Waning Crescent

Jay was concerned. But, as had been a running theme lately, there was precious little time to express that concern. Because they had shown up to where Cole was hiding (by possessing R.E.X.), and it was something out of a nightmare.

The paramedics had taken Ronin without any trouble. He was gone well before they got there. When Nya called the hospital, he was apparently alive and undergoing surgery. So that was good. Jay may have hated Ronin, but he didn't deserve to die.

However, that left Cole. And R.E.X., which was currently full of blood, pooling on the metal floor of the airship. Cole himself looked a hundred years older. It was like the shadows under his eyes were getting darker. His neon green eyes were wide and wild and fragile in a way that Jay didn't like one bit.

Needless to say, Sensei Wu had taken him back to the Bounty for some meditation. And hopefully some therapy, because First Spinjitzu Master, Jay couldn't imagine the stress of having to pilot a submarine as a ghost while amputating a guy's leg. That had left Zane to clean all the blood from the ship, while Nya, Kai, and Jay had gone to purchase fuel with the money in one of R.E.X.'s holds.

The entire trip there and back was tense, and not a little rushed. Although, not too rushed. The sooner they got the fuel, the sooner they'd have to leave for the Tomb. The sooner Cole would have to leave. And First Master, did Cole deserve a break.

Still, one thing had led to another- thankfully, Zane was crazy good at cleaning. If he hadn't already seen the blood, he'd never have guessed that a guy had lost his leg in the ship. Save for maybe the suspiciously strong smell of cleaning products.

Alas, that had meant it was time to leave, and none of them were happy about it. They'd managed to extrapolate the location of the Tomb, yeah, but Morro had the Sword of Sanctuary, which like, talk about an advantage.

You know what? Whatever! Who cares! We're just going to the tomb of god, where we'll be way far under the ocean with a ghost and an aquaphobe. But hey, Morro is a ghost too, so at least if we all drown, so will he!

Somehow, the thought didn't help as the five of them crammed into the tiny, amphibious vehicle.

First Master, it was a tiny thing. And they were leaving at like, three in the morning, so it was a descent into pitch blackness. Jay didn't blame Kai and Cole one bit for being on edge. He was too antsy to sit, so he had given shotgun to Nya as he stood anxiously behind the seat, bouncing back and forth. Zane was, of course, the one driving. Piloting? Subbing? Whatever, driving was good enough. Even with the headlights, they were navigating through pitch black.

Still, it's less claustrophobic than an avalanche.

"Credit where it's due, this ship isn't half bad," Jay mused as he watched the radar on R.E.X. ping over and over.

Nya folded her hands behind her head. "Yeah, no wonder it cost Ronin his soul."

He huffed. "The balance is really good, and I'm surprised it can handle these kinds of depths as a hybrid vehicle," he continued. His head snapped up as he remembered the other two in the stupid ship. "Uh… pleasantly surprised, but also it's not like it's going to fail anytime soon!"

Smooth.

"Save it, Jay," Kai hissed through a clenched jaw.

"Shutting up now," he agreed with a bouncing nod. Nya snorted in what was hopefully amusement.

Jay drummed his fingers along the back of Zane's seat. Kai and Cole really weren't looking good. Kai was pale as, well, Cole. And almost the same shade of green. Also, he was currently shirtless, with his gi pulled down to his waist. That was because of Cole, who was currently wearing Kai's Deepstone undershirt. Although, "wearing" was a generous term, since Cole was so much larger than Kai even without his own gi on, but he had it draped over himself as he held an uneasy meditation pose. His brow was furrowed, and he looked anything but peaceful, but Jay wasn't going to make fun of whatever measures Cole went through to keep from phasing into the ocean. At least not until they were safely out of the ocean.

He drummed his fingers a bit louder. It was a bit too silent for Jay's liking- the only thing they could hear as they sailed through a void was the thrum of the engine, the ping of the radar, and Kai's tense breathing. Jay didn't like it one bit. It reminded him too much of that time on the asteroid, rattling around in a tiny death trap hoping to somehow make it home.

Well, it reminded him of it perhaps because the literal only difference was that they were underwater instead of in space. Closer to home, and yet somehow just as terrifying. He wasn't petrified in the way Kai was, but he really needed some noise.

"Ugh… You'd think this thing would have a music player or something on it."

Nya wrinkled her nose. "Somehow, I don't trust Ronin's music taste."

Zane hummed for a moment. "Yar! We could pass the time with some sea shanties!"

Jay nearly broke into a coughing fit. He totally forgot about the pirate voice, to be honest.

"Oh First Spinjitzu Master, spare us all," Kai grunted, eyes still squeezed shut.

Jay beamed. "Aw, you don't like my singing?"

"I would actually rather drown."

"In my wonderful voice!" Jay declared.

Then came a voice none of them expected. It was soft and shaky, but there nonetheless.

"Monday morning and we feel defeated… since so long ago…" Cole mumbled, still holding his meditation pose. It wasn't really singing, but it was good enough for Jay.

"Tuesday's coming we just keep on beating! 'Till we're in our zone!" Jay belted out; his words echoed through the tiny vehicle. Nya flinched away from Jay's loud voice, but she didn't seem upset in the slightest. Hopefully.

"This is hell. This is actual hell. Trapped in a tiny box super far underwater listening to this," Kai moaned.

Jay gave Kai a toothy grin. "Yep! No escape!"

"They say! Go Slow! And everything just stands so still!" came the words from the Master of Water.

Kai threw his head back against R.E.X. hard enough to make a thud sound. "Siiiiiis… not you too…"

Nya was leaning back in her seat with her arms crossed. She was smirking too, of course. Jay felt a flutter of that old, familiar affection.

"Yar! We say! Go go!"

Cole gave Kai a gentle elbow and a smile. "C'mon Kai, you know you want to."

"I hate all of you so much."

"Do it! Do it! Do it!" Jay chanted.

Kai submitted to the hivemind. "You're gonna see us rip into it, just-"

"Jump up, kick back, whip around and spin!" they all sang, horribly off-key and out-of-sync.

"And then we'll jump back do it-"

"Come on come on do the weekend-"

"Yar! Those don't be the lyrics!"

"Ugh, Cole! It's 'jump back do it again!' That line comes later!"

"My bad!"

"And then we'll jump back do it again!"

Well hey, they got there. First Spinjitzu Master, they were awful singers, but they got there. Even Kai was smiling, and seemed to have the slightest amount of color back in his face, even though he kept his eyes shut. Cole was still holding his meditation pose with the heavy Deepstone undershirt over his shoulders, but he was grinning.

That ended up being the next couple hours. Their god-awful singing. It was probably for the best that they were like, miles under the ocean or whatever, because if it weren't for the tons upon tons of water muffling their affront to the Master of Sound, they'd probably have created a shockwave singularity that would kill-slash-deafen all those who were unfortunate enough to be in range.

Still, it was fun. And they deserved some fun.

Jay was almost disappointed when they finally reached their destination- the radar pinged it first, since it wasn't like the GPS knew of any super secret god tombs. It appeared in their headlights soon after- a cave entrance, right below the general area they had pinpointed from Cole's drawings.

"About time…" Kai sighed.

"Not looking forward to the trip back," Cole agreed. "At least we'll have Lloyd with us, though."

It was tempting fate, but hey, one of them may as well be optimistic. They had no idea what to expect from the Tomb of the First Spinjitzu Master, but hey, whatever. Not like that ever stopped them before.

The cave led to a pocket of air in which they were able to surface. It was all very… blue. Crystals seemed to shine with light. Not enough to see well, but enough to see at least a bit.

They all grabbed their weapons and hopped out of R.E.X.. That was when Jay noticed for the first time that Nya had an Aeroblade of her own- a spear, black like the rest of their weapons with blue gemstones on the bottom of the staff and where the blade connected to it.

"Nice spear," Jay complimented, somewhat lamely.

Nya groaned. "Yeah, I don't have a clue how to use this thing. I mean, I do, vaguely, but I don't know-" she shook her head. "You know what? Nevermind."

Kai put a hand on her shoulder. "You'll do great, Sis."

Jay gave an eager nod. "Yeah! Morro better watch out!"

She laughed, and seemed to more or less accept this. "Thanks, I hope you boys are right." She turned to her brother. "Now can you please put your shirt back on.

Cole was the last one out of R.E.X.. "Here, Firecracker. Thanks for letting me borrow it." He tossed the Deepstone undershirt back. Kai did just that, though he only bothered to fasten two of the buttons on the heavy undershirt before calling it good enough and pulling his gi back on over it. Then, he took the shoulder guards off his belt and strapped them back onto his shoulders, where they belonged.

Jay's attention had, in the meantime, been pulled elsewhere. "Well… at least we know we got the right tomb." He was staring up at a statue of the First Spinjitzu Master. "Say, who do you think built all this?"

"I think the First Spinjitzu Master must have, before he passed on," Zane mused, no longer using his pirate voice. Much to Jay's dismay. "Although it is strange to put so much effort into building your own resting place. Especially in a place that so few could ever hope to find."

Kai shrugged. "Whatever, wouldn't be the weirdest thing he's done."

"What would be the weirdest?" Nya asked in good humor.

"I dunno. Making the Golden Weapon of Ice two shurikens, I guess? I mean, honestly, if the Golden Weapon of Fire were two shurikens, I'd have lost them immediately."

"And that is precisely why your weapon was not two shurikens," Zane said in a deadpan voice as he looked up at the statue. "I don't see any signs of Morro. Either we beat him here, or the Sword of Sanctuary led him to a different entrance."

"We'll find out soon enough," Cole said. "Come on, let's-" he adopted a perplexed expression and stomped gently on the ground a few times.

"Cole? You good?" Kai asked in a tone that was painfully genuine. Not that Jay blamed him after the incident on the Bounty.

"It's… quiet here."

"What's that mean? Are you hearing voices?" Jay teased with a sideways elbow. Cole shook his head.

"This place… It's made of Deepstone."

Nya clicked her tongue. "Makes sense. We are in the Endless Sea. Are you okay?"

Cole nodded. "Yeah, I'm great. No phasing through the floors, at least," he said with a smirk, though Jay had the feeling he was genuinely relieved. "Although, it means no phasing through doors or whatever, either. And no rock golems this time."

"I'll take that over you phasing into the ocean any day," Nya said with a shrug.

"Agreed," Cole replied with a bit of a laugh. "Anyway, let's go."

As it turned out, there was only one way to go. Down a narrow corridor. Zane had to use his eyes like headlights- a sight that never ceased being at least a little funny. However, the passage was only wide enough for maybe two of them to comfortably walk side-by-side. Maybe three if they really wanted to cram themselves together. Four if Cole walked inside of someone, maybe… he almost wanted to try it.

Wait, duh, we're wearing Deepstone, he thought with what he could only call a mental facepalm.

As they walked, Cole was trailing his hand along the smooth stone wall of the tomb.

"Can you feel the Deepstone?" Jay asked. "What does it feel like?"

Cole hummed, which sounded a bit haunting with the way his voice was distorted. "Sort of. It's almost cool? I think. It's hard to explain, but it feels solid."

"But you were squirming with my Deepstone armor on," Kai mused. "What's up with that?"

The ghost just shrugged. "That just feels like I'm being squeezed in a vice. This is nice. It's peaceful."

Zane spoke up next. "Perhaps it is because you are in your element, this deep underground."

"Maybe," Cole said with a nod.

Jay turned around and walked down the now-sloping hall backwards. "Are you feeling any stronger? I wanna know if Zane is right about that whole thing with being in our elements."

Cole shrugged again. "Dunno. It's hard to tell."

"How can you not tell?" Jay demanded. "You either feel a difference or you don't, right?"

"I'm a ghost, Zaptrap. Everything feels different. Uh, Jay?"

