If you want to listen to the soundtrack with above video, skip to 0:39 for the best parts.

"Krux, Acronix, your time is over."

The twins both collapsed to the ground, weak from losing their powers. The other elementals surrounded them, and they watched helplessly as Wu and Garmadon made a time vortex and their powers were lost forever.

Gone.

"Gone," Krux whispered, and bowed his head in sorrow.

Acronix was more stubborn, however. He strained against the grip of whoever surrounded him, but got knocked in the head by the Master of Metal for his efforts.

"You two won't be going anywhere," Lightning said, pointing a scolding finger at them, "except the cursed realm."

Gasps and snickers.

"Well we shouldn't deal too harshly with them," Ice spoke.

"Yeah, after all they did to us?" Metal joined in. "No way. We need to kill them now, before-"

"Enough!" Wu shouted. "We will take them to court and decide. For now, tie them up.

The twins were taken to court, and their sentence was to be banished to the cursed realm, like the Anacondrai were. They begged and pleaded to be spared, but after all they'd done, nobody trusted them to stick around in Ninjago.

Of course, there were some that wanted them to see worse ends. But although they all had a sense of justice, no wise leader among them ever thought of death as an option for punishment. Death was only meant for pure evil. Evil humans only let themselves be controlled by it, and all deserved some sort of opportunity to change. Even if one did have the right to change, it didn't mean that trust wasn't still broken and banishment was necessary.

***

*Some time later*

"It's so good to finally have all the threats out of Ninjago," Ray said one evening, as he draped an arm around his wife, who snuggled up against him.

"Yes." Especially now that..." Her voice trailed off.

"Now that what?"

"Well, Ray... I think-" she choked on an excited sob- "I'm pregnant."

"What?" he gasped, whipping around to face her. "You're-"

"Yeah," she looked up at him with shining eyes.

His hands flew up to cover his mouth. "We're gonna have a-"

"Baby," she finished.

All he could do was pull her to himself as tears of joy trickled down both their faces.

* * *

14 years later

Kai and his younger sister Nya were born and raised, and to the happy parents it seemed that they grew quickly. Life was good; Ray taught Kai to be a blacksmith, and Maya often went swimming Nya. Of course they didn't directly tell their children about their future elemental powers yet, they just trained them without their knowing.

As you can guess, one day, Wu came by. Ray saw him walking up to the shop and went to greet him.

"Wu! It's so good to see you! What brings you about these parts?"

"Hello, Ray. How is your family?" Not like I'm about to tear it apart or anything, the old man thought. Of course, not on purpose. It's just... different than for the other three.

"We're getting along great, Wu. I don't think you've seen Kai and Nya since they were little, have you?"

"No, I haven't," Wu said, stroking his long white beard thoughtfully. "Kai must be... 12 now?"

"He's 13," Ray chuckled. "And a little ball of fire, too. Which, speaking of, is that why you're here?"

"What? Oh, fire." Wu smiled. "Why, yes it is. But first I must see if he is ready."

"As they walked up to the shop, Ray called to his family. "Maya, kids, come here! There's a special guest here! Maya, it's an old friend!"

Maya was the first out. "Wu, it's so good to see you!" she said, giving him a quick hug.

"Same to you, Maya."

And then came the Smith siblings.

"Kai, Nya, this is Wu, a very good old friend of ours," their father introduced them.

"Hi." Kai waved.

"Nice to meet you." Nya smiled.

"He's come to talk with your mother and I, so why don't you kids warm up some dinner? I'm sure our guest is hungry."

"Sure!" Nya smiled again.

"Ok," Kai groaned, and his mother shot him a look, to which he quickly fixed his face. "Sure, uh, noodles sound good?" he looked at Wu when he spoke.

"Noodles sound delicious. Thank you," Wu called after them.

"Ok, Wu, why are you here?" Maya asked as they walked onto the front porch.

"Well, where should I start? I'm sure you'll be glad to hear. I have three wonderful students, I've had them for a couple weeks. They're three of the four, and you know that Kai is the fourth."

"Yes? What are their names? Who are they?" Maya beamed, excited.

Wu smiled fondly. "There's Cole, Lilly's son. When I met him, he was climbing a mountain. He was... mourning the death of his mother."

"Oh," they both nodded solemnly. "Is he ok now, though?" Ray asked.

"Yes, he is handling it well for his age and how close he was with her. He is a strong and focused student, and he seems to take the natural position of leader among the small group. It's like he holds them together."

"Just like Lilly," Maya smiled softly. Wu nodded.

"Then there's Jay, Liz's son. He's just like her, always talking and joking. And always trying to cheer people up. He's very intelligent."

"Yes, that sounds just like her," Maya let out a little giggle.

"And then there's Zane. He's... well, as you know, Elias never had any children, so he passed on his powers to Zane. He's a very smart boy, but something's different about him. Not bad, just... strange. I'm not worried for him, though. He's an excellent student. He learns quickly. And he will never hurt even the smallest living thing unless he has to." Wu smiled.

"And that's where it comes to Kai. As you know, he is to train with them, and be one of the four protectors of the Green Ninja. I will need to start his training soon. How ready do you think he is?"

"Well," began Ray.

Maya laughed. "Well-"

"He's a bit... stubborn." Ray smiled sarcastically at Wu. "He doesn't like really like to be told what to do, and he doesn't like to do it unless there's something in it for him."

"Of course, we could try to get him to want to train." Maya rested her chin on her hand in thought. "Or at least get him to do it even if he doesn't want to."

Ray laughed. "Was I like this, Wu?"

"Why, yes, you were. But the difference here is that you had something to fight for. Kai, here, does not. Fire cannot start without a fuel. But when it does, it burns with passion."

"Well, we can talk to him about it," Maya suggested. "We've told them both stories about serpentine wars, but they think they're fairy tales."

"Maybe it's time they knew that they're much more than fairy tales. Because even though there is peace now, there will not be peace forever. Darkness will rise again."