed her Techno Blade to Nya. "Once the power's out, where do we go?"

"I haven't decided that yet but Lloyd and Garmadon should stay clear from us and stay somewhere remote," Nya mumbled.

"Well there's always my parents' junkyard. I know it may not be the most ideal place but no one will expect us there."

"Okay then, it's decided. Once we shut off the power, we'll head over to Jay's junkyard. Violet, once you know clearly that the power is shut off, join us. Lloyd and Garmadon, just stay clear until we know how to stop the Overlord with the Techno Blades."

Hi everyone! I hope you like but I come with good and bad news (up to the reader if it's bad). All of the OC's are amazing and I seriously had a tough time choosing so guess what? I'm adding different qualities of a couple people's OC together. I hope you all aren't mad but there were just so many good ideas here and there within many OC's. So (I wouldn't say winners, that just seems mean) the people who's going to get their OC's converge are: Kai4Ever (Name, gender, appearance, combat skill and other), ElementzGirl7 (History and combat), ALookIntoMyWorld (Personality), CarlyShi208 (Combat) and FlameNinjaofDarkFire (History about living in the Whaling Alps). I'm also doing a cameo of Kairocksrainbow's OC Tylor !I'm incredibly sorry I didn't use anybody else's OCs but they are amazing! I recorded all of them in a journal so maybe I may use them later on in the story when a role is needed :)

Kairocksrainbow: Only you and Kai4Ever posted male OC's and I realised I needed one more so yay! :D

Samantha Rutledg: Happy Birthday! I kinda made sure to post this on your birthday but I'm not sure if I'm a day early or late since we live in different time zones.

FlameNinjaofDarkFire: Oops, that was a typo. Sorry bout that (smiles and chuckles sheepishly)

Thank you to everyone who reviewed too and submitted more OC's. Unfortunately, now that I'm in grade 11, the work load has intensified from last year and I already got art projects due and bombed with loads of homework. My chemistry homework took me 6-8 hours and so on so on. So I apologise in advance if updates become a monthly thing. :( But thank you to everyone who has been so patient, it means so so so so much to me. Xoxo – ZaneLoverFan88