Jay gestured vaguely towards Cole. "That makes no sense, I thought everything felt like nothing, and-"

He was about to make an excellent point when he backed right into a hard wall. He let out an oof. Kai snickered.

Cole snorted, but still put a hand on Jay's shoulder. "You good?"

"In the hood…" Jay mumbled in reply. "Hey… is it just me, or was this wall-" he turned around. The wall was, indeed, a door.

Not only that, but.. if he brushed off some dirt, it was…

"Metal?" Kai asked. "They had metal when the First Master made the tomb?"

"He created the realm with Golden Weapons, genius," Nya reminded him with an eye roll and sardonic grin.

"Oh yeah."

Zane approached the door and looked it over, helping to light it up more than the glowing gemstones around them ever could. "Still, it is odd to see a metal door down here."

Jay frowned. It was a pretty large door with a sealed crack down the middle- except, it wasn't a vertical line. The separation between the doors was jagged, like…

"A lightning bolt?" Jay asked. "Hey guys, I think it's a lightning bolt door!"

Zane traced a finger along the metal door. "A metal door with a lightning bolt pattern down the middle…"

Cole pressed his hand against the door. "Darn, I think it still has some Deepstone embedded in it. Maybe you can open it, Sparks."

Jay held up his hands in a surrender. "Without my powers?"

"You said you wanted to test Zane's theory. Let's see if we still have our powers without Lloyd." Cole slapped Jay on the back with almost enough force to send him straight through the stupid door.

"Ow, hey! Personal bubble! I'll try, I'll try!"

Jay took a deep breath. "Well… there's not like, a handle. Where do I even…"

He put his hand on the door, and found that he wasn't exactly sure what he was saying. He trailed off as he felt something.

"Feels weird…" he mumbled.

"That's a bit vague," Cole said. "And you're not even a ghost."

Jay didn't reply, he closed his eyes. Then, he shook his head and ripped his gloves off. Carefully, he brushed his fingers over the cool metal door. He concentrated- it felt… familiar. It was the same pleasant nagging that he got in places like arcades or laser tag- the feeling of small bursts of electricity, impulses firing. Like a lightning storm on a microscopic scale.

Someone sucked in a gasp. Jay opened his eyes- his hands were glowing, he realized. The way they did when he used his powers. His power had always flickered- the light enveloping his hands flickered rapidly from a deep, deep blue and a flashing, brilliant yellow.

The door seemed to leak that light- the gap between the doors started to glow, and with a bit of a creak, they each slid back, revealing the room behind.

Jay gasped.

"I'll be damned…" Kai muttered, kind of breathless.

The room was electric, in a very literal sense. It was also massive, towering overhead. Golden electricity flickered from dark blue crystal to crystal like firing synapses, or maybe a plasma ball. They flickered and caught; the electricity latched and seemed to even power the gems, filling the room with hundreds of small, intense lights.

"Woah…" was all Nya said. Jay couldn't blame her. There wasn't much that could be said.

The walls were some kind of metal, but it was strange. They were chiseled with an insane amount of care, in a way that metal usually wasn't. Jay ran a still-glowing finger along it. He felt his hair stand up as static electricity began to build.

Then he actually looked at the pictures carved into the walls.

It was… him.

And he didn't mean, like, some kind of vague representation of the Master of Lightning. It was Jay Walker. They were relief carvings, and yet certain pieces and accents- ones of him, specifically, lit up as he touched the wall.

One picture depicted him building something in the scrapyard where he grew up. The one next to it showed him fighting the mech that the Fangpyre bit, all that time ago. Before that was him soaring on his glider- it looked like it was just before he met Wu.

"This is… incredible," Zane muttered, somewhat breathless.

"It's like the Temple of Light," Cole said. "Remember? It had everything we'd done up to that point."

"Destiny…" Kai groaned. "So creepy and weird."

Cole yelped as he tapped the wall. "Woah!"

"Did it… did it hurt?" Kai asked, somewhat bewildered. Then, in his infinite wisdom, he also touched the wall. Jay could hear a crack, like a particularly intense static shock. "Ow!"

"Nice going, Stupid," Nya sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose.

"Look, I was just curious if it only hurt him because he's a ghost!"

"What… is the reasoning behind that?" Zane asked.

Kai gave a wild shrug. "I dunno! Look, who cares? Point is, these walls are weird!"

Jay, meanwhile, had gone silent as he stared at the images on the wall.

There was… a lot. Stuff they had already done was there- Learning Spinjitzu in the Caves of Despair, finding the Golden Nunchucks, taming and riding Wisp… All of those were depicted in one massive, glowing relief of blue neon lights with those bright yellow accents.

His True Potential was its own wall- a vibrant illustration of him, cloaked in flickering lights, as he saved Nya on that rollercoaster ride. When he had finally stopped hiding himself. It had been one of the… well, not the best days of his life. But it was a very important one.

There was his contribution to the Great Devourer fight. Him receiving his Elemental Blade in the Temple of Light. Him,stranded on an asteroid with his team.

There was stuff from the tournament as well. He winced at a depiction of him and Cole fighting.

"But the Temple of Light didn't show… is this stuff supposed to be the future?" Nya asked with tight lips.

Jay felt a weight on his shoulders. The idea of seeing his future was… a weighty concept. But still, he couldn't help but look.

He saw himself holding a large sword as he confronted some… ghost? Was it a ghost? It was hard to tell without a diverse color palette. But it looked like a ghost, except that it had four arms and some weird ponytail.

He kept walking as his hand glowed and flickered in sync with the lights of the reliefs.

There was so much. And he didn't really know what to make of it. The group had gone silent, seemingly as taken in with the gravity of it all as Jay himself was.

There's so much.

And not all of them were happy. There was one of him tied to something- some kind of stake. Another of him facing off against a dragon with no weapon in a strange, non-combative pose.

Him reaching down from the ladder of the bounty towards an abstract depiction of smoke full of claws and tendrils. As if he were trying to catch something. The drawings didn't depict his expression, but the pose seemed desperate. It was hard to make out, though, because a crack was running through that particular sculpture. A strange mark of damage on an otherwise perfectly preserved room.

Him standing with his friends, except they were all cloaked in yellow light. He didn't know what to make of that one. Him in the front of some kind of army of other Jay figures.

Some were just… impossible to parse, and more abstract than others.

Him reaching towards a receding wave of water.

Him with… were those wings? Surrounded by crystals.

Above all those carvings was a single, massive sculpture, a bit more extruded than the others, of a dragon, long and filled with those same neon lights. with small, sharp wings. It looked like his elemental dragon.

There was even more than that, but honestly, Jay was already feeling overwhelmed. And without context, it was all kind of just… a lot.

"Wow…" Jay mumbled again. "I mean… wow. Did the First Spinjitzu Master make all of this? Before he even died? That's like, way before any of us were born."

Zane made several laps around the room, carefully examining each wall. "I had expected something pertaining to the Elements of Creation. What's noteworthy to me is that this room was built for Jay, not just any Master of Lightning."

"So he knew we were going to find this place…" Cole said in a quiet voice. "Huh…"

"Well, this is neat, but we should probably keep going," Kai said.

Cole scoffed. "Do you see a door?"

It was true, there was no obvious exit to the room. Jay hardly noticed though, because instead, he was focused on the almost magnetic pull he was feeling, drawing him to a pedestal in the center of the room.

Now see, it looked like a normal-ish pedestal, ignoring the fact that it was metal and surrounded by glowing crystals. However, when Jay stepped into the center, the light on his hands intensified- light began to spiderweb through his body.

Jay yelped, more out of surprise than anything. Technicolored bolts of electricity sparked off the surrounding crystals, grounding themselves through him.

"Jay!" Cole called, running to grab him. He yelled as a stray arc of electricity hit him.

"Back up!" Jay grit. "I'm fine! Just… give me a minute!" he got out as he felt the electricity inside him building. It wasn't actually powerful. It was surprisingly gentle, for electricity. The word "curious" came to mind, for some reason. Although, that was probably the Master of Lightning in him speaking, not the squishy human, seeing as electricity never quite hurt him like it did a normal person.

He released a shuddering sigh. He could feel a niggling in the back of his mind. He closed his eyes within the flashing storm.

Things didn't go dark. Instead, he began to see something else-flashes of light swimming through his mind.

What's going on?

He heard a voice.

"Oh! You guys came!" His eyes snapped open- he wasn't in the room anymore. He was in an endless sea of darkness, punctuated only with electricity that arced from nowhere towards nowhere.

He was looking at himself. A smaller version- a younger one, about seven years old. There was an angry red mark along his right eyebrow, fresh from an attempt at inventing gone awry.

Jay blinked once, twice. "Are you… me?"

Small jay hummed. "Um, no! Not quite! But that's not really wrong, either!" Jay seemed to blink, and the figure changed. Grew. Now he was twelve, wearing a school uniform from just before he dropped out of the accelerated high school track. "I'm kind of one thing, kind of another."

"Some kind of projection?" Jay guessed. He swiped a hand at the other Jay, expecting the hand to go right through. Other Jay swatted the hand away with a bit of a laugh.

"Hey, cut that out, we don't really have time for this! Although, it is pretty cool! If a bit of a scientific mess. But then again, the First Spinjitzu Master didn't really have to rely on science, seeing as he had perfect mastery of all the Elemental Powers and whatnot."

"I guess that makes sense," Jay decided. "What does that make you, though?"

The figure changed again with a flash of light- he was wearing a black gi, now. The one he wore before Master Wu had first deemed him the Master of Lightning. "Think of me as a reflection. Of your past, present, and future. I'm a bit of wisdom from all those pieces of you, hand-crafted by the First Spinjitzu Master himself."

It was uncanny, watching himself talk about stuff he absolutely didn't understand.

"Yeah, actually, I was wondering about that-" Jay began.

The "reflection" shifted once more. The gi was blue, now. The one from when they first met Kai and went to find the weapons and save Nya. "You're right in your guess, I'll tell you that. This place was built for you, not any other Master of Lightning. Cole was right. He knew you'd come here." He hummed for a moment. "Well, that's not totally right. What he actually knew was that if anyone found this place pre-merge, it'd be you guys."

"Merge?" Jay asked. The figure seemed to shimmer and flash; the outfit briefly changed to another solid blue gi with a style of hood that reached down to his shoulders. A piece of cloth covered one eye. And, like a flash, it faded quickly back to what it had been.

The other Jay gave a dismissive wave. "Don't worry about it. Point is, this place was only going to be found by you guys. So y'know, he didn't have to worry about building this place for any, ah, previous or future Masters."

"Who was the previous Master of Lightning?" Jay asked.

"You'll learn more about them in time." The reflection's outfit shifted to his dragon rider gi. "I'm here for something else."

"What would that be?" Jay couldn't help but groan. "Some kind of worthiness test?"

The figure looked bemused. "Man, you're cynical! No, nothing like that. You're more than worthy. Think of it more as an… evaluation, I guess? Kind of like a palm reading, but y'know. Made by god instead of by crackpots."

Jay snickered, but he couldn't help but feel nervous at the idea of a Master-crafted reflection judging him.

Now it looked a bit older- it was wearing his armored gi that he fought the Devourer in. It looked sympathetic. "You always were so worried about how others see you."

"Oh First Master, it's already starting," Jay joked with an uneasy grin. He put his hands behind his head. The reflection mirrored the action with uncanny accuracy.

The lights in the infinite darkness around them flashed, all at once. Suddenly, the figure was cloaked in a blue storm, as though it had become lightning itself- it looked kind of scary, honestly. A human form was barely visible within the light, and yet it cocked its head in a way that was entirely too human for such an alien entity.

"You are always so prone to forget just how brilliant you can shine. Do you remember this version of you?"

