This chapter was much quicker to edit! I'm glad I was able to get this one out sooner, and hopefully the other chapters will come fast.

Disclaimer: I do not own Ninjago.

Chapter III: Forced Sublimation

The closest safe place Kai could find was the Glacier Barrens. It was too cold up there for the fire to get to anytime soon, so it was perfect. Kai could tend to Jay until he was well enough to be taken back to the monastery.

He drove the Fire Eater through the snow as fast as possible, all the way to a rather strange patch of ice. It looked like water, frozen over and perfectly safe to walk on. Except, there was one minor detail. There was a very deep hole right in the middle of this ice patch, and there was no water underneath. Instead, there was a dark cave that looked like it held Serpentine remains.

"So this is where they were kept," Kai realized in awe.

He stopped the vehicle and took Jay, carrying him up and over his shoulder, careful not to slip and fall down the steep slope as he went down into the Hypnobrai Tomb.

Once he made it to the bottom of the tomb, he placed the lightning ninja against the icy wall. It seemed some previous explorers had already come to this cave for shelter as a pile of burnt wood, set up in the shape of a campfire, was already there. Kai summoned a spark to his hand and used it to bring a flame to the small wood pile. Then, he ran back up to the Fire Eater and grabbed the first aid kit.

Kneeling down next to his brother, Kai looked over the lightning ninja's injuries. Second degree burns littered his arms and right cheek, where he had been punched. Soot nearly covered his entire body, though, so it was hard to tell if there were any more spots with such bad burns.

The fire ninja managed to find a cloth, which he used to gently clean the soot off his brother's face. Luckily, there were no more serious burns, but the skin was very red. Anybody else would've been worried that they couldn't treat him, but not Kai. He was a master of fire after all. He knew exactly what to do.

He grabbed some ointment and began applying it to the burned areas, making sure not to cause any further injuries. He then wrapped gauze around the lightning ninja's arms. Now all he had to do was wait for Jay to wake up.

"Kai?"

The fire ninja groaned when he heard his name. He slowly opened his eyes to see that he was in a dark room with a faint reddish glow being the only nearby light. A chill went up his spine, and he tried to warm himself with his fire. Unfortunately, it did little more than act as a thin blanket, only angering the fire ninja.

"You okay?" he heard as he sat up, rubbing his groggy eyes.

Kai looked in the direction of the voice to see Jay, looking very concerned.

All anger dissipated in a moment when he saw him. His brother was there, sitting up and looking to the older of the two. His usual bright blue eyes looked weary, and it was clear he was in a lot of pain. Nevertheless, he was awake and okay.

"Jay!" Kai exclaimed excitedly, jumping out to his brother and wrapping him up in a bear hug. He let go suddenly, though, when he heard the lightning ninja wince in pain. "Sorry! Sorry. Are you okay?"

"I think so," Jay said as he looked to the gauze all over his arms. "What happened?"

"You didn't wait for me at the rendezvous like we agreed," Kai responded. Now that he knew his little brother was alive and well, his anger was beginning to return. And not just towards Flint this time.

"I waited for you for an hour in a place where if you breathe wrong, you die!" Jay spat back.

"It was not that long!" Kai argued.

"Maybe not, but you scared me! How was I supposed to know where you were? And that you were okay? Or were you?" Jay asked as he took in Kai's own burns, all untreated.

"Honestly, I thought you'd go back to the monastery to come up with a plan or something," Kai scoffed.

"You thought I would leave you alone to deal with that huge thing? Are you crazy?"

No response.

"Well, for your information, I didn't really want to come to the monastery and tell Nya that her brother is either being tortured or dead!"

Kai mumbled something under his breath, but Jay couldn't hear him.

"What?" Jay asked, annoyed.

"I wasn't going to come back to the monastery with news that our brother is dead all because he couldn't listen to me." He sounded near tears, but Jay didn't seem to notice.

"I did listen to you. And you lied to me."

He turned his back on the fire ninja and held his knees up to his chest, shivering. His face seemed to be turning blue, and he almost started itching his burns once or twice. So, Kai reignited the fire.

"I'm sorry," finally relenting, he said it. "I meant to go alone so I wouldn't get anyone else hurt, but...I shouldn't have lied to you."

