Chapter 8 - the snake king

Far beyond Ninjago City, the desert offered little except heat, wind, and enough sand to make even a Serpentine question his life choices. Skales had been digging for what felt like hours, throwing another load of sand aside before finally straightening with an irritated hiss and glaring toward Pythor. "We're wasting our time, Pythor. There's nothing here but sand and dust," he complained, but Pythor barely acknowledged him, continuing to search with the stubborn confidence of someone convinced history itself was buried beneath his feet.

"Keep digging. The Lost City of Ouroboros is under us. I know it," Pythor insisted, brushing sand aside while Skales watched with increasing skepticism. The Hypnobrai general finally tossed his tool away and sneered, "Oh, face it, your first attempt to unite the tribes failed, and now that you have lost your flock, you've become desperate." Pythor stopped at that and slowly looked back at him, his expression sharpening even as his voice remained controlled. "I am desperate, my disloyal number two, but only to bring our kind together so that we can unleash the Great Devourer."

Skales folded his arms, unimpressed by the conviction behind the words. "You put too much faith in legends. Besides, all the Serpentine know is to be at war with one another," he replied, and for once the evidence seemed firmly on his side. Pythor had nearly managed to unite the tribes once already, only for a few insults from the ninja to send generations of resentment boiling back to the surface within minutes.

Pythor ignored him and continued digging until his hand struck something that did not feel like stone. Sand slid away beneath his fingers, exposing part of an ancient metal mechanism buried deep beneath the desert, and his irritation immediately transformed into delight. "Skales," he called, laughter already entering his voice, "I believe we've found it."

Skales moved closer just as Pythor uncovered a large dial engraved with Serpentine symbols. The Anacondrai wrapped both hands around it and turned, and for several seconds nothing happened except a distant vibration beneath their feet. Then the desert began to move.

Sand erupted upward in enormous waves.

Skales staggered backward as stone structures forced themselves through the earth, ancient towers rising from beneath dunes while streets, walls, and enormous Serpentine monuments emerged from thousands of years of burial. Sand poured from rooftops in waterfalls as the city continued climbing until what had appeared to be empty desert only moments before had become the skeleton of a vast forgotten capital.

Pythor stood before it with his arms spread wide.

"I present to you," he announced proudly, "the city formerly known as the Lost City of Ouroboros."

High above another stretch of Ninjago, the Destiny's Bounty sailed peacefully past a mountain while the ninja continued preparing for the Serpentine threat. The ship had almost disappeared into the clouds when a small figure suddenly emerged behind it on a bicycle fitted with improvised wings, pedaling with the desperation of a man who had allowed neither altitude nor common sense to interfere with his job. The Postman clutched a parcel beneath one arm while desperately calling, "Wait! Slow down! I have a package for Sensei Wu!"

Nobody aboard appeared to hear him yet.

On the deck, Lloyd was busy explaining his latest theoretical anti-Serpentine technique to the ninja. He planted his feet as though facing an imaginary enemy and confidently said, "First, I'll stomp on his tail. Then when he turns, a thunder clap to his ears. Then when he's stunned, I'll disarm him."

Cole immediately ruined the fantasy. "Too late, he's already hypnotized you and now you're under his control," he said, earning an annoyed look from Lloyd before Zane added, "Or he's already put you in a squeeze."

Kai grimaced as memories of the Toxic Bogs returned. "Or spit on you with his hallucinatory venom. Trust me, bad stuff." His tone made it very clear that he had no desire to ever see dancing gingerbread people or sentient beards again.

Jinx was lounging nearby with Lloyd sitting close enough that he had apparently decided the boy's hair was something to occupy his hands with. While the others debated specialized techniques, he lazily separated one lock of blond hair from another and added, "Or, if all else fails, just raw-power through it." Lloyd glanced back toward him, uncertain whether that was actual advice, while Cole gave Jinx a look that suggested brute force was not exactly a revolutionary tactical discovery.

Lloyd groaned and turned toward Wu instead. "Uncle, what's the best way to stun a Serpentine if you don't know what kind they are?" he asked, apparently deciding that advice from the one actual master aboard might be more reliable.

Wu's expression immediately became more somber. "Sadly, it was the Sacred Flute you four carelessly lost."

Jay nearly jumped. "Hey, no, no, no, we didn't lose it. Pythor stole it!" He pointed toward Jinx, who was still idly playing with Lloyd's hair, and added with growing indignation, "Also, why isn't Jinx included? He was there!"

Jinx looked up.

"I can't do everything, can I?"

Jay stared at him. "You literally pulled it out of a hole with your Spinjitzu!"

"And then Zane had it."

"That is technically accurate," Zane admitted.

Jay looked betrayed.

Wu continued before the argument could spiral any further. "Whatever the case, without it I fear we have nothing to combat their powers. We may have prevented them from uniting in the past, but they will try again, and one day they will be stronger." His gaze drifted toward the horizon as he spoke, and for a moment the joking on deck quieted beneath the seriousness of the warning.

Cole was not especially worried.

He folded his arms with complete confidence and said, "Don't worry. I've almost reached my Full Potential, and when I become the Green Ninja, we're not gonna need any magic flute."

Kai immediately laughed. "You're gonna be the Green Ninja? Hahaha, don't make me laugh."

Zane turned toward both of them with visible confusion. "I thought it was decided that I was destined to become the Green Ninja."

Jay scoffed. "Oh! The only thing decided about you, Zane, is that you're weird."

That was enough.

Within seconds, Kai, Cole, Jay, and Zane were arguing again, each resurrecting whatever evidence from Zane's dream supposedly proved that he was the chosen one. Cole emphasized the Green Ninja's strength, Jay reminded everyone about the nunchucks, Kai loudly returned to the flaming fist, and Zane continued insisting that the Falcon appearing in his own dream remained the most logically significant detail.

Jinx did not participate.

He continued playing with Lloyd's hair.

Lloyd seemed equally uninterested in listening to the four of them argue for what had to be the twentieth time. His attention instead shifted toward the package that had finally reached Wu, and he leaned forward curiously. "Yeah, yeah, yeah. What's in the box?"

That finally silenced them.

Wu placed the parcel down and opened it with deliberate calm. "Your new uniforms."

Four arguments died instantly.

The ninja crowded around.

Inside were newly designed gi built for actual combat rather than ordinary training, reinforced in all the places their previous uniforms had repeatedly failed them. Armor protected the shoulders and torso without becoming excessively heavy, gold details traced across the fabric, and several pieces had additional attachments specifically suited to each ninja's fighting style.

Jay's eyes widened. "Whoa! They've got, like, armor."

Kai ran his fingers over the detailing with immediate approval. "I love the gold highlights."

Cole discovered the reinforced claws attached to his own equipment and grinned. "Battle claws!"

Zane lifted part of his uniform and carefully tested the fabric between his fingers. "The material is really light and breathable."

Jinx unfolded his own purple version and looked it over.

The armor was practical. The reinforced fabric would probably survive more punishment than his old clothing. The darker black accents against the purple suited him, and it had enough mobility that Wind-assisted movement would not be restricted.

He shrugged.

"Ehhh. It's okay."

Kai stared at him as though he had personally insulted the greatest tailoring achievement in Ninjago.

Lloyd had gone quiet.

He looked inside the now-empty box, checked beneath one folded layer of packing material, and then looked toward Wu with gradually fading hope. "Oh, nothing for me?"

Wu hesitated.

Then he picked up the empty container and offered it to him.

"Um, you get, uh, the box."

Lloyd stared at the box.

His face fell.

The others were too distracted by armor, claws, fabric, and arguments over whose uniform looked best to notice immediately, but Jinx did. Lloyd tried to hide the disappointment quickly, pretending to inspect the box as though he had actually wanted it, but the slight downturn of his mouth gave him away.

Jinx watched him for another second.

Then he quietly tore a small piece of paper from some nearby packaging and scribbled something onto it.

He folded the note once and slipped it into Lloyd's hand without saying anything.

Lloyd looked toward him.

Jinx merely continued examining his new sleeve as though nothing had happened.

Curious, Lloyd unfolded the note beneath the edge of the table.

Ice cream later. My treat. Whatever you want.

Lloyd's eyes brightened almost immediately.

He looked up at Jinx again, and this time Jinx gave him the smallest wink before returning his attention to the new gi.

The box suddenly did not seem quite as disappointing.

Wu noticed the exchange from the corner of his eye but said nothing.

Around them, Kai and Cole had already begun comparing armor, Jay was trying to determine whether the new material improved his flexibility, and Zane was reading whatever information had arrived with the uniforms.

Lloyd hugged the empty box against his chest.

For now, that was enough.

