Chapter Text
“Father did say that they could travel between worlds.” Nya watches the dragon breathe deeply, her brother at her side. The scales on its back reflect the low glow of the lava around them, but act as a protective barrier from the heat.
“He might be able to take people with him. Act as a bridge.” Kai smiles at it as it lets out a low, huffing sigh, waving its tail lazily through the lava. It seems to be waiting for them to do something. “I bet he’d be willing, too. You’re both trying to protect that Sword.”
“What do you say, big guy?” Nya reaches to nudge the dragon gently on its wing. “You wanna help us get to the Underworld?” The dragon lifts its head to look at her and lets out a gust of air into her face. She cringes at the heat, but it seems to be a sign of assent.
Despite their new ally, Nya is at a loss as to what to do. Sensei Wu has disappeared into the Underworld, and she can’t follow him. Additionally, her teammates are captured by the Skulkin army, and as it stands, she isn’t powerful enough to rescue them by herself. She has to hope that they can free themselves.
“Well, now that’s settled. What were doing calling that old man ‘Sensei?’”
“He knew Father.” Nya sighs and leads her head against her knees. She was not too keen to be reminded of Wu’s absence, though she understands her brother’s curiosity. She weighs the pros and cons of telling him the whole story. “I’ll tell you all about it once we're out of this mess.”
“Alright. Clearly, I’ve missed a lot.”
“You don’t know the half of it.”
“I mean, your fighting speaks for itself. ‘You can’t learn experience overnight.’”
“Ugh!” She kicks her foot angrily against a loose rock on the ground, watching as it skids into the magma in front of her. She gets to her feet as the dragon draws its wing closer to itself. “I hate sitting here, being useless. I should be doing something.”
“Well, maybe it's a good idea to sit this one out for a while. Take a break and all that.”
“I can take care of myself!”
“I know you can, that much is obvious!” His outburst startles her, and she turns to look at him, sitting on the floor against the wall.
“It’s just so… bizarre.” Kai avoids her eyes, staring down at his hands. “I’ve spent my whole life trying to protect you, but you’ve never needed it.”
“What can I say? Fire is pretty resilient.” She laughs lightly as she says it, trying to keep the mood up. Finally, he turns to look at her with a small smile. He kicks his feet out as he gets to his feet, using the wall as leverage.
“Yeah. You’re pretty awesome, sis.” With that, they dissolve back into silence.
By the time the other three ninja have arrived at the Temple, Kai has made good friends with the dragon, to his sister’s complete disbelief. While no longer living in fear of the reptiles, Nya still has a healthy caution of dragons. She’s not eager to play around with a dopey, trigger happy fire breather.
Abruptly, its mood shifts. It nudges them towards its back. Kai gets the memo first, climbing onto the dragon’s back and settling near the base of its neck. Nya rushes to follow him, watching in awe as the Temple floor moves to completely cover the magma.
Nya watches from her seat against the wall as her teammates reach the outside of the Temple doors, Cole leading the group. “Sensei! Nya!” They don’t enter the Temple, just lingering on the bridge.
“The Sword was here, as well as our friends. But I only sense loss. We are too late.” Zane’s voice carries through the cavern, melancholy and mournful. “The Elemental Weapons are now in the Underworld. The end is drawing near.”
“Great. The one place no mortal can cross over.”
“You might not be able to cross over, but a dragon can.” As if on cue, the great Temple walls split open, allowing the dragon to exit its confines with the siblings on its back, clinging to the rough scales as it takes its first jerky steps.
As it moves closer to the three ninja, Cole screams and darts out of the way, recoiling and hiding behind Jay and Zane. With how many dragons they had now faced, Nya had thought that his fear would diminish, at least a little, but now she could see that was not the case. Jay mumbles something in a horribly scratchy voice.
“He cannot talk, but he is questioning your identity.” Zane dutifully translates, looking up at the dragon with plain curiosity.
“He’s my brother.” Nya watches Jay shrink back a little, and whips her head to see her brother looking at him oddly. Kai looks back at her over his shoulder, back at Jay, and finally at her again, very pointedly. Nya decidedly keeps her mouth shut as Kai goes back to glaring at Jay.
“Anyways, Father used to tell us stories about dragons, mythical creatures that could ferry between worlds.” She pats the dragon’s upper front leg a few times. “I’d completely forgotten all the details of their powers.”