A moment of silence and then, "It's okay. Just, make sure to talk to us before you do anything crazy like that again."

"Promise," Kai smiled. "Oh, by the way, I'm going to go kick Flint's butt as soon as you're well enough to head back to the monastery. You'll go bring the supplies back to the people, and I would suggest you take some of that Ninjaprofen yourself. You're gonna need it."

"Yeah, no," Jay replied, standing right up.

"What do you mean 'no'?"

"If I hadn't shown up the last time, you would've been toast!"

"I had it under control! Besides, I know what to expect now."

"And you promised the others you'd come right back so we could come up with a plan!"

"Tell them I got it covered."

Jay was not happy with this answer at all. In a flash, his lightning was released, and it allowed him to speed over to the entrance of the tomb. There he stood, in front of his older brother, arms outstretched and a determined spark lighting up his eyes dangerously. It was clear he wasn't going to move without a fight. Tiny sparks of lightning came up from his fingertips, feet, neck, and shoulders. They all started to combine together as if to create a large energy bubble or shield, a very advanced move that could easily injure Jay further. And even if Kai could manage to dodge it, he could easily pummel the lightning ninja afterwards. Something he really didn't want to do. Especially not now.

With a deep groan, Kai put his hands in the air and said, "If I was leaving, I'm not leaving now. Not while you're in this condition, anyway," he chuckled softly.

Jay smiled slightly as he let his arms back down to his side and let his lightning back in.

"Oh good. My side hurts too much to fight."

Kai walked past Jay and gestured for him to follow, which the lightning ninja did.

"Anything you want to do to pass the time?" Kai asked.

The ninja finally made it to the Glacier Barrens using the Destiny's Bounty, but strangely, Jay's SOS signal seemed to be getting weaker and weaker. It was difficult to spot the ninja's exact location.

"Kai? Can you hear me? Kai? Kai!" Nya tried to reach out to the lost ninja, but no response came.

"Perhaps a fight took place, and their communicators were destroyed," Zane remarked.

"So what are we supposed to do?" Nya asked.

"We shall keep following the signal."

"Yeah, but we barely know where it's leading us. And it'll fade away before we can figure it out."

"Then they will find a way to contact us. Remember, the SOS signal only activates when vitals are low. Since it is departing, Jay must be doing better, and he and Kai will find their way back to us and the monastery."

That seemed to calm Nya's nerves slightly as she could finally stop yelling into the communicator, but she still appeared very upset.

"Let us go find the others." Zane continued as he placed a hand on the water ninja's shoulder.

Nya sighed. "Okay."

The other ninja, plus Skylor, were all located on the training deck where they were watching a match between two. Cole and Skylor.

The master of amber threw a punch at the master of earth, who dodged and parried with a punch of his own that hit her right in the abdomen. She had to activate Cole's earth for a moment just to properly take the hit. After stumbling ever so slightly backwards, she looked up and asked, "Is that all you got?" with a big grin.

Cole smiled as he realized he could play up a bit. After trying and failing to activate his earth punch, he summoned a cluster of rocks from a nearby mountain and sent it to the amber master. She executed a beautiful barrel roll over top of these in order to dodge before throwing a lightning bolt at him, which he managed to slide under, building momentum for him to run at her, jump, and punch down, but she was already out of the way and his fist went straight through the Bounty's floorboards.

As Cole tried to free his fist, Skylor sent many ice particles at him, which he karate chopped out of the way. Finally, he got his fist unstuck just as she was running towards him in order to deliver a blow. While she hit him hard in the back, Cole punched her across the face, and they both went down.

They started laughing as they clutched the injured areas saying things like, "Oh, that was good!" and "You got me."

"Are you guys okay?" Lloyd asked, not being able to help but chuckle a little.

"Yeah," Cole groaned as he stood up and cracked his back.

"Of course," Skylor responded in a similar manner as she also stood up.

"Good," Lloyd smiled. "Because we have work to do. Nya, are we getting close to Kai and Jay?"

"Yep," Nya replied, "but the SOS is fading quickly. We can't get an exact location."

"We should land the Bounty and split up then. We'll have an easier time tracking them," Lloyd said. "Cole, Nya, and Skylor, you guys will head towards the west, check any and every place they could be taking shelter."

