A/N: Heyo. The only reason I'm updating this at this moment in time is because I've been writing all night cuz mom is ticking me off and so I have my headphones on and am writing so eeyyy have another chapter

NEXT CHAPTER I believe next chapter, anyway, is the chapter that everything goes to hell in so hehehehehehehehehehehehehe

"I don't know," she brushed past Nya, headed back to the tea shop, "And frankly, at this point in time, I really don't care."

Nya jogged to catch up with her, looking as if she wanted to say something. She thought against it, and the two walked back in silence. Nya started pulling ahead, and ended up beating Lizz back to the tea shop by a couple minutes. She found the others gathered inside, "Ronin has the Sword," Nya announced.

"What's he going to do with it?" Cole sassed, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Well obviously he's taken the Sword to Morro," Jay's voice leapt.

"Guys," Nya glanced over her shoulder, back out the door, "Guys, Lizz--"

"Is right here," she appeared in the doorway, forcing a malicious grin, "Speak of the Devil and she shall appear, amiright?"

A couple of the others smiled and chuckled. Zane got back to business, "But where is Morro? He could be anywhere, and we're running out of time!"

Cole unfolded his arms and motioned towards Lizz, his tone snippy, "Lizzi, I know you're under a lot of stress right now, but if you could--"

Lizz squared her shoulders and stepped up to Cole, fear of ghosts be damned, "One; you're not allowed to call me that. Two; don't use that tone with me, Brookstone," her voice was dripping with malice, her tone getting harder with every point she listed, "Three; I don't have any powers, just like none of you, so zip it. And four; I feel I am under way more stress than you could ever even think of having, so whatever the rest of your sentence was, I suggest you swallow it, because if you open your mouth again, the next thing out of it will be. your. teeth."

"Lizz!" The entire group was beyond appalled, but Wu was the only one to convey it verbally, "Enough! We all knew the path to save Lloyd was never going to be a straight line. We were all fooled by Ronin, but that doesn't make us fools. At times like this, we musn't butt heads, but put our heads together!

Lizz snorted at Cole, something akin to an angry animal, and turned to head across the room to lean on the front counter. Meanwhile, Jay was snorting like a pig while trying to conceal his giggles, "I'm sorry," he collected himself a little, "You said buttheads."

Falcon, from up in the rafters, started making a ruckus, and suddenly a projection of Ronin appeared, spiking Lizz's anger even more. The projection looked fruffled, and a tad skittish, "I can't talk loud," he turned around to face Lizz as he stage-whispered, "But I wanted to let you know you were right, kid. Morro didn't hold up his end of the bargain. Misako was right, too; the map and the Sword did reveal the Tomb. I saw the map and I know where it's located.

"I know you don't have the Sword, but I know you can beat them to the Tomb," he gasped and glanced backwards over his shoulder, at someone the Ninja couldn't see, "They're coming!"

Jay short circuited and went frantic, "Where?! Where is it? Where's the Tomb!" he demanded.

"The Caves of Despair," Ronin rushed out, "The-- omb --Caves o-of--- espair--" the hologram went on the fritz and pretty soon just died out completely.

Good.

Wu gasped, "The Caves of Despair... We've been there before. I don't remember seeing any tomb."

"Isn't there still miles of unexplored mines there, though?" Lizz didn't even really need to ask. She knew fully well.

"She's right," Misako added, "So it very well could be there!"

"How can we believe him, though?" Nya asked, "It could be a trap."

Kai took a really angry sounding deep breath, "We don't have the Scroll and we don't have the Sword. With Lloyd's life at stake..." he looked back at the other three boys, "what choice do we have?"

They nodded back at Kai, "We're in," Cole spoke for the group.

"Fool me once, shame on you," Nya began.

Lizz cut in, "Fool me twice, shame on me..." realization hit her, "It's a trap, guys, we shouldn't do it."

"What good will it do us if it's all just a set up?" Nya added.

"The Ninja are right," Sensei told them, "Even a misstep could be a step in the right direction. "We cannot afford to do nothing. The Ninja will go. As for Lizz--"

"I'm going with," she slid from the counter, standing on her bad foot-- granted, gingerly, but standing on it. Her tone was definitive, "No one's stopping me."

There was an immediate chorus of disagreement, "Lizz, sit this one out," Kai stressed, "You're busted up. We can handle it."

"Yeah, because you've all handled things so well in the past," she sassed back, "Zane patched me up, I'm fine, let's go."

There was an uneasy look passed through the group, watching Lizz stalk across the yard. Wu sighed and turned to Misako, "We may as well allow her to go. It may be a good learning experience, and she knows herself better than us. Perhaps she is not as hurt as we may think."

"You didn't hear Zane's diagnosis..." Misako shook her head, "Her pride and her stubbornness both come from her father; she won't rest until Lloyd is safe. Even if it kills her."

