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Chapter Text

Kai Smith has had many panic attacks; he just couldn’t afford to have one right now. Not when Krux had the Dragon Blade leveled at his heart, the look in his eyes daring Kai to make him use it.

That tightness in his chest? He’s just tired.

The overwhelming sense of doom? Just another Tuesday.

The claustrophobia that seemed to be crushing him from all sides? Only because of the dozens of Vermillion Warriors that had followed the Time Twin’s into his parents' prison, surrounding them, crowding closer and closer and closer.

Kai and his family stood in the main room of the forge that doubled as his parent’s prison. It was a wide-open space with a fireplace glowing in the back corner next to a small worktable area, pencils and blueprints thrown haphazardly across the crowded surface. It was near this table that the Smiths were cornered.

“Put your hands out in front of you,” Acronix said coolly, his tone bridging no room for argument.

The Smiths took a collective beat, each weighing their chances, before sticking out their wrists, knowing that there was nothing they could do. Besides, Kai and Nya privately reasoned that they could just break out using their elemental powers when the opportunity arose. Then Acronix produced the handcuffs: vengestone handcuffs. Nya began to shift backwards but only succeeded in bumping into the table behind her before the cuffs were secured tightly around her wrists.

Immediately to her right, Kai faced a similar situation. The second the cuffs were snapped into place, Kai and Nya’s faces morphed into identical expressions of discomfort, their powers dampened and some core part of them dimmed, but both of them knew that this was only a fraction of the pain vengestone could incur. As long as they didn’t use their powers, they’d be fine. No reason to panic.

One of the Vermillion Warriors, Commander Machia as Acronix had called her, lead Kai and his family outside. A loose semi-circle of snakes stood at attention in front of them, the outer wall of the forge at their backs. Kai leaned against the exposed brick trying to get his breathing under control while Commander Machia leered at him. The vengestone handcuffs made him feel cagey and weak. He had found his parents after over a decade of hoping, yet the minute their family was reunited they were captured again. He couldn’t lose them again, he couldn’t. Not after he’d just found them.

“Kai,” Nya whispered beside him, concern evident in her features, “are you ok? You don’t look so good.”

“I’m fine,” he responded shortly, his breaths becoming shallower the longer they stood waiting outside the forge. “What are we even waiting for?” A slight edge of hysteria colored his words.

“Kai,” Maya said, pressing their shoulders together, “listen to me. We’re gonna be ok, you have to calm down. You have to breathe, sweetheart.”

“I- I can’t. We just found you, I can’t lose you again, please, Mom, Dad, I can’t do it again. I can’t,” Kai grasped one of his mother’s hands with one of his own, their manacles clicking gently against one another as Kai glanced between his mother and father.

“You won’t,” Ray promised, “Son, I promise I-”

“Well, isn’t this touching,” Krux laughed. “I hate to break up this tearful reunion, but it’s time to go.” His eyes flickered over the four of them before coming back to rest on Kai. As Krux strode forward, Acronix leaned over to Commander Machia and whispered something in her ear that made her smile. Krux made a beeline for Kai, grabbing his arm as soon as he was close enough. Kai immediately tensed and tried to pull away, but Krux’s grip on his arm was too strong. “I said move.”

Krux shoved Kai forward and began walking, pushing past him to fall in step with his brother. Captured and with nowhere to run, Kai was forced to walk ahead of Nya, an unconscious Master Wu, and his parents towards the Time Twins’ airship. More soldiers, including the Commander, fell in around him but thankfully no one else made a move to grab him. Some of the panic overtaking his system ebbed away as he focused on walking, one foot in front of the other. Then, without warning and for no apparent reason, Commander Machia shoved his shoulder, hard, sending him careening into the rocky soil. Kai twisted onto his back as he fell forward, sweeping her legs out from under her and scrambling backwards, glaring at her in shock and anger the entire time.

Commander Machia hissed, eyes flaring. Her gaze darted to Acronix hopefully. He nodded, and Machia immediately motioned to the guards to restrain Kai. Machia’s captains hauled him to his feet and gripped his arms tightly. Kai braced for a blow as Machia stalked towards him, but before she could so much as lift a finger, the oily voice of Dr. Saunders, no Krux, rang out.

“Dear Commander Machia, why bother using your fists when there’s a much more…effective tool at our disposal.”

Commander Machia cocked her head, his slit-pupiled eyes narrowing in disgust at Kai as she considered Krux’s words. “What do you mean, my lord?”

“Are you familiar with the properties of vengestone?” He asked slyly, his gaze shifting between Kai and Machia slowly.

“It dampens elemental powers.” She said, her confusion at the question evident. “Everyone knows that.”

“Ahh, yes, but do you know how?” Krux was now holding Kai’s gaze, which widened slightly as he realized what Krux intended to make him do.

“No, my lord.”

“You see,” Krux began, sounding so much like the doctor that had guided Kai’s research just a few weeks ago. “Vengestone counteracts elemental powers by generating what you might call the opposite elemental reaction. So while the Master of Energy might feel himself drained or the Master of Ice might feel like he was burning, the Master of Fire…” he trailed off expectantly.

“Would freeze,” Commander Machia finished, as a deadly smile alighted her features.

“And not only would he freeze, Commander,” Krux continued, “but my research has shown that Fire and Ice have the most visceral reactions of all the elements. I have not quite been able to determine why, but I hypothesize that it’s due to the exact, concrete opposites they have. For example, while Earth has its opposite in Air, this difference is more metaphorical than the oppositional forces at play between Fire and Ice. But why hypothesize when the perfect test subject is right here, and simply begging for attention.”

Kai began struggling in earnest, desperately trying to get away from Krux and Commander Machia, but the guards holding him didn’t budge an inch. When they reached him, Machia made a hand gesture, and the guards forced his arms to stretch out away from his body. She made a second gesture, and they kicked at the back of knees, sending him careening into a kneeling position. Commander Machia fisted her hand in Kai’s hair, nails scratching his scalp painfully, and forced him to look at her, his neck straining at the awkward angle.

“Well then, Master of Fire, let’s see how hot your flame really burns. We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Commander Machia said sweetly. “And I do hope you give me a reason to use the hard way.” Kai kept his mouth shut, glaring defiantly up at her. Machia’s sickly sweet smile turned lethal as she let go of his hair then used the newly freed hand to backhand Kai’s cheek. His head snapped to the right and a thin line of blood trickled from his lip.

“Kai!” Nya yelled, straining against her own guards to get to her brother, but they held firm. Undeterred, Nya kept fighting against them, desperately struggling to free herself before Kai got seriously injured.

The Master of Fire simply sneered up at Machia in an uncharacteristic show of restraint, refusing to rise to the bait and risk harm befalling his sister or parents.

Machia glared, her hand straying to the dagger clipped to her side when Acronix interrupted from his position next to Ray and Maya.

“You know, Commander, I find that the quickest way to get what you want from someone isn’t by harming them. It’s by harming those they love.” Ray, Maya, and Nya straightened at this, struggling against their captors and the desperately unfair nature of their circumstances, but there was nothing they could do.

“Kai don’t listen to them,” Maya shouted, “we’ll be fine, don’t -” but a sharp nod from Acronix had a guard covering her mouth with his hand, muffling her cries of protest. Maya bit down on his hand, causing him to withdraw in pain, but he quickly drew his dagger, and held the blade to her neck.

Machia’s eyes flashed with anticipation, but as she began to turn towards Kai’s family, he quickly yelled out, “No, stop! Don’t touch them, leave them alone!”

Krux smiled at his brother before turning back towards his Commander. “You have received wise counsel, Commander Machia. Proceed.”

“You were saying?” Commander Machia pressed Kai innocently.

“Just leave them alone and I’ll give you what you want.” Kai spat, desperately trying to keep from spiraling as the knowledge of what he was about to do threatened to overwhelm him. Kai had only felt the full effects of vengestone once before, when he and Skylor were trapped in a net of the stuff on Chen’s Island. It was one of the most painful memories he could recall, the cold penetrating his very core, leaving him weak and shaking for hours afterwards.

“Very well. And I wouldn’t keep me waiting, Vermillion Warriors may be genetically superior to our serpentine brethren, but we are not known for our patience,” Commander Machia hissed menacingly.

“And, Kai,” Krux added pleasantly. “I have been studying the elemental powers – particularly fire and water,” he added with a nasty grin, “quite intensively these past few years so I will know if you try to produce anything less than a, shall we say, robust flame.” The unmistakable edge to his voice made it clear that he was not lying.

Gritting his teeth, Kai held his hands out in front of him, stared at Commander Machia with a mixture of fear and resolve, and summoned a powerful burst of flame.

The effect was immediate and absolute. It felt like his blood froze in veins, like the sun had disappeared, like his inner fire had been forcefully extinguished. Kai was unable to suppress the cry that spilled from his lips as his entire body seemed to freeze as punishment for daring to produce heat. Dimly, he heard his father and sister yell his name, but he couldn’t think past this all-consuming pain.

Unable to hold himself up, Kai slumped against his captors who immediately let him go, sending him crashing to the ground. He curled up into a fetal position on the ground, desperate to conserve any heat he could. Tears welled in his eyes and traced tracks down his cheeks. He grit his teeth together to prevent them from chattering.

Why was he so damn weak? Why did he have to react so strongly to vengestone when none of his friends had this much trouble? Why was he never good enough? Never strong enough?

The only answer was endless, unforgiving cold.

Kai didn’t know how long they let him lay there on the ground. It felt like hours, but it was probably only a minute or two. The Time Twins had too much to do to bask in his suffering for more than a few minutes. Voices floated around him, but it sounded like they were coming from underwater. A pair of black boots stepped into his line of vision from where he lay curled on the ground. Moments later, Krux crouched down and, grabbing a fistful of Kai’s hair, forced him to look up at his captor.

“Most enlightening,” he whispered for Kai’s ears only. “Now, while I would love to continue this vein of research, I have places to be. Get up.” Krux released his grip on Kai’s hair.

Kai struggled to his knees, but the process was slow going, his legs shaking too much to support his own weight. Growing bored of watching him struggle, Krux grabbed his arm and yanked him up, the sudden jostling ripping a cry of pain from Kai. His pride made him keep his chin up, but he avoided eye contact with his family. He didn’t want to face them right now. Instead, he leveled a glare at Machia, although the smudges of dirt on his face as well as the tremors wracking his body probably diminished the effect. Without a word, Kai began shuffling forward, determined to leave this moment behind him. Much to his surprise, Krux didn’t pass him off to a lower guard. No, he kept a firm, almost painful, grasp on Kai’s arm and began marching him towards the ship, just barely visible in the distance.

“So, Kai, care to tell me how you’re feeling right now? Has the cold settled in your bones or is it tearing through your veins and arteries? Do you feel as weak as you look, or is this just your natural state?” Krux goaded Kai, squeezing his arm. Kai kept his mouth shut, refusing to even glance at Krux. “Oh, come on, not even for the sake of research? Well, I suppose I can always see if your baby sister would be more cooperative…” he trailed off suggestively, slowing his pace by a fraction.

“S-stop. I’ll tell you what you want to know,” Kai said through gritted teeth, speeding up and pulling Krux along with him. “Just leave my family alone, we didn’t do anything to you.”

Krux laughed, low and bitter. “Didn’t do anything? You took everything from me. You think you feel bad now, your powers negated but imagine if they simply ceased to exist. Imagine that this core part of you, the part that made you special, different, was ripped away, trapped in blades able to be used by any idiot who got their hands on them. So, I’ll ask again, and know that you won’t get a third chance: just how weak, how pitiful, do you feel right now, knowing that a little piece of metal brought you to your knees?”

“I- I-,” Kai took a deep breath. For Nya, he thought. “The cold feels alive. Like every move I make is chipping away at some integral part of me.” His chest constricted, forced to bear his vulnerabilities to a man whom he hated, and who hated him, for nothing more than a sick desire for revenge for something that had happened years before he was born.

“Now see,” Krux smiled patronizingly, “that wasn’t so hard. And while I would love to continue this conversation, we have other matters to attend to,” Krux shoved him towards another guard, Kai yelping at the sudden manhandling, before turning towards Commander Machia. “To the cargo hold, if you please, Commander.” Machia bowed before leading them to the belly of the gleaming metal ship.

While certainly smaller than the Bounty, the Time Twin’s ship was still decently sized with shiny silver plating encasing the hull. The wide-open deck had a giant turbine engine secured to the back, and a small trapdoor that presumably led to the cargo hold. Machia, Krux, and Acronix forced the Smith’s down the rickety old ladder – Kai biting his cheek to prevent from crying out during the painful, yet blessedly quick, descent – leaving Wu on the deck with the two other guards.

