The Elemental Masters, which is what Cole had explained to Zane was what the former prisoners were called, were all cheering as Zane followed Cole down to the harbor. Zane didn't know what they were cheering about. After all, Zane had just trailed behind Cole all through the palace, and there hadn't been a sign of any of the people they had been looking for, or at least Cole had said so, and Zane believed him.
As Zane and Cole arrived at the harbor, Zane could hear Jay saying, "Sink the ferry. No one's getting off this island."
"Yeah!" Bolobo roared, thrusting his wooden pole out in front of him, and vines erupted from the water around the boat floating there, pulling it to pieces.
Cole walked up to the people Zane knew were his friends, minus the one who was named Nya, reporting as Zane ran after him, "The palace and sleeping quarters are all clear. Still no sign of Chen and Clouse."
"What about Skylor?" Kai asked, sounding hopeful.
Cole frowned and shook his head.
Kai frowned too.
Lloyd put a hand on Kai's shoulder. "She wasn't able to pick her family, but she was able to pick her friends. And since you're her friend, that means so are we. We'll find her."
"He's right," Cole agreed. "With no way off the island, it'll only be a matter of time."
"I'm proud of you all," Sensei Garmadon commented, walking up to the group. "You've done what the original Elemental masters never could: stick together. But you must not rest on your laurels, for your guard is down when you sleep."
The others paused for a second. Maybe they were thinking about that. Maybe they didn't know what it meant. Zane hoped so, because he wasn't entirely sure what it meant.
"Does that mean if we take a nap, we'll get defeated?" Zane blurted in confusion.
"Don't worry about it. We'll figure that out as we go," Cole told him. "Right now, we need to go to the edge of the jungle to check on the others who are guarding some guards there."
Zane nodded and trotted along behind Cole.
As they got to the edge of the jungle where Nya and several others were waiting, Zane looked around curiously. There were so many cool things here! There was the Roto-Jet, there was a big truck-like vehicle, there were a bunch of bikes with big fangs and weird faces on them… Okay, so maybe the bikes were more scary than cool, but still.
Oh! Zane caught sight of the coolest thing of all. There was a huge robot! Zane waved to the robot, but the robot didn't wave back. Maybe Zane was too far away to be seen?
Just then, Griffin raced right up to them in a blur. Before he'd even skidded to a stop fully, he was panting, "Neuro says Chen just figured out Skylor's powers can finish the spell. She's in danger."
Sensei Garmadon gasped. "He's replaced his Elemental staff with the Elements in his daughter."
"Where?" Kai demanded.
"Other side of the island," Griffin reported.
Kai gave one sharp nod and then ran for a nearby bike, jumping in and calling back as he did. "I'm going after her."
"All of us are," Sensei Garmadon stated, then he paused. He was looking at Zane.
Zane felt like hiding again, but he gathered up his courage and looked right back.
"Maybe not all of us," Sensei Garmadon concluded.
"What?" Zane asked. "I want to come too. If my friends are going, I am going."
And by that, Zane mostly meant if Cole was going, Zane was going. He didn't quite trust the others just yet. They were his friends, so he liked them, of course, he just didn't know them well enough yet to trust them.
Sensei Garmadon shook his head. "I don't think that would be a good idea. Nya, would you be kind enough to watch over Zane while we go after Skylor?"
"Sure thing," Nya chimed in.
Zane pouted. "But I wanna go."
"And we want you to stay," Cole said. He came over and knelt in front of Zane. "I want you to be safe, okay? You're pretty good with your ice powers already, but you don't really know how to fight. And besides, we don't have a booster seat for you that we could put in the Roto-Jet."
Zane didn't know what a booster seat was, but it sounded important. Still, he pouted.
"I believe it would be in your best interest to stay," Pixal spoke up in his display.
Zane sighed. Nobody was on his side. Maybe he was wrong, then. "...Okay. I'll stay."