There was a new wave of uneasiness across the group; no one had told Lizz where Garmadon went, yet. She hasn't been asking lately, either, but the topic will come back up and no one wanted to answer that question.

"Lizzi!" Jay suddenly shouted, being shaken from the tense feeling to run further out into the yard, "Wait up!"

The others followed Jay's lead, running to chase after Lizz.

*.*.*

Eventually they made it to the caves. It took a while, but they made it, and were soon walking through the deserted yard of it. There were dusty footprints still etched in the mud from whoever had set up camp here last.

"The Caves of Despair..." Kai awed, looking around.

Cole was right in step with them, "It's where we first came for the Golden Weapons..." he glanced at the boys, "It's like everything has come full circle."

Jay shuddered next to Lizz, "Don't say that! Full circle means it's coming to an end, and I don't wanna hear that before I go into the Caves of Despair! That's probably one of my least favourite words...How do we even know the Tomb is in there?"

Zane zeroed in on something on the wall of rock ahead of them and motioned for them to follow, "It's the third symbol," he muttered, running a shiny hand over the hastily drawn skull.

"Good enough for me," Jay nodded, "Let's go."

Kai and Cole led the way into the cave, Jay and Zane close behind. Lizz stayed at the rear, starting to regret coming with. This was essentially a trip through the past for them, something that they'd done together long ago. She felt like an outsider to the team again.

They passed an upturned coal cart, and Lizz quietly pointed out, "Hey... There's another symbol..."

"Looks like it only gets darker the deeper in we go," Cole noted.

Kai ran over to the right, where five already lit lanterns were hanging, "Then it's a good thing we have a little light," he made to scoop one up, but Cole stopped him.

"Wait! What if this is one of the tests?"

Jay nodded frantically, "Yeah! Sensei said the Tomb was gonna be protected by three deadly tests! If we pick the wrong lantern..."

Kai reached out, slower this time, to grab one off a hook. The other three boys took a hop backwards. Kai snatched one up, "Huh. Nope, just a lantern."

Jay let out the breath he was holding, watching as Cole, Lizz and Zane all went and grabbed one for themselves, "Jay!" Lizz snapped, "Hurry up."

But Kai had stopped up ahead a little further, "Apparently there's been a cave in."

Lizz wrinkled her nose at the smell, being used to smelling in weird stuff living with these boys. It smelled weird, like a mix of gasoline and sulfur, but she got used to it. Jay on the other hand made an appoint to wig out, covering his nose and groaning, "Ugh! What's that smell?!"

"My senses pick up traces of--" Zane began.

It dinged in Lizz's brain, though, and she tensed up, "Kethenol..."

Zane nodded, "Kethenol is a highly flammable gas released from deep well mining."

Cole scoffed, "Sure. I bet that's what all Nindroids say."

Zane was taken aback, clearly confused, "If you're implying that smell came from me--"

Lizz snorted, but Kai cut into their conversation again, "Look! Some of these rocks appear to have been recently moved. Morro must have already been through here."

Lizz followed them as Kai led the way down a nearby tunnel, her feet sliding on the sloped floor. She dug her toes in to prevent herself from causing a domino effect down the hill, but it was only a little effective; she was just digging ruts in the ground.

As they descended, it got hotter and hotter and as much as it pained her to do so, Lizz flipped down her hood like the rest of the team did, her mask making it harder to breathe in the stifling air. Kai stopped their escapade at the brim of what was essentially a lava geyser, "Everything here looks like it's been... burned. Perhaps one of the traps?"

Zane raised his lantern higher, "A Kethenol geyser. We cannot stay long. It may erupt at any moment."

Cole was across the cavern, leaning over something he found, "Whoa... guys..."

The others ran over to stand behind him, "Is that...?" Lizz's brow furrowed. Cole had found a sun-bleached skeleton, far too white to have been down in this cave. It still had a thick head of hair, and had the remnants of what was very obviously an Elemental Gi on. That doesn't make any sense...

Jay groaned, wrinkling his nose, "Ewww... Think it's him?"

Kai spoke as if they'd come across the answer to all of life's issues, "The First Spinjitzu Master..."

Lizz slapped him hard in the stomach, "No, dumbass, there is no physical way that can be him. That's the skeleton of..." she swallowed thickly, "of a teenager. Can't you tell?"

Kai turned his attention back to the bones, and Lizz watched with no satisfaction whatsoever as horrified realization washed over the faces of her teammates. Zane stepped forward, being the only one brave enough to go nearer to the bones of what was essentially a child, "She's right. It's not the First Spinjitzu Master," he peeled back a part of the Gi, revealing the Elemental Symbol on the breast, "It's the Master of Wind. These are the remains of Morro's mortal body."

Lizz suddenly wanted to light the bones on fire.