Kai reached the bottom, stumbled over to the wall, and leaned his weight against it, panting slightly from the slight exertion. While the absolute worst of the cold had faded, it lingered in every part of his body, a pressing weight that he couldn’t escape from no matter how deeply he tried to breathe. He knew the only thing to do was ride it out; there was no telling what Krux and Acronix had in mind for them, so he had to push through the pain. Nya needed him, his family needed him, and he couldn’t let them down, not again.

“Now,” Acronix said, his voice a pleasant tone, “where is the location of the last time blade?”

Maya squared her shoulders and glared at brothers who stole her away from her family. “We will never help you,” she said defiantly, eyes blazing with determination. Ray, right beside her, nodded in conviction. Nya, standing on Acronix’s other side, sneered at him and spat on the floor next to his boot, lip curling with disgust.

Acronix’s features twisted into a cold smile as jerked his head at Commander Machia who immediately turned and slapped Nya across the face with such force that she sank to her knees. Kai pushed himself off the wall trying to get to her only for Krux to slam the heel of his hand into his solar plexus, forcing all the air from his lungs in one whoosh. The panic attack that had been threatening to overtake him ever since they were caught at the forge took over in full force leaving him on his hands and knees, struggling to draw in a breath.

“I believe I went over this lesson earlier with your son, but it appears you suffer the same gap in education. Now, shall I demonstrate again just how helpful it is to have loved ones present during interrogations or do you want to try that again?” Acronix asked pleasantly while lifting his boot and placing it on the small of Kai’s back, pushing down so that Kai was forced onto his stomach. Kai choked, the weight of Acronix’s boot pressing down on his ribs coupled with his ongoing panic attack making it almost impossible to breathe.

“Leave him alone,” Ray shouted, “I swear to the First Spinjitzu Master if you harm him, I’ll-”

“You’ll what?” Krux taunted, cutting Ray off. “Leave him to fend for himself another decade? If the next words out of your mouth aren’t a location, your boy will get much worse than a bruise. After all, there’s so much more to learn about how vengestone affects elemental powers.”

“The Boiling Sea!” Ray cried desperately, struggling against the Machia’s hold to get to his children. “It’s in the Library of Honomizu in the Boiling Sea! Now let go of me or I swear I will rip this ship apart with my bare hands.”

Krux and Acronix exchanged smug grins before Acronix lifted his foot off of Kai and left the room, beckoning for the Commander to follow them. The Smiths had no hope of escaping the hold. Even if they did, where would they go?

As soon as they were free of the guard’s grip, Ray and Maya rushed to their children. Nya was already sitting up, fire in her eyes and a smear of blood on her chin. She waved off her dad and rushed to Kai’s side where Maya was trying to get him to breathe. Kai had turned onto his side and curled into a loose fetal position, hands scrabbling at the neckline of his gi in a vain attempt to open up his airway. Ray helped Kai sit up then started rubbing soothing circles on his back. Kai’s eyes darted up in a panic, settling on his dad’s concerned features.

“Dad,” Kai gasped, fingers gouging into the floor. “Dad, I can’t- I can’t breathe. Help me. Please- I- I can’t.” Rocking slightly, Kai ripped off the hood and shirt of his gi, leaving only a thin black tank top.

“Kai,” Nya said, calmly but with a kind of quiet strength, “follow my breath.” Nya gently placed one of Kai’s hands over her heart and took slow, exaggerated breaths. “In, two, three, four. Hold, two, three, four. Out, two, three, four.” She repeated this mantra over and over while Ray and Maya looked on in silence, admiring how Nya stepped up to care for her brother, and wishing that they were the ones who knew how to soothe their terrified child. After almost ten minutes, Kai’s breathing had evened out and he slumped against his sister’s side, shivering and exhausted.

“Fuck,” he muttered to himself, eyes rimmed with red. “Fuck.”

“Kai,” Ray ventured slowly, “are you ok?”

“I’m so cold,” Kai whispered, his breath hitching. “I just want to go home.”

“I know, firefly, I know,” Maya whispered, moving to sit next to her son. “Everything’s going to be ok. Just rest now. We won’t arrive at the Boiling Sea for another few hours, and you’re going to need your strength.”

Ray moved to Nya’s other side, wrapping an arm around his youngest child. “Your mother’s right, Kai. Sleep. You too, Nya. We won’t let anything happen to you.” And though both Smith children knew that this was a promise their parents would never be able to keep, they fell asleep, comforted by the fact that for the first time in over thirteen years, their family was, at least for now, together again.

Chapter Text

Lightning is energy.

There’s a reason that instant chemistry, love at first sight, is referred to as “sparks flying.”

Lightning is every emotion, every feeling, combined to the point of combustion, streaking across the sky because it holds too much to be contained to a singular point.

Lightning is the pinnacle of expression.

Yet every scrap n’ tap, Jay gets closer and closer to wishing everything that lightning is and could be away.

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Jay scrubbed the deck with his mop, scowling at the wood. After being captured by Nadakhan on Tiger Widow Island, he had been fitted with a vengestone ball and chain, handed a mop, and told to earn his keep. As if being here was his choice!

In all honesty, the chain itself was more of a struggle than the fact that it was vengestone. The vengestone may cause some weariness, but he hadn’t used his powers so he hadn’t faced the worst it could offer. And even if he did…

All of his friends, especially Kai and Zane, describe vengestone as this painful experience, stripping away their essence and denying them an integral part of themselves. But Jay? Jay didn’t feel any pain when he came into contact with vengestone. In fact, Jay never felt anything at all.

“Looks like you missed a spot,” Nadakhan’s voice rang out across the deck. His Djinn Blade, a wickedly jagged lime green blade with an elaborate cross guard shaped like a skull and a pale green gem glinting in the center, knocked the metal pail of water by Jay’s feet over, spilling it across the freshly mopped deck.

Jay sighed. “I’m not gonna say it.”

“Say what?” Nadakhan smiled, sickly sweet. “That you can wish it all away? Well, you can,” He swooped close to Jay, his hooked hand waving uncomfortably close to Jay’s eye. “You’ve already made your first two wishes; you have one left.” Was this how Jay got that eyepatch he saw in the ice labyrinth back when they were battling Morro?

He shifted backwards, glaring up at the djinn defiantly. “My friends will come for me.”

Nadakhan smiled. “I hope so! The more of you my Djinn Blade collects, the stronger I become. Creating a world from scratch takes a lot of hard work. Djinnjago would get done a lot sooner if everyone pitches in…if you know what I mean.”

Jay looked up at him in horror, realizing that not only was he trapped, but that he was bait for his friends. Nadakhan cackled then hurled his sword right at Jay, the tip embedding itself in the deck where his feet had been a half second earlier. Faint screams echoed from the creepy gem in the hilt, a faint glowing pulse lighting up its shadowy interior.

“Care to say hello to your friends?” Nadakhan swooped closer, planting a hand on Jay’s shoulder, forcing him onto his knees and pressing his face closer to the jewel. “Wish it. Wish it all away and join them. Wish it, and you’ll never have to pick up another scrub brush again.”

Jay felt Nadakhan’s hot breath on his cheek, and the grip on his neck tightened painfully. “If I didn’t have this vengestone ball and chain,” Jay spat out through gritted teeth, “I’d zap you clean off this ship!” Nadakhan shoved him forward, Jay throwing out an arm just in time to stop himself from landing sprawled on the deck. Slowly, he got to his feet, turned his back on the djinn, and resumed swabbing the deck.

“Hmmm.” Nadakhan mused. “I can see why she once liked you. You’re stronger than you appear. But I know it’s all an act.” Nadakhan invaded Jay’s personal space again, making him clench his fists a little tighter on the mop’s handle. “Deep down, you’re scared,” he whispered. “You know you’re weak. You make jokes to mask that you’re afraid.” Jay turned away and started scrubbing another part of the deck, but the djinn simply followed him. “That’s why you didn’t do anything when she fell for your friend. Why you can’t do anything when she falls for me. Believe me, abroad my ship you will break. I will make sure of it. And when that time comes, I will be there, so you can wish it away.”

Jay clenched his teeth. It’s not true, he’s just trying to get a rise out of you, Walker. You’re better than this, better than him. He whipped around, a jaunty smile plastered on his face. “Still not gonna say it!” He chirped. Humor may be his defense mechanism, but he wielded it well.

Nadakhan sneered before turning to Flintlocke. “When he’s done swabbing the deck, make sure he swabs the entire hull.”

Flintlocke’s eyes widened in surprise. “The bottom of the ship, Captain?”

“You heard me.”

Nadakhan disappeared in a puff of smoke. Jay looked desperately at Flintlocke, but his gaze quickly shuttered. “Get back to work, scum.”

An hour later, Jay finished the deck. Before he could take even a single moment to rest, Nadakhan appeared in front of him.

“Jeez!” Jay complained. “Wear a bell or something next time, won’t ya?”

“Ahh, but where’s the fun in that?” his captor said. “Now, the hull of my ship is looking dirty, get to it.”

Jay’s lip curled in disgust. “Fine. Where’s your rope so I can secure myself?”

Nadakhan laughed. “Rope? Why, you won’t be needing a rope. One of the brave, strong ninja shouldn’t need any help staying on the side of the ship.”

Jay swallowed hard, but kept his gaze trained on the djinn’s face, not allowing any fear to show, and nodded. Trudging over to the side of the ship, his ball and chain weighing his steps somewhat, he peered over in the open air below. Flintlocke walked over and shoved a brush into his hands, the bristles already soapy. Jay peered again over the edge before grabbing the heavy vengestone ball with his right hand and placing it on the banister next to his foot. Swinging his left foot over the side, Jay was able to gently lower himself down the hull, cradling the ball in the crook of his right elbow. Luckily the underside of the ship had a lot of protuberances he could hold onto, but the work was dangerous and every scrubbing motion he made threatened to upset the delicate equilibrium he had established.

A sudden gust of wind flattened him against the side of the boat, and the ball slipped out of his grasp, falling towards the ground before the chain caught it, yanking his right hip painfully. Jay cried out, straining to keep the weight from sending him freefalling into the air.

Nadakhan laughed cruelly above him. “You’re not afraid are you, funny man?” The words spurred Jay to action, and he swung the leg with the chain, using the momentum from the ball to regain a foothold on the ship’s hull, planting his feet firmly against the wood and ignoring the pain in his hip.

“Ha,” he shouted, “I love it!” Nadakhan cursed before floating away. Jay allowed himself a small laugh before resuming his scrubbing of the hull. The faster he got this done, the faster he could be on solid ground again.

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Hours later, Jay was scrubbing the bow of the ship, arms aching from hours of endless physical labor. After cleaning the hull – and nearly falling off at least five times – he’d swabbed the entire deck again before Nadakhan had spilled a bucket of grimy water near the helm and told Jay that if it wasn’t cleaned by sundown, he’d be sorry. He had decidedly not appreciated Jay’s advice that vague threats weren’t, in fact, as scary as adding a little specificity.

Clancee was droning on next to him about the backstory of every crew member. Jay was half paying attention because maybe it would come in handy later, but when his eyes settled on a bottle of ink and a quill sitting on a wooden crate about fifteen feet in front of him, Jay knew he had to seize the opportunity while it lasted.

“Oh, ow! My back!” he groaned dramatically, “Oh, that’s it, if only I could wish this pain away!” Clancee’s eyes snapped towards him.

“What did you say?”

“I’ve finally reached my breaking point.” Jay said as he collapsed on his knees and tried to look as pitiful as possible which, given his current circumstances, wasn't that hard.

“Just hold on!” Clancee shouted, dropping his mop in his haste to find Nadakhan. “Captain! Captain, you need to come here, we broke him, we finally broke him!”

Jay smiled as he quickly got to his feet. He honestly felt a little bad about tricking the ever so gullible Clancee, but hey, he had to get in contact with his friends. Grabbing the vengestone ball with his left hand, he ran over to the quill and quickly scrawled a message on the back of the blueprints that were sitting under the inkwell. Writing the message took longer than he wanted with him having to stop every other word to re-ink the quill. Nadakhan’s voice boomed out on the deck right as he was about to sign his name, so Jay quickly dropped the letter in a bottle and corked it. Now came the tricky part.

He slid down the back of the ship onto the lower deck, but just as he was getting to the railing, Dogshank dropped in front of him. Jay turned left, but another pirate dropped to cut off that route of escape too. He stumbled to where a plank jutted out over the open air, throwing tools that had been lying on the ground at his pursuers to try and slow them down.

“Nowhere left to run!” Dogshank growled menacingly, carefully stepping out onto the plank.
Jay took a breath then turned and jumped off the gangplank straight onto a passing blimp.

“Ha! Bye bye!” He shouted gleefully waving at the stunned pirates.