Jay kicked at the nothingness below him that somehow acted as ground. "Based on the chronology, I guess my True Potential form. Only ever was able to do it the one time. Y'know, can't repeat a trick, or else it gets stale, hah."

The figure circled him, Jay leaned away and rubbed at his eyes. It didn't do much to remove the spots from his vision. "Why do you think you could only ever do it on that roller coaster?"

Jay shrugged. "I had the Nunchucks of Lightning at the time, and Nya was about to die."

Everything flashed, and the light around the figure faded. Now it was wearing the kimono he received on the Island of Darkness. The light still left an afterimage, burned into his retinas. He rubbed at his eyes again.

"It's because, in that moment, you were afraid, and you laid it all bare for Nya to see. You let yourself be truly yourself at a perceived end. True Potential can only hope to manifest when you are truly yourself."

He forced a laugh. "Well, then clearly I don't have enough near-death experiences."

It gave him a bit of a withering look. "Hey man, c'mon. Give yourself a little credit. You've still got plenty of time to learn. Well, probably. Things are kind of up-in-the-air with this whole ghost business. But the idea is that when you were at the end of the track, that's when you finally realized you couldn't have any regrets. So, you chose to accept yourself, and even better, to do something as your true self. That's understandable. And admirable. You need to give yourself some credit for that."

"I can smell the upcoming 'but,'" Jay said with crossed arms.

"That's what you should aspire to be all the time." The outfit flashed again. It was the suit Cyrus Borg had made during the return of the Overlord. "We both know you've been a bit of a mess lately."

"Ouch, straight from the words of god, huh?"

The reflection shook its head. "I'm made by the First Master, but I'm made of you." It then slapped Jay on the shoulder. "C'mon, that whole mess with Nya? That messed you up."

"Jeez, did you have to put it like that?"

"It's how you would put it," the reflection replied with a pointed smile. It faded quickly. "Seriously, you stake too much on what she thinks of you."

"Look, I'm trying to let it go, really. I know she's not interested. You don't have to hammer it home."

"Because who would want to be with someone like you?" the figure said, and it sounded weirdly like a question. Jay glared. The reflection held up its hands. In a flash, the outfit was the one he had been given for Chen's tournament. "Hey, I'm not saying anything you don't believe. But I'm also saying it's wrong."

An image flashed in the electricity around them, an afterimage of a bad memory, of a fight with Cole. Jay tasted something bitter in his mouth. "What's wrong? That I was an idiot for letting my feelings fester so bad? For lashing out at Cole? For treating Nya like some kind of prize?"

"First Master, no. That was all super dumb. But also, that's in the past! Nah, you know what I mean. Don't pretend like Kai didn't call you out on it like, ten minutes ago. Or yesterday. Same difference."

Jay didn't reply. His reflection kept talking, even as it flashed to the second gi from Chen- the one they wore in the jungle, sometime after his fight with Cole. "I mean that you haven't brought it up with Cole."

Jay tugged on a strap on his gi with one hand, and fiddled with his belt with another. "Look, now's not a good time for that. Cole and Nya- they're dealing with more important things right now."

"If you keep waiting for a good time, you may just run out of time."

"I dunno, I'm a great procrastinator. Are you sure you're me?" For added effect, he brushed his hand through his hair.

A flash- The outfit he saw nearly made his heart stop. The gi itself was fine, if unfamiliar. What really gave him pause was the- was that the Yin half of a Yin-Yang medallion? "It's just some advice from who you're destined to be."

His head was spinning. "You- I'm going to- is it with Nya?" The reflection looked older, and his hairstyle was different. Did Nya like the poofier look more? And maybe he needed to stop wearing concealer for his freckles. Although, he was wearing an awesome looking eyepatch. Did Nya like that look?

And, like a brilliant flash of lightning, the moment was gone. "See? Even now, you're worried about what Nya wants you to be. That's going to make you even less 'yourself.'" The reflection was wearing the same gi as him now. It looked at him with a sad expression. "Destiny is not a promise. It is a challenge. And I-" it flashed to another future self- him wearing some flashy, futuristic outfit with silver skin, "-can't exist if you can't take the next step."

"What does talking to Cole have to do with any of this?"

The reflection looked like him again. "You're still awkward with him. I don't know how Cole feels about you, but you need to work that out. That you from the rollercoaster, that is your true self. But you shouldn't be that just in death. Don't let fear hold you back from expressing your feelings and settling your grudges. Especially grudges against yourself. I'm not made of them like I am you, but I know they love you very much, and would hate to know that you've been bottling so much up."

Jay stewed on the thought for a minute. It simmered uncomfortably inside of him.

Where would I even begin with all… that? Nya has so much going on as-is. Nevermind Cole.

The reflection punched him lightly in the chest. "But hey! I don't exist just to be some crappy version of Wu that only tells you what's wrong!"

Its expression grew more solemn. "Look, I'm not gonna lie. You have a lot coming your way, even ignoring this whole ghost fiasco. And like I said, destiny isn't a promise." It flashed, and was suddenly wearing a tattered gi. The reflection's eyes were hollow, and its frame was alarmingly gaunt. There was no eyepatch, just an ugly scar and a missing eye. Jay recoiled at the sight, at the implication that that would eventually be him. "You have a lot of bad stuff coming your way." It went stiff and rigid, gold erupting from its chest, completely encasing and petrifying him. The reflection was a desperate, silent statue for a moment. Even still, Jay heard its voice. "But the First Master, and Wu? They chose you for a reason. Please, Jay. Please don't forget!"

Light flashed everywhere around Jay, on all sides. Suddenly, he was surrounded by flickering reflections. The ones of his past, and- what he could only guess was his future.

The one speaking to him was… amazing. It didn't even look human. But not in a scary way. Large, jagged wings sparked out of its back, gold armor reflected arcs of blue lightning, and energy seemed to cackle around it. "Please, Jay. If there's one reason I exist, one reason the First Master made me, it's to show you just how amazing you are. Not the you that lies about your feelings. Not the you that bottles things up. The you that is earnest, that loves solving problems, and that is always there to lighten the mood and lift others' spirits."

And then there was- it was a dragon, like his elemental dragon, but so much bigger and grander than anything Jay had ever summoned. It seemed to be an embodiment of electricity, almost like a physical manifestation of the Element of Lightning. It towered over the other Jays, bright and noble and utterly awe-inspiring. "You shine so bright. Do not hide that light from the world. It would be worse off for that."

And suddenly, in a single, brilliant flash of light, the vision faded. Jay was back in the room with his friends- they were circled around him, as the electricity in the gemstones faded away. The light seemed to leak from them, into the floor.

There was a scraping sound, like stone on stone. It wasn't until Jay rubbed the spots out of his eyes- his hands weren't glowing anymore, obviously- that he saw a passage leading deeper had been opened.

He was about to say something, only to find that his voice didn't quite work. Cole spoke up instead.

"Jay! First Master, are you okay?! You were just- completely out of it!" Cole was at his side, supporting him- Jay hadn't even noticed that he lost his balance.

"Your eyes were glowing," Zane said in a flat voice that betrayed the concern on his expression.

His mind was still spinning. He rubbed his temples. "Ugh, don't worry, I'm fine. Just… wow. Wow. That was… that was something."

"What exactly happened there, Bluejay?" Nya asked as she grabbed his other arm to support him.

Nya could be my Yang.

The thought would have made his chest flutter, except that it felt terribly heavy on account of all the other bombshells his reflection had dropped.

"Oh, you know. I was just talking to myself."


Zane loved Jay, truly. Jay was his brother for whom he would sacrifice anything. For whom he previously had sacrificed everything. Nothing would change that.

However, likewise, no amount of love would change just how roundabout and frustrating Jay was at explaining anything that wasn't perfectly scientific.

It was uncanny, really. When discussing schematics, inventions, and designs, Jay could manifest his vision verbally or visually with an impressive clarity that rivaled Nya. It was something Zane had always admired in his brother.

Explaining what exactly had happened upon that pedestal, however?

It was like speaking to a child describing an incoherent dream.

"So like, I saw myself. But like, a lot of myself, and every time lightning flashed it was a different me, and I think it was my past and future self, except when it was my present self. And there was a dragon. Well, there was me as a dragon and then like, my elemental dragon but suped up as all heck and they talked about me, it was kinda creepy but also kind of cool? I dunno. It was some kind of god-powered fortune telling service. Does that make sense? You know what I mean."

Zane took a small step back. "Jay, being honest, I haven't the slightest clue what you mean. I'm struggling to imagine the scenario which you describe."

Jay finally broke free from Cole and Nya's support. He hit his palm with his fist. "Hey, if I had a room showing my life, maybe all of us do! He knew we would come, after all!"

"Who knew? The First Master?" Kai asked, looking utterly lost.

"Come on!" Jay exclaimed, looking excited now. "Let's see what's in all of your rooms! He tried to lead the way down the newly opened corridor, but Zane stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.

"Jay, are you certain you are well?"

Something in Jay's expression faltered. Then, out of- honestly nowhere, Jay hugged Zane. It wasn't an unwelcome gesture, but Jay initiated the hug apropos of what felt like nothing. He felt the smaller ninja's arms wrap around his own midsection.

Once he got over his own surprise, though, Zane was happy to return the gesture.

"It was kind of a shock, but I'll be fine. Come on, more than that, I wanna see what else is down here."

"If you are certain…" Zane muttered, feeling more than a little off-balance himself.

And so, with Jay taking the lead, they descended a narrow set of spiraling stairs into another dim passage.

The next room was ice.

And Zane didn't mean that it was made for the Master of Ice, although that was certainly true. What he actually meant was that the door was a thick piece of ice, utterly opaque. When Zane pressed his hand against it, his temperature sensors registered that the ice was cold enough to cause pain for an individual less acclimated to the cold. He held up a hand. "Careful, this could be painful to the touch."

Cole still hovered a hand far too close for Zane's comfort. "Tell me about it. It's cold even to me."

"I think that the elements we are facing here are akin to elemental powers, which seem to be capable of affecting ghosts."

Cole nodded. "Makes sense. Nya, stop glaring at me, I'm not gonna touch it!" he added in a voice that seemed good-humored.

It was then that Zane noticed that she was, in fact, staring intensely at Cole. Still, she seemed satisfied by his answer and just tapped her Aeroblade Spear against the ground with a huff. Everything seemed resolved, so Zane didn't see any reason to pry further.

"It would seem this room is intended for the Master of Ice."

Jay made an "ah" sound. "Nah, I'd bet anything it's made for you. Come on, open it!"

If Jay could open his, there is no reason to believe that I cannot open this door.

He took a deep breath and pressed his hands against the wall of ice. Indeed, it was not normal ice. There was something unnatural to it- but the unnatural nature of it was almost paradoxical. It felt unnatural in that it felt acutely natural. It felt calming, and smooth, and like a comforting weight that pressed back against his hands. It felt like his own ice- that which he formed as an extension of himself. The same ice that helped to protect his friends in his confrontation with the Overlord.

His hands began to glow a bright white, same as the freshly fallen snows of the Birchwood Forest on a clear dawn. It felt nostalgic, like he was hearing the voice of a friend after a long absence. In some sense, that's exactly what it was.

Pixal had kept her consciousness uploaded to the Bounty during this expedition- she couldn't split her attention so far under the water where a signal couldn't easily reach. So she had stayed to ensure Master Wu and Misako encountered no complications managing the Bounty.

It was a shame, Zane decided. He wished he could have shown her the beautiful room beyond the icy wall, which melted at his gentle request.

It was elegant and grandiose. But not wholly unwelcoming. Like Jay's room, it towered overhead. If asked, Zane would have predicted icy stalactites. Instead, ice reflected off purple, pink blue, and aqua gemstones woven into a smooth and elegant chandelier that hung from chains forged from ice.

