When Sam opened her eyes, she found herself in a room. Bright fluorescent lights from the ceiling greeted Sam with a low buzz. Looking around, She saw that there was a desk with a computer that wasn't on, a chair, and many, many papers scattered across the desk. She also saw four corkboards on the walls with various pieces of paper in a strange language Sam had never seen, ancient drawings, news clippings, and most creepily of all, pictures of the ninja, not only from battle but what looked like inside a home of some kind too. Sam shuddered, was this guy stalking them? There were also small maps of Ninjago and cities within Ninjago with red "X's" Around most parts while a few were circled in red. Mostly a few areas in Ninjago City. The man was still holding onto Sam's arm and looked to be talking to himself about something. "AND THEN I WILL BE A-" "Uh- hello? Where am I? Can you let me go?" He looked at her. "Not yet, no. And I can't tell you where we are either." He winked. Then it looked like a lightbulb went off in his mind. "I almost forgot, I'll need your phone. Can't have you calling anyone or being tracked." Sam hesitated. She didn't want to give it to him, but worried about what he would do to her if she said no. With trembling hands, she reached into her left back pocket, grabbed her phone, and gave it to him. He took it quickly from her, slightly examining it in his hands."Ah, there we are. Thank you." He smiled, then, letting her go, walked over to his desk and pushed some papers aside to make room. He placed the phone down, then grabbed something from under a stack of paperwork. Sam noticed that it was a hammer.
"Wait. No-! WHAT ARE YOU-!?"
Without warning, the man brought the hammer down on Sam's poor phone about 10 times, hard. It became smashed to bits by the time he was done. "hmm- never stood a chance did it?" the man commented. Proud of his destruction.
"WHAT IN NINJAGO?!" Sam cried. "WHY DID YOU DO THAT?!" she yelled further, angry. The man rolled his eyes. "I told you, so that you don't get tracked." "YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO DESTROY MY PHONE?!" Sam reprimanded with a tinge of confusion in her voice. "I can't take the risk." Mordecai shrugged. "Now, As I was saying, I can finally get my hands on that ax, and then I can find the other weapons! This will be the start of my-!" "Uh, excuse me, but what ax are you talking about?" Mordecai turned to her. "You really don't know, do you?" Sam blinked, The man scoffed. "Come over here." Sam slowly walked to where the man had pointed, she looked at a clipping of a drawing. It looked like it was copied from an ancient scroll of some kind. It was of a beautiful ax. It had a dark brown handle with dual blades at the top. On both blades, the design had a half-yellow circle in the middle while there were yellow stripes reaching outwards as if it were a sun in the center with sunbeams. She looked at the image in awe.
"Behold!" The man held out his hand toward the picture. "THAT is the Solar Axe. This clipping is from a newspaper, of a- photograph I think you mortals call it? Anyways, some guy named Clutch Powers found the engraving of the Axe upon a cave hidden deep within the heart of Sunset Peaks. He took a picture of this depiction of the ax and sold the images he had to some newspaper company. To which they promptly had one of those employees write some article about the axe." Sam looked at the axe and then back at the man in disbelief. What in the world was he talking about? Sunset peaks? Clutch Powers? She didn't understand anything that he was saying. And why did he call her a Mortal? Was he not one? Who WAS this guy anyways? Sam had so many questions on her mind, but before she could open her mouth to ask her captor any single one on her mind, he dragged her along like when you're on a walk, and your dog is transfixed on a squirrel across the street and won't stop looking at it for even a second.
He took her to a dresser, rummaging around in it and looking for something. From where she stood, Sam couldn't quite see what the man was even looking for. But she did hear slight curses and other colorful phrases of varying levels of agitation before he pulled out something shiny. It was a pair of handcuffs. Sam's eyes widened as he walked closer to her, eventually placing them on her. She tried to struggle but his grip was stable and strong. Thankfully he didn't make them too tight, and that he didn't have her place her hands behind her back. But nevertheless, Sam was still really frightened by the ordeal.