Cole lets out a maniacal giggle, stuttering over his words as he looks over Zane’s shoulder in pure dismay. Every time the dragon so much as breathes a little too heavily, he trembles and flinches. “Are you insane?!”
“Once he realised that you guys are trying to protect the Weapons, he became quite a softie.” Kai runs the back of a hand over the dragon’s neck, palm still blistered from his earlier contact with the Sword. With that, he slides off the dragon’s back with a sigh.
“For all that I don’t like letting you go on your own,” He stands by the dragon’s side, looking up at his sister. “I don’t think I’ll be much help on this field trip.”
“Yeah, I think this will be Elemental-exclusive, sorry.” Nya grins as he finally steps back, and her teammates come over to join her. Jay goes to situate himself behind her, but is stopped by a glare from Kai. Instead, he sits behind Zane, a respectful distance away from her. Nya openly rolls her eyes. “And I won’t be on my own, anyways.”
“Yeah, I expect the whole story of… this,” He gestures with his hand to their ragtag group before stepping back towards the open air over the stone bridge. “When you get back. I’ll keep a candle lit for you.”
Nya smiles at him, reaching down to shake his hand because he has gone too far for a hug. He taps her vambraces before she can pull away. “Stay safe down there.”
“You know what? You guys can go ahead, I’ll catch up to you.” Cole has retreated further backwards, still in terror of the dragon. Beside him, Kai looks on questioningly, and puts a hand on his shoulder as if to encourage him, saying, “You’ll be fine. Honestly, he wouldn’t hurt a fly.”
Cole twists to look at him in betrayal, even though there was no pre-existing loyalty between them. When he turns back to Nya, he gestures weakly. “There’s not enough room for all of us on that… thing.”
“I think I have a solution for that.”
***
“Ea-Easy,” Cole trembles as he clings for dear life to the Earth Guardian. It rumbles at him and takes a short dive downward, invoking another scream from its rider. “Not so fast!”
Nya outright laughs at him as her dragon flies past him. The morning air is refreshingly cool on her face, partially condensed into clouds due to their altitude. The rising sun illuminates the blue and white of the sky, providing an ethereal backdrop for the mystical creatures.
The other Guardians swoop past her, twirling through the air. Her own dragon barrel rolls, causing her to tighten her grip before it recenters itself. Jay’s dragon swoops underneath her own and he cheers loudly as it moves. “This is so awesome!”
“This is quite fun!” Zane’s dragon is less rambunctious than Jay’s, each reflective of their personalities. It still churns through the air gracefully, twisting and twirling as Zane holds tightly to its back. The dragons weave in and out of formation, free to spread their wings after years of remaining in their Guardianship positions.
“How exactly do they cross into the Underworld?” Cole manages when his dragon pulls up to fly beside Nya’s. He is still clinging hard to it, but looks marginally less like he’s going to pass out. Perhaps he’s finally getting used to them.
“I’m not sure. I still don’t remember all the details of my Father’s stories.” Nya’s not convinced that she remembers any of the details of her Father’s story. Privately, she wonders if the voice she vaguely remembers even belonged to the man.
“Well, it seems that we are about to find out.” Suddenly, the dragons fall into a synchronized dive, gaining speed at a break-neck pace. As they go hurtling towards the ground, Nya finds herself blinking spots out of her eyes.
The dragons start spinning, increasing their speed as they plunge closer to the ground. They are suddenly enveloped in tornado-like blazes of their elements, very similar to Spinjitzu. She feels panic rising in her throat as the dragons show no sign of slowing down. In fact, it seems as though the dragons are planning to hit the ground, hard.
Just when Nya accepts her imminent death, she finds the pace slowing abruptly. When she opens her eyes, she sees that they are in a narrow tunnel lined in purple cracks and stalagmites.
“Is it over?”
“Unlikely! These dragons better know what they’re doing!” The dragon speeds up once more, twisting around the obstacles in their flight path. At a fork, her dragon flies left before rejoining the others when the road realigns
Bursts of flame illuminate the passage, allowing her to see her fellow ninja and their dragon. Zane waves easily at her, mostly unaffected by the increasing speed. Jay’s dragon flies above her upside down, leaving them a moment to grin at each other briefly.
The dragons, impossibly, speed up even more, leaving Nya holding on for dear life. All of a sudden, the speed halts abruptly as the dragons skid to a stop. The ninja are launched forward off their dragons, tumbling to the ground in a heap of limbs.
