~Several years earlier~

A young pup and a redheaded girl of ten were sleeping tucked under the wing of a huge dragon. They had had a wonderful day, exploring a huge cave that they had never seen before. In it they had found several unusual stones, which the pup decided to keep as part of his rock collection. One of the stones in particular was very unusual indeed. It was not as much a stone as it was a…a crystal. It was a muted orange color with a blue and purple streak running through it. And it was glowing. Since when do crystals glow? Still, it was pretty interesting—even if a little weird. All in all, the day had been perfect, and now the pup was cozily sleeping under the dragon's wing with his best friend in the whole world, Wyldfire. The crystal was tucked under his paw, giving off a strange but comforting heat. At that moment, everything was perfect.

Until the ground started to shake.

The young pup woke instantly—he'd always been a light sleeper. Careful not to wake Wyldfire, he crawled out from under Heatwave's wing, taking the crystal with him. Fearful to stand, he simply lay on his stomach and looked up at the sky, wondering what in all the Wyldness was happening. Suddenly the sky turned a frightful red. But before the pup could question why, something terrible happened.

A huge fissure formed in the sky.

But this was no ordinary fissure. He'd seen fissures, or cracks, before in his explorations with Wyldfire. They occurred all the time in rocks and such. But he had never once seen a fissure that spanned the sky. To make matters worse, he could see through the fissure something that he thought only existed in legend.

The realm of Ninjago.

The pup started to whimper softly, too scared to say anything. He had no idea what was going on, and he was too frightened to find out. The wind started to pick up, and he curled into a tiny ball, still looking up at the ugly fissure, trying desperately not to get caught in the storm. Then another fissure formed. This time he could see a realm of tall metal towers and strange glowing orbs. Then a third fissure appeared, and a fourth, and a fifth. Soon the whole sky was filled with fissures.

Then without warning, the fissures disappeared. They all condensed into a glowing star-like orb, and then the orb exploded. A shockwave erupted across the land, and the pup curled up into an even tighter ball as the wave approached him, the dragon, and Wyldfire. The crystal's heat suddenly increased tenfold, but it did not burn him. Then he felt a smaller shockwave and sensed power flooding his body just before he blacked out.

He awoke to a tingling sensation, but he did not open his eyes. Not yet. He was too frightened to see what the sky looked like. But he couldn't keep his eyes closed forever. Slowly, he opened his eyes and looked up. The sky was not red, but its normal blue color. Could the whole thing have been a dream?

A quick look around him told him it was not. For one thing, he was no longer tucked under Heatwave's wing. For another, he could feel a strange tingling warmth inside of him that had not been there before. He slowly uncurled his body and found that he'd been holding the crystal close to his chest as he slept. It was still glowing, but its glow was somewhat dimmed, as if it had lost a lot of…whatever had been making it glow.

He laughed softly in relief, then shuddered with fear. He considered Heatwave, Wyldfire, and himself lucky that they had not gotten swept into the storm. Yet for some strange reason, he was the only one of the tiny band who had seen the horrific event unfold. He didn't even know what to call it—it was just chaos. But boy, was he glad it was over! At least, he hoped it was over. He never, ever wanted to see another sky-fissure again.

He turned back to the crystal resting between his paws. He couldn't figure out exactly what had happened to him, or what this strange new warmth radiating through his veins signified. Whatever the reason, though, he knew—he somehow knew—that he was not the same pup he used to be. And he wondered what this meant for him and Wyldfire.

He heard a noisy yawn behind him and turned around to see Wyldfire stretching and rubbing her eyes sleepily. She sat up, and Heatwave raised his head as he too awoke. The small caregiver bot that had been with the band for as long as the pup could remember zoomed around to where Wyldfire was sitting and said, "Good morning, Wyldfire. Good morning, Kijo." in her typical automated voice.

"Morning, Kijo." Wyldfire echoed as she stood up. "Want to help me gather fruit for breakfast?"

"Sure!" Kijo exclaimed. Anything to get his mind off of the sky-fissures. Then his face fell, and he hesitated, wondering if he should tell Wyldfire about what had happened. "Um, Wyldfire?" he asked hesitantly.

She turned back and looked at him. "Yes?"

Then he decided against it. He didn't even know if he understood what had happened, let alone if he could explain it to the small girl who had never known great, life-altering change. "Never mind." he finally answered before grabbing a basket specially designed so that he could carry fruit on his back.

The small band headed west to a nearby grove of Wyldmelon trees. They were going about collecting as many Wyldmelons as they could when a sudden wind blowing past caused Kijo to lose his balance! He fell with a scream, flailing his arms and legs about. Suddenly his paws lit up with a blue light, and small bursts of orange-and-blue flame suddenly came from his paws. He managed to turn himself right side up in midair, using the flame bursts to hover a few inches off of the ground. His paws then regained their original white color, and the flames disappeared as he landed gently on the ground.

"Uh, what just happened?" he thought out loud. Then his attention was diverted by Wyldfire, who was currently tugging at a particularly stubborn Wyldmelon with all her might. Suddenly her hands lit up with a blue light, and small bursts of orange-and-blue flame—just like the ones he'd created—came out. Startled, Wyldfire tumbled from the tree and hit the ground with a loud thud.

"Wyldfire!" Kijo cried out, racing over to her. He was beaten to her by Heatwave, who looked down at Wyldfire lying on the ground on her back. "Are you okay, Wyldfire?" Kijo asked worriedly as he stood looking down at her. In response, she sat up, then got to her feet, looking at her hands in wonder. Concentrating, she lit up her hands again, and once again, small bursts of orange-and-blue flame came out. The flames grew larger until they were a few inches tall, and Wyldfire gasped. With a smile, she raised her hands all aflame into the air, and cried out, "I am fire! I am danger!" She let out an imitation of Heatwave's roar, with Kijo staring in wonder. He lit up one paw and gazed in awe at the tiny burst of flame emanating from it. Then he gasped.

"Wyldfire, do you realize what this means?!" Not waiting for an answer, Kijo continued excitedly, "We. Have. POWERS!" Beside him, the caretaker bot made some sort of comment about this being a developmental anomaly—or something like that. He was too excited about his and Wyldfire's discovery to be paying much attention. He couldn't believe they had powers!

Then doubt began to creep into his heart, and his face fell again. Yes, they had powers, but powers from what? Did they come from the crystal he'd found? Or were they somehow linked to the sky-fissures? As he stood there pondering it, he looked up. That was when he saw the faint outlines of not one, but two moons.

Kijo's heart leaped into his chest, and he gasped as he realized what this meant. Those sky-fissures had just been part of something bigger—something more dangerous. Somehow, the realms had merged together!

But how? Why?

With a sinking heart, Kijo realized that nothing that he had known would ever be the same again. The world he knew had just been destroyed. Everything he held dear had suddenly changed.