"Just a precaution, my dear." He explained. Though that didn't help calm her nerves one bit. "Now, come with me." Not like she had any choice, as he grabbed her right wrist and draged her along to the exit. "Where are we? And who are you?" She blurted out, The two of them stopped and the man faced her. "Ah- Where are my manners?" He chuckled manically. "I am Mordecai Larone, my dear. And as to where we are, it's a cave system that was dug almost two centuries ago. They mainly mined here for gold, Silver, and other metals. They stopped around 50 years ago or so as they had all but depleted this mine's resources, not to mention that it was the beginning of the serpentine wars at the time." Sam listened intently as he spoke, not knowing if it was 100% fact. "In any case, they've been maintaining this room, in particular, to keep tabs on seismic activity in Ninjago That was until around 10 years ago or so when this location was abandoned. This is one of the last functioning offices out of dozens in these mines." He explained further. Without skipping a beat his demeanor changed to be more easygoing. "Now, we must head out, we must get to that weapon ASAP!" he giggled like a child. Sam was unamused.
When Mordecai opened the steel iron door, Sam was stunned to see the walls on every side were completely made of earth. She guessed this man wasn't a liar after all, at the very least. The room they had just left seemed to be carved into the earth itself. She looked to her right, seeing a long dark stretch of nothingness that seemed to go on forever. Only illuminated by dim torches, and a lantern that Mordecai was holding that was hanging near the door. On her left, there was more hallway, but it wasn't as dark, and it seemed to end as she could see what looked to be stairs going down not but 50- 100 ft away. "Let's go," Mordecai ordered, he nudged her forcefully to make her walk in front of him. Sam complied and the two walked the hallway in silence. It was so quiet, in fact, Sam could hear her own breath. But not Mordecai's...did he even breathe?
They eventually got to the stairs, and Sam noticed they were old, the dark blue paint that she assumed they once had was not only peeling off, but dull and dirtied by time. The stairs were also rusted with some decay. To the point, Sam thought even in the dark they had to be centuries old. She took a wobbly step down to the first step, hearing a loud "CREEEAAAAKKKKKKK" when she put her weight. She felt a shudder reach her very core, a piece of her soul dying. She thought for sure the stair would collapse if she moved another inch. "Well-" Mordecai's demanding, annoying voice came from behind Sam. "Go." She turned to face him, fear etched on her face. "I-Is there another way down? This does not look safe..." Mordecai rolled his eyes. "I go on these often, and they have held for years. They're completely functional and safe." Sam didn't really believe him, she convinced herself that this was some sort of trap set up by this creepy guy to kill her. "B-But- T-t-they could-they- uh- I mean- Well- Just- what if-?" Mordecai groaned loudly. "Quit being a baby and GO!" he ordered, pointing a finger down the spiral staircase. Sam shrieked, complying. She placed her other foot slowly on the first step, gripping the handrail that was forced into the side of the dirt wall for dear life. She noticed that it didn't break, somehow.
So far so good. She placed one foot, then the next on the second step. The same "CREEEAAAAKKKKKKK" emanated as she did so. She breathed hevily and shakily as she made her way down the rest of the stairs. When she finally reached the bottom of the staircase, she nearly had a panic attack, breathing in a gallon of air from the dirty cave. "Finally-" Mordecai said, coming from behind her, hands behind his back. "That wasn't so hard, was it? Now we need to keep moving."
MEANWHILE
Lloyd entered through the monastery gates. He let out a yawn as he was getting ready to head into the main building. As he approached the door, He was met by Nya who opened it first, causing Lloyd to step back slightly in alarm. "Nya- My mom- is she-?" "Here? Yeah, she's in the other room." Lloyd could tell by Nya's tone she had something on her mind, or at least, something to say. Lloyd raised a brow at her, "What?" "What what?" "You- You're- upset." Nya shook her head. "No- Not upset just worried." There was a long, awkward pause. "About- Kai?" "No- About you." "Me?" Lloyd was taken aback, "What about me?" Nya groaned, rolling her eyes. "Don't act like you don't know, Kai isn't the only one who's strained himself looking for Cole." "What do you mean?" Nya leaned against the doorframe. "Last night, at 1 am, I got up to get some water. You weren't in your room, neither was Kai. We all know by now Kai was off well into the night looking for Cole, hours after he was supposed to head back here-" Lloyd felt sudden realization, then dread as he knew where Nya was going with this. "Which begs the question, if he was out patrolling, where were you?" Lloyd was silent. He didn't know how to answer that question. He didn't know how to tell her he did some digging on his own. "Nya-" He placed a hand behind his head. "I was- doing things, ok? I wasn't the one being reckless, Kai was, for starters. In fact, I didn't fight anyone at all. I was- just doing some research." Nya tilted her head. "Research? ...Sure... What for?" Lloyd then walked inside. "How about I show you."
