Ninjago City—a place of bustling city folk and highly advanced technology. The jewel of Ninjago, some called it. And they were right. With its population of 5000, its wondrous skyscape, and its very own technology industry, it was indeed a gem among cities. But even the brightest gems have flaws, and Ninjago City was no exception. For it seemed that, whenever there was a severe conflict within the realm, the city was at the heart of it. Its civilians had already come face to face with a giant snake with an evil appetite; a dark being who corrupted everyone within the city (and the realm); a monster who called himself the Golden Master and had infected all of the city's technology with a severe virus; a crazy warlord who turned all his followers into freakish purple snakes; and a ghostly teenage boy who had unleashed a hideous creature with the power to turn anything into her own image with a simple touch.
So it was no small surprise when there came a night like tonight. The gentle glow of the streetlamps gently intertwined with the rays of full moon's light gave everything a soft, dreamy silver aura. Young children were nestled snugly in their beds, holding plushie friends close to them as the world of dreams beckoned them once again. Parents were joyfully conversing over late night cups of coffee and tea, and the few citizens who were out on the streets chattered happily with their friends (whether over the phone or in person). A young boy in a purple ninja suit gazed in wonder at the display window of a comic book shop, where the owner had prominently displayed the newest issue of Starfarer. A twelve-year-old red-haired girl zoomed past on a bicycle, its basket holding a newspaper and a family-size to-go box full of noodles from Chen's Noodle House. A tired yet excited cameraman waited eagerly in line for his order of hot mint tea at a tea shop with a rather strange name—and an even stranger owner.
All was peaceful—all was calm.
And yet, things were not right in Ninjago City.
For at the Ninjago Museum of History, a dangerous scheme was hurriedly being hatched.
And it had nothing to do with the museum's secret lab—or the sinister secrets of the museum's caretaker.
There was a soft yet sharp clunk of a crowbar, and a door's hinges creaked as a shadowy figure slipped into a small chamber at the very back of the museum. He stuck to the shadows and moved with the shadows as he slithered his way through the museum, making no more noise than a cat. He quietly ducked behind a large porcelain vase as a confident, yet slightly on-edge museum guard strode past, whistling nonchalantly, the beam of his flashlight bathing the room in light as he went. As soon as the coast was clear, the figure was on the move again. He didn't stop until he was right outside the one hall he was looking for.
The Hall of Sidekicks. Lousy name for a place of such hidden power, he thought. He slunk into the room, sly as a skunk, and quietly shut the door behind him. His cybernetic right eye provided all the light he needed to navigate the dark chamber without crashing into something and bringing the whole police force running. Intriguing, he thought to himself, that whoever owned the place had thought to renovate the room so that it incorporated the very chamber in which the former Master of Wind had first made his appearance to the Green Ninja.
The Green Ninja. Lloyd Garmadon. The very one which the shadowy figure sought to bring to his knees. As if on cue, a sudden chill swept through the room, almost like a frosty wind had suddenly blown from inside. But the figure relished it. Truly, there were still traces of shadow within this place—even if their source was no longer walking the path of darkness.
He closed his eyes for a second, thinking of the wonderous skirmish that must have ensued in here just two months previous. Then his mission came back to his mind, and he immediately set to work surveying his surroundings. His gaze fell on statues of freaky Skeletons, fearsome Stone Warriors, and wannabe Anachondrai soldiers. Then he turned to see what he was really looking for—a whole row of deactivated Nindroids, standing as still as the statues surrounding them.
But they wouldn't be still for long.
He stood there, peering intently at one Nindroid in particular. This one was a lot…shorter than the others. They must have run out of metal when crafting him, the figure mused. No wonder he'd been given that…memorable nickname.
Time to see whether the smallest can become the strongest, the figure thought to himself, before whipping out his cyber-claws. And within seconds, a long-dormant Nindroid was suddenly reawakened.
The next morning
Lloyd let out a sharp hiss of pain as the training dummy succeeded in decking him for the third time that day. "Should have seen that coming." he muttered to himself. Granted, his focus had been wavering on and off all morning, as his dizzy spells were becoming more frequent and his headache had only gotten worse over the course of the night.
A few feet from him stood young Pixie, who gazed worriedly at him, biting her lip and struggling to not nibble on her nails in nervousness. She had been watching most of the Ninja train all morning, her gaze darting back and forth between Lloyd and the others. The only Ninja not out there were Nya and Zane. Nya was taking her turn at monitoring the bridge, and Master Wu had insisted that Zane take the day off from training to rest after his fall last night.
