The Elemental Masters fly on their Dragons back to Ninjago, their dragons roaring loudly and flying over the sea.
"Chen and his Anacondrai army have a day's start on us. Be prepared for anything and everything." Lloyd says, glancing behind him since he was in the front.
Lacey flew behind him, Sage roaring quietly with Lloyd's dragon. They were probably communicating in their dragon language, flirting maybe. Lacey swears she once saw them nuzzling when she and Lloyd had landed somewhere.
Kai furrowed his brows. "How did we lose so much time?" He questions, they had left a few hours after Chen escaped. Skylar sat behind him, her tail tucked in and looking towards the city.
Garmadon was sat behind Lloyd, looking out in the distance towards Ninjago City.
All Lacey saw was water, with Ninjago City up ahead, but she could barely see it. Lloyd was right, Chen did have a day's ahead start on them. They needed to be quicker before Ninjago succumbed to another Serpentine War, worse then last time.
Dareth sighs and shakes his head. "You know, you took an oath never to leave a man behind." He states.
Jay nods, ignoring the Brown Ninja. "And we're not all quick learners. Mastering your fear to create Power Dragons takes time." He responds to his friends.
"Well, we're running out of that. There's Ninjago City. Hurry." Nya said, sitting behind Jay, her arms wrapped around him. Which may or may not have been feeling his muscles.
"Hurry's my middle name. Hyah!" Griffin yells before he commands his dragon to hurry forward. No pun intended.
They all enter Ninjago City, the buildings as high as up as they were. The citizens of Ninjago all gaped at them, staring at all the different and colorful Dragons with awe and confusion.
A white haired girl, no little then 10 or 11 stared at the Dragons with a bit of envy and hatred. She glared at them, her eyes landing on a certain master of earth and the Green Ninja.
Her eyes go to the Guardian Ninja, pursuing her lips.
Lloyd looks at the elementals.
"Remember, whatever happens down there, we're stronger united. We fight as one." He commands as the leader, dominance coming off of him in waves.
Jay nods. "Let's do this!" He yells, flying and zipping through the city.
The crowd gasps all around, staring at the dragons.
Kai lands his Dragon, and a woman sees Skylor. "Serpentine!" She yells. Everyone screams and panics, running around the city in fear.
Lacey sighs, landing next to them. Sage growls. "Ugh, some things never change." She chuckles, shaking her head in amusement.
Skylor covers her face. "I wish I still had the power to change." She hisses out, sitting behind Kai. He looks at her with gentle eyes.
"You have changed. You're with us now."
An Old woman honks her car horn. "Could you be a dear and move your Dragon? Thank you, young man." She says and rolls forward with her car.
"If we're the first ones they've seen, where's Chen and why hasn't he attacked?" Garmadon asks loudly, looking around the city for the crazy man.
"We have to get you and my father off the streets before we alarm everyone." Lloyd spoke up, looking at Skylor.
"Everyone else," Lacey calls out, also taking the lead. "Stick together and watch over the people." She ordered loudly for the other elementals to hear and follow. The others immediately take initiative and take off.
Lacey watched them go, glancing at the redhead.
Skylor notices her hand is going back to normal.
.............
The ninja, Garmadon, and Skylor enter the Samurai X Cave. The Falcon screeches and lands on Zane's arm.
Zane smiles as they all moved forward. "And hello to you, my old friend."
Lacey smiles, letting out a content sigh as the cold air conditioner air of the Samurai X-Cave hit her. She felt at home, being back in Ninjago.
"Meow..."
"Oh, great." Lloyd mutters, watching as a familar black cat lunges at Lacey who catches the female kitten in her arms, nuzzling it. He rolls his eyes.
Wu smiles widely. "Ah. You're all back. Zane, look at you. You're all...shiny." He let out a laugh.
Misako smiles before frowning. "But where's your father?" She asks Lloyd, pulling away from Lacey as the two had been previously hugging.
"It's me, Misako."
Misako gasps, staring at her husband with wide eyes. His skin was purple with a long tail, his fangs sharp and long.
"Told you, same body...." Jay sings quietly. Lacey immediately elbows him.
"Brat,"
"Idiot,"
"Jib jab."
"That's not even a real word!" Jay grumbles and the two start pushing each other. But they meant no harm, Lacey was always closer to Jay when she was younger.
