Chapter Text
Previously on Ninjago
" Those skeletons were what my father called "Skulkin". He created them to serve as guides for the Underworld."
" By the looks of it, the two are after the Four Weapons, weapons that served to amplify the powers of the four Crystals of Creation, and the three remaining crystals."
"Where exactly did he take me?"
" You are not here to fight, you are here to train."
" Wait a minute, they're your students too?"
" Master, what is the meaning of this?"
" You will all be the ones to protect the Four Weapons from my brother, Lord Garmadon."
Episode 5: The Way of the Ninja: Part 2
The trek up the mountain felt like forever, despite the four of them running as they carried Wu up to the top. All of them were panting as they kept on pushing upwards, their legs aching from the weight of the horse carriage. Except for Cole, that is.
"Dude, how are you able to do this without barely breaking a sweat?!" Kai exclaimed.
Cole kept his focus on the path as he spoke. "I think it's because of my powers. They gave me more strength than I ever had." Cole grunted as he pushed at the carriage, swearing under his breath. "That doesn't me that I can't feel pain like most people though."
"You're lucky!" Jay said with sarcasm and irritation. "At least you got something cool!"
As he felt a stinging sensation in his legs, Kai felt that he needed to get his mind off of it if he wished to not feel it as much. "So, where did Sensei find you three?" he asked them. Cole laughed at the question, although it wasn't in a mocking manner. More like he was remembering something from long ago.
"Oh man, trust me when I say this." said Cole, a small smile under his mask. "Let's just say that if it wasn't for Sensei Wu, I don't think we'd ever be seen together. I was testing my strengths." Cole recalled a time where he had been climbing a tall mountain named Mt. Elbrus as a way to test out the newfound strength he had received from the Earth Crystal, only to find Wu meditating at the edge, surprising Cole so much he almost fell off.
"I was testing my invention!" Jay chimed in. Jay remembered when he had been testing out a pair of mechanical wings that he had invented himself, only for him to crash into a billboard and come in contact with the Lightning Crystal, along with Wu himself. Jay cringed slightly at how awkward their interaction was after he nearly shocked Wu out of fright.
"As for me, I was testing myself." Zane spoke. Zane remembered how he had been meditating under a frozen lake in a small, cold village, one that he had found after days of wandering, almost choking on the icy water as he saw Wu sitting next to him, calmly sipping his tea as if the temperature didn't affect him.
Kai nodded in understanding. "You're right, if it weren't for Sensei, none of us would ha-"
"Stop." said Wu in a low voice, causing all four ninjas to halt. "We have arrived."
They had arrived at the Caves of Despair, hiding behind a rock on top of a small canyon. They peeked over and saw loads of skeletons and half-skeletons looking around the caves, trying to find the Scythe. Wu looked worried as the skeletons dug up holes everywhere. "Samukai must be close to unearthing the Scythe of Quakes. Now listen close." He pointed to Cole's crystal. "Once you get the Scythe, you must quickly place that inside of the staff part. Once you do, run, and whatever you do, don't use the weapon. For its power-"
Jay cut Wu off. "Yeah, yeah, it is too much for us mortals." They scanned the skeletons, searching for places to hide. "Alright, let's chop-socky this lemonade stand! Cole, you got the plan?" Jay asked.
Cole nodded. "Sure do. First, we'll lower ourselves down the ledge, then...where's Kai?"
Sure enough, Kai was no longer there. He had already broken away from the group, barely getting past the skeletons. Cole face palmed. "Let's just go guys." he muttered. Ditching the plan, the three ninjas jumped from their spot and followed Kai's path, making sure not to get caught. As they crawled into a box to hide from the nearby guards, they saw Kai run right in front of them and behind a pile of rocks. However, a guard also caught sight of him. He nearly cried out to Samukai, until Cole drove his scythe through the skeleton, turning the guard into a pile of bones. They quickly covered the remains with the box, Zane spotting Kai on one of the watch towers.
"Over there!" Zane whispered.
