Legends of Ninjago: Book2: Rise of the Serpentine: Chapter 5 — The Prince of Darkness

Kai’s mind was slowly beginning to come awake, but for a long time he just felt somewhat confused. Something wasn’t right, and he had no idea what, until he opened his eyes and saw a single sliver of light surrounded by blackness. Then he frowned and shifted where he was laying. Except, he could barely move. All at once a thousand thoughts and fears hit him.

He realised that his feet and hands were behind his back, bound together by metal and chained to the floor. He was lying on his side, and the cold of the stone ground began to send chills across his skin, as if his cells had only just woken up to feel the temperature. His head felt like it was swelling, and it ached from the pressure, but the only thing on Kai’s mind was where he was. The last thing he remembered was... what was it? It was the forest, that’s right. And this was... nowhere he’d ever been before. What in Ninjago happened?

As Kai struggled to heave his awkwardly positioned body up onto his knees, he suddenly realised that that sliver of light he had seen was coming from underneath a door. He was in a small, dark room, chained up, and still in his pyjamas. Could things be any worse?

“Jay?!” He cried, not knowing what else to do. “Zane?...Cole?” No one answered.

‘Oh, come on, Kai! Get a hold of yourself! Think! What should you do?’ he thought desperately.

Logically, there’s was only one thing he could do, and that was use his powers, but whoever had trapped him knew what he was doing. His hands weren’t just bound by metal, as he first thought; they were completely encased. If he tried to release flames, he’d end up heating the metal and hurting himself. Sure, he was fireproof from what he could tell, but he wasn’t molten-metal-proof. That didn’t mean he was powerless, though, he just needed to focus really hard on conjuring fire with his mind. What could go wrong?

He closed his eyes and tried to breathe slowly, calming his nerves and focusing on mustering a fire ball in front of him, but the longer it took for something to happen, the more frustrated he became until he finally let out an angry scream and gave up. Who was he kidding? This was hopeless! At least in the Underworld he hadn’t been chained. Kai mentally sighed as he realised that the place that haunted him in his nightmares suddenly seemed more desirable than where he was now.

Eventually, sitting on his knees became too painful, so he fell on his side again and waited for something to happen. It didn’t sound like there was anyone outside the room, but he could still see the candlelight shining under the door.

If only he’d stayed in bed that night. Why could’t he just leave well enough alone for once in his life? But no, he was mad at Wu and wanted to know if he was hiding something from them. In the end, he kinda was, but it definitely wasn’t what Kai had been expecting.

The idea of the Green Ninja excited Kai in a new way. Could he be the one in the prophecy? The boy destined to wield great power and become a legend? Is that one of the reasons Wu brought them together? But, wait, Wu had wanted them to separate after they returned from the Underworld. What did that mean? Did Wu not want the prophesy to come true? Was there something awful that was suppose to happen after the Green Ninja is found? That man was such a mystery sometimes. Kai could almost never understand how his mind worked.

Kai’s thoughts stopped cold and his eyes grew wide when he heard the sound of a metal door opening somewhere far away. Then there were heavy footsteps and clanking keys growing closer and closer. He sat up as quickly as possible and tried not to look scared when his cell door opened to reveal a knarled-looking Skulken with an oversized lower jaw and an eyepatch.

“Who are you? Who do you work for?” Kai demanded to know.

He didn’t say a word as he walked forward, pulled out a key from his massive keychain, bent down, and untethered Kai’s metal bonds from the floor, allowing his arms and legs to move independently from each other. The Skulken then picked Kai up and lobbed him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes and began his slow journey out of the smelly, dungeon-esque room and into the halls of what looked like an old stronghold.

“Where are we?” Kai continued. “Answer me!” But the Skulken didn’t seem to care about anything Kai said.

There were other Skulkens moving around everywhere in the hallways and rooms. Most of them looked like soldiers carrying large weapons, and some looked like captains and generals.

It didn’t take very long for them to reach their destination. The first thing Kai saw was the massive metal doors they had passed though to get into a very big and important room. The walls were made of some sort of purple, marble-like material, and there were smooth, wooden pillars that lined the path they were walking. Kai tried to move around and see exactly what this Skulken was walking towards, but it was impossible to move without a bone or piece of armour getting stuck into his skin.