"Don't worry. We have a reason to believe the spell may be wearing off." Skylor told them, darting her eyes around the room.
Kai nods, ignoring the banter between the blue Ninja and the Sorceress. "But if that's true, it only makes Chen more desperate to act now. Everyone, this is Skylor, Chen's daughter." He introduced, pulling her forward.
Misako gave her a warm smile. "You're amongst friends, Skylor." She wraps her in a short but friendly hug.
Garmadon turn to his brother. "Thank you for looking after my Misako." He put a hand on his shoulder.
Wu nods. "As any good brother should."
Garmadon drops his hand. "Yes. A good brother." He mutters quietly, thinking back to the letter.
Lacey frowns, she moves forward but Garmadon doesn't look at her, he instead looks at Misako longingly. She pursues her lips. Something told her that this wouldn't end well.
Lloyd shakes his head, impatiently walking towards the computer system. "There isn't much time. Our friends are on standby but we don't know where Chen will strike first." He sighs, glancing at his girlfriend who stood next to him.
"And if we're not all there to stop him when he first attacks..." Cole trails off, a worried look on his face.
"Don't worry, we'll stop him." Lacey pauses, "I hope."
Jay scoffs. "That's reassuring." He gave her a sarcastic smile but Lacey only sticks her to tongue out.
The two then share a small snicker before Jay pats her head lovingly. She playfully glares at him.
Garmadon stares at the map. "Ninjago will succumb to war. Our greatest fear will come true."
"Then the greatest victory will be that which has no battle." Wu qoutes, stroking his beard. Another one of his wise quotes.
"But how do we prevent a war?" Jay questioned, looking around in confusion. "How do we stop an enemy we know so little about?"
The Falcon flies over to a screen, opening an image of Kryptarium Prison.
Wu smiles faintly. "We find someone who does."
"Yay," Lacey says sarcastically, remembering a certain purple snake she would have loved to punch.
Tiny punk.
_
_
_
They all took their dragons, Wu sat with Lloyd while Garmadon sat with Lacey. The other four trailed behind them with their Dragons.
"If you want romantic advice, I doubt I could give you any."
Garmadon looked at the blue eyed girl who had spoken up. She continues, "I mean, I've only been dating Lloyd for like a year, or two. Months maybe, even. And sure we may have been together at, well, you know..." she trails off. "But I doubt I know anything about marriage."
Garmadon doubts that. He let out a sigh. "I don't want to talk to her about it, the fear is draining me. But my brother, I'm afraid of what he'll say. I took his letter and gave it to Misako with my name on it."
The wind was heavy and they were far away from the others, all spread out so nobody could hear them. Lacey hums.
"I'm a horrible brother." Garmadon frowns, looking towards Wu. "I've lied, deceived, plundered and tried to take over Ninjago multiple times."
Lacey only stared ahead, Sage roaring softly as they flew towards their destination. The air blew her hair around, the light tendrils all blowing behind her.
Lloyd glanced at her, his eyebrows furrowed with a small smile on his face. He hadn't noticed before that she had a few golden blonde stray hairs on her head.
"I'm a horrible person." Garmadon put his head in his hands. "I left Lloyd and sided with the Overlord. Not to mention the Serpentine."
"No."
"What?" Garmadon says with a sigh, looking at her. He felt his heart beating faster, his head hurting from all the stress.
"No, your not a bad person." Lacey shakes her head. She hums, thinking over everything that happened the last two or three years. "Your not a bad person Sensei G, I mean, sure you did bad stuff but that was because of the Venom."
She turns her dragon to the right, following after her boyfriend and the man who raised her.
"The venom in your blood caused all the pain and suffering, not you. Deep down, there was still you but like a alter ego, or something like that." She rolls her eyes but turns serious. "We all have a bad side, even me. I might even turn into a baddie one day but no one really knows of the future. Did you know that you were going to be bitten, no? Right?" She shakes her head. Her grip on the reins tightened.
"You didn't know, no one did. It was fate. Fate decided that, but you chose to fight it, you were against the Serpentine and stood with your brother even when you had the evil in your veins, pressuring you. I mean, you resisted against it. Yeah, you did some pretty, mind my language, pretty shitty stuff but above all, you stood with us."
She smiles, remembering the time of the four armed, black skinned and red eyed man who had helped them, just to save his son.
