"Long before time had a name, Ninjago was created by the First Spinjitzu Master. The world was beautiful, and everything in it lived in peace. But with light comes shadow, and soon the peace was no longer. Knowing he could not win the battle, my father trained my brother and I in the art of spinjitzu. We dedicated our lives to learning everything there is to know about spinjitzu and the elements. But soon, my brother was corrupted by the venom of the Great Devourer."

   Screams were heard throughout  the city, as building fell. An evil laugh cut through the screams, but Sensei just continued the story. "Eventually, my father passed and my brother fell into complete darkness." I felt a searing pain through my abdomen, and it felt as if I was bleeding to death. No one noticed a thing. "So, that is when I realized that I needed to train the next generation of elemental masters. And that, my children, is why you are here."

   Everything has started to get fuzzy, and I feel lightheaded. Yet still, no one notices as I fall to the ground. It's like they can't even see me.

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   I wake up with a start and hit my head on the ceiling. As I rub my head, I hear Cole's snoring, Jay's talking, and Zane's gears whirring. The clock next to Lloyd's bed reads 2:43 am, meaning we still have about three hours before we have to get up. So naturally, I get up and head to the kitchen before I take a shower. It's not like I'm going to be able to sleep anymore after that dream. I can still feel the blood gushing from my abdomen. But I've never had an injury there, and it was only a dream.

   "You should try to get more sleep, ya know." A, clearly female, voice drifts from the kitchen. As I just woke up, I can't tell who it is, but I honestly don't care right now. All I care about is getting my stomach to shut up. But I'm turning into the kitchen now anyway, so I guess I'll find out once my brain decides to work.

   "So should you." A blur says. I rub the sleep from my eyes and deduce -yeah, a fancy word- that it's Nya and Felicity talking. A pot of coffee is brewing, and there's already empty snack bags on the counter. "Kai should too, but I'm not even sure he's awake right now." I glare at the blob on the right, who I think is Felicity, and grab a new bag of snacks.

   Nya, I think, gets up and grabs three mugs out of the cabinet. She sets them down on the counter and then turns around to look at us. "So, dearest brother of mine, what woke you up?"

   "A dream." I shrug and stuff my mouth with some puffed popcorn as the coffee maker finishes. Nya then fills all three mugs and places them in front of Felicity and I. "Really weird one too. One of those that you can feel." They both nod their heads as we all take a sip. I'm finally able to see them properly, and only just noticed the mug that Nya gave me. Brain exe. has stopped responding. please close the program. If only I could.

   We sit in silence for a while before Alex walks in, stares at us, and walks back out. Eventually, I wake up enough for my thoughts to run wild in the silence, and to realize that I still feel as if I'm bleeding to death. Just without the fuzziness. But I can't help but feel as if I was given a warning of some sort. Shaking it off, I grab another handful of puffcorn before the girls eat it all. It's only 3:26 by the time we finish the bag and our second cups of coffee. 

   "So, do you think the serpentine are planning a big attack?" Felicity finally breaks the silence as she fills up our mugs for the third time. Maybe this will wake me up.

   "Probably. We should be on our a-game, but that's going to be hard with us not sleeping. And If Alex keeps having night terrors, she's going to be out for a while. Not including all the training you and Melody need. Or Lloyd's training, even." Nya takes just long enough of a break to gulp her coffee down, then shrugs yet again before continuing. "I know that something big is coming, I just don't know what it will be or who it will be from. We can only prepare for the worst at this point."

   And we both know what she means by that. When we promised to protect ninjago, we all knew that there was a possibility that we could die. I just hope it never comes down to that. "So, Felicity, have you thought anymore about joining the team?" Sensei told her that she could take as much time as she needed, but we all know that we're on a time crunch. 

   "A bit. I'm leaning towards one direction, but I want to be sure that it really is the right choice for me." And yet, she won't even give us a hint to what she's leaning more towards. "But I plan on letting Sensei know before supper. So you won't have to wait much longer." She smirks in my direction while Nya giggles. 

   "Ha ha. I'm not that impatient. Okay, so maybe I am, but so is Nya and Alex! It runs in the family." I pout and sip my coffee as everyone else walks in.  Jay, being the cheesy, love-sick puppy he is, kisses Nya's cheek and grabs her mug. Cole and Zane are strategizing, while Lloyd and Alex just look dead. Melody and Elisia are bubbly as usual, and I can't help but be jealous of them. 

  "Kai, do you think that Felicity would be able to take on at least two generals if need be?" Cole, who was now sitting next to me. "I think she could, but Zane isn't completely sure."

  I look to Felicity and contemplate my answer. While she may be strong enough and she has enough fighting knowledge, but I don't think she is confident enough to want to handle that. So, I try to tell Cole that. Key word, try. The alarm goes off before I can even open my mouth. And we all instantly wake up and run to the bridge.

  "Serpentine in Ignicia, and lots of them." Nya reports as Zane turns the alarm off. "Is there any known reason that they would be there?" 

  "If they were on the outskirts, I would say they're trying to find a weak point for us three." 

  "But they're inside the village, maybe they're going after some of your friends?" Nya and I shake our heads, as we hadn't had friends in Ignicia for years. 

  "No, most of our friends left Ignicia long before we did." 

 "We don't have time to question this, we just need to be prepared for a painful fight." Cole uses spinjitzu to get in his gi and the rest  of us follow suit. "I know I don't usually do this, but be prepared to lose someone today." The air became tense, and no one said a word. The end of my dream flashed through my mind and it took a while for me to regain focus. And I realized why he was taking the time to give a speech. Zane or Nya had set course for Ignicia, so we don't have to immediately head out.

  "If we don't at least get close to losing someone today, then we're having a party. But in all seriousness, from this point on, we prepare for deaths. We swore to protect Ninjago with everything we had, and for some of us, that may mean giving up our lives." We all nod and head off to prepare our weapons. Hopefully Cole is worried for nothing, but my dream makes me think he's right.

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  We've been fighting for an hour, and we're all exhausted. Felicity has spent as much time in the air as she can, while the rest of us stayed as close to each other as possible. But now Felicity is next to me, Alex and Lloyd are about a hundred yards from us, and I've lost sight of everyone else. We may have weeded out quite a few serpentine in the past hour, but they keep coming. 

  "Hey Kai?"

  "Yeah?"

  "I've decided to join the team." I dodge a spear and turn to look at her. Thankfully, I have enough experience fighting the serpentine to have my back turned for a couple of seconds. "I don't know why I had to tell you now. I just felt like you needed to know first."

  I take a few more serpentine out, and dodge a couple of hits too. Once I'm next to Felicity again, I go to answer her. Unfortunately, I'm cut off once again before I can even open my mouth. Only this time by a cry of pain, and then the feeling of blood pouring out of my abdomen. It took me a bit to realize that there was a sword sticking out of my stomach. Alex was standing in front of me with a ghostly white face and her hand on the hilt.