"If I ever see another cat again," the Master of Lightning muttered. "It'll be too soon."
A young man with startling bright, neon-green hair voiced a bitter laugh. "I'll spit on the next cat I see!"
"Uh, that may not be a good idea." The blond woman grinned. "You may accidentally spew toxic waste on one of us instead, acid-mouth."
A small group of people were drifting wearily through a pine forest warm and sunny with summer. There was no obvious path to see for the casual onlooker, yet these strangely-adorned people seemed to know where they were going. They wore bright-colored, uniquely-designed clothing that didn't seem to be part of a theme, yet somehow they matched one another. The young man with the bright green hair wore yellow and green robes matching his hair, complete with a leather belt strapped stylishly around his waist with a couple of odd-looking glass orbs dangling from it, carrying some kind of dark, evil-looking liquid. His face and body were strangely splattered by some neon-green marks, as if he had spilled paint on himself, and his eyes glittered eerily with the same color.
His few companions were not quite so odd-looking, but they still had their traits which would make them stand out from a crowd; the blond woman had jagged, bright blue designs zig-zagging on her elegant robes like lightning while a dark-haired woman around her age wore a dirt-brown, gi-like uniform on her slim figure.
There were others in the party, but they were drawing ahead and into the trees, their figures slipping between the leaning trunks. It was obvious that these people were utterly exhausted. Their clothes were torn, bandages were wrapped messily over legs, shoulders, arms, and faces, and most of them were limping. They might have been a pitiful army utterly defeated, but a faint air of defiance and triumph the group shared suggested that the defeat was not theirs.
A woman with an unkempt appearance brushed a curly strand of hair out of her dirt-stained face. Unlike her companions, she walked barefoot and wore simple, peasant-like clothing that was wrinkled, ragged, and smelled a bit funny. Carrying a sturdy old oak staff, she glanced back at the group grimly. "I think we'll all be glad to never see another cat again. After all that, I think I will forever remain a dog person."
"And a horse girl. And tree-hugger. Basically an all-around hippie," the blond woman quipped cheerfully.
"Well, I am the Master of Nature, aren't I?" The older woman rolled her eyes. "Come on. Wu and Garmadon will be waiting for us, and the sooner we get back to tell them what happened, the better."
The group fell quiet. The blond-haired girl's easy smile faded. As the others pushed their way through the undergrowth ahead, she looked back at the straggling girl behind her.
Out of all of the Elementals, the Master of Earth looked to be the weariest of them all. Perhaps it was because while her companies walked with a tired yet determined stride, her pace was weak and downcast. Perhaps it was because her long dark hair had fallen free of its hairband and braid in disarray, or maybe it was because of the stained bandages wrapped across the palms of her hands and her torn clothing. Or, it could have been the bleak look in her eyes. Whatever the case, she stood as the picture of defeat.
The Master of Lightning hesitated, then sided over to the silent girl. Resting a hand on her shoulder, she asked tentatively, "Everything OK, Arianna?"
For a moment it looked as if Arianna Lilly hadn't heard her. Then she let loose a small sigh. "I'm all right, Julia."
"No, you're not," Julia retorted. "I know Raven Frost did something to you back there. He nearly gave you the Dark Sleep. Or at least something like it." She hesitated, then said gently, "Tell me what happened."
Arianna didn't answer.
"Please?" Julia prompted.
Arianna bit her lip and stared at the grass. Tugging wretchedly at the folds of her brown and black uniform, she whispered, "I— I can't."
Julia scowled, half with irritation, half with sincere concern. "Matilda, tell Arianna she can't keep this to herself forever! She's been like this ever since we escaped the caves."
The teenage girl wearing a dirt-stained, medieval green dress frowned and walked out of the shade of the clump of pine trees. Her long brown drifted behind her elegantly, though she slightly limped from an unseen wound. Her face was young and pretty, and her almond-brown eyes glittered in the sunlight.
Young Matilda Ravencroft laid a hand gently on her friend's shoulder. "Raven Frost gave you a vision, didn't he?"
Arianna started and stared at Matilda in surprise. The latter arched an eyebrow and said, "I'm not stupid. That monster did something to you, didn't he? He made you afraid of something."