"Even when you were evil, you stood by us, wanting to help Lloyd. And you saved him, even though you were evil, and yeah, you tried to take over Ninjago but you still loved Lloyd more then anything. You love Lloyd more than anything and tried to fight the Overlord against yourself to save Lloyd. That says a lot. Your not evil, you never were."
"Everyone has a good day and a bad day. You've just had more bad days then the rest of us, but your good now. And you regretted everything, resentful of your dark days. If you were truly evil, you wouldn't be regretful of it. Your not a bad person, your just a person that has had bad stuff happened too." She smiles, looking behind her.
Garmadon stared at her, his eyes glistening with sheer fondness. His chocolate brown eyes glossed over with tears but he blinked them away.
Lacey laughs nervously, looking back at the front. "What?"
"You know, I've always wanted a daughter." He states, moving closer and wrapping her in his warm embrace.
Lacey immediately blushed, Her cheeks turning red. She smiled a small smile, her eyes beaming with joy. She had finally, perhaps, won over Garmadon.
..............
"Kryptarium Prison. Home of Ninjago's worst of the worst." Garmadon states, getting off Lacey's dragon.
Cole frowns in confusion. "I don't get it. Who's gonna help us here?" He hops off his dragon, looking around the sandy destination where the prison was stationed at.
"If one must learn how to fight a snake, one must talk to one first." Wu says, staring at the prison intently.
Noble sighs, guiding the Ninjas and the Senseis through the prison. "Sorry I had to confiscate your weapons. Here we try to foster what I call an environment of encouragement."
"I'll rattle your bones, Warden." Kruncha snaps, frowm his cell he moves to the bar to get a closer look.
Noble nods. "Very creative, Frakjaw. Love the puns."
Soto turns to them. "Pajama Men!" He yells.
Noble chuckled. "Easy, Soto. I'm the captain of this ship. Haha. Ninja ain't popular around these parts, considering you put most of them behind bars, hmm. But who you're looking for, he hates ninja the most. Last cell on the left." He points out before waking away.
Pythor, as Rodrigo says, "Hmm, why yes, Pythor, this may very well be the greatest cup of tea you've steeped." His voice is deep but sqeaky. Back to normal voice. "Oh, you flatter me, Rodrigo, but do go on." He smiles. He say in a small chair in a room, seemingly.
"We need your help." Lloyd appears in the window while Lacey tries not to laugh, Jay had no problem and snickered at the tiny snake in the dollhouse.
Pythor gasps and sqeaks. "Help you? The ninja? You fed me to the Devourer, defeated every army I've aligned with, even forced me to swallow your shrinking pill! Haven't you done enough damage to my diminishing ego?" Cole turns over his cell, which is actually a dollhouse. Pythor screams.
"Well played. I suppose this is about that culturally insensitive noodle baron and his ilk that are now Anacondrai. Impostors, if you ask me." The purple said with a roll of his eyes.
Jay nods, bending closer to him. "You are the last remaining Anacondrai. You must know how to stop them."
Pythor scoffs and looks away, crossing his arms. "I'm not going to say another word until you can figure out how to make me big. And don't ask me to trust a ninja."
Garmadon moves closer. "Would you trust a snake?"
Pythor blinks in shock. "Garma-Condrai? Oh, now my interest is piqued. Let's make a deal, shall we?"
Lacey raised an eyebrow.
"I thought you should be aware that someone has been poking around at the Kryptarium database with an interest in your, shall I say, little friend." Pixal informs.
Zane frowns. "Chen?"
"I don't know, but be on your guard. You may be expecting unannounced visitors."
........
An invisible Anacondrai Cultist hands the guard a pair of binoculars.
"Thanks." He sees Kapau waving to him. "Huh?" He is knocked unconscious.
Noble looks up to see a floating prisoner's outfit. "Ooh, that's strange." He tries to turn on the alarm, but was stopped by Kapau.
Chope chuckls. "So gullible. Everyone knows there's no such thing as ghosts." He takes the keys. Liar.
Pythor is explaining the plan. "Then you get the spell book and I'll tell you their weakness and then-"
Lacey yawns, covering her mouth with a bored look on her face. The snake's plan had no chance of succession.
On an intercom a man starts speaking. "There's been a breach in Sector 2! They appear to be Anacondrai and-uh-oh, they're coming my way. They see me talking on the intercom. Oh, boy, here they come. Why am I still talking on this thing?"
All the prisoners except Pythor cheers.