Then he felt the skeleton grab his legs and pull him off his bony shoulder. Kai was practically dropped onto the ground and let out a yelp of pain when his side collided with the cold floor, but then he froze when he heard the Skulken kneel down and say,

“Here is the prisoner, Lord Garmadon.”

‘No way,’ Kai thought. Naturally, his mind first conjured up images of the devilish warlord he had fought all those months ago, and he started panicking about how Garmadon would want revenge against him and the others. Wait, where were the others? Were they...? Oh no...

“Why’s he in pyjamas?”

Hold on... that didn’t sound like Lord Garmadon at all. Kai slowly lifted his torso up and turned his face toward a platform with a massive thrown, on top of which sat a small figure dressed in black armour. The room was lit by teal flames, so it was difficult to make out exact details, but Kai could see that this person had blonde hair tied up in a bun, an ill-defined, round-ish face, and looked rather short in his oversized seat. He didn’t look like Lord Garmadon at all, from his pale skin to his noticeable lack of four arms. By all accounts he seemed to be a fairly normal, maybe eleven-year-old, kid.

“We found him like this,” the Skulken replied.

“Whatever. Go away,” the boy said. The Skulken bowed respectfully and slunk off into another room, leaving Kai alone with—who he could only assume to be—the Prince of Darkness.

“So? I take it you’re Lloyd?” Kai asked, feeling a bit more confident. He shifted uncomfortably on his knees but felt a smirk creep up his lips.

“That’s Lord Garmadon, thank you very much!” Lloyd snarled as he rose out of his seat with his fists balled and his face scrunched up into a scowl.

Kai couldn’t help but laugh a few times. “You’re kidding, right? What are you, five?”

Lloyd jumped down from the platform, right in front of Kai, and yanked him forward by the collar of his shirt. His other hand he held aloft, ready to strike. There was an all-too familiar, purple energy floating around Lloyd’s lifted hand, and Kai was beginning to understand what Wu had meant about this kid being ‘irrational.’

“Say that again! I double-dare you!” said Lloyd, spraying spit into Kai’s face.

Kai fought against the nasty retort that had already formed in his head and remained silent as he eyed the swarm of purple energy that would surely turn him into dust.

“That’s what I thought, dirt wad,” the Prince said, letting go of Kai’s shirt with a shove and extinguishing the flame-like energy. “What’s your name?”

“And why should I tell you, shrimpy?” Kai said without thinking. Honestly, the humour of the situation was still too palpable.

He instantly regretted his choice of words, though. Lloyd’s face flared with more anger than ever and his eyes suddenly became as vibrantly red as his father’s. When the purple energy returned to his hand—this time, crawling up his arm—it formed into the shape of a glowing dagger. Lloyd grabbed Kai again, this time by the throat, and pushed the knife up against the left side of Kai’s face. It’s destructive powers began to burn away at his skin like acid. He closed his eye just before the blade hit his eyelid and it took all of his strength not to scream in pain.

“BECAUSE I AM LORD GARMADON! THE PRINCE OF DARKNESS! THE TRUE EMPEROR OF NINJAGO, AND IF YOU MAKE FUN OF ME ONE MORE TIME, I WILL SHOVE THIS DAGGER THROUGH YOUR EYE!”

Kai held very still and didn’t dare to speak as the dagger dug a little deeper every second it was in contact with his face, but thankfully Lloyd backed down and slowly removed it. He let go of Kai’s throat, too, and although he still looked very angry, he calmed down enough to proceed with his interrogation—his eyes slowly turning back to a deep shade of green.

“Now what’s your name?” Lloyd asked.

“Raiden,” Kai lied. Lloyd seemed to buy it.

“And how’d you get your superpowers, Raiden,” he prodded.

Kai internally rolled his eyes. Not this again! Why was everyone so interested in his powers?! Although, now that he thought about it, why wasn’t he more interested in them? He just kind of accepted them after a while, as if they had always been a part of his life. But in a weird way, it did sorta feel like they had been there the entire time.

Kai sighed. “I don’t know where they came from.” It was the only answer he had, and he felt his body tense up in preparation for torture, but to his surprise and relief, Lloyd didn’t raise his hand again.

