(SO SORRY FOR THE WAIT! This takes place during chapter 22 and starts where Skylor brings Kai into the palace. Enjoy! I'm going to italicize all of the stuff before the chapter branches off)

Skylor's POV

When Kai and I walk into the throne room, everyone else is already there. While the boys and Nya are kneeling on the ground, the rest of my sisters are standing behind their respective ninja. Unfortunately, however, six stone warriors stand in the back of the room.

"I apologize for the long wait, the journey was quite long, but Mother and Auntie, I would like to prsent you Kai Smith, the master of fire," I push him down on his knees, which he pretends to fight before falling.

"Today, today marks the day of a new era of Ninjago, the day those fighting for the past lose their precious leaders," Mara begins to begin walking back and forth, slowly. We wait for the right time to attack, the emerald on her neck bouncing with each step. "I wanted all of you here so you too could see your teammates lose their precious powers right before your eyes, so you could see their life source drained from them before they're put out of their misery."

"The light will prevail," Lloyd glares at her, which makes both Mara and Ciara laugh, their jagged teeth showing.

"Oh, young Garmadon, so naive, just like your father was," Mara clicks her tongue. "You have all been playing superhero for far too long. It's about time that you were brought back to reality."

"I say Kyle loses his powers first," Ciara stops leaning against the wall and walks over to stand near her sister. "He always has been a pain in our rear."

"It's Kai," he lurches forward, but I pull him back.

"Bring him forward," Mara instructs. My heart pounds against my ribs. I slowly bring him forward, so he is kneeling before her. She takes his face between her fingers, her long, sharp nails digging into his skin as she tilts his head back and forth. I see his nose slightly crinkle in pain, and it takes all of my restraint to stay calm.

"Do it," he glares up at Mara, a harsh tone in his voice. She looks at him slightly shocked, as do I.

"Excuse me?"

"Reunite me with my parents. You and Ciara were the one who took them away from Nya and I, after all," he tells her, vigor behind his words.

"As you wish. Officer Baku, step forward," as she says so, one of the stone warriors moves from the back of the room and next to her, my blood runs cold. She reaches out and holds his hand, the other still clawing Kai's face.

As she starts mumbling something in an ancient language, I see the emerald dangling from her neck, free. Seeing my chance, I reach my hand out to grab it, but I'm instantly lurched back. When I turn my head, I see Ciara holding my arm.

"Traitor!" she pulls me down to the ground. I hit it hard, wincing, but in my vision, I see Kai leg sweep Mara, her brittle knees falling onto the ground, and the helmet of shadows falling off of her head. It's as if the whole room freezes as soon as the helmet falls. The stone warriors halt in place, and everyone else keeps their eyes on it.

Suddenly, a dark, slimy tentacle appears from Mara's hand. It moves its way over to the helmet, but not as fast as Seliel who uses her powers to appear right in front of the helmet. Obscuring my vision, Ciara digs my face into the ground, pressing my skull down. I try to wrestle her off of me, but she's too strong.

Focusing on the fire inside of me, I transmit my warmth to my hands, supercharging them with heat. I grip onto Ciara's pale, bony wrist before engulfing her arm in a flame. She yelps in pain, pulling her arm back while I roll away and escape her grip.

"You're just as bad as her," I spit, looking into her cold, dark eyes. As a child, I never noticed how empty they were. "You let her abuse me for all those years. You killed my mom, and all of my sisters' moms, and my boyfriend's mom, and some of his teammates' moms. You're sick."

"Your boyfriend? Men are dangerous, Skylor. He will only break your heart. Your mother and I..."

"You already have," my eyes narrow at her, both of my fists turning ablaze. I throw a fireball at her, but she just dodges it.

"We grew you, shaped you into the woman you are today. Yes, the woman who conceived you is dead, but Mara is your mother, and I am your aunt. That will never go away," she smirks at me. "You need to accept it."

"Never!" I hurl another fireball at her, but she avoids my attack again.

"Swap with me. They need you over there," at the sound of Kai's voice, my rage softens. Without question, I listen to his words as he takes my spot. In sync, we spin around. I stand where he was, and he's where I was.