Pythor immediately starts panicking. "You led them to me? What have you done? There's no escaping an Anacondrai!" He tries to open a wardrobe. "Curse this fraudulent furniture!" When it won't open, he hides under a lampshade.
Garmadon grabs him, prying the lampshade off. Lacey would have laughed if the situation wasn't so serious. "Tell me! How do we stop them? What is their weakness?" He asks sternly.
Pythor screams at them. "Don't you get it? There is no weakness! They're Anacondrai!"
Kai looks towards the main tower. "Guys, we've got company." He announced.
Cole scoffs, sprinting towards the Anacondrai. "I'll handle this. Earth!" He tosses some bricks at them, but it dents some cell bars.
"We're trying to keep the inmates in, not let them out!" Jay screams.
Garmadon grabs Pythor and some of his venom lands on his hands, turning it back into Anacondrai.
Zane blinks, realizing why they want Pythor. "Your hand. That may be why they've come for Pythor. What if he holds the key to making their transformation permanent?"
Wu nods. "That's why Chen hasn't attacked."
Lloyd looks at them. "Then we have to get him out of here. If he's the key to preventing a war, we can't let him fall into the wrong hands." He then adds. "Literally."
Pythor scoffs, not amused. "I get it. It's literal because of my size. Haha, very funny. But I'm a little sensitive to all the size references."
Garmadon smirks. "A little sensitive?"
Pythor sighs. "Okay, I stepped right into that one."
"Yeah, yeah you did." Lacey snickered.
Wu turns to his Ninja. "Zane, keep them busy."
Kai grunts. "Ah. What do you think we've been do-"
"Get out of here already. It's not like we can hold them off all day." Jay tells them, running towards his brothers.
Noble finally presses the button for the alarms.
Garmadon turns to Lacey, Wu and his son. "Kryptarium's on lockdown. If we don't find a way out, we may never escape." He, Wu, Lacey and Lloyd go under a door.
Cole frowns, dodging a hit. "It ain't fair. Why is it they've got weapons but we don't?"
Jay grins. "Everything's a weapon in the big house." He grabs a toothbrush and fights Chope with it.
Pythor scoffs, still in Garmadon's hand as they ran down a corridor. "Oh, some heroes you are. And to think there's only two of them." He screams when he gets thrown to Lloyd.
"Sensei Wu said the greatest victories-" Lloyd starts.
Pythor rolls his eyes. "Has no battle, blah, blah, blah. Well, if they're impostors, you're cowards."
Wu glances behind him. "And what are you? There's a reason we never trust a snake. First the Anacondrai betray the truce in the Serpentine War, then you tricked Lloyd-"
Pythor furrows his brows. "Are we still talking about the Serpentine War? The Anacondrai had every intention of honoring the truce. It was Chen who told us your kind was going to betray us. We had no other choice but to attack."
"Chen said you were going to betray us!" Garmadon exclaims.
Lloyd groans. "Ugh, sounds like Chen was playing both sides."
"A real dick move," Lacey adds.
They see Warriors in front of them.
"Again I say...cowards." Pythor says weakly, eying the Anacondrai.
"Protect Pythor." Wu states.
"Seriously?" Lacey groans.
Lloyd nods. "Ninja, go!" He uses Spinjitzu to attack the Cultists. "Uh, I lost him!"
Pythor is on the ground. "Ugh. Aah!" He let's out a scream.
Garmadon blinks, turning to his son as he fought. "What do you mean you lost him? Find him!"
"Lloyd!" Lacey snaps in disbelief.
"What? He's tiny!"
"So are you!"
"That's a lie! And you know it!"
"Children please!" Garmadon said, internally thinking he needed to bleach his ears out. "Enough with the inappropriate behavior!"
"I agree." Wu said, his face stoic but his cheeks red.
"She's lying!"
"Lloyd!" Garmadon hissed.
"Alright!"
..........
"Got him!" Lloyd yells before he again exclaims. "Don't got him!"
"Which is it?!" Lacey snaps, running away from a few Cultists coming her way.
Pythor is trying to dodge everything. "I really hate being small!" A Cultist grabs him. "What?" He mutters before Wu saves him. "Wu, my savior."
Kai and the other arrive. "Do you have him?" He asks.
Wu realizes a Cultist stole him.
Cole glances behind him. "We can't let them escape."
