AN: Sorry for the long wait for the next chapter, all. Life is life, you know? I hope you enjoy this one!
Once they had reached Ninjago, most of the Elemental Masters split off from the group to spread out and protect the people on Lloyd's instructions, but Lloyd, Kai, Cole, Jay, Garmadon, Nya, Skylor (who was apparently the purple person who had been riding with Kai), and Zane headed to a place that Lloyd referred to as "the Samurai-X cave." Zane wasn't sure what a Samurai-X was, but apparently more friends were waiting there for them. The thought of more friends interested Zane even as it overwhelmed him. How did he have so many friends he didn't know about? It must have something to do with what Pixal kept saying about some of his memories being missing, Zane figured.
The cave was out in the desert, and as he landed and got off of his dragon, Zane looked around in wonder. There was so much sand!
"Come on, guys," Lloyd called out, already halfway into an opening in the sand.
Zane started towards Lloyd, then he remembered his manners and turned back, calling to his dragon, "Thank you for letting me ride you!"
His dragon huffed a breath out and disappeared.
Turning around, Zane raced after Lloyd and the others, who were all making their way through the opening. Zane followed them into a wide area where two people were standing in front of a huge screen.
A screech filled the air, and Zane looked around in excitement. He knew that sound! He held out one arm in front of him, anticipating, and sure enough, the Falcon swooped down and landed on his arm, screeching some more.
"Greetings to you as well!" Zane said happily, stroking the Falcon's back. As nice as it was to be getting to know all of these new friends, he was more than a little relieved to finally see an old one again. Now, if he could just convince the ninja to help him get back to his father, Zane would be all set.
"Zane!" A voice exclaimed, and Zane looked up from petting the Falcon to see an old man, one of the two people who had been standing in front of the screen, hurrying toward him.
Uncertain for a moment, Zane scampered over to stand slightly behind Cole, peeking out around him to see the old man stopping in front of them.
"It is so good to see you," the old man stated. "I've been informed that your memory is acting out of sorts, is that right?"
Zane bobbed his head in a nod.
"Well, then you may not remember me. I am Sensei Wu," the old man informed Zane.
"Greetings," Zane said politely. "It is nice to meet you."
"And I am Misako, Lloyd's mother," the other person who had been standing in front of the screen stated, coming over and looking around. "It's nice to see you all, especially you, Zane. But, Lloyd, where is your father?"
Lloyd looked to the back of the group, and Zane followed his gaze to see Garmadon and Skylor slithering slowly into the room.
"It's me, Misako," Garmadon said heavily.
Misako gasped. Zane could understand why. He'd been shocked himself at seeing Garmadon all purple and scaly the first time, and if she was Lloyd's mom, and Garmadon was Lloyd's dad, then he was her husband and seeing him as a Serpentine had to be extra shocking for her.
"Don't worry," Skylor advised, slithering forward to the front of the group and lifting one hand to reveal it as back to normal. "We have a reason to believe the spell may be wearing off."
Kai nodded. "But if that's true, it only makes Chen more desperate to act now. Everyone, this is Skylor, Chen's daughter."
"You're amongst friends, Skylor," Misako said, and Skylor smiled.
Zane lost track of the conversation for a moment then, as the Falcon took off from his arm and flew around the room, and clearly Zane had to focus on that. When Zane's focus came back to the conversation, Lloyd was speaking.
"There isn't much time. Our friends are on standby but we don't know where Chen will strike first," Lloyd was saying.
"And if we're not all there to stop him when he first attacks…" Cole said, his voice trailing off.
"Ninjago will succumb to war. Our greatest fear will come true," Garmadon said gravely.
Zane wasn't sure how that could be true. His greatest fear, after all, was probably still being attacked by a dragon, even after befriending his own dragon. War wouldn't cause dragon attacks, right?
"Then the greatest victory will be that which has no battle," Wu stated, turning to the big screen he had been standing in front of before.
Jay frowned. "But how do we prevent a war? How do we stop an enemy we know so little about?"
"I believe I may be of assistance," Pixal said. "Zane, would you put my neural drive into the main computer?"
"Okay," Zane stated uncertainly, walking over to the computer. He pulled Pixal's neural drive out of the back of his neck and looked around for a moment. There! Over by that screen! Zane hurried over to the port he had seen.
"Uh, what are you up to, Zane?" Jay wondered.
Zane put the neural drive into the port and stepped back, looking up at the screen. "Did that work?"
"Did what work, bud?" Cole asked, walking over to Zane.
Before Zane could answer, a new image flickered onto the screen. Pixal smiled down at the room. "That did indeed work."
"Pixal!" Most of the room cried out in surprise.
Zane grinned. "Hi, Miss Pixal! I did it, see?"
"I do see," Pixal agreed.
"How is this possible?" Nya asked.
"It is a long story, one for which I am not certain we have the time. In short, I was brought to Chen's island along with Zane, but scrapped in the process except for this neural drive that was just inserted into this computer," Pixal explained. "Now, I believe you had asked a question, Jay? On how to stop an enemy you know so little about?"
"Uh, yeah," Jay said slowly.
"I have the answer to that," Pixal said with a smile. "To stop someone you know little about, you find someone who knows a bit more."
"But who?" Kai wondered.
"Initiating scan for persons affiliated with Chen and/or his Anacondrai-warriors-in-the-making," Pixal stated. A bar popped up on the screen below her image, a bar that quickly filled and then disappeared. "Scan completed. The most knowledgeable person is located here."
An image appeared on the screen beside Pixal.
"Ohhh," Jay said, sounding like he had realized something.
"I do believe I understand," Wu stated.
Zane frowned. He definitely did not understand. The image was of a place he'd never seen before. "What's that?"
"That would be Kryptarium Prison," Nya said helpfully.
It did not really help. Zane was still quite confused. "We are going to a prison? Isn't that where they put bad guys?"
"It is indeed," Pixal agreed. "And that is why you all need to go there."