"Got it!" Skylor replied, still rubbing her cheek.

"Zane and I will head to the blizzard up north. We'll see if they need help."

The ice ninja looked to their leader and nodded as the other three looked to each other nervously.

"The blizzard is moving in fast. How do we know if we can beat it?" Nya asked.

"Don't worry," Lloyd said when he noticed her fear. "I'm sure we'll find them by the end of the day."

"Do you have a...three?" Jay asked. Since there was nothing else to do, the two ninja decided to play a game of Go Fish, but what was supposed to be a quick game soon turned into an hour long standoff.

"For the last time, Jay, I don't have a three!" was Kai's annoyed response.

"That's not what you say," Jay sang.

"Ugh! Go fish," Kai sighed.

Jay smiled as he took a card from the pile and to his delight, it was a three.

"Ha! I win!" Jay cheered.

"I totally let you," Kai scoffed.

"No, you didn't!"

"Yeah, whatever."

"You didn't!"

"Will you just set up another game already?"

"Fine!"

Kai couldn't help but smile the second Jay wasn't looking. He really was starting to look much better. He didn't seem as tired and he definitely wasn't wincing from the pain as much. With the fire too, he was warm and his burns weren't being negatively affected by the snow falling closely outside. Any previous fears he may have had about leaving Jay alone for the night was gone. He was going to be okay.

"What's up?" Jay asked when he looked back up to the fire ninja.

"Oh, I was just happy you're feeling well enough for me to kick your butt in our next game," Kai's smile turned into a cocky grin.

"In your dreams!" Jay shot right back.

It was getting dark. The ninja had since left the Bounty and climbed down to the ground using the multiple ropes and ladders. It took Zane and Lloyd a good number of hours to finally reach the blizzard, but now that they had, they wished they hadn't.

"Th-this is ridicu-cu-culous!" Lloyd said through chattering teeth.

"It is near impossible to see," Zane remarked as he tried to scan the snowy area, yet all he got was snowflakes and wind.

"How are we supposed to find them in this st-storm?"

Zane didn't say anything. He appeared lost in thought for a good, long moment. "Hmm," he started as an idea popped into his head. The nindroid lifted his hands up and took a snowflake from the sky, bringing it to himself. He then caused the snowflake to fly into him, letting it become a part of his ice power.

"How did you..." Lloyd trailed off as the wind began to change direction. It swept up from behind him, throwing the storm ahead and then up and over so it could come right back to Zane as he absorbed the majority of the flakes. The rest went straight past him, creating a whirlwind of snow on both sides and a better view of the snow field.

"There. That should help," Zane strained. "I just hope I can hold it."

Lloyd, still in shock, just stared.

"What?" Zane asked.

"I didn't know you could do that!" Lloyd yelled.

"I've never tried before now. It will be a great help in future missions," Zane smiled. "Shall we continue?"

Lloyd nodded with a confident grin as he summoned a green flame to his hand and responded saying, "Let's make this quick."

The two moved slowly through the makeshift path Zane had created. The wind pushing against them definitely posed as a challenge, but the two ninja were glad they could finally search of their friends.

After a few minutes, Lloyd looked to Zane and asked, "How are you doing?"

"Alright. Though, it is becoming much harder to control."

"We need to go faster! Can you push the wind ahead of us?"

"I am not controlling the wind. I am merely controlling the direction of the snow, and if I push the snow ahead of us, we will not be able to see."

"Well there has to be some way to get us moving!" Lloyd exclaimed.

"I'm afraid not. Let us just hope that Jay and Kai have managed to find shelter."

"We can't just hope for that! We need to know!"

"What else is there for us to do?" Zane asked.

"I don't know!" the green ninja yelled as he threw a snowball towards the ground.

Lloyd shoved his hands into his pockets as they continued walking. He zoomed past Zane as much as he could, but soon, he completely stopped altogether and Zane passed him. When the master of ice turned back to look, he saw Lloyd's strong green eyes fill with fear. Something was deeply wrong.

"What is it, Brother?" Zane asked as he walked over.

It smelled like a campfire. When the scent was first discovered by the green ninja, he was filled with joy. Had they really found his missing brothers? But then, he realized that in this snowstorm, he would've never smelled such a small fire built for two. This was something else. Something big.