Wu, seeing prisoners trying to escape, spoke sternly. "No, we can't let them escape! No more smashing walls." He orders sternly.
"Leave this to me. Ice!" Zane makes a bridge leading outside.
"I'd hate to let anyone down, but...Fire! Kai breaks the bridge once they're out.
Noble arrives with the rest of the guards. "I encourage you to go back to your cells." He states with a small glare.
• • •
"We got here as fast as we could." Kai says as they all arrive back at the Samurai X-Cave.
Nya glances at them, typing on the computers. "Twenty noodle trucks have been spotted heading toward Ninjago City just fifty clicks away." She pulls up the image and video of them.
Cole frowns. "Let me guess, they ain't hauling noodles?" He shakes his head.
Zane calculates everything. "Twenty trucks could hold two hundred Anacondrai. If they get to the city before we do, the city will be theirs."
Garmadon turns to them. "And they'll have achieved the pivotal first foothold in the war." He was still a snake, purple and with a tail.
"We have to stop them." Lloyd states the obvious, however, it looked too suspicious.
"I've already warned the others to head them off at the pass. They should be able to hold the line until you offer support. I had them equip themselves so we could communicate." Nya explained.
"We're in position. If they show up, we'll be sure to put up a fight." Shade states.
"They're coming to your location soon." Nya informs them.
"I see them. Let's show them what we're made of. The trucks. They're going every which way."
Jay furrowed his eye brows. "What do you mean? Aren't they going to Ninjago City?" He moves closer to the computer and Nya.
"I don't know where they're going, but they ain't going together."
"There are over twelve densely populated villages within a ten-click radius." Misako told them.
Kai shakes his head. "They aren't planning to launch one attack, they're planning multiple." He looks at the others, worried.
"What do we do? You told us to stay together."
"Chen knows you can't take you all on at once. He's trying to split you up." Garmadon sighs.
Misako shakes her head. "But even if just one of those trucks makes it to a village, the people won't be able to defend themselves."
Lloyd frowns. "We have to protect the people. Tell the Elemental Fighters we have to split up. We'll each intercept a truck and stop it from reaching those villages." He nods.
"But that could be dangerous." Lacey mutters.
Jay nods. "What ever happened to we fight as one?"
Garmadon shakes his head. "This isn't a vote, Jay. This is stopping the end of our world as we know it." The ninja run off to help.
"What's my father up to?" Skylor spoke up, slithering over.
"Nya, ready the Bounty. We must prepare for the worst." Wu told her.
"You heard our orders. Split up and intercept those trucks."
"Nya, why aren't we in the air?" Wu asks.
"We just gave the old gal a makeover. It's gonna take some time for her to warm up." Nya said walking over to the Bounty.
"Misako, notify every ally we have. We're going to need all the help we can get. And brother, if for whatever reason this doesn't work out, I'm glad you're home." Wu tells him with a smile, walking away.
Misako immediately notices something is wrong. "There's something wrong. Why aren't you telling me?" She goes to hold his hand.
Garmadon scoffs. "We're on the threshold of war and I'm a man-snake. Take your pick." He said gruffly.
"You're my husband. I know you better than that. There's something else." She told him gently.
Garmadon sighs, might as well. "Do you remember the letter I gave you long ago?" He starts hesitatinly.
Misako nods. "Of course. Those words you wrote. It was the reason I fell in love with you."
Garmadon stares at her, her eyes so loving towards him. "That letter was not-" The lights go out before he could finish.
Wu frowns. "Nya, what just happened?"
"I'll have her back online in no time." Nya rushes out.
.........
Wu nods. "Good work. The people are safe."
Skylor's eyes widen. "No they aren't. We aren't pulling them away from the people, they're pulling us!" She realizes.
"Stop the trucks!"
.......
Garmadon sighs, his eyes distraught. "It was all a trap."
"Then that means..." Lacey trails off, having hang back.
"The greatest victories...have no battle. Our worst fears have come true."
Chen laughs as his army make their way into Jamanakai Village.
"The new Serpentine War...has just begun." Garmadon states.
......................
Here you go! Another chapter!
Awwww, Lacey and Garmadon had a moment. Too bad we all know what's coming.
Another chapter and then we're done with Tournament Of Elements! Yay! Who's ready for a certain green ghost? I know I am! I'm so excited to write this Season 5! And guess what?
This arc in the book will be focusing on Lacey's family. Yay!
Athena ⚜️