Cole lets out a thrilled laugh from his place at the bottom of the pile. He starfishes out on his stomach gleefully. “Solid ground. We made it!”
As they untangle themselves from their dogpile, Nya looks out over the Underworld. The ledge they sit at overlooks a series of floating islands, connected by rickety wooden bridges. The islands are inhabited by the Skulkin, and their vehicles litter the rocky platforms.
She stares down into the abyss, past the jagged islands and feels like the world is rapidly growing around her.
Settled on one of the bottom-most islands, a castle-like building is built out of rock and bone. It is simplistically ornate, and its drawbridge is decorated like a rib cage. It instills a deep dread inside her.
“Sensei is inside.” Zane points at the very building she had been looking at. They watch in silence as skeletons slowly filter in through the front entrance, each one being stopped and searched before they’re allowed entry.
“Seems like they’re expecting us.” Cole leads them down underneath one of the islands, clinging on to and jumping between stalactites on the bottom of the islands. Nya’s heart falls out of her chest when the bottom of the stalactite she was holding splinters and breaks off from the island, falling onto the island below.
It crashes to the floor and breaks apart, but luckily, does not alert the skeletons. Her next jump takes her to a different structure with a different give. Jay begins mumbling about something, and Cole sighs.
“Can I be the first to say it's been an absolute pleasure since Jay lost his voice?”
“I don’t know, I’ve gotten used to his constant chatter.” Cole rolls his eyes at her endeared tone, while Jay waves frantically at them. They finally look over and follow what he is pointing at. Nya looks up at the structure that she’s holding onto, and almost passes out from disgust.
“Ew!” The huge spiders stare down at them, fangs dripping venom. She immediately lets go, rather risking death by falling than being eaten by a giant arachnid. The boys also let go, screaming as they fall through the open nothingness.
They hit the group hard, notifying the Skulkin of their presence. As the skeletons turn to face them, the ninja jump to their feet.
“Uh…” One of the Skulkin begins, and when Nya looks over, she sees that it's one of the henchmen that originally captured her brother. He’s with the other henchman, and nudges him. “If there’s more than one ninja, is it ‘ninjas’ or just ‘ninja’?”
“I think it's just ‘ninja’.”
“Oh, okay. Then,” the skeleton takes a deep, deep breath, and then shrieks out at an ear shattering volume “NINJA!”
Immediately, the skeletons begin to descend on the four. Nya unsheaths her sword and stands back to back with her team. She rapidly evaluates the number of Skulkin, as well as their likely abilities. She readies her sword and falls easily into a fighting stance.
“I count ten boneheads to each of us.” Cole brandishes his scythe. “I think I like these odds!”
As if to mock him, the Spykor begin to sink down towards them on webs. Their long, spiny legs move eerily as they descend, and their venomous jaws click together and expand. Their legs tap against the stone as they come to a rest. Nya cringes back.
“Uh oh. I think the scales are tilting.” She raises her sword in front of her, slashing at a leg that gets too close to her. The spider hisses, withdrawing its stump of a leg and skittering away. Jay turns to her suddenly, bouncing in his excitement, mumbling something that Nya can’t understand.
“You feel a weird sensation?”
“You ate an odd crustacean?”
“Two natives on vacation? What are you talking about?”
Looking furious, Jay inhales sharply before shouting. “Tornado of Creation!”
“Your voice is back!” Nya’s exclamation is backlit by sounds of understanding, and Zane nods in congratulations. Cole furrows his brows, clearly hesitating.
“But it could lead to disastrous consequences!”
Nya waves her sword to indicate the sheer magnitude of their situation, Skulkin and Spykor rapidly closing in on them. Jay snaps his nunchucks at a skeleton who had encroached too close, and Zane embeds his shurikens in the body of a Spykor. “What’s more disastrous than this?”
“Alright. Let’s do this.” Cole twists into Spinjitzu, his dark cloud of dirt rising from the ground and beginning a slow circle around the other three ninja. “Earth!”
Nya is quick to perform her own Spinjitzu. Though not her first successful execution, its not far off. The sudden burst of red across her vision is still foreign to her, but she has quickly gotten the hang of it. “Fire!”
She watches two more tornadoes explode from where her friends stand. “Ice!” “Lightning!”