The scene in front of me is chaotic to say the least. Mara is defending all eight of them attacking her by sending out possibly lethal spikes out that they have to dodge. They work on breaking them off, but she keeps sending out more spikes. I work my way over to Seliel as PIXAL jumps and tries to grab the helmet of shadows. However, a slimy tentacle emerges from Mara's mouth, slapping her out of the way and sending her slamming into the wall. She gasps, but recovers.

"Oh god, did you all see that too! That was gross, so, so gross," Jay gags as he sends lightning bolts flying in Mara's direction.

"Distract her by going behind her. I'll go for the front," I hold onto Seliel's hand, absorbing her power. The airy wisp that I associate with her powers fill me. When Mara is looking at us, both of us disappear.

"Oh you have to be..." I hear her mumble as I near her. Knowing that one of us is going to go behind her, she spins around.

Seliel and I appear in sync. Occupying her from the front, I dodge her attacks. I give time so Seliel can rip off her necklace. It's noticeable when Seliel pulls it hard against her neck. As Mara briefly chokes, the chain the emerald was on snaps, the gemstone itself falling to the ground. I grab it, and Seliel immediately vanishes away with me in sync. I appear next to Lloyd while she appears next to Cole.

"We'll distract her. Destroy this curse," I press the gemstone into his palm, and when I do, our hands touch. The contact sends a feeling I've never felt through my veins. It's as if raw, pure power is fueling me now.

Seeing that Lloyd now has the gemstone, Jay, Zane, and Cole abandon their attacks against Mara, running over to the open space in the room.

"Sister!" Catching my attention, I turn to the sound of the voice. Ciara has her back pinned against the wall, her face bloody and beaten. She can only scarcely escape Kai's fireballs, and any second now, he'll knock her out cold.

Without hesitation, Mara raises a fist. One of her long tentacles darts out of the ground right behind Kai. It shoots through him, puncturing him as Ciara moves away. As it leaves his body, it's covered in scarlet, sticky fluid.

"Kai!" I sprint over to him as I see him start to wobble. Just as his legs give out, I reach him, catching his strong body in my arms. His power instantly greets me when our skin makes contact. The warmth and comfort of it is overwhelming. I help him rest against the wall, allowing him to sit with his back pressed against it. His face scrunches up into an expression of pain as he holds the wound in an attempt to reduce the blood loss.

Quickly, I rip off my left sleeve and hold it to one of the wounds. The blood rushes out of him like a rushing river. She pierced straight through him.

My hands tremble, doing anything to stop the bleeding. I rip off my other sleeve frantically and hold it against his back. It's no use though. It quickly soaks the material, staining the orange red, and dripping out drop by drop.

"Stay with me Kai, I can fix this, I..." when I meet his face again, he's looking at me, his light brown eyes glossed over.

"Win for me," he gives me one of his small, charming smiles. It's the smile that I saw when we are dancing at the banquet, or when he warmed me up at that run down motel. He pulls at my heartstrings. Pain fills me all over.

"No, no," I hold onto his face, running my thumbs over his cheeks. Through his skin, I feel his power starting to fade, his heat starting to dim. The fire drains out of him just like his blood. My body starts to shake, sadness and fear overflowing me.

"Tell Nya and the guys that I love them," his glossed eyes blink slowly at me. His warmth starts to decline closer and closer to being normal. With every degree decrease, my fear and sorrow amplifies.

I lean in to give him one last kiss. As the tears cascade down my cheeks, a waterfall, his lips press against mine for the last time. Just thirty minutes ago, he was showering me with kisses, his warmth exploring my entire body. Before that, he made me a promise.

"Skylor, I promise you that tonight, I'll be right here in front of you, just like I am right now. We'll have defeated her, and you'll be free of her once and for all."

When he pulls apart, his hands weakly grab the side of my head before he starts to murmur something in a foreign language.

"What are you doing?" I ask him, trembling. Never in my life, not even living with Mara, have I been filled with with so much anguish.

