The dream began beneath a sky that felt too still.
A small flock of birds rested along a telephone wire outside Ninjago City, chirping softly in the early morning air, until a metallic blur descended among them. The Falcon landed with a light click of its talons, and the ordinary birds scattered immediately, wings beating frantically as they disappeared into the distance. The mechanical bird did not follow. Instead, it slowly turned its head toward Zane, its glowing eyes fixing on him with an intelligence that felt almost unsettling.
A voice seemed to come from somewhere beyond the bird itself. "Wake up, Zane. I know where you come from."
Zane's eyes snapped open.
He sat upright so quickly that his forehead struck the underside of the bunk above him with a sharp thunk. Pain flashed across his head, and he gasped before immediately bringing one hand up to rub the sore spot. The sleeping quarters around him were quiet, filled only with the gentle creaking of the Destiny's Bounty and the faint sound of wind brushing against the hull.
For several seconds, Zane remained exactly where he was.
The words from the dream had not faded.
Eventually, he climbed out of bed and crossed toward the small window. Morning had barely reached the horizon, painting the sky in pale gold while most of the ship remained wrapped in shadow. There was nothing outside except empty sky, yet Zane continued staring as though he expected the Falcon to appear at any moment.
When it did not, he quietly left the room.
The bridge was already occupied when Zane arrived. Master Wu stood near the front windows with both hands folded behind his back, watching the distant horizon, while Nya moved between several of the recently repaired consoles. Zane stepped inside, still distracted by what he had seen, and remarked, "The hunt starts early today."
Wu glanced toward him with a small smile. "A watchful eye never sleeps," he replied before returning his attention to the world ahead.
Nya leaned lightly against one of the consoles and looked out through the glass. "As long as Lloyd and the Serpentine roam freely, no one in Ninjago is safe," she added, her voice carrying considerably less calm than Wu's.
Zane looked around the bridge and noticed the absence of everyone else. "Where are the others?" he asked.
Wu answered simply, "Training on the upper deck."
With a small nod, Zane turned and headed upward.
The moment he stepped onto the upper deck, however, he stopped.
The Falcon was perched on the mast.
For several long seconds, Zane simply stared at it. The mechanical bird watched him with the same unnatural stillness it had possessed in his dream, and curiosity quickly pushed aside his caution. He approached slowly and said, "You were in my dream, little friend. Last time I saw you, you led me to good fortune. What reason have you returned?"
The Falcon tilted its head.
Then, without answering, it spread its wings and launched itself into the air.
Zane followed its path with his eyes as it circled once over the Destiny's Bounty before flying into the distance. He watched it longer than he should have, completely unaware of the darkness gathering behind him.
A shadow crept across the deck.
At first it looked like nothing more than a shift in the morning light, but it stretched in the wrong direction.
Zane's body went rigid.
He recognized the presence before he turned.
"Lord Garmadon."
Zane spun around.
Garmadon stood several paces away, towering over the deck in black armor, his red eyes burning beneath his helmet while a faint darkness seemed to cling around him. The sight was so impossible that even Zane's composure faltered.
"But you were banished!" he said, one hand already moving toward the Shurikens of Ice.
Garmadon's mouth twisted into a cold smile as he drew two katanas. "Only to return for the Weapons of Spinjitzu," he replied. "Soon I will have the power to recreate Ninjago in my own image."
He attacked without warning.
Zane drew both Shurikens of Ice as Garmadon charged, ducking beneath the first katana before jumping over the second. Frost trailed behind him as he twisted in the air and landed several feet away in a defensive stance.
Garmadon turned toward him. "Give me your Shurikens of Ice."
Zane tightened his grip. "You'll have to take them from me. Ninja, go!"
White Spinjitzu erupted around him.
The icy tornado raced across the deck, but Garmadon did not retreat. Instead, he reached directly into the vortex, caught Zane with frightening ease, and ripped him out of Spinjitzu as though the technique meant nothing.
Zane barely had time to react before Garmadon lifted him overhead and threw him across the deck.
He crashed into a pile of old junk hard enough to scatter boards, ropes, and broken machinery around him. Both Shurikens of Ice slipped from his hands and skidded away.
Garmadon approached with deliberate steps. "So be it."
He raised one katana and slashed through a nearby rope.
Zane looked up just in time to see a massive suspended crate dropping toward him.
There was no time to move.
The crate stopped.
Zane's eyes widened.
A figure dressed entirely in green stood above him, holding the enormous weight overhead with both hands. With a single heave, the stranger threw it aside, sending the crate crashing harmlessly across the deck.
"The Green Ninja," Zane breathed, awe breaking through his usually controlled voice. "The legend's true."
Garmadon dropped toward them.
The Green Ninja moved first.
A fist struck Garmadon across the face before he could finish landing, and the mysterious ninja immediately flipped backward to avoid the retaliatory slash that followed. Both landed facing one another across the deck.
Garmadon charged again.
The Green Ninja jumped as both katanas thrust toward his chest and somehow landed directly on the flat of the blades. Garmadon's eyes widened, and he spun violently in an attempt to throw him loose, but the Green Ninja simply jumped free, caught the mast with one hand, swung around it, and landed behind him.
Both katanas came flying next.
The Green Ninja leaned forward at exactly the right moment, letting the blades pass over his back and bury themselves into the mast. He straightened himself almost casually before launching into Spinjitzu.
Green energy exploded around him.
Zane watched from the ground, completely stunned.
Garmadon flipped over the spinning attack and attempted to strike from above, but the Green Ninja broke from Spinjitzu at the perfect moment and punched him squarely across the face. Garmadon staggered, swung back, and found nothing but empty air as the ninja stepped aside and kicked him hard across the chest.
Garmadon fell.
The Green Ninja vaulted over him and landed with the Nunchucks of Lightning raised high over his head.
Garmadon rolled upright, clutching one remaining katana as he charged again.
The Green Ninja turned.
The nunchucks struck him.
Garmadon was thrown backward across the deck, sliding until his body hit the railing and flipped over the side. His scream disappeared beneath the clouds below.
For a moment, silence returned.
Zane pushed himself upright and stared at the Green Ninja.
Fire burned strangely in the mysterious warrior's eyes. His right hand was alight with flame, the element curling harmlessly around his fingers, while the Falcon descended from the sky and landed peacefully on his left arm.
None of it made sense.
"Who are you?" Zane asked, struggling to understand what he was seeing. Then another possibility occurred to him, and his eyes narrowed. "Kai, is that you?"
The Green Ninja gave no answer.
Instead, the Falcon on his arm suddenly took flight.
Another appeared beside it.
Then another.
Within moments there were dozens.
