Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Danny woke up in the middle of the night to the almost familiar feeling of his ghost sense almost going off. 

Earlier that night, Danny was so done with everything that happened that day, that he didn’t even bother to change his clothes into something more comfortable for bed. So, Danny fully clothed in his normal everyday clothes, woke up to find his ghost sense stuck in his throat and a dark, almost purple portal in the middle of his room.

Slowly, ever so slightly, the portal began to suck things in it, almost like a vacuum. It took papers of the floor and on Danny’s desk. Then it started to bring in his desk chair. Next thing he  knew, he didn’t have a blanket anymore. Then almost like it was looking for him, it directed all its power in bringing Danny closer.

He tried to grab onto his bed frame but the force was pulling it with him now, and his grip was loosening. He tried calling for Jazz, and even his parents. But it felt like his word were being sucked in bey the vacuum like portal.

He lost his grip and fell in.

~~~~

Clouse was given the task of somehow finding another master of ice. He and his master both knew that it’s almost impossible for two people to be able to control the same element at the same time. So he turned to his trusty book of dark magics. 

He already knows that he can make a portal to the departed realm, so he decided that it shouldn’t be to hard to make one to some other realm.

He’s read over the ritual or summoning, however you want to call it, many times, over and over, and he had just finished triple checking the markings he made on the floor of the ship that was taking all the elemental masters to Chen’s Island.

Deciding that it was good enough, Clouse started chanting. The markings began to glow a neon green as a dark purple portal opened in the middle and a light breeze came with it. 

As his chanting became stronger, so did the wind, until, finally, a figure flew trough the portal. Clouse ceased his chanting and the portal faded and the markings returned to as they were.

The figure groaned as they slowly got up. Clouse realized with a start that the figure looked like a young boy maybe 14-15 years of age, but that wouldn’t change the reason he was brought here.

 “Who are you? Where am I?” The boy asked accusingly as he lent against the wall of the cabin.

“My name is Clouse, and I have summoned you here to take part in our tournament of elements as the master of ice.” He explained in his usual nasally drawl.

“Tournament? Of elements? Master of ice?” The boy shook his head, “Look, dude, I think you’ve got the wrong guy. I’m no ‘master of ice’.” He tried to dismiss the statement.

“Well you must be, otherwise my spell wouldn’t have worked.” Clouse looked down on him, and thought for a second. “You will be competing in the tournament or you will not be able to go home, as I am your only way back to your realm.” Clouse explained with a slight smirk as the boy tensed.

……

Danny thought over his options… he didn’t have many. Either compete in this tournament and go home, or don’t and be stuck in, apparently a different realm, or at least till he can find a way home which he doubts will be easy. So, tournament it is he guesses.

Danny sighed, “Fine, I’ll be apart of your tournament of elements or whatever. What do I have to do?” Danny said as he stood up from the wall.

“Follow me.” Clouse said as he turned to the stairs behind him. At the top of the stairs was a door that lead to the main deck of the ship they were on. “We are currently on our way to the island where the tournament will be held. Now, you are to wait for instructions, as is everyone else.” Clouse said as he walked back through the doors.

Danny sighed as he sat on the floor next to a crate when he heard talking from above him.

“Uh, the Master of Speed? Pf, that’s not a real element.” One voice says.

“So asks the Master of Lightning.” Another, older, voice says.

“Oh, snap, he got you there.” A deeper voice teased.

“Hey, uh, who’s that guy? I didn’t see him when we got on.” Again, another voice asks. Danny looks up to see they’re looking in his direction.

“I do not know. Most of these people I have not seen. But they will all be gunning for you.” The older voice replies as he turns to look at the four of them, “You are Ninja. You serve with honour. Here, that means very little.” He explained.

They’re all taken out of the conversation by the sound of someone with large metal gloves bothering a girl in an orange cloak.

“Well, maybe honour means something to me.” The fourth voice said before jumping down from the trailing of the balcony they were on, and over to the commotion.

……

The guy with the metal gloves growls as he sees Kai approach.

The girl turns around once she notices that the mans attention is no longer on her.

“It’s okay, I can handle myself.” The girl says trying to convince the red ninja.

“This is none of his business. Karlof cold. Karlof just wants her cloak.” The newly dubbed Karlof, tried to defend himself. But it was no use against Kai’s hot headiness.

“You look like you’ve got big enough mittens. Why not leave the gal alone?” Kai says as he stalks up to Karlof.

“These not mittens. These crush ninja.”

“Ha, I’d like to se you try.” The rest of this group was on the main deck by now, and the kid they saw earlier stared walking over. 

“Save it for the tournament Kai.” Sensei Garmadon sighed exasperatedly.

“Don’t think Karlof afraid of you.”

“No, you don’t think much, do you?” Saying that caused Kai to be lifted into the air by the front of his shirt by an angry Karlof. “Uhh! Just jump in whenever you feel like it.” Kai said desperately, looking at his companions.

“You say Karlof not smart?”

“I think Karlof is plenty smart not to start not to start something he can’t finish.” Lloyd defended his friend. Karlof then punched Kai so hard that he flew back and took the boy that was coming up behind them with him.

“Oopsy. Guess Karlof not smart.” Karlof said with fake remorse.

Kai lit his hands on fire and was about to throw a fire ball at Karlof when he felt a hand fall on his shoulder.

“Hey, um, why don’t we not destroy the ship were currently on?” The kid asks with a small smile.

“I’m not trying to, I was just trying to defend that girl.” Kai turned back to look at the girl in question, when he noticed her missing. “Huh. That’s weird she was right there.”

“We’re here. Welcome, to Chen’s Island.” Clouse announced as they got closer to the dock.

The girl came up from behind Kai, “I’m sorry if I was cold to you earlier.” She said before disappearing again.