As Lloyd pushed himself to his feet with a grunt, he noticed that Pixie's eyes had a frightened twinkle in them, and he realized it was because she was struggling with whether to break her promise to him. A promise he was rapidly starting to regret binding her to. He was just glad that his ninja hood hid his flushed face and sweaty brow. He definitely did not want to admit that he wasn't completely on the ball this morning—and hadn't been for the past several days.
A sudden hand on his shoulder startled him a little, and he instinctively flinched before looking over to see the Fire Ninja beside him. "Sorry, Lloyd." Kai responded. "Didn't mean to startle you like that."
"It-it's okay." Lloyd stammered, struggling to hide that his voice was all raspy from coughing so hard. A sudden wave of dizziness clouded his vision, and he turned away so Kai couldn't see that his jade-green eyes had gone milky for a second. But Kai wasn't finished. Shuffling his feet nervously, the Fire Ninja exclaimed softly, "Look, all I wanted to say was that…I'm sorry—for-for what I said last night."
He then placed his hand on Lloyd's shoulder again, and the Green Ninja turned to face him as he continued, "It wasn't your fault you wound up falling under Morro's control. And it never will be. No matter what, it will never be your fault."
Lloyd nodded, not daring to speak for fear of sparking another coughing fit, like the one he'd barely managed to stifle at breakfast time that morning. It hadn't helped much that Jay had been complaining that his pudding cup had been swiped (again)—or that, for some strange reason, Nya had been craving pickles. (Since when does someone crave pickles for breakfast?!) He was suddenly jerked out of his thoughts by Kai asking, "Are you doing okay? You don't look so good."
"I…" Lloyd stammered. He wasn't sure how to answer this. "I'm fine, Kai." he lied. "Just tired. That last skirmish must have taken more out of me than I thought."
Riggggghhhhtttt, Kai thought to himself. If there was one thing that Lloyd was horribly skilled at, it was lying to his teammates. He knew that look in his little bro's eyes. The Green Ninja was hiding something. But he definitely was not going to get any answers by confronting Lloyd right then and there. The last time he'd tried that, Lloyd had completely shut down and wouldn't talk to anyone for hours. There was, however, a different way.
"Why don't you go lie down for a few hours? I'm sure Sensei wouldn't mind if you take a break. And it definitely looks like you need one. You've been out of it all morning—don't think that the others and I didn't notice."
Lloyd was all too eager to call out a quick "Thanks, Kai." and dash as quickly as he dared to his room. He could feel Pixie's gaze following him as he left. And not a moment too soon—for as soon as he was out of the others' sight, he threw himself against the wall as another coughing fit racked his burning lungs. It felt like ages before he got his breathing back under control. Another wave of dizziness swarmed over him, and he blinked his eyes rapidly for several seconds before it wore off.
And then he staggered over to his room before crashing headlong onto his bed. He crawled forwards, laying his hot, heavy head on his pillow before pulling the blankets up to his chin, shuddering with frantic chills. But it took him several minutes of just lying there before he finally fell into a fitful sleep.
He wasn't alert long enough to spot a snaky figure spying on him through the window before cackling softly and vanishing from sight.
Of all the times Pixie had ever been scared in her life here, this one was definitely the worst. She had never in all her life seen someone so ill. Correction—she had never in all her life seen anyone who was ill period. And the worst part was that she couldn't tell anyone about it. She had made a promise to Lloyd that she wouldn't tell. But as the hours went by, she found it was getting harder and harder to keep it.
As soon as he left the deck, she quietly tried to slip away and follow him. She knew he'd probably hit the roof if he realized that she was tailing him, but she couldn't just let him battle this alone. She reached the door just in time to hear him break into another coughing fit—but this one seemed to be even harsher than the one she'd heard last night.
And in that moment, her worst fears were confirmed.
He was getting worse. Way worse.
"Ooh, that does it!" she exclaimed to herself. "I hate to break my promise to him and risk losing his trust, but this can't go on any longer! He needs help, and he needs it now!"
She was just about to hightail it over to Master Wu and spill the whole story when the emergency alarm suddenly screamed at everyone on board. Pixie stuffed her hands over her ears, groaning to herself, "Noisy menace!" This hadn't been the first time she'd been treated to hearing the alarm go off, and already she hated that thing with a vengeance. It took her a second to realize that she still had to let someone know about Lloyd's condition. She immediately took off, making a beeline for the bridge. But then the alarm suddenly grew louder, as if it was trying to mock her. Finally, her frustration with the annoying noisemaker reached the tipping point, and as she dashed into the bridge, she suddenly shrieked at the top of her lungs, "Will SOMEONE SHUT THAT OFF?!"
And then—oh, sweet relief!—someone did. Nya hit one button, and the alarm immediately clicked off. Almost immediately, Jay exclaimed, "Okay, I'm just going to come out and say it—I absolutely hate that thing so much!"