"'Afraid'?" Arianna sputtered indignantly, attempting—without avail—to disguise her fear. "Since when have I been afraid of anything?"
"What about the lizard incident?" Julia quipped innocently.
Arianna cast her a quick glare. "I thought we agreed to never talk about that."
"Nevertheless," Matilda snorted. "Something has you as scared as a cornered mouse, and there is no way either Julia or I will not stop pestering you about it until you tell us exactly what happened down there."
Arianna bit her lip and looked at the two young women both staring intently at her. "Oh, for crying out loud!" she finally exclaimed in exasperation. "Fine. I'll talk." Nervously she twirled her hair between her fingers and sighed, "You know that huge moonstone we broke back in the caves? Well..."
She pulled out three beautiful stones of a compound of light and dark silver, blue, and purple colors that glimmered in the afternoon sunshine. "I found some of the pieces, and I kept them. This way the tribes can't rebuild their stone and get their powers from their ancestors."
"You don't actually believe that mumbo-jumbo, do you?!" Julia exclaimed incredulously. "That stone isn't magic. Those crazy cats just worship it and stuff because it glows once in a while!"
"And what would you know about magic, young Master of Lightning?" Matilda commented dryly.
"Oh, so do you believe that their moonstone is magic?" Julia challenged hotly.
The witch raised her eyebrows, but didn't reply.
"Look, what if the werecats want revenge for what we did?" Arianna interjected. "We killed a lot of their people—"
"They killed a lot of our people!" Julia interjected angrily.
Arianna ignored her. "And even if it takes decades for them to recover from the damage done, they may want to strike back in the future. That's why I took a few of the moonstone pieces. They can't get their ancestors' powers if the moonstone has lost some of the pieces and they can't connect to them."
Julia opened her mouth to say something—probably something sarcastic about the werecats' magic—but Arianna held out the stones in her palm to them. "I want you to take one of them. And you, too," she added to Matilda. "I can't carry them all with me, and I know they'll be safe with you. If they ever come after me and get one of the stones, at least you two will still have one each to keep away from them."
Julia frowned. "'Come after'—? Don't you think you're being a little dramatic? Arianna, we've won! We totally kicked their furry feline butts! It's over, finished! Badda-bing, badda-boom, a job well-done! Those punks are now the literal definition of 'scaredy-cat'!"
"Please," Arianna murmured.
Julia's smirk wilted and she stared at Arianna as if seeing her for the first time. "You're really scared they're going to come after you, aren't you?"
Julia was a bit shaken by Arianna's pleading expression. It was so unlike her to look so weary and frightened, especially after winning a battle. Usually the Master of Earth was the first to whoop with victory and share a high-five with Julia and the other jubilant teammates. Arianna was not a person easily intimidated or cowed, and her enemies respected her for her unique ability to manipulate the earth and her startling super-strength. She was a great, powerful warrior, and a valuable asset to the Elemental Alliance.
This time, though, she had been strangely subdued ever since the victory over the tribe of werecats. She didn't celebrate with the others, and she responded with weak, half-hearted smiles whenever someone congratulated her on her hard-fought victories, which were a key element in defeating their shape-shifting enemies. She had been eerily quiet and dispirited ever since the winning battle.
Julia had found her in a dazed, trembling state of shock after her vicious duel with the bakeneko-nekomata crossbreed sorcerer, Raven Frost. The latter had disappeared, and he was assumed by the other Masters to have been killed after Arianna had wounded him. Obviously something had happened in the cave where she and Raven Frost had fought.
Slowly, Julia took one of the moonstones from Arianna's open palm. She slipped it into one of the pockets of her bright blue robes while Matilda took the second moonstone. With the three minerals evenly divided, Arianna stuck the third back into her own pocket. "Thank you."
Julia and Matilda shared a glance, then the young witch turned to Arianna and said gently, "Tell us what Raven Frost showed you."
Arianna and Matilda gazed at each other for a long, long moment. The latter's expression was quite serious, and the former looked to be fighting herself to decide what to do. Julia looked at both and refrained from commenting on how long this was taking.
