Author's Note:

Just a slight trigger warning, s/a is mentioned later in the chapter

The flying men lifting our ship steered us towards the Ivory Kingdom. Gasps of awe flew up from the ninja, but I remained silent, taking everything in. We all crowded around the railing of the ship, peering down at the city below.

"See? I told ya!" Jay exclaimed excitedly, "Amazing."

"I'll admit, I wasn't sure it would live up to the legend," Nya gushed, "But it's even more beautiful."

"The Ivory City of Shintaro," Wu mused, "Incredible!"

"You've seen one palace you've seen them all," I mumbled under my breath.

Kai, who was standing next to me, turned to me with disbelief, "How can you say that? This place is amazing!"

"Need I remind you that I had to serve Master Chen during the Tournament of Elements? The guy wasn't a king by any means, but he had us treat him like one. Soured my view of royalty forever."

We landed on an ivory white ledge which I assumed was a flight deck. Hailmar watched as we descended from the Bounty and led us into the throne room. We walked up a small flight of stairs and huge white doors at the top flew open.

"It is with great honor, King Vangelis, that I present the famed ninja of Ninjago!" Hailmar proclaimed as he flew over to the king as we stepped inside.

Vangelis stood from his throne. He, too, had a pasty white complexion. He wore a white robe which reached the ground and a badly receding hairline, though he didn't appear to be graying. And there was that winged eyeliner again... "Welcome, welcome! I'm most pleased that you were able to accept our invitation. It is an honor."

"The honor is ours," Wu responded, leading the ninja in a bow. I resisted until Cole elbowed me sharply in the gut. I shot him a glare and bowed begrudgingly. "Shintaro is beyond anything we could imagine."

"I am merely a figure head," Vangelis continued, "The citizens of our proud city are the heart of Shintaro."

I rolled my eyes.

"They're here!" came an excited, high-pitched squeal. I looked up to see a young girl flying down to the ground where attendants removed her wings. Something clicked inside of me. Something about her wasn't right and I was immediately put off by her presence.

"And please meet my heart, her royal Princess Vania," Vangelis said. My eyes flicked up and down the girl's figure, she was slightly on the heavier side, but not much. Her gold hair, which was tied up into a bun, contrasted her pale complexion and she wore a gown similar in color to Vangelis.

"I'm such a fan!" she gushed, "I've read all about your adventures. It was my idea to invite you to my birthday." She walked down the line of ninja, pausing in front of me, "Wait, I don't recognize you. You're not one of the ninja..."

Lloyd quickly jumped in, "This is Celine. She's a friend. Well, more like family. She's only recently joined the ninja team."

"Oh," She only hesitated a moment before continuing down the line before stopping at Cole and smiling. He returned the gesture, and Lloyd squinted down the line at him while my gaze dropped to the floor, arms curling around my waist, suddenly feeling extremely insecure.

"Well it's an honor to be here, princess," Cole grinned.

She turned back to the rest of the ninja, "So, is it true you've been to Hiroshi's Labyrinth?"

"Affirmative," Zane remarked.

"Competed in the Tournament of Elements?"

"Oh do we have stories to tell you!" Kai spoke. He nodded towards me, "That's where we met Celine."

She cocked her head, "Are you an elemental master as well,"

"Nope," I forced a smile, "Just a fighter."

"I want to hear all your stories!" She elated.

"Where shall we begin?" Cole inquired, stretching his hand out.

Vania reached for his, but Hailmar stepped between them. This guy might not be so bad after all.

Vangelis jumped in as well and grabbed Cole's hand, "You can begin by following me."

As Vangelis and Hailmar lead the way out of the throne room to begin a tour of the kingdom, I attempted to walk next to Cole, but princess Vania elbowed me out of the way. I stood stunned for a second, staring daggers into her back, before Lloyd gently took me by the arm. I could already feel my blood beginning to boil. My eyes began to water, but I quickly blinked back the would be tears.

"I shouldn't have come," I spoke softly.

"No," Lloyd reassured, "this is exactly why you needed to come."

Jay jogged up beside us, "Huh, weird. The princess seems to like Cole. I mean, he's my best friend and all, but Cole?"

Lloyd shot him a dirty look, "Yeah, weird."

As we made our way to our sleeping quarters after our tour, Lloyd pulled me aside. "I don't like this Celine."

"Neither do I. Something's off here. I don't know if it's her, or something about the place in general. But I have no trust for anything here. Period."