Meanwhile, Kai had managed to climb the tower without being seen, peering into a hole on the roof to see Samukai, who was holding the map. "The map!" Kai said. "Perfect." He noticed that the way Samukai was holding it seemed....off. The continents positioning almost looked like they weren't in the right spots, or at least even drawn right. "Huh?" Kai thought. The other ninjas made it up to him, Jay glaring at Kai before whacking him on the back of his head. "Ow!" exclaimed Kai in pain.
"Hey, what the hell is wrong with you?!" Jay whispered furiously. Kai shushed him.
They looked down the hole, watching as Samukai chuckled evilly before putting the map down and leaving the tower to check on the workers. Jay squinted at the map, gasping. "Guys, it's upside down. They're digging in the wrong spots." Zane grunted in acknowledgement, pulling out his shuriken, which was tied to a rope, and throwing it down onto the map. He pulled it up from out of the hole, carefully taking the map off of the blade.
Then, that means that the Scythe of Quakes is near. We don't have any time to lose." Kai said, climbing down from the tower and running the moment his feet touched the ground. Cole and Jay groaned, jumping off of the tower while Zane lingered for another second, his eyes scanning Kai as he jumped and ducked away from the guards and diggers, Cole and Jay barely starting to catch up.
"He's strange." Zane thought. "He is quick on his feet and strong-willed, taking any opportunity he has to find the Scythe. Never have I seen anyone with his will or determination." Zane shrugged it off, joining his comrades as they ran to a cave entrance far away from where the skeletons were digging. By the time he got there, Cole and Jay were helping Kai push a boulder away from the entrance. He ran up to them and helped them give one final push to the rock, all of them sighing as it finally moved enough for them to all get in and out. Cole and Kai were bickering about "teamwork" as they walked in, their discussion cut short when their eyes drifted towards the glowing weapon floating in the middle of the cave room.
The Scythe of Quakes.
It was made entirely out of gold, its blade coming out of what looking like the opening mouth of a roaring dragon. Under it were the jaws of a dragon statue jutting out from the sides, as if it was going to swallow the weapon whole. Everyone looked at the weapon in awe at its beauty.
"Woah." said Cole.
"Woah indeed, Cole." Zane replied.
"Wow! That is so COOL!" Jay shouted in excitement.
Jay's shout echoed throughout the entire cave, bouncing off of the rock walls. Cole shushes him, running up to the dragon head and pulling the Scythe out. He looked around at the staff part, tracing the staff's edges for an opening. "Not so loud!"� Cole says, finally finding a compartment for the crystal. He ripped off the Tiger's Eye from the silver thread, placing it into the small opening and closing it shut before wrapping up the weapon into a long cloth. For a moment, Kai thought he saw Cole's eyes flash brown, but only for a moment. Jay scoffed at Cole.
"Come on!" said Jay. "We're totally on the opposite side of the caves."
"Still, zip it." Cole throws the Scythe at Kai, Kai almost falling due to the weight and with how hard Cole threw it. "Now that we have the Scythe, we need to leave before the boneheads figure out that we're here. C'mon." The ninja made their way out of the cave, the Scythe of Quakes in hand. As they walked out, the jaws of the dragon statue began to move on their own.
"Alright team." Cole looked back at the other ninjas as he led the way out. "Everyone stick together. The way out is right around the corner." As Cole says this, he turns around and bumps into something hard. Cole rubbed his forehead in pain, looking up at the thing responsible for his head hurting, when he yelped at the bony face in front of him. Samukai smirked at him, brandishing his daggers. A whole army of skeletons and half skeletons stood in their path, swords in hand.
"Hand us the Scythe AND your Crystals, and maybe none of you pathetic excuses for ninja will get hurt!" Samukai laughed as he said that. The others joined in as well, the teens stepping back in fear from the crowd that was looming over them. "Hand us the weapons, ninja!" Samukai growled. "Or so help me, we will rip them from your cold, dead, fucking hands!"
"Let us make them go through what the Master made us go through!" a half skeleton cried.
"Rip off their skin!"
"Take out their insides!"
"Watch as they cry tears of blood!"