“What are you staring at?” Nadakhan bellowed. “Get him!” The djinn shoved Clancee forward, sending him careening over the edge until he landed next to Jay on the blimp. Pure terror flared in Clancee’s eyes before he glanced back at Nadakhan, his resolve seemingly hardening. The mop came flying towards Jay’s head a moment later and he barely managed to dodge, so taken aback by the sudden change in the usually nervous serpentine’s demeanor.

Clancee continued to swat at Jay with his mop, but Jay was able to evade through a combination of skill and luck. But dodging a staff while carrying a twenty-pound weight was getting old quick. Suddenly, whoever was driving the blimp quickly accelerated, and both Jay and Clancee were knocked off. Jay managed to catch himself on one of the chains anchoring a floating chunk of earth, but nearly lost his grip when Clancee caught himself on the ball and chain, almost yanking Jay’s hip out of its socket. The blue ninja began hauling himself up the chain, every inch a struggle with the added weight of Clancee, but before he made it up even half a foot, the painted face of Doubloon appeared above him. Doubloon leapt up before landing harshly on the chain, the sudden dip wrenching the line loose from Jay’s grasp and sending both him and Clancee plummeting towards another floating island about fifteen feet below them.

Jay landed hard on his side but didn’t let himself feel the pain as he hauled himself upright and took off down another rope secured to the rocky platform. He reached the next platform seconds before Doubloon and kicked the rope’s supporting stake, leaving his pursuer to catch himself on the next set of ropes below them before taking off again. Jay leapt from island to island using the rope bridges connecting them all, no destination in mind other than away. Sooner than he would have liked, Jay reached a dead end, jumping onto a floating ball studded with spikes.

A ripping sound filled the air behind him. Jay whirled around only to be met with the sight of Nadakhan’s airship. Dread pooled in his stomach as the pirate’s cold laughter filled his ears.

“You seem to have landed on a sky mine,” Nadakhan’s oily voice rang out over the whirring of the engines. “One shot from Flintlocke and… kaboom.”

Jay grimaced as the weight of his predicament settled over him. Thousands of feet below, the ocean’s choppy waves glinted in the harsh sunlight. It was a long shot, but it was the only shot he had.

“Alright,” Jay called out, dropping the bottle into the sea below, praying to the First Spinjitzu Master to somehow get the message to his friends. “I surrender.”

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Jay was, yet again, scrubbing the deck. After they got him off the sky mine, he’d expected some sort of retribution for trying to escape, a beating or even threats, but Nadakhan only smiled patronizingly as if to say I was never worried because you never had a chance before shoving a scrub brush into his hands and pointing to the ground.

Night had fallen by the time Jay was approached again.

“You hungry?” Flintlocke’s gruff voice asked.

Jay huffed. “Does it matter?”

“Captain would like to see you for dinner. Ain’t a request, it’s an order.”

Jay heard the rattle of keys and felt Flintlocke unlock the chain from his ankle, but before Jay could do anything more than revel at the feeling of lightness without the vengestone, two pistols were aimed directly at his heart. Flintlocke nudged his shoulder with the barrel of the left pistol, silently commanding him to turn around and start walking. Jay hesitated for a brief moment, but quickly complied when Flintlocke raised his fist in the air as if in preparation to pistol whip him.

They walked to Nadakhan’s private quarters where Flintlocke gave him a rough shove towards a food laden table. Jay eyed the djinn warily, hoping that he wouldn’t be forced to sit and watch as Nadakhan feasted; he hadn’t eaten all day and was starting to feel lightheaded.

“Please, please, eat something.” Nadakhan simpered. “You must be famished. But I must warn you, don't try anything foolish. I aim to have manners around the dinner table.”

“Don’t think you can butter me up like a bread roll and expect me to use my last wish!”

“No, no, no, I would never dream. Please, eat. I simply want your company.” Jay eyed him one last time before diving into the feast laid out before him. He really was famished and if he was going to listen to Nadakhan monologue for who knows how long, he’d need something to keep him occupied. “Though we are from different worlds, we share something in common. Hmm? An affinity for a special someone.”

Jay snorted in between bites of skewered meat and vegetables. “Sorry, pal, I don't know who this lost love of yours is, but she ain't Nya. She's too good for the both of us. And she makes up her own mind.” As Jay talked Nadakhan turned around to admire a tapestry on the wall. Snapping his fingers, Jay tried to summon a spark of lightning to his fingers. Blue light flickered, but he failed to summon any semblance of his usual power. Damn vengestone. Even after it was removed, Jay’s powers seemed to require a “recharge” period before they were anything more than a light show. He supposed it was the tradeoff for the lack of pain that all his friends seemed to face.

Nadakhan turned back around, and Jay quickly doused the link of lightning in his palm. “But I have made up my own mind. All my life, I've been blessed with the ability to grant wishes for others but cursed to have none of my own. Though born unto a king, everything that is mine I've had to work for. This food, this ship, this crew.”

Jay smirked. “That accent?” Nadakhan growled, then continued on as if Jay hadn’t spoken at all.

“Truth be told, I don't care about a new world nor winning Nya's heart.”

“Then why are you doing this?” The lightning in his palm was getting stronger, but still only held the charge of a moderately powerful static shock.

“Oh, I don't need her heart.” Nadakhan snorted derisively. “I only need her hand...in marriage. Because when a Djinn prince becomes king on Djinn land, he is bestowed the greatest gift of all.”

“Love?”

“No. Infinite wishes.”

“You never loved Delara,” Jay spat. “You only loved what she could give you.”

Nadakhan didn’t even deny it. “And after I take your friends, and take your home, Nya will be mine, and no one will be able to stop me.” The djinn swooped closer to Jay until their noses nearly touched and grabbed a fistful of his hair. Usually, Jay reveled in physical contact, loving when his brothers would sling an arm around his shoulder or ruffle his hair, but this perversion of intimacy intimated Jay more than anything else Nadakhan had done since capturing him. Jay grit his teeth, but his captor released him and turned his back moments later, chuckling at Jay’s obvious discomfort. “I will be more powerful than anyone can ever imagine.”

It was now or never. Nadakhan was distracted, reveling in the glory of his master plan. Jay’s lightning may not have been full strength, but he had to hope it would be enough. Jay thrust his arm straight at the djinn’s back and a fork of lightning leaping from his extended hand, but just before the bolt would have hit him, Nadakhan poofed away and Jay’s lightning instead blasted a hole in the wall tapestry.

Nadakhan’s hooked hand dug into the soft flesh of his neck while his other hand grabbed Jay’s wrist.

“Too slow, Junkyard Boy,” Nadakhan gloated before pushing Jay to the floor. Jay groaned and clutched his head where it had smacked onto the ground. Another set of footsteps entered the room and moments later Jay felt the familiar weight of the vengestone cuff refastened around his ankle. A familiar exhaustion settled into his bones that had nothing to do with his current predicament. “I have no further use for you today. Flintlocke, see to it that our guest is…comfortable.”

Comfortable apparently meant being locked in essentially a pit in the middle of the ship, the top closed off with iron bars. And if that wasn’t enough, Flintlocke quite literally just shoved him in. Groaning, Jay pulled himself into a seated position, thankful that he’d at least managed to avoid landing on top of the vengestone ball. That would’ve been a painful landing.

Leaning against the wall, Jay seriously considered triggering his powers. He would never wish it all away, he refused to put his family in more danger than he already had, but the complete lack of feeling that came with the full effects of vengestone…that was looking better and better every day. But he wasn’t quite that desperate yet. The last time he’d used his powers in combination with vengestone hadn’t been good.

He had felt wrong for almost an entire week after. Even after he’d gotten out of the handcuffs, the detached sensation lingered. He didn’t laugh or cry or get angry or anything. It was terrifying. He thought he would never feel anything again. It was one of the worst experiences of his life. Master Wu insisted the numbness would pass, but secretly Jay worried that he was forever broken. Forever defective. After almost seven whole days of nothing, he had actually sobbed when one of Cole’s stupid jokes made him laugh. His friends had crowded around him, worried, but mostly thankful that he was finally showing some emotion. Never had anything shown the team how important Jay’s sense of humor was.

It wasn’t worth it. Not yet at least. Not until he was completely sure that there were no other options. But for his family…he would do it every single day if he had to.

–––––––––––––––––––––––

Days later, Jay never wanted to see a mop again. Nadakhan had him scrubbing the decks from sunrise to well past sunset, the physical labor interspersed with beatings whenever he failed to do a “satisfactory job” and demeaning tasks like serving the pirates dinner as they threw food at him.

He was reaching the end of his rope. Exhausted and nursing several injuries including a sprained wrist, aching ribs, and more bruises and cuts than he could count, Jay was seriously doubting how much more of this he could take. It had been nearly a week since he was first captured and the pirate’s interest in him seemed to be increasing rather than decreasing the longer he held out. He’d heard a few of the crew betting on how much longer he would last the ones who lost taking out their frustration on him as punishment.

The only plan for escape Jay could come up with was trying to inspire a mutiny. Clancee was the only one who would regularly talk to him, but he was so low on the metaphorical totem pole that even if he did manage to convince him, it wouldn’t do much good. But Flintlocke? Flintlocke was Nadakhan’s second mate and had real pull. So he had to try. Ninja never quit.

On the rare occasion where Flintlocke actually spoke to him, Jay tried to tell him of Nadakhan’s true plan. How he wanted to gain infinite wishes and that Djinnjago didn’t matter to him at all, his crew didn’t matter to him at all.

On one such occasion, Nadakhan’s oily voice rang out in the middle of Jay’s speech, causing Jay to flinch automatically. “What lies is our little canary whistling now, hmm? Perhaps another ploy to escape?”

Jay squared his shoulders. If he was doing this, he wouldn’t do it halfway. “It's true. He's the one that's lying. He told me everything at dinner.”

Flintlocke stared at him and Jay actually thought he had gotten through before both Flintlocke and Nadakhan burst out laughing. “Right, and I have trouble shooting water in the ocean!”

“Oh, we’re being too hard on our guest,” Nadakhan said after he had gotten his laughter under control. “Perhaps it’s time we involve him in some of our on-ship entertainment?”

“You don’t mean scrap and tap, do you?”

“Uhh-” Jay interjected nervously, “What’s scrap and tap?”

“You’ll see,” Nadakhan smiled, shoving the tip of his sword to Jay’s ribs and marching him to a makeshift arena enclosed by wooden crates and barrels being used as seats by Nadakhan’s crew.

Nadakhan shoved Jay into the middle of the ring. Monkey Wrench joins him.

“The rules are simple. May the best one win!”

“At least take this thing off,” Jay interjected, gesturing to the ball and chain, “and make this a fair fight.”

“Fair?” Nadakhan sneered. “We’re pirates!”

Monkey Wrench leapt at Jay too fast for him to react and nailed him right in the center of his chest, making his already hurt ribs scream in pain and sending him careening to the floor. Scrambling to his feet, Jay tried to drag the ball and chain back to get in some sort of fighting stance, but days of manual labor and malnourishment had made him weak. He stumbled backwards into the ring of pirates who simply grabbed his arms and threw him back into the arena. Monkey Wrench jumped onto his head and began biting and tearing at his face, holding on tight despite Jay’s attempts to dislodge him.

Finally, Jay managed to grab his tail and fling him to the ground, but the metallic monkey yanked the chain around his ankle sending him flat on his back again then topped it off by slamming the ball onto his stomach. Jay briefly blacked out from the pain, and when he came too, Flintlocke was hauling him to his feet.

“All right,” Jay groaned. “You had your fun. I’m tapping out. Who’s next?”

“Oh, no.” Nadakhan crowed. “The loser doesn't tap out, only the winner does. You have to stay in until someone else loses.” He turned towards Jay, his smile cold as steel. “So as you so aptly said, cabin boy, who's next?”

Doubloon rushed forward with a bow staff, raining blows down on Jay in quick succession. He managed to dodge the first few, but it became clear that Doubloon was simply toying with him when the next three hits nailed him directly in the ribs and side. The next thing Jay felt was a tug on the chain connected to his ankle as Doubloon slipped his staff between the chain links and yanked Jay’s feet out from under him. Jay lay groaning on the ground, defeated by an opponent he could’ve taken out with his eyes closed had he been at full strength, with or without his powers.

“This could go on all day,” Nadakhan’s hot breath caressed his cheek. “Unless you want to wish it all away.”

Jay hauled himself to his knees and then his feet. “Bring it.”

Nadakhan snarled and beckoned Dogshank forward.

Only one way to get through this Jay thought, gritting his teeth. For my family. For Nya. And with that he summoned a bolt of lightning.

It always surprised him how muffled everything became. His emotions immediately faded to the background. All the pain, fear, humiliation, and anger went from a tidal wave to barely a ripple. The aches and stings and pangs that had been plaguing him for days didn’t go away, exactly, but became secondary.