Also like Jay's room, there were carvings of him on the wall. They were chiseled into the ice, and yet Zane couldn't say they were monochromatic. The ice was colored, the splinters within the shapes reflecting the hues of the chandelier to better outline and shade the depicted forms. A large sculpture of his elemental dragon acted as a trim along the edges of the ceiling.

"Damn it's cold…" Kai muttered.

Nya scoffed. "What'd you expect? A hot tub?"

Kai didn't respond, he just shivered and rubbed his sleeves.

"The temperature here isn't as cold as I'd expect, given the temperature of these walls. They're much colder than the room. The room itself isn't too far below freezing, and yet the walls-"

Cole interrupted. "They're cold enough to hurt. I mean, I don't think they'll injure anyone, but they're like, colder than snow."

"You still don't get to touch it," Nya said in a teasing tone.

"Okayyyyy Mom. You're no fun," he replied in an equally light tone. He stuck his tongue out at her, which she returned.

Causing pain wasn't such a laughing matter to Zane, but as long as they seemed to be joking about it, there was probably no need to worry. Even if he didn't quite understand the appeal of the joke.

His hands were still glowing. He took to looking around the room.

There were carvings of his past. The first was of when he was first activated. He felt a twinge at the carving of his father- the pose was warm and gentle like Zane remembered, even if the artist had not included a face in their depiction. The lights from the crystals cast a gentle pink over him.

Zane smiled. It was nice to know he was honored by more than just Zane.

The next few carvings depicted some of his earliest memories. Now, Zane wouldn't call them his most precious memories- he valued all of his memories as irreplaceable treasures. However, even among those invaluable artifacts, his earliest memories are the ones where he learned from a loving father how to be human.

There was a carving of him building simple toys with his father. Of him, learning to cook. The visit of an old man. After that, he was chopping wood shortly before he first met Master Wu.

His father on his deathbed, where he cached Zane's memories to give him a fresh start as a human. He felt a pang of old, familiar grief towards the depiction of his memory.

There was him, at the bottom of a lake. The second time he met Master Wu, with no recollection of their first meeting.

Wait… that means Master Wu knew from the beginning that I wasn't human, he realized.

He idly wondered why Master Wu kept it a secret. Perhaps it was for the same reason his father erased his memories- to give Zane a fleeting normal life before inevitably stumbling upon his true nature.

His father, Master Wu, they both knew he was not human, and yet still treated him so normally. Still like his own person. Without that kindness, those brief yet precious upbringings by two different parental figures, Zane wasn't sure what kind of a person he'd be today.

He smiled, and moved on to the next carving. If the first wall was a dedication to his life pre-ninja recruitment, then this next wall celebrated his earliest exploits. Finding the Shurikens of Ice. Befriending Shard. Meeting the falcon. Discovering the Bounty.

Larger than all of those upon the wall was a glittering blue depiction of him walking down the spiral stairs of his home, about to uncover the truth of his origin.

That memory was very precious to him. It had been a difficult revelation, but a pivotal one.

A memory flashed through his mind, unprompted.

"You're still the same Zane. Just more… gears."

Cole had said that. A fumbling attempt at comforting him amidst his own reeling confusion at Zane's revelation. And it had helped. He owed his brother proper thanks for his words on that day. Especially in light of recent events.

The spiraling stairs of his home in the Birchwood Forest led not to his place of origin. Rather, it led to another carving- of him fighting the Treehorns and reaching his True Potential. He had unlocked it in a single moment of great revelation- that whatever he may be, he existed to protect those who could not protect themselves.

The carvings beside it were smaller and similar to Jay's room. Exploits between fighting the Serpentine and the first Stone Warrior in Ninjago City.

One wall had the lighthouse in which his father had been trapped. Surrounding it was the sea monster he had freed, looking down upon Zane's masked form in gratitude. Zane smiled again.

Beyond that, the walls once again resembled Jay's room. Finding the dark island, getting his Elemental Blade, the fight with the Overlord, it was all there. That particular fight hadn't been a noble one for Zane, on account of that corruptive substance that had infected his system, but it was an important one nonetheless, so Zane understood the inclusion.

There was a large carving of Pixal. It was beautiful; the lights from the chandelier reflected beautifully on her features. Her eyes even shone that vibrant green of which he was very fond.

Beyond that was a depiction of their conflict against the evil Nindroids manufactured by the Overlord Virus. They were a desecration of his father's legacy, and what Zane's design was made to stand for. Even seeing them depicted as icy carvings made him feel… Nothing as extreme as anger, but perhaps frustrated.

Then came a lethal application of his True Potential: his battle against the Overlord, all illustrated on a single massive wall. Zane was gratified to see his friends depicted on the surrounding buildings. He always got entirely too much of the credit when his friends had done a great deal as well.

None of them had managed to use their True Potential to the same extent once they lost their Golden Weapons. However, the Overlord virus' armor had been crafted from the Golden Weapons. Zane had channeled that energy into an ultimate fulfillment of his purpose to protect. It was something he didn't regret; he'd do it again in a heartbeat, even if it promised an even more definite end to his life.

This room… It was nice, but also made him feel somewhat awkward. Zane couldn't put his finger on why until he fully processed what was dividing the Overlord fight with the wall beside it: a statue. A large titanium statue.

"This is… my statue." Zane said in awe.

"How's it here?" Cole asked as he stared up at it with a difficult-to-read expression.

"It must be a replica. Or would it be the original, since it had to have been here longer…" Nya mused with her arms crossed. She was staring at it with her lips drawn in a tight line, though that slowly melted into a small smile.

Zane sighed. "I did not need a statue. Neither here nor in the city. I did not fight the Overlord to be honored."

Maybe that was why this room felt so strange. It was a celebration of Zane's exploits, but recognition had never been the motivation for his actions.

It surprised Zane that Kai was the one to explain. "It wasn't just about honor, Zane," he said. "There wasn't much else we could do to say 'thank you', after all. The least we could do was make sure nobody forgot what you did. We wanted to make sure nobody else had to do what you did."

That did stir something in Zane. He turned to his brother. "I… see. But why keep the statue up now that I have returned?"

"Because you didn't know you'd come back when you did it. Just because you survived doesn't mean it matters any less." Kai crossed his arms and turned away with a huff. "At least that's how I see it. Dunno how much good it did, though…"

Zane frowned.

A bitter laugh escaped Jay. "Yeah, stop one apocalypse and another pops right up."

Cole shrugged. "And we'll stop this one, too. Without any casualties this time."

Jay raised a finger and looked like he was about to say something. Cole cut him off.

"I'm still here, Sparky. I don't count."

Jay opened his mouth, then closed it, then put his finger to his chin with a pensive expression. In the end, he dropped it with a shrug.

Beyond his statue was… a troubled time for Zane. Awakening within Chen's dungeons. Even without his face being depicted, his pose was fearful as he pressed himself into a corner. There was Pixal, dismantled on a table. The factory where he was forced to work.

But even in that dark period of fear and uncertainty, there were moments of light.

Particularly, one of Cole, peering through the bars of a cell door. The first familiar face he'd seen since reactivating. That moment had been such an utter relief. Had come as such a joy that it was almost painful.

Cole had a way of doing that. Of inspiring hope. Of creating a sense that anything was possible.

Zane took a deep breath and continued. From there was him overcoming his fear of the dragon he was seeing. Of him, summoning his elemental dragon for the first time. The fight with the Anacondrai.

From there, he could only assume he was viewing the future.

"This is… difficult to parse," he decided.

Jay laughed a bit. "Yeah, if only it was captioned. Did they use Ninjargon back then? Or was it all that Edo script? Or were those, like, different languages that existed at the same time?"

"I wouldn't think it'd matter," Cole said. "Seeing as the First Master could make predictive wall carvings anyway."

There were a lot of carvings about his future. Some had sustained damage, like one where the figure beside him had been sliced by a small rupture in the carving as he wore some kind of "punk biker" type of disguise. Zane made sure to store them in his deep storage, because at the moment, it was difficult to guess at their significance.

Although, the one of him dismantled in the… was that sand? The one of him dismantled in a mound of sand stood out to him. Whatever experience led to that must have been a harrowing one. In another, he was confronting a dragon with Kai. They had nothing but a chain to help. There was another of him tied to a stake with a fair amount of damage on his body.

However, they weren't all so grim. He was riding a dragon in another. It looked the same as his elemental dragon, except that it was colored by the light differently. Instead of being bathed entirely in a light that seemed to represent his powers, it was more grounded. The lights shined on its eyes, talons, wings, and patterns along its scales. As if it were real.

It felt oddly fraught to scrutinize his future too closely, but at the same time, it was intriguing.

There was another statue. This one was made of pure ice. Of someone Zane didn't recognize. He held a staff in a large, frozen hand. He was clad entirely in armor, and what little of his face was visible was covered in icy crystals. Behind it were carvings of equally ominous soldiers.

Another foe he'd need to fell, perhaps.

Jay interrupted his thoughts before he could scrutinize the room further.

"Ooh! Zane! Do you feel anything about this pedestal campfire area?"

Zane turned around. In the very center of the room was an elevated platform with a small bonfire. How its fuel burned infinitely would likely remain a mystery to which only the First Master knew the answer.

Now that he was looking for it, he did feel a sort of tug. He approached the fire as the others watched.

There was no immediate light show as he sat in front of the only source of heat within the room. He felt a sort of noise in his mind. One that seemed worth meditating on. Instead of bombastic lights, the cold came slowly and gradually. Zane couldn't say for sure if the fire went out. He couldn't say for sure if his friends said anything. The world had a way of fading away whenever he meditated to explore his own thoughts.

Eventually, he felt compelled to open his eyes. He should have been alarmed at the change in environment, yet all he felt was a cool calmness in his chest.

It was cold, but it wasn't dark. It was snowing, so fast and so thick that he couldn't see more than a few feet in front of him. Despite that, it couldn't be called a blizzard, because blizzards required a certain quantity of wind. There was no wind.

He could hear the snow crunch beneath his feet as he walked.

He didn't know for how long he was walking until he heard a voice.

"May I join you?"

It was himself, dressed in the simple white clothes his father had given him upon his activation. He still had synthetic skin instead of being made from titanium.

"Who are you?" Zane asked.

"I'm you, in a sense," the figure replied.

"What does that mean?"

"I was created by the First Spinjitzu Master from pieces of you. From your past, present, and future. I'm everything you've been, are, and are meant to become."

The two began to walk and talk.

"Do you possess sentience?" Zane asked the construct.

The other Zane stared up at the blanket of endless white above them. "Hmm. That isn't a straightforward question. Certainly not in the same way that someone like Kai, Jay, Cole, or even you and Pixal do."

"Then in what way are you such?" Zane asked.

"I'm alive in the same way a reflection is alive. The person you see in the mirror shows all signs of life. It shares your thoughts, feelings, and mannerisms. And yet, it ceases to be when you no longer cast a light for it to bounce back towards you."

Zane frowned. "That sounds sad."

The reflection smiled. "Oh, it's nothing so harrowing, I assure you. You do not pity a mirror when the lights turn off. Likewise, you need not think so hard over what I am."

"I… I see," Zane said as he processed the information. "Then, if I may ask, what is your purpose? Jay's explanation was…"

"Incomplete, yes," the reflection replied with a wry smile. "He always had a much more… abstract way of describing things."

There was a gust of wind that blew so much snow that Zane couldn't see. It only lasted a brief few seconds. When it receded, the reflection had changed, now dressed in his black gi from when he was first training under Sensei Wu.

"The First Spinjitzu Master thinks very highly of you and your friends. However, he knew that if you found this place, it would not be under good circumstances. I exist to offer insight and advice that may be of use based on your current situation."

Zane paused to think about that. "So, you have knowledge of my future? Does that not risk creating a paradox?"