The ninjas whipped out their weapons, Kai placing the Scythe on his back as the half-skeletons began cheering for their demises. They ran straight into the army of warriors, trying to fight back as hard as they could. Kai grunted as he was locked into a sword battle with another skeleton, barely managing to shake the monster off. He saw the others struggling as well, the swarm of skeletons almost seemingly becoming larger and larger with each second that passed. Cole tried to use his powers on the skeletons, but was only able to make one rock jut out of the ground, stabbing a half skeleton with its sharp edge. Cole looked down at his hands, confused and shocked as to why his powers were a little weaker. "Guys!" Cole said, fear and worry in his voice. "Something's wrong with my powers!"
Zane was knocked down by the skeleton, Kruncha, rolling away from him as he brought down a sword into the area Zane had just been in. Zane whipped around to come in contact with the Kruncha's sword again, blocking it with his shurikens. "It must be because of the weapon!" he shouted to Cole. "In order to fully amplify the Earth Crystal's powers, it needed some of your essence, which in turn took some of your power!" Zane concentrated on the ground, watching the area under Kruncha become a small and slippery pool of ice.
Cole groaned. "Well that's just great for the Scythe, but not for me!"
Kai was being horded by skeletons, all of them trying to reach for the Scythe. Zane saw him struggling, the Scythe very close to getting captured. He called out to Kai. "Kai! Throw it here!" Kai nodded, grabbing the Scythe and throwing it as hard as he could to Zane. The army's attention soon landed on him, as they scurried over to him to try and reach the weapon.
Cole, seeing this, ran to him. "Zane!" he called out. "Over here!"
"Going long!" Zane shouted, tossing the Scythe to Cole.
"There's too many of them, we can't keep doing this!" said Kai, dodging a dagger as it whizzed past his head and blasting a small fireball at some skeletons.
"We don't even know Spinjitzu, let alone how to fight an entire army!" Cole shrieked as he almost got hit with a shuriken.
As the three struggled with trying not to get killed, Jay had begun to notice something about the way that the army was arranged. It almost reminded him of the training course back at the Monastery. His eyes widened as he realized it, his grip on his nun-chucks tightening as he fought. "Guys!" he yelled. "It's just like the training course!" Jay ran up to a group of half-skeleton warriors, spinning and kicking at them.
"Over the planks!"
He jumped over another group, passing all of the swords. "Dodge the swords!"
Another skeleton ran up to him, a club wielded in his hand. "Here comes the dummy!"
Jay spun around, hitting the skeleton in the face with his nun-chucks. The moment he did that, Jay suddenly found himself spinning more and more, until he was surrounded by a vibrant blue tornado, lightning sparking out of it as he spun around the warriors. He had become faster, managing to knock out skeletons and half-skeletons left and right, a trail of sparks following him as he did so. The others looked at him in shock.
"Spinjitzu..." Kai said in awe. "Jay! What's the key?!"
Jay laughed in his tornado. "I'm just going with the motions! This is what Sensei must've meant when he said we already knew it!" The others, realizing what he meant, mimicked his actions, weapons in hand as the next wave of skeletons came to attack.
"Over the planks!" Zane jumped over a skeleton and threw his shuriken behind it.
"Dodge the swords!" Cole ducked as a blade was swung, quickly getting back up and swinging at two guards.
"Here comes the dummy!" Kai spun around, a fiery red tornado forming as he plowed through the onslaught of skeletons.
While the fight went on, Kruncha laughed and pointed at Nuckal. "Hah! He just called you a dummy!" he said. Nuckal looked offended by that, pushing Kruncha.
"No! He called you a dummy!" Nuckal cried.
The two's banter was cut short when out of the corner of Nuckal's eye, he saw an icy blue and white tornado barreling towards them. Nuckal screamed, alerting Kruncha and causing him to scream as well. The two ran away in fear, not wanting to get attacked by the icy tornado. When the tornado disappeared, Zane had fully stopped spinning, a smirk under his mask. "I sense that you do not stand a chance." Zane said.