The alarm cut through the lingering excitement over the new uniforms before anyone had much time to enjoy them. The cheerful chaos around the box stopped almost immediately, and Cole moved toward the nearest display as information began scrolling across it. His expression tightened as he read the alert, then he glanced back toward the others and said, "Sorry to break up the moment, boys, but a small faction of our slithering friends are stirring up trouble at Mega Monster Amusement Park."

That got Lloyd's attention faster than the word Serpentine ever could.

"Amusement park?" he blurted, nearly dropping the empty uniform box as he hurried toward them. The disappointment from being left out of the new gear vanished beneath sudden excitement, and he immediately began pleading, "Can I go? Can I go with you, please? Let me make things up. I can help."

Wu looked down at his nephew with sympathy, but his decision had clearly already been made. "I'm sorry, nephew. You will stay here, where it's safe," he told him, and Lloyd's shoulders sank almost immediately. He hugged the box against himself and muttered, "Oh, ninja get all the fun."

Jinx glanced over while fastening one of the new pieces of his purple gi. "I mean, he is right."

Kai looked toward him with disbelief. "Not the time, Jinx."

"What?" Jinx replied with a shrug. "It's an amusement park."

Jay was already far more interested in the new equipment than in debating whether missions counted as entertainment. He rolled his shoulders, testing how the armor moved with him, then looked around at the others with a grin. "What do you say, guys? Time to try out the new merchandise?"

Cole tightened the reinforced pieces around his forearms and flexed experimentally. "All right. This new stuff feels like it'll really protect us," he said, clearly pleased by the added armor. Beside him, Zane extended one arm, rotated his shoulder, and tested several quick movements before observing, "Yet, provides more mobility."

Jay looked between them and gave an exaggerated sigh. "You wanna strut your stuff on the catwalk, or get down to that amusement park so we can go on some rides?"

Kai immediately brightened at that. "I love a good old-fashioned roller coaster," he admitted, moving toward the edge of the Bounty as the city and distant amusement park lights appeared below them. Then he looked back at the others with a grin and added, "But nothing beats this."

Without another warning, he jumped.

Jay shouted and followed almost immediately, then Cole and Zane launched themselves after them as well. Their new uniforms snapped violently in the rushing air while the lights below expanded at terrifying speed, but instead of panic, the four ninja looked almost absurdly pleased with themselves.

Jinx remained standing on the deck.

He stared over the edge.

Then he looked back at Wu.

Then down again.

"They know there are stairs, right?"

Wu said nothing.

Jinx sighed and stepped off the Bounty after them.

Below, the Golden Weapons began changing in flashes of elemental light. Jay's Nunchucks transformed into the Storm Glider, Kai's Sword became the Blade Cycle, Cole's Scythe unfolded into the Tread Assault, and Zane's Shurikens formed his sleek snow vehicle before each ninja dropped neatly onto his respective machine.

They hit the ground in rapid succession.

Then, for absolutely no tactical reason whatsoever, all four immediately struck dramatic poses.

Kai stood beside his Blade Cycle with one hand near his sword. Jay leaned against the Storm Glider like he had personally invented dramatic entrances. Cole planted himself beside the Tread Assault with the new battle claws displayed proudly, while Zane somehow managed to make posing look like a carefully calculated combat stance.

Jinx descended several seconds later on a controlled spiral of Wind.

His serpent motorcycle flowed upward from the Darkness beneath him, black and deep violet metal taking shape while dark-rosé flame ignited around the tires. He landed smoothly onto the seat and looked toward his teammates.

They were still posing.

Jinx slowly removed one hand from the handlebars.

"What the fuck are you four doing?"

Jay broke position first and looked offended. "Showing off the uniforms."

"We're on a mission."

Kai straightened. "We can do both."

Jinx stared at him.

Then at the others.

Cole was still flexing his battle claws.

Zane had apparently decided there was nothing illogical about any of this.

Jinx shook his head and revved the motorcycle, causing dark-rosé fire to flare violently around both tires. "I swear I joined a team of idiots."

Jay hurried toward his vehicle. "You say that like you're not one of us."

Jinx thought about it for half a second.

"Unfortunately."

Then his motorcycle shot forward toward Mega Monster Amusement Park, leaving a trail of black-rosé flame behind while the others hurried after him in their new vehicles.

The five ninja arrived expecting chaos and found applause.

Cole was the first to slow down, glancing over himself after the landing and brushing one hand across the new armor with a satisfied grin. "Haha! Check that out. And not a scratch on me," he said, clearly pleased with how well the new gear had held up. The others barely had time to appreciate that before they noticed the crowd gathered ahead, cheering around several thoroughly defeated Serpentine who had already been tied together and left in a miserable heap.

Jay's confidence immediately returned.

He stepped forward with both hands raised as though the applause obviously belonged to them and called, "Haha, ladies, relax, relax, we have arrived." The cheering continued, but nobody actually looked toward him, which made his smile weaken by the second. Kai stared at the restrained Serpentine, then at the untouched civilians, and finally asked the question that was suddenly bothering all of them. "Uh, what just happened?"

One of the women in the crowd turned toward them, still visibly excited. "Oh, you totally missed it. There were, like, icky snakes, and then this mysterious Samurai came in and saved everyone." The woman beside her immediately added, "He was, like, gorgeous," with enough certainty to make Kai blink.

"You saw his face?" Kai asked.

The first woman shook her head. "No, but we could totally tell."

Jinx slowly looked toward Kai.

Kai slowly looked back.

Neither seemed willing to unpack the logic behind that.

Then Jay noticed someone standing near the crowd who absolutely should not have been there.

"Nya, you're here."

Nya turned toward him without looking particularly surprised to see them. "Yeah, you just missed all the action," she said, sounding almost amused by the disappointment spreading across their faces. "He just flew in, took care of business, and then flew off. It was pretty cool."

She headed away before any of them could ask more.

Jinx watched her go.

At first, his expression remained merely curious, but then his eyes narrowed.

Something did not fit.

The Bounty had been nowhere near the amusement park when the alert came in. They had jumped from it and traveled the rest of the way using their vehicles, and even at full speed the distance had been substantial.

Yet Nya had somehow arrived first.

Jinx glanced toward where she had disappeared into the crowd.

His suspicion sharpened.

There were explanations, of course. Wu could have brought her another way. She could have left earlier. There could have been transportation he did not know about.

But after catching that brief glimpse beneath Samurai X's mask in the Toxic Bogs, coincidence was beginning to feel increasingly lazy.

He kept the thought to himself.

There was no point accusing anyone without proof.

Besides, Lloyd had gotten stuck on the Bounty while everyone else went to an amusement park, and Jinx had already promised him ice cream. He might as well bring the kid something worth bragging about too.

Jinx wandered toward the game stalls while the others remained with the crowd.

That turned out to be a mistake for the amusement park's prize economy.

A few minutes later, one of the attendants was staring in growing horror as Jinx repeatedly won games that had probably been designed with the assumption that nobody would possess elemental control over air currents, unnatural coordination, or the ability to notice exactly how the mechanisms were rigged. He never technically cheated, which somehow made the whole thing worse. By the time he was finished, Jinx had accumulated enough stuffed animals and prizes to fill an enormous sack slung over his shoulder like some deeply inappropriate version of Santa Claus.

Back near the restrained Serpentine, public opinion was already shifting.

A young boy looked excitedly toward the direction Samurai X had vanished and declared, "I don't wanna be a ninja. I wanna be a Samurai." One man enthusiastically agreed, saying, "The Samurai is my new hero," while another went even further and announced, "I knew the Samurai could kick the ninja's butts."

Kai's eye twitched.

"Ugh, who is this guy?"

"Or girl."

Everyone turned.

Jinx had returned carrying a massive sack of toys over one shoulder, several stuffed animals sticking out of the top while another dangled precariously from the side. He gave Kai a disappointed look and added, "Don't be sexist, Kai."

Kai stared at him.

Then at the enormous bag.

Then back at him.

"Where did you even get all that?"

"Skill."

One of the game attendants in the distance shouted something that sounded suspiciously like, "BAN HIM!"

Jinx ignored it.

Cole folded his arms and returned his attention to the actual problem. "Whoever he is, he's stealing our thunder."

Jay looked down at his brand-new uniform, then toward the cheering crowd, and visibly took the entire situation personally. "And we just got these cool new ninja suits," he complained before throwing his arms up in frustration. "Argh! I'm gonna say it: I hate Samurai."

A calm voice drifted in from behind them.

"Do I hear a hint of jealousy?"

Everyone turned.

Wu stood several feet away eating cotton candy.

Nobody had seen him arrive.