“You mean your dad doesn’t have powers?” Lloyd asked, crossing his arms.

What a very specific thing to say. However, if Lloyd had the same powers as his father, then that must mean that these powers were genetic. However...

“If he does, he never told me,” said Kai, sorting through this new information in his head. He had no memories of his father being able to control fire, but maybe he never noticed those things before because they seemed normal to him?

“Wait a minute...” Kai looked around the room for a second and then focused back on Lloyd. “You’ve taken control of the Skulkens. This must be the Undead Citadel! Where are you keeping my parents?!”

“What are you talking about?” Lloyd said indignantly. “The only prisoners I have are you and your dopey friends.”

Kai’s chest felt like it was about to collapse with disappointment. If Lloyd didn’t have his parents, and if they failed to find them in any of the war camps... no! No! NO! It couldn’t be! They had to be out there, somewhere. Maybe they managed to escape and were running around in the wild, not knowing that the war was over? Maybe they just hadn’t checked every camp yet?

“You’d better be telling the truth!” Kai said, raising his voice.

“Last time I checked, I was asking the questions, you little brat!” said Lloyd, and his eyes were brimming with red.

Kai kept his mouth shut and both of them backed down. Lloyd seemed lost in thought for a little while before he turned around and walked back to his throne.

“I honestly don’t know where your parents are,” he said. “This place was bonkers when I found it.” He sat back down and looked long and hard at Kai. “What do you know about my Uncle Wu?”

“Wu?” Kai repeated.

“Yeah, and don’t bother lying about it. I know you’re one of his students. My spies told me everything.” Lloyd seemed very confident with his words and again it was surprisingly intimidating.

“If you know everything, why are you asking me?” Kai quipped. But when he realised that he could upset Lloyd again, he quickly added, “Sorry, sorry. I don’t know anything about the guy.”

Lloyd stood up again. “Oh, come on! You expect me to believe that?”

A pang of awful feelings penetrated Kai as he relived those words.

“I swear. He doesn’t talk to us much. I barely know anything, except that he’s... very smart and old... he’s got his own powers... he’s the son of the First Spinjitsu Master, and... loves tea,” Kai said, honestly shocked that he really didn’t know a whole lot about his Sensei. But then again, it made sense that he wouldn’t tell them all his secrets in case of situations like this. ‘Darn it, Sensei Wu! Why do you have to be so right about everything?!’ thought Kai.

“How long have you been training with him?” Lloyd went on, sitting back down.

“Since the spring.” Kai didn’t really see the harm in answering that question.

“And did Wu get my message?”

Kai gave a slight chuckle. “Your note? Or the assassins? Cause we got both.”

Lloyd rolled his eyes. “Does Wu know anything about where I am or what I’m doing?”

“He might,” said Kai.

“Does he or doesn’t he?” Lloyd pressed, anger rising in his voice.

“Like he’d tell me,” Kia answered. “Pushed me out of the war room and everything.”

Lloyd actually gave a chuckle of his own. “That sounds like him... but he is planning something?”

Kai realised that his choice of words might not have been the best, and his silence only confirmed Lloyd’s suspicions. When and if he got back to the monastery, he really needed to go over those prisoner-of-war lessons again.

“Ivan!” Lloyd shouted with a grin. A second later the Skulken from before slowly came in through the main doors. “Take him back to his cell.”

Ivan did as he was told and lobbed Kai back onto his shoulder with as much grace as a giraffe on ice. Back into the halls they went, still bustling with activity and movement. As Kai now noticed, a lot of the soldiers weren’t just carrying weapons, they were also carrying explosives, which only led him to wonder what Lloyd had planned.

After a little while, Kai was sure that they were nearing the dungeons again, but his spirits suddenly rose ten-fold when he saw Cole being carried on the shoulder of another Skulken heading towards the throne room.

“Cole!” Kai shouted.

“Kai! Are you all right?!” Cole shouted back. He seemed to be fine—no visible injuries, at least—but he was restrained the same way Kai was and looked just about as shaken up. He did seem to be staring at Kai’s face an awful lot, though.

“I’m fine. Where are the others?!” The two of them were getting farther and farther apart, and Kai needed to raise his voice to make sure Cole could hear.

“I don’t know!” he replied.