Nya followed Lloyd inside as he traveled the halls to Master Wu's "library". This was where he once kept scrolls of all kinds, some more elaborate, some more or less important and worthwhile. In the tiny room, Zane, Jay, Kai, and Misako all stood waiting. Misako had a satchel with at least a dozen different scrolls. One, in particular, was laid out on a circular table that was centered in the room. "What's all this?" Nya wondered. "Ninja- I want all of you to look close at this scroll here." The ninja all looked around the scroll. There were four depicted scenes. The first one was of a being in pure yellow and white, with yellow eyes that held a dual-bladed axe. It was surrounded by pure blackness. The second scene depicted being with 9 others like it who all shone with different colors, each holding a specific weapon. The third scene seemed to depict the first being and the first spinjitzu master on Ninjago soil. The last scene depicted was of a young man with brown hair and creme skin, who adorned a tattered purple cloak, shaking hands with what looked to be the first spinjitzu master. with text in between each scene. However, a good chunk of the scroll was either torn or had been aged to the point of the writing being indecipherable. "What IS this?!" Jay questioned. "The story of the galactic pillars." "The what?!" Kai asked, his eyes growing wide. Misako cleared her throat. "This scroll depicts a story, the story... of the pillars."
MEANWHILE
The doors to the Police Department open wide, and 9 girls step out, all with faces of either sadness, concern, or a mixture of the two. An older woman and man followed the teens, somber looks on their faces.
"So- How did It go?" Amanda asked, looking at the group.
"They questioned us- and, asked us to describe the guy who took her." Madison explained.
"They made a sketch of him and everything too, though none of us really got a good look at the guys face." Nagi added.
None of them spoke for 20 seconds, they just stood in silence.
"Are you ok, Sarah?" Sadie's dad placed a hand on the shoulder of Sam's mom.
"No- Not really" She admitted.
"They'll find her." Sarah's husband Mike said, trying his best to comfort his wife.
Sarah turned to him, looking slightly annoyed, "And if they don't?- I-" She paused.
"Don't think like that Sarah," Dominick, May's dad, firmly told her. "You have to hold your head high, especially now."
Sarah blinked. "That's what I always told Sammy, "Hold your head high dear...Things get better even when you're trapped in a storm..." She sighed. A slight forced smile formed on her face, "I just wish I could follow my own advice."
MEANWHILE
Sam and Mordecai walked down a narrow hallway, Sam noticed a few iron doors that were shut, but one room in particular had no door. Looking inside, it was very full. Desks, paperwork, folders, and more littered the small room. There were chairs too. It seemed to have been an office of some kind. She examined it for a few moments further, before walking down the hall, stopping when there was a left and right path to go down. "Go Left" Mordecai ordered. Sam obeyed, and noticed another iron door at the end of the hall. "We're almost there dear." Mordecai explained. Sam nervously fidgeted, almost wanting to break down and cry. When the pair reached the iron door, Sam noticed that there was a keyhole. Mordecai produced a brass key and placed it into the hole. It was a perfect fit, as he turned it- there were sounds that affirmed the door was being unlocked. Mordecai pulled the key out of the socket and motioned for Sam to open the door. She did so, and was stunned at what she saw on the other side. Her eyes widening with a mixture of pure fear and worry.
A/N: EHEHEHEHE! So many mysteries! So many secrets! Who are the pillars? What did Sam see in the room that left her stunned and fearful? Leaving yall on a cliffhanger because this chapter is getting long and It's been a bit since I last updated this story! (Sorry to keep yall waiting!) Hope you enjoy my story and keep reading to find out more!
TILL NEXT TIME!