Nobody knew how he had arrived.

He looked completely unconcerned by either mystery.

"Maybe this can be a lesson for you," Wu continued.

Jinx immediately raised one hand. "Don't include me. I don't care, honestly."

Jay groaned loudly. "Oh! Not another lesson." Then he stopped and looked at Wu more carefully. "Hey, how'd you get here so quick?"

Wu did not answer that question.

"The lesson," he said instead, "is iron sharpens iron."

Zane tilted his head. "I do not follow, Sensei."

Wu took another bite of cotton candy before explaining, "Healthy competition can help you reach your True Potential faster. Do not be jealous of this Samurai. Let it inspire you."

His eyes suddenly moved past them.

A Ferris wheel rotated slowly against the night sky.

Wu's entire expression changed.

"Oh, Ferris wheel!"

He hurried off toward the attraction with considerably more enthusiasm than anyone expected from him.

Jay watched him go.

"Inspire?"

Kai slowly smiled.

"Wait a minute. Maybe the old man's right."

Cole immediately looked suspicious. "You want us to compete with the Samurai? He's got all the cool gadgets. We don't stand a chance."

Kai shook his head. "No, not with him. With us." He stepped closer to the others as the idea fully formed. "I say we turn this into our own competition. Whichever of us is skilled enough to catch this mysterious Samurai is probably the best of the bunch."

Jay's eyes widened.

Then his grin returned.

"So whoever learns the identity of this Samurai is the one who will become the destined Green Ninja." He pointed toward the others with immediate excitement. "Ha! I love it."

Cole extended one hand.

"Then it's a bet. May the Green Ninja win."

Kai put his hand in.

Jay followed.

Zane joined them after only the briefest hesitation.

Together, the four shouted, "Ninja, go!"

Jinx stared at them.

The enormous sack of stuffed animals remained balanced over one shoulder while his expression slowly shifted from confusion into outright disbelief. He watched four grown ninja turn a mysterious vigilante into another excuse to compete over an ancient prophecy none of them actually understood.

His eyes moved from Kai.

To Jay.

To Cole.

To Zane.

Then back again.

Jinx slowly lifted one hand and pressed it against his face.

For several seconds, he simply stood there looking like a man who had accidentally wandered into the recreation yard of a haunted psychiatric hospital.

Finally, he sighed.

"I'm surrounded by fucking lunatics."

Then he adjusted the sack of toys on his shoulder and started walking toward the exit.

At least Lloyd was getting a giant teddy bear out of this.

A day after their disastrous decision to turn Samurai X's identity into a competition, the Destiny's Bounty erupted with the sound of its alarm. Nya hurried to the monitors as several separate warnings appeared across the display, each one marking another Serpentine disturbance somewhere in Ninjago. "Multiple snake sightings! They're everywhere!" she called, and that was all the encouragement the four competing ninja needed before they scattered in different directions, each clearly convinced this was finally his chance to beat the others to Samurai X.

Zane reached one of the reported attacks first, or at least he believed he had until he arrived and discovered several Serpentine already incapacitated. The unmistakable armored form of Samurai X stood among them, turning toward the next threat before Zane could properly announce himself. "Huh?" Zane murmured, then quickly formed a compact snowball between his hands and shouted, "Metal menace!" as he hurled it toward the mysterious warrior, only for Samurai X to move aside so effortlessly that the snowball sailed harmlessly past.

Elsewhere, Kai raced into Wildwood Forest and found three Constrictai terrorizing travelers along one of the paths. A small group of girls immediately recognized him and began cheering, "Go, ninja, go!" which brought a confident grin to Kai's face as he drew the Sword of Fire. Before he could land a single blow, however, Samurai X dropped from above and launched a net that captured all three Serpentine at once, causing the girls' loyalty to change with almost insulting speed as they sighed, "Oh, Samurai, oh."

Kai's eye twitched. "Ninja, go!" he shouted anyway, launching himself toward Samurai X in Spinjitzu rather than admitting he had been upstaged again. The Samurai calmly turned one of the same capture devices toward him, and a second net swallowed Kai in mid-spin before dumping him onto the forest floor. "Aah! Hey, what's going on?" he shouted from beneath the mesh while Samurai X simply continued fighting the remaining Serpentine as though capturing a ninja had been an incidental inconvenience.

Cole's attempt went little better. He finally managed to corner Samurai X during another snake attack and lunged forward with the triumphant shout, "Now I've got you. Unh! Haha!" only for the armored warrior to evade him at the last second. Cole's victory laugh became a startled "Whoa!" as his own momentum carried him straight past his target, leaving Samurai X to finish the actual Serpentine while Cole recovered what remained of his dignity.

Jay, however, decided that direct pursuit lacked sophistication.

That conclusion was how Jinx eventually found him standing beside a railroad track in women's clothing, holding a long blonde wig in both hands and studying the approaching rails with the seriousness of a strategist contemplating war. Jinx had stared at him for several seconds, asked absolutely no questions, and apparently decided that witnessing the consequences would explain more than anything Jay could say. Jay pulled the wig onto his head, waited until the distant rumble of an approaching train became audible, then dramatically threw himself across the tracks.

In the most exaggerated feminine voice he could manage, Jay cried, "Help! Samurai, where are you? Oh!" while the train rapidly grew larger behind him. Jinx stood several yards away with his arms crossed, his expression becoming steadily more disapproving as he realized Jay had apparently decided that being flattened by a locomotive was an acceptable investigative technique. The train whistle screamed across the landscape, and for the first time Jay's expression suggested that perhaps his plan had relied too heavily on Samurai X actually showing up.

Something enormous descended beside the railway.

The Samurai X Mech struck the ground with a metallic crash, and Jay's eyes widened as its massive hands produced entire replacement sections of railway. Rather than rescuing Jay directly, the mech calmly laid new tracks around him, diverting the train onto a safe route before planting both mechanical hands on its hips as though judging Jay's intelligence. The locomotive thundered harmlessly past on the newly created line, and Samurai X immediately lifted away again before Jay could do anything except stare after it.

Jay ripped the blonde wig from his head. "Gah! STUPID SAMURAI!"

When he turned, he found Jinx staring at him.

There was no laughter in Jinx's face and no sarcastic comment waiting to escape. Somehow that made it considerably worse, because Jinx looked at Jay with the particular disappointment of a younger brother who had just discovered that the older brother he respected might actually be an idiot. Jay's anger faded almost instantly, and he looked away in genuine shame while Jinx silently walked over and began untying him from the tracks.

"You laid down in front of a moving train," Jinx eventually said, his voice frighteningly calm as he worked at the restraints. "On purpose."

Jay refused to make eye contact. "It seemed smarter before the train actually got close."

"That sentence made it worse."

By the time Jinx got him loose, the lecture had only begun.

Later, Kai pulled up outside the Kiddie Arcade with Lloyd riding behind him, both of them having drawn the short straw in very different ways. Kai had apparently inherited babysitting duty while everyone else continued hunting Samurai X, partly because Jinx was still busy explaining to Jay in increasingly creative language why voluntary death by locomotive was not a legitimate investigation method. "Okay, I know it's my turn to look after you since Jinx is busy scolding Jay—which will probably take all day—but just play a few games and stay put while I look around," Kai instructed. "I have a feeling the Samurai may show up."

Before leaving, Kai handed Lloyd an enormous bundle of arcade coins. Lloyd's eyes immediately caught the small paper label wrapped around them, and his face crumpled with embarrassment when he read the message Jinx had left on it: To Baby Boy — don't spend it all in one place. He muttered something unpleasant about that nickname while nevertheless clutching the coins protectively enough to make it obvious he had no intention of refusing them.

"Oh, let me help," Lloyd pleaded, looking toward Kai before he could leave.

"No."

"Come on. At least drop me off at a decent arcade. Jinx always takes me to the best!"

Kai started his vehicle and gave Lloyd an unapologetic grin. "Sorry, shorty."

"Kai, wait!"

Kai was already gone.

Lloyd stood outside the arcade for several seconds with the enormous pouch of coins in hand, grumbling about unfair ninja privileges, before reluctantly turning toward the entrance. He had barely taken a few steps when familiar hissing voices drifted from an alley nearby, and curiosity immediately defeated every instruction Kai had given him. Lloyd quietly crept closer and peeked around the corner.

Skales was speaking with Fang-Suei in hushed excitement. "I hear he found it. And everyone is gathering again," Skales said, causing Fang-Suei to stare at him skeptically. "Impossible. The Lost City does not exist." Skales grinned and corrected him, "Well, it isn't lost anymore. Haha. And I heard there's gonna be a fight."

That changed everything for Fang-Suei. "A fight? Count me in."