The reflection gave a soft laugh and set a hand on Zane's shoulder. "The First Spinjitzu Master is the Master of all Elements. Time is one of those Elements. Do not worry about such things. Besides, I'm less a reflection of your future, and more of your destiny."

"I know the words mean different things, but what is that difference in this context?"

The wind howled again. Next Zane looked, the reflection was dressed in his first white gi. "Destiny is not a promise. It is a challenge. It is something that you must rise to meet."

"Some of what was depicted on those walls seem less than positive. I do not wish to fulfill those destinies," Zane said. He wasn't trying to be difficult or any such thing, merely to reach a thorough understanding of this unusual situation. Thankfully, the reflection seemed to understand this.

"Bad things are destined to happen. But destiny can be defied. Ghosts are notorious for this, since ghosts are often a manifestation of an unwillingness to accept one's fate. But anyone can do it." He looked away. "However, bad destinies are much easier to fulfill than noble ones. One minor miscalculation, one false step, one slight mistake-" Another gale. Zane took a step back when he saw the statue from before- the frightening one with the armor, staff, and face blue from ice- "can lead to an inferno that melts the slowly accumulated snowscape of correct and purehearted choices."

"This is not a foe? I am destined to become this?" Zane asked with not a little horror in his chest.

The reflections voice was gruff and slow. "Yes… but I implore you not to fear this future, for several reasons. One, you are destined to survive and even find your way again. Two, fear of failure and fear of the future is what leads to stagnation of self. Stagnant waters breed muck and filth."

Zane hesitated, and found it difficult to walk forward. "Can you give me any advice on how to avoid becoming this depiction of me?"

The reflection sighed and looked up again. His cold, intense eyes were betrayed by his pensive tone. "This is not something you would ever become. That is why it is not worth fearing this. This version of you is the result of a cascade of errors, accidents, and malicious manipulation all stemming from a noble action."

"That makes it sound as though I did nothing wrong to become this."

The wind blew, and the figure was back to wearing his white gi, although this time it was his dragon rider suit. "Not all bad fates are a punishment for ill-intended actions. I sense that is something you have learned very recently."

"You are referring to Cole," Zane stated.

The reflection nodded. "Yes."

"You're saying that bad things just happen."

Another nod. "Yes." The wind howled, and then the reflection was wearing his gi with the golden shoulder plates.

Zane sighed and held out his hand. A large snowflake landed on it. It was such a beautiful little thing. Even still, it was an ephemeral beauty, and it eventually melted on his palm. "I resent that," he said with a deep sense of melancholy.

"Most do. Although, you don't resent bad things happening to you. You understand and accept the concept of bad occurrences. You're not one to linger over misfortune. You despise that you cannot save others from such things. You're built to protect, after all."

Zane looked away and walked a bit faster. "I do not mean to be rude, but I believe you are misinterpreting my intentions. You make me sound more selfless than I actually am. Just like everyone else."

The reflection showed no malice, just a small, sympathetic frown. "A mirror does not lie. However, a reflection can, at times, be even more honest than that which it is reflecting."

"I am not trying to deceive you."

"Maybe not, but you are trying to downplay your own virtues. Why is it that you are so quick to reject praise for your actions?" he asked, which clearly must have been a rhetorical question. The wind blew a fresh sheet of snow that, when cleared, revealed the figure wearing the outfit Borg had given him.

He had just thought about that very thing a few minutes ago in the Tomb as he had stared at his statue. "It feels like everyone is too quick to paint my actions as noble. All I'm trying to do is to fulfill my reason for existing."

"You were built to protect those who cannot protect themselves."

The voice of his father rang out, clear as day. Zane spun on his heel, but couldn't find the source of it. All he saw instead was a single yellow butterfly flapping its wings, unbothered by the snow.

The reflection was, at first, silent. Perhaps to allow Zane a moment to recompose himself. However, it did, eventually speak. "The desire to fulfill a purpose is not morally neutral," it said. "Not when that purpose is, in itself, a noble one. It is rare for someone to be so unshakable in their attempts to further that goal. People want to celebrate that someone like you exists. And they want to thank you for what you've done."

Zane didn't reply. He crunched the snow a little deeper under his foot as he took a heavier step. The reflection knew why.

"But that's not what it's about. If one of your friends were in the same position, you would likely do the same, wouldn't you? Seek to thank them somehow even if they no longer exist?"

The snow blew again, but this time was different. This time, it seemed to flow from the reflection as it glowed an otherworldly blue. The gi shifted, manifesting the Stone Armor. The welding on his faceplate seemed to crack and melt right off despite the extreme cold. Half of his face fell into the snow. Snow and ice, colder than any mountain, left the reflection as a gale. His eyes glowed an intense blue.

It was sickening to see. Zane felt a pit in his stomach. And yet, all he could do was watch as this recreation of his True Potential in the worst of circumstances destroyed himself.

In a final cyclone of snow and ice, the figure completely dissipated, machinery exploding into nothingness, dissolved into pieces so small that they were indistinguishable from the snow that fluttered to the ground. All that was left was half of the reflection's face, and a large, titanium statue.

"You don't want to be thanked, because you feel like you failed."

Zane felt weak in the knees. Slowly, he turned around and sat with his back to the statue. He took a deep and shuddering breath. "I did fail. I didn't protect them."

And it wasn't about how other threats still existed. Zane wasn't so vain as to think he could wipe out all evil in the world.

He heard a voice on the other side of the statue, now more mechanical. Now matching Zane's current voice module.

"You failed, because they still suffered greatly."

When Zane looked up, the once-pristine statue was covered in dirt and grime.

Zane took a shuddering breath before he could find the words. "Yes. My death hurt the team. I don't think it'd be a stretch to say it traumatized them. I loathe that my sacrifice is looked upon so fondly when it caused such crushing agony to the people I so dearly love."

"So should you have let them die from within those golden webs?"

Zane laid his head back against the statue. "Of course not."

"It's a losing battle that you're fighting. Do you protect someone's body, or do you protect their heart? If one is lost, another must live with that hole in their heart. Especially for a family as tight-knit as yours."

"What do you propose I do? If something is lethal to me, it is almost certainly lethal to the others. They cannot carry the same burdens as I. But at the same time, the thought of causing them the agony they experienced in my absence is unbearable."

The reflection's voice was soft, and yet carried very clearly. "Everything you've said is true. There really is no good answer to that particular dilemma. Apart from saving the day without any injuries, there's no easy solution."

Zane stared down at the snow beneath him. Slowly, he pressed his titanium palm into it; he could feel the chill as clear as he had in his more human body. He pressed his hand into a fist, feeling the snow compact into a tiny ball.

The reflection sighed. "But that's not the worst part."

"It's not," Zane confirmed.

He heard the reflection stand. He heard the reflection's footsteps crunch in the snow. Indeed, he now reflected Zane's titanium body. He sat in front of Zane, mirroring his meditative pose. "Worse still is that you don't know how to help those that you can't save by placing yourself between them and their plight."

Zane nodded.

"This is about Cole, again."

Zane nodded again.

"You don't know how to help him."

Another nod.

"You have a question."

"You… you say ghosts defy destiny. That would imply that Cole was not meant to be a ghost."

"That is correct. He was not intended to be a ghost."

"And yet, the Tomb's location would only reveal itself to a ghost."

"This is correct."

Zane took a deep breath, feeling the frigid air circulate through his imitation of a respiratory system. "These two facts seem to be at odds with each other."

"Correct again. You want me to elaborate on this apparent contradiction, I assume."

The reflection looked sad. "Much of it is not mine to tell. However, to summarize where I can, you all were never intended to come to this place. However, the First Spinjitzu Master knew that, if you did, it would be in dire circumstances acting without the guiding hand of destiny. You would not go to Sensei Yang's temple if the situation weren't desperate. Likewise, the Preeminent has wanted to escape for some time. To put it in simple terms, you are now living out a ungovernable scenario, where the First Spinjitzu Master has offered what little control he can over the situation."

Zane took a moment to process all of that. "You're saying that this was a backup plan, of sorts. Requiring a ghost was to ensure the artifact buried here stayed hidden, save for a case where destiny were defied and it needed to be found as a result."

The reflection nodded. "You want to know why the artifact wasn't destroyed," he then stated. Zane waited for him to explain. "That is something that I cannot tell you. Both because I can't and because I should not. Your situation, and furthermore, Cole's situation, is very precarious."

"But there is a reason?"

"There is a reason, yes."

"I question if Cole will accept such an explanation, seeing as he is the one suffering the most from this ordeal."

"I do not reflect Cole. Therefore, I cannot say. However, based on what I know from your interactions with him, that seems to be true."

Zane put his head in his hands. "That is, perhaps, the worst part of this. So much of this is out of our hands."

He stewed on a thought for a moment. The reflection reacted to it.

"Yes, the First Master knew that Cole would be the one to become a ghost."

"That does not answer my question."

Even the reflection had the decency to look away at that. "No, it does not."

"So please, tell me. I won't hold it against you, but… did the First Spinjitzu Master choose that Cole would become a ghost?"

After all, knowing that something would happen, and ordaining it as such were two drastically different things.

The reflection seemed to ponder over its words. "It is, as most things are, complicated. Cole was not supposed to be a ghost. This is an immutable truth. However, if anyone were to become a ghost, it was always going to be Cole."

Zane squeezed his eyelids shut and tried not to be angry. "Why?"

"I cannot say."

"So there was never anything I could do to save him from this."

"There was not."

"And there is still nothing I can do to protect him from this anguish in his heart." The words were flowing from Zane before he could fully process them. "I promised him. I promised I would alleviate his pain. And yet, it truly seems as though the world is bent on making him miserable."

Now, the reflection stood up. When Zane opened his eyes, his reflection had completely changed. He was wearing a sky-blue suit. with icicles blossoming outward from golden armor. Even his metal chassis was glowing with ethereal light, as though his elemental power had completely transformed him. Massive wings made of golden armor and blue light flapped back and forth with a slow, graceful elegance.

Zane stared with wide eyes before he actually thought to accept the hand up to his feet. The reflection hugged him. "My friend, there is always something you can do."

"What is it?" Zane asked, a little more desperate than he would have liked.

"Be there. If you cannot protect, you must repair. Both yourself, and those that need help healing. In many ways, it is harder than sacrificing yourself to stop some great foe. The desire to fix is just as noble as the desire to save. Father would not think less of you for it."

"How can I ever do such a thing? What Cole faces- I do not know how to comfort someone suffering from such a cruel fate."

The winds picked up once more. This time, instead of blowing towards Zane, the snow began to circle him. The ethereal him vanished. In its place was his elemental dragon, except it was bigger than his had ever been. It emanated the feeling of Ice itself. Even still, the reflection's voice rang out.

"Zane, do not underestimate the effect you have on others. Your powers have pulled the world back from the brink of destruction, and your heart has offered a guiding light in the darkest of storms. You are empathetic; you are kind; you are selfless. You offer love and support to those around you. You should know by now that you do not need to be the same as others in order to help them."

In a great howling gale of snow and ice, the world went completely white.


If he was being honest, Kai hadn't listened much once Zane defrosted from atop the platform where the ice had encased him. Because, when the ice encasing him did melt, so too did a segment of the ground, revealing a stone staircase leading further into the Tomb.

Now, as ready as Kai was to dive headfirst down said passage, Zane opened his eyes with a bit of a shuddering breath, so checking on him came first.

"Zane, are you alright?" Nya asked.

Jay bounced from foot to foot as he helped pull Zane to his feet. "Yeah! What did you see?"

Zane blinked a few times, gathering his thoughts before he replied. "I saw a reflection of me. He presented himself as my past self, and occasionally as my future self."

"You too, then!" Jay exclaimed. "I bet we all have rooms here!"

Nya hummed. "I doubt it. Water isn't an Element of Creation."