"I think we should talk to Cole. He won't want to hear it, but we should try anyway," Lloyd offered.

"I agree."

"Tell you what. Let's meet up here at dark and we'll go and try to reason with him," Lloyd suggested.

"Sounds like a plan."

Lloyd and I split up after that to freshen up in our rooms. Well, Lloyd may have been able to relax, but I couldn't. The whole interaction in the throne room kept repeating over and over in my mind. The way she had the nerve to try and flirt with Cole. And he just went along with it! This seemed all too familiar. I hadn't ever seen Lloyd and Harumi together, but I saw the aftermath of what she did to him, and I heard the stories the other ninja told me when he wasn't around. I was going to do everything in my power to keep that sniveling stuck up princess away from him. Not for my sake, but for his. She could not be trusted. I felt it in my gut, and my gut is never wrong.

I paced about my room, trying to think of arguments that would make Cole see our side of the story. I was pretty sure he wouldn't listen to me, but I figured it would be worth a shot. Thinking about her made me feel sick to the stomach. I sat down on my bed and stared at the floor. I didn't notice I was crying until I felt a hot tear fall on my leg. That was the straw that broke the camel's back. Lying down, I curled up in a ball and let the tears fall. It just wasn't fair.

When the sun had set, I snuck out of my room. Keeping to the shadows, I crept to the main lobby outside the sleeping quarters. I spied a large plant in the corner and wedged myself between it and the wall in case a guard showed up before Lloyd. A few moments later, I heard padded footsteps approaching. I kept hidden just in case it was a guard. Lloyd's figure appeared at the opposite hall and I stepped out from behind the plant. I was glad for the darkened room, as it would shield my bloodshot eyes.

"Ready?" Lloyd asked.

Taking a deep breath, I responded, "I guess."

We carefully edged our way to Cole's room. We paused outside his door, peering in cautiously as not to alert him of our presence. When he turned his back on the door, I followed Lloyd as he slunk in the room and hid under the foot of the bed. When we heard the creak of the mattress, we stood up.

"Hello Cole," Lloyd spoke.

Cole yelped in surprise. "Lloyd? Celine? How did you two sneak in here?"

"We're ninja, remember? We're here to warn you about the princess. We think she's lying Cole. And we think she's up to something."

"I feel it in my gut," I interjected, "and my gut is never wrong."

"We can tell. They're all the same," Lloyd continued.

"All princesses?" Cole asked incredulously, "That seems a little bit judgy..." I huffed in disagreement. "Wait a second, is this because of Harumi?" Cole questioned.

"What? No!" Lloyd countered.

"Yes. It is," I answered in defiance.

"That is literally one example!" Cole insisted.

"We only need one example. I-, I mean we don't want to see you get hurt," I pleaded.

Cole rolled his eyes, "I don't even like Vania like that. We just met. Calm down guys."

"Yeah, well, that's not what it looked like," I argued, feeling the heat rise in me again. "Haven't you heard actions speak louder than words?"

"Woah, what's your problem?"

"What's my problem? What's my problem?! YOU are my problem Cole! I came on this trip to protect this team, and when I even try to help a little bit, I'm completely blown off!" I fought to keep my voice at a reasonable level as I didn't want to wake anyone else up. "All I'm doing is trying to keep you from going through the same thing Lloyd went through. You weren't there. You weren't there when he could barely fight. You don't know what it was like. You have no idea how hard it was to see one of my best friends hurting like that and I couldn't do anything to help him. You have no idea what she did to him. I don't want to see it happen to you. I can't stand to let that happen again."

"Celine... I-" Cole began, but I cut him off.

"I don't want to hear it. If you don't want to listen to me, fine. I couldn't care less," and with that I stormed out of the room.

Stepping lightly, I ran back through the hallway and back to my own room. I ripped the sheets off the bed and threw the pillows at the wall. It took everything in me to concentrate my rage in the action of hurling the pillows against the wall again and again so I wouldn't scream. I finally wore myself out and curled up on the floor, passing out from exhaustion.

No sooner had I fallen asleep than I was awoken by a shout from the doorway, "Emergency ninja meeting! 47th floor lob- Celine? What... What are you doing on the floor?"

I sat up and stared at Cole, who was standing in the doorway, peering in questioningly. "Are you okay?"

I sniffed and rubbed my eyes, shooting him a scowl, "I'm fine."

"Well, I'm calling an emergency meeting in the-"

"47th floor lobby," I cut him off, "Yeah, yeah, I already heard you announce it to the whole level." He shrugged and left my room.