Mechanical Falcons circled above the Destiny's Bounty, their metallic wings flashing through the morning light as they tightened around Zane. Every time he tried to focus on the Green Ninja, another bird crossed his vision until the figure became little more than flashes of green hidden between silver wings.
"What's the meaning of this?" Zane demanded, raising his voice over the growing thunder of wings. "Who are you, Green Ninja?"
Then the light changed.
At first Zane thought one of the Falcons had simply passed in front of the sun, but the darkness beneath his feet did not disappear.
It spread.
A black shape crawled over the deck boards and climbed the nearby wall, stretching farther with every second despite there being nothing nearby that could possibly cast it.
The Falcons scattered almost simultaneously.
The Green Ninja was gone.
Zane slowly turned toward the wall.
The shadow continued growing.
It had no face he could recognize and no definite body beneath it. It resembled something vaguely humanoid only because Zane's mind seemed desperate to give it a shape, yet its proportions were wrong. Its shoulders stretched too far, its arms hung unnaturally long, and jagged protrusions rose around its head like horns, a crown, or perhaps something that resembled both without truly being either.
Its lower half simply dissolved into the surrounding darkness.
Zane instinctively reached for his Shurikens of Ice.
They were no longer there.
A laugh moved through the dream.
It began softly enough that Zane almost mistook it for the creaking of the Bounty, but then it deepened into something that seemed to vibrate through the deck itself.
"Hahahahahaha…"
Zane's eyes narrowed.
There was something wrong with the voice.
No.
Voices.
Three of them spoke together.
One was unmistakably Garmadon's, deep and harsh beneath the others, carrying the same pride and contempt Zane had heard only moments earlier. Yet it was merely one part of what he was hearing.
A second voice moved alongside it, quieter and strangely familiar.
That one disturbed him more.
Zane knew the voice.
Or at least some part of him believed he did.
Every time he tried to place where he had heard it before, the memory seemed to slide just beyond his reach.
The third voice was completely unknown.
It was the deepest of the three and somehow the least human, giving the impression that the other two voices were being carried inside something vastly larger than either of them.
The shadow leaned closer.
All three voices spoke the same words at exactly the same time.
"Do you think you can stop me?"
Zane stepped backward, but the deck seemed to stretch beneath his feet, keeping the enormous silhouette the same impossible distance away. He tried to steady himself as the overlapping voices continued, Garmadon's recognizable growl twisting beneath the familiar-but-unplaceable second voice and that terrible third presence.
"You cling to prophecy and balance as if the universe itself promised you victory. You believe that because one hero has been chosen, everything standing against him must eventually kneel."
The shadow expanded farther across the wall.
"You understand nothing."
Zane tried to summon Ice.
Nothing answered.
The darkness beneath him spread instead, creeping around his feet without touching them while the voices continued speaking as one.
"Men are banished. Kingdoms are destroyed. Names are forgotten. Yet darkness requires none of these things to survive. Before your histories were written, it waited. When those histories have become dust, it will still be waiting."
Something about those words made Zane's unease deepen.
Especially the second voice.
He knew it.
Somewhere.
Somehow.
Yet the harder he searched his memories, the farther away the answer seemed to move.
The shadow's head tilted.
"You call destiny a chain because you have never seen what stands beyond it. You call power dangerous because you have never possessed enough to decide what danger means. You worship creation because you fear what may happen when something greater decides creation was merely a first attempt."
The deck around Zane disappeared beneath darkness until only he and the towering silhouette remained.
"Ninjago was shaped once."
Three voices reverberated around him.
"It can be shaped again."
The shadow stretched higher, its outline becoming so enormous that Zane could no longer see where it ended.
"Mountains can kneel. Seas can empty. Time can bury nations so completely that their descendants never learn their names. What you call an unchangeable world is only something that has not yet encountered a will strong enough to change it."
For the first time, genuine fear entered Zane's expression.
Not because he understood what stood before him.
Because he did not.
The shadow bent toward him until those jagged features dominated everything he could see, yet there were still no eyes, no mouth, nothing that revealed what creature—or person—might actually be speaking.
Then the familiar voice hidden among the other two became slightly clearer.
Zane's eyes widened.
He almost had it.
Before the memory could surface, all three voices crashed together again and buried it beneath them.
"And when your Green Ninja finally comes…"
The shadow seemed to smile despite having no visible mouth.
"…he will discover the same truth you will."
The darkness surged forward.
"There are no chosen ones before a god."
Zane woke with a gasp.
His head struck the underside of the bunk above him.
Again.
Pain flashed across his forehead, and he recoiled immediately, one hand shooting upward to clutch the exact same spot he had struck in the dream. His breathing came faster than normal while fragments of what he had seen remained painfully clear.
The Falcon.
The Green Ninja.
The shadow.
And those voices.
Garmadon had been one.
Zane was certain of that.
The third voice meant nothing to him.
But the second…
He remained sitting there for several seconds, staring blankly ahead as he searched through his memories and found nothing but that maddening sense of recognition.
He had heard that voice before.
He simply could not remember where.
A familiar voice interrupted him before he could search any deeper.
Jay was already dressed and standing nearby, looking far too amused by the rare sight of Zane sleeping later than everyone else. With a teasing grin, he remarked, "Oh, sleeping in. You're gonna be late for training."
Zane climbed carefully out of bed, still rubbing his forehead as he looked toward the others. "Oh, how come no one awakened me?" he asked.
Kai shrugged from across the room while adjusting part of his uniform. "We didn't think you wanted us to. You looked like you were having some dream."
Nearby, Jinx sat comfortably with yet another Oreo milkshake in his hand, despite nobody having seen him leave the ship to acquire one. He took a slow drink through the straw before adding, "Also we were lazy."
Nobody contradicted him.
Zane stared around the room for several seconds.
The dream had felt so real that even the familiar faces around him seemed slightly uncertain.
"How do I know this isn't a dream—" he began.
A pillow struck him directly in the face.
Zane stood perfectly still as the pillow slid down and dropped to the floor.
Cole lowered his throwing hand with a satisfied grin and asked, "Does that feel like a dream?"
Zane blinked once, considered the pain in his forehead and face, then gave a small nod.
"No. Thank you for your help."
The others broke into laughter the moment Zane thanked Cole for hitting him in the face with a pillow, and whatever lingering uncertainty remained from the dream was temporarily buried beneath the sound of his brothers enjoying themselves at his expense. A few minutes later they had all made their way to the upper deck, where the morning air was cool and the sails of the Destiny's Bounty shifted gently above them. Kai was still grinning when he glanced toward Zane and teased, "Hehe. Little slow today, huh? What exactly did you dream about?" Zane hesitated for only a moment before answering, "I saw the Falcon again," and that single statement was enough to wipe some of the amusement from the others' faces.