Kai smirked. "Yeah, water is too lame for a room all to itself," he said. Nya scoffed and shoved him in the direction of the passage. Kai stumbled frantically to regain his footing.

He could hear Cole huff. "Yeah, all it does is keep people alive and stuff. Who needs it?" The group began to follow Kai to the next room, though Cole spoke as he walked. "You said you talked to your future self?"

Zane nodded. "The glimpses of my future were very brief, however."

"Yeah, it was like that for me, too," Jay said. "Any idea why?"

"I believe it is because our futures are not as concrete as our past or present," The Nindroid settled on.

Kai couldn't help but glance at Cole; he was staring ahead with a pointedly blank expression.

Yeah, I'd be nervous about seeing my future in your shoes, too…

Not that Kai would ever take any bad destiny for Cole seriously. This was all just Cloud Kingdom destiny shenanigans or something. And if it wasn't he'd break destiny too. If Morro could, so could Kai.

However, Cole could delay seeing his room a little while longer, because it seemed like Kai's room was next.

"Not gonna lie, I was expecting a door of volcanic rock or something," Jay said.

"I suppose wood also makes sense, though. It is frequently used as kindling," Zane explained.

Cole poked the door- his hand went right through. He turned to Kai with a grin. "Hah, see you guys later!" He then took a sidestep into the room.

Kai rolled his eyes and put his hands on the wooden door- it did look pretty odd for wood. The lines of the grain were weird- instead of being straight, or just a little bit curvy, it seemed to trail upward in a flame-like pattern. Now, Kai was a crappy blacksmith, not a crappy carpenter, but he was still pretty sure that wasn't a thing wood normally did. Carved into the center of the door was an emblem of fire, as well.

Alright, yeah, definitely his door.

He closed his eyes and focused. At first, he didn't feel anything. He worried for a moment that he wouldn't be able to activate it. Thankfully, that wasn't what happened. Instead, it all hit him at once. A fire roared to life in his hands and in the door, which burned away into ash.

They were met with a room that was made of dark, volcanic rock.

"Hah, I knew it," Jay said with a smirk. Kai rolled his eyes. The room was hot, pleasantly so. Lava poured from the mouth of his elemental dragon, which was carved into one of the walls. It was so large that its head took up most of the ceiling space. The lava fell in six columns, all dropping further down, into a tiny river that circled the room. In the very center was his own pedestal. He heard Jay make some exasperated gasp. From the corner of his eye, Kai saw him start to fan himself.

Aren't you from the Sea of Sand?

He made his way to the center of the room.

"Woah, you're not even gonna look?" Nya asked.

"The sooner I do this, the sooner we can get Lloyd back. We don't know if Morro is already here," he explained. Although, it was a bit annoying that he needed to explain. He couldn't help the slight scowl on his face. "Zane can take pictures or something. I'll look later."

"Only you would walk into a room hand-crafted by the First Spinjitzu Master himself for you and decide that you'd rather hurry along," Jay said in a kind of whiny voice, which made no sense considering Kai let him take his sweet time in his own room, and the Master of Lightning was already sweating bullets.

Cole, meanwhile, was walking along the edge of the room, looking at the carvings- the dark rock would have made it hard to make out any of the shapes if it weren't for the orange and red light pulsing through the illustration like blood through veins. It acted almost like an outline. It did look really cool, and he was pretty sure he saw one of him reaching his True Potential in the volcano, where he had saved himself and Lloyd from certain doom…

Kai shook his head to dispel the distraction. He jumped onto his pedestal, half expecting to be dunked unceremoniously into a lava pit or to just immediately combust or something.

Nya sounded incredulous. "We are in a room commemorating your past and future accomplishments, and you, Kai, master of ego, won't even peek at it?"

"Shut up and let me focus," Kai grunted as he tried to figure out exactly what he was supposed to do on the pedestal.

"Are these the Golden Weapons?" Cole asked from the other side of the room. That got Kai's attention. "But… this wall is definitely future stuff, and the Golden Weapons were destroyed."

Zane shook his head. "No, they were forged into the Golden Armor for the Overlord."

"Kai, are you going to reforge the Golden Weapons?" Jay asked. "I thought your blacksmithing sucked!"

"Hey, I wasn't that bad!"

Nya snorted. "He once made a sword that bent itself into a corkscrew." Jay laughed. Kai stomped over to see what the big deal was.

"It wasn't that bad!" Then he looked up at the wall. "Okay… but I'm definitely not that good," he admitted, staring at a carving that definitely depicted him using a forge of some kind. And seeing as the Golden Weapons (not just the Sword of Fire, but all of them) were surrounding that image, there really weren't that many ways to interpret it.

"Guess you gotta pick your old trade back up," Cole hummed. "Whelp, good luck."

Kai groaned. It wasn't like he could pick up a "Blacksmithing for Dummies" book from the library to solve all his problems. "Whatever, this picture is probably years away. It's fine." He turned around to return to the pedestal- another mural caught his eye- was he fighting- was that a dragon he was fighting with his fire?

And in another, he was using that same power against some kind of rift storm thing in the sky.

Damn, his Elemental Fire was really going to step up its game in the coming years, wouldn't it?

He shook his head and went back to the pedestal. The river of lava turned into a tiny spiral centered on the middle of the pedestal. Lava seemed to flow from it in a gentle stream.

Now, Kai wasn't completely lava proof, but something about the center of that pedestal and that downward trickle of molten rock seemed to call to him.

"Kai's about to touch the lava," Cole sighed. "Hey dude? Please don't burn your hand off!" he called through cupped hands, though Kai wasn't sure that his ghostly hands actually did anything to amplify the sound.

"Jay can chuck lightning like a baseball. I think I can handle a little lava."

He didn't hear the reply, because he was busy bursting into flames. The moment he pressed his hand against the small trickle of lava, fire screamed up his arm and engulfed his entire body in a red and orange inferno. It was hot, really hot, but just barely under a threshold which Kai would call painful.

Now, the other two had said they spoke to reflections. So Kai was expecting to see a mirror or something. Not to look down and see a charred wooden plank dangling overtop a gaping pit of lava. It reminded him of his arena on Chen's island.

"Okay, I'm not that lava proof," he shouted at nobody. He couldn't see what was beyond the bridge. Smoke concealed it on either side, and the air smelled of ash and sulfur. It probably should have made him worry, but he felt oddly okay with this precarious situation.

"Wouldn't it be awesome if you were? The fire ninja, swimming through lava to sneak up on enemies!"

Oh, a kid version of himself, a few boards down the bridge. He looked small, maybe five or so.

"So that's what they meant by reflection… you're my past self?"

The small Kai bobbed his head in a nod. "Yeah, in the flesh."

Kai grunted. "Okay, no offense, but can we make this quick?"

Kai lurched back as the board the child Kai was standing on erupted into flames. A small inferno completely engulfed the reflection, who jumped onto the next board before completely losing his footing. Kai felt himself grip the ropes of the bridge a little harder.

When the fire died down, the child was older. But not that much older. The biggest difference was that his hair was longer and more disheveled, and there were dark bags under his haunted eyes. He was also a bit more gaunt. Probably just after he started trying to learn how to run the shop, much to the chagrin of the neighbors that were vaguely supervising them to make sure he and Nya didn't completely wither away without their parents. The child sighed; it sounded utterly exhausted. "In a rush to get to Lloyd, I know…"

"You say that like it's a bad thing?" Kai said, though it kind of turned into a question by the end.

The reflection's eyes went wide as it shook its head. "Oh, no. It's not! I'm just worried."

Kai crossed his arms and leaned against the rope of the bridge. "About what? That Morro could kill Lloyd? Me too."

The reflection shook his head and took another flaming jump forward. When it emerged, he was wearing his blacksmithing outfit. "No, I'm worried that you're falling back into old habits."

Kai stepped back a plank. "Uh-huh. If you think I'm focused too hard on Morro, I'm not. This is all about protecting Lloyd. I don't give a damn what happens to that evil ghost."

The alternate Kai scoffed and brushed back his sweaty hair with a sooty hand. "Hey, I'm not trying to start anything. Stop trying to act like I'm picking a fight. Lloyd is fine right now."

That made Kai pause. "What do you mean? Where is he?"

"He's in the Tomb. I don't know all the details, but for now, he's okay. There's no need to hurry."

"They're here already? How? We only saw this door when we got here!"

The reflection stared up at a dark, smoky sky. "There were two entrances to the Tomb. Cole and Morro were shown different ones." It turned back to Kai. "Now, let's get back on topic. Old habits. You're playing Mama Bear again."

He couldn't help the way the anger sparked off him like flint hitting stone. "Excuse me? How is trying to find my baby brother a bad thing? You should know how I reached my True Potential, right? That's what I'm supposed to do. Keep him safe."

Not that I'm very good at protecting my family.

Another fire erupted. When the figure emerged, it was wearing his first, bright red ninja gi. "It's not bad. In fact, it's pretty awesome that you care so much about your family. But you're doing the loner thing again."

That one confused Kai. "What? We've been working together, though. I was following Cole back at the Wailing Alps."

"True, you've been working together in that regard. You're definitely a lot better than you were at the Temple of Fire. But you know that thing you do where you get tunnel vision so bad that you start skipping sleep to train? Yeah, you're doing that."

Kai rolled his eyes. "I have actually zero control over whatever situational insomnia leads to that. I may as well take the time to be productive. And besides, how is that being a loner?" He let his scowl etch itself back onto his face. "Also, I wasn't even training alone. Sure, Jay had to come to me but that's cuz he was busy! And I was training with Cole the other day!"

He winced at the memory. Seeing Cole sink through the floor as if he had hit a pitfall- he could still feel the way his heart had plummeted.

"I don't mean in a physical sense. I mean emotionally."

"Oh, here we go," Kai groaned. "Even at the bottom of the ocean, I can't escape Wu's axioms."

"Hey, if you're not going to pick up on it, I have to spell it out. Your aversion to any iota of introspection is the problem here."

Flames erupted and burnt the reflection's latest plank to a crisp. Next, he was wearing the dragon rider gi.

"Look, here's the problem. You're focused too much on solving the problem. Lloyd being captured is awful. Cole being a ghost absolutely sucks. But if you keep burning the candle on both ends, you're going to burn out."

"I'm not burning the candle on both ends," Kai declared. He took another step back as the reflection got closer. "I'm fine. I was training so much because it's not like I could do anything else to help out while they tried to find the Tomb. I'm not good with smart person stuff."

You should know that, if you have my memories.

The next retort came out of goddamn nowhere.

"Why do you hate yourself so much?"

Kai went cold. He felt like he was just struck with a blunt object, or dipped in the freezing ocean, struggling to find air. "Wha-"

"You hate yourself. You think you're worthless if you're not fighting. And when the problem can't be punched, you go off to find something to punch."

Kai felt anger boil in his gut. Meanwhile, a hysteria flickered in his mind. He felt his face get hot. "Oh, okay. Maybe I should focus on watching out for Lloyd now that his dad is gone. Oh wait," he snarled. The reflection changed to his armored gi that he fought the Devourer with, but Kai kept talking, kept backing up, up, up. "What if I help with the plans! Hah, the last time I had a plan, Cole died! Then maybe I could try to be there for Cole in the meantime, show my support, you know?! Whoops! I say something wrong and he nearly falls into the ocean!" He gestured wildly and with enough force for the rope bridge to sway. "Then at least I can try and protect Wu's tea shop! Except, guess what!? I put a water bucket on the door, and nearly killed my brother again! And Lloyd is still gone! So excuse me if I'm not in the mood to be all huggy-huggy-happy-go-lucky right now!"

The rant left him breathless and choking on the soot in the air.

Kai truly had no idea what to expect from his reflection. He decided that deep look of pity was one of the worst reactions he could have received. "And your solution to that is to act like all you can do is fight."