They spin around each other in a slow circle before their cyclones begin bleeding into each other. The reddened vision quickly fades into pure white light as their tornado grows to stand a hundred feet tall. Their orbit draws in everything around them, churning bodies, bones, and weapons into the cloud.
“Ninja, go!”
They tear through all the obstacles, tearing up the rib-cage structure of the drawbridge, and when the tornado finally subsides, the ninja are left staring up at a ferris wheel. The thing holds all the Skulkin warriors, slowly twirling around.
“Let’s move.” The ninja race to where the building once stood. They find a long spiralling staircase going down into the rocky ground of the island. They rush down the stairs, which seem to go on forever. At the bottom, it opens into a throne room.
On one of the rocky platforms, Sensei Wu wields the Sword of Fire, holding his own against Samukai, who wields the other three Golden Weapons. Garmadon, much scarier out of shadow-form, sits casually on a throne made of bones and watches them fight.
“Sensei!” The ninja move to help Wu as Samukai swipes at him with the Scythe of Quakes. Wu slices the Sword underneath Samukai’s jaw, inches away from beheading it.
Nya thinks of the short conversation she had with Wu before he went into the Underworld alone, and puts her arm in front of the others. When they look at her questioningly, she only says, “Let him fight his own fight.”
Wu releases a burst of flames with the sword, but Samukai easily dodges. It throws the Shurikens at Wu, knocking the sword out of his hand and freezing it to the ground. Unarmed, Wu pulls in vain at the Sword.
Nya is just beginning to rethink her own decision when Samukai sends a bolt of lightning at their teachers, but instead hits the Sword. It gives the Sword enough mobility that Wu is able to tear it from the ground, and he braces for another attack in a deep crouch.
Samukai cackles as he brings the Scythe down directly into the rock platform, dividing the sparring ground into thirds. Wu is momentarily knocked down to his knees as the segmented platforms begin to drift apart.
Back on his feet, Wu attempts to bridge the gap between the moving platforms and flips through the air. Mid-movement, Samukai raises the Nunchucks and a bolt of electricity knocks the Sword out of his grasp.
The Sword flings through the air, landing several paces from Samukai’s feet. Wu is knocked down on the ground, causing a visceral reaction. Nya barely prevents herself from darting into the fight. Wu gasps in horror as Samukai lumbers over and retrieves the sword in his fourth hand.
Garmadon watches from his throne with a menacing smile. He raises an arm and beckons Samukai to him. “Bring me the Four Weapons.”
Armed with all four weapons and emboldened by its own success, Samukai smiles meanly. He turns sharply to Garmadon, brandishing the spoils of his fight. “No, you will obey me!”
Garmadon pouts mockingly for a moment, before breaking into a grin. He laughs, the same low timbre that Nya had heard in the cave, that brings shivers down her spine and fear in her heart. He raises a hand once more and beckons.
The weapons in all four of Samukai’s hands begin to trash about as though they were sentient beings, twisting and turning in an attempt to break its grasp. The ninja watch as it loses the battle as Master Wu joins them at their sides.
“No one can handle all of their power at once.”
“Selfish fool.” Garmadon says pityingly, handing his head on his hand, not moving from the skeletal throne. “Did you think I wouldn’t plan on your betrayal?”
“What’s- happening to me? ”Samukai suddenly falls to its knees as the Weapons go berserk, fighting to maintain its hold on the four Weapons. They try to rip themselves from its grasp, rattling him around and causing its bones to clank together.
“You’ve fallen right into my master plan.” Garmadon gestures to himself, faux humbly. “Not even I can handle all of that power! Now that they’re combined, it will create a vortex through space and time!”
Garmadon violently signs his words as he says them, watching gleefully as Samukai loses control. Samukai lets out a scream as it suddenly begins floating, before it violently explodes, leaving the Golden Weapons behind. “Allowing me to finally escape this ghastly prison!”
The Golden Weapons fall into a heap on the ground, and a massive portal appears before them. Garmadon, practically glowing with his success, meanders over to stand before the portal. Wu leans forward, reaching for his evil counterpart. “Father would not want you to do this, Brother.”
“Father is no longer here!” Garmadon spits as the portal charges behind him, electrically crackling as the swirl grows blindingly bright. “There has always been a balance of Good and Evil. Where I do, the balance can be destroyed.”