He ignored the ice ninja and his concerns and instead, turned around in the direction of the smell and saw a black cloud quickly traveling towards them. Growls and roars could be heard in the distance, but it didn't sound like an ordinary creature. Somehow, he knew this was connected to Flint.

"Smoke," Lloyd replied. "It's coming."

"In this snow, that is near impossible! Unless...he's truly mastered Kai's element."

A moment of silence as they realized that Zane was right. Eyes widening, they stared to each in panic.

"We have to warn the others!" Lloyd exclaimed. "Come on!"

To the far east of the Glacier Barrens, right on the border, were at least fifty fire monsters, all following their master. The snow behind them had completely melted and the grass underneath of them had been burnt to a crisp. The pure, white snow clouds above were dirtied with smoke and ash as the monsters produced as much heat as Flint could bear.

Their movements were quick and swift as they continued on through the snow lands, but Flint, at the forefront of this march, put his hands up rather suddenly, signaling for them to stop.

The man smiled, still in awe by how well they listened to him, but there was no time for praise just yet. He turned around to face his army and said with just enough projection to be heard, "My children. We all saw the fire ninja ride that retched vehicle into these Glacier Barrens, and we will not rest until we find him. Do you understand?"

The monsters all nodded.

"We must make our presence known throughout the Barrens. Burn the snow, set fire to the trees. A fight is coming, and you will remain victorious."

The monsters all roared in cheers.

"Now go and bring destruction to this land."

The monsters roared even louder as they past their master. Once they were all past, Flint followed forward through the blackened grass.

Kai could hear the roar of monsters in the distance. Night had come and Jay, being the early sleeper that he was, had fallen asleep hours ago, allowing Kai to leave. He didn't want to take the Fire Eater as that would mean Jay wouldn't have any way of getting back home, so he didn't. That meant he would have to make his way on foot, which wasn't all that bad. In fact, he had only left two hours ago, after reigniting the campfire, and was now almost out of the Glacier Barrens. Smoke was very clearly seen in the distance.

Kai wanted to throw up every time he thought of what that smoke really meant. Flint, now holding the majority of his element, using it to burn Ninjago City to ashes and take so many lives. He had to admit, Jay was correct in trying to get him to stay in that tomb, but Kai felt that if he stayed any longer, it would give Flint too great of an opportunity to learn how to better control his fire. Though, he wasn't entirely sure how he could do that as it seemed he already mastered it. Nevertheless, it was more important than ever to stop him, so he had to leave. After telling the sleeping ninja he was sorry, he had left, and now, he was almost there. He was going to defeat Flint.

After about an hour of what felt like rather awkward silence, Cole decided to make some conversation.

"So...other than the whole fire invasion thing, how'd your date go?" Cole asked Skylor.

"Why do you ask?" Skylor responded with a chuckle.

"He's always trying to find tips on how to set up dates," Nya answered for her older brother. "When it comes to the romance department, he needs a little work."

"I'll have you know Vania thinks I'm sweet," Cole defended.

The other two laughed upon hearing this, but it stopped suddenly when they heard loud roars behind them.

The three turned around to see a hoard of monsters made completely of fire. Right behind them was none other than Flint.

"Why are they all the way out here?" Nya asked, getting ready in a fighting stance, summoning her water powers to her.

"He's spreading his attack!" Cole realized. "Run!"

The earth master turned around quickly and ran away, looking back every so often to see his two friends running right behind, followed by almost every monster running after them. Flint summoned a flame to his hand and let it drip down to a bush to his right, staring at the ninja the whole time. He let the flame in the bush ignite high above his own head before allowing it to move in a huge circle around the ninja and monsters, trapping them all together while Flint remained safely on the outside.

"What the-?" Skylor started.

"Are you kidding?" Cole exclaimed.

"What are we gonna do?" Nya asked.

A breath and then, "Fight!" Cole responded. Confidence seemed to come out of nowhere as he summoned as much of his earth power as possible. The ground directly beneath him began to shake ever so slightly, but that was it.

Skylor took a deep breath as she summoned Zane's ice, and Nya did the same as she made a ball of water and allowed it to freeze, making it much more difficult to control.