The ninja, sensei and plus one walked up to the floor they were on earlier, and stared out into the distance towards the island they were going to be spending the foreseeable future on.

“I swore to never return.” Garmadon sighed wistfully as he lent against the railing.

“You know, you should never swear. It’s a sign of weak verbal skills.” Jay stated mater of factually.

Lloyd lent against the railing beside his father. “If Zane’s on that island, we’ll find him. We have to.”

……

Danny stood off to the side of the group of people he followed to an upper deck. He was starring out at the island, tuning out what the group was saying when he heard the voice of Clouse and the buzzing of what sounded like a radio. 

“Maaster Chen, Garmadon has returned. He said he will be “looking out for his best interest”.” Clouse’s voice said.

Then, with a buzz of a radio, another voice spoke.

“Interesting. You worry to much Clouse. Everything will work out. Just wait and see.” The voice dismissed.

Danny looked back over to the group, and wondered if there was more going on here than just a tournament.

Chapter Text

  As the ship approached the island, the group of six moved back down to the main deck, along with everyone else.

  "Look at that." Kai, as Danny had just recently learned was the name of the guy who almost tried to set the very wooden boat on fire, said in awe while staring out at the island decorated in either Chinese or Japanese styled buildings, he couldn't tell which. "Awesome."

  Just as they were pulling into the docks, Karlof, if he remembers correctly, roughly shoved his way through the group of people that had accumulated at the front of the ship.

  "Let me see." He said as he shoved Kai out of his way.

  "Do you mind?" Kai jeered.

  Karlof opened his mouth to respond but was interrupted by the sound of drums and chanting coming from the island.

  "Welcome to Chen's Island. The Tournament of Elements welcomes its brave fighters." Clouse announces to the elemental masters as he walks off the ship and onto the dock to wait for everyone to follow.

  "Master Chen will be pleased you've returned." Clouse said lowly to Garmadon as he walked down the plank onto the island. The ninja, as he learned the group he was with are, which, how is he supposed to fight against ninjas? And with how close they are to each other, how are they supposed to fight against each other? Anyway, the ninja followed their sensei, or, one of their senseis, down the ramp, followed by Danny and the rest of the elementals.

  They walked along the path that led up to a set of large doors. Upon reaching the doors, they stopped and watched as they opened to reveal the drummers they had heard earlier, dressed in the same purple cloaks as the chanters that stood along the walls on each side of the doors. 

  They continued through the doors and onto a large purple carpet that went from the doors they went through to the large building in front of them. They entered the building and they were met with a large room that was practically empty save for the few decorations on the walls. They all unanimously stood in a semi-circle in the middle of the room, facing the wall opposite the doors.

  The sound of a gong brought Danny out of his thoughts of how he was going to get through this tournament.

    ~~~~

  The ninja were walking along the path behind Clouse, they were chatting and whispering to each other while Cole stayed back a few steps. He was watching Danny. The kid looked barely older than Lloyd should look, which suddenly reminded him how young their green ninja was, but that was a thought for later.

  Most of the ninja agreed when Cole had said that Danny had come out of practically nowhere. None of them had noticed him when they were getting on the ship, and while he looked plain enough to blend in with any crowd, he would have stood out enough against all the other people wearing gi or clothing that looked like it matched with their element. Danny looked like he was just a random kid that was pulled from the street.

  It was still a mystery to them what his element was and most of them found it rude to ask even though they were all curious. But that didn't matter at this moment, they would eventually find out.

  Danny looked like he had his head in the clouds as they kept walking. He was openly looking at and watching anything that was around them, but it didn't seem like he was trying to listen in on what the rest of the ninja were talking about. It seemed like he didn't even notice Cole walking almost right beside him

  As they got into the building, they all sat in a semicircle, Cole sat between Danny and Lloyd, Danny sat next to Turner and Kai sat at the end of their group between Jay and a guy with glasses and an afro. The sound of the gong brought Cole out of his thoughts as Clouse started talking again.

  "All rise for Master Chen." Just then, a chair slowly started to descend from the ceiling then landed on the platform in front of them.

  "Welcome to the Tournament of Elements." Chen started as he was still seated in the chair, "Now everyone can die-" He was interpreted by the doors slamming shut and many gasps from the elementals. "-rect your attention to me." he continued smoothly like there was no interruption.

  Sensei Garmadon leaned over to his son, "I forgot to mention he has a penchant for theatrics." He whispered.

  Chen started giggling hysterically before talking again. "Never before have so many elemental fighters been under one roof." his gaze moved around the room, "I see a master of fire, earth, shadow, speed. Even a prophesied green saviour. And a former pupil has returned." Chen's gaze continued to roam before his eyes landed on Danny. Chen looked ecstatic as a smirk grew on his face. "And we can't forget about the new master of ice, now can we?"

  If any thoughts were going on in the ninjas' minds, at those few words they came to a screeching halt as they all turned to the one person Chen was talking about.

 The ninja didn't know what to think. There were too many things to think. Ice was his element. The same element as the one person they were here for. Danny, the one person they allowed themselves to be friends with in this tournament where everyone was against everyone, had somehow gotten his hands on Zane's elemental power.

  Maybe Kai was right when he mentioned that Danny could be working for Clouse or Chen. They knew Chen had Zane somewhere on this island, so it couldn't be far off for Clouse to have done some dark magic stuff and gave Danny his power. It was a bit of a stretch, mostly because they weren't entirely sure how elemental powers are transferred, but it might be possible.

