Fun Fact: Katarina was originally aroace, and Keres was originally a lesbian. This changed upon their official debuts, which Katarina being bisexual and nonbinary, and Keres being aroace.
A/N: Just a heads-up, updates are going to be at least once/twice a week. I have to practice driving during the weekdays, and I'm working on applying to college right now since college applications are on November 30th. At least school isn't a pain in the ass for me right now, so that's a plus.
My land was once peaceful and pristine. But that changed decades ago, when the Ice Emperor imposed his will and upon us and destroyed my people. Now there is no one left to defy him... but I believe one day, someone will stand up against him. I believe heroes still exist.
A vortex opens in the sky. The Land Bounty bursts out of it and goes headfirst into the snow, then proceeds to bounce up and down - which made everyone want to throw up. It crashes into a large rock, tumbles onto the snowy ground, and flies in the air and plummets.
The Ninja hold onto their seats and scream.
Until finally, it all came to a stop.
"Everyone... okay?" Lloyd groans. Everyone groans in agreement.
"Great, now I know how my socks feel in the dryer." Cole groans.
"I think I swallowed my teeth." Kai mutters.
"Let's never go through that, again." Katarina groans. The Ninja nod and speak their agreement. They take off their seatbelts and jump down, landing on their feet, except for Jay, who lands on his back. His fall causes him to knock into Kai, and he falls flat on his back, too.
Jay gets up and groans. "Ow. I'm not liking this Realm so far."
"Me... Ugh. Neither." Kai groans in agreement.
Nya jumps up and presses a hand on the Land Bounty's control panel. The console make a few beeping sounds. She sighs and turns around to face her friends. "We're off the map. Coordinates unknown."
"Looks like we made it." Katarina said.
"From what Master Wu said, getting here isn't the hard part. It's getting home. The Traveler's Tea?" Everyone look around for the small sack, until Cole finds it on the floor. He holds it up in the air. Everyone breathes a sigh of relief. "Good. Whatever happens don't—"
Suddenly, the Land Bounty tilts. Everyone struggles to keep their balance, until the shaking stops.
"What was that?" Jay says nervously. Lloyd runs to the front and looks out the window. He gasps.
They were right over the edge of a cliff.
"Oh, no."
"What? What is it?" Jay starts to walk over to Lloyd, who turns around and widens his eyes.
"No, don't!"
The Land Bounty tilts forward again, and shakes just as violently as before. And it wasn't planning to stop going forward.
"We have to get out of here! Now!" Nya screams. She runs towards the door that would let them out of the Land Bounty, and puts her hand on the screen. Once the screen scans her hand, the doors open and everyone gets out eagerly, one by one.
Just as the Land Bounty falls, Cole lunges for the edge of the cliff. He grabs it with one hand, his body shaking violently and he turns his head to see the Land Bounty fall rapidly down.
"Cole!" Nya calls out to him. She and Kai run over to the cliff, and breathe a small sigh of relief when they find he was okay and didn't just almost die again.
Kai reaches his hand out to him. "Hey! Grab my hand!" Cole swings his body to the right and grabs Kai's hand, and lets himself be pulled up. "C'mon!"
Once Cole was safely on the ground again, they all look over the cliff to see the Land Bounty was far down below.
"Worst parking spot ever." Jay scoffs.
"Hopefully, Pixal won't be too upset when she sees we didn't come back with the Land Bounty." Katarina mutters. Cole turns away from the cliff, relieved to be alive, as the snow starts to fall.
"Phew. I thought for a sec-" He pats himself around to see if he had the Traveler's Tea. Finding nothing, he gasps. "Oh shit."
"What?" Jay snaps his head around to see his friend nervously standing there.
"The Traveler's Tea!" He pats himself around to see if he had miss anything, but no, he didn't have it. He let their return ticket get lost way down below with the Land Bounty, and they had just went through all that trouble to get it from Wu. And it was all for nothing. "It's...it's gone!"
Jay groans. "Well, that's just great! That's awesome! Now we're stuck on a mountain in the middle of a blizzard with no vehicle, no supplies, and no way back!" He panics.
Kai scoffs and jabs an accusing finger in Cole's chest. "Ugh. How could you drop it?!"
"We nearly fell over a cliff! I had other things on my—!"
"GUYS!" Lloyd yells, stopping the argument immediately. "This is not helping!"
Katarina turns to Nya. "Nya, anything on the tracker?"
She takes out the tracking device, hoping to see something on there. After a moment, she shakes her head. "Nothing. No signal."
"No. Of course not. That would be too easy. That would give us hope." Jay says.
"So, what do we do?" Cole asks.
"We need to get off this mountain before we all freeze to death."
And so began the long trek across the blizzard. They hiked down the mountain, and walked across the snowy grounds, jumped over chasms and braved against the blizzard's strong winds. Until finally, they reached a forest.
"Finally!" Jay says with a slight shiver. The Ninja quickly made their way through the forest, and as they walk through it, they start to shiver from the intense cold.
"Gah, I'm so c-c-cold." Cole shivers. He rubs his hand up and down his bare arms. Kai tries to ignite his fire powers in his hand, but fails.