Kai just glared.

His reflection sighed. "You know that distancing yourself is only going to make things worse. It's never worked out for you before." Flames started to lick the clothes of the copy, emanating from his very form. "You're not built to fight. You're built to live. Part of living is making mistakes." It quirked its head back in a wry smile. "And come on. A bucket on the door isn't even like, top fifty mistakes you've made." There was a brief flicker, a trick of the eye, where the red gi almost looked green, like the time Kai had secretly borrowed it. "You nearly died in a volcano from one mistake."

"I'm tired of my mistakes almost getting people killed," Kai tried to yell, though he found it hard to even breathe.

Flames erupted from the reflection, swirling around him like a meteor. He glowed gold, orange, and even blue in some spots. A red sphere shone like some otherworldly meteor, and the copy stared at him with an infrared gaze.

"You were not the one that brought Lloyd into that volcano. It was Pythor's malice."

Kai hacked out a cough as smoke caught in his lungs. "He was captured because of me!"

The reflection sounded almost desperate. "No, he was vulnerable to capture because of you. He was captured because of the snakes. You can reflect on your mistakes, but do not claim responsibility for what you can't even control! If Lloyd had fallen into that lava, it would have been Pythor's fault for bringing him there and using him. You saved him from that."

"I upset the volcano in the first place!"

The reflection shook his head. "Who's to say things wouldn't have gone worse if you hadn't intervened?" When the flames of his True Potential died down, the reflection wore his kimono from the Temple of Light. "And later on, you protected Lloyd to the end, as he climbed the steps to face the Overlord. You had his back, ready to fight the apocalypse for him."

More flames erupted. The volcano below rumbled anxiously. The reflection was wearing the gi protected by the Stone Armor. "Zane may have been the one to escape from the Overlord's webs, but don't forget that you were there in the first place, facing certain death right alongside him. He's just the one that had to do the deed. If given the opportunity, you would have done the exact same thing. His death was not owed to your inaction."

Kai tried to take another step back on the ladder, only for his foot to be met with empty air. He stumbled and corrected his balance at the last moment as he gripped the ropes on either side. The reflection kept speaking, kept stepping forward, now wearing his Red Shogun outfit. "When you lost him, you never stopped looking for ways to improve the world, even if you didn't know how to do it. You may have lost your way, but you were not the one that carved that hole in your chest."

Another step, he was only a few planks away. Now it was casual wear. "You visited his statue every day, determined to remember what he did."

Another step, now it was the gi from Chen's island. "You nearly went mad when you had the staff, but it wasn't you who made it. It wasn't you who stole everyone's powers. It wasn't you who put Zane on that island in the first place. And in the end, you stopped yourself before you could hurt anyone!"

Now the figure matched him, a few small steps away. Kai leaned as far back as the bridge would let him. "You were not the reason Sensei Garmadon had to sacrifice himself. You were not the one that possessed Lloyd. You were not the one that turned Cole into a ghost."

It kept talking, kept approaching. "Your tenacity is amazing. You have an ability to never give up. Destiny is a challenge to meet, and you're always chasing it."

The flames that changed its outfit were much more gentle this time, passing over him in a brief wave rather than an inferno. This one was tattered. His frame was gaunt. He was covered in wounds that seemed angry and infected. "Even in the most hopeless situations, where everything is lost-" the flames this time had a golden tint to them, leaving a golden statue instead of a person on the plank that had withered.

Kai yelped as the wood splintered and broke. The golden statue of him fell, fell, fell, until it plummeted into the lava with an anticlimactic splash. That should have been the end, except what erupted from it was him, but with golden armor and draconic wings that seemed to be made of fire. "Even when there is no hope, you have an amazing ability to press on, to keep going, and to find some glimmer of hope. And that's amazing."

Something else came out of the volcano. Kai could feel the vibrations it caused before he could see it- a massive elemental dragon, the very embodiment of flame. His own voice boomed from it. "Never once have you created the evil that plagues you and your family. You are a hero. You save people. The problem is that in order to save people from massive danger, you must take a massive risk. And evil only has to get lucky once in order for agonizing scars to be torn through your heart."

The massive dragon bowed its head to Kai. The heat from it was unbelievably hot, and yet Kai didn't feel a need to recoil.

"Sometimes, mistakes happen. Sometimes, evil is stronger. Sometimes, evil is just lucky. Always strive to learn and improve, but you must not destroy yourself. That is exactly what evil wants."

Kai's throat was utterly dry. He could barely choke out the words. "What do I do, then?"

"Like iron sharpens iron, brother sharpens brother. Family is not a one-sided alliance. You strengthen them, and they, in turn, will sharpen you. A sword that only cuts is doomed to dull."

He choked on his words, surprising himself when some half-sob, half-laugh came out. "I don't think you're actually me. You sound like Wu."

The dragon- it seemed to smile at him. There was another burst of flames, and his reflection was back on the bridge, right in front of Kai, on the only other board that had not yet burned to a crisp. "Hey, eventually you learn a thing or two from him. And give yourself some credit. You can be eloquent when you want to."

Kai scoffed. There was a moment of almost pleasant warmth, though perhaps that was because Kai's mind was still buzzing from it all. He wasn't- he wasn't sure how ready he was to parse everything he'd just heard. He loved being praised, but this was just overwhelming.

"It's okay if you need time. My entire speech was all about how it's good to not rush to action right away. I know things are time-sensitive. You have a lot coming your way, especially now. But all I ask is that you try your best to go easier on yourself. And remember that family is key."

Kai nodded, though he felt sort of numb.

Abruptly, the reflection looked from side-to-side, as though checking for eavesdroppers. "And hey, just so it isn't a surprise, Cole's room is next, and it's in rough shape. He needs you, so look out for him."

Now that, Kai could respond to. "Of course. With my life."

"But please also, don't throw your life away. You're amazing. Not just because you're powerful. In fact, it was never because you were powerful. It was always because you were just you. Because you never give up on hope. A ninja never quits, after all."

That was the last thing the reflection said before the volcano roared, with fire and heat engulfing them both. But this wasn't like the Temple of Fire. This wasn't the hellfire that would have him reduced to cinders.

It was just him.


When Kai had finally stopped being all on fire from touching lava, his expression was vastly different from the one he wore as they had entered his room.

He had been wearing a smile, not unlike when he touched down with Lloyd, finally having found his True Potential. It was a strange mix of peaceful, proud, and a little bit too raw, like the catharsis that came at the end of a particularly intense movie.

In some sense, that seemed to be exactly what Kai just lived out within whatever vision he had- some vivid, emotionally draining, but not wholly negative experience.

Cole was fairly certain he wasn't going to have that in his room. It wasn't just because Kai had outright said his room was "In bad shape." It wasn't just because he had been absent from the future destinies of all his friends, replaced by blemishes and cracks in an otherwise immaculate art piece.

It was because he was a ghost when he wasn't supposed to be. His prospects just weren't all that bright anymore. He was fine with that, though. Ever since entering the tomb, he'd had some hope for his future. All the Deepstone on all sides- it had silenced even the Preeminent. He couldn't hear her.

So, if he didn't have some big fancy destiny anymore, or even if this thing was always what he was supposed to become, there was some sort of hope that maybe he'd find an anchor.

For now, that was enough.

His door was, perhaps expectedly, a stone wall. Not Deepstone, like the rest of the tomb, but some kind of smooth, gray rock.

I really should study up on different kinds of rock, huh? It's kind of weird to be the Master of Earth and not know this stuff, isn't it? Even Kai can sort of be a blacksmith with fire and stuff, he thought, and he even allowed himself to crack a smile at the thought.

It wasn't Deepstone, and Cole couldn't help but wish to delay entering the room at least a little bit. So he put a hand through the door and used his other hand to wave at the group behind him. "Whelp, I've gotta go, see you guys!" he declared as he took several steps into the wall. He could feel the way his form broke and wavered to pass through it. It wasn't a pleasant feeling, but it was one he was getting used to.

Kai and Nya made nearly identical "tsk" sounds. Jay rolled his eyes. "Hah hah, hilarious. Enjoy fighting Morro alone then," he said, waving and turning around. He took a few steps, as though he were actually going to walk back the way they came.

It was a prod from Nya's spear and an amused "Get back here," that got the Master of Lightning to yelp and return to her side.

Cole then took a deep breath, though the fake-ness of the action just left him feeling more anxious as he stepped outside the door.

He felt a hand on his shoulder. It was Zane, who squeezed it as soon as he felt his hand catch on Cole's solid form. "Whatever is in there, we will face it with you, Brother."

Kai nodded with emphatic faith. "Hell yeah! Look, if whatever is in there is bad, then we'll just have to tell destiny to go suck it!"

Cole just nodded, small but genuine. He felt a warmth in his chest. First Master, he was so lucky to have them. He decided right then that maybe the inside of that room didn't matter. That this anchor business wouldn't be a big deal. That everything would work out fine in the end.

Still, it's easy to believe all that in theory. When he placed his green, misty palms against the wall, he felt a brief flicker of familiar joy at the way his hands glowed orange as his Element finally listened to him again. As he heard the earth instead of the Preeminent.

But then the door opened, and it was difficult to sustain that enthusiasm for such a small victory.

The room was, indeed, in bad shape.

It looked like it may have been beautiful once. Gemstones of all colors littered the floor in shattered pieces. Water poured through cracks in the murals like blood from a wound, pooling in a corner of the room where it exited through another gash. Stalactites had fallen from the ceiling, adding their glittering contents to the dune of gem shards on the floor. The room was darker than the others, with very few gems still able to emit light. The dark didn't affect Cole's vision, but he could see Zane creating his own light to see.

Cole just sighed, hopped over the trickle of water, and made his way to the pedestal.

The group had been rendered mute by the room. He could see Jay shift from foot to foot.

The pedestal was covered in debris. Surprisingly, most of it wasn't Deepstone. That was inconvenient in this case, because it made the heavier rocks a bit more difficult to move. Still, he began to clear the platform. Some of the rocks were naturally shaped, but others had clearly been part of some intricate statue. Based on the others' room, maybe it had once been a statue of his elemental dragon. The current piece he held seemed to be a cracked piece of an eye. He tossed it away, maybe a bit harder than he meant to, based on how it shattered against a destroyed wall.

Jay hummed, clearly desperate to fill the awkward silence. "This is like, the earth room right? Maybe an earthquake damaged it or something, then."

"Maybe," Cole deadpanned, though they all knew that wasn't the case. The part of the wall depicting his past wouldn't have been perfectly preserved, otherwise. It was pretty much the only surviving source of light in the room, with a mosaic of different, glowing gemstones making up the forms. He could see one immortalizing his failed attempt at the Triple Tiger Sashay, only for a a depiction a few panels down to show him getting vengeance on that annoying move, on the day he had mended his relationship with his dad.

He felt a pang in his chest. He'd… he'd have to tell his dad eventually that he was a ghost, when all this died down. Hopefully his dad would just sort of… accept it, and not worry about the whole "being dead" technicality.

He made a heaving sound as he tossed the final large piece of debris off the pedestal, more out of habit than exertion. All the little pieces, he just brushed off with his foot, though he definitely phased through a couple here and there. Not like it mattered.

Below him was a spiraling symbol within a circle. Attached to it were three other circles with the symbol for earth that he often wore on his gis. Other than that were a bunch of symbols Cole couldn't hope to recognize. It hadn't gone unscathed from the damage to the room, but was still recognizable, more or less.

He couldn't help but be struck by how out of place his glowing green form felt in the room. Still, his hands continued to shine orange, so he placed his palms in the center of the spiral the way one would place them to perform CPR. He could feel the earth around him resonate with his touch. The earth supported him, held him up. But right now, it asked that he join it.

