Master of Darkness - A Ninjago Fanfic

Prologue - Dark Rises

As the Fire Ninja held the Staff of Elements, there was a rush of power within him. Right now he held the power of every elemental master in the room, and he could keep it all for himself and become the most powerful person in all of Ninjago. That was until a voice broke his train of thought, it was his sister. "Kai, snap out of it! You need to break the staff!" She yelled to get his attention, noticing the trance he had been put in. "Master of Fire, give me the staff back and I shall return your element, you can rule beside me!" Chen held out his hand, a smirk across his face. Kai held the staff tight, looking back toward his friends, then toward Chen, and then back at his friends.

"Sorry Chen, but these don't belong to you." Then as if time had slowed down, Kai smashed the staff as hard as he could against the ground, shattering it. Chen yelled in anger and attempted to catch even one of the elements with his hands, but they were all too quick and returned to their rightful masters. They were all quick to turn on Chen, even his own daughter was against him. "It's over Chen, you've lost." Lloyd's hand lit up with energy. Chen put his arms up in defeat.

As the Elemental Masters dealt with Chen, Garmadon noticed something different, something that striked a bit of fear through his heart. An element was floating up in the air, it had a purple hue to it with mixes of pink and red in the center. He's only ever seen those colors associated with one element, and that belonged to one person. That can't be possible, he hasn't been back for a bit by now, unless... I need to speak with Wu about this when we return home. Until then I cannot let the Ninja know of my suspicions. He stared at the floating orb for a bit longer, before it left through a hole in the roof. I just hope it doesn't find whoever it belongs to before then.

The trip back to Ninjago was short, and while the Ninja went to take a well deserved rest after Zane's return, Garmadon approached Wu alone the moment he could. Clearly Garmadon couldn't hide his worry well as Wu noticed right away, "Brother, what has you so worried? Did something happen on the island?" Wu looked at his brother, hands folded behind his back as usual. "Well, a lot happened as you know, but the Ninja have already filled you in on all of that. There is however something in particular I needed to speak with you about alone." Garmadon's face became serious, Wu nodded a silent agreement to him and led him to his room in the Monastery, where neither of them could be bothered.

"Now Garmadon, what was it you wanted to tell me." Wu sat down at a small table, Garmadon sitting across from him. "Well, as you heard from the Ninja, they and the rest of the elemental masters all were returned their elements in quite a flashy manner. Floating, colorful orbs were flying all around the room, finding their master and returning to them. However I noticed one who had nobody to go to. That didn't concern me until I noticed its colors. They were purple, pink, and red." Garmadon looked at his brother, studying the other's facial expression. "I can see why you're worried then, if that was there, it means two things." Wu said. "Either he's back.." "or he has a successor" Garmadon said as he got up. "There's no way he's returned already, which means it is likely the latter... somehow." Then he walked to the door. "Where are you going?" Wu looked over at his brother. "I'm going to go figure this out, we can't let the ninja know of this right now... not after what Zane did before. Why are you asking?" Garmadon felt a hand on his shoulder. "Because I'm coming with, the ninja deserve some time to relax after all this, plus it would be nice to bond with my brother after so long." Wu smiled. Garmadon looked back, a smile forming on his face as he pulled his younger sibling into a hug.

"Be careful you two." Nya handed Garmadon the last bag for their trip. "No need to worry about us, we'll be perfectly fine." Garmadon looked over at his brother. It has been about a month since their discussion, and now it was time they went off on their research mission/bonding trip. "It will be just like old times." Wu smiled as he closed that hatch on the storage. Nya had helped the two brothers over the last week build a vehicle that could traverse across Ninjago for their trip. "We won't be gone long! Don't turn the Monastery into a mess while I'm gone and keep up with your training." Wu got into the driver's seat of the vehicle. As Garmadon entered the passenger's seat behind him the ninja said their goodbye's as Wu moved the vehicle off and away from the Monastery.