Jay immediately leaned closer, his curiosity overtaking whatever training Wu had planned for them. "Whoa. Zane, every time you see that bird, something big happens. First, it led you to the secret tree house," he reminded him, while Cole picked up the thought and added, "Then it led you to the Bounty." Jinx, standing a little apart from them with yet another Oreo milkshake in hand, raised the cup slightly and contributed, "And me, technically," before taking another long drink. Jay opened his mouth as if to argue the point, then seemed to realize that Zane really had followed the Falcon to the same place where they had first met Jinx, and reluctantly let it go.
Wu had apparently decided that was enough conversation. He stepped to the front of the group and announced, "All right. Stretches. First, the Swooping Crane," before turning away from them and lifting his arms into the starting position. The ninja followed with varying levels of commitment, though the moment Wu's back was turned, Zane leaned slightly toward the others and whispered, "This time, it showed me the Green Ninja." Kai, Jay, and Cole all snapped their heads toward him at once and whispered together, "The Green Ninja?" so loudly that it barely qualified as whispering.
Wu glanced over his shoulder.
The three immediately froze in whatever positions they happened to be in, which unfortunately meant none of them remotely resembled the stretch Wu had demonstrated. Kai had one leg lifted awkwardly, Jay was leaning sideways with both arms halfway raised, and Cole had somehow ended up crouched with his hands near his face. Wu studied them for a second before dryly observing, "That looks like the Shocked Monkey. Bad form, more focus." He turned around again, apparently choosing to believe they would listen this time.
They did not.
Jay immediately leaned toward Zane and whispered, "You can't just drop a bomb like that. Spill the beans," while Kai added, "Yeah, what else did you see?" Zane kept his voice low as he answered, "He was fighting Lord Garmadon," which made Kai's expression sharpen instantly. He glanced toward Jay and Cole before whispering, "That's what the prophecy said. That the Green Ninja would defeat the Dark Lord. But did you have a chance to see which one of us was him?" Jay quickly added, "Yeah," while Cole spoke almost at the same time and asked, "Did you see?"
Zane's answer disappointed all three of them. Still trying to imitate Wu's stretch while speaking quietly, he admitted, "I could not tell. He shared attributes each of us possess." The vague answer only seemed to make the others more interested, but Wu changed positions before they could press further and instructed, "Now, Pinching Crab." Everyone shifted awkwardly into the next pose, though the four ninja nearest Zane were paying far more attention to the dream than they were to their balance.
Jinx, meanwhile, had stopped listening almost immediately.
He took another sip from his milkshake and watched the others obsess over which one of them might become the Green Ninja, wondering once again how none of them had noticed the problem he had pointed out days ago. As far as he was concerned, none of the four could be the Green Ninja. Their elements were already their own, and the prophecy sounded far more like someone else would eventually join them. Still, even if their argument was stupid, Jinx had to admit he was curious about who the Green Ninja actually was, especially if Zane's dream had shown them fighting Garmadon.
Kai had already abandoned any pretense of concentrating on the Pinching Crab. He leaned toward Zane again and whispered, "Well, tell us everything. And don't spare any details. There has to be a clue that tells us which one of us is gonna be the Green Nin—" His sentence ended in a yelp when Wu suddenly reached behind himself, caught a fistful of Kai's hair, and pulled. "Ow, ow, ow! Hey!" Kai protested as he was dragged slightly out of position.
Wu released him and turned around fully, his expression calm enough to make the disappointment in his voice worse. "What was so important to ignore my teachings?" he asked. Kai straightened immediately and muttered, "Uh, nothing," while Jay hurriedly supported him with, "It was nothing, Sensei." Cole nodded with exaggerated innocence and insisted, "Yeah, we don't talk while you teach," and Zane, apparently unwilling to lie outright but still trying to protect the others, added, "Everyone was paying attention."
Wu looked at all of them.
Nobody believed Zane.
"Since you all appear to be lacking in focus, then you can all share in the punishment," Wu said at last. The response was immediate, with Kai blurting, "What?" while Jay echoed, "Punishment?" and Cole pointed accusingly toward Zane as he complained, "It was all Zane." Jinx, who had spent nearly the entire conversation minding his own business, looked genuinely offended by being included and snapped, "Fuck that, it was those idiots. Don't include me!" Zane calmly defended himself with, "I was merely answering their questions," though Wu seemed completely unmoved by any of their excuses.
"No free time and no video games," Wu announced, folding his hands behind his back while the collective horror settled over them. "The rest of the day can be used for training. And tomorrow, for that matter." Kai stared at him as though he had just been sentenced to several years of hard labor and asked, "Training? For how long?" Wu's expression changed slightly, the faintest hint of a lesson hidden behind his eyes as he replied, "Until you can answer this simple riddle: what is the best way to defeat an enemy?"
The answers came quickly. Kai confidently replied, "Easy, with a sword," while Jay raised his fists and suggested, "Your fists." Cole, convinced he had the obvious answer, said, "Spinjitzu," and Zane tilted his head thoughtfully before offering, "Tornado of Creation?" Wu closed his eyes for a moment and released a weary sigh that made it clear none of them were even close. "Pace yourselves. You have a lot of training ahead of you. Make sure you sharpen your mind as well as your Spinjitzu," he told them before turning and walking away.
Jinx immediately followed him.
The other four watched them disappear through the doorway and exchanged confused looks. For several seconds there was nothing but the sound of the ship and the distant creak of wood, until footsteps returned and Jinx casually stepped back onto the deck alone. A moment later, Wu stuck his head around the doorway behind him and announced, "Jinx has gotten the answer. He is off punishment."
Four heads snapped toward Jinx.
"What?!" Kai, Jay, Cole, and Zane shouted together.
Jinx was already drifting upward on a lazy cushion of Wind, settling horizontally in the air as though he had decided that floating several feet above the deck was as good a place as any for a nap. All four ninja rushed toward him, demanding an explanation, but Jinx merely cracked one eye open and told them, "Fuck no. You idiots already got me in trouble, and if you morons can't figure it out when it's so easy, that ain't my fau—" His sentence dissolved into a soft exhale as his eye closed again.
He had fallen asleep in the middle of the word.
Cole stared up at him in disbelief before dragging both hands down his face. "Ugh. What's the best way to defeat an enemy? It could be anything, ugh!" he groaned, pacing across the deck as though the answer might be hidden somewhere between the floorboards. Jay watched Jinx floating peacefully above them for another second before turning back to the others and insisting, "Come on, guys, we're smart. We can figure this out."