"If I-I s-still had my powers, I could whip us up a f-f-fire." Kai says as his teeth chatters.
"It'sss not your f-f-fault." Lloyd assures him. He turns to Katarina. "Any ch-ch-chance you could use your magic to h-h-help warm us up, sis?"
"Even if I wanted to, I -c-c-can't use my magic to ignite a flame big enough for a-a-all of us. I'm pretty sure my fingertips are n-n-numb from this damn c-cold." She replies.
Suddenly, Jay lets out a sharp gasp. Slowly approaching them were three ravenous wolves, with pelts as gray as Misako's hair and eyes the same color as the bright blue sky in Ninjago. They were giving the Ninja hungry looks, meaning the Ninja were going to be the wolves' next meal.
"RUN!" Lloyd screams. The Ninja waste no time bolting the hell away from the ravenous wolves. However, the wolves give chase. The Ninja jump over a fallen tree, running as fast as they could since the wolves were catching up to them fast.
Lloyd looks behind him, seeing the wolves were closing in on them, but he ends up slamming face-first in to a tree. Katarina stops in her tracks, and runs in Lloyd's directions. "Hang on, Lloyd!" She helps him up, but since the Ninja had stopped to get him, the wolves were now mere feet away from the them.
Before the Ninja could do anything, the wolves stop looking so hungry and pissed off, and start looking scared. "Why aren't they attacking?" Cole wonders aloud.
"I don't know. That's really creepy." Jay replies.
"More like really weird." Katarina corrects him. A few more seconds pass, until the wolves snarl at the Ninja and run away elsewhere.
Lloyd gives the retreating wolves a nervous glance. "Let's go, before they come back."
As the Ninja hurriedly walk away, they didn't notice a wolf frozen in ice in one of the lower tree branches above them.
The Ninja only managed to walk a dozen feet before they came across a terrible sight. Right before them were villagers trapped in blocks of ice. They had distressed looks on their faces, and their eyes were glowing blue.
"What happened to them?" Kai wonders aloud.
Nya goes up to one of the frozen people, and closes her eyes. She reopens them a moment later. "I can hear a heartbeat. Looks like they've been frozen."
Cole summons his Earth Punch and punches one of the blocks of ice to free the frozen people, but it was proven to be unsuccessful. "Frozen by what?"
Nya gets out the tracking device, and gasps when it starts beeping. "Lloyd! I just picked up a faint signal. From the mech!"
The Ninja smile in relief. "Where?" Cole asks.
She glances at the screen on the tracker. She points her free hand in the east direction. "That way. Due east."
"But what about these people? We can't just leave them like this. They're still alive!" Jay points out.
"There's nothing we can do for them now. We don't even know what happened." Lloyd reasons with him.
"We have to keep moving. It'll be dark soon. We can come back and help them when we figure out what happened." Katarina explains. The Ninja nod and walk away from the frozen people.
After an hour of walking, Nya stops at the front entrance of a cave, and the others do as well. " The signal's very faint. Must be some interference or something." She says, glancing at the tracker's screen.
"Maybe it's the cold." Cole suggests.
"Or the beacon on the Mech is—" But Jay didn't get the chance to finish his suggestion as a pack of wolves approach out of the cave, snarling hungrily.
"Oh great!" Nya groans.
"I'm getting a little tired of this!" Kai exclaims.
Katarina nods. "Yeah, I think I'm done running. What do you say, guys?" The others nod and get into their fighting stances.
The wolves were getting closer now.
"Here they come!" Jay warns.
The wolves lunge at them. Lloyd summons his Energy and blasts one of the incoming wolves with it. "LET 'EM HAVE IT!" One of the wolves get hit with the blast, but the other wolf headed towards him jumps up in the air and attacks him. He was able to get the wolf off of him easily, though, as the wolf hits a nearby tree.
Jay uses his lightning on another wolf, causing the wolf to be electrocuted and knocked aside from the blow. Another wolf sees this, and runs towards Jay. It rams its head into Jay's and Nya's midsections, knocking them into the snowy ground.
"Nya, use your power!" Kai tells her.
"I'm trying, but nothing's happening!"
"We're surrounded by water!" He screeches, gesturing to all the snow and ice around them.
"It's all frozen!" She points out. She backs up when a wolf slowly inches up towards her. Just as it was about to attack her, two arrows hit the snow, barely missing the wolf by a hair. The wolf jumps back from the sudden arrows.
The wolves run away as more arrows hit the ground and the trees. The Ninja stop attack immediately, and look behind them to see three villagers, two males and one female, holding their bows and arrows, and spears. The female villager gestures the Ninja to follow them, so they did.
Minutes later, they arrive at a small village. They walk across the large frozen lake, and walk into their village. The villagers lead them inside a small building. Inside the building was an elderly woman and a large fire sitting in the center of the room.
The old woman smiles kindly at the Ninja. "Come. Come. Warm yourselves." The Ninja eagerly went into the building and huddle around the fire to warm themselves.
"Thank you! Thank you!"
"That feels good."