Skales motioned toward a waiting Serpentine transport. "All aboard. Next stop, Ouroboros."

Lloyd's eyes widened.

A few minutes later, one of the arcade's novelty shops had gained several coins and lost an extremely questionable Serpentine costume. Lloyd pulled the oversized disguise over himself, kept his head down, and slipped into the growing line boarding the vehicle. He had almost made it unnoticed when Skales suddenly called, "Hey, you, hold it there."

Lloyd froze.

"Huh?"

Skales pointed toward the open door. "Last one in closes the door."

Lloyd released a breath he had not realized he was holding. "Uh, sure thing."

He climbed aboard and shut it behind him.

The journey lasted far longer than Lloyd expected. The transport crossed empty roads and increasingly barren terrain until buildings disappeared entirely, then continued through the desert for most of the day while Lloyd remained buried among Serpentine trying desperately not to attract attention. By the time the sun disappeared, the ancient towers of Ouroboros had risen against the night ahead of them, illuminated by fires and packed with Serpentine arriving from every tribe.

Lloyd stared through the crowd.

The Lost City was real.

At its center stood the enormous stone likeness of the Great Devourer.

The statue dominated Ouroboros, its colossal serpentine body coiled through the ancient architecture while its open jaws towered over the gathering below. Thousands of Serpentine crowded into the city's central arena, shouting, hissing, and demanding entertainment while Lloyd slipped among them in disguise. Near the arena's edge, he spotted Pythor speaking privately with Skales.

Pythor leaned close enough that nobody else could hear. "Just do as I've said, and I promise you will be my second-in-command. Forever."

Skales smiled.

Both quietly stuffed cotton into their ears.

Lloyd noticed.

He did not yet understand why.

Pythor moved into the center of the arena and raised his arms for silence, though it took several attempts before the tribes gave him anything resembling attention. "I bring you together to the Lost City of Ouroboros, before the statue of our very own Great Devourer, to speak of unity," he announced, but the response was far less reverent than he had hoped.

Bytar shouted from among the Constrictai, "Where are the fights?"

Spitta joined him with, "Where is the big show?"

The demand spread almost immediately. Hundreds of Serpentine began slamming weapons against the ground while chanting together, "Slither Pit! Slither Pit! Slither Pit! Slither Pit!" until the ancient city itself seemed to vibrate beneath them.

Pythor's forced smile disappeared.

"Argh!" he hissed, finally losing patience. He looked across the four tribes and raised his voice over their chanting. "You want a show? You want to see a fight? I ask for your allegiance, but you will not give it."

The crowd gradually quieted.

Pythor's smile returned.

"So I will take it."

Fangtom narrowed both sets of eyes. "What are you saying?"

Pythor turned deliberately toward the four tribal generals. "I challenge the four tribe Generals for their staffs and their allegiance."

He paused just long enough for every eye in Ouroboros to settle on him.

"At once."

The arena erupted.

Acidicus raised his Venomari Staff and hissed, "I fought hard for this staff and will not give it up easily." Skalidor rolled his enormous shoulders beside him and laughed at the challenge. "There's no way he can defeat the four of us at once."

Pythor simply looked toward Skales.

Skales tossed something across the arena.

Pythor caught it.

Lloyd's eyes widened beneath his disguise.

The Sacred Flute.

Before the generals could understand what was happening, Pythor brought the flute to his mouth and played.

The first notes sliced through the arena.

Every Serpentine except Pythor and Skales recoiled almost instantly.

Lloyd watched in horror as warriors collapsed clutching their heads, scales trembling under the ancient melody. "Oh," he whispered beneath his disguise, suddenly understanding the cotton. "He's using the Sacred Flute against his own."

Skalidor staggered backward and clamped both hands over the sides of his head. "My ears!"

Acidicus twisted in agony beside him. "It hurts!"

The generals could barely defend themselves.

Skales acted first, deliberately throwing his own staff toward Pythor rather than pretending to resist. Pythor caught it while continuing the melody, then moved through the remaining generals one after another, striking whenever the flute left them unable to fight effectively. Fangtom fell, Acidicus lost his staff, and even Skalidor's overwhelming physical strength became useless when he could barely remain upright.

Soon Pythor possessed all four staffs.

The flute fell silent.

For several seconds, nobody moved.

Pythor stood beneath the statue of the Great Devourer with the symbols of every tribe gathered around him, and when he spoke again his voice carried through the entire Lost City.

"Bow to your master."

The Serpentine stared.

Pythor threw the defeated generals' staffs down before him.

"Bow to your master, Serpentine!"

One by one, they lowered themselves.

Then hundreds followed.

Soon the entire gathering was bowing before the last Anacondrai.

Hidden among them, Lloyd realized a second too late that he needed to imitate everyone else. He hurriedly crouched, but the oversized disguise shifted as he moved and something slipped from beneath it.

His rattles hit the stone.

Clack.

Lloyd froze.

Mezmo's head turned.

A blue hand seized Lloyd by the back of his disguise and hauled him upright before he could escape. "Where do you think you're going?" Mezmo hissed, tearing enough of the costume aside to expose the frightened boy beneath it.

The surrounding Serpentine went silent.

Pythor slowly turned.

His eyes settled on Lloyd.

The triumphant smile disappeared.

"Lloyd?"

Lloyd stared back at him.

He gulped.

The next morning found the Destiny's Bounty cutting through the sky while the four ninja sat around discussing Samurai X with the same frustration that had consumed most of the previous day. Cole rubbed at one shoulder and muttered, "Trying to find out the Samurai's identity is more of a nuisance than the snakes. Any luck with you?" Jay shook his head and answered, "The guy's elusive. He's like a ghost. One moment he's there, the next he's gone," while Zane admitted, "I am starting to believe we might never catch him."

Kai folded his arms and leaned back against the console. "I think it's safe to say none of us are closer to proving we're the Green Ninja." Wu entered just in time to hear him and regarded the four with quiet approval rather than disappointment. "Looks like iron is sharpening iron. I feel you are getting closer to your True Potential," he said, lightly squeezing Cole's arm as he passed.

Cole immediately flinched. "Ow!"

That was when Jinx returned.

He walked into the room looking far more relaxed than anyone else, apparently having spent the morning elsewhere, but the expression disappeared when he looked around and failed to see one particular blond head among them. "Hey, where's baby boy?" he asked, already glancing toward the doorway as though expecting Lloyd to come running in. "I was going to take him to the amusement park."

Wu turned sharply toward the others. "Where is my nephew? I thought you were looking after him."

Kai straightened and pointed toward Cole. "I thought Cole was gonna pick him up."

Cole's eyes widened. "I went to the arcade, but he wasn't there. Jay was—"

"Don't bring me into this," Jay cut in immediately, holding both hands up. "I babysat yesterday."

Zane looked between them before giving Wu the only useful answer any of them had. "Sensei, we have not seen him."

Wu's expression tightened.

"We must find the boy."

Nobody noticed Jinx move.

In fact, for several seconds, he did not appear to move at all.

The change was subtler than that.

The lights seemed duller around him, shadows deepening beneath the furniture and creeping farther across the floor than they should have. The air became cold enough that Jay rubbed at one arm before realizing everyone else had felt it too.

Slowly, the ninja turned toward Jinx.

For one deeply unpleasant moment, it seemed as though color itself had abandoned the part of the room where he stood. His body was little more than a black silhouette framed in violet darkness, and the only part of his face that remained clear was the thin curve of a smile that did not belong on anyone who was calm.

"You left my baby boy," Jinx said softly.

Nobody answered.

His smile widened by a fraction.

"You didn't find him."

Cole swallowed.

"And you didn't think to inform me?"

Cole, already pale, made the catastrophic decision to nod.

The smile disappeared.

Every shadow in the room erupted.

Black-violet hands shot from beneath the tables and walls before any of them could react, seizing wrists, ankles, throats, and clothing with enough force to rip the four ninja off their feet. Jay slammed back-first against the floor hard enough to lose his breath, while Kai was yanked sideways and driven shoulder-first into one of the support posts. Cole managed half a step before three tendrils wrapped around his torso and legs, lifted him bodily, and hurled him across the room into a stack of training mats with enough force to scatter them.

Zane reacted fastest.

Ice formed around one hand as he tried to freeze the tendril reaching for him, but a second shadow struck him in the stomach before he could finish the technique. The blow folded him around itself, driving the air from his lungs, and another tendril caught him around the ankle before he hit the floor and dragged him violently across the deck.

"Jinx!" Jay coughed, trying to push himself upright.

A shadowy fist struck him across the ribs.

Jay folded instantly, one arm wrapping around his side as he gasped.