Kai responded by punching the nearest training bag hard enough to send it swinging. His eyes followed Wu until the old master disappeared through the doorway and closed it behind him, and almost immediately Kai abandoned the riddle in favor of the subject he actually cared about. "Yeah, but let's hear more about this dream," he said, turning back toward Zane.
Zane's expression brightened slightly.
Whatever fear the shadow had left behind, there had been one part of the dream that was impossible not to admire.
"Let me just say," he began, looking between the three of them while Jinx slept overhead, "the Green Ninja is awesome."
Far from the Destiny's Bounty, the desert had become the meeting ground for two tribes that should have been at one another's throats. The Fangpyre advanced through the sand in a loose formation, weapons ready and vehicles growling behind them, while Lloyd stood near the front with all the confidence of someone who believed he had finally assembled an army worthy of his name. When the shapes of the Hypnobrai appeared ahead, Lloyd immediately thrust an arm toward them and ordered, "Go, General! The Hypnobrai. Now to teach them a lesson for betraying Lloyd Garmadon!" When Fangtom did not immediately charge, Lloyd's confidence slipped into irritation and he added, "Uh, do your thing, Fangpyre. I let you out of your hole for a reason."
Fangtom raised his weapon and shouted, "Attack!" only for his expression to change the moment the Hypnobrai ranks separated enough for him to see who stood at their head. The hostility drained from him almost instantly as recognition replaced it, and he lowered his weapon with an almost nostalgic smile. "Skales, my old chum! I didn't think I'd be fighting you. Hmm, moved up in the world, have we?" Across from him, Skales slithered forward with equal surprise and greeted him warmly. "If it isn't the Fangpyre. Of all the cold-blooded to creep up on us, I'm glad it is a friend."
Lloyd stared between the two generals, his planned battle collapsing before anyone had even thrown a punch. "Wait, I thought you were enemies, not friends," he protested, but Fangtom merely glanced down at him as though Lloyd had overlooked an obvious detail. "We were at war," the Fangpyre general explained. "But seeing that Skales is now leading them, well, I don't see why we can't be comrades." Skales nodded along before adding, "Have you released the Constrictai, the Venomari, or heaven forbid the Anacondrai, then we would've had a tussle."
"A tussle? A tussle!?" Lloyd repeated, his voice climbing as the insult sank in. He threw his arms wide and demanded, "But I'm Lloyd Garmadon! Bringer of evil!" Instead of inspiring fear, that only made Skales glance toward Fangtom with a sly smile and ask, "Hehe. What should we do with him?" Fangtom considered it for a moment before casually suggesting, "I could turn him into one of us."
Skales studied Lloyd as though seriously evaluating the idea, then gave a dismissive little hum. "Hmm, no, the little tyke is pretty useless," he decided. Fangtom's second idea amused him far more. "What if you hypnotize him and make him think he's a pig?" Fangtom asked, and Skales immediately grinned. "That'd be pretty funny."
Both generals burst into laughter, already imagining it, while Lloyd's face twisted with humiliation. Neither noticed him quietly backing away until he had slipped behind one of the Serpentine vehicles. Fangtom was still laughing as he said, "Hahaha! Can you imagine?" while Lloyd scrambled onto the machine's tail, only for the living vehicle to jerk sharply and fling him through the air with an indignant snap.
Back aboard the Destiny's Bounty, the four ninja had long since abandoned any serious attempt at solving Wu's riddle. Jinx was still floating several feet above the deck on a cushion of Wind, fast asleep after obtaining his freedom from punishment, while Kai, Jay, Cole, and Zane sat beneath him discussing the dream in increasingly greater detail. Zane had reached the end of his description of the mysterious Green Ninja and finished by saying, "…with his fist on fire."
The reaction was immediate. Kai, Jay, and Cole all breathed, "Whoa," while Jinx remained blissfully unconscious above them, his half-finished Oreo shake floating beside him in a small current of air. Kai recovered first, and the look on his face made it clear he considered the matter settled. "So I'm the Green Ninja," he declared.
Cole turned toward him so quickly that he nearly pulled something. "What are you talking about? He had incredible strength to lift that cargo and save his life. It's me," he argued, pointing toward himself as though raw muscle made the conclusion indisputable. Jay scoffed at both of them and leaned forward. "No, no. Did you miss the part of the story where the guy pulled out nunchucks? I have nunchucks!"
Zane listened to the argument for several seconds before calmly inserting his own claim. "I think you're all missing the point of this dream. The point is the Falcon flew on his arm and it was my dream, so naturally it's me." The confidence with which he said it briefly silenced everyone, until Jay glanced toward Cole and remarked, "I think we can cross Cole off the list. I could've lifted ten times—" Cole immediately bristled. "Whoa, cross me off the list? Anyone can hold nunchucks."
Their argument had become loud enough that none of them noticed Wu approaching until his shadow fell across the deck. The old master looked from one ninja to another, then toward the untouched training equipment surrounding them. "Since you are not training, you must have already found the answer to my riddle," he said, his calm voice somehow making the accusation worse. "What is the best way to defeat your enemy?"
Kai froze, eyes shifting toward the others in desperate search of inspiration. When none came, he forced a smile and ventured, "Uh, the best way to defeat your enemy is to… train, Sensei?" Wu's disappointment was immediate. "Feeble and incorrect. Maybe more training will help you focus. Remember what happened to your vehicles when you lost focus. A razor-sharp weapon is an extension of a razor-sharp mind."
With that, Wu turned and walked back inside, leaving the four of them to groan in collective misery. Above them, Jinx shifted slightly in his sleep but showed no sign of waking, which only made their situation feel more insulting. Jay stared after Wu and complained, "How am I supposed to focus when we don't know who the Green Ninja is?" Cole rubbed his face and sighed before saying, "I don't want to be training all day. Let's work together on this riddle. We can figure it out."
While the ninja struggled with a problem Jinx had apparently solved in less than a minute, Lloyd wandered alone across the Sea of Sand. He kicked at the ground as he walked, muttering angrily to himself and doing a mocking impression of Skales. "'Had you released the Constrictai, the Venomari, or heaven forbid the Anacondrai, then we would've had a tussle.' Pfft!" The words only seemed to make him angrier the more he repeated them.
Lloyd unfolded the Map of Dens and studied it while walking, occasionally turning it sideways when the symbols stopped making sense. His irritation gradually faded as he realized the landmarks around him matched what was drawn on the map, and suddenly his eyes widened. "I found it!" he shouted, looking toward a concealed entrance in the rocky terrain. "The Anacondrai. The most feared and powerful Serpentine of them all. And if they're afraid of the Anacondrai, then the Anacondrai is what they're gonna get. Mwahahahahaha!"