Worst of all, though, was the leaching away of hope. Everything he was fighting for became wisps and shadows. Logically, he knew why he had to stay strong and resist, but in his heart all that was left was a blank canvas. He couldn’t even properly hate the feeling. Jay was not meant to be numb. He was meant to soar, heart on his sleeve and a smile on his face. Lightning was energy, yet when all that energy is sucked away all that’s left is a void.

So let them beat him. Let them do whatever they wanted. Because as long as he couldn’t feel, it didn’t matter. As long as his family was safe, he didn’t matter.

When Dogshank’s fist came speeding towards his head, Jay didn’t even bother ducking.

Chapter Text

Lloyd groaned as he slowly regained consciousness. A dull ache had settled behind his eyes and made even the dim glow of the torches seem too bright. He moved to cradle his head in his hands, but found the motion abruptly halted by heavy chains. The metal cuffs binding his wrists were painfully tight, chafing with even the smallest of movements. And to make matters worse, the restraints on his wrists were connected to another – incredibly short – length of chain secured to the floor, meaning his two options were to lay down with his arms wrenched painfully behind him or kneel with his arms wrenched painfully behind him.

Great. Just perfect.

He opted to stay on the rough cement floor for the time being and tried to remember how he’d gotten into this mess. Everything felt foggy and his limbs were heavy with exhaustion. Screwing his eyes shut against the building pain in his head, Lloyd recalled sending a blast of energy at Chen, but he’d activated Karlof’s metal power and sent the green projectile right back at him. Unable to dodge, he had been thrown into the board that displayed their rankings, cracking the board in half and smacking his head on the ground. After that was darkness.

But how had he gotten into the main hall in the first place? He had snuck in through the tunnels, but then Clouse’s snake had found him and…Kai! Kai had saved him from the snake then led him directly to Chen. No. No, there had to be some explanation. Why would Kai betray him, betray everyone? It didn’t make sense.

Kai wouldn’t. He wouldn’t.

Would he?

No. No, he wasn’t jealous of Lloyd’s power anymore. He said so. He promised. Kai was his brother. The one who saved him from an active volcano. The one who held him when the full weight of losing his childhood to the Travelor’s Tea hit him. The one who cheered him up when he was sad and laughed with him when he was happy. One of the only people in his life who was always there for him, who never abandoned him. There had to be something else going on.

There had to be.

Strengthening his resolve, Lloyd pushed himself into a kneeling position, wincing when the movement tore at his already bleeding wrists. Taking a deep breath, Lloyd tried to summon his elemental power, but the second he called forth the energy, it felt like a yawning void had opened in him, sucking any energy he could muster into its depths.

Lloyd collapsed onto his side. Sour bile clawed its way up his throat as the chasm inside of him continued to suck away at what felt like his very essence. It felt like every horrible, bitter thought he’d ever had was fighting for attention, drowning him in hopelessness and feeding off of the emptiness crashing through his system. Tears streamed unbidden down his face while a pained groan slipped out from his clenched teeth.

With a herculean effort, Lloyd stopped the flow of energy he usually tapped into to access his elemental powers, and felt the black hole inside him begin to shrink.

Although the whole experience lasted maybe thirty seconds, Lloyd lay trembling on the ground as though he had just run a marathon.

So not just metal then. Vengestone. Perfect. Fucking perfect.

Vengestone was its own unique brand of torture, in part because it truly was different for each of them. The silver lining to the whole thing was that it was a) very rare (although their enemies always seemed to find it somewhere) and b) only had the intensive effects if they were actively attempting to use their powers.

So, while low levels of discomfort were always present in the vicinity of vengestone, the truly visceral reactions could be avoided. Usually. Unless, for example, you didn’t know you were in vengestone cuffs and tried to summon your powers. Then a visceral reaction would be unavoidable. Case and point: five seconds ago.

Lloyd gave himself five minutes, or at least what he estimated to be five minutes, to try and regain control of himself, a feat made harder by the exhaustion weighing down his mind and body courtesy of the vengestone, before trying to come up with a plan.

Given his physical state (poor), mental state (also poor), resources (none), and chance of a rescue (nonexistent), Lloyd was not feeling too optimistic about his chances of escape, never mind defeating Chen.

The best plan he could come up with was waiting until someone came to get him and hopefully getting a window of opportunity he could use to escape. The plan may have been weak, but it was all he had, so he waited, curled up on the floor of his cell, and tried to rest until his chance arose. After what felt like hours, he heard footsteps approaching down the corridor.

Determined not to face his captors lying down, Lloyd hauled himself back into a kneeling position. This simple act took considerably more effort than he would have liked, black tinting the edges of his vision for a couple of seconds before fading back to normal. Lloyd spat out a mixture of blood and bile onto the ground next to him, desperately wishing for some water to rinse the sour taste out of his mouth.

Moments after he’d righted himself, two guards appeared from around the corner heading straight for him. Their heads were covered in helmets designed like snake skulls, the white of the bone a sharp contrast to the scale patterns stamped onto their cheeks and foreheads. The guard on the left had on a sort of sleeve that covered their right arm and pec, but left everything else bare, while the guard on the right had forgone a shirt altogether. Covering the bare flesh were vivid purple Anacondrai tattoos, swirling across their stomachs and up to their collarbones. Red pants held up by thick gold buckles completed the look. Both of them clutched bone spears in their fists.

“Well look who it is!” the first one exclaimed gleefully, punching the other in the arm. “The mighty Green Ninja, all ready for the final ceremony!”

“After this,” the other one grinned, “No one will ever forget the names Kapow and Chop!”

Unlocking his cell, Kapow and Chop approached him warily, spears leveled at his chest. When Lloyd didn’t react, Chop – or at least who Lloyd assumed to be Chop given the dramatic pose he had struck when the other guard had announced their names – moved behind him and unclasped the chains from the floor. The tension on his shoulders was immediately relieved, and Lloyd allowed himself to slump forward.

As Kapow leaned forward, Lloyd sensed his moment of opportunity and launched himself at Kapow's knees. Off-balance and taken by surprise, Kapow crumpled. Vaulting forward into a somersault, Lloyd brought his hands under his knees and ended in a low crouch with his hands now in front of him. Chop rushed him and Lloyd, weak from the vengestone and slightly dizzy from the maneuver he just pulled, attempted to dodge but fell backwards, hard. On reflex, Lloyd summoned his elemental power to block Chop. The void immediately opened up again in his chest, sucking the power, energy, and fight right out of him.

Lloyd groaned, curling up on his side to try and ease the pain.

But the void didn’t go away.

It kept draining him.

It was never going to stop. It was hopeless. All of his training, all of his hard work was going to amount to nothing. He would always be the scared little boy at Darkley’s, no friends, no family, no one. He was alone. All alone. Kai betrayed him, Zane was dead, the others were missing, his dad was who knows where, and everyone in Ninjago was going to be placed under Chen’s control.

He was alone. Alone alone alone alone alone.

Lloyd felt something nudge his ribs, and latched onto the sensation, grounding himself in it.

Lloyd breathed through the pain of the void – in for four, hold for four, out for four, repeat – clenching his fists so hard that little crescents were imprinted on his palms. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, Lloyd felt the chasm inside him begin to stitch itself closed. What had initially been a black hole, dragging his deepest fears and insecurities into the spotlight, was becoming more like a whirlpool, still powerful and dangerous, but not overwhelming. Slowly, the whirlpool became a current, became a tug, and finally disappeared.

His power would have shut off on its own after he passed out, but Chop’s kick had given him something to focus on and allowed him to turn the energy off on his own. He felt like shit, but he was at least conscious. Well, mostly conscious.

Lloyd felt another nudge to his ribs and groaned, making no attempt to get up. A few more seconds of blissful silence passed before Lloyd felt himself being pulled to his feet. Weak and trembling, Lloyd managed to get his feet under him and stumble along to wherever Chop and Kapow were leading him. After walking, or perhaps more aptly being half carried, for another minute or so, the ringing in his ears had faded just enough to catch the end of Kapow’s sentence

“-ever mess with Kapow and Chop again, the best Master Chen has to offer!”

“We just defeated the Green Ninja!” Kapow cheered, thrusting his free hand into the air. “Master Chen will have to promote us now!”

Lloyd rolled his eyes. “Defeat” was a bit of a stretch given that he basically knocked himself out. More time passed, Kapow and Chop continuously boasting about their so called “inspiring victory,” and Lloyd was able to gain back enough strength to walk on his own. And just in time, too. From around the bend, drumbeats and deep chanting echoed menacingly. For the first time since they began walking, Lloyd started to struggle against their grip.

“Just look at us,” Chop whispered, ignoring Lloyd’s pathetic attempts to break free, “we’re escorting the big dog now.”

“Heh, like I said, Kapow and Chop moving up the ranks!” Kapow responded, chest puffed out.

When they reached the bottom of the stairs, Lloyd was forced to his knees and the vengestone cuffs were removed. Before Lloyd could even attempt to do anything – not that it would have made much of a difference – his wrists were forced into another set of manacles, though thankfully they were regular steel this time. These cuffs gave him a bit more slack to work with, but the exhaustion from almost burning out earlier coupled with a complete lack of back-up meant that, even if he was in a fit state for planning, there was literally nothing he could do. As soon as he was secured, Kapow and Chop ran to the line of cultists behind Chen and joined in the chanting.

A familiar pair of red pants strode into his line of sight, and Lloyd glared up at the one person he thought he could trust above anyone.

“Why would you help them,” Lloyd growled, gritting his teeth to prevent any inkling of pain or hurt to color his words.

“Don’t worry,” Kai said softly, leaning in closer before pulling back quickly as Chen approached, “it won’t hurt. Much!” His voice took on a rougher tone before he let out what Lloyd guessed was supposed to be an evil laugh but sounded more like a cheesy video game boss. He strode away, taking his place next to Chen’s daughter Skylor. Moments later, Chen called Skylor forward to drain her powers. Lloyd watched in horror as a bright light shone from Chen’s staff, bathing Skylor in its glow. Skylor started to groan, muscles seizing in pain before the light turned a brilliant amber and she slumped to her knees.

“It is done!” Chen proclaimed, grinning maniacally and turning towards Lloyd. “And now for the final element. Only one can remain,” Chen sneered, pointing his glowing staff directly at Lloyd’s heart. White light surrounded him, and Lloyd screamed as he felt his power be ripped from his body. The agony was indescribable, it was as though his very soul was being torn to shreds. Through half-shut eyelids, Lloyd saw the light turn from white to a brilliant green, before it abruptly cut off and he fell forward, gasping, only the tension in the chains keeping him upright.

“Behold!” He heard Chen say, though it sounded like it was coming from the end of a tunnel.
“Every elemental power all in my control! Do you feel the power? I do!”

Dimly, he was aware of Chen speaking to his followers and Skylor going to stand by his side, but suddenly Kai was shouting, and Skylor kicked the staff out of her father’s hands. Kai grabbed it and began fighting off Chen’s guards, then used Jay’s lightning to blast the cuffs from Lloyd’s wrists.

Lloyd staggered to his feet, staring at Kai incredulously. “That was all an act!?”

“Don’t worry,” Kai smirked, “I had it all under control. Well, almost.”

Relief flooded his system, and all he wanted to do was rush forward and give Kai a hug and then punch him, not necessarily in that order, but there would be time for that later. Presuming they made it out of here alive.

Just then, Clouse flipped a lever, and venom began streaming from the ceiling. Moments before it would have splattered onto his head, Kai surrounded him in a bubble of his own energy and then froze Clouse with Zane’s ice.

Lloyd rushed to Kai’s side as soon as the poison dissipated. “Hurry, Kai, you must destroy the staff!”

An odd look came over Kai’s face as he looked adoringly down at Chen’s weapon. “Chen was right, this thing’s awesome!” When Kai looked back up, his eyes glowed red. He spun around and began taking out Chen’s cultists using different elemental powers.

“Kai, it holds too much power, destroy it!” Lloyd shouted desperately. Skylor ran up beside him, fear evident in her eyes.

“The power is corrupting him. If we don’t get that staff out of his hands-”

Kai suddenly loomed over them. “No one is taking my staff. You had all the power. Now it’s my turn!” he shouted, before seeming to collapse into himself. “What am I saying,” he said fearfully, looking up to reveal the brown eyes Lloyd knew so well, before twitching again and curling his lips into a sneer. “Nothing I don’t already feel!”

Kai continued to talk to himself, eyes shifting rapidly from brown to red before he turned to Lloyd, hate burning in his gaze. “I should’ve been the Green Ninja,” he shouted, raising the staff to strike down Lloyd with his own power.

“No, Kai, don’t!” Lloyd screamed, but before Kai could strike the wall blew apart and what looked like a giant drill burst out of the wall.

“Did anyone order some Kung Pao?” Cole’s voice rose above the din. And with that, all hell broke loose.

