Disclaimer: I do not own Ninjago or the lines from the episode Masters Never Quit.

Chapter XII: Masters Never Quit

Cole, Vania, Wu, C.J., and the Uply were all running for their lives. For the lava monster had come back and was set on having them all for lunch.

"I thought we lost this thing!" Plundar screamed as a lava ball shot the ceiling above him.

"Plundar think wrong!" Korgran replied.

"No more thinking. Just run!" Cole screamed, keeping C.J.'s head ducked closer to him as he carried the toddler through the caves. It was incredible how much the little one trusted him. Especially during times like these.

The master of earth and leader of the group had to stop suddenly when he nearly ran into a bunch of mine carts.

"Everyone, into the carts!" Cole told his friends.

"Carts?" C.J. questioned this new word.

"Are you sure these still work?" Vania asked as she jumped in. Wu right behind her.

"I have to agree with the princess," Wu added as the Uply dove head first into said cart. "This looks pretty old!"

"Trust me, it'll work!" Cole told them. "Korgran, give me a hand!"

Korgran ran up next to Cole and the two worked together to push the mine cart up to the stop. Korgran and Cole then jumped into the mine cart, Cole kicking down the lever to let them go as he did.

The mine cart went down a steep track at an alarmingly fast rate, the lava monster spitting out some of its lava as they went, but he traveled no further.

"I told you it would work! Whoo! That's what you call a good idea!" Cole cheered as they kept going.

C.J., who had previously refused to look, took his head out from under his dad's arm and started looking around curiously. Cole seemed to think they were safe, so maybe it was true. They were still going very fast, though and they soon entered a room filled with lava.

"Hang on to me, C.J.!" Cole suddenly yelled.

The toddler held on tighter than ever as the group continued on past the lava filled room, up a much steeper track, and through a bunch of warning signs. The track ended suddenly, and the cart and everyone else went flying.

Cole did his best to make sure he would fall onto his back so C.J. would remain safe, but man, did that hurt.

"You okay, bud?" Cole asked.

"Yeah," C.J. nodded.

The master of earth placed his son next to him so the toddler could stand on his own before he stood up to see that everyone had seemed to make it unharmed.

"Is everyone alright?" Wu asked.

"Korgran head hurt," the ginger responded with a groan.

"My whole body hurts," Plundar responded before the person on top of him, Fungus, shoved Plundar's face back into the ground as he stood up saying, "Where are we?"

Cole was unsure of the answer to that question, but as he looked around the room, he could've sworn he felt something. Something powerful. Something that connected to him on a personal level. Something special to him was here. And it felt very familiar.

"Do you feel that too?" Cole asked his son, only to gain a very confused look from the boy.

"Cole? What is it?" Wu asked.

"I...don't know," Cole replied. "I have a strange feeling about this place."

The feeling grew stronger and stronger, as if his power wanted to be let out. He paused a moment when he saw a small orange light. It was getting bigger and bigger until it looked as if it was going to explode. Suddenly, it shot into the mountain, causing a loud rumble sound. Orange cracks made its way through the mountain, creating flames on the barren torches and revealing a nearby door.

"Woah!" C.J. exclaimed.

Wu hummed as he walked up to this door, and Cole could feel his power envelop him as it never had before. Something incredible was here.

"What is it?" he asked.

"It is the old tongue. The language my oldest scrolls are written in," Wu explained.

"What does it say?" Fungus asked.

"Something about 'The heart of the mountain'? 'Let pass through here into this refuge and sanctuary only those who are one with the earth'. Maybe..."

"What means that?" Korgran asked.

"'The Heart of the Mountain' is the name of the legendary temple of the masters of earth. Some believe it was hidden in the mountains of Shintaro, but it has never been found."

"Oh! I know this story! It's in one of my books. 'Famous Places That I Will find Before Anyone Else' by Clutch Powers," Vania stated proudly.

Cole would've rolled his eyes at this if he wasn't so mesmerized by the entrance to what he hoped was the temple in front of him.

"What's inside?" Plundar asked the princess. "Treasure? Loot?"

"Something even more precious," Wu smiled.

"Gemstones!"

"The teachings of the 'Spinjitzu Burst'!"

"The what?" Fungus asked.

"It's a powerful force. Only an elemental master, surrounded by his element, can achieve it. It's mentioned in some of the earliest teachings of spinjitzu. Your mother sought to learn to burst," Wu told his student, "but she never did."

Cole shut his eyes tightly, trying to get rid of his pain, but, as always, it never worked. He turned back to his master and said, "There's so much I never knew about her."

His attention was suddenly directed towards Plundar who now had a special screwdriver out to help him open this door.

"How do you open it?" he asked.

"Korgran, a little help," Fungus told his Metalonian friend.

Korgran ran at the door as fast as he could and tried to open it by his pure might, but he ended up crashing into the door and falling over instead.

"If the legend is true, the doors will only open for those who are one with the earth. An earth elemental," Wu explained.