His evil laughter echoed rather less impressively through the empty desert than he probably intended.
Lloyd pushed his way into the tomb and immediately found himself surrounded by stale air and darkness. He clicked on a flashlight and swept its beam across the chamber, revealing scattered bones, old scales, and the remains of Serpentine who had clearly been trapped there for a very long time. His grin weakened as the light passed over one skeleton after another, and then vanished completely when the beam landed on something that moved.
"Aah!" Lloyd yelped, nearly dropping the flashlight.
A tall purple Serpentine emerged slowly from the darkness, thin from years of starvation but carrying himself with an almost theatrical politeness. "My sincerest apologies, young man," he said smoothly, placing a hand against his chest. "Oh, dear, due to my unfortunate appearance, I tend to have an unsettling effect on people, heh." When Lloyd's flashlight slipped from his grasp, the Serpentine bent to retrieve it and graciously offered it back. "Oh, I believe you dropped this. Ah, there you go."
Lloyd cautiously accepted it and muttered, "Uh, thank you," before sweeping the beam around the tomb once more. The number of bones finally registered with him, and his voice became less certain as he asked, "Uh, what happened to the others?" The Serpentine's expression turned mournful, although there was something just slightly too practiced about it. "Poor, unfortunate souls. All those years, locked away with nothing to eat. Must have slowly starved away until they were just scales and bones."
His eyes lingered on Lloyd.
"And who may you be, my little appetize—" He stopped himself with remarkable smoothness and corrected, "Uh, I mean, friend?"
Lloyd seemed not to notice. His confidence returned almost immediately as he straightened and proudly announced, "Lloyd Garmadon. Son of Lord Garmadon and future dark ruler." The Anacondrai's eyes brightened with exaggerated delight, and he laughed warmly. "Oh, hahahaha. How deliciously evil. If I had feet, ooh, I'd be trembling in my boots."
Lloyd smiled at the praise before remembering basic manners. "And, uh, who are you?" he asked.
The Serpentine bowed elegantly. "Humbly, I am Pythor P. Chumsworth. And since you've freed me, I am eternally in your service." His tone was so pleasant and refined that it almost disguised the way his eyes briefly drifted toward the entrance, then toward Lloyd's possessions.
Lloyd narrowed his eyes suspiciously. His recent experiences had apparently taught him at least one lesson, because he asked, "Really? You're not gonna trick me?" Pythor placed a hand dramatically against himself and replied, "Oh, why would I trick you? I hardly have any friends." Lloyd's suspicion disappeared almost instantly.
"Whoa. I hardly have any friends too," Lloyd admitted.
Pythor smiled.
"You don't say."
Lloyd's face brightened as an idea struck him. "Hey, how would you like to be my loyal henchman? I've been betrayed by the Hypnobrai and the Fangpyres, and I'm looking to get a little revenge on some ninja too." While Lloyd spoke, Pythor's eyes wandered downward and settled on the Map of Dens tucked against him, and for the briefest instant something hungry and calculating replaced his friendly expression.
Then it disappeared.
"Hmm, I love revenge!" Pythor exclaimed, leaning down toward him with another broad smile. "Oh, you know Floyd—"
"It's Lloyd," Lloyd corrected.
"Whatever." Pythor casually waved the correction away before draping an arm around his new companion and guiding him toward the tomb entrance. His smile widened as the desert light reached them, though Lloyd failed to notice that Pythor was looking far more at the Map of Dens than at him. "I have a feeling this is the start of a beautiful friendship."
Lloyd smiled proudly.
Pythor smiled too.
Only one of them understood what kind of friendship it was going to be.
The upper deck of the Destiny's Bounty had become a miserable cycle of repetition. The ninja grunted through another set of drills beneath the afternoon sun, moving between balance exercises, weapon forms, and Spinjitzu practice while Wu remained somewhere inside the ship, apparently content to let frustration sharpen their minds in his absence. Jinx, having solved the riddle and escaped punishment hours ago, had become an especially irritating background presence, occasionally drifting past them on currents of Wind or lounging somewhere nearby without the slightest obligation to participate.
Cole finished another exhausting sequence and straightened with a groan, rolling one shoulder before looking toward the others. "Anyone got a solution to Sensei's riddle?" he asked, but the tired expressions around him did not inspire much confidence. Jay wiped sweat from his forehead and muttered, "It can't be that hard. What's the best way to defeat an enemy?" while Kai immediately turned toward the person he considered most likely to produce an intelligent answer. "Zane, you're smart. What is it?"
Zane paused in the middle of adjusting his stance, considering the question with the same seriousness he gave nearly everything. "I do not know," he admitted, "but I sense that Sensei is going to keep us here if we don't work together and find an answer." Cole's face tightened at that conclusion, and he glanced toward the open sky beyond the Bounty as though imagining everything happening in Ninjago while they remained trapped aboard. "That bothers me, because while we're here working, that means the enemy is playing."
He was more correct than he knew.
Lloyd's laughter echoed through Jamanakai Village as he and Pythor came racing down one of its streets, looking for all the world as though they were commanding some terrifying vehicle of evil. Several villagers jumped aside as they approached, only for the supposed machine to finally come into full view: an ordinary bicycle, with Lloyd seated proudly at the front while Pythor furiously worked the pedals behind him. They knocked over several trash cans as they passed, sending lids and rubbish rolling across the road while a nearby dog barked after them.
"Stop! Stop!" an angered villager shouted, but that only made Lloyd and Pythor laugh harder as they disappeared around the corner.
Their campaign of terror did not improve from there. On the outskirts of the village, Pythor noticed a carefully placed sign warning visitors not to disturb the grass, stopped long enough to yank it from the ground, and tossed it aside with theatrical disrespect. Lloyd immediately understood the assignment and threw himself onto the lawn, rolling across it, stomping through carefully maintained patches, and laughing with Pythor as though they had just committed an act of historic villainy.
Back in the village, the pair graduated to theft.
An ice-cream salesman could only stare in disbelief as Pythor pushed the entire cart away while Lloyd stood triumphantly on top of it, both of them sharing an enormous ice cream they had apparently decided they deserved. "Hey, you can't do that!" the salesman shouted after them, but they were already too far away and much too pleased with themselves to care.
Their next target was a peaceful pond where two boys were playing with toy boats. Lloyd and Pythor crouched nearby, each selecting a stone with unnecessary seriousness before exchanging conspiratorial smiles and throwing at the same time. Both stones struck perfectly, capsizing the tiny boats and sending them sinking beneath the water, and the two boys stared for one stunned second before immediately bursting into tears while Lloyd and Pythor laughed like victorious conquerors.
Then they found the babies.