"Transferring my powers to you. If I die with my powers..." he winces in pain, his entire face contorting, before continuing to mumble.

After a dozen words, he starts to slur and blink more. He's slipping away, but he's fighting until the end to try to save the day. My heart is getting pulled out of my chest as I hear his words fade. His hands lose their safe and comforting heat, becoming just the same temperature as my skin. They fall from my face to his sides, limp and lifeless at his sides.

My eyes dart down to the gaping hole in his stomach, and I'm filled with sorrow. This boy in front of me saved my life and showed me what it's like to live. He introduced me to feelings I never thought I would feel. His smile, his heat, his laugh, his voice, it's engraved into my heart.

My body shakes as I rest my forehead against his. The tears venture down my face, falling onto my now bloodstained gi. "You promised me. You promised me you'd survive."

I grip onto his gi as I feel an emptiness start to claw at my heart. He's gone forever. This light, this fire in the night for millions of people, has been taken away, and it's all their fault.

Everything is their fault. They've tortured us for our entire lives, and now they take away the person that saved me from them. Mara murdered him right in front of me.

I stand up, my face emotionless as I look at that monster. She's currently fighting off Seliel's ambush of attacks. Seeing her face, her scaly pale skin, reminds me of all the pain she put all of us through.

Conjuring a ball of fire in my hand, I hurl it at her. She dodges it and looks over at me. Her eyes are solid black, the epitome of evil. My chest rises and falls at a ferocious pace.

"You," I glare at her, poison seeping out of my tone. "you are the most rancid and despicable being to ever live. You emotionally manipulated ten different little girls and ruined all of their lives for your own selfish desires. You took our mothers and killed them all. Then, you took us and turned us into pawns for your little game."

The release of words sends a lightness through me, what feels like an increase in power. "My whole life, I just wanted to be loved. You constantly put me down, calling me a leech and telling me that I wasn't worth enough. I started to believe it too. Your words, your violence, it destroyed me."

I start to float in the air, the power that I felt before increasing rapidly.

"It wasn't until I met him that I was shown that I am good enough, that I wasn't the wrong one, but you were. He loved me for who I was, not what I could possibly do for him. He showed me that I'm worth loving. But you, you killed him! So now, I'm going to kill you. You're not a mother; you're a monster." As I talk, streams of power leave the rest of the elemental masters in the room and enter my body. They intermingle together, a pure pulse in my bloodstream.

"Skylor seems to have found her true potential!" I hear Zane call out, but I block it out. I look straight at Mara, at the terror on her face. She's frozen in place.

"Enjoy rotting in hell, Mother," aiming my hands towards her, I shoot my full force. The blast, interwoven with several elements, sears through her chest. Her flesh disintegrates where the blast hit. When her knees hit the ground, her head soon follows. She's gone for good.

I fall to the ground, drained after the blast. I'm immediately swarmed by Seliel, PIXAL, and Seliel as I try to regain my breath. Tears push themselves out of my eyes with force.

Seliel holds onto my hand, and immediately her powers rush through me, all of the others leaving my system. "Skylor, I..."

"Kai!" Nya rushes over to her lifeless brother. I turn my head to face the two as she falls to her knees in front of him. "Please, we finally reunited after all of these years, you can't leave now!" She holds onto him, shaking. Jay squats down next to her, sobbing and wrapping his arm around her shoulder. The rest of the ninja join them. They all stand around their fallen brother, sobbing. Mara might be dead, but she left a gaping hole in Ninjago's core.

---

Once Garmadon and Wu show up, the weight of the situation seems to increase. The two walk into the room to 9 emotionally broken teenagers and one of their enemies, the one that wasn't killed, that is tied to the throne. When they first come in, they comfort us before moving onto the aftermath of everything.

"I fear that we have a grave problem," Garmadon informs us, his face splotchy from the tears shed. Wu's face matches. "The volcanos all over Ninjago are erupting. Without a master of fire to keep them at bay, they're starting to eat up Ninjago."

"Before Kai d....died, he transferred his powers to me through a spell," I tell them, the pain still raw.

"That is impossible. If he had transferred his powers, the volcanos would stay dormant," Wu tells me.