"Now to our actual mission." Garmadon opened up a journal, filled with different research notes he's made over the last month. "Figure out if the Overlord is back, or if he has a family father never knew about." Wu sighed. It wasn't unlike their father to keep secrets from them, but if their father knew of a possibility of the Overlord passing down part of his elemental power, why were neither of them told of it? The only thing Wu can think of is if their father never even knew of it, but he was still hoping that the stray element had no connection to the Overlord.

After weeks of travel, the brothers have come across nothing, until now that is. Their research brought them to a town destroyed recently. Only a few buildings still standing, and with them only a few townsfolk remain, and thankfully they were willing to talk with the brothers. They sat down with two of them, an old couple with a young child sleeping in the man's lap. "Can you tell us what happened here? It looks like this only happened recently." Garmadon looked at the two while sipping the tea they were offered. "Oh it was tragic... I feel so bad for that young boy." She sighed and her husband spoke up. "Not long back.. The neighboring village was attacked by the Fangpyre, a few refugee's came this way and we welcomed them, except one little boy wasn't as much." He scoffed, his voice filled with disdain. "The boy was cursed the minute I saw him, he disappeared after his mother died and then a few weeks ago he came back and destroyed the town!" The woman smacked him gently on the arm "Don't speak of him so badly!" Then she wiped some of her tears away.

"My husband is right though, a lot of the village thought he was cursed, as after he arrived his mother became bedridden with an illness, some of the kids his age would say there was some shadow around him. He was a good kid though, up until his mother died and then he changed. He was still offered to stay in the village but he ran away instead, only to return not long after the tragedy in Ninjago City, destroying our village. Screaming something about revenge for his grandfather and following his footsteps." She explained, wiping a tear from her eye.

Wu and Garmadon exchanged glances, as if Wu could read his brother's mind he quickly asked the couple "Did he happen to be using some Elemental Power?" The old man nodded. "It was all purply-redish and turned pitch black, blacked out the lights around town in the dead of night and began destroying everything. Thankfully nobody was hurt but most fled." The husband said.

Garmadon sighed and got up from his seat "Thank you for your time, and the tea. I believe that's all the questions we need to ask. I wish you luck in rebuilding your village." He offered a polite bow and as Wu got up, so did he.

The brother's left the home (not before the old woman offered them some treats for the road) and they went to their vehicle to discuss. "You're thinking the same thing as I, aren't you brother?" Garmadon asked and Wu nodded. "There's no doubt, the overlord somehow managed to have children, and even more, a grandchild." Wu ran his hand through his beard as he began to think. "Yes but what worries me more is two things; This kid is still out there somewhere and possibly using the element for evil, and the element I saw has another host." Garmadon leaned back in his seat, looking up toward the sunny sky through the window. "Which means we're dealing with two possible masters.. Either parent and child, or two siblings."

~3 years later~

"It's not too late to back out you know?" An older man held his daughter in a tight hug, both standing in an apartment filled mostly with packed boxes. "Dad, I'll be alright. If anything happens I'll give you a call. Plus I won't be going far anyways, the university is just down the road." The girl smiled up at her father as she pulled off of the hug. "You promise you'll call? Doesn't matter if it's good or bad, I want to hear from my little sunflower." The father ruffled her hair and she laughed. "Dad, I told you to stop calling me that." she smiled. "I know Ash, but it's one of my favorite nicknames for you." He sighed. "Well... this is it... my little girl has grown up."

"I'll be fine Dad." She pushed him slightly toward the door, "Now hurry back before you miss the train!" "Okay okay! One more hug." The father pulled her in for another hug, she smiled and wrapped her arms around him. "Love you Dad." "Love you too Ashley, take care okay?" He smiled and let go. Soon leaving the apartment complex.

Ashley watched her father leave for the bus station, and then catch the bus toward the train station. She sighed as she looked out the window across Ninjago City. "My new life begins... wonder what Ninjago City has in store for me."