Realizing the danger that they were all in, Samukai yelled for his army to retreat. They all ran out with no hesitation, completely forgetting about what they had came for in the first place. The ninja all stopped using their Spinjitzu, watching as the warriors all left the caves with satisfaction and relief that the battle was over for the time being. "Huh." Cole said. "Guess they didn't want a second serving of these babies!" Cole flexed his bicep in front of the others, Jay and Kai rolling their eyes at Cole. The four of them cheered as they started to make their way out of the cave, laughing as they walked. "Man, good thing they didn't check out the merchandise in the ba-" Cole turned around to make his joke, but when he looked up, the words stopped before they could come out of his mouth, his eyes wide in fright as he saw what was towering over all of them. Zane spoke his exact thoughts as Cole stood there gaping at the monster in front of him.
"Didn't Sensei say that we were supposed to "run" as soon as we got the Scythe?" Zane questioned. Jay, Kai, and Zane all noticed that Cole had stopped talking. They all turned to see what was the matter, only for the color to drain off of each teen's face when they saw what Cole had been gawking at in horror.
It was a dragon.
The Earth Dragon.
"I-Is that a...u-uh....that's not what I think it is, is it?" Cole stuttered.
"Y-You mean a dragon?" Jay squeaked.
"That sure looks like a dragon..." Kai mumbled.
The Earth Dragon was a light brown color with a reddish-orange color on its nose. It almost looked like it was made entirely out of rocks, its blue eyes piercing into the frightened ninja. "I sense that we won't be able to spin our way out of this one!"� Zane said, his voice almost cracking. They all began to back up slowly, the Earth Dragon's gaze still on them. The moment the four began to sprint, the Earth Dragon spit out a large gust of sand, knocking all of them down. Screaming, they all quickly got up onto their feet and continued running, the Earth Dragon hot on their tails. Another blast of sand sent them ducking behind one of the large rocks, all of them peeking from behind to make sure the Earth Dragon didn't see them.
"I thought dragons weren't from this world! WHY THE HELL IS THERE A DRAGON IN THIS DAMN WORLD?!" Cole cried as the Earth Dragon looked around for them.
Kai looked at the Scythe that was still on Cole's back. Knowing that it was very risky, but wanting to get out of the cave as soon as possible, Kai grabbed the Scythe of Quakes and uncovered it. Jay noticed this, and grabbed Kai's arm before he could run off. "No, no, Kai! Bad idea! Sensei told us not to!" Jay said with worry. Kai shook Jay's hand off in annoyance.
"Well then you better keep your mouth shut." With that, Kai ran up to the Earth Dragon, Scythe in hand.
Zane and Cole noticed far too late that Kai was gone, the three of them running to Kai, trying to stop him from using the Scythe. "KAI! DON'T!" they all screamed. But, it was too late. With a grunt, Kai pierced the ground with the weapon, the ground beneath the Earth Dragon splitting and causing the entire cave to shake and tremble. The whole place was coming apart, the Earth Dragon even more angry than before. They needed to find a way out. They all heard a noise and realized that the top part of the cave had an opening big enough for them to go through. But, how would they get there?
"We'll use Spinjitzu!" Cole shouted. "Ninja go!" Cole rocketed himself up using his Spinjitzu, a brown tornado with rock chunks forming as he went up the rocky walls. The other three followed suit, using their own Spinjitzu to climb up the walls and out of the cave with Cole, the Earth Dragon being unable to follow them. All of them took off their masks and collapsed onto the ground as soon as they made it out, worn out from the events that unfolded, but all happy that they managed to get out alive.
"That was so awesome!" Cole said with delight. Kai hi-fived him with just as much excitement.
"Yeah! We were unbelievable!" he said.
Zane patted Cole and Kai on the back, a small smile forming on his face. "We are the best!" Zane said in a matter of fact tone.
Jay slid into the small group circle, bouncing on his heels. "Did you see that?! I was like "pow"! And you were like "bam"!" Jay made movements to emphasize his words.
Unfortunately, not everyone was happy. As they all chattered about how the mission went well, Sensei Wu walked up to them, a pissed look evident on his face. "Enough!" Wu yelled. All four ninja paused and saw Sensei Wu in front of them, all of them confused as to why he looked mad, until they remembered. "I told you not to use the Scythe!" Wu was very infuriated.