I try to conjure up a fireball, but I'm unable to access that heat that should be there. That's when I remember how his words started to slur, how his hands fell from my face. "He never finished the spell. He died while trying."

"This is very bad."

"There has to be something we can do! Kai's sacrifice can't be for nothing," Lloyd urges. Garmadon and Wu share a glance. "Ninjago can't go down today, not after everything that we've done."

"In the time I was banished from this realm, I found a rare concoction like traveler's tea. The exception is that it doesn't take you to another place, but instead the beginning of time in Ninjago," Garmadon tells us.

"I am going to go there and request that my father places Ciara in her own prison realm. That way Mara will never be released," Wu tells us all, making our eyes widen.

"The chance of your return..." Zane starts.

"Is very slim, I am aware. I need to do it though. If I do not attempt it, Ninjago will surely fall."

"His very presence in the past could significantly alter the Ninjago we know today. If you change the past, you can change everything. Normally, we would never do this, but it is the last resort."

---

Nya's POV

I stand on the deck of the Bounty, my arms crossed as I look out at the sunset. I'm drained, physically and mentally. Seeing him like that, it pulled my heart out of my chest. All I wanted to do was be able to save him.

"Is everything alright?" at the sound of someone else's voice, I jump a bit.

"Don't sneak up on me like that."

"Hey, I am a ninja, you know," my brother wraps an arm around my shoulder and pulls me into his warm side. Suddenly, I feel like a little girl again. "Why are you so glum? Ronin is in jail now, and we're friends with the Keepers now. Everything is good."

"I couldn't save him. Jay was going to be sacrificed, and I could do nothing," I tug at my hair. "What type of yang can't protect her ying?"

"Those with a dangerous profession like ours," he comforts me, looking out at the sunset too. "He doesn't blame you, you know."

"Of course he doesn't. He never does."

"We're going to be home tomorrow. I know I said that I wanted you to come with Skylor and I to visit mom and dad, but I think you should stay with Jay. I think you two need it after that." Kai tries to change the subject.

"Are you sure?"

"I'm absolutely positive. Now, let's go inside. You look cold," Kai insists. The wind is a bit brisk, so I listen to him. The two of us walk into the common room where Jay and Cole are sitting. Jay is laughing at something while Cole slightly blushes.

"Nya! Guess what I just found?" Jay's face lights up even more when he sees me, warming my heart a bit.

"What?"

"A letter that Princess Vania sent to Cole! Apparently, she wants Cole to come back for a 'special arrangement'," he tells me, making my eyes widen. "I know the Princess had a soft spot for Cole, but dang."

"It's as friends, Jay," Cole takes the letter back. "Vania and I aren't like that."

"Suuuure," Kai draws out, smirking as he leans again the wall.

"I wish it was honestly. I've seen how happy you all are in your relationships, and I want to feel that too."

"You'll find someone eventually. If Jay can find someone who loves him, so can you," at that comment, I elbow my brother in the side. "Ouch!"

"She's out there somewhere, Cole. When you find her, you'll never want to let her go," I say the last part, giving Jay a small smile.

"Ew, you're gross," Kai scrunches his nose.

"You're grosser."

"Ooo Nya, tomorrow can you help me with something? The Keepers wouldn't stop talking about this legend about two sisters who kept trying to awaken Wojira in an attempt to kill the First Spinjitzu Master's wife. I want to see if it's actual thing."

"Sure, but only if you help me touch up these new mechs that PIX and I have been working on."

"Deal"

A/N: This book is officially over! I had nothing to do today so I finally was able to finish it 😂 (I was supposed to be studying for apush so whoops) 

In case anyone was confused, when Wu went back in time, it changed the timeline into the current canon timeline 😉 I thought it was a cool touch. Granted, this is still just an alternate ending, buttttttt 🤷🏼‍♀️

What did you guys think about this and the rest of the book?

Thank you guys for reading this series! It means the absolute world to me that you all would spend the time reading my work. You're all the absolute best!

I love you all,

The_lightning_ninja ⚡️💞