The pedestal wasn't Deepstone, he realized. That meant-

He let his form spread and sink, becoming one with the room like sinking through quicksand. Like when he had possessed the ground back at the Alps. Well, it wasn't just like that. It was that.

And somehow, despite that, he could open his eyes.

He was in a large cavern, about the size of the room he was possessing. Surrounding him were flat, marigold, person-sized crystals. Beyond that were cave walls that seemed more reflective than ordinary stone, though they were dark and appeared cool to the touch compared to the warm, glowing gemstones peppering the place.

"I'm sorry you had to come here."

Now, Cole knew there was a good chance he'd be seeing his past self. He tried to prepare himself for it.

But, reflected in one of the crystals was his younger self, his seven-year-old self- hair well-kept, wearing the same clothes as he had on the night he had failed his father and his quartet.

His skin was dark and not at all dull. His eyes were white with brown irises and black pupils. He was utterly lacking in green. He was opaque. Even expecting it ahead of time, it still felt like a punch to the gut.

"It's fine, stuff happens," he replied, crossing his arms and looking up in such a way that he didn't have to see any of his own features.

His child self wore a deeply-etched frown. "It's not fine. You weren't supposed to come here. I'm sorry that you had to. The First Master is, too."

Cole bit the inside of his cheek. "Can you explain that, for me?"

He glanced at the reflection- it nodded. "You weren't supposed to become a ghost."

"Then what about the Sword of Sanctuary?"

"The Preeminent is lying to you. You were not always doomed to become a ghost. Rather, it was a symptom of Morro returning." The reflection sighed. "He had a destiny, too. But He ran from that destiny, and took you with him."

"See, that makes it sound an awful lot like Morro was going to escape, which makes this not nearly as unintended as you say."

A new reflection spoke this time, coming from a different crystal. Cole turned around. It was wearing the Marty Oppenheimer uniform from the day that he had run away. "Destiny is not an inevitability. It's a challenge that can be failed. Failure can lead to resentment, and that's when most cursed ghosts are lured to the Preeminent. She whispers promises of redemption and greatness in their ears, twisting them with wicked jealousy." The reflection paused, and briefly vanished, leaving Cole's ghostly form the only thing being reflected back at him. "And they don't care how many destinies they have to destroy to fulfill her promises."

"So I'm a casualty."

The reflection returned. It looked horribly grim. "I wish that were the case. It's more accurate to say you were a sacrifice."

Cole took a staggering step back. He didn't need air, and yet still he felt like he couldn't breathe. "What happened to unintended?"

"This Tomb was never meant to be found before the Merge. What that means is that the clues were supposed to be indecipherable. However, if Morro returned, this place needed to be findable only by Morro."

"Why?" he asked, barely above a whisper. A new reflection spoke, now wearing his first earth gi from the sensei. "Why did Morro need to be able to find this place?"

"What do you think would have happened to Lloyd if Morro didn't have some way of getting what he wanted? If Morro and you weren't targeting the same place?" It sighed. "What the First Master was planning on happening was you five following him to Lloyd's room, where you'd be able to stop him. Even now, he's out of Lloyd's body."

Cole's eyes went wide. That explained why they had some access to their elemental powers.

"However, even that plan deviated. Destiny itself sided with the Preeminent, and so it took a defiance of destiny from you in order to make it to this point."

"What does that mean?"

A reflection in his dragon rider gi appeared next to the last one. It crossed its arms and scowled. "Fenwick happened. He placed his bet on the Preeminent winning. So he made a deal. The Cloud Kingdom would be saved from her wrath in exchange for your destiny. He destroyed your scroll. You were supposed to die."

Cole felt like he was standing on nothing. And like he was strangely lightheaded. He felt strangely detached from the revelation. Both surprised and oddly numb at the knowledge that someone had meant to kill him. "And… I did die."

"Yes. What Fenwick wasn't expecting was that you'd reject that destiny, like any other cursed ghost. And here you are."

"But the First Master built these rooms in the first place. Why?"

"Well, there would have been an event later on making this place easier to find-" the dragon rider gi briefly shifted to some new gi where the hood seemed to wrap around his face. It shifted back. "But that's not the real reason."

Now it was his armored gi with the vest that was reflected in one of the other crystals. "It's because, if destiny did side with the Preeminent, you'd need all the help you could get. Me and the other reflections are here to offer wisdom, because it'll be sorely needed."

It was silent for a moment. "Especially for you."

"Did he- the First Master, I mean- did he know that I could become a ghost?"

"Yes. He hoped it wasn't the case, but if destiny strayed from his own vision, one of you would turn into a ghost."

Cole took a deep, shuddering breath. "Better me than the others, I guess." He felt a lot of things then. A lot negative, but some positive in a weird, sickly way.

The reflection nodded. A new one appeared, now wearing his Temple of Light Kimono. "You always were willing to be the one to take the hit. Please, don't think of this as redemption, though. This is not a punishment."

"Well… I failed to support Lloyd against the Overlord. Only Kai managed to do that." He turned to an empty crystal- the reflection in his Borg Gi covered with the Stone Armor appeared. "And Zane was the one to make the sacrifice here. If I can be the one to save them this time, then I'm okay with that."

He clenched a misty, formless fist. He hated this, he really, truly hated being a ghost, but the thought of someone else being this thing hurt him way more.

The reflection leaned down to peer at Cole, as though the surface of the crystal were a window to see through. "Hey, not everything Fenwick said was passive-aggressive slights and bold-faced lies. Why do you think Zane was the one that had to make that sacrifice? He's still here, after all."

Cole furrowed his brow. Zane had died in that fight, but on the other hand, he had been repaired. "Are you saying I can survive this?"

A reflection wearing his gi from Chen spoke up next. "I don't want to get your hopes up. There's a good chance you're stuck like this. There's no way to return a ghost to life. And being honest, nobody knows for sure how this is going to go. You had your destiny taken, but then you defied that burglary to remain here. You're fighting someone that would tear destiny down. The First Master and Cloud Kingdom have very little control over this war. However, it takes someone strong, someone grounded, to withstand the Preeminent."

Cole winced. "She's been talking to me more and more ever since I learned about anchors."

It nodded. "And, just so you know, Deepstone isn't enough to block her voice. It's the mix of Deepstone, your element, and your will that is keeping her at bay for now. Even as you've struggled to manage your ghostly form, you've fought for your humanity. That matters."

He couldn't help the petty vitriol inside of him. "Still kind of peeved that I can't feel human," he grumbled. "I miss tasting cake or smelling the rain or feeling the things I touch."

"Who says you can't? You just need practice."

Cole wasn't ready for the way that spread- something through his chest. Something an awful lot like hope. Objectively, taste and smell and actual feeling were the least important part of what he was dealing with right now. But the idea that just maybe it was a matter of practice, that this numbness that permeated his body could be fought against- it did a lot to make his future seem less bleak.

A new reflection spoke up. A white cole. Covered head-to-toe in flour, wearing some work attire. It was his clothes from Chen's factory. "But, being honest, it doesn't take future sight to know you have an ordeal coming your way. The Preeminent- she can hurt you. She will hurt you. But you are not alone in fighting her."

Something else briefly flashed in the flour-covered reflection- It looked like Karlof, of all people. And Tox. And the others from Chen's factory. "People rally around you. Your power comes from more than the earth."

The reflection from before, the one he fought the Devourer in, started to glow. A marigold light engulfed it. The earth shook beneath it. His True Potential, from when he and his dad were nearly crushed. It spoke up. "You don't stand a chance alone. But with others supporting you? You guys can lift mountains."

Cole heard a woman's voice behind him. He felt his heart seize as an old memory played in a crystal. His mother, sick in bed.

"I want you to promise me, Cole. That you will always stand up against those that are cruel and unjust."

He pressed his intangible hand against the stone. "Promise," he said, at the same time his younger voice said the same thing. He felt a deep, precious ache and fondness in his chest. He wondered if he'd ever get to see her again, now that he was like this.

Another reflection appeared behind the cracks of a damaged crystal. He was wearing some strange hybrid between a gi and… armor. Not armor as in shoulder plates, but armor as in knight's armor. He looked older, and was actually human. Like any other depictions of his future, it had been damaged; the crystal covered in spider web cracks and chipped damage. But it still spoke clearly.

"You always fight for others. You always protect others. It's who you are. You can crawl through hell if it means protecting the innocent. That selflessness and empathy- that's the opposite of everything the Preeminent stands for."

The reflection- light started shining through the cracks, and something like his True Potential erupted outward in a massive marigold cyclone, completely shattering the crystal. The earth beneath Cole pulsed with every rotation. Likewise, one by one, that same vortex erupted from and shattered the other reflections. It felt like he was in the eye of a storm, surrounded on all sides by pure power.

When it died down, his reflections surrounded him, as real and tangible as he was (perhaps even moreso, in some ways). He was staring at another future self, one wearing golden draconic armor with ethereal wings. "And that is what makes you the one that can fight the Preeminent's influence. You are a bedrock, an immovable force for good. The First Spinjitzu Master admires that in you, more than any super strength or impressive power."

Above it all roared a mighty elemental dragon, almost as large as the room itself. It stared down at him, shimmering with marigold, orange, and earthen hues. The entire room lit up orange as the cracks in the stone glowed.

"Your future was disrupted. This destiny was stolen from you. But you can fight to steal it back. You are a ghost, and that cannot change. Likewise, Ninjago was not made for ghosts, but that does not mean you have no place here as one."

Cole felt choked up. "So… I don't need to be anchored to the Cursed Realm? I can fight the Preeminent?"

The dragon looked down at him. "We do not know how this is going to go. We do not know the extent of her power over you. But good people do not belong with her, and the earth bends for nobody."

Cole stared at his green palm, utterly mismatched from its surroundings. So, nothing was set in stone. For better and worse. Just like Zane's promise, this encouragement was not backed by destiny. If he could still rise to meet his old destiny, it would be as this. As a ghost.

There was something bittersweet about the knowledge. "So I'm always going to be like this…" The knowledge that, no, there really was no way to lift his curse. He'd suspected as much anyway, but now he knew. On the other hand, he could learn to taste and smell and feel. He could fight for those little scraps of his humanity that the Preeminent was so determined to steal from him. "But… I can… really learn to feel again?"

He… wasn't sure how well he'd do, though. "When I leave this Tomb, though, she'll be able to talk to me again. She's been getting louder." And it's not like he could just stay here forever, not when his family needed him. "What if I'm more ghost than Master of Earth? What if I make a mistake?"

He shook his head, as if to dispel the thought. He felt the eyes of all his reflections on him. "Overthinking things… that's supposed to be Jay's thing, not mine!" He pressed his fist against his palm. He felt the earth ripple outward, like a single pulse of a heart. "I can- I can do this!"

The dragon bowed its head to Cole and let him place his hand on its snout. "The earth bends to nobody. But also, please remember that you are the earth, not an island. You cannot do this alone. Alone, you may even find yourself buckling. Do not be afraid to allow others to share your burden. Likewise, you may find yourself cracking. However, a gash in the earth can, at times, be the only way to find the glittering geode, the incredible strength, hidden within. As long as you still fight, as long as you don't give up, you have not failed."

Cole nodded. "I… I don't know how good I am at practicing all that. You know how… single minded… I can be," he muttered with a choked laugh. He took a deep breath- it was an artificial breath, but now he felt comfort in the humanity of the gesture. "But… at least for now, I'll try my best."

The dragon nodded, leaned back, and roared, loud and sonorous through the cavern. "It is as your brother said. Our best is all we can ever ask of ourselves."

Cole looked down at his form. It was beginning to waver and fade. He felt a tug, like something was trying to pull him by an invisible rope. He heard one more thing from the dragon before everything faded away. "The First Spinjitzu Master chose you for a reason. You're capable of incredible things. Don't forget that."