  ~~~~

  Danny's gaze snapped up to look at Chen. He was shocked, at the tone he used? Or maybe it was because Chen saved him for last. But he doubted the group of ninjas that he was starting to consider friends even noticed with the way they were looking at him. Looks of betrayal, distrust and disbelief crossed all their faces as he turned to look at them. He started to feel fear for himself, even more than the fear that was already hanging over his head about not being able to get home.

  But, why are they looking at him like that? He didn't actually do anything to upset them yet, did he? All Chen said was something about him being the "new master of ice". 

  Unless something to do with what Chen said is why they're looking at him like that. 

  Weren't they looking for someone that's on this island? Do they have ice powers? Do they think he stole them if they do? The more he made eye contact with the people he was sitting next to the more freaked out he was getting, and the faster his already slow breathing got. The sound of mechanics moving and the voice of Chen distracted him enough to look away from the piercing glares he was getting.

  "The symbol you see before you is for the anacondri, fiercest serpentine warrior to ever roam this land." Danny's breathing finally started to slow again after their gazes were taken off of him. "It's creed, 'only one can remain'." 

  'Shit, this is a death trap isn't it." Was Danny's thought as the gong rang again.

Chapter Text

  It's been about 15 minutes since everyone was led to the rooms that they would be staying in for the foreseeable future. Danny was pretty sure that Chen and Clouse knew nothing about him, so when he saw the personalized rooms that everyone got as he passed them, he wasn't expecting much—maybe just a blank room with some basic bedroom stuff. What he definitely was not expecting was a very cold room with a white and light blue colour scheme everywhere.

  The first thing he noticed upon the doors of his room was—of course, the very obvious colour theme. The next was what looked to be an ice sculpture of a guy in what looked like a ninja getup and a sword on his back—! Hold up! Statue of a guy who looks like a ninja. More ninja looking for someone on this island. And Danny gets a room, with an ice sculpture of a ninja , while there are ninja looking for someone who this room was most likely made up for. 

  Before he could turn around and ask the lady who led him here any questions, she had already slammed the doors closed.

  “Great.” Danny whispered to himself then sighed in defeat before flopping onto the bed. Danny sighed again at the softness of the mattress. It was like laying on a pile of snow. He moved his head to the side to look around the room again and then stopped when he spotted a picture frame on one of the bedside tables. 

  Danny sat up on the bed and grabbed the picture to look at it. It had eight people in it. Five of them were people that he had already met, the ninja and their sensei. The ones he didn't know were an old man with a long beard, a girl in red who looked similar to Kai (siblings, maybe?), and another ninja in white who looked a lot like the ice sculpture.