"This is called consequences," Jinx said.

Kai tore himself away from the support beam and reached toward the Sword of Fire. His fingers barely touched the hilt before a black hand clamped around his wrist and twisted it behind his back with enough pressure to drop him to one knee. Another tendril wrapped around his opposite arm and pulled the other way until his shoulders screamed in protest.

"Okay!" Kai hissed through clenched teeth. "Point made!"

"No," Jinx replied. "Not yet."

The shadows tightened.

Kai shouted.

Cole finally fought his way out of the scattered mats and charged forward, either out of loyalty or stupidity, but Jinx barely looked at him. A concentrated burst of Wind struck Cole squarely in the chest, lifting the Earth Ninja completely off his feet and sending him crashing into the opposite wall hard enough to crack one of the wooden panels.

Cole hit the floor and rolled onto his side, coughing.

Jinx turned toward him.

"You went to the arcade."

Cole tried to push himself upright.

"You saw he wasn't there."

A dark tendril snapped around Cole's ankle and dragged him across the floor toward Jinx.

"And then you came back without him."

Cole's eyes widened. "Wait—"

Jinx kicked him in the stomach.

Cole was thrown backward several feet, landing hard enough that the entire room heard the impact.

Jay stared at him.

Then at Jinx.

Then quietly decided that standing up was probably a terrible idea.

Zane had managed to freeze through one of the bindings around his wrist, but Jinx noticed immediately. Darkness rose beneath Zane and formed into several thick arms that seized him around the torso before driving him downward onto the deck. The impact was controlled enough not to break anything, but hard enough that Zane's body bounced once before he lay there stunned.

"You knew Lloyd was missing too," Jinx said.

Zane forced air back into his lungs. "Technically, I did not know where—"

A shadow hand slapped him across the face.

Zane stopped speaking.

Jay actually winced in sympathy.

Jinx's gaze moved toward him next.

Jay immediately started shaking his head.

"No. Nope. I already know. I already understand."

"You were more worried about Samurai X."

Jay's face fell.

"That is—"

A tendril caught him around the waist and hurled him upward.

Jay screamed as he hit the ceiling, dropped several feet, and was caught again before reaching the floor. The shadow held him suspended for one horrifying second before slamming him down hard enough to knock every bit of air from his body.

He lay there wheezing.

Jinx crouched beside him.

"You dressed like a woman and laid down on train tracks yesterday because you wanted to catch Samurai X."

Jay squeezed his eyes shut.

"I know how it sounds."

"And today you lost a child."

"When you say it like that, it sounds really bad."

Jinx grabbed him by the front of his gi and hauled him halfway upright.

"It is really bad."

Then he let go.

Jay dropped back to the floor.

Around them, Kai was still trapped with both arms twisted painfully behind him, Cole was struggling to stand with one hand against his ribs, and Zane had blood beginning to gather at the corner of his lip from the impact against the deck. None of them were seriously injured, but all four had crossed well beyond embarrassment and into the territory of bruises they would absolutely still feel tomorrow.

Wu finally stepped forward.

"Jinx."

The shadows paused.

Wu did not raise his voice. "Enough."

For several seconds, Jinx did not respond.

The darkness around him continued moving, hands opening and closing as though disappointed the punishment might end. Jinx looked toward each of the ninja in turn, and the cold fury in his eyes had not diminished in the slightest.

Then he lifted one finger.

The shadows dragged all four ninja into the center of the room.

Kai, Jay, Cole, and Zane landed in a miserable pile.

Jinx walked toward them.

They collectively tried to crawl backward.

"Stay."

They stopped.

Jinx looked down at them, his voice becoming quiet enough that they had to listen carefully. "You four want to compete over who's the Green Ninja? Fine. Beat each other senseless. Chase Samurai X across half of Ninjago. Throw yourselves in front of trains if that's what gets you off."

Jay looked away.

"But Lloyd is a child."

The humor vanished completely.

"He followed snakes into tombs because nobody bothered teaching him better. He trusted Pythor because he was desperate for a friend. He keeps getting himself into trouble because half the adults in his life either left him, failed him, or expected him to know things nobody ever taught him."

Jinx's hands slowly clenched.

"And you left him alone."

Nobody tried to defend themselves now.

"If anything happens to him because you were too busy arguing over which one of you gets to wear green," Jinx continued, "what I just did to you will feel gentle."

A tendril suddenly wrapped around Cole's throat.

Not enough to choke him completely.

Enough to make the warning physical.

Cole's hands instinctively grabbed at it.

Jinx held his gaze for several seconds before releasing him.

Cole collapsed forward, coughing.

Wu watched Jinx carefully, but he did not interrupt again.

The message had landed.

Jinx finally stepped back and snapped his fingers.

Every shadow vanished.

Kai dropped onto both hands, immediately clutching one shoulder. Jay rolled onto his side and groaned around the pain in his ribs, while Cole remained sitting against the floor trying to decide which part of him hurt most. Zane slowly pushed himself upright and wiped the thin line of blood from his mouth with the back of his hand.

For several seconds, none of them spoke.

Then Jinx looked toward Wu.

"Where do we start?"

Wu's eyes stayed on him for another moment before he answered. "The arcade."

Jinx nodded.

He turned toward the door.

Behind him, Jay struggled onto one knee and muttered, "I think he likes Lloyd more than us."

Cole winced as he stood. "You just figured that out?"

Jinx stopped walking.

Both went silent.

Without turning around, he said, "Move."

All four moved.

Immediately.

By the time the ninja reached the Kiddie Arcade, whatever remained of their earlier arguments had vanished beneath the urgency of finding Lloyd. Kai pulled to a stop near the entrance and immediately began scanning the area, calling, "Lloyd? Lloyd?" as though the boy might simply answer from behind one of the arcade machines. When nothing came back, he looked toward the others with growing concern and added, "He was right here. Someone must have seen him."

Cole's attention shifted toward the corner of the building, where a small security camera overlooked the entrance and part of the street. "Hey, guys. Check this out," he called, and within moments they had found a way to review the footage. Jay leaned toward the screen until Lloyd finally appeared, then pointed sharply and said, "Wait, wait, there's the pipsqueak. Play that back," forcing them to watch again as Lloyd purchased a ridiculous Serpentine disguise and slipped away from the arcade.

Jay stared at the screen with disbelief. "What is he up to?" he asked, but Jinx remained completely silent beside him. His face had gone unnervingly blank, and the four ninja had already learned enough from the morning's punishment to understand that his silence was considerably more dangerous than yelling.

They returned outside and followed the direction Lloyd had taken until Zane crouched near the edge of the road and examined several faint impressions in the dirt. "I sense these are Lloyd's footprints, but they come to an end here. Why?" he said, studying the marks until Kai's eyes settled on the tire tracks continuing beyond them. Kai's expression tightened with realization as he said, "Something tells me we're going for a ride. Come on, boys."

He started toward the vehicles, then looked back at Jinx.

Jinx had not moved.

His empty stare remained fixed on Kai, Jay, Cole, and Zane with the patient resentment of someone who looked entirely willing to stretch their punishment across the next hundred days. Kai visibly swallowed and amended, "Before Jinx kills us."

That got everyone moving.

The trail carried them farther into the desert than any of them expected, eventually leading toward something that should not have existed at all. Ancient towers and Serpentine monuments rose from the sand beneath the darkening sky, their massive forms arranged around a sprawling city that looked as though it had clawed its way out of history itself. Cole slowed and stared toward the walls as he asked, "What is that place?"

Jay squinted toward the architecture. "Looks like snake city."

Kai motioned them forward. "Let's get a closer look."

They approached carefully from the outer ruins, using broken stone and partially buried structures for cover until they could see down into the central arena. Hundreds upon hundreds of Serpentine packed the city below, representing every tribe they had encountered so far, and Zane's expression immediately hardened. "It appears Pythor has successfully united all of the tribes."

Cole leaned closer to the edge and sighed dramatically. "I know we ruined their last get-together, but that's no reason to not get an invitation. My feelings are hurt."

Kai ignored him.

His eyes had found the cage.

"There's Lloyd."

Jinx followed his gaze.

The moment he saw Lloyd trapped behind Serpentine bars, something in his expression broke.

Silence left its sheath with a low metallic whisper.

Darkness immediately crawled across the black-purple blade, and Wind began spiraling around Jinx's body hard enough to stir sand from the stone beneath them. He stepped forward with every intention of cutting a direct path through the gathered Serpentine, and only Cole's immediate intervention stopped him from launching himself into the arena.

