Prompt: a oneshot about any of the ninja's mother
Before we get started, I found myself a little confused about Lilly's timeline so, here's what I think it is for anyone else confused -
Somewhere during, before, or after the Serpentine War, Lilly is born. Her father (Cole's grandfather) is the master of Earth during the war, so if a child inherits the power immediately after birth, she isn't born yet.
20-ish years before the show, this story, not all that long before she goes to Shintaro (few years max). This part is obviously non-canon because I made it lol.
Her trip to Shintaro. I put it around 15 years before the show since in the upply backstory episode we see Vangelis become the Skull Sorcerer when Vania is a very small child. She never encountered him though, she just killed Grief-Bringer, so it must have been before that episode. It would have been 20-ish years before season 13, since it's been over 5 years from the pilots.
Sometime soon after, she has Cole (he's somewhere around 15 in the pilots).
When Cole is somewhere around 8-10 (how old do you think he was in that scene? I'm not sure), he promises Lilly that he will always stand up to evil.
Just before the show, she dies when Cole is somewhere around 13-15. He is sent to dancing school but runs away to become a ninja. ~
Lilly knelt down and inspected the tracks before her. There was no mistaking the distinctive footprints on the ground. She had no idea why the Skulkin wore awkwardly large boots instead of just going barefoot. They didn't wear much else in the way of clothes and they didn't have to worry about hurting their feet like humans did. It just made them look silly. She grinned to herself at the thought of the skeletons stomping around in ridiculous boots and arguing with each other.
Her expression shifted to a frown as she realized that her findings meant the rumors of skeletal warriors terrorizing the Forest of Tranquility were true. This wasn't the first time Lilly had fought them, either. They weren't hard for a Spinjitzu Master to put down, but their repeated appearances in the forest meant there must be an entrance to the Underworld somewhere in the region.
She pulled her ninja hood back up and leapt into the treetops, following the trail on the ground below.
~
"Stop playing around and get back to work!"
Two skeletons playing rock paper scissors grumbled and followed their superior's command. Lilly watched them move about from the branches above. She counted no more than ten. She dropped down into the center of their camp, unsheathing her dual swords.
"Sorry fellas, but I'm gonna have to ask you to clear out. Having a bunch of dead people wandering around really lowers the property value."
The skeletons rushed her all at once, several of them clumsily tripping over each other. She swung her ivory blade and shattered one into pieces. Its head cried out for a retreat as it rolled away. She blocked the axes of two others with her shadow blade. Four more came at her from every direction, unaware that they were facing the Master of Earth. She softened the earth below her, disappearing downward into the dirt. The four Skulkin collided with each other, unable to stop their momentum. Lilly spun back upward, sending them flying and leaving a small crater in the ground. The last three scattered quickly as she flew towards them in a tornado of earth. She stopped spinning to see a skeleton with four arms approaching her.
"Another foolish disciple of the Spinjitzu Brothers come to stop me?" he sneered.
Lilly had no idea who the apparent leader of the skeletons was, but she wouldn't let him know that.
"Spot on," she pointed a sword at him, "surrender now, and I will let you live. Er.. not die.. again... you know."
The Skulkin general only chuckled maliciously and drew four daggers. Lilly raised her blades in an 'x' formation in front of her and blocked. She attempted to kick the blades out of his lower arms but he was surprisingly fast for such a bulky hunk of bones.
Lilly leapt backward and the skeleton did the same. She charged first, but before their blades could clash again, she jumped to the side, her feet briefly touching a tree trunk before she pushed off, flying at the Skulkin from the side. She whirled into her Spinjitzu tornado and slammed into him, sending her enemy flying.
Sheathing her swords on her back, Lilly went to find where the skeleton landed, but he was already gone. She sighed to herself, knowing she had a detour to make before she could return home. Wu and Garmadon would need to know there was an active passage to the Underworld in Ninjago.
~ I think this is my first time writing any significant amount of combat stuff... so bear with me if it completely sucks lol. This was a surprisingly hard prompt, I considered a lot of ideas but I couldn't make much of a story out of any of them. I was going to try and explain what Misako was thinking in leaving Lloyd, why she didn't send him to Wu, etc, but it just came out as walls of text explaining my thoughts with no real story. I see why they haven't shown it in the series yet, there's a lot to say but little to do or show. Anyway I settled on a pretty much self-contained story that doesn't mean much but is enjoyable.
Between Lilly and the Skulkin, both of whom have complicated timelines, there may be an error in here somewhere. But at 20 years before the show Garmadon should still be good and the skeletons wouldn't have the vehicles Julien made yet.