Several infants sat near the village fountain, each happily occupied with a piece of candy, completely unaware that two of Ninjago's newest criminal masterminds were approaching. Lloyd and Pythor moved down the row in perfect cooperation, taking each piece of candy one after another until every baby began crying in sequence behind them. By the time they left Jamanakai Village, Lloyd was helping Pythor push a wheelbarrow overflowing with stolen sweets while the combined outrage of villagers, children, babies, merchants, and one particularly furious dog followed them into the distance.
They laughed nearly the entire way back to the Anacondrai Tomb.
By the time they returned, Lloyd was exhausted but delighted. He dropped beside their stolen haul with the satisfied expression of someone who believed he had just completed a legendary crime spree and told Pythor, "Wow. You're the best henchman a mastermind could ever have." Pythor placed a hand dramatically against his chest and replied, "Oh, Lloyd. You're the best mastermind a henchman could ever have," earning a pleased chuckle from the boy.
Pythor watched him for another moment before letting his expression soften into carefully manufactured curiosity. "Hmm, why is it that you have no friends?" he asked, and Lloyd's smile faltered slightly before he answered with forced pride. "Well, I could've had friends back at my Boarding School for Bad Boys, but I decided to run away and never let them see me again." He finished with a deliberately evil laugh that sounded much less convincing than he probably hoped.
Pythor's eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly. "Really? Uh, why would you run away from making friends? Everybody needs friends, even tyrants," he said, his voice gentle enough that Lloyd looked away. After a moment of hesitation, the boy admitted, "Well, uh, maybe I didn't run away. Maybe I, uh… I got kicked out."
That caught Pythor's attention immediately. "From the Boarding School for Bad Boys? I don't believe it," he exclaimed, sounding genuinely scandalized. "I hear they are the breeding ground for the truly despicable. And if you ask me, ho-ho, you are a handful."
Lloyd brightened at what he chose to take as a compliment. "Well, thank you, Pythor, but they told me I wasn't bad enough. They said I lacked the amoral ambition to be one of tomorrow's masterminds." There was more hurt beneath the words than Lloyd intended to reveal, and Pythor noticed every bit of it even while maintaining his sympathetic smile.
"Well, you'll show them," Pythor assured him.
Lloyd sat straighter. "That's right. I will show them."
Pythor's smile sharpened. "Then why don't we?"
Lloyd blinked at him. "Uh, why don't we what?"
Pythor leaned closer, voice dropping into the conspiratorial tone Lloyd had already learned to enjoy. "Let's get revenge on the very school that rejected you. And when the ninja come to the rescue, we'll have a trap laid out for them."
Lloyd's eyes widened with delighted realization. "A double revenge?"
"A double revenge," Pythor confirmed.
The plan instantly restored Lloyd's enthusiasm, but Pythor gently steered him away from scheming for the night. "Get some rest. Hijacking an ice cream truck is a lot for anyone, and if you're going to rule the world, well, ho-ho-ho, you'll need to get your sleep." Lloyd started settling onto the floor when Pythor stopped him with a quieter, "Oh, and one more thing."
Lloyd looked back. "Yes?"
Pythor allowed his expression to soften into something almost sincere. "I'll be your friend."
For a moment, Lloyd simply stared at him. Then the boy released a relieved sigh and stepped forward, wrapping his arms around the much taller Serpentine as he murmured, "Oh, Pythor. You're the best." Pythor returned the embrace with the same warm smile, though his eyes drifted downward toward the Map of Dens still tucked safely against Lloyd.
It did not take long for Lloyd to fall asleep on the stone floor.
Pythor waited.
Once Lloyd's breathing became slow and steady, the Anacondrai's smile disappeared. He bent carefully over the sleeping boy and extended one hand toward the Map of Dens, his fingers almost reaching it before Lloyd suddenly rolled onto his side and trapped the map beneath himself.
Pythor froze.
His eye twitched.
He slowly withdrew his hand and forced down an irritated hiss, staring at Lloyd with considerably less affection than he had displayed a few minutes earlier.
Back aboard the Destiny's Bounty, the ninja had finally convinced themselves that they had solved Wu's riddle. Their reasoning had taken far longer than any of them cared to admit, but eventually Cole gathered everyone together and marched them toward Wu with the confidence of someone presenting the result of hours of serious contemplation. Jinx followed at a leisurely distance, eating a Hershey's Cookies 'n' Creme bar and looking suspiciously entertained by what was about to happen.
Wu regarded the group calmly as they approached. "Oh. You must have found the answer to what is the best way to defeat an enemy," he said, and Cole nodded proudly before glancing at the others. "We have, Sensei. It's—on three, guys. One, two…"
"Teamwork!" all four ninja shouted together.
Wu stared at them.
His expression did not change.
"Is this what you all think?" he asked.
Cole nodded immediately and said, "Yeah," while Jay answered, "Yes!" at nearly the same time and Kai confidently added, "Absolutely." Zane remained beside them, apparently satisfied with the logic, until Wu delivered his verdict in the same calm voice.
"Sadly, you are all wrong."
Jinx bit into another piece of his candy bar and shook his head in quiet disappointment. "It's just sad, really," he remarked around the bite, earning several hostile looks from the four people still trapped in punishment.
Cole threw his hands up. "Come on," he complained, while Kai groaned beside him and Jay muttered, "Aw, man." Their frustration had reached the point where Cole finally snapped, "I'm starting to think whoever figures out this riddle can be the Green Ninja for all I care."
Before anyone could answer, an alarm suddenly blared throughout the Bounty.
Jay jumped and looked around. "What's that?"
Kai's frustration vanished instantly, replaced by something dangerously close to happiness. "Who cares? It's something else besides training." He turned toward Nya as she hurried to the controls and added, "Break it down for me, sis."
Nya checked the incoming alert, and whatever amusement she might have had at their desperation disappeared as she read the message. "Lloyd and a Serpentine have overtaken Darkley's Boarding School for Bad Boys," she reported.
Jay's eyebrows rose. "That place is a cesspool for the crooked and the misbehaved."
Cole was already moving toward his position. "Well, doesn't mean they don't need our help. Step on it."
Zane reached the controls and pressed the activation button. The Destiny's Bounty shuddered beneath them as its systems came alive, sails shifting and machinery roaring while the ship prepared to launch. Whatever misery they had felt about training vanished in an instant as the ninja moved to their stations.
Together, their voices rang across the deck.
"Ninja, go!"