They had only a few more seconds before they’d be out of range. Kai needed to make his next words count.

“Be careful what you say to him!” he said, knowing what Cole would be in for.

“To who!?” Cole asked, as he and his escort rounded a corner and disappeared.

“Lloyd Garmadon!” Kai cried.

“What?!” came the echoey sound of Cole’s voice.

Now all that Kai could do was hope that his friend would be okay.

The Skulken guard carelessly bumbled into Kai’s cell and plopped him onto the floor again. There was a moment when Kai was laying on the ground, flinching from the pain, and the soldier was standing above him about to chain him to the floor again. Right then, a thought came to Kai’s mind, and his body started acting on it before he could really think it through, for fear of him missing this crucial window of opportunity.

Kai rolled over and flung his bound feet up into the Skulken’s face. The metal bindings made a cracking sort of sound upon impact, and the skeleton was sent reeling backwards. He eventually fell over, hitting the ground hard, and didn’t move.

The only sound Kai could hear was that of his own heart pounding in his ear as he sat, watching the limp body of Ivan. He had done that. It happened so suddenly that his brain was falling behind.

‘There’s no time for this!’ Kai thought, snapping himself out of the odd trance. ‘We need to get out of here—all of us! And we need to hurry. This guy’ll wake up soon, and then we’ll all be toast. Okay, first thing: how do I get outa these cuffs?’

He was almost completely immobile like this, and Kai silently cursed the designer of the restrains. The cuffs on his wrists looked like two cylinders with curved ends where the hands go, connected by a short, solid piece of metal in between. The ones on his legs looked more like metal boots. They went up as far as his elbows on his arms and up to his mid-calfs on his legs. Whatever was keeping these cuffs on so tightly must have been the special bands near his wrists and ankles that were deeper than the rest of the metal, and he could feel more pressure in those areas as well. There were seams that ran the length of the cylinders, and Kai’s best guess would be that they opened with hinges like any other box-like object, but he also noticed that there was a tiny keyhole along the side of his leg restrains. He would need to find the key to the lock, grab it with his mouth, and then proceed to unlock his legs—with his mouth—so that he could get up and walk around and hopefully find the others. This was a great plan.

He braced himself for utter humiliation and awkwardly wiggled over to the Skulken’s side were he quickly identified the keychain. The only problem was: it was impossible to know which one of the thousand keys on the chain belonged to this specific contraption.

“Oh, come on!” Kai wailed. “Why bother to give me the lemons when I’m physically incapable of making lemonade!?”

After a minute of sitting there, wondering what to do, he finally decided that he was sick of having his arms behind his back. It wasn’t easy, but Kai eventually got his hands to go underneath his torso and up past his curled-up legs, allowing him to see his hand cuffs and move his arms naturally again.

“Okay, now what?” he said to himself.

He thought about knocking his cuffs against something super hard, but they looked well made and not likely to crack or break under pressure. There was only one thing to do.

Kai bent over Ivan and grabbed the key chain with his mouth, then he propped himself up onto his feet (thankfully, the bottoms of his leg bindings were flat) and began hopping toward the door. CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! went his metal boots with every landing; the jangling keys didn’t help either.

He was almost at the door when it flew open, nearly knocking him over, and in stepped another Skulken. He was bigger than Ivan and wore heavier armour, making him a bit more intimidating, not to mention the fact that he did not look happy to see Kai out of his cell.

“Ninja scum!” he bellowed, and unsheathed his massive sword.

Kai quickly hopped back as the soldier swung his sword down, crashing the blade into Kai’s arm cuffs right where the band of connecting metal was. The force of the impact sent Kai’s hands plummeting to the ground, but thankfully he was able to keep his footing. He used his stability to thrust his arms up, pushing the sword back with them, and throwing the Skulken off.

Using his upward momentum, Kai jumped into the air and then shoved his metal-bound feet into the Skulken’s gut while he was still recovering from Kai’s first counter. The soldier fell onto his stomach, and Kai fell onto his back. They were both writhing in pain from the impact of their landings, and Kai could barely breathe, but he wouldn’t let that stop him. He forced himself up again and became frustrated when he instinctively went to move his hands in different directions but found them both still very much connected. However, as he was moving his hands apart, there was a loud SNAP! and suddenly his arms were moving independently again. He spared a second to look down and saw that the welding on the connecting piece of metal had split, probably with the help of that massive sword blow.