Cole smiled at him, then he stood up. "Okay. How are we doing this?"
"Cole, you and I will take the Roto-Jet. Jay, take the mech. We'll leave the buggy with Nya just in case. Lloyd, you've got your dragon. Everyone else, stay here and guard the camp. Let's get a move on!" Sensei Garmadon ordered.
Zane followed behind Cole and Sensei Garmadon to the Roto Jet. He watched Cole jump easily onto the wing, then into the driver's seat, and then Sensei Garmadon did the same, except he jumped into the seat behind the driver's seat.
Cole looked down and back at Zane, smiling. "It'll be okay, kiddo. We'll be back before you know it."
"Okay," Zane said sadly. "'Bye."
"See ya," Cole told him, and then Cole revved the engine and took off.
Zane watched the Roto-Jet fly off. He heard a strange clomping noise from behind him. Turning, he gasped. It was the big robot! And Jay was riding inside of it!
Zane waved excitedly, and the robot waved back! So cool!
Zane bounced on his toes excitedly. Maybe he could talk to the robot after they had found this Skylor person. He would bet a robot that huge would have some really cool things to say. Zane had only ever talked to the little robots his father had made, and most of those didn't talk back because they were too small for a fully-functioning voicebox, but Zane guessed that such a big robot had plenty of room for a voicebox.
Waving, Zane watched the robot with Jay inside of it run off. Then something swooped over his head, something huge and green. It was a dragon!
Zane yelped and cowered back against the nearest tree, covering his face with his hands. This dragon wasn't the dragon from his nightmares, but it was still really scary.
"See you later, Zane!" A voice called down.
Zane uncovered his face slightly and peered at the dragon as it flew off. Had the voice come from it? Oh! Lloyd was riding the dragon! And it wasn't attacking him for it or anything. Huh. Zane wondered if maybe dragons weren't so bad.
Nya walked up beside him. "So, Zane, what's up?"
Zane pointed at the dragon and the Roto-Jet as they flew into the distance. "They are."
Nya laughed a little. "I meant, what's going on with you? What's happening? What are you up to?"
"Well, I do not like being short," Zane told her earnestly. "It makes it hard to keep up."
Nya nodded. "I can understand that. I remember being little and trying to keep up with Kai even though he was taller and faster than me. I got left behind a lot."
"And now we both got left behind," Zane sighed.
"Yes, I guess we did. It's no fun, is it?" Nya asked.
Zane shook his head. "Not at all. It feels like when Father has to go get supplies and I have to wait and wait and wait all day for him to get back."
"So how about we make it fun?" Nya asked.
Zane frowned. "How do we do that?"
"Let's play a game," Nya suggested. "How about we play Tag?"
"I don't know what that is," Zane admitted.
"It's when one person is It and chases everybody else and tries to tag them and make them be It," Nya explained.
Zane considered that for a moment.
"It can be pretty fun," Nya offered.
"Okay. If you think it will be fun, I will try it," Zane allowed.
Nya grinned and stretched out her arms in front of her teasingly. "You better run, 'cause I'm gonna get you! Ten, nine, eight, seven-"
Zane frowned. What was she doing?
"I believe when she reaches one, the game starts and she begins to chase you," Pixal advised.
"Six, five, four," Nya continued.
"So I should run?" Zane asked.
"You should run," Pixal agreed.
"Three, two, one, here I come!" Nya shouted, and she took off toward Zane.
Zane squealed in surprise and turned, running off as fast as he could. He dashed around trees and rocks, over vines and sticks, away from Nya.
That's when the ground gave way beneath Zane's feet. Giving a startled yelp, he fell down, down, down. He crashed face-first into the dirt.
Groaning, Zane sat up and looked around. He was in a deep cavern. The ground he had been running on had been simply ivy growing over the hole. He had crashed right through it, all the way down, and now he could barely see the hole he had made. "Uh-oh."