I slowly rose to my feet and walked out of my room to the lobby. The other ninja were stumbling in when I arrived, grumbling about being woken up. I blinked hard to avoid my eyes from drifting closed. I caught Lloyd's gaze and gave him a told you so look.

"Guys, this little purple creature came in my room and attacked me in my bed! Something's going on here!"

"That's what I've been saying this whole time," I mumbled to myself.

Jay yawned, "So let me get this straight. You pulled me out of the most luxurious bed ever-"

"It felt like a cloud of warm contentment," Nya interjected.

"-because you saw a creature in your bedroom?"

"I'm telling you guys, it was real. It tried to attack me, and when I fought back, it ran off. But get this, the weirdest part, is that the creature was wearing my mother's necklace."

Now that caught my attention.

"Cole, um, are you sure this really happened, like, in reality?" Lloyd inquired.

"Lloyd! I thought we both agreed something fishy was going on here?" I argued.

"And?"

"This counts as fishy!"

"We have to tell King Vangelis!" Cole insisted.

"This is not a good reason to wake up our host," Zane countered.

"Yeah. No. I don't trust that guy," I added, but my comment went unnoticed.

"Go back to sleep Cole," Wu said, "we'll discuss this in the morning."

The ninja all headed back towards their rooms, but I stayed behind.

"For the record, this is exactly what I was referring to."

"Celine, it wasn't the princess."

"You don't know that. But never mind. I don't care what the others say. If this happens again, please come get me. I'm serious," I lowered my voice in case someone was around, "I'm going to do some snooping. Try to stay out of trouble for now. Please."

"Fine," and with that, Cole walked away towards his room. I started towards mine, but fell into the shadows after only a few steps.

It was then I felt it. It was hard to tell because the floors were solid rock, but I knew it was there all the same. I dropped to my knees and pressed my hands to the floor. Yep. There it was again, footsteps. "Clearly someone doesn't know how to sneak around," I breathed to myself. I slid behind one of the main pillars and peeked out from behind, watching as Cole's silhouette made its way down the hall. I could see his head moving around. He must have heard them to. He sidled up against another pillar, and jumped behind it, hands glowing with his power, only to stumble back in surprise.

"Gotcha! I... wow. Princess Vania. You're not who I thought you were." He stammered. I felt my heart skip a beat in a sudden burst of anxiety. Geez this was stupid.

She stepped out from behind the pillar, "I heard what you said back there, about the little purple creature."

So she's also a sneak I remarked to myself. Noted.

Cole dropped his head, "oh great, another person who thinks I'm imagining things."

"Oh I don't think that at all."

"You don't?" Cole asked dubiously.

"When I was a child, I thought I had an imaginary friend. A little purple creature who used to follow me around. Now I'm starting to wonder if my imaginary friend was a real friend."

She grabbed his hand and began running towards the courtyard, "Follow me. This way."

"You have got to be kidding me," I groaned to myself, running my hands down my face. I quickly stood up and chased after them as quietly as I could. Her footsteps were loud, making it easy to mask my own. It was a wonder the entire palace wasn't awake.

She led him to the courtyard. Outside, it was much harder to find hiding spots, but I managed.

"Here," she noted.

"The palace gardens?" Cole questioned.

"This is where Mr. Sparkles and I used to play. That's what I called him," she laughed.

"All the adults insisted I made him up in my head," she continued, "But I swear, he used to come right up out of... There!" She pointed to a drainage vent at the base of a wall.

Interesting...

"There used to be mines under the city," She explained, "But my father had them closed up for public safety."

"Mines?"

"Long ago, before my people settled here, there was another city run by a super evil sorcerer, who build tunnels and dungeons deep beneath the mountain. He's gone now, but the dungeons are still there, so my father forbade anyone from entering them. It's too dangerous."

"Well I've got to find out how that creature ended up with my mom's necklace," Cole stated.

"Okay I'm in," the princess exclaimed, pulling two torches from who know where.

"Staged," I murmured, "She knows something." I thought to myself for a minute, "Oh my gosh she wants him down there!"

After a brief conversation about whether they should go in or not, Cole light up his hands and yanked the grate off the wall. I fought to keep my eyes off his biceps. Instead, I contemplated if following them in was a good idea or if I should stay back and warn the others.