"It would be nice to tell Korgran before," Korgran replied.

Cole slowly walked up to the door, wondering why this felt so hard for him. It was just like opening any other door, but the power inside that room. It was more than anything he had ever felt before. He felt unworthy to enter such a room. But if Master Wu was right. If there was some sort of teaching in there that he needed to know, it could help him defeat the Skull Sorcerer and save his friends. Not to mention all the innocent creatures that needed his help.

As soon as he touched the door, his earth power activated, and the doors glowed a bright orange, absorbing his power as it did so. Soon, the doors opened, and the power it took was returned to the earth master, but he barely noticed.

"Such beauty!" Fungus exclaimed as he looked at all the intricate details of the temple, all made up of stone. There were stone carvings in the wall written in the old tongue, stone pictures on the floor depicting previous elemental masters' greatest moments, and stone statues of every exceptional master of earth. Of those that served the mountain with pride and honor.

"We are looking upon something that few have ever seen," Wu remarked.

Cole barely heard him. Instead, he slowly made his way over to the statue in the center of the room.

"Who is it?" Vania asked.

"Cole's mother. Lilly," Wu replied.

Cole noticed some writing on the bottom of her statue. When he touched it, the writing, the statue, and all the carvings around the cave began glowing, lighting up the cave gloriously.

"Look!" Fungus exclaimed from the other side of the temple. "Look at this!"

The wizard had been pointing at a giant stone mech. Cole wondered if his mother had ever used it.

"Unlike any mech I have ever seen," Wu said as he looked it over. "It appears to be made of...stone?"

"Perhaps the builders of this place used it to build the temple," Fungus theorized.

"Do you think it still works?" Vania asked.

Plundar climbed up to the mech's cockpit and realized one thing.

"There's no controls in this thing. Just a bunch of weird crystals, and this junk," he added as he pulled out some armor and a rock on a stick.

Meanwhile, C.J. and Cole were still looking at the statue.

"What?" C.J. asked.

"That's your grandmother, C.J.," Cole smiled. "My mom."

C.J. smiled at this as Cole read, "'This statue was carved with love and gratitude by Geckle and Munce craftsman'."

"Cole!" Wu exclaimed.

The master of earth turned around to see the last carving start to glow. The one of Lilly's best moment. When she defeated Grief-Bringer.

"Woah!" Cole and C.J. exclaimed in unison.

"I guess she did learn how to do it," Cole realized.

"What's that light shining out of her?" Vania asked.

"Elemental energy," Wu answered. "Power. The power of the earth itself."

"Cole!" Vania gasped. "You have to try it!"

"Me? I can't. I don't know how!" Cole replied.

"But you're an earth elemental! If you could learn the spinjitzu burst, you could use it against my father, and-and free all those poor creatures working in the mines!"

"We don't even know for sure if my mother could do the burst. What if it was the Blades of Deliverance?"

"But we don't have the blades, Cole," Wu replied. "The burst is our only chance. You have to try."

"Okay, fine!" Cole was starting to get annoyed, "but I'm not making any promises."

He stood in the center of the temple and felt for the power of the earth surrounding him, but he soon realized one thing. His son was holding on to his pant leg as if it was his lifeline.

"Uh, C.J.?"

"Huh?" C.J. asked as he looked up.

"Go stand with Vania. I don't want you getting hurt."

C.J. obeyed, and Cole breathed a shaky breath, having no idea how he could even begin.

"Okay, let's get this spinjitzu burst started." He practiced punching a few times before turning to his master and asking, "What do I do?"

"You're asking me?" Wu asked. "I don't know."

"You're the master," Cole replied.

"I know nothing of this kind of spinjitzu. This is known only to earth elementals. You must open your mind. You must discover the truth within you."

Cole closed his eyes and bent over, trying to focus on nothing but his power pulsing inside of him. He tried to make it grow. To make it want to come out. Maybe if he kept it in, it would come out in a burst. Maybe...

"Nothing is happen," Korgran said.

Cole lost his focus. He had to start again.

"Do you feel anything?" Wu asked.

As much as he hated to admit it, his plan wasn't working. He couldn't even feel his power inside right now. Something was wrong.

"Nothing," he responded.

He restrained a grunt as he bent over once again and tried to feel for that familiarity, but it was gone. He had to keep trying.

"Still nothing is happen," Korgran whispered.

"No kidding!" Plundar replied.

"Do you guys mind?" Cole asked only to gain sheepish smiles from the two men.

Again, Cole bent over. He tried to feel something, anything, and then he did. He smiled slightly as he activated his powers and did what felt the most natural. Spinjitzu. But it felt the same as any other time he had done it.

"That wasn't the burst, was it?" Cole asked.

"No," Wu replied solemnly.