"Using it was my only option!" Kai spoke back.
"Oh, and what makes you think that you're more important than the team, huh? Huh?!"
"They took my friend, remember?!"
Sensei Wu tsked at Kai, walking away from him. "You barely even knew the girl, and yet, you considered her almost immediately to be a friend, going as far as to try and save her life." said Wu. "You don't know why, but the smallest part of your brain does. You're clueless, you know that right?" Before Kai could retort, Wu continued. "There are still three weapons left. Maybe next time you won't be as clueless and you can do it right..."
Instead of Wu's dragon, they took a boat to the Frozen Wasteland to find the Shurikens of Ice, as it wasn't that far. On the deck, Kai looked out at the chunks of ice floating aimlessly, and shivered as he felt the cold wind pass through him. A few snowflakes fell into his hair as they crossed the icy waters, Cole steering the ship while Wu stood at the bow. Kai was anxious that they wouldn't get to the next weapon in time, and that all would be for naught. He created a small flame in the palm of his hand, the fire actually feeling welcoming and comforting for once instead of burning him like before. He sighed, warming up. However, he felt something cool touch his shoulder, scaring him and nearly causing him to fall into the water, the small flame dissipating. He came face to face with Zane, who was carrying a black coat with red fur on the inside.
"Oh, Zane!" Kai put a hand to his heart as he regained control of his breathing. "Thank god it's just you." He noticed that Zane had his arms outstretched to him, the jacket closer now. Kai pointed to it. "Is that for me?"
Zane nodded. "Yes. I have already given Jay and Cole theirs, as the temperature is only going to get colder from here, and it would not be good for any of us to get sick." Kai hummed in agreement, but noticed that Zane wasn't wearing anything warm either. He took the jacket, his hand brushing Zane's as he grabbed it. As soon as they made contact, Zane stepped back, wincing in pain and clutching his hand. Oh, right. His hand must have felt scorching hot from the flame. Not the best thing for someone to feel, that's for sure. Kai put on the jacket, looking at the older teen in confusion.
"What about you? Where's you jacket?" Kai asked.
Zane shook his head. "I do not need one." He pointed to the Ice Crystal around his neck. "Thanks to this, I have cold resistance, and I was gifted a high pain tolerance when I absorbed most of the Ice Crystal's power, much how like you were gifted a drive of passion and anger. The only thing though, is that I am more sensitive to heat than others because of this."
Kai's eyes widened when he noticed that Zane knew what he had been gifted. "Wait, you know what my gift was?" Zane nodded his head. "How? I never told you, or anybody for that matter." Zane only shrugged.
"I'm not sure, it just seemed to be the most likely, considering you do have the Fire Crystal."
Kai looked to his right to see Cole still steering the ship, looking lost, with Jay trying to help him steer without crashing into a block of ice. Wu was still meditating on the bow, his position unmoving even when they had to make a sharp turn. "Cole said that his gift was strength, correct?"
"Yes. He told Jay and I this during our first mission together. Apparently, he was already pretty good in the strength factor, just not as well as to consider it "great"." Zane said.
"What about Jay?" Kai asked, pointing to Jay.
Zane looked like he was in deep thought before shaking his head. "He's never told us. Plus, I can't really tell what it is due to his element being not as obvious as the others."
Kai looked at the snow falling onto his hands and coat, tapping the wood of the ship. "I wonder." he thought. "How many seconds will it take to get there?"
Meanwhile, in the Underworld, Samukai sat down on his throne, twiddling his thumbs out of nervousness. He looked up at the ceiling, as if something, or rather, someone was there watching his every move. "Master." Samukai said. "I've failed you. They know Spinjitzu and they have the Scythe."
A gravelly whisper swirled through the air. "....Good. Then my brother was there."
"If I gather my army, we can easily ambush them at the-"
"N o . Let them think they're winning."
Samukai looked at the ceiling quizzically. "I do not understand." he said, puzzled at his Master's plan.
"E verything is going to plan."
The voice laughed as Samukai sat there, having no choice but to comply with the plan.