Kai panicked when he saw the Skulken start to move so he brought both of his metal-wrapped hands down on the skeleton’s head, knocking him out. What should he do now? He just stared off into space until it hit him: find the others! Get out!

It was much easier to stand up now that his arms could move freely, although this legs were still a pain. He hopped up and down the hallway beyond the dungeon, somehow managing not to draw any attention to himself, until he reached a nearby door. It looked similar to the one he had been kept behind, but he had no way of opening it, except for knocking.

Knock, knock, knock!

Someone stomped up to the door and opened it angrily.

“What?” said a grumpy-looking Skulken, who’s eyes tripled in size when he saw Kai.

One second later, Kai had sucker-punched the Skulken in the face, cracking his skull and knocking him out. Kai’s hand didn’t really hurt from the impact of the punch, but the metal cuffs were starting to cut into his wrists a little bit.

There wasn’t much in the little room where the Skulken’s body lay, except for a metal door that looked very familiar. Kai hopped up to it, dropped the keys from his mouth and called out,

“Is anybody in there?!”

“Kai!?” Jay’s voice rang out. “How’d you get out?!”

“Long story. I’ll tell you later,” said Kai, looking around for a key to open the cell door. The key he was looking for was sitting on the Skulken guard’s key chain (thankfully, this Skulken didn’t have a million and one keys to sort through) and with the help of his teeth and the pointy bit of metal from his cuffs, and several minutes of frustrated growling and sweating, he managed to grab the key, stick it into the lock, twist it, and open the door.

Jay looked beyond happy to see a familiar face. He was bound the exact same way Kai had been—laying on his side, hands and legs behind his back, and chained to the ground. But then Jay’s face fell.

“How did you open the door with your hands like that?” he asked.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Kai replied dryly.

“Well, whatever you did, don’t stop now! Get me out of these!”

Kai looked down at the cuffs and chain, frowning. “I seriously doubt that I can get these open quickly,” he said. “But maybe you can blast them apart with your lightning?”

Jay’s expression was less than confident. “I thought about that. Won’t it send a billion pieces of metal flying everywhere?”

“Do you have a better suggestion?” Kai asked.

However unpredictable the plan was, it was soon in motion. Kai was hiding behind the metal door and Jay was focusing on sending a huge blast of lightning down his fingers. His heavy breathing was impossible to ignore, but it was a bit too late to rethink things.

BANG!

“Aaaaaaaaaah!”

The walls shook from the intensity of the explosion, and there were pieces of metal flying around and bouncing off the walls. Kai didn't dare poke his face into the cell until he was certain that everything had stopped moving. When he did finally go in, his eyes were drawn to Jay who was still laying on the ground, curled up into a tight ball and looking quite terrified.

"You okay?" Kai asked, hobbling over.

Jay uncurled a little bit and looked around with wide eyes. "Yeah," he said. "I think so. If not, then my body’s in shock and I’ll die within the next hour."

The plan had worked well enough. The cuffs were completely obliterated and Jay was free to move his hands and fingers however he wanted. The very first thing he did with this new freedom was grabbing the keys and frantically unlocking Kai's arms and legs.

"Hurry," Kai urged as Jay's shaking hands struggled to get the key into the hole of his leg cuffs.

"What do you think I'm trying to do?!" Jay blurted in an aggravated sort of way.

At last, there was a click and the boots flew open. Kai eagerly stepped out of them and rubbed his sore ankles with his equality sore hands. Jay's boots were off a second later and as they worked, Kai filled him in on what little he knew.

"That's intense. I was wondering what happened to your face," Jay remarked after Kai described his encounter with Lloyd.

Kai wasn't sure what he was talking about until he remembered the dagger. He reached up to touch his eye and, sure enough, there was a tangible scar on his face than ran from above his left eyebrow to his cheek. It was strangely unsettling to know that someone had permanently marked him like that.

"So I guess we look for Zane first?" Jay asked.

"Hmm?" said Kai, snapping his head up. "Oh, uh, yeah."