I thought about what I should do. On one hand, I couldn't stand the idea of Cole being alone with her. On the other hand, someone should alert the other ninja about the situation, but no one else seemed to believe there was anything up. Well, except for Lloyd. After running through some possible situations, I decided to enter the mountain. I watched as Vania and Cole stepped inside the vent. I crept closer to the entrance, treading as softly as possible. When the two were far enough away that they wouldn't see me, but close enough that I could follow their torches, I went in. Vania gabbed on and on about the history of the mountain and her kingdom and the evil sorcerer who ruled in the past. Geez she was making this really easy for me. I barely had to concentrate on walking quietly because her talking masked it for me. She continued on, switching subjects' way too fast for my brain to handle. I almost felt dizzy.

"Oh look, train tracks!" She pointed to a set on the ground. "I wonder where those go." Something about how she spoke rubbed me wrong. She didn't sound surprised enough. Weird. I shook the thoughts from my head and tuned back into their conversation. The pair stopped close enough that I could see them for myself. They studied the tracks for a second before following them to the left, tracing them to a lava filled canyon where the tracks were broken apart halfway across.

"Let's take the other tunnel," Cole suggested. I had to quickly jump behind a boulder for fear they would discover my presence as the two turned around and headed the other direction. Once they had past, I resumed following them. Vania chattered on about how the sorcerer's minions were supposedly still in the mountain.

"Maybe we'll meet them! Wouldn't that be great?" She exclaimed.

"Yeah, so you can join or something," I murmured beneath my breath.

They walked out onto a natural balcony, overseeing an internal cave. Cole and Vania proceeded to the edge of the overlook, but I stayed in the shadows of the tunnel. Looking out, I saw a giant lava-fall with a skull-like structure on top of it. The whole placed seemed to glow from the light of the lava, as well as a strange looking rock that poked itself out from the walls of the cave. I heard the clanging of metal on rock. Hadn't the princess said there used to be a mine down here? It sure didn't sound like it was no longer operable. Standing where I was, I couldn't see much on ground level, but I could hear it. The groans of people hard at work. The crack of a whip. Rock on rock contact, leading me to believe the mine was indeed operating.

"Oh my, look at all these creatures," Vania spoke. Although her words gave the heir of surprise, her tone of voice told a different story. "The purple ones look like Mr. Sparkles."

"Just like the creature that was in my room," Cole mused. "But who are those guys?" He pointed to what I could only assume was a different kind of creature.

"They don't look happy. They're all chained up," Vania continued.

Yeah no crap sherlock.

A crash sounded from below and suddenly, everything went silent. The flow of the lava-fall stopped with a clatter as a draw bridge dropped from behind, shaking the entire cavern. A man in a dark cloak, giant black wings, and wearing a white mask appeared behind the draw bridge with a glowing green skull floating beside his right shoulder. I didn't seem like the princess's evil sorcerer was long gone after all.

"Who dares?" came a gravely cry, "Who dares to disturb the work?"

Cole and Vania jumped back, and Cole actually put his arm out in front of her, "Who's that?" she questioned, only now lowering her voice.

The man flew up and then down and out of my line of sight.

"I warned you, all of you," he continued, "the work must not stop or there will be punishment!"

"Punish them!" The skull echoed in raspy voice, "Punish!"

Green streaks filled the sky. Cries of despair filled the cave as the creatures seemed to be bombarded with whatever was being shot at them.

"I don't know what's going on here," Cole began, "But I know a bad guy when I see one. And that," he pointed down to the man, "is a bad guy. Get back and tell your dad what's going on. And tell him to get his guards and wake up my friends."

She turned to run, but glanced back at Cole, "But what about you?"

"I'm the elemental master of earth, and I'm surrounded by earth," he smirked, "I'm gonna do what I do best."

I swiftly slipped further into the shadows until she had run past. I decided that now was as good a time as any to make my presence known. Just as Cole was about to jump down from the cliff, I stepped out of the shadows, "Cole!" I called.

He turned, "Celine? What on earth are you doing here?"

"I, uh, might have been following you guys," I admitted, "I told you I was gonna find out what's going on here," I rushed.

Cole rolled his eyes, "I guess you were right in some respects. But I don't see how this has anything to do with the princess."

"You don't know vocal cues, do you?"

He shot me a questioning look and cocked his eyebrow. I shrugged, "It's a strict parents thing."

"Whatever, let's just kick this guy's butt."

I nodded in agreement and we jumped down to the ground level, interrupting the flying dude.

"Hey there, name's Cole, ninja. This is Celine, also ninja. We heard there was some jerk down here, chaining people up, making them work. You seen any jerks around?"