Cole wrapped both arms around Jinx from behind and planted his feet against the stone, using every ounce of his superior raw strength to keep him in place. Kai and Jay grabbed Jinx's arms while Zane tried to wedge himself between Jinx and the ledge, but even with all four of them working together, Jinx dragged them several inches forward.

"Let me go!" he snarled, Darkness snapping around Silence in violent ribbons.

"Absolutely not!" Jay shouted, struggling to keep hold of his arm.

"You cannot fight every Serpentine in the city simultaneously," Zane warned, though even he sounded less confident than usual as Wind whipped around all of them.

Jinx's eyes remained fixed entirely on Lloyd.

"I can fucking try."

Jay looked toward the arena again and suddenly noticed the enormous statue looming behind Pythor. "Whoa. And look at who they worship."

Cole followed his gaze and immediately recognized the shape from the mural beneath the Mountain of a Million Steps. "Let me guess: the Great Devourer."

Kai's expression sharpened. "All the more reason to get Lloyd out of here. This comes to an end today."

With considerable difficulty, they convinced Jinx to sheath Silence long enough to move covertly through the ruins. Their progress lasted perhaps thirty seconds before the floor beneath them gave way, hidden mechanisms snapping into place as the stone collapsed under their feet. The ninja fell into the arena below while their weapons were torn from them during the drop, the Golden Weapons scattering across the stone alongside Silence before Serpentine immediately rushed in to separate them from their gear.

From inside the cage, Lloyd jumped toward the bars. "The ninja!" he shouted, only for his relief to turn almost desperate when he spotted the purple gi among them. "Jinx!"

Jinx's head snapped toward him.

"Baby boy!"

Lloyd grabbed the bars with both hands while Jinx immediately started forward, but Serpentine surrounded the ninja before he could reach the cage. Above them, Pythor spread his arms with theatrical satisfaction as he laughed. "Looks like we've caught the main event."

The ninja were herded toward the center of the arena, where the crowd erupted into cheers around them. Jay looked uneasily between the Serpentine and the various mechanisms built into the pit before asking, "Main event? What do you think he meant by 'main event?'"

Kai gave him a grim look. "I have a feeling we're the main event."

Cole glanced toward several particularly hungry-looking Serpentine. "Or the main course."

Jinx flexed his fingers as Wind began curling visibly around his arms. "Oh, I swear I'm not the one dying today."

Zane watched the Serpentine closing around them and quietly admitted, "Kai, you may be right. Things really may come to an end today."

Jay tried to find something more optimistic. "Uh, don't worry. The Samurai could still come around to save us."

Almost on cue, another gate opened.

Chains rattled.

The Samurai X Mech was dragged into the arena.

Jay stared at the enormous armored machine and immediately regretted speaking. "What? We have to fight the Samurai? But we don't even have our Golden Weapons and he has that hulking thing of armor. It's not fair."

Pythor seemed delighted by the complaint. "I want to see once and for all who is the greatest hero. Is it Samurai, or ninja?" he announced, allowing the crowd's excitement to build before adding, "Only the victor will be allowed to leave."

Kai immediately moved closer to the others. "Stay together."

Zane studied Samurai X and tried for the most logical solution available. "Perhaps he can join our team to fight our way out. After all, he hates the Serpentine too."

The mech suddenly charged.

Jinx was already too angry to tolerate one more complication.

He stepped forward and punched.

His fist never touched the mech.

A compressed wall of Wind detonated from his knuckles with enough force to distort the air in front of him, catching Samurai X squarely in the chest and launching the entire machine backward. Metal crashed into the arena wall hard enough to fracture the ancient stone, cracks spreading outward beneath the impact while Jinx immediately sprinted after it.

Cole watched him go.

"Scratch that. He is not on our team."

Jay blinked. "Should we stop Jinx?"

Cole looked toward the cracking wall, then toward Jinx's expression.

"No. I think we should let him blow off some steam."

The arena descended into chaos.

Samurai X recovered and retaliated, forcing Jinx to twist beneath one mechanical strike while Jay darted around another. Jay briefly found enough confidence to shout, "Haha, missed me!" only for the next blow to catch him immediately afterward and send him tumbling across the floor.

Zane helped him up, then looked toward the others as an idea formed. "Tornado of Creation?"

Cole understood instantly. "Earth!"

Kai stepped into position. "Fire!"

Zane continued, "Ice!"

Jay raised his hands. "Lightning!"

Together they shouted, "Ninja, go!"

Spinjitzu erupted through the arena.

The four elemental tornadoes collided around them and merged into the Tornado of Creation, tearing loose stone, abandoned equipment, broken boards, and anything else within reach into the swirling mass. Even one unfortunate Serpentine lost his lollipop to the vortex, prompting Bytar to stare after it and shout, "Hey, wait!"

The materials snapped together into an enormous improvised slingshot.

The ninja barely had time to appreciate their work before they loaded themselves into it and fired.

Samurai X blocked the attack.

Pythor laughed.

Then he activated another mechanism.

Metal spikes shot from sections of the arena floor.

Jay scrambled away from one and shouted, "Argh! Why can't anyone play fair?!"

The answer came when the entire arena suddenly tilted beneath them.

Stone groaned as the floor shifted into a steep angle, sending ninja, debris, and Serpentine sliding toward one side. Kai dug his fingers against the stone while Cole tried to anchor himself, and even Samurai X had to adjust the mech's footing to keep from toppling.

That was the final insult Jinx needed.

He stopped sliding by planting one hand against the stone and wrapping Wind around his body, then looked upward toward Pythor with an expression that had gone dangerously calm. His fingers slowly closed into a fist, and the air across the arena changed direction.

Serpentine began sliding toward him.

At first only a few lost their footing, but the suction intensified rapidly as Jinx drew enormous quantities of air inward. Venomari, Fangpyre, Hypnobrai, and Constrictai alike were ripped from their positions and dragged across the slanted floor, some colliding with one another while others clawed desperately at stone.

The ninja stared.

Jay's eyes widened. "Uh, Jinx?"

Jinx ignored him.

Once dozens of Serpentine had been pulled into the center of the arena, he slammed his fist into the ground.

The compressed air exploded upward.

Every captured Serpentine was launched into the sky at once, bodies tumbling above the arena in a chaotic mass while the crowd below screamed and scattered. Jinx remained crouched for only a moment before rising and bringing his middle finger against his thumb.

Wind gathered between them.

Not visibly at first.

Then the air began screaming.

The pressure concentrated into a tiny point between his fingers, dense enough that dust and loose stones started vibrating around his hand. Even the other ninja felt the sudden compression and realized too late that standing nearby had been a poor decision.

Jinx snapped.

The resulting shockwave detonated across Ouroboros.

Air burst outward in a circular wall powerful enough to knock Kai, Jay, Cole, and Zane from their feet while Samurai X's mech skidded backward across the arena. Above them, the airborne Serpentine were caught by the full force of the blast and hurled beyond the city walls, disappearing into the desert in every direction like living projectiles.

For several seconds, the arena went almost completely quiet.

Dust rolled across the stone.

Kai slowly lifted his head.

Jay groaned beside him.

Cole pushed himself onto one elbow, while Zane stared toward Jinx with the fascinated horror of someone already trying to calculate how much force had just passed over them.

Jinx stood in the center of the wreckage with Wind still curling around his body.

He looked toward Lloyd's cage.

His expression immediately hardened again.

"Now," he said, "someone give me back my fucking sword."

The arena was still settling from Jinx's shockwave when Cole forced himself onto one knee and looked around at the wreckage. Serpentine were scattered across the stone, several sections of the stands had been cracked apart, and the entire platform remained tilted at an angle that made simply staying upright irritatingly difficult. Cole wiped dust from his face and groaned, "Can this get any worse?" which, after everything that had happened that day, was exactly the sort of question nobody should have been reckless enough to ask aloud.

Samurai X's mech shifted beside them, its armor battered from Jinx's earlier attack but still functional, and the disguised warrior lowered the machine's voice so only the ninja could hear. "We must continue to make it appear that we are fighting for real," Samurai X warned, deliberately throwing another theatrical swing wide enough to miss Cole while convincing the watching Serpentine that the battle was continuing. Jay ducked anyway, then stared up at the mech in genuine confusion. "Huh, we're not fighting for real?" he asked, apparently having missed every sign of cooperation up to that point.

"Keep up the charade and hold on to my exo-suit," Samurai X ordered, extending one of the mech's arms toward them while its thrusters began building power. Kai, Cole, Jay, and Zane grabbed whatever pieces of armor they could reach, understanding the escape plan just before the machine began lifting from the arena. Jinx, however, remained several yards away with his attention still fixed on the Serpentine below, and when the mech swept past to collect him, a mechanical hand closed around the back of his purple gi and hauled him bodily into the air.