–––––––––––––––––––––––

Afterwards, Lloyd could barely recall the battle. He remembered being reunited with his friends, seeing Zane alive again, and Kai smashing the staff, sending all the elemental powers back to their rightful owners, but everything else was a blur.

After Chen disappeared, Kai ran over to him and hugged him so tight that he thought his ribs might crack. “I’m so sorry, Lloyd, are you ok? I didn’t mean any of it, I love you so much, you're my little brother, I never meant to hurt you,” he cried, tears soaking the shoulder of his gi.

“It’s ok, Kai, I believe you,” Lloyd whispered back. “But if you keep hugging me this hard, I am going to pass out.”

“Sorry!” Kai yelped, immediately loosening his grip. “What happened to you? You look awful.”

“Thanks,” Lloyd muttered, rolling his eyes fondly. “Vengestone.” The numb emptiness that seemed to have taken up temporary residence in his body was beginning to fade, but Lloyd knew that it wouldn’t fully go away for another couple of hours. He and Kai would talk more later, but for now, all he wanted to do was sleep.

Kai shuddered in sympathy. “Ugh, that stuff is the worst. C’mon, let's go find you a place to rest.”

Lloyd climbed into the bed they found, groaning as he wrapped himself tightly in the blankets. “Sleep tight, kid,” Kai said, brushing his hair back from his eyes. “I’ll wake you up in a few hours.”

“Thanks, Kai,” Lloyd murmured. “Love you.”

“I love you too.”

Chapter Text

“Nya, Zane,” Lloyd’s voice crackled on their headsets. “They’re headed your way. Cut them off, we’ll catch up.”

“We’re on it,” Nya replied, breathing labored as she ran through the rice paddies of Jamanakai village. The low hills of the cropland rolled out as far as the eye could see, the nearby town of Jamanakai merely a collection of wood houses all assembled down a main street with a few branching paths. The farmers all sat safely in their homes having been evacuated by the Ninja hours ago in preparation for the ambush they were planning on a smuggling operation being run through the rural agricultural lands of Ninjago.

Nya and Zane raced along one of the lowest tiers of the rice steppes parallel with Miss Demeanor’s getaway truck while Cole, Kai, and Lloyd ran perpendicular along the packed dirt path.

“Nya!” Lloyd called out again as the ninja raced to intercept Miss Demeanor. “Could use a little water power here!”

“I’m on it.” Nya yelled again, lifting her hands in the air as she prepared to use her elemental powers.

“Zane, get ready! As soon as Nya douses the truck, flash-freeze everything.”

“Affirmative!” Zane replied, flipping onto one of the higher steppes to get a better vantage point.

Nya planted her feet and prepared to run a combination her and Zane had practiced a million times over. First, she would summon twin towers of water to arc dangerously through the air, combining into one massive vortex right before they crashed on whatever target they were practicing with, usually a car or truck. Next, seconds after Nya lets the water drop, Zane freezes it; ideally the ice is just starting to splash back upwards, leaving most of the vehicle frozen in ice, but the front seat doors are still relatively accessible. With the vehicle and enemies incapacitated, the Ninja would approach, arrest the criminals, confiscate the smuggled goods, and go about their day. It was quite the efficient trick, but they often used it only as a last resort because it was a huge pain to have to clean up.

The combination went wrong almost immediately. Nya was able to summon the twin funnels and merge them into one large force of destruction, sending them careening towards the smuggler’s truck, but when Nya tried to release the water, it turned sharply to the right instead.

“Nya, what’s going on?” Lloyd shouted, “Drop it on the truck!”

“I’m trying,” Nya grunted back, arms straining as she tried to correct the course of the water tornado. “It’s not obeying!”

“Ha! She’s lost control!” Miss Demeanor cackled. “How embarrassing.”

Nya didn’t respond, focusing all her might on trying to redirect the water. It came hurtling back towards the truck before abruptly reversing directions and returning back the way it came. Nya shouted angrily and closed her eyes, brow furrowing in concentration. Slowly but surely the water vortex began moving back towards the Ninja and the truck, picking up speed the more distance it traveled. As the water got closer and closer to the truck it sped up, sending off tepid sprays of water to the surrounding cropland. But as the water spun faster, it began to turn more and more erratically, and Nya lost control. She held firm, battling furiously to regain control of the funnel.

Zane tackled her from the side, sending them careening into one of the shallow pools of water meant for irrigation, just before the water would have overtaken her. The water-logged tornado continued criss-crossing violently around the crops, losing any sort of direction without Nya controlling it.

The tower of water careened back towards Miss Demeanor’s truck before swerving again right as it was about to make contact.

“Get your act together!’” Miss Demeanor crowed in her nasally voice. “I’m doing my part, am I the only professional?” The truck took a sharp turn, speeding west back towards Ninjago city and away from the Ninja.

“They’re getting away!” Jay yelled, pulling his hood off of his head as he stared at the truck growing farther away every moment.

“I know,” Lloyd said, “but I think we have bigger problems! Nya, why is it still going?”

Nya looked over at Lloyd, arms hanging limp beside her. “I don’t know, I’m not controlling it, it should have fallen apart. I have never seen this before.” Her mouth hung open in confusion as the cyclone continued creating a path of destruction through the fields.

Zane ran forward, streams of ice shooting from his outstretched palms. Large pieces of the vortex froze along the outermost layer, but cracks were forming, spreading deeper and deeper even though Zane kept a steady supply of ice on them. “I can’t hold it!” he yelled, physically sinking to both knees as the force of the tornado threatened to overwhelm him.

“Scatter!” Cole yelled as the tornado finally burst through Zane’s ice, chunks of hard snow breaking off and showering the Ninja with projectiles.

“Nya, just drop the water back down!” Kai yelled, holding his shoulder where a chunk of ice slammed into him.

“I’m trying,” Nya said, panic creeping into the edges of her voice. “It’s not working, nothings working! It’s like I can connect with it, but I can’t control it. It’s… it’s fighting me and it’s winning.” She groans, biting her lip as frustration wells in her. “What were they smuggling? Could it be what’s making the water go haywire?”

“They were smuggling vengestone,” Jay said. “If anything, that should make it harder for the water to maintain itself in the first place.”

“Whatever is causing this, we’ll figure it out later,” Lloyd said. “The vortex is going to hit Jumanakai village at the rate it’s going. The whole town could be destroyed. We have to get everyone to safety!”

The Ninja sprang into action, racing back along the packed dirt roads, occasionally picking their way across muddy slashes where the tornado had crossed the main path. After a few minutes of running, the Ninja reached the intersection about a hundred feet away from the village, where Miss Demeanor’s truck had crashed and spilled its load of the vengestone bricks.

“Wait!” Nya shouted, an idea coming to her as they approached the bricks, the yellow veins of the vengestone standing out in sharp contrast to the dark gray rock that surrounded them.

Lloyd slowed, turning anxiously between Nya and the oncoming tornado. “Nya, what are you doing, we have to go.”

“But the vengestone,” Nya said, staring intently into Lloyd’s eyes. “It dampens powers, the elements themselves. I can connect to the water, but I can’t control it because for whatever reason the water is stronger than I am, right? But vengestone is hypothetically the strongest of them all.” Lloyd’s eyes widened as he began to understand where Nya was going with this. “I connect to the water and then you all hand me the vengestone bars. Then the vengestone bars use me as a sort of conduit to shut down the cyclone.”

“That could work,” Zane said thoughtfully. “That could definitely work.”

“Yeah,” Lloyd agreed. “It definitely could. But are you sure? Vengestone shouldn’t be treated lightly.”

“I know,” Nya nodded, chin set. “I can take it. We should evacuate the village first. If this works the town may flood and if it doesn’t work… Well, let's just hope it works.” Jay nervously took her hand, squeezing it once before gently letting go and grabbing a few of the vengestone bars.

Kai’s face pinched at the idea of his sister willfully putting herself in harm's way, but he held his tongue.

“Well,” Cole said, “that’s that. Let's move.”

After Jay gathered another handful of the bricks, the Ninja took off running, making it to the town slightly ahead of the tornado even with their brief detour due to its meandering path. They slowed down as they reached the town center where the residents of the village had gathered, looking at the oncoming water funnel with fear.

“Nice and calm, everyone.” Lloyd called out to the townspeople. “There’s no reason for concern, just keep moving.”

Under Lloyd’s instructions, townspeople began streaming out of the meeting house, not quite panicking, but with a distinct air of fear. The Ninja shepherded all of the villagers out of the town and onto the lowest tiers of some of the nearby rice paddies, high enough out of the way that any flood of water shouldn’t be able to reach them.

“Ok, Nya, you ready?” Lloyd asked.

“Yeah, let’s do this.” Nya took a breath and raised her hands, gritting her teeth together as she prepared to fight an insurmountable foe. Jay stood next to her, vengestone bars gripped tightly in his hands, ready for when the time came.

“Wait!” Kai said suddenly. “Nya, I can’t let you do this. I can’t let you willingly take on vengestone, there has to be another way. I’ll find another way, please just let me protect you from this.” Kai shuddered, remembering the agony of being forced to produce fire while wearing vengestone handcuffs lest Acronix and Krux decided to torture Nya instead.

“Hey,” Nya said softly, but firmly. “You took on vengestone for me back when we found Mom and Dad, now I’m gonna do the same for you. Back up, I got this.”

Kai breathed out shakily and nodded, his gaze steely as he stepped back and watched Nya take a deep breath to center herself.

“Do it.” Nya commanded, arms raised as if she was holding up the sky, eyebrows furrowed together in concentration. “I’m ready.”

Jay stepped forward and placed a vengestone bar in each of Nya’s outstretched hands.

Water is fluid, always changing and shifting to adapt to whatever environment it finds itself in. For a long time, Nya had trouble connecting to her element because that “go with the flow” mentality was simply not who she was. Finding an inner sense of calm was what helped her connect with the elemental power in the first place. That and recognizing that water may be peaceful, but it is also tsunamis and hurricanes and destruction. Water has so many different facets, it’s one of Nya’s favorite things about it.

The downside of having an elemental power that was really only constrained by Nya’s imagination, was that vengestone was particularly painful: it attempted to cut Nya off from her elemental powers at every possible point.

As soon as the metal made contact with her skin, Nya’s muscles locked, her body freezing from the strain of attempting to control a three-story tornado made of water while the vengestone actively fought against her. She was trapped, locked in her own body, unable to lift a finger.

But the immobility was not the worst part. No, that was the bizarre sensation of thirst. Nya’s throat felt like it was closing up, it was so dry. Her tongue sat heavy in her mouth and the very blood flowing through her veins felt sluggish. She knew that this was just in her mind, that the effects of vengestone were psychological and wouldn’t have any lasting effect on her body, but it felt so real. She wasn’t even paying attention to whether or not the vortex of water – the whole reason she had come up with this plan in the first place – was stopping, all Nya could think about was the pressure on her limbs keeping her down and the fire burning in her throat.

Vaguely she registered that there was movement around her. Jay knelt in front of her, his mouth moving but all she could hear was a strange ringing sound. His hands cupped her face, but she could do nothing but stare at him, fear in her eyes, as her panic rose. Jay’s hands moved away from her face, falling to her hands, trying to pry her fingers off of the vengestone bars, but they wouldn’t budge. Nya had the chilling thought that this is what people meant when they said, “over my dead body.” Black spots began to fill her vision as the strain of the vengestone became overwhelming. Jay’s worried features were the last thing Nya saw before she slipped into unconsciousness.

–––––––––––––––––––––––

The first thing Nya noticed upon waking up was an intense thirst. She coughed weakly, squinting her eyes open slowly. She was in her room in the monastery, Kai and Jay were seated next to her bedside, peering at her intently.

“You’re awake! How are you, are you feeling ok?”

Nya opened her mouth to respond but fell into a fit of coughing. Her body ached like she’d been run over by a truck, and she felt anxious, like she was still frozen in place by the vengestone.

“Jay, could you-”

“Got it.”

Jay left the room and returned a few moments later with a tall glass of water. He guided the straw to her lips, and she drank greedily.

“Woah, slow down there, kid,” Kai said, his teasing tone undercut by the concern evident in his eyes.

Nya took another hasty gulp before shifting on the bed to sit up. “I’m fine,” she said, meeting Kai and then Jay’s eyes. “I promise. Did we save the village?”

“Yeah,” Jay said, smiling softly and taking her hand in his, “Yeah, you did it. You saved everyone.”

“Good. What the fuck happened?”

Kai and Jay exchanged a glance before Kai took a deep breath. “We don’t exactly know. Master Wu had some theories, but…” he trailed off.

“Master Wu thinks that there’s a connection between the amulet we found on the island and your powers. He said that water and wind were elemental powers not under the domain of his father but controlled by an ancient storm spirit called Wojira.”