"Zane?" Nya's voice called, sounding worried. A moment later, her face appeared in the hole at the top of the cavern. "Oh no! Zane!"
"I am okay!" Zane called. "I mean, I am stuck, but I am not damaged."
"Don't worry! I'll go get Gravis. He can fly down there and get you!" Nya called, then she disappeared from view.
Already worrying despite Nya telling him not to, Zane looked around the cavern cautiously. There were lots of rocks, shaped like lots of different things. That one looked like a house, that looked like a chair, that one looked like…
That one looked like a dragon!
No, that one was a dragon!
Gasping, Zane shrunk back against the wall of the cavern, cowering away from the terrifying beast as it clawed a paw out toward him, not quite reaching him.
"Zane? Your anxiety levels are rising," Pixal observed with concern, "but there is no visible threat."
For a moment, Zane couldn't speak, the fear was too great. Pushing through the fear, he whimpered, "The dragon from my nightmare. It's quite visible and quite angry."
"There is no dragon. It's only in your head," Pixal explained.
"No, it's not in my head, it's going to devour my head!" Zane cried, pressing against the wall as if he could just press hard enough, he would pass through it and out of this waking nightmare.
Pixal sighed. "You didn't listen to me last time. Listen to me now. We must get out of this hole. There is no dragon."
"But it's there. Right in front of me," Zane objected, watching with wide eyes as the dragon lashed out at him again and again.
"You're not afraid of dragons. You used to have a dragon," Pixal stated.
"I used to what?" Zane asked in shock. There was no way he'd had a dragon; they were just too scary, way too scary.
"You used to have a dragon," Pixal repeated. "You must try to remember, try to sort out your memory bank, try to get past this. You must remember who you are. You are the Ninja of Ice."
"I am the Ninja of Ice," Zane repeated, trying to make some sense of it. "That's why I can make ice with my hands?"
"Exactly!" Pixal exclaimed. "You are the Ninja of Ice, you and your friends have elemental powers."
"I am the Ninja of Ice," Zane said again. "I have elemental powers. And, I have friends."
Frowning in concentration, Zane held his hands out in front of him. A spray of ice burst from his hands, going right at the dragon.
And then, right through the dragon.
The ice went right through the dragon.
Like it wasn't there at all.
"It's not there," Zane realized, and the dragon sat back on its haunches as if that was what it had wanted to hear from him the whole time. "Miss Pixal, it's not really there!"
Pixal laughed in delight. "Yes! Your anxiety levels are going down. Oh, but the elemental reactor levels are rising! Zane, the readings inside of you are through the roof!"
"I am the Ninja of Ice and I have friends!" Zane crowed, thrusting his fists into the air in triumph.
"I have an idea," Pixal stated excitedly. "Do you recall what Lloyd was riding to go find Skylor?"
Zane nodded. "Yeah! He had a dragon."
"Look at the dragon you see," Pixal directed. "Look at it. Go to it. Make it real. Make it your friend."
"Make it my friend," Zane repeated. He looked at the dragon and tilted his head to one side. He gave a little wave with one hand. "Greetings!"
The dragon snorted out a puff of air. It was still sitting back, looking at Zane. Dragons couldn't smile, not as far Zane knew, but from the tilt of its head and the relaxed way it sat back, if dragons could smile, this one would be smiling right now.
Zane smiled back and walked forward.
Zane burst up through and out of the hole that led to the cavern, flying out on the back of his new friend the dragon. They swooped through the air, and Zane laughed in glee. In his head, Pixal was laughing too, sharing in the delight of flight.
"That way!" Zane urged his dragon, steering him toward the front of the island, where all the Elemental Masters had been and where he assumed Nya had gone to find help.
As he flew and got closer, he began to be able to hear people talking.
"Nobody listens to me! You all say I overreact, but no!" A somewhat familiar voice, Jay's voice, was complaining from the top of one of the outer walls.
"I'll go alone," another voice, this one belonging to Lloyd, stated.
