Getting through the window was harder than she thought it was going to be. It was not too high up, which served as a blessing to her and Acronix, but it was barricaded shut with wooden planks. It took the two of them a surprising amount of heaving to get all of the wood away, and when they'd cleared their entrance, they had to break the window in order to open it, which produced a lot of noise and probably drew unwanted attention.

Still, they had made it inside. That was step one of the plan complete.

"Right..." Pixal said, glancing down each side of the corridor where they had landed. "Where would the ninja be?"

"And where would the mastermind behind all this be?" Acronix continued.

Pixal scanned down the left side of the corridor. There were a lot of doors down that side, each leading to either a different corridor or huge bedroom.

She turned her attention towards the right side of the corridor. This side was shorter, but still long, and there were no doors. Instead the corridor led to a stone staircase that she couldn't quite analyse from where she was stood. She could, however, infer that the staircase was creepy as hell. Which probably meant that they led to where the ninja were being held.

"Okay here's the plan." She said, wheeling round to face Acronix. "I'm gonna go right. Those stairs look like they lead to a dungeon. You go left. Some of those doors lead to more corridors. There's got to be something at the end of one of them. Don't just focus on finding who's behind this because we can figure that out once we get the ninja back. Just gather any information you can find."

Acronix nodded, then started down the corridor towards the first door. Pixal watched him for a few seconds, before sprinting down towards the staircase.

When she got to the top of the stairs, she looked down and almost lost her footing. The stairs seemed to go on forever. She couldn't even see the bottom.

Even if they didn't lead to the ninja, these stairs had to lead to somewhere important. So, she slowly started to descend.

Halfway down the stairs, Pixal started to hear noise. Grunting. Punching. Shouting.

Some people or somethings were fighting each other down there, which meant she had to be careful. There was a risk that whoever could catch her, which couldn't happen if she was going to save the ninja.

But as she finally made it to the bottom and turned the corner at the end of the stairs, she realised that would no longer be an issue.

Because there they were. The ninja. Fighting a group of heavily armoured guards outside a large iron prison cell.

She should've known that they could save themselves. That they'd find their way out eventually. But she didn't care. Because seeing Zane for the first time in weeks, his bow drawn, aiming at one of the guards, who was trembling with fear, made everything she had been through to get here worth it.

She watched in relief as Cole smashed the remainder of the guards into the rest, who had already surrendered to the ninja, and as Lloyd and Nya tied a rope around them all to keep them at bay.

"Finally!" Nya cried. "Freedom!" The rest of the ninja whooped.

Pixal couldn't hold herself back. "Zane!" She shouted, running out from around the corner.

Zane stared in astonishment as his girlfriend ran towards him, the rest of the ninja raising their weapons in alarm.

"Pixal?!" Zane cried, opening his arms and letting Pixal hug him tight. The rest of the ninja, seeing that it was only Pixal, lowered their weapons. "What in Ninjago's name are you doing here?"

"Saving you of course!" She pulled herself away from him to glance around the others. "Are you all okay?"

The others nodded, though they still looked quite puzzled.

"Good. Then let's get out of here. Well, not straight away. We still have to wait for–"

"We can't leave yet, Pixal." Lloyd said suddenly. "We have a duty to protect Ninjago, so we can't leave without putting the man who did this in his place."

"I understand that. But would it not be more wise to investigate who's behind this when we are all home and safe? There is no use in us all being captured again. It's a risk we cannot take."

Lloyd looked at her, stunned. The other ninja mirrored his expression.

"You mean you don't know?" Kai asked.

"Know what?"

"Who's behind all this." Kai explained. "He didn't exactly try to hide his identity. In fact, he was kind of flaunting it a bit..."

"You mean... you do know who's behind all this?" Pixal asked. The others nodded in response. "Who?"

Suddenly, a low chuckle came from behind her, followed by a few claps.

"I knew you'd find your way here eventually, Pixal!" Said the man behind her. "You've truly put your entire heart and soul into coming here."

Pixal didn't dare turn around. She recognised the voice already. She knew exactly who it was. She'd known exactly who it was since the start.

"Although I suppose I should thank you..." The man continued. "For bringing your father to me..."

Pixal's heart sank even lower as she turned so that she was face to face with Krux. Proud, cruel Krux with his stupid smirk and his stupid authority. But it was not him that she was looking at but his brother.

Acronix stood next to Krux, holding Cyrus Borg, who was tied in rope and whose mouth was covered in duct tape, in his arms. He looked just as proud and just as cruel as Krux.

And it was at that moment that Pixal realised that, despite everything that they had been through together, Acronix had been playing them all along.

He had stabbed them in the back.

Author's Note: Hi to anyone who's still reading this FanFic! And thank you so much for reading in the first place – your support means a lot to me! However, I'm afraid this is (for now at least) going to be the last chapter of Ninja Never Quit. I started this Fic years ago when I had a lot of motivation and a lot of time to write it, but I'm afraid I don't have either anymore. I've forgotten where the FanFic was heading and have lost interest in the ideas I did still have, so I just don't enjoy writing it anymore and see it as more of a chore than a hobby. Plus, I'm at college now so I'm pretty busy with homework and revision AND I'm trying to look for a part-time job. So writing this Fic isn't gonna work for me anymore. But as I said above, if you have been reading Ninja Never Quit, thank you so much! I'm glad I could give you a FanFiction that you enjoyed and it means a lot to me that you have taken the time to read this! You guys are the reason I was hesitant to stop writing. So, this is it! Thank you once again for reading and take care of yourselves! :)