Darkley's Boarding School for Bad Boys had always looked like the sort of place that expected trouble, but under Lloyd and Pythor's occupation it had become something closer to a fortress designed by two people who found the idea of excessive traps hilarious. Students and teachers alike had been tied together throughout the halls, some glaring furiously while others merely looked embarrassed that a child and one unusually polite Anacondrai had taken over their school. Lloyd and Pythor, meanwhile, had apparently grown bored enough with their conquest to steal skateboards and race one another down the hallways, weaving between bound captives while laughing whenever someone had to jerk their feet out of the way.
Lloyd coasted beside Pythor and glanced toward the doors they passed, clearly pleased with himself. "Hey, how are the booby traps?" he asked, and Pythor pushed himself forward with one foot before answering confidently, "Every door, window, and hole into this place are spring-loaded." Lloyd's grin widened at the assurance, and he leaned into another turn as he said, "Ah, good. I'm sick and tired of those ninjas sneaking their way into my evil doings." Between Pythor's experience and Lloyd's determination to finally outsmart his uncle's students, practically every conventional entrance had been rigged to punish anyone foolish enough to use it.
Unfortunately for them, Jay was about to suggest something that barely qualified as conventional.
The Destiny's Bounty drifted high above Darkley's, its hull casting a broad shadow across part of the school grounds while the ninja gathered near the railing and studied the building below. Zane narrowed his eyes as he examined the windows and surrounding grounds before observing, "Looks quiet down there. Should we infiltrate using stealth?" Kai immediately shook his head and replied, "Ah, we've done that. What about using our Golden Weapons that turn into our vehicles?" beside him, Cole grimaced slightly and admitted, "I'm still working out the kinks on that. Anyone have any other good ideas?"
Jinx slowly turned toward him with an expression of genuine confusion. "First of all, why do you need to work out the kinks on a vehicle that comes from your mind?" he asked, unable to understand how Cole could somehow have mechanical problems with something created through his own Golden Weapon. Zane considered that for a moment before explaining, "Although I do not know exactly how it works, when our vehicles manifest, they come equipped like any other vehicle. Their controls and mechanisms still appear to require familiarity." Jinx stared at him for a second, took in that information, then shrugged and muttered, "Huh. Well, ain't that something."
Jay had gone strangely quiet during the discussion, his eyes moving between the school below and the enormous anchor hanging from the Bounty. The slow smile spreading across his face made Kai suspicious before Jay even opened his mouth. "Hmm. Well, I have one idea, but you guys gotta trust me," he said, and Kai immediately looked toward him with dread. "Oh, I don't think I like the sound of this."
Inside the school, Lloyd and Pythor had taken positions near one of the upper windows while waiting for the inevitable rescue attempt. Pythor seemed entirely comfortable as he reassured Lloyd, "Relax, we've made the perfect trap. We're in broad daylight, so there aren't any shadows. But even if they could get in—" He stopped when Lloyd suddenly pointed toward something moving across the ground outside and demanded, "What's that?" Pythor reacted instantly, firing one of their traps through the opening and wrapping a net around the suspicious intruder, only for both of them to discover that they had successfully captured a completely ordinary lizard.
Lloyd cleared his throat as though nothing embarrassing had happened. "Oh, good. Yeah, good reflexes. I was just testing you," he claimed, and Pythor gave him a look that suggested he understood perfectly well what had happened but was willing to entertain the lie. Lloyd folded his arms and continued with renewed confidence, "If I know these ninjas, they're cleverly sneaking their way right past us at this very moment."
Several stories above them, five ninja were standing on the Destiny's Bounty's anchor.
Jinx looked down at the distant roof, then toward Jay, and whatever trust he might have possessed vanished completely. "Jay, I hate you," he said with remarkable sincerity, while Kai tightened both hands around the chain and added, "Jay, I don't know about this." Jay ignored them both and shouted, "Just hold on tight!" before giving Nya the signal.
Nya released the anchor.
The world dropped out beneath them.
All five ninja screamed as the anchor plunged toward Darkley's, the chain roaring through its mechanism while the school expanded beneath them at a horrifying speed. Wind tore at their clothes, Cole nearly lost his grip, and Kai's expression became one of immediate regret, but nobody reacted quite as strongly as Jinx. He wrapped Wind around himself by instinct and screamed over the rushing air, "JAY, I'M GOING TO FUCKING KILL YOU IF I SURVIVE!"
Lloyd and Pythor had just enough time to hear the approaching noise before the anchor smashed through the roof above them. Both threw themselves aside as it tore through timber, flooring, furniture, and several levels of carefully placed traps, carrying the ninja straight down through the center of the school until it finally slammed into the ground floor with enough force to send dust rolling through the hallway. When the debris settled, the ninja were still clinging to the chain in various states of shock while Jinx stared at Jay with the quiet fury of someone reconsidering whether friendship was worth the effort.
Jay barely had time to smile before Jinx punched him.
Wind compressed around Jinx's fist at the moment of impact, and Jay was launched sideways into a nearby pile of debris with a startled yelp. Jinx shook his hand afterward and looked considerably better, while Cole coughed through the dust and decided, "Okay, let's agree to never do that again." Nobody disagreed.
Several students nearby whimpered when Cole raised the Scythe of Quakes toward them, apparently assuming the ninja had somehow arrived to make the situation worse. Cole noticed and quickly swung the blade through their ropes instead, freeing them before telling them, "Stay out of school, kids." He paused when he recognized two familiar figures among the tied-up faculty, and a slow grin appeared as he looked at Kruncha and Nuckal. "Well, well, well. Kruncha and Nuckal. Substitute teachers, eh? If we cut you down, we better not catch you hanging around Ninjago again. Or else."
Cole sliced their ropes as well, and the two Skulkin wasted absolutely no time accepting the warning. They scrambled away through the nearest safe passage, nearly tripping over each other in their hurry to escape before Cole could reconsider. Kai's attention had already moved upward, however, and when he spotted Lloyd watching from the top floor he pointed toward him and called, "He's on the top floor. Let's get him." The ninja scattered with a collective cry of "Ninja, go!" as each chose a different route upward.
Kai and Zane launched themselves into Spinjitzu and tore up the staircase, only to hit one of Pythor's traps halfway up. A thick, glue-like substance sprayed across the steps and caught both of them mid-spin, ending their techniques and leaving them tangled together in the sticky mess. Kai struggled against it and grunted, "Ugh!" while Zane tested the substance more carefully before concluding, "I can't move."
Pythor and Lloyd laughed from above as Cole began climbing the anchor chain straight through the enormous hole they had created. Cole was making good progress until Pythor spotted him, found another rope, and gave it a sharp pull. A concealed container overturned from the ceiling and dumped a cloud of dust directly into Cole's face, leaving him coughing and swearing while Jay waited inside the school's elevator, staring at the slowly changing floor numbers with exhausted impatience. By the time the doors opened, Jay found Cole coated from head to toe and heard him warn between coughs, "He's got a Serpentine with him. Watch out for booby traps."