Jinx twisted immediately, Wind exploding around his arms as he tried to wrench himself free. "Put me the fuck down," he snarled, glaring toward the Serpentine beneath them as though being rescued was currently an inconvenience. "I'm not finished with them."

Cole, hanging from the opposite side of the mech, stared at him in disbelief. "Jinx, we are leaving!"

"They still have Lloyd!"

That stopped the humor immediately.

From inside the cage below, Lloyd had thrown himself against the bars as soon as he saw them rising away. "Jinx!" he shouted, gripping the metal hard enough that his knuckles whitened beneath his gloves. The anger vanished from Jinx's face for one naked instant as he twisted in the mech's grip and reached toward him.

"Lloyd!"

Wind surged downward instinctively, but the distance was already growing and Serpentine were closing around the cage. Jinx fought the mechanical hand harder, Darkness gathering across his fingers as though he was seriously considering cutting himself free and dropping back into an entire city of snakes. Cole managed to grab one of his arms while Zane caught the other, and together they prevented him from doing something suicidal enough that even Jinx would probably regret it later.

The mech's thrusters screamed beneath the combined load.

Kai looked downward and immediately realized the problem. "There's too much weight!" he shouted, watching the machine struggle to gain altitude while all five ninja clung to it. Samurai X seemed to reach the same conclusion and, without warning, released the controls and launched out of the cockpit.

The difference was immediate.

Freed from the armored pilot's weight, the mech surged upward with the ninja still hanging from it.

Cole stared after Samurai X in shock as the mysterious warrior dropped back toward the city. "I can't believe he just saved us," he said, the sincerity of the realization lasting only until Kai's expression soured.

"He stole our thunder again!"

Jay's face twisted with renewed fury. "ARGH!! I HATE THAT SAMURAI!"

Below them, Lloyd watched the mech climb away and threw one fist into the air despite still being trapped. "Go, ninja, go!"

Pythor was far less enthusiastic.

"Get him!" he screamed, pointing toward Samurai X as dozens of Serpentine rushed forward.

The armored warrior landed lightly among them and raised one gauntlet. "Magnetizer activated."

A powerful magnetic pulse ripped through the arena.

The Golden Weapons tore themselves out of the Serpentine's grasp all at once, flying through the air toward Samurai X in streaks of gold. Silence moved with them for only the briefest instant before its strange composition resisted the magnetic pull and clattered back against the stone, leaving Pythor staring down at it with fresh interest while the four Golden Weapons shot cleanly into Samurai X's possession.

High above the city, Kai's expression changed when he realized the unmanned mech was still accelerating.

"Uh, guys?"

Jay looked toward him. "What?"

Kai stared at the controls.

"How do you turn this thing off?!"

Nobody knew.

The exo-suit shot out over the desert with all five ninja attached to it, climbing far too high before its damaged systems finally began complaining. Warning lights flashed across the controls, one thruster sputtered, and the entire machine abruptly pitched forward.

Jay's eyes widened. "That doesn't look good."

The mech swan-dived.

All five screamed.

Jinx managed to wrap Wind around part of the machine and slow the descent enough to keep the crash from becoming catastrophic, but the impact still sent sand exploding hundreds of feet into the air. The exo-suit plowed across the desert, bounced once, and tore a deep trench through the dunes before finally coming to a smoking halt.

When Cole eventually pushed himself out of the wreckage, he immediately counted heads.

Jay was face-down in the sand.

Zane was half buried beside him.

Jinx had landed several yards away and was already sitting upright with the expression of someone adding another name to a private list of grievances.

Cole looked around again.

"Where's Kai?"

Kai had been thrown much farther during the crash.

He landed alone in another stretch of desert and rolled several times before coming to a stop against the side of a dune. Groaning, he pushed himself upright and looked around at the empty landscape. "Guys?" he called, but the only answer was distant metal crashing somewhere beyond the next ridge.

Then he remembered who else had abandoned the mech before it launched.

"The Samurai?"

Kai climbed over the dune just in time to see Samurai X's smaller armored system crash into the sand nearby. The warrior struck the ground, rolled, and disappeared behind a broken piece of machinery, leaving Kai no reason to hesitate. He drew his sword and ran toward the wreckage.

A distorted voice came from the other side.

"Testing. Testing? One, two…"

Kai slowed.

Samurai X was crouched beside the damaged equipment with one hand adjusting something near the helmet. Apparently convinced nobody else was around, the mysterious warrior reached up and pulled the helmet free.

Dark hair fell loose.

Kai stopped dead.

"Nya?"

Nya spun around.

Her eyes widened in absolute horror, and she immediately shoved the helmet back over her head as though doing so could somehow reverse the last five seconds. "Steer clear, ninja! Don't look…" she ordered through the distorted voice before realizing exactly which ninja was standing there.

She slowly removed the helmet again.

"…at me."

Kai continued staring.

He looked at Nya.

Then at the Samurai armor.

Then back at Nya.

"I don't understand," he finally managed. "You're the Samurai?"

Nya's initial embarrassment slowly hardened into something much more defensive. "It was always a boys' club," she said, holding the helmet against her hip. "You never let me try to help, so I found my own way to be a hero." She watched her brother carefully for a moment before asking, much more quietly, "Are you mad?"

Kai looked at her for several seconds.

Then his expression softened.

"Mad? Of course not." He stepped closer, still clearly struggling to reconcile the sister he had spent so much time trying to protect with the armored warrior who had repeatedly saved all of them. "It's just, all this time, I've been trying to protect you and you've never needed it."

Nya's mouth twitched upward.

Kai smiled.

"You're amazing."

Nya punched him in the arm.

"Girl power."

Kai rubbed the spot and laughed quietly, but Nya's smile became suspicious almost immediately. "You're not gonna tell the others, are you?"

Kai hesitated.

"But we had a bet," he reminded her. "We said whoever caught the Samurai would be the Green—"

He stopped.

For once, the competition did not seem particularly important.

Kai released a long breath. "Of course I won't say anything." His attention moved toward the damaged armor surrounding them, and curiosity quickly replaced everything else. "How'd you make all this stuff?"

Nya looked around at the mechanical wreckage as though the answer were obvious. "You'd be surprised how much spare time I have waiting for you guys to come back from your missions." She retrieved the Golden Weapons and handed them over one at a time before her expression grew more serious. "You better head back before anyone gets suspicious. We'll have to rescue Lloyd another day."

Kai accepted the weapons, but the mention of Lloyd immediately took some of the warmth out of the moment. He remembered the boy reaching through the cage, then remembered Jinx nearly tearing himself out of Samurai X's grip trying to go back. The rescue had saved their lives, but they had still left someone behind.

"Nya," Kai said before leaving, making her look back toward him. "Whenever I get in trouble, the other three always have my back. But you…" He hesitated, his protective instincts clearly fighting with everything he had just learned. "Just be careful, will you?"

Nya smiled faintly.

"Promise."

Then another thought occurred to her.

"What about Jinx?"

Kai stopped.

For several seconds, neither of them spoke.

They both remembered Jinx in the Toxic Bogs, staring at Samurai X as though something about the masked warrior had seemed familiar. Kai also remembered how Nya had somehow reached Mega Monster Amusement Park ahead of them despite the Bounty being miles away, and it suddenly occurred to him that Jinx might already be considerably closer to the truth than anyone realized.

Kai rubbed the back of his neck. "He'd probably just gloat that we were idiots for not figuring it out."

Nya raised an eyebrow.

Kai considered Jinx's current mood.

"…Once he calmed down about Lloyd."

That changed her expression.

"Right."

Kai gathered the Golden Weapons and started back toward the others, but Nya remained beside her damaged Samurai equipment for a moment longer, looking toward the distant horizon. Of all the ninja, Kai might have been the easiest person to convince to keep her secret.

Jinx was another problem entirely.

Especially if he had already seen enough to start putting the pieces together.

Luck, however, did not seem to be on their side. Before Kai could take more than a few steps back toward the wreckage, the desert itself appeared to revolt, because in the distance, where the others had crashed, a colossal tornado had begun to twist upward into the sky, wide enough at its base to swallow dunes and violent enough to tear entire walls of sand into its spinning body. It did not look natural even by the loose standards of a world already filled with dragons, Serpentine, and living legends, and the moment Kai saw the color running through it, his stomach dropped. Black streaked through the spiral like liquid shadow, while flashes of dark rosé light pulsed inside it like the heartbeat of something enraged.