Garmadon’s wild grin is barely visible through the flashing glare of the portal. Nya can no longer look, shielding her eyes from the flashing whiteness of the portal as Garmadon continues talking.
“Soon, I will be strong enough to possess the Four Weapons, so I can recreate the world in my own image!” He laughs maniacally, and points at Wu. “You. You always were his favourite.”
With nothing else to say, Nya can just make out Garmadon as he turns to face the portal. As he disappears into the line, the cone-shaped portal disappears, and Garmadon escapes the wretched horror of the Underworld.
The ninja stand in silence for a long moment after the tunnel to the Overworld disappears. Without speaking, they jump over to where the Four Weapons lay on the floor. Wu bows his head. “He is gone, but he will return.”
“We’ll be waiting for him.” Nya says, retrieving the Sword of Fire. She looks over at the place where Garmadon had disappeared through, and pushes down the anger about letting him escape. This fight feels more than personal now.
“And we’ll keep an eye out for any more of his evil plans.” Cole slings the Scythe over his shoulder as Zane tucks away his Shurikens and Jay twirls the electrified Nunchucks. The four come together to face Wu as he imparts a final bit of wisdom.
“Then I have done my part.” Wu stands with his hands clasped behind him. “The balance is restored… For now.”
“So, um. How do we get out of here?”
***
When they touch down outside of Four Weapons, the sky is lit up in yellow and orange from the sunset, the same as it was when Wu had first visited the Forge.
The Forge itself has been cleaned up a little, the sign has been mended and redisplayed, and the water tower has returned to its former place overlooking the courtyard. Much of the exterior is still scraped up, but Nya can see the hearth aglow.
“Nya!” Kai rushes out to meet them as Nya’s dragon touches down at the foot of the path towards greater Ignacia. As soon as her feet hit the ground, Kai sweeps her into a crushing hug, lifting her back off the ground. Nya indulges him for a moment, just as glad to have him back.
When she finally pulls away, the other ninja have also landed. Nya’s dragon snuffs his nose against Kai’s cheek, sparking another smile and a pet from a bandaged hand. “Hey buddy.”
With a sigh, he pulls Nya into another hug. “I’m so happy you’re safe. And back home.”
“For now.” Nya tells him reluctantly, looking around at the crowd of Ignacian villagers that have gathered around them, cheering at her return. “What’s with all the foot traffic?”
“Turns out a skeleton invasion has inspired people to become a little more protected.” Kai says with a grin, showing her a dagger that has their Father’s trademark on the butt of the hilt. She spots several villagers holding similar models. “And luckily, I’ve had a sudden uptick in my smithing capabilities.”
“Whew. It’s not even curly!” Nya examines the dagger closely, and is shocked at the swift improvement.
“Well. It may not be useful for the ‘art of stealth,’” He mocks as the other ninja draw closer, and he glares jokingly at Jay. “But it’ll do for the villagers of Ignacia.” The townspeople let out a sudden applause, as if confirming the sentiment.
“And they’ll want to be protected. Lord Garmadon will return.” Nya tells him regretfully, and the townspeople react with appropriate horror. Cole quickly speaks up to quell their fears, putting his hand on Kai’s shoulder to provide a united front. “But we’ll be ready for him.”
The fears are quickly extinguished, and the townspeople cheer again. Nya raises her Sword, indulging her pride just a little. Her friends raise their own weapons in celebratory congratulations. As the weapons clink together, the world spins.
Suddenly flat on her back, and the wind knocked out of her, Nya stares at the Sword in her hand. She sits up to see all of the boys, including Kai, also spread out on their backs. “Eugh. We’ve got to remember not to do that again.”
Cole groans as he rolls onto his side. “Good idea.”
“We’ll stick to high fives instead.” Jay helps her to her feet as Zane shakes his head rapidly, blinking as if clearing his thoughts. This Ice Master finally climbs to his feet and dusts off his white gi. “Agreed.”
Upon the uproarious laughter, he looks around confusedly. “Did I make a joke?”
Nya feels warm with pride, and despite the threat of Garmadon looming over her future, finds unadulterated joy in the present. Surrounded by friends and family, she thinks that she could face anything.
Looking at the glow of the hearth within the Forge, Nya feels her own inner fire grow. Gripping her mask in one hand and her Sword in the other, she finds herself excited for the next opportunity for Good to triumph over Evil.