“Wojira,” Nya said slowly, “I’ve never heard of them.”

“Wu also thinks,” Jay started again, more hesitantly than before, “that your mom may be able to help. She was the Elemental Master of Water before you and-”

Nya reeled back. “Absolutely not. I’m fine, I can handle this. Kai and I survived our entire lives without them, I’m not going to start running to mommy whenever I have an issue now.” Nya fumed, brows furrowing in anger. She couldn’t believe that Kai would even entertain this line of thinking. How could he want to call over their parents? Obviously it wasn’t their fault that they were kidnapped, but they were gone for her entire life. She knows how to be independent. Nya would figure it out on her own, just like she always had.

“Nya, I just think -” Kai started.

“No,” Nya cut him off. “No. I’ll figure it out myself, just like I always do.”

Kai sighed before standing up and kissing her forehead. “No one’s saying you can’t handle it, Nya, we’re just trying to help. We’re a team, a family, that’s what we do. Just… think about it, ok?”

Nya picked at her comforter. “Whatever.”

Kai looked at her for a second, gaze indecipherable, before smiling sadly and walking out of the room, clapping Jay on the shoulder as he left.

Jay opened his mouth, but Nya interrupted again before he could say anything.

“Don’t you try and convince me too,” She spat out, scowling.

“I wasn’t going too,” Jay responded easily. “I just want to make sure you're ok. You scared me. I thought- First Spinjitzu Master, Nya, I thought we’d lost you. I don’t know what I’d do without you.” Jay grasped her hand, an edge of desperation in his voice.

Nya pulled him into a hug, biting her lip guiltily. “I know. And I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to snap at you.”

“I know,” Jay said softly, shifting so that they were sitting next to each other on Nya’s bed. “I wish I could tell you to never scare me like that again, but… well, ninja never quit. I’m proud of you, though. You saved so many people today.”

“Well,” Nya huffed humorlessly, “I put them at risk in the first place, so I don’t know how much praise I deserve right now.”

“It wasn’t your fault. Whatever is happening, whatever is going on, you’ll figure it out. We’ll figure it out. I know it.”

Nya smiled. “Thanks, Jay. I love you.”

“I love you too.”

Nya leaned into Jay’s side, thoughts racing a million miles an hour. What was going on with her powers? How was it connected to the island, to Wojira, the amulets, her mom? Whatever was going on, she had to figure it out and fast. Before she hurt anyone else.

Chapter Text

“Watcha doin, Jay…” Kai asked, seeing his friend hunched over something while sitting on a ledge of wood. Zane, Kai, and Jay sat in the wreckage of the back half of the bounty, mist coating the ground. The torch Kai held in his hand flickered gloomily in the oppressive atmosphere. By Zane’s count, they had been in this strange realm for one week, yet they still didn’t have any answers about where they were or how to get home.

“It’s my new video game console.” Jay replied, his voice strangely flat. “I made it myself.” In his hands he held a broken piece of wood from the Bounty’s hull. He groaned suddenly, throwing his head back in disappointment before shrugging his shoulders and getting back to his “game.”

“Uh-huh,” Kai said slowly, glancing over at Zane, the concern evident in his eyes. Zane looked back at him, grimacing slightly. They were all handling this situation differently. But that was ok, because Zane almost had this radio fixed then all they had to do was get in contact with someone from home and then they would go home and then everyone would go back to normal and then everything would be ok. Right? That was the logical procession of steps to a rescue mission. It was going to work. It had too.

The crackle of static burst from the radio Zane was working on. He grinned triumphantly. Step one complete. They would be home in no time.

“Is it working?” Kai asked, hope coloring his voice for the first time in days.

“It’s working!” Zane replied excitedly.

“Really? Jay do you believe it?”

“Ain’t no video game console with unlimited plays,” came the flat reply.

Zane glanced at Kai before shaking his head. It would be fine, Jay would be back to normal soon. Kai huddled close to the radio as Zane reached up to adjust the antennae.

The static got momentarily louder before a voice broke through the haze.

“In place.”

Jay looked up, apparently interested enough to break his concentration. “Is it a message?” Zane smiled; everything was coming together. A message had come in, Jay would go back to normal, and everything would be fine.

“On my count,” the voice broke through again.

“Is it from Ninjago?” Jay threw down the piece of scrap wood and came over to stand with them.

“Have Mark? Waylay.”

Zane paused. “It doesn’t sound like it’s coming from Ninjago. It’s possible we’ve intercepted a transmission coming from this island.”

“Who do you think it is, Oni?” Jay asked hesitantly.

The voice came again. “Mark two. Waylay. Waylay now.”

“Who’s Mark and what’s a waylay?” Kai asked.

“A mark is another way of saying target,” Zane said slowly, “and a waylay is an ambush.” But who was sending these messages? What were they trying to get?

“An ambush?” The blood drained from Kai’s face. “They’re talking about us, we have to get out of here!”
“Where?” Jay’s voice finally lost its flat, pitchless tone, but the fearful stutter that replaced it wasn’t much better. Zane cursed himself for not putting together the pieces sooner. How did he miss that they were about to be ambushed? Was there something wrong with him? Was his core processor somehow damaged in the crash and for whatever reason his scanner wasn’t picking it up? His frantic thoughts were interrupted by the dull thud of a spear embedding itself in the wooden planks by his head.

“Anywhere! Run!” Kai shouted. Kai raced into the reedy darkness, Zane and Jay right behind him. The mist and darkness hid their attackers from view and quieted any sounds of pursuit.

“Where are they?”

“I don’t have a visual!” Zane responde; his thermal imaging had been damaged in the crash and he didn’t have the proper tools to repair it. Before he could say anything else, Zane felt a coil of chain wrap around his ankle and yank him sideways. He screamed as his body was dragged across the rough ground, plants tangling his limbs and catching on his arms and legs. He was pulled for about 20 feet before he jerked to a stop, torso catching on a tall clump of reeds.

Zane groaned, but before he could attempt to get up, a heavy boot planted itself on his back, pinning him. He tried shifting experimentally to see if he could get any slack, but as soon as he moved there was a sharp hiss of air and the tip of a spear rested against his neck. This was fine. He could still salvage the plan. He could still save everyone. He just had to wait. Assess the situation. Keep a cool head. He was the elemental master of ice. He could at least do this right.

“Don’t move,” a voice above him growled. Zane heard people moving around him, accompanied by the gentle clinking of chains. “Stay still,” the voice warned again. The pressure pinning him to the ground suddenly lifted, although the spear stayed close to his head. Zane didn’t move; let them think he was complacent. Heavy cuffs were attached to his wrists before the pressure returned to his back, pinning him again. It felt like a boot based on the distribution of pressure, but Zane couldn’t know for sure. As the minutes dragged on with no indication of when the waiting would be over, he felt like the air was getting warmer, like his circuitry was overheating, but that was impossible: his censors weren’t detecting anything wrong. It must have just been the stress of the past week. This had never happened before, usually his routine maintenance was enough to stop any unforeseen issues with his tech, but this week had been full of surprises. He would just have to ride it out. While uncomfortable, a little extra heat wasn’t going to kill him.

Four minutes and twenty-eight seconds after he was cuffed, his mystery kidnappers hauled him upright and began marching him forward towards a large vehicle, reminiscent of the monster trucks the Serpentine used. A large, rectangular cage made out of what looked like giant bones, large enough to fit a fully grown human, was attached to the back. Zane knew that he had to escape before getting onto the truck. With the size of the engine Zane guessed the car could run at speeds upwards of 100 miles per hour if not more. So yeah, getting transported to a second location, potentially without his brothers, was not an option.

As they walked closer to the truck, the tall, patchy grass brushed against his shins, and Zane glanced around, cataloging his surroundings. Flanking him were two tall guards wearing tattered clothing made mostly out of rough canvas and leather. Zane figured the tight fit of clothing coupled with the lack of exposed skin was meant to help protect the warriors from the harsh desert environment. And, he had to admit, it was quite intimidating. Metal breastplates, face shields, and other assorted pieces of armor completed the look. But what was truly shocking about these strangers was their chalk white skin accented by slashes of crimson paint. Whoever these people were, Zane had no record of meeting anyone like them before in his memory banks.

Two more guards sat in the truck. Zane figured there were more out there somewhere, hopefully still failing to catch Kai and Jay, but the boulder that they were cloistered behind prevented him from seeing anything else.

When they got about twenty feet away from the vehicle, Zane yanked his arms out of the grasps of the guards and started sprinting diagonally away. Shouts rang out around him, but he was able to nimbly evade the grasping arms with a mixture of skill and luck. He made it about fifteen years away before the same chains that had initially pinned him caught his ankle again. But this time he was ready. The yank that brought him towards the bleach white warriors twisted him off his feet, but didn’t prevent him from breathing out a stream of ice towards the guard with the giant metal claw bar mask starting just below their sharp cheekbones.

Zane screamed as his core temperature skyrocketed to dangerous levels. He felt as though someone had started a bonfire in his chest and the heat was raging inside his entire body. Any thought that wasn’t about the blistering sensation across his body seemed to evaporate quicker than it could form. Distantly, he grasped that hands were gripping onto his arms and legs and hauling him upright. Zane came to himself again briefly when his body hit the smooth, hard floor of the cage with a solid thump, but once he was stable again he promptly succumbed to the pain.

Black spots danced across his vision and warning signals blared in his head:

“WARNING. EXTREME OVERHEATING DETECTED. SOURCE UNKNOWN. WARNING.”

The warnings displayed on his monitor right now were readings he has only seen a handful of times. They were the readings he got when he was exposed to vengestone.

But how could there be vengestone here? If Zane could think past the searing heat that seemed to be scorching all his internal sensors, maybe he would be able to figure that question out.

The burning sensation seemed to stretch time; Zane could have been in the back of the truck for minutes or hours, he had no way of knowing. All he knew was that every irrational thought seemed to be bubbling to the surface in a steaming core of anxiety and humidity.

Just as the pain was starting to die down, Zane heard the roar of two more approaching engines. As they screeched to a stop, Zane dimly recognized that Kai was screaming his name only to stop abruptly after the dull thud of a fist hitting a stomach sounded in the clearing. Moments later, his cage door was opened and a pair of hands hauled him roughly out. Still slightly delirious from the heat, Zane stumbled upon getting out of the cage, his body taking a couple seconds longer than usual to process what his mind wanted him to do.

“Zane? Are you ok? What happened? What did they do to you?!” Kai’s voice rang out from nearby, too loud and sharp.

Zane looked up just in time to see another guard hit Kai again, this time across the face.

“Do you ever stop talking?” snarled the guard holding Kai up by his bicep. “Get up, we have to get moving.”

Zane’s guards marched him up to a third vehicle where they promptly shoved him in, ignoring his pained groans as he hit the floor hard. Jay looked at him, his expression somewhat fractured, mouth opening and closing a few times before he simply let out a hysterical giggle. Zane opened his mouth – to say what he didn’t know – when Kai was tossed unceremoniously into the cage.

“Owww,” he groaned, sitting up while shrugging the shoulder that took the brunt of the impact.

“Are you ok?” Zane asked, scanning Kai for injuries. Zane didn’t see any obvious signs of harm except for a bruise blooming on his cheek from the second time he had called out to Zane and a slight stutter to his breathing, presumably from getting punched the first time he had called out to Zane.

“I’m fine,” Zane groaned. “Our cuffs are vengestone. I didn’t realize. Tried to escape and when I went to use my powers…” Zane trailed off, his speech slightly uneven as tightness in his chest constricted for daring to speak so long without pausing to draw a breath.

Kai grimaced in sympathy. “Ouch. They pinned my arms in front of me so I was able to recognize the cuffs when they put them on. Still put up a fight, of course. They were fairly gentle though, honestly,” he finished with an ironic chuckle, “all things considered.”

“And why bother,” Jay chimed in for the first time since they’d been captured, giggling hysterically, “trying to escape when they’ll just hunt you down anyway!” Both Kai and Zane fell silent for a moment before Kai abruptly changed the subject to the weather.

Kai kept a steady stream of consciousness going to give Zane something to focus on other than the heat the entire drive to wherever they were being taken. Every small bump in the road set off what felt like sparks in Zane’s joints, but eventually the inferno raging inside him, melting his circuitry, began to die down. Zane ran system diagnostics again and again, but every single time they came back with nothing being wrong. Somehow, the vengestone was not targeting his physical body, but rather the core of his elemental power. Zane could think of no plausible theories, the heat radiating from his skin distorting the air and making it hard to think.

Finally, after about twenty to thirty minutes of driving, the vehicles slowed down and pulled to a stop, pulling Zane out of his delirious musings. Shaking his head slightly to clear it, Zane gave Kai a meaningful look. Kai nodded back, his gaze stony. No escape attempts this time. The door to their cage was wrenched open and all three of them were yanked out.