"Thank you!" Cole squeaked. "I was going to say something, but I thought it might sound dumb!"
"Yeah, sis," Kai added, "hate to say it, but you should probably think about toning down the frequency of that thing." He then stuffed a hand into his right ear and rubbed it, saying, "I think that alarm's going to give me a migraine one of these days."
"Duly noted." Nya answered before turning to the main computer screen. "We've got ourselves a pretty strange situation."
"How strange we talking?" Cole asked.
"Yeah, how strange?" Kai added.
"Look at all these Nindroid signatures." Nya answered, pointing out the numerous blinking red dots on the screen's radar map.
"This is highly irregular." Zane commented—startling the others a bit, as he had come into the room without them noticing. "The Nindroids have been deactivated for months now."
"Well, apparently someone figured out a way to reactivate them." Nya replied. "And now they're causing all sorts of chaos in the museum."
All this time, Pixie had been trying to tell the others that there was a much more severe situation going on with Lloyd, but to her dismay, no one seemed to notice her tugging at their gis, trying to get their attention. It was like she wasn't even there. And it bugged her to no end.
"Better be ready, boys." Nya added. "This could get nasty."
"Luckily, we specialize in nasty!" Jay exclaimed—before everyone dashed off to get ready for their new mission. "But—but—but," Pixie stammered, as she stood stock-still in the middle of the room. "What about Lloyd?"
No answer. Not even from Zane. Poor Pixie was left all alone in the bridge. And no one had even noticed she was trying to tell them something. The young girl sighed and turned to the computer screen. Maybe—just maybe—she could figure out how to access Zane's comm. Then she could tell him what had happened. He would listen.
Or would he?
Would he actually listen to her—when it seemed like he was so caught up in the mission that he hadn't even noticed she was in the room?
But she had to try. For Lloyd.
Her mind made up, she sat down and began analyzing the computer's controls. A sudden chill whooshed past her, and she wondered if she should tell anyone. But she shrugged it off, thinking it was probably just the wind.
Little did she realize that it wasn't.
"No, no, please, no!" Lloyd begged in his sleep. "Leave me alone! Please, leave me alone!" He then awoke with a scream, shuddering at the horrific nightmare he'd just had. He'd been back at the Museum of Ninjago History, forced to watch as Morro took control of his younger self—just as he had the last time Lloyd had been there. Then Lloyd had seen his younger self turn on him, telling him that he could have stopped Morro from controlling him if he'd just been stronger.
He knew it had just been a dream, but it had felt so real. Another shudder rippled through him, and hot tears sprang to his eyes just before another coughing fit shook his weak frame unmercifully. But he was not at all prepared for what happened next.
A coldly smooth voice greeted his ears with, "You're quite foolissssshhhhhh to be in here all alone, little one." He turned his gaze to see a Serpentine female standing in the midst of the room, slowly slithering towards him. But this Serpentine wasn't like any he'd ever seen—for he could see evidence that she was born from, not just one, but two tribes. Her scales were a striking indigo-and-blue, and she bore the hood of the Hypnobrai, though her neck resembled that of an Anacondrai. There was a glowing blue orb of energy placed in a golden harness she wore on her chest, and she carried a small staff reminiscent of the five tribal staffs of the Serpentine. Her tongue flickered in and out of her mouth, and her red eyes gleamed with malicious amusement.
His mind told him to run, but before he could make a move, a sudden coughing fit rattled him, and he collapsed in feverish weakness back onto the bed. The Serpentine halted in front of Lloyd's bed and grabbed him by the arm, hauling him up into a sitting position so that his fright-widened jade-green eyes met her own sickly crimson ones. Her tail began to rattle, and Lloyd realized he was in trouble.
"Look into my eyessssssss." the serpent commanded, as white rings of hypnosis power flooded Lloyd's vision. No, not again, NOT AGAIN! he thought desperately, as he weakly struggled to pull away. But whether it was because she was so strong or he was so weak, his efforts proved futile, and he suddenly felt a familiar numbing sensation as his eyes changed from their normal green to the ringed red of someone who had been hypnotized.
But to his surprise, it didn't hurt as much as he thought it would—rather, it felt more like his mind had simply gone blank. And he was still aware of what was happening all around him. Definitely not like being controlled by Morro. There was a small flicker of fright in his enslaved mind as he wondered what she would make him do.
The answer to that question was definitely not what he was expecting. The next moment, she leaned in so close he could feel her breath on his face and hissed, "Sssssssleeeeeepppp."
Almost instantly, his eyelids drooped, and a deep, deep darkness obscured his vision as his alertness faded away…