Cole bent over once again, but he didn't close his eyes. He couldn't. If he did, there would be no stopping his tears. He was failing, and that wasn't something that sat well with him. He felt alone, as if in a dark hole no one would help him out of. I can't do this. I can't do this. I can't. I-I-I-

Cole took one look at the statue of his mother. The one who had always been there for him. The one who'd pick him up when he was down. Who showed him his love for the mountains. Who let him know that he wasn't alone. When she passed, the mountains reminded him of her love. Now it reminded him that it was no longer there.

"Come on, you stupid mountain!" Cole screamed. "Do something! Do something!"

He banged his fists down as hard as he could, hoping to find some sort of relief, but all it did was cause the entire mountain to shake.

"Was that me?" Cole asked, standing up. The idea that he was strong enough to do something that powerful scared him.

C.J. ran to Cole and hugged him tight as Plundar said, "Whatever it was, it shook the whole mountain!"

"Sound like thunder!" Korgran said, but he had not heard that sound in nearly twenty years.

Cole's breath caught up in his throat. He was frozen. He didn't know what he did or what he could do. Did he really do that?

"I must look into this," Fungus said as he walked to the center of the room, removing his hat. He started mixing some moldy vegetables together in the hat, causing a lot of confusion in anyone who did not know him.

"What's he doing?" Cole asked.

"Fungus magic," Korgran replied.

"He's making the pictures again," Plundar explained.

"It is not pictures!" Fungus corrected the thief. "It is far-sight! I have discovered a special concoction of lichen and moss which reveal things that are happening far away. Observe!"

Fungus threw a piece of moss into his hat and a blue mist immediately fell over the group. The mist created an image of five ninja running from something, all adorned in a lot of armor and shields on their back.

"Ninja!" C.J. exclaimed.

"Hey!" Cole exclaimed.

"Where are they?" Wu asked. "What's happened to them?"

"Quiet," Fungus responded. "Watch."

Suddenly, a skeleton dragon came up behind them, chasing the ninja down.

"They're in trouble!" Plundar exclaimed.

"They fight dragon?" Korgran questioned.

"It must be Grief-Bringer," Fungus concluded.

"Grief-Bringer?" Cole asked. "The dragon from the picture with my mom?"

The dragon breathed its fire onto the ninja and the mist disappeared. Cole grabbed C.J. and held him close, not knowing for sure what fate his friends had met.

"We have to do something!" he exclaimed. "We have to help!" He had to believe his friends were still alive to even want to do something.

"Against something so powerful, only the spinjitzu burst can prevail," Wu explained.

"Well, I can't do that!" Cole shot back. "Our friends are in trouble, and we're wasting time stuck here in this-this useless temple!"

He stood up, grabbed C.J.'s hand, and took him out of the room, stopping only when he made it to the steps leading up to the temple. He sat down and placed his head in his hands while C.J. placed his head in his father's lap.

The scene made Vania's blood boil. Cole should not have to go through this alone. That was what his master was for, and he wasn't helping him at all. Just reminding him that he had to do what seemed to be an impossible move. It was clearly stressing the earth elemental out.

"Master Wu?" Vania addressed as she approached him. "I hope you will forgive me saying this, but instead of standing around doing nothing, maybe you should be helping Cole!"

"Excuse me?" Wu asked.

"Cole needs you, and you're not doing anything to help."

"Cole needs to learn to stand on his own two feet! He is an accomplished ninja, an elemental master, and a great father to C.J. He needs to know that he knows what he is doing."

"You can't teach that to him by abandoning him! It's not right," Vania replied, and with that, she left, knowing that if she stayed any longer, she would not be able to contain herself from saying anything she'd regret.

Wu knew Vania was right. He had not been there for Cole, or any of his students in a long time. He needed to take a stand.

He sat next to his student and C.J. and said, "I have a lot to apologize for."

"It's not you, Master. It's my fault. I can't-"

"No!" Wu stopped him. "You are incredible, Cole. You've done what most masters could not, and trust me, I've seen a lot of them. You're a skilled fighter, and an incredible father. You understand the needs of Ninjago, your son, and your friends and place them all before your own. I've found myself longing to give you more yet I've put my own selfish wants before your needs and now, here we are. I, Wu, the son of the First Spinjitzu Master, and your teacher, has placed far too much on you. I've pressured you into fighting when there is no need, I've told you that being a ninja is your only path when that is not true. I buried you, Cole, just as the Skull Sorcerer has, and for that, I am sorry."

"I-" Cole started.

"I do not know how to do the burst, Cole. That is something you must teach yourself, but until then, we still have a dragon to face, and how do we do that?"

"By getting out of this mountain," Cole smiled.

"Exactly!" Wu exclaimed. "What do you say?"

Cole looked to his son, who smiled right back at him.

"Up!" C.J. exclaimed with laugh.

"Yep! We're going up," Cole responded as he took his master's hand. He helped him stand up and the two entered back into the temple, ready for step one. Make a plan so they could get out of this mountain.

Well I hope you all liked that chapter. I had a lot of fun with this one. Next chapter should be out on Monday.

Have a great day/night!

#God'sNotDead