"Get them!" The man shrieked. Gunmetal colored skeletons jumped down from ledges above us. The creatures ducked and cowered in fear as they charged us. Cole went to light up his fists in preparation, but they fizzled out. "What the? Oh come on!" He groaned.

"Forget them!" I cried, and braced myself for a fight. We began punching at the skeletons as they approached us. We destroyed them with almost no effort. They were just skeletons, after all. No ligaments or muscles to hold them together. I squared up and stared down the sorcerer.

"Now why don't you hand me the keys to these chains so that I can free these creature before I really get angry," Cole demanded.

"You have meddled in the wrong place," the sorcerer growled. "Now you will witness my cruel wrath! The wrath of the Skull Sorcerer!" He aimed the skull towards us and began chanting. Glancing around, I noticed the bones of the skeletons beginning to glow and float up.

"He's resurrecting them!" I called out.

"What? No fair!" Cole exclaimed. We tried to fight of the skeletons, but there were too many too fast and we were easily overtaken.

As the skeletons piled on top of us, we caught sight of the Skull Sorcerer and his skull, which repeated, "The wrath of the Skull Sorcerer!" He laughed maniacally as everything went black.

When we woke up, we were in a cage constructed crudely of bones. I sat up, rubbing my head, and studied my surroundings. I noticed Cole also coming to next to me. He glanced around, blinking intently, before seeing me.

"Are you okay?" Cole asked, sounding concerned.

"I'm fine. I've been through a lot worse. What about you?"

"Other than a pounding headache, I think I'm okay."

I had escaped traps before, and this one would be no different. I rose to my feet and began to examine the cage and how it was constructed. Just as I was formulating a plan, that disgusting voice was heard.

"Well well well. Let's get a look at the prisoners."

Cole and I whipped our attention to the wall of the cage where the Skull Sorcerer stood with the green skull still floating next to his shoulder. He gazed in at us, "It seems we have an elemental master with us."

"How did you know?" Cole snapped.

"Well for one you just gave it away. Two, the vengestone affected you."

"Vengestone?"

"Didn't you feel your powers drain? You're not as strong of a master as I thought," he laughed. Cole scowled at the man, clearly offended. "You're a strong, spry young fellow. Put him to work in the mines!"

"What about the girl?" the skull hissed in his ear.

"Hmmmm," he looked me up and down, smirking sickly at me, but I stood my ground. No way was this creep getting a reaction out of me.

"Bring her with me. I have something special in mind," he glowered.

"Touch her and you'll die!" Cole growled through gritted teeth.

"You couldn't even protect yourself. How do you think you'll be able to save her?" he taunted.

"It's fine Cole," I reassured, placing my hand on his arm, "I can take care of myself."

Skeletons walked into the cell, prodding Cole towards the mine. One reached for my arm, but I yanked it away.

"I can walk myself, thank you very much!"

"Feisty, aren't we?" the sorcerer mused.

Though I was able to keep my outward composer calm and controlled, inside my heart and mind were racing wildly. I could only imagine what the sorcerer had in mind for me, and it wasn't pretty.

We reached the moat to which the lava-fall emptied.

"My dear, I'm afraid I'll have to carry you from here," the sorcerer spoke.

"Fat chance!" I spat.

"It wasn't a question," he seethed, and grabbed me roughly around the waist, flying me up to the cave.

"Now the real fun begins," he cackled. I stood stock still, though I was pretty sure my eyes showed the fear welling inside me.

Cole POV

My pickaxe swung down hard against the vengestone-rich rocks. What on earth was that sorcerer going to do to Celine? The guy gave me the creeps, and the idea of them alone together made me extremely nervous. A blood-curdling scream followed by a sickening laugh flowed down from the lava-fall. Oh my gosh.

"Celine!" I screamed.

I threw down my pickaxe and charged towards the mountain, but was cut off by skeletons. Though I fought as head as I could, I couldn't get through. All I could do was pray Celine was okay.

Back to Celine POV

Trigger warning: implied S/A

I stumbled as the Skull Sorcerer dragged me through the caves. We reached a room with a huge hole in the floor and in the ceiling. He threw me across the ground in the corner.

"You will stay here until you learn to appreciate what is given to you!" He raged, then stormed out of the room. I curled into a ball on the floor. I had never felt more helpless in my life. My body ached from the bruises and cuts all over. I sobbed quietly until I felt there were no more tears and fell asleep.