The monsters roared loudly as they ran at the ninja. Nya tried to smash the ball of ice she had created on one's head before trying to use her power to drench them in some water, but all traces of her attacks turned into steam before they could even touch them! Skylor tried the same on another monster, but got similar results. Cole then used his power to lift part of the ground up and throw it on top of the smallest monster, caking it in dirt. Cole and Skylor worked together to do the rest of the monsters, and soon, they were all buried.

The ninja stepped over to the pile, Skylor and Nya both got some ice ready should the monsters ever come back. Cole, as well, grabbed some more earth.

"This was too easy," Cole growled, not letting his guard down.

"Yeah, I don't- but Skylor couldn't finish her sentence because it was then that the monsters practically exploded out of the dirt and knocked the master of amber down.

"Skylor!" Nya exclaimed.

A fire monster spit out a giant ball of flame towards Cole, forcing him to dive out of the way.

"Our elements are too week to defeat them!" the earth ninja realized.

"We have to get out of here!" Skylor exclaimed.

"How?" Nya asked.

Cole scanned the area, looking for any way they could get to safety but found nothing. They were trapped!

"Guys!" Lloyd exclaimed. It sounded like the noise was coming up from behind.

They looked in the direction of the voice and saw two figures on the other side of the fire. At least they weren't alone.

"Help!" Cole called out to them. "We're trapped in here with a bunch of really freaky monsters!"

"Hold on!" Lloyd yelled. "Zane, can you use your ice to clear the fire out?"

Zane nodded and shot a very powerful blast of ice at the fire, but it melted before it could even reach.

"That's not good," Zane remarked. "What do we do?"

Lloyd looked to his nindroid brother and got an idea. Though, he wasn't sure how well it would work. He voiced this, but Zane's response was, "You must try."

The youngest ninja nodded and created a green flame in his hand. He shot this green flame at the fire circle yet still remained in control of it. He then let this rise as high as Flint's fire did, allowing it to become part of Flint's fire. It became much harder to control as it did this. It flickered and turned. Lloyd felt like his hands were going to fall off. He couldn't keep this up.

"Agh!" Lloyd screamed as Flint's flame began to overcome his. "Come on!"

His breath became shallow, his chest was heavy, black dots entered into his vision as he struggled to stay awake.

"I-I can't!" Lloyd said.

His head fell as he began to give up. He felt like he was about to pass out. What was he doing? Trying to control someone else's element? He looked back up for what he expected to be his last time, but seeing those three figures standing near the edge, ready to fight those monsters until the very end if it came to it, it made Lloyd angry.

I have to, he realized.

With renewed vigor, the green ninja screamed as he let his own flame ignite and take over Flint's circle. Then, he let it all drop. Including his own body.

Jay had always been a light sleeper, so when he woke up to see Kai was already gone, he was deeply surprised. He thought maybe he was just outside getting some fresh air or someplace else in the tomb looking for something they could use, but as he looked around, calling his brother's name, and as he saw the footprints in the snow leading towards the city, he realized that just wasn't the case.

"Oh, darn it, Kai!" the master of lightning exclaimed as he ran over to the Fire Eater, getting it ready as fast as he could and drove off, back to the city, to save Kai.

"Jay!" he could hear his yang exclaiming.

With a wave of happiness and excitement, he skidded to a stop and jumped off the vehicle just in time to see a mush of black hair flying towards him as she yanked him into a strong embrace.

"Are you okay?" she asked as Jay slowly took her hand off of his side. She appeared concerned, but he only gave her a weak smile in response.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he said. The smile disappeared as quickly as it came, though, when he said, "but Kai ran away. He's trying to get back to the city."

Jay pointed in what he thought was the direction of the smoke, but now, it almost seemed like it was all around him. In fact, he could barely see the snow under his feet!

"Is the fire spreading?" Jay asked, though, he already knew the answer.

"Not the fire, but we got a lot of monsters!" Cole exclaimed as he came into view, Lloyd over his shoulders like a sack of potatoes.

As if to prove Cole's point, a monster stomped over to Jay.

The lightning ninja was stuck, frozen in fear as it knelt down right behind his neck and roared loudly.

"Hehe, monsters," Jay chuckled awkwardly.

Well I hope you all liked that chapter. Let's hope Jay's well enough to fight for next chapter!

Have a great day/night!

#God'sNotDead