Nya looks at the old woman. "Who are you? What is this place?"
"Oh, this is my home. I am Sorla, of the People of Great Lake. Who are you? Where do you come from?" Sorla asks the Ninja.
"Far away." Lloyd answers.
She raises an eyebrow. "Beyond the forest?" He nods, causing the villagers who had rescued them to gasp. "Beyond the mountains?"
He stands up and nods again. "Yes."
"Oh! Beyond the mountains?" One of the villagers say.
"We come from...from a place called Ninjago. We're looking for a friend of ours. His name is Zane." He explains to their rescuers and Sorla.
"Oh, we have seen no one for many years. We are the last tribe on the ice. The others have fled south, and soon, we too must go. The cold grows too strong. The ice, too thick. But perhaps, Sorla can help. Look, come. Look into the hearth fire."
Lloyd sits back down. Sorla grabs a bowl sitting beside her, and throws a strange powder into the fire. The fire changes to a bright green color. "Tell me again of your friend?"
"Zane." Lloyd replies.
"And the place from which he came?"
"Ninjago." Nya answers.
Sorla smiles kindly and closes her eyes. "Show us, spirits of the earth, spirits of the lake. Show us the fate of Zane from Ninjago." The green fire bursts into flames, causing the Ninja to startle and jump slightly. After recovering from their initial fear, they gasp in awe as they were shown a castle.
"The Emperor!" The first villager gasps.
"The Castle of Ice!" The second villager says with fear.
Sorla gives the Ninja a solemn look. "I...I am sorry for your loss."
Lloyd raises an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"
"You cannot save your friend. He has been taken prisoner by the Ice Emperor. For decades, he has ruled this realm, crushing all who stand in his way. His Ice Castle is on the other side of the mountains. A bitter foul place where the ice is corrupt. A place we do not go." She explains to the Ninja.
"Zane is there? In this Ice Castle?" Katarina asks Sorla, who nods. "Can you show us the way?"
Sorla shakes her head. "You cannot! It is too cold! The ice there is evil! Dark Ice! No one goes there but the Emperor and his Blizzard Samurai. And they are inhuman. Only a fool would go there. Your friend is lost."
It was Lloyd's turn to shake his head. "No. I refuse to believe that. Zane is strong. I know him. And he would never give up on us, and we're not going to give up on him!" His friends nod in agreement.
"Yeah!"
"Yeah! And if you think we're not fools, you've got another thing coming."
"Ninja never quit!"
Sorla looks at all of the Ninja. She was surprised by this, to say the least. "All of you speak as one?"
Lloyd nods. "We speak as one."
She sighs at their stubborness, but smiles at their determination and courage for Zane. "Your friend is very fortunate. But be warned. The Emperor's General, sees many things. The Dark Ice serves him. If he knows you are here, he will warn the Emperor."
"Vex?" He wonders aloud.
"He will send his Samurai. They feel nothing. They fear nothing. They will come for you." She says in a dark, warning tone.
Far in the Never Realm stood a cobblestone castle decorated with large spikes of ice, flags on either with his face on them.
Inside the castle was a dreary, cold atmosphere. Spikes of ice went alongside the walls inside the castle, and marching along the corridors were the Blizzard Samurai; Their skins a pale blue, their eyes a cold but distant look, and clad in armor with ice on their faces, limbs and shoulders.
The general of the Blizzard Samurai was dressed in gray, icy armor, and he looked just the same as any other of the Samurai. Unlike the rest of them, he had managed to retain control over himself.
He gets out a large jagged piece of ice, which served as his eyes. The ice showed him the Ninja and Sorla, huddled around the fire as they talked to one other.
He smiles wickedly.
He opens the door to the massive throne room. He walks down the aisle, and bows before the Ice Emperor. "My Emperor."
The Ice Emperor, clad in a helmet that only showed his cold, blue eyes, armor that protected his shoulders and chest, and slightly ruined and torn clothing opens his eyes with a raspy growl. In his right hand was an ice scepter, and his right hand appeared to be frozen, permanently holding the scepter as he sat in his throne.
What was even scarier were the ice-covered steps leading up to his throne, and the numerous ice spikes surrounding his chair and the staircase, which were large but still varied in size.
"Why...do you disturb my thoughts?" He exhales in slow, calculated breaths.
"I bring a warning, my Emperor. Strangers, from a distant realm come to challenge you. They may be here for the prisoner and to defy your rule."
The Ice Emperor, in a surprising amount of strength, breaks an arm free from the armrest, apparently frozen in place as well. He stands up slowly and bangs his scepter down. "They must be...punished."
Vex nods in agreement. "They must be destroyed. Show them your might. Show them what happens to those who defy the Emperor."
The Ice Emperor sits back down. "Send my Ice Samurai. Command them to destroy the strangers."
"And all who aid them." Vex suggests. The Ice Emperor nods.
"Yes. And all who aid them."
Vex bows before his Emperor again, not letting him see his cruel, wicked smile. He chuckles cruelly.
"As you command."
On Vex's command, the Blizzard Samurai march out of the Ice Castle, ready to destroy the Ninja and all who stand in their way.