  Danny's observations were interrupted by Chen's voice coming from somewhere in the room. “Fellow fighters! Hidden around my island are enough Jade Blades for every participant except for one~. The one who returns to the palace arena empty-handed loses~. The tournament begins... now!" 

  ‘Now?’ Danny thought as he stood from the bed and abandoned the photo with it. As he stood he could already hear the sounds of fighting coming from outside his door, fighting for jade blades, but… what’s a jade blade? Danny groaned as he realized he must have missed Chen talking about them during his little freakout. 

  He was brought out of his musings by the door being slammed open, except there was no one there? ‘Could be that invisible person I saw earlier.’ He almost immediately retracted the thought as he saw a shadow in the corner move. He decided he didn't want to deal with someone who could sink into the shadows right now and ran out of the still open door.

  “May the best fighter win!” That’s the last thing that Chen says before the speakers start playing music. As Danny stepped back into the hall stairwell, he saw across the room as Lloyd fought off 4 guys before running off to reach for a jade blade, but before he could get to it he got stopped by- the carpet? He looked around for a second before seeing Clouse on the floor below looking in Lloyd's direction and muttering something under his breath. He watched in surprise as Garmadon ran up the stairs behind him and knocked Clouse to the ground which caused a nearby vase to fall over and drop a jade blade from inside. Danny quickly ran down the stairs and over behind the two fighting men grabbed the jade blade then made his way back to the arena.

  By the time he got back, a small handful of people were already back having returned their own jade blades. He walked up the stairs of the platform to the statue of what looked like some sort of serpent and placed his blade in one of the awaiting hands before walking away to go stand by the half wall to the side of the throne to wait for everyone else to return. 

  A few minutes later, after more elemental masters trickled in, Clouse finally walked through the doors, smoothing out his hair and dusting himself off from his tussle with Garmadon. After getting situated by the statue with his master, it didn't take long before only two jade blades were remaining. As Clouse placed the latest blade in the statue, Cole burst through the door holding his jade blade above his head. 

  “Wait! I got one!” Cole said as he ran up to the crowd surrounding the platform.

  “Cole!” Jay announced like no one else’s noticed him literally running into the room. “Who-hoo! You made it!”

  Cole glanced around at everyone for a second. “Where’s Kai?”

  “He hasn't made it back yet.” Lloyd said as he took a step closer to Cole and walked them both up to Clouse. “Karlof isn’t back yet either.” He added as Clouse took the blade from Cole's hand.

  “Oh great.” Cole said with so much sarcasm you could taste it, “I bet Karlof still isn’t over their last interaction.” 

  As Danny made the move to go stand closer to the group of elemental masters he heard the echo of stomping and metal that could only be from Karlof and his metal gloves. He turned along with everyone as the sounds got closer and Karlof walked through the doors laughing with the last jade blade held over his head.

  “Karlof wins!” He yells out to everyone in the room as they all, minus himself and the ninja, start cheering. 

  While everyone was celebrating and before Karlof made a move to continue into the room, Kai snuck up behind him with a screwdriver and unscrewed a screw from Karlofs glove, making it fall off and dropping the jade blade. 

  “What?” Karlof asked in confusion while looking at his glove on the ground.

  “Ha. Looks like you got a screw loose.” Kai said as he leaned down to pick up the blade then flew using his flames over to the throne and placing the blade into the last slot. Everyone started cheering again and gathering closer to the stairs. 

  “We have a loser!” Clouse announced as he walked to the front of the platform.

  “That’s not fair. He cheated!” Karlof growled as he put his glove back on and then pointed at Kai.

  Kai shrugged, “I did what I had to do.”

  “That is not how you win.” Garmadon said as he walked closer to Kai.

  “Fine, I lose.” Karlof said solemnly, “Karlof never wanted to be on stinking island.”

  “Oh~, I’m sorry to hear that you did not enjoy your stay. I guess this worked out for the best,” Chen said dismissively as his throne lowered behind him before sitting on it. “This is- goodbye!” He said quickly as he pressed a button on his armrest. Everyone looked back as they heard Karlof yell as the floor came out from under him and he fell into a hole that leads under the island.

  “As you can see, lose and you are out. Break any rule, you are out. Never bite the hand that feeds you, Master Chen delicious noodles!” Chen announced as one of his goons took Karlofs plaque off the board and crushed it, leaving its pieces to fall on the floor. “Now rest up! Tomorrow the tournament will recommence!”

  A handheld gong was banged, dismissing everyone.

Everyone but Danny and the ninja left as soon as they were dismissed. The ninja lingered behind whispering but slowly making their way out as well. Danny could only hear bits and pieces of what they were saying as he followed behind them on their way to the cafeteria.