Jay was completely unbound now, so Kai led him out of the cell and into the little room. He stopped at the door and stuck his head out slightly into the hallway to check for more Skulkens. This section of the citadel seemed to be almost completely quiet, but the more Kai thought about it, the more it made sense. There were less than half the number of Skulkens in Ninjago now, and if Lloyd was planning something—something big judging by the ruckus going on upstairs—then they must not have a lot of guards to spare to keep an eye on them. Perfect.

Kai was the first one to venture out into the hallway and he scanned the wall for more doors. He spotted the room he had come from, and there were five more further down, and three more further up. They tried the doors further down first, but they seemed empty, so they went to the next door after Jay's. There was a light on, but when they busted in, prepared to fight off another soldier, they were surprised to find the room completely empty.

"Zane! Zane? Are you in there?" Kai cried, racing up to the cell door. No answer.

"Maybe this is Cole's cell?" Jay suggested.

"Maybe," Kai agreed. "Hey, do you still have the keychain?"

"Yup," said Jay, and he tossed the metal ring to Kai, who now understood why Ivan had so many keys to carry.

It was a long, gruelling process, but he eventually found the right key and shoved it into the keyhole. It unlocked and slowly swung inward, revealing Zane collapsed on the floor, chained up.

"Zane!" Kai and Jay cried together.

They rushed over to him, but he didn't move. It looked like he was still unconscious, so the two of them got to work unlocking him. Kai's hunch about the overloaded keychain extended to the cuffs as well, although it still wasn't easy to find the right key.

After a little while, Zane was free, but he was still knocked out, so Jay and Kai had to lift him up and carry him out. Kai grabbed his torso and Jay took hold of his legs, both of which were slung over their shoulders as they tried to run out of the room and down the hall.

The next door seemed like it had been left partially open and there was light shining from within, but when Kai looked inside, he found the room empty and the cell door wide open. The last door led to another empty room, so it seemed as though Cole had yet to return from his interrogation.

"What do we do now?" Jay asked, adjusting Zane's legs on his shoulder.

Kai thought for a moment. “I guess we wait for Cole to get back.”

“But what about the other Skulkens? They’ll wake up soon, won’t they?”

Jay had a point there. Kai really wished that he had more of an actual plan when he started all of this.

“Okay, it’s a mad dash outta here,” said Kai. “We rush the guards, get Cole, and bolt.”

“That’s a terrible plan!” Jay exclaimed.

“Yeah... I know...” Kai admitted.

“If you know, then why are you suggesting it?” said Jay.

"Because it's the only plan we've got." Kai's eyes were set like steel, ready to do anything to get his freedom back. Jay didn't argue again this time, instead he nodded reluctantly.

They walked out into the hallway with Zane still slung over their shoulders, and started running in the same direction as the throne room. Kai wasn’t completely sure what he’d do if he saw a Skulken, but he could probably improvise something.

Speaking of Skulkens, the ninja came to a corner, around which they heard heavy footsteps. Kai stopped immediately and looked back at Jay, mouthing the word “Skulkens.”

His first instinct was to fight, but he was already pretty tired, and his powers would only drain his stamina right now. Besides, the more Skulkens they took down, the higher the chance was that someone would find the bodies and set off the alarm. Maybe a “mad dash” really was a bad idea after all.

Kai looked around frantically for anything else they could do and mercifully spotted a large air vent just above them. He pointed to it and Jay seemed to understand what he meant, his eyes widening in acknowledgement. They dropped Zane, then Jay helped hoist Kai up to the vent so Kai could rip the metal grill out from the wall and leap up into the dark space as quietly as he could. Then, after he had a firm grasp of the inside of the vent, he extended his hand down to Jay who grabbed on and let Kai lift him to safety. The moment Jay was in the vent, though, the two boys instantly stopped and looked at each other. Zane! They’d forgotten Zane!

Kai looked back down and thankfully the Skulkens were not in view yet, but they were getting very close.

“Lower me down!” Kai whisper-hissed.

In a flash, Jay had a hold on Kai’s ankles and Kai had hurled himself face-first into the hallway below. With Jay’s added reach, Kai was just barely able to snag Zane’s white pyjamas.

“...hey, do you hear something?”