"And take on his whole army?" Nya objected.
An army? Zane frowned and looked around just in time to catch a glimpse of the Roto-Jet and quite a few smaller vehicles flying away to the horizon.
Zane gasped, putting together the pieces. That Chen guy must have gotten away from Cole and the others and then stolen all the ways to get off the island. After all, Jay and the other Elemental Masters had destroyed most of the ways off, so it wouldn't have taken much to leave them stranded. Now they all must be stuck.
Well, except Lloyd, Zane realized, just in time to hear Lloyd explain, "I'm the only one with an Elemental Dragon."
Zane grinned and flew over the Elemental Masters, calling out, "Not anymore!"
He flew in circles and twists over them, giggling as they began to shout out to him, most simply cheering or gasping, while others shouted words of shock.
"He unleashed the dragon, too!" Karlof exclaimed.
Jay whooped with joy. "Oh, Zane, none of us could do that before. You gotta tell us how you did that!"
Bringing his dragon down to rest on one of the upper walls, Zane explained, "I was really scared at first, but then I figured it out. I didn't need to be scared. I already had all I needed. So I made friends with the dragon, and now I can ride him!"
"All right!" Karlof bellowed.
"Yeah!" Jay whooped.
The rest of the Elemental Masters and friends cheered their excitement.
The sound of wings beating the air came from behind Zane, and he turned to see a dragon bearing Kai and somebody he didn't recognize, somebody holding onto Kai, somebody strangely… Purple? With a tail? Just one more confusing thing to ask about later, Zane figured.
"You all can ride dragons too," Kai called, swooping down toward the group. "We all have this power inside of us. But you have to see that it's not the Anacondrai we're afraid of, it's our doubt. Divided, we failed. But together, we will succeed!"
Zane turned back to the Elemental Masters to see them looking at each other and grinning. They could do it, and now they knew it.
Lloyd stepped up to the edge of the wall, then he jumped right off, calling out as his dragon formed beneath him, "Energy!"
"Lightning!" Jay yelled, jumping into the air by the side of the wall, and with a flash, a dragon took its place under him, lifting him into the air.
Cole whooped and ran to the edge of the wall, calling as he jumped into space and a dragon appeared for him to ride, "Earth!"
The other Elemental Masters started jumping into the air too, calling out their elements and summoning dragons to carry them.
"Metal!"
"Speed!"
"Shadow!"
"Light!"
They kept on jumping off the wall and yelling their elements, and their dragons kept on forming. Soon, all of the Elemental Masters were swooping back and forth in the air on elemental dragons by the wall where Nya, Dareth, and Garmadon still stood.
Lloyd, Jay, and Cole lowered their dragons to the wall in near-perfect unison, almost like somebody had told them to do so.
"Nya, hop on!" Jay called, patting the area right behind him.
Nya ran over and clambered up with a smile.
"Dad, ride with me," Lloyd offered.
"And Dareth, you can ride with me," Cole stated.
The two men nodded and began to get onto the dragons.
As Nya, Dareth, and Garmadon got settled, and as Zane's eyes widened in shock as he realized that Garmadon, too, was strangely purple and had a tail now, the Elemental Masters continued their antics in the air, calling to each other gleefully.
"Let's go!" Lloyd cried as soon as he, Garmadon, Jay, Nya, Cole, and Dareth were airborne. He turned and began flying away from the island, and all of the others on their dragons followed, Zane included, still rather confused but content to go with.
"Metal Dragon make Karlof very happy," Karlof shouted as they flew over the ocean.
"The battle of our past has returned, but we will rise to meet that challenge," Garmadon remarked, looking around at all of the dragons.
"Chen brought us here so that only one would remain. Well, we are one!" Kai stated, and when Zane looked at him, Zane saw he was grinning.
Zane couldn't help but grin too. He didn't entirely know what was happening or even what had happened over the past days, but he knew he was among friends, and for the moment, that was enough.