Scrapped Chapters

1. Chapter 1 of Tides of Reality - the Dragon Warrior

It was a normal day on the Destiny's Bounty. Jay was already complaining about getting up at 6 a.m., Kai kept telling the blue ninja to shut up, and Cole and Zane were sitting in the kitchen, making breakfast to avoid a fight with the other two.

Wu was doing whatever such an old master could do every morning, Lloyd was enthusiastically describing how he would beat a snake if only he had the chance, and the only girl on the ship, Sky listened to the future green ninja nodding in agreement, in her mind already cutting Pythors' hands off.

When Zane finally finished preparing breakfast, they all sat down together at the table and started eating. Amidst all the happy morning conversations, the topic of the green ninja came up. Of course, each of the boys claimed that he would become that prophecied green saviour. No one could know that each of them was wrong.

Except for Sky. You might ask, who even is Sky? How does she know? She wouldn't answer you. She prefers to keep her mysterious past a mystery. All the ninja know is that she showed up one day in Ignatia, tagged along with Kai and ended up here, with a group of 14-year-olds, an old man who never tells his students anything and a little kid who will one day save ninjago.

Suddenly Wu left the dining room and returned after a few moments with a box, which contained new outfits for the guys.

Just as they got their hands on them, an alarm went off, informing everyone of a group of snakes in the amusement park. The ninjas, of course, immediately tried on their new clothes and set off to fight, but one cool entry later, they discovered that a mysterious figure calling themselves the "Dragon Warrior" had already gotten rid of the snakes.

Jay asked about the situation to a random woman who happened to be chatting with a friend about how handsome and hot this warrior must surely be, because of course no one could see their face, hidden behind a mask.

Suddenly, Sky emerged from the crowd that had gathered by the bound snakes, carrying four ice cream cones for the guys. "Sky? Why are you here?"-Jay asked surprised. Kai immediately jumped into her defence, saying that, after all, she was a free person and could go wherever she wanted, but she explained-"Well, you always have to be supervised, and I haven't installed cameras on your new clothes yet."-she replied, as if this wasn't strange behavior at all.
"Wait, we have cameras on our outfits?!!!"-the guys started shouting.
"Yes, and trackers. You're always getting into dangerous situations."- replied the 18-year-old, totally unfazed by the complaints of the younger guys. It's not at all like I got the idea from Mei or anything.-she added in her mind.

Over the next weeks, the Dragon Warrior regularly annoyed the crap out of the ninjas, doing their job faster and better than they did. Interestingly, none of them noticed that the Warrior only appeared on missions that did not require aerial support, which Sky usually carried out. "When will you finally tell them?"-Lloyd asked her, tiltng his head a bit. "I have no plans to do so. I'm just going to drop hints, and let them figure it out themselves."-responded the girl, not turning away from tinkering with gadgets for her outfit. Spoiler alert - they won't she thought to herself.

The Dragon Warrior, was one of her best creations, with a voice modulator, a glider hidden in her clothes (an idea she got from Carmen Sandiego) and several weapons buried in her pockets. But the best surprise was hidden in the Dragon Warrior's name. Because, well, she possessed powers typical for Chinese dragons, such as shapeshifting and levitation, which helped her in battle. However, no one could know about it. The only way to release her dragon form from the prison of constantly hiding behind her human form was to assume a false identity.

For the next few days, guys kept trying to catch the Dragon Warrior to discover their identity. Those same days were a hell for Sky. Not only did she have to monitor cameras from all over the city looking for snakes, deal with some of the reports, and run an emergency hotline so people could contact ninjas, but the guys tried to expose the warrior at every opportunity, which added to her planning. What was the last straw, however, was Kai turning to her for help in finding Lloyd, whom he was supposed to be babysitting.

"You were the one who was supposed to watch him! Did you at least check the place where you left him!? Some kind of monitoring, something! There are cameras all over the city! Go look for him!"-She snapped at the red ninja and went back to her room to calm down, leaving him wide-eyed from the outburst.

After a few minutes, however, she realized that the youngest member of the team must be in Ouroboros. Well great, that means it's this episode...-she thought, putting on her outfit and jumping out the window.

When she finally got to the city, the ninjas were already standing, captured by snakes, in the middle of arena, waiting for the Dragon Warrior. Of course, she had to battle them, just like in the show. So she landed and listened to Pythor's lengthy speech about testing who was better - the Ninja or the Dragon Warrior. It was not a question that would occupy her mind for long. The priority in this situation was to get herself and the boys out, while saving Lloyd in the process. Unfortunately, the ninjas were more focused on defeating her than on escaping, so as soon as the signal to fight was given, they rushed at her, attacking with blows of various kinds. She merely defended herself, trying to put together an escape plan in her head, including the guys, their weapons and the future green ninja. "Okay, we have to keep pretending to fight."-She told guys, looking around the area. Unfortunately, Lloyd was still locked in the cage, and the Warrior began to slowly run out of her much-needed strength. Placed now into the metaphorical corner, Sky decided to do something hard to think of and, ignoring the person she had flown here to rescue, having retrieved the golden weapons, turned into a huge snake-like dragon, grabbed the ninja in her paws and flew off into the distance.

After a few kilometers, being on the verge of strength, she lowered her flight and released the guys, along with their weapons just above the hot desert sands, then continued her grueling journey towards the Bounty. As soon as she was at close enough distance, she returned to her human form.

Her body hit the deck. Hard. She felt bruises beginning to form on her arms and legs, which she used to break her fall. At first Sky did not even have the strength to get up. After a dozen or so, seconds, she slowly rose on her feet and, holding on to the walls, began to limp through the corridors to her room. There she took off her costume, hid it carefully and laid down on the bed to regain strength. She didn't get much rest, however, as twenty minutes later she was awakened by the screams of disgruntled boys complaining about the fact that the Dragon Warrior had saved them. Again.

She got out of bed slowly, still sore, and walked out to meet the source of all that noises. In the corridor she stopped, assumed a posture that did not suggest how much pain she was in, and a worried face. After all, she still had to pretend to be the "Person at the Headquarters", and not the fighter.

As soon as she spotted the guys, she started asking them about Lloyd. Kai, at first, explained the situation and revealed that unfortunately they had not been able to bring the youngest one back, and then smoothly moved on again to complain about the Dragon Warrior. "Okay, I'm going out there to get him."-Sky suddenly stated in a fit of guilt.
"But you can't! You don't have a weapon! And you won't be able to save him! Not in such a state! You're all bruised and have circles under your eyes!"-All of the ninja began to protest.
"No. I'm going!"-she stated.
"Don't you dare. You need to rest."-Sky heard a familiar voice from behind her. She knew it all too well. Maybe this day wasn't so bad after all.
"Mei!"-the girl practically threw herself at the black-haired girl to greet her with a hug.
"You seriously need to rest."-said Mei and began dragging her down the hall to the brown-haired girl's room.

Falling into a wonderful, restorative sleep, Sky heard Wu scolding the guys behind the wall. At the moment, it was not her problem.