The lead warrior with the cage bar mask barked at them to remain still as a tall man with pinched features approached Jay. Jay stared dreamily back up at him as the man produced a length of dirty, coarse cloth from his pocket and wrapped it around Jay’s eyes creating an effective blindfold. The warrior moved towards Zane next. Zane closed his eyes and breathed deeply, preparing himself to be in darkness for the foreseeable future.

The hands left after tying a quick, but tight knot at the back of Zane’s head. Not expecting any more contact, Zane flinched when an unknown pair of hands grabbed his left arm just above the elbow, but he quickly stilled when the cold edge of a blade was pressed against his throat. The cuffs were removed from his hands but before he could celebrate his hands were tugged in front of him and the constant pressure on his wrists returned.

Zane shifted on his feet nervously, unsure what was going to happen next or why it required a blindfold. He heard a sharp intake of breath from his left side, presumably as Kai was being blindfolded before Zane felt hands grasp his biceps and throw him back into the cage. Second time around the ninja weren’t so lucky with landings and Jay landed right on Kai’s stomach. Kai wheezed out in pain as Jay slowly shifted off of him, humming contentedly as he did so.

The truck drove for another ten minutes or so before pulling over. They had clearly entered some sort of settlement because Zane heard merchants selling food and clothing while engines and people hummed and sputtered in the background. The sounds of the market were loud and varied, yet when the car engine revved and someone screamed, “Iron Baron, I returned successfully from my assignment. Grant me permission to show you the spoils of my journey,” all the hubbub in the busy area died down.

There was a brief pause and then an oily voice that seemed to be answering from at least thirty feet away said, “granted.”

Kai, Jay, and Zane were pushed forward, hands on their shoulders guiding their steps, before being stopped abruptly about twenty paces further into whatever meeting place they were in.

“Ooh are we playing hide and seek?” Jay asked curiously.

“Get your mitts off of me!” Kai shouted angrily from Zane’s right, the constant manhandling finally breaking Kai’s already thin patience.

“Careful!” Zane shouted back just as the hand on his shoulder forced him down onto his knees.

Their blindfolds were ripped off and Zane was met with the sight of a large circular building filled with a crowd of the egg white humanoids. To his left knelt Kai and Jay, both wincing at the sharp smarting pain of being shoved down onto the gravel. Directly in front of him by about ten feet was a raised dais on which sat a large throne flanked by the skulls of two enormous dragons. On the throne was a stocky man wearing an absurdly tall top hat and a polished wooden peg leg. Chains crossed his olive green shirt. A glowing green orb replaced his left eye. The Iron Baron.

The slightly unhinged looking figure raised his eyes to meet the ninja’s gaze. “Lost, are we?”

Before any of them could reply, the figure nodded and all three ninja were shoved forward again, this time so that they landed on their stomachs.

The man with the green eye laughed.

Kai glared up at him. “Look at his throne,” he muttered under his breath to Zane and Jay. Zane peered closer at the throne, flinching back when he comprehended what he saw.

“Is that…” he trailed off, unable to complete his thought.

“Yeah,” Kai said, voice shaking. “Ultra. They killed him. I hate him.”

The Iron Baron rose slowly from his throne, his peg leg making a metallic clicking noise every time he took a step forward. He strolled right up close to the prone ninja and tapped Zane’s head a few times with his metal grasping claw.

“They don’t look as I imagined,” he grunted, laughing long and low under his breath. The warriors surrounding them jeered alongside their leader. “Where did you find them?”

The warrior with metal bars around their jaw stood at attention. Their modulated voice rang out gruffly. “To the south. They were building a fortification.”

Jay rolled onto his side, smirking up at the leader. “That’s pretty generous. More like a rickety shack, heh. But, after losing everything, who am I to complain?”

The leader slammed her foot onto the arm Jay was using to prop himself up. Jay grunted in pain and surprise as his body slammed into the ground. “Did I say you could speak?” They asked menacingly. Jay gritted his teeth but at least had the sense to say nothing. The Iron Baron walked closer to Jay peering at him intently while the blue ninja shifted uncomfortably beneath his gaze.

Another one of the Baron’s men spoke up. “We took them by surprise. There may be more.” The Baron considered his henchman’s words for a moment before strolling over to stand in front of the ninja again.

“Is this true? Are there more of your kind?”

“Our kind…” Kai trailed off, trying to figure out what he meant.

“No,” Zane jumped in quickly. “We’re alone.” But his voice was too eager and panicked; the Iron Baron narrowed his eyes.

“Then tell us,” drawled another warrior, “who do the diapers belong too.” Zane felt as though he short-circuited when the woman held up a diaper, unicorns and rainbows printed around the edges, from when Wu was still a baby.

“Oh, those are Jay’s,” Kai jumped in, his voice strained but still light. “Tell ‘em, Jay.”

“Oh!” Jay exclaimed, looking surprised to be included. “Yes, I have a weak bladder.”

The dragon hunters roared with laughter again, but the Iron Baron shook his head and tsked at them. “See their lies?” He turned to face his people. “See their treachery? They cannot help it. It’s in their nature.”

“Do not reveal anything,” Zane whispered urgently to Kai and Jay.

“But there is one whom you cannot deceive!” The Iron Baron called out triumphantly. Zane and Kai exchanged worried looks.

“Ok, now take it easy there, captain,” Kai said, trying to defuse the situation. “Let’s not do anything ra-”

“Throw them in the Oni pit!” The metal man screamed, slamming his staff into the ground for emphasis.

“What?” Kai shouted as the warriors dragged them up and started marching them away.

“No!” Zane yelled, twisting his body to speak directly to the Baron. “We are not Oni. You have to believe us!” But the Iron Baron did not turn around as the ninja were dragged out of the cave into the searing daylight of the desert city.

Chapter Text

“Wouldn’t it be so cool to meet the Skull Sorcerer!” Vania asked, practically jumping up and down with excitement, as they walked down the long stone passageway. The light from her torch guttered as she moved, making their shadows twist and dance on the walls.

“Uh, yeah, great…” Cole said. 'I’d definitely loooove to meet the ancient evil that lived here before your dad,' went unsaid. After all, it sounded like Vania wasn’t really given the chance to do anything, so who was he to shoot down her excitement. It’s not like running into a long-dead wizard was likely.

At least, a normal person wouldn’t have a high chance of running into a long-dead wizard. Him? The odds definitely got higher.

Just then, Cole and Vania emerged onto a ledge overlooking a giant cavern embedded about fifty feet up a cliff wall. Below them was what looked to be a huge mining operation. Giant machines crawled along the rocky terrain, hauling large chunks of stone and digging into the hard earth, while archaic lifts transported workers to different parts of the cavern. It was too far away to see what they were mining, but it looked almost like it was glowing. Cole felt uneasy, a little off, but it was probably just because of the height they were standing at. After all, falling from a helicopter into a death mist understandably made him a little wary of heights.

Further on, a river of fire flowed out the mouth of a giant skull into a churning river below that cut the massive space roughly in half. Lamps and green, glowing crystal torches dotted the walls and floor, helping the glowing magma illuminate the cavern. All in all, the space was really bright for it being underground. Weird.

As Cole looked closer at the miners, he noticed that some of them had the same purple skin as the little guy that had run away with his mom’s necklace! Squinting to try and make out more details, Cole was able to make out long, pointy ears and bright yellow eyes. He’d have to get closer if he wanted to find the creature that he’d seen earlier.

“Oh my, look at all these creatures! Those look just like Mr. Sparkles, my imaginary friend from when I was little!” Vania gasped.

“And just like the one that was in my room. But who are those guys?” Cole pointed to a group of hulking, green figures with pointy fangs, at least two times the size of the purple ones, being led out of a side cavern by a group of armored skeleton warriors. That was bad news, skeleton warriors were never up to anything good. But there was something strange about these ones. They were glinting strangely in the torchlight, almost looking as if they were encased in silver, yet they were black as coal. But Cole had never heard or seen shiny skeleton warriors. And, he reasoned, they hadn’t left the Underworld since the first time Lord Garmadon had come back to Ninjago.

What on earth is going on here?

“I don’t know. But they don’t look happy. They’re all chained up.” Vania pointed out the ball and chains secured around their waists. Cole looked closer at the guards and saw what looked like whips clipped to their belts. “C’mon, let’s get down there,”

“Huh? Oh, yeah, yeah, sure,” Cole responded distractedly. He’d felt kinda weird ever since they entered the cavern. Something was wrong, and not just with this bizarre situation. It was something more, something deeper, but he couldn’t put his finger on exactly what it was. He shook off his daze and made to start down the cliff, when a loud stomping sound filled the cavern.

Down below, one of the giant beasts that resembled an armored rhino made out of rough stone was startled when a miner collapsed from exhaustion, dropping the ball chained to his waist with a loud clang. The stone creature reared its front legs, scaring the purple creature that was steering it and toppling the large crate of stone it was carrying. The entire cavern went silent and every head, skeleton and miner alike, whipped towards the giant skull spewing magma.

Cole and Vania sat with bated breath, but nothing happened.

Until something did happen.

The lavafall groaned, then parted in the middle revealing a wooden drawbridge studded with silver bolts. The door fell open and out stepped a robed figure. His black cloak brushed the floor, the deep green decals on his chest shining in the torchlight. A flat, white mask concealed his features, the eye cut-outs glowing a poisonous green. A broad hat covered his head, not unlike the hats worn by rice paddy farmers in Jumanakai village.

“Who dares,” the figure growled, brandishing the green skull in his hand. “Who dares to disturb the work?”

“Who’s that?” Vania whispered frantically.

Cole was about to respond when the figure leapt into the air using the huge, jet-black wings jutting from their back. Cole and Vania dove behind a cluster of rock right before the man swooped past them, so close that they could feel a wind buffet their hair and see that the wings ended in spikes of bone at least half a foot long.

“I warned you,” the robed specter growled threateningly, “all of you, the work must not stop or there would be punishment.”

“Punish him,” groaned a rusty voice. Cole looked around wildly, trying to determine where it was coming from when Vania elbowed him in the ribs and pointed to the skull in the winged man’s hand. “Punish!” it yelled again. The flying figure pointed the skull at the frightened creatures down below and started firing off what looked like poisonous gas. Yet, wherever the bolts hit, chunks of rock would go flying and carts would be overturned.

Definitely not a gas then.

Cole narrowed his eyes. “I don’t know what’s going on here, but I know a bad guy when I see one, and that is a bad guy.” He turned to Vania. “Get back and tell your dad what’s going on. Tell him to bring his guards and wake up my friends.”

“What about you?” Vania asked.

“I’m the Elemental Master of Earth,” Cole smirked, “and I’m surrounded by earth. I’m gonna do what I do best.”

Vania nodded, a look of steely determination in her eyes, before rushing off to alert the palace.

Cole waited until she was out of sight before putting his rock-climbing skills to use and leaping nimbly down the wall. He stumbled a bit on the landing, blinking hard to try and shake off whatever stupor had taken over him.

“Hey, buddy,” he said lightly, interrupting whatever monologue the skull man had been giving. “Name’s Cole. Ninja. I heard there was some jerk down here, chaining people up, making them work,” Cole put his hands on his hips and shook his head condescendingly. “Have you seen any jerks around here?”

“Get him!”

Skeletons rushed him, brandishing whips and clubs. Cole slammed his fists together to activate his Earth Punch, but the orange streaks merely flickered a few times before fading back to his normal skin tone. “Oh, come one!” he yelled in frustration. A skeleton came up behind him; he took it out with one punch, but something was wrong. His movements felt slightly disconnected, out of sync. Giving himself a shake, he focused on the opponents in front of him, taking them out one by one until all that was left surrounding him was a pile of bones.

“Now,” Cole said, deliberately playing up his arrogance to try and disguise how much effort that – normally simple – fight had taken, “how about you give me the keys to all these chains before I get really angry”

Skull Guy yelled in outrage. “You have meddled in the wrong place, now you will witness my true wrath. The wrath of the Skull Sorcerer!” Well. It looks like Cole’s luck was indeed that bad. Of course he’d run into an evil supposedly vanquished decades ago.

Cole shifted into a defensive posture, knowing that whatever was making him feel weak would likely prevent him from beating the Skull Sorcerer. But he had to try. Ninja never quit. Then, the creepy green skull started chanting in some ancient language and the skeletons he’d just defeated rose up, good as new.

“Shit.”