Finally Arianna crossed her arms and sighed. "Raven Frost gave one of those vision-spells—you know, like a miniature version of the Dark Sleep. It probably lasted for like a couple of minutes, but it was enough." She took a shuddering breath. "I saw people around our ages—maybe a little younger—being tortured. They were crying and screaming in their sleep, and they seemed to be in pain. I— I saw..."
She hesitated before continuing. Matilda and Julia watched her intently.
"I saw a boy with an arrow in his side. He reminded me of Ray. I saw a girl with red hair struggling in a snowstorm. I saw another boy who looked like Garmadon. He was wounded and being attacked again and again by something. Then..." She bit her lip. "I saw more and more people like that, and then I saw a young man who— who looked like Lou. He was screaming—he was in pain, and his clothes were all torn up. Raven Frost— he— he said that it was the future. That he and the Moon Tribe would one day take vengeance for what we did to them by..."
At this her quivering voice fell to a hush. "By going after our 'offspring'. I think— I think the boy I saw screaming was my son."
Startled, Matilda and Julia shared an astonished glance. Matilda opened her mouth to say something, but Julia beat her to it. "Our—?! Have you been taking crazy pills?! That—that's insane!" She sputtered uneasily. "Raven Frost probably made that up! You know what big liars those things are."
"Yes, they are the biggest liars in all of Ninjago. Do you know why?" Matilda interjected grimly. "Because they take the truth and morph it into something hideous. They play on your deepest fears, and they use a little bit of truth to their advantage. The most deceitful, convincing lies are the ones with truth in them, and that makes them all the harder to decipher.
"Arianna," she said. "Maybe the Moon Tribe will one day rise up and seek vengeance, but that doesn't mean they'll succeed in targeting our descendants and making them suffer. Raven Frost could have taken a real scene from the future when he showed you your son, but perhaps he wasn't actually being tortured, or maybe he had merely stepped in a fire ant hill, and the sorcerer had enhanced that vision to make it look like a nightmare."
Arianna's eyebrows furrowed. "But what if it wasn't a lie?"
Julia looked uncharacteristically lost for words. Arianna stared down at the ground, drained and spent. Matilda gazed at both girls thoughtfully, looking troubled. "The warrior who spends too much time looking to the future will lose their sense of the present, blind to where they're going and they'll end up stepping in dog doo if they're not careful."
Julia stared at Matilda in surprise and twisted her mouth oddly, looking as if she was fighting a spurt of laughter.
"Arianna, we're all a long, long way from having kids, even getting married. Whatever may happen in the future, you need to focus on what's happening now. You can't be worrying about a kid you haven't even given birth to yet when there are rumors of war on the rise, and Ninjago needs all of the Elemental Masters to work together to defend it.
"So let there be no more talk about werecats and crying children," she concluded firmly. "We need you now, Master of Earth. Don't worry so much about what's to come. You're clever enough to be prepared for it. You're going to be fine. We all will."
Her friend smiled gratefully. "Thanks, Matilda."
Matilda gave a small smile. "We ought to catch up with the others."
Thus the three girls pushed their way through the undergrowth and worked on following their team. Matilda glanced at the two elementals, and her thoughts drifted off as they drifted through the forest. The young witch tried to push away a feeling of uneasiness. It was unnerving how shaken Arianna had been by the vision Raven Frost had given her... Matilda had seen the effects of the Dark Sleep more times than she cared to recall, but it was quite hard to get used to it. A simple nap could transform the strongest, most fearless and formidable warrior into a quivering, blubbering baby at best. Defeating the werecats had been a miracle, considering all the lives they had taken and the damage done to the survivors. She wasn't keen on seeing those ruthless creatures rise up again.
Surely they won't come back for revenge? Matilda couldn't help but feel a little anxious at the thought of their enemies' rage. Surely... why, it would take years, maybe decades for the tribes to recover.
Her thoughts drifted to that of Arianna's haunting vision. How strange to think that one day they might have children to carry on their legacies. Arianna and Julia are practically children themselves, but of course it would be ridiculous to assume that they—as well as myself—will remain teenagers forever.
Matilda stifled a sigh. I'll miss them. I'll miss all of them, especially my friends. But I can't keep doing this forever. Sooner or later, I must return to where I came from.
I wonder, though, if I'll ever get to see their children...