Above the storm, the sky was changing almost as quickly as the ground below. Clouds that had been little more than scattered wisps only moments ago began gathering from every direction, as though the heavens themselves had decided to lean down and witness whatever nightmare was being born in the desert, and within seconds they had swallowed the moonlight whole. Jagged bolts of black-dark rosé lightning started lancing through the thickening mass overhead, each flash illuminating the storm beneath for only a fraction of a second, though that fraction proved more than enough.

Every time the lightning struck, a shape appeared within the tornado.

It was not merely large, nor was it simply terrifying in the way a wild beast or enemy warrior might be terrifying, because the thing moving inside that spiraling darkness looked less like a creature of flesh and more like a thought given monstrous form. Long, unnatural limbs seemed to drag themselves through the storm's body, and a towering silhouette of pure darkness rose and vanished with each pulse of light, half-hidden and half-revealed in a way that made it impossible to tell where the tornado ended and the monster began. For one sickening instant it looked as though the entire storm had a face, and then the lightning vanished and left only the impression of something enormous waiting inside.

Then came the scream.

It tore across the desert with such force that it did not sound human, animal, or even fully alive, but like wrath itself had been given a voice, and the sheer violence of it sent a shock through the air strong enough to kick up a fresh wall of sand all around them. Dust and grit exploded outward in every direction, branches of dead scrub bent low to the ground, and even from that distance the sound hit Kai and Nya like a physical blow that made their bodies tense before their minds had fully caught up. There was no real mystery as to who stood at the center of that storm, because only one person they knew could turn rage into something so apocalyptic, and the fact that Lloyd was still missing made the sight infinitely worse.

Kai stared at the distant tornado, then slowly looked toward Nya with an expression caught somewhere between dread and exhausted disbelief. He did not need to say Jinx's name aloud for her to understand exactly what he was thinking, because whatever calm they had just managed to salvage in the desert had clearly not lasted, and now the others were trapped near the center of what looked like Jinx's anger made weather. If they had hoped to return quietly before anyone grew suspicious, that hope had just been ripped to pieces, because the storm in the distance looked less like a warning and more like the beginning of a disaster.

The storm vanished almost as violently as it had appeared.

One moment the desert was being swallowed beneath a towering cyclone of black wind, dark-rosé lightning, and that impossible silhouette moving through the clouds; the next, the entire phenomenon collapsed inward as though someone had simply cut the strings holding it together. The lightning died, the clouds began peeling apart, and the screaming wind faded into an eerie silence that left Kai and Nya staring toward the distant crash site with no idea whether that sudden quiet was reassuring or somehow worse.

Several minutes passed before movement finally appeared through the settling dust.

Kai narrowed his eyes and stepped forward, expecting Serpentine, Samurai X, or perhaps another manifestation of whatever Jinx had just become, but instead he recognized the silhouettes of his own teammates staggering back across the dunes. Cole was carrying someone over one shoulder, Zane walked close beside him, and Jay trailed a few steps behind looking more shaken than exhausted.

Then Kai realized who Cole was carrying.

Jinx hung limp against his back, completely unconscious.

That alone was enough to make Kai's expression change, but what truly stopped him was the weapon clenched tightly in Cole's hand.

Silence.

The katana's black-purple blade was glowing.

Not brightly enough to illuminate the entire desert, but enough that dark violet light pulsed along the crystallized edge in slow, almost heartbeat-like waves. The weapon looked disturbingly awake, as though whatever had happened to Jinx had stirred something inside it that had not completely settled even after its wielder collapsed.

Kai stared at it for several seconds before Jay finally noticed him.

"Kai?"

Zane looked up next. "Kai?"

Behind them, something metallic groaned.

Everyone turned.

The damaged Samurai X Mech, which they had assumed was finished, abruptly pushed itself upright from the sand. Warning lights flashed across its armor as systems reactivated one after another, and Jay's exhaustion vanished immediately.

"Quick! Get it!" he shouted, pointing toward the machine.

Nobody reached it in time.

The mech ignited its thrusters and launched into the sky, scattering sand across the group before disappearing into the distance. Jay watched it vanish with growing disbelief before throwing both hands up and snapping, "Great. Now we lost Kai, the Samurai suit is gone, and we have no way to get home." His eyes flicked toward Jinx hanging unconscious over Cole's shoulder, and his voice dropped slightly as he added, "And Jinx had a breakdown."

Cole adjusted Jinx's weight and gave Jay a tired look. "I wouldn't say that."

Jay stared at him. "You saw the giant nightmare tornado, right?"

Before Cole could answer, Kai approached them with something held behind his back.

"All right," he said.

Then he revealed the Golden Weapons.

For several seconds, nobody spoke.

Jay's jaw dropped.

Cole blinked.

Zane's attention shifted immediately from the weapons to Kai's face.

Even with Jinx unconscious and Silence still pulsing faintly in Cole's hand, the relief was unmistakable.

They had a way home.

Later, after returning safely to the Destiny's Bounty, the strangest conversation of the day happened somewhere considerably less dramatic.

Kai, Jay, Cole, and Zane stood shoulder-to-shoulder in front of the bathroom mirror brushing their teeth while Kai recounted what had supposedly happened after they were separated. Jinx had been put to bed elsewhere on the ship, still unconscious after whatever had overtaken him in the desert, while Silence had finally stopped glowing once it was returned to his side.

Kai rinsed his toothbrush and continued his carefully prepared version of events. "He was all mysterious. Never said a word. Then handed me the Golden Weapons and poof, he was gone."

Cole slowly turned toward him, toothbrush still in his mouth.

"Poof?"

Kai looked at him.

Cole removed the toothbrush and narrowed his eyes. "He just poofed?"

Kai nodded with slightly too much confidence. "Pretty much."

Jay immediately leaned closer.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait a minute, Kai." He pointed his toothbrush toward him, toothpaste nearly flying from the bristles. "If the Samurai had his hands on the most powerful weapons in the whole wide world, why would he just give them back to you?"

Kai froze for half a second.

That was not a question he had prepared for.

"Um, I don't know," he answered, carefully avoiding everyone's eyes. "Maybe she—I mean, he's not so bad after all."

The room went quiet.

Jay slowly lowered his toothbrush.

Cole's eyebrows rose.

Zane turned his head.

Kai's eyes widened as he realized exactly what had come out of his mouth.

He immediately pushed onward before anyone could seize on it. "All I do know is that we owe him our lives. Maybe he has made us all a little better."

Zane continued watching him for another second before, mercifully, letting the slip pass. "I sense this means the bet is off."

Nobody argued.

The competition suddenly felt childish compared with everything that had happened at Ouroboros.

Wu, who had been standing just beyond the doorway, allowed the conversation to settle before speaking. "More importantly, my nephew has found his way into the den of all snakes. I fear there may be no way of rescuing him now."

That sobered them immediately.

Kai looked toward Wu and answered without hesitation, "Sensei, there's always a way."

Cole nodded, his earlier exhaustion giving way to determination. "And don't worry. We'll find it."

Jay was quieter.

His eyes drifted toward the hallway leading to where Jinx was resting, and the memory of that impossible storm seemed to weigh on him. "But what do we do about Jinx?" he asked. "Leaving Lloyd there messed him up."

Wu's expression became difficult to read.

For several moments, he said nothing.

Then he released a slow breath.

"I do not know what happened in Jinx's past," Wu admitted, "and I suspect there are parts of it even he cannot fully explain. But whatever shaped him seems to have made his bond with Lloyd unusually strong."

The others listened more carefully.

Wu continued, choosing his words with care. "They are very different, yet I believe there is something in each of them that recognizes the other. The fear of being left behind. The fear that someone important will disappear and never return." His gaze lowered slightly before he added, "That sort of pain can create bonds that feel less like friendship and more like survival."

Jay's expression softened.

Cole looked down.

Even Kai stopped thinking about Samurai X.

Wu glanced once toward the corridor where Jinx slept. "That does not make what happened in the desert healthy, nor does it mean either of them should become entirely dependent upon the other. But it may explain why Jinx reacted as though losing Lloyd meant losing something far larger than one person."

Nobody had an answer for that.

The conversation ended there.

Wu left the bathroom and continued through the ship until he found Nya near her room, quietly working on something she had very obviously hoped nobody would notice. He stopped beside her and held out one of Samurai X's weapons.

"I think you forgot this."

Nya froze.

Slowly, she looked up at him.

Wu's expression remained perfectly calm.

"Iron sharpens iron," he said, placing the weapon into her hands, "and sibling sharpens sibling."

Nya stared at him.

Then at the weapon.

Then back at him.

A small smile appeared.

Wu walked away without another word.

Nya watched him disappear down the corridor before slipping into her room and closing the door behind her, still smiling faintly as she looked down at the Samurai weapon in her hands.

He had known.

Probably for longer than she wanted to admit.