Skeletons rushed him, but he couldn’t take them down fast enough and more kept appearing in their place. A whip wrapped itself around his wrist and he hissed in pain; little stone fragments seem to be embedded in the material. Cole began to wrench his arm towards his chest in an attempt to tug the creature off balance, trying again to activate his super strength when all of the sudden the lightness he’d been feeling since entering the cavern seemed to increase by tenfold. His mind and body may have been slipping slightly in and out of sync before, but now they simply weren’t coordinating at all. Activating his powers seemed to enhance the strange effect this cavern was having on him. But why? The world was spinning yet at the same time seemed to be lagging three seconds behind. He was barely in control of his own body, almost like dissociating, but worse because it wasn’t that he was on autopilot, he was simply unable to will himself to do anything.

He could only think of two things that created this disturbing effect: a very specific type of poison and vengestone. And as that particular poison was created by the Venomari who, besides from being thousands of miles from here, were now their allies, he had a feeling he knew what these creatures were mining for. Vengestone.

Oh, he was so fucked.

Before he knew what was happening, skeletons had begun dog-piling on top of him, the pressure slowly increasing until he felt something heavy secure itself around his waist. A ball and chain. Perfect.

The skeletons hauled Cole to his feet just to force him right back down to his knees.

“Why,” Cole groaned, “would you make me stand up if you were just going to insist I kneel down again?” While he meant it to be a sarcastic quip it came out more pained than he intended. Simply speaking at all took more effort than Cole would care to admit. The skeletons merely growled at him in response.

Cole desperately tried to come up with a plan to escape, but his brain was taking longer than usual to form coherent thoughts. He’d been in tough situations before, both with and without vengestone, but being completely and totally surrounded by it was unlike anything he’d ever experienced. Especially after trying to use his powers. Cole was always grounded and solid, an unshakeable force even before Master Wu helped him discover his elemental powers, yet the vengestone seemed to untether him from anything solid, real, permanent.

Black leather boots stepped into his frame of vision, but he was so focused on breathing, trying to find his center again, that he didn’t respond until a fist grabbed his dreads and yanked his head up. Cole hissed in pain, gritting his teeth together and staring up at the blank skull looming over him.

“Well, ninja,” the Skull Sorcerer spat, “you heard me earlier: those who disturb the work must be punished.”

Cole sneered back at him, using the man’s grip on his hair, painful as it was, as a point of focus. “This isn’t work, it’s enslavement. What you’re doing is wrong. I’m going to get out of here, my friends will find me, and when they do I will show you that I always protect those who cannot protect themsel-.” The Skull Sorcerer backhanded him, hard, cutting off his sentence and whipping his head to the side. Cole’s eyes began watering and he felt bile rise in his throat. The detached sensation that had been beginning to fade spiked again, making Cole squeeze his eyes shut in an attempt to stay present.

“Your friends will never find you down here, Earth Ninja. Save your pathetic speeches for the empty cell that’s about to become your new home. Thank you for volunteering to be our newest worker.” The Skull Sorcerer chuckled maliciously. “Remember, those who disturb the work will be punished. Swiftly and without mercy. Remove the chain, we wouldn’t want our new friend to… zone out and miss the lesson would we.” He nodded at the skeleton pinning Cole’s arms behind his back before turning around and launching himself into the air, circling the cavern twice before retreating back behind the lavafall.

A henchman removed the ball and chain from Cole’s waist, and he immediately felt the world come into slightly sharper focus, but the improvement was short lived when he felt a bony wrist drive into his stomach. Each punch to his ribs and stomach was accompanied by a burst of pain, yet even in his sorry state he knew they were going easy on him. The skeletons applied just enough pressure for the beating to hurt like hell, but not to cause any lasting damage. Why were they holding back?

Quicker than he expected, they stopped. Cole was hauled to his feet and dragged to a large cage made out of giant bones. Well, thought Cole, at least they’re on brand. Shit! Cole thought. No, can’t float away, not right now. Usually Cole was able to prevent himself from dissociating when he came into contact with vengestone, but being surrounded by it on all sides combined with the beating he took was proving to be an exception.

Trying to even out his breathing, Cole began a grounding technique Jay had taught him years ago.

Five things you can see: the bars of the cage, the glowing piles of vengestone, the strange little purple creatures, the tall green creatures, and the big wooden carts.

Four things you can touch: the cloth of his gi, the stone of the floor, the metal belt buckle across his chest, and the smooth bone of the cage.

Three things you can hear: the clanging of hammers, murmurs from the workers, and heavy footfalls of the giant cartbeasts.

Two things you can smell: dust and sweat.

One thing you can taste: blood from a cut on his cheek.

By the end of the exercise, Cole had gotten his breathing under control and was able to ground himself. The venegestone still dampened his senses, but at least it also took the edge off of the bruises blooming across his torso. Might as well sleep while I can, Cole thought wearily, rolling over onto his back and slipping immediately into unconsciousness.

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Cole awoke to a sharp prodding to his back. He jolted up pushing away the sharp spear tips they were poking him with. “Ok, ok! I get the point!” he yelped. The skeletons did not laugh at his joke.

Grabbing his arms, two warriors marched him across the cavern, passed dozens of green and purple creatures mining for vengestone, and deposited him at his very own cluster of boulders. One of the warriors secured a ball and chain around his waist, clipping the key to his belt before walking away. The other skeleton shoved him forward. Cole stumbled but was able to regain his balance before he face-planted onto hard stone. Before he could so much as think of a retort a pick ax was thrown to him, the skeleton gestured at the stone, growled, then walked away to join their companion.

Cole glared, hands clenched into fists, before turning to the stone and beginning to hack away. The light-headedness that had plagued him since entering the cavern was better than last night, but still a constant presence in the back of his mind. He worried that it would only get stronger as the day wore on, the manual labor doing nothing to ease it. Cole grit his teeth against a wave of nausea. He had to come up with some sort of a plan soon. Before anything bad happened. Well, anything worse than being imprisoned by an evil sorcerer and being forced to do backbreaking manual labor while functioning at maybe 50% (being generous) alongside dozens of enslaved people. Phase one: recon.

A few minutes later, he glanced around to make sure no one was watching him, then leaned over to the green giant next to him. “Psst. Hey. Hey! I’m Cole.”

“Murt.” Murt grunted, not even looking over at him.

“How long have you been down here, Murt?”

“Long time. Like you.”

“What?” Cole asked, confused. “No, I just got here.”

“Me too.” Murt responded brusquely. “Long time.”

Cole stared at him for a second before turning around and walking a few feet over to one of the purple creatures that had had his mom’s necklace. “Hey. Hey, buddy, any way out of here?”

“No,” Came the nasally response.

The crack of a whip right over Cole’s head had him flinching automatically. A guttural roar came from the skeleton that had spotted Cole slacking off. “Ok, ok,” Cole said, turning around to get back to work. Phase one had been a resounding failure. Too bad phase one was as far as he had gotten. Well, no point in putting himself or others in harm's way without a larger strategy. He’d have to wait a little longer, get a better sense of what was going on before coming up with a plan. Concern furrowed his brow. Hopefully Vania had gotten word to his friends by now. But until then, all he could do was work.

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Hours later, he’d only learned three things: 1) The purple guys were called Geckles 2) The green guys were called the Munce and 3) however bad you think glop for lunch is, it’s a million times worse. Oh, and the hours of chipping away at hard stone had made the lightheadedness significantly worse. First Spinjitzu Master, he truly hated vengestone.

To sum it up, Cole was screwed.

After lunch, the skeletons locked Cole in one of the bone cages along with a bunch of the Geckles. He sat with his forehead between his knees, taking deep breaths to ward off the dizziness that had overcome him. A few minutes later, Cole heard the soft sounds of feet alighting onto a surface. Looking up, Cole felt the tension leave his shoulders as he saw Nya, Lloyd, Jay, and Zane crouching in front of his cage. Kai ran up behind them, clutching the key in his hand, and quickly unlocked the door.

“Cole!” Kai pulled Cole close to him, cupping his hands around Cole’s face and gently resting their foreheads. “You’re alright.”

Cole went to bring his hands up to Kai’s face, but hissed in pain and Kai immediately pulled back, concern etched onto his features. “I’m fine, Hothead, just a couple of bruises. C’mere.” He pulled Kai back into a hug, albeit slower than normal. “I’m ok.”

“Uh, I hate to break up the moment, but someone’s coming!” Jay whispered, looking at a hallway where the flickering light of a torch was steadily growing brighter. Zane quickly threw one of his shurikens, breaking the chain of a chandelier and sending it crashing onto the skeleton warriors below.

“Keep it down!” Cole said frantically, breaking away from Kai and glancing furtively towards the lavafall. “There’s a creepy evil guy with wings in that temple, and trust me, you do not want to meet him.”

“Yeah,” Nya agreed, “Let’s not bring the whole place down on our heads.”

Just then, the Geckles in the cage with Cole seemed to realize the door was wide open and they began running out. Nya and Kai began freeing the other cages on the ground while Zane, Jay, and Lloyd scaled the walls to free the Munce and Geckles suspended from the ceiling. They had just freed everyone and were heading towards the exit when a Munce shouted accusingly “You rescue Geckles?”

“Thieving Munce!” A Geckle from the crowd shouted.

“Thieving Geckle!” The Munce bellowed back.

“Hey!” Cole interjected. “Keep it together, guys. Just for a few more seconds.” But the feud between these peoples would not be put on hold, even to escape. They began flinging insults back and forth and before the ninja could do anything, punches were being thrown. Shouts rang throughout the cavern, drawing the attention of a watchtower nearby.

“New plan!” Lloyd yelled. “Jay, Nya, take out that tower. Everyone else: run!”

Jay and Nya lept into action, using spinjitzu to knock the tower and its guards into the magma below. The others began to run for the exit, but no one else was following. They were all too consumed with their fighting. The ninja tried to corral everyone to the exits, but nothing worked.

“Urg, c’mon, we’ll come back for them!” Lloyd said over his shoulder, dashing for the mouth of the closest tunnel. A pack of skeleton warriors dropped down from the ceiling right in front of them, cutting off their escape route. Cole whirled a nearby ball and chain over his head, flinging it towards the warriors, knocking all three down.

“Strike!” Cole yelled, immediately regretting it when spots of blackness dotted his vision for a few seconds. Cole dug his nails into his palm, willing the world to come back into focus. Sounds of battle raged around him, his friends' shouts echoing off the walls and mingling with the sounds of clattering bones. When his sight cleared, Cole groaned and went to regroup with his friends.

“These guys go down so easily!” Kai laughed, cutting three warriors down with no effort.

Cole was about to issue a warning about their regeneration when five warriors appeared behind them. Zane moved to shoot ice at them, but produced only a few flurries.

“My elemental powers appear ineffective!” Zane cried, his robotic voice pitched higher in alarm.

“I was mining for vengestone, Zane, the stuff is all around us!” Cole said, leaning against Kai for support. “It’s restricting our powers!”

“No offense, babe, but that’s like, the first thing you should have told us!” Kai shouted, slinging an arm around Cole’s waist.

“Well I'm sorry, I’ve had a lot on my mind!” Cole yelled back. “But we can still do spinjitzu!” He gently pushed away from Kai and, taking a deep breath, started the motions for spinjitzu, obliterating the skeletons in his path. The others followed suit, but just as the tide was turning, the giant skeleton temple began to glow and the Skull Sorcerer appeared from behind the lavafall.

“Who dares disturb the Skull Sorcerer!”

“Yup, that’s him.” Cole remarked wryly. “That’s who I was telling you about.”

They turned to flee when, but the Skull Sorcerer swooped down in front of them, hovering menacingly.

Kai stepped in front of them all. “There’s six of us and one of you, pal.”

“Rise, my children! Rise!” The villain screamed, green fire pouring from the skull he held in his grasp.

All around them, the skeletons they defeated began to knit themselves back together, the empty pits of their eye sockets glowing a poisonous green.

“Another thing I forgot to mention…” Cole said sheepishly.

“Aww, c’mon, dude!” Nya groaned.

“You will never see the sun again.” laughed the Skull Sorcerer, flying back towards his temple as the skeletons attacked, overpowering them one by one.

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After clipping balls and chains to each of them, the ninja were given pickaxes and forced to continue mining. Cole’s normally bright umber skin had developed an ashy quality, and each swing was harder and harder to complete. The others labored beside him, looking tired, but nowhere near as worse as he felt.

Why was Cole struggling so much when the others were only experiencing the mild side effects of the vengestone? It must be because Cole had tried to use his powers while in vengestone cuffs which had triggered the intense side effects, while the others only tried their powers when in the cavern, physically surrounded, but not restrained by the stuff. And the extreme aftereffects Cole was suffering from, which usually wore off in a few hours, were prolonged because of the overwhelming presence of the stone.

“Worst rescue ever.” Jay said pointedly at Kai, though a smile hid in his features.

“What?” Kai said indignantly. “I asked if someone else had a better idea.”

Cole smiled through the exhaustion, grateful that, even in as dire straits as they were in, at least now he had his team to help him. Now all they had to do was come up with a new plan to escape. But as the saying goes, six minds are better than one.