Jay made a noise, "Sensei told us he never came back from looking for the Tomb, so if he's here, that means..."

Lizz was the first to jump and turn towards the front of the cave, but that's cuz the yelling of Ghoultar reached her first, "It is trap! Now you suffer same fate!"

He chopped his scythe into the cave floor, the crack it created running up the wall and into the ceiling to cause a cave in. The boys all began running and Lizz screamed out a few choice expletives before running after them, dodging falling rocks all the way. None of them got there in time, though, and they were trapped. Kai stated the blatantly obvious, "There's no way out!" he turned to face the rest of them, "If this was a test... I think we certainly failed it."

Jay started coughing, "And all this gas... is making me a little..." he wobbled on his feet and Lizz reluctantly pressed a hand into his back to steady him, "lightheaded."

She grit her teeth, "I told you this was a bad idea!"

"Dish out the 'I Told You So's' later, Lizz," Cole retorted, "This cavern is a virtual oven. If those geysers decide to ignite, we'll be cooked!"

Zane started scanning over the room, "Pixal has discovered an opening! The cave in must have created a gap!"

Jay grunted, seeming to have come out of his Kethenol High, "Ugh, but a gap to where?! For all we know, it could be another dead-end, and for the record, that's another one of my least favourite words!"

Cole shouted something undecipherable -- it sounded like 'Too late!' to Lizz, though -- and she watched as he ran over to a slightly rounded rock that was three times his size, "Cole--"

"Cole!" Zane chastised, "No!"

Cole plopped the rock over the geyser opening and promptly fell backwards on his ass, "Heh. Solved that problem."

"No, dumbass, you made the problem worse!" Lizz snapped, getting as far away from the geyser as possible.

Cole frowned at her, "What are you talking about?"

Zane filled him him, "Correction, Cole, you did not solve the problem. You made it worse. Now the pressure will compact the explosion, multiplying the damage tenfold."

Lizz gave Cole a look, and Jay groaned again, "What are you trying to say?"

Zane put it bluntly, "When that rock goes, every cave in a ten mile radius will be filled with a wall of fire so hot it will incinerate everything in its path!"

"Guess we better get hot on our heels," Kai leapt into his Airjitzu, the others immediately following.

They went up through the gap Pixal found for them, leaping and flipping over rocks in the tunnel it led into in an attempt to get as far away from that cavern as physically possible. Aside from Kai, Lizz was at the very back of the pack, but she was still going strong and keeping up pretty well. She let out a squeak when the ground shook and an angry rumble could be heard in the distance behind them.

Zane was yelling for them to hurry, and Lizz shoved Kai out of the way and blew right by him as soon as she felt the air on her back heat up, "Hey!" Kai snapped.

"You're fireproof!" she snapped back, "I'm not!" when she turned forward her eyes went wide, "Guys!" she wasn't slowing down any time soon, but the other three boys had stopped dead, "Go, go, go, go, move!"

Kai and her ran into the group and together they all fell down another tunnel, one that went straight downward like a poor designing choice of a slide in the playpen area at a fast food restaurant.

Zane ended up on the bottom, then Jay, Kai, Cole and Lizz respectively on top of him. How they all managed to fit inside the tiny coal cart, she wasn't too sure but she wasn't about to stop and ask; the fire wasn't slowing down anytime soon.

Apparently, neither were they. As soon as Jay sat up, the cart began rolling forward and Jay groaned out over the rest of them, "Great. How do you stop this thing?"

"I don't think we do," Lizz gripped onto the side as tight as she could and the cart went down a steep hill, gaining speed with every second.

They were all screaming, the sounds bouncing off the empty tunnels and ricocheting back at them to create a cacophony of noise no one could decipher anything from. She was just starting to get used to the idea of an impromptu rollercoaster ride when the cart went flying over a break in the track like a ramp. Every single Ninja was thrown from the cart and through the air.

But, miraculously, the cart landed safely back on the track without so much as a hiccup in speed, and each member of the team was deposited back inside.

Save for Jay, who was on the outside of the cart, hanging on for dear life. His feet pattered on the ground as fast as they could but he still couldn't keep up, "Pull me in!"

They hit another bump and Jay lost his grip. Lizz, being in the back of the cart, made a grab for him but missed, and thankfully Zane was there, snatching Jay from mid air, "Hold on, Jay!"

The momentum of the cart almost took Zane out, too, but Zane had enough strength to counteract the wind. She looked away from the two on the floor of the cart and gasped, pointing ahead, "Ghoultar!"

Jay jumped up and immediately threw his Aeroblade at the offending ghost. It flew true and went straight through Ghoultar's chest, dispatching him from this Realm -- though, his scythe stayed until the cart drove through it before it too left this world.