They were about to round the corner now, but then Jay pulled both Kai and Zane up so fast that it felt like Kai’s ankles might dislocate from their sockets. He landed up in the dark tunnel on his stomach with one hand still clutching onto Zane who had gotten stuck in the vent’s opening. His body would only fit if they rotated him, but that might cause too much noise, especially since the Skulkens were right below them now.

"Of course he won't betray us, he's the real deal this time."

"He's Garmadon's son, Skulkor. I don't trust him one bit."

"Well maybe you're just paranoid."

"Maybe you're just simple-minded."

"Well maybe you're a pickle!"

Kai was holding as still as he possibly could but his hands were positively shaking and Zane was beginning to slip from his fingers.

"We'll see who's laughing tonight after we blow up Jamanakai."

"Pfft, you guys have all the fun."

"Woa--what the--!?"

"What is--is that an arm?"

"No, look!"

"What the heck is that doing here?"

"Is it real?"

"M-maybe it's a ghost?"

Lightbulb. Kai grabbed onto Zane with both hands and started moving him around a little.

"I am the the spirit of ice and snow! Why have you disturbed me!?" said Kai in his most convincing ghost-voice, which was only amplified by the echoing of the air vent.

"G-ghost!" one of the Skulkens shouted.

"Please don't hurt us!" said the other. "We didn't mean to disturb you, honest!"

"Then leave me alone, or I will bring a terrible curse onto you!" Kai continued.

"We'll leave right now!"

"Yeah!"

The next thing Kai and Jay heard was the sound of scuttling footsteps and then silence. Kai looked to Jay who starred back blankly and neither of them knew what to say or think, then they both burst out laughing. Suddenly, Kai felt Zane slip from his grasp. He tried to reach out and catch him again, but it was too late. Zane's body belly-flopped onto the floor with a spectacular splat that sounded very painful.

"Oops," said Kai, before he and Jay started busting up again. "Come on, we gotta hurry now," Kai chuckled.

The boys lowered themselves back down to the ground, slung Zane over their shoulders, and continued on through the hallways hoping that they wouldn't bump into any more soldiers for a while, but if they were planning on swinging past the throne room to find Cole, then they would inevitably be passing through the busiest part of the citadel. That's when they'd really need to push themselves and run as fast as possible.

As the seconds wore on, however, and after the boys had run through a decent number of rooms and halls, they began to realise that there were far fewer Skulkens around than there ought to be. In fact, there seemed to be no Skulkens anywhere nearby, which to most would bring relief, but it only made Kai's hairs stand on end.

A noise in the distance stopped the boys in their tracks. It sounded like someone was coming towards them, but before they even had a chance to think of a hiding place, the Skulken had come into view. He was standing at the end of a long hallway holding someone over his shoulder who looked very familiar.

"Hold Zane," Kai ordered, looking back at Jay. Then he threw Zane's torso at him before taking off at full speed, charging the Skulken.

Flames were already shooting out of his hands, and the Skulken seemed to panic, throwing his cargo to the ground and unsheathing his sword. A weapon, however, proves very ineffective against the raw power of fire. Kai let loose a devastating blast aimed right at the soldier's head which sent him flying backwards several feet. His scorched body probably wasn't going to be getting up anytime soon.

"Cole!" Kai cried, looking down at the heap of black pyjamas on the floor. "You all right?"

Cole was still restrained and looked pretty shaken as he turned around to look up at his friend, but he didn't seem injured in any way.

"I'm fine," he replied. "What are you guys doing here? How did you get out? And.. is that Zane?"

"Long story, I'll tell you later," Kai answered.

Jay came running up behind them, fumbling with Zane's limp body and trying to reach the keychain in his pocket. Once he had grabbed it, he tossed the chain to Kai who then had to find the right key and unlock Cole's restraints, which--much to everyone's dismay--took a lot longer than they had hoped. Nevertheless, after a while, Cole was free and all of them started running for their lives down the bleak hallways.

"What's the plan?" Cole asked, running next to Kai.

"Escape," said Kai as he fumbled with Zane again. "We gotta get outa here before the Skulkens make it to Jamanakai village."

"Jamanakai? What do they want with that place?" Cole turned to lift an eyebrow at Kai before they rounded a corner and ran into the entry way for a large loading dock area brimming with truck-loads of C4, homemade bombs, and other explosives.