Jay glanced upward and caught sight of Pythor retreating along the upper floor. "Ah, that's one big snake," he muttered before taking off after them. Lloyd, meanwhile, had progressed from confidence to outright panic and was running in frantic circles while repeating, "They're coming. They're coming. They're coming!" Pythor hurriedly barricaded the final door, piling whatever he could find against it just before Jay crashed through from the opposite side and sent half the obstruction flying across the room.
Jay stepped through the wreckage with more confidence than his entrance deserved and asked, "Shocked to see me?" only for another figure to rise casually from the enormous hole torn through the roof nearby. Jinx had taken his time reaching the top, using Wind-assisted parkour to spring between railings, exposed beams, walls, and bits of broken flooring rather than simply flying straight upward; Lloyd was trapped inside the building, so as far as he was concerned, there had been no reason to hurry. He climbed onto the floor, dusted off one sleeve, and looked at Jay with disappointment. "Really? That the best you come up with?"
Jay's shoulders dropped. "I'm not on my game today."
"Do something!" Lloyd shouted desperately.
Pythor laughed.
Then he reached down and took the Map of Dens from Lloyd.
The change happened so suddenly that both Jay and Jinx hesitated. Lloyd stared at the Anacondrai in confusion, his panic replaced by something far more personal as he stammered, "Wh-what are you doing? I thought you were my friend."
Pythor's expression lost every trace of the warmth he had shown Lloyd the night before. Holding the map close, he answered, "All you wanted was to make the Serpentine your slave. Well, sorry, my dear boy, I have other plans." Then, before any of them could properly react, Pythor slipped away with a speed neither Jay nor Jinx had expected from the lanky serpent.
Jinx's surprise lasted barely a heartbeat before irritation took over. He thrust one hand toward the roof and twisted his wrist, drawing the surrounding air inward until currents began spiraling around every visible escape route, trying to create a pressure barrier that would force Pythor back into the room. That single instant of hesitation had been enough, however, and by the time the winds sealed the obvious passages, the Anacondrai had disappeared.
Jinx slowly lowered his hand.
"Oh, you slippery fucker."
Lloyd had apparently decided that everyone being distracted by Pythor was his opportunity to leave. He hurried toward the huge opening torn through the building, intending to find some way down, but stopped short when he saw just how far the ground was beneath him. His face went pale, and he swallowed nervously as the Destiny's Bounty swept into view outside with Wu and Nya standing aboard.
Wu's voice carried across the school grounds with terrifying clarity. "Lloyd Montgomery Garmadon, you come here right now!"
Lloyd recoiled as though his full name had been an attack.
He spun around and tried to run in the opposite direction, but Jinx was already annoyed about losing Pythor and was in absolutely no mood to chase a child through an entire school. He extended one hand toward Lloyd and slowly curled his fingers.
The air around Lloyd tightened.
"Whoa—hey!"
Wind yanked him backward so abruptly that his feet left the floor. Lloyd flew across the room and landed directly in Jinx's waiting hand, where Jinx caught him by the back of his clothing and regarded him with a grin that immediately made Lloyd regret every decision leading up to this moment. "Well, well, well," Jinx murmured, holding the struggling boy away from himself. "We meet again, baby boy."
"Whoa! Hey, let me go!" Lloyd protested, kicking uselessly while Jinx carried him toward the Bounty as though transporting an especially loud bag of groceries.
Once Lloyd had been delivered to Wu, the ninja gathered around to discuss his fate. Cole folded his arms and suggested, "What should we do with him? Wash his mouth out with soap for a year?" Kai considered something harsher and offered, "Ground him indefinitely?" while Zane, perfectly serious, proposed, "Have him sit in a corner for a century?" Lloyd's eyes grew wider with every suggestion until Wu finally looked down at his nephew and said, "I know exactly what we must do."
Lloyd gulped.
Several hours later, nighttime had settled over the Destiny's Bounty, and the punishment Lloyd had been dreading had turned out to be nothing like what anyone expected. He lay beneath the blankets in Wu's bed while the old master sat beside him with a children's book open in his hands. At the doorway, Kai, Jay, Cole, Zane, and Jinx had gathered in complete silence, staring into the room as Wu calmly finished, "'And that is why Jack the Rabbit never trusts a snake. The end.'"
Lloyd lay quietly for a moment before the day's bravado finally slipped away. "Oh, if my dad had read me that book, I would never have made that mistake. I'm sorry, uncle," he admitted, and Wu's expression softened as he closed the book. "Oh, you do not need to apologize. I am sure that if your father was still here, it would be the first book he'd read. Good night, nephew. Sweet dreams."
Lloyd settled deeper beneath the blanket and murmured, "Ah, good night, uncle."
The ninja continued staring.
Kai was the first to break. "I don't get it, Sensei," he said as Wu stepped toward the doorway, and Jay immediately added, "Why isn't the little brat getting punished?" Cole gestured back toward Lloyd's room in disbelief and complained, "Yeah, we had to train all day and he gets read a bedtime story? It's not fair."
Wu stroked his beard thoughtfully. "Hmm, you're right, I nearly forgot," he said, and four expressions brightened for exactly one second before he continued, "Why are you not still training? Did you find the answer to the riddle?"
Their hope died instantly.
Kai released a long sigh and looked toward the floor. "No, Sensei. We still don't know what the best way to defeat your enemy is." The four punished ninja began walking away with their heads hanging, too tired even to complain anymore, while Jinx remained behind with a growing expression of disbelief.
Wu watched them go before quietly giving the answer they had spent the entire day trying to find.
"It is to make them your friend."
All four stopped.
"Oh," they muttered together.
Jay's eyes widened as the obviousness of it hit him. "Of course," he said at the same time Kai groaned, "Yeah."
Jinx stared at their backs for several seconds before shame seemed to physically settle over him on their behalf. "I'm ashamed of you four," he said, rubbing his forehead. "It was so easy. I mean, did you fuckers forget he told us this yesterday?"
Nobody moved.
Then, one by one, Kai, Jay, Cole, and Zane slowly lifted their heads.
Recognition arrived at exactly the same time.
Their faces went red.
Jinx watched them remember the previous lesson and somehow looked even more disappointed. None of the four attempted to defend themselves this time, because there really was nothing to say.
Behind them, Lloyd slept peacefully in Wu's room while the four ninja stared through the doorway at the boy they had spent days chasing, finally understanding the lesson that had been sitting directly in front of them the entire time.
The best way to defeat an enemy was not always to overpower them.
Sometimes it was to stop having an enemy at all.