Jay's celebrating was short lived when Cole pointed out that, "Looks like we're coming to a dead end!" the group went silent as one by one they saw that there was caution tape and danger signs plastered up and down the wall that they were hurtling towards.

"There's that word again!" Jay cringed, bracing for impact like the rest of them were, "Never say that word!"

The cart busted through the wood that was hastily nailed over the tunnel and continued on down the rickety set of worn down tracks. "What do we do?!" Lizz was looking for a way to try to prevent their imminent death, but was finding no solutions.

"Use the Aeroblades as brakes!" Zane called out.

Zane and Lizz set to grinding their blades on the back two wheels. Sparks were flying, almost catching Lizz's hair on fire, but it was working to a certain extent. At least, she thought it was working, until Jay brushed the caution tape from his eyes and screamed out, "It almost feels like we're going faster!"

"Going faster right off the end of the tracks!" Lizz's voice went super soprano in terror.

Unable to stop the cart, it flew off the end of the broken tracks and dumped the Ninja out in the process, sending them free-falling towards a lake of lava. The screaming didn't stop, if anything it increased tenfold from before. There was nothing to grab onto, and no hope of landing on any possible rocks -- unless being impaled on a pointed stalagmite counted.

A few meters from the lava -- Lizz is pretty sure her eyebrows are singed off by now, and how Zane hadn't melted, she wasn't sure -- a rope ladder just appeared out of nowhere and the terrified screaming turned to light, but panicked, cheers of joy as each of the Ninja grabbed onto it. Turns out the ladder belonged to Ronin's airship, R.E.X.

Cole was at the top, "I could kiss Ronin! Right after I clobber him for getting us into this mess."

"Monologue later, please," Lizz's voice quivered, but she tried to sound angry, "Start climbing."

One by one they climbed inside the ship, and Jay scoffed, "Ugh. Auto pilot. Of course he's too scared to show his face."

"It's because he's too scared to be back in here with me, again," Lizz grit her teeth, starting towards the now-repaired dash with murderous intent in her eye.

Zane and Cole had to put out an arm to stop her, "Lizz, you can't rip apart the ship... again," Cole tried reasoning.

"Why the hell not?" she snorted, but gave up trying to get to the front of the ship.

"Cuz it just saved your asses," Ronin's voice filled the ship, and the screen at the front came up with a glitchy video recording of Ronin, "I hope that came in in the right time. If I remember anything about Lizz, she's cursing up a storm right now. Hey Ninja," he added as a greeting, finally, "If you're getting this message, I'm sure you might have some choice words for me that Lizz is probably already saying," he paused for a moment and flashed an impish grin, "Hiya, kid."

Lizz gave he video a middle finger and Cole started laughing a dry, sarcastic laugh, "You got that right that we have some words for you! When I get my hands on you--"

The video started talking again, cutting Cole off, "I got something to tell you, too. It wasn't me who sent you into this trap. I was under the control of Morro. I know you think I'm a crook for taking the sword, but I want to make things right by offering my airship R.E.X. as a peace offering. I know it's not what you had in mind, but I've remotely entered in the location of the Tomb. The real one this time."

An image of a map replaced Ronin's scruffy face; the real Tomb was underneath the ocean. Kai spoke up, "Look at that... the real reason Misako never found the Tomb in NinjaGo is because it was never there in the first place! It's under the ocean."

Awe, damn. Ronin's back, "Morro has a head start, but R.E.X should get you straight there in a jiff. And if it's any consolation, this'll be the last you see of me," the picture started getting fuzzy, "If anyone wants to know a reason... tell them.. It's cuz I care," by now the picture was gone, just a pixelated white screen, "And hey.. Good luck. And go make things right. See ya 'round, kid. Try not to tear anything apart this time, would ya?"

The screen went black, and Lizz cracked her knuckles, "We'll see about that--"

"Lizzi!" Jay snapped, pressing a hand to the center of Lizz's chest, right between her collarbones, under her throat, "Behave. He's doing us a solid."

She grunted, but reluctantly found the nearest seat and sat down, "Fine."

Kai took a deep breath, "Looks like we're headed to the Tomb," as he said this the doors slid shut and the ship started rising, "We better buckle up."

They all took their seats, too, and let the ship drive itself. So many bad memories were resurfacing. Being lured away from Darkley's, being kept against her will... the only good memories of this were when she broke the ship and maimed Ronin with a piece of it. Only... the aftermath of that wasn't so pretty... not that she was ever hurt by Ronin, but as a three year old anyone even simply raising their voice is something painful.

She was shaken from her reverie when the Caves exploded behind them, a wave of hot air rattling the ship.

A/N: Lizz is so angry my gosh

Tehe. That changes soon. I mean, it changes for the worse, but at least she's not angry anymore.

Anhyhoe, feedback is appreciated but not a necessity.

Love y'all for still reading this trash ;)