Written by: miamidnightt

Once the Bounty arrived at the familiar cave of the shadows, Mia was the first to rush past everyone and slide down the chain of the anchor. The others followed close behind her, knowing well that the redhead was desperate to get her friend back. The two had been through so much together already— she couldn't leave her alone with those filthy monsters.

But as she was about to walk towards the cave, the Green Ninja grabbed hold of her upper arm and looked her in the eyes, "Mia, hold on a second... Before you go in there, remember we all have your back. I swear we'll get Scarlett back and figure out a way to get rid of the shadows for good."

"Yeah, that's what I'm hoping for," She replied, her eyes glaring back towards the cave once more, "Alright, there's no more time to waste."

"What do you purpose we do once we are inside?" Red approached the Purple Ninja, rubbing his chin in thought.

Mia hummed in response, "I was thinking... that we sneak our way through the corridors, hopefully without running into any shadows— figure out where they are keeping Scarlett and take her back with us. Then we can go along and figure something out on how to destroy the shadows for good."

"Sounds like a plan, then," Lloyd nodded, resting a hand on her shoulder and kissing her on the forehead, "I know you'll do a great job of leading us like you did before. And like you just said, we'll get Scarlett back no matter what."

"That's what I'm hoping for," The redhead chuckled, walking back in the direction of the cave and turning back to the others, "Hmm, I recall there being a secret entrance into the cave. Or, that's what happened last time we were rescuing Scarlett."

"Yeah," Jay chimed in, who appeared to have run off ahead of the others, pushing away some moss and leaves on the side of the cave, "I think I found it!"

Mia rushed over to the spot, grinning from under her purple hood-mask, "Hey— I remember this now! Come on, there isn't much time left and we have to save Scarlett before... uh, never mind. I know that's never gonna happen."

Without waiting for a reply, she slid down the entryway with ease and sighed, her eyes finding the empty and dark room in front of her. It hadn't changed much since she was last here but that was that was something she didn't care to think about. The thought of saving her best friend was all that kept her going.

After the others all slid down after the redhead, the group snuck out the room and through the halls of the dimly lit cave— it was strange, however, that they hadn't run into any shadows at least once.

"Okay, where are those fucking shadows?" Mia hissed, her eyes searching every corner but unfortunately, finding none of the dark creatures anywhere, "It's almost like they want us to waltz in here. Do you think they have a trap laid out for us or something...?"

Kai chuckled, "Stop being so paranoid, Mia— I'm sure they just haven't realized we snuck in yet or maybe they just...!"

But the Fire Ninja was unable to finish what he was about to say, the sound of many voices ringing down the halls and alerting the Ninja immediately. Mia was the first to rush off down the long hallway, not caring if she ran into any of the shadows— Lloyd and the others easily followed after the sprinting redhead, barely able to keep up with her until she stopped at a large, wooden door decorated with moss and dirt on the front.

The door had been left ajar, giving the Purple Ninja the chance to peek inside the large room and spot two figures inside. Both Scarlett and the Shadow Queen, they emerged in a conversation that the redhead was too far to hear— but that wasn't what troubled her at the moment.

Seeing her best friend with the shadows, it made her realize that they had been too late to save her this time around. But that didn't stop her from hoping there was still a chance— that if she freed Scarlett from the shadow that possessed her, than it would all be good in the end.

Mia finally turned back to the others, "Looks like that shadow still has her under its possession, but I hope there's still a chance to free her."

"Don't worry about it, M. I promise we'll get her back." Lloyd smiled, patting her on the head and peering into her hazel eyes— a spark of hope dancing within them and that made the Green Ninja relax, feeling the warmth of her hand grab his.

"Let's hope you're right..." Mia mumbled, nodding her head to him.

Jay took this chance to interrupt the two lovebirds, clearing his throat loudly, "Alright, but we still have a problem at hand— how exactly are we gonna get inside there with no one noticing?"

The redhead chuckled, feeling the smirk play across her lips immediately, "That's easy, loudmouth... Because I have a certain trick up my sleeve that's bound to get us past all those shadows and straight for Scarlett. No one would suspect a thing!"

"Which is...?" Jay pressed her, raising an eyebrow.

Throwing her head back, Mia tightly grabbed both Lloyd and Cole's hand, watching them slowly become invisible and crawl down their arms, along with her becoming unseen herself— she let out a cocky laugh, the three of them completely hidden from the others.

"I can turn us all invisible," Mia pointed out, rocking on her heels but unfortunately, the others could only hear the sound of her voice echoing off the walls, "But the only thing is... we all have to be holding onto each other for it to work and that might become a problem."

Cole shook his head, "Hey, it's no sweat, Mia. I'm sure if none of us let go, we can easily get to Scarlett and free her from those shadows."

Mia nodded.

The next few minutes were passed with the others holding onto each other until they all had become unseen in the darkened hallway. The redhead didn't hesitate to step forward, sliding quietly into the room without any shadows glancing their way and inching towards the two figures on the other end of the room.

"Mom, I thought you said those Ninja would try attacking us?" Hearing her friend's voice at the end of the room, Mia bit her lower lip but continued taking small steps, "I haven't seen any of them so much as try to—!"

But the Queen stopped her halfway, whispering into her ear and placing something in the raven-haired teen's palms, who now held a smirk on her face. But once the Purple Ninja took the next step, Scarlett threw the item and a cage formed around the heroes— they had become visible to all the shadows and both Scarlett and the Queen smirked.

"Wha—? But how did they know we were here?" Mia widened her eyes, unsure of how to respond to the change of situations.

The Queen cackled at her words, stepping forward with her daughter at her side, "Ah, I see you Ninja have fallen into the trap I've laid out for you— And now that we have you in our hands," she turned her beady eyes on the redhead, "we can finally take your powers for ourselves!"

"I swear, you aren't gonna get your hands on my powers!" Mia hissed at them, lowering her eyebrows in anger and pulling at the bars of the cage, but that only caused her hands to burn, "Dammit! You let us go right now!"

"And what are you gonna do if we don't?" A shadow growled, laughing at her pained expression and handing a knife to Scarlett, "You're gonna be needing this soon."

"Thank you..." The dark-haired girl muttered back to him.

Red took this chance to approach his sister, but his eyes stayed widened upon seeing his mother— who he thought had been dead this whole time— alive and standing right in front of him. All words he had planned on saying fell short but it was the Queen who spoke first, seeing as her son was left paralyed at the sight of her.

"Ah, my dear Red," She cooed, taking a small step towards him with an evil smile crawling across her lips, "I see you've come to rescue your dear sister, did you not? But, unfortunately, you've come rather late... me and her have come to be reunited with each other and we want you to join us, Red."

Red blinked twice, but easily shook his head to his mother, "Not gonna happen...!"

"That's a shame..." The Queen sighed, lowering her head and letting out a small pout. But it quickly disappeared, her eyes turning over to her daughter, "I suppose we should get on with our plans, no?"

Scarlett nodded at her words, holding out her hand and dark magic immediately enveloped her hand like a block of frozen ice. She chuckled darkly, the magic taking hold of Mia and dragging her outside the cage she was held in. The others screamed for her, a pair of handcuffs made of dark magic binding her wrists together.

"What the hell...?" Mia hissed, trying to twist her wrists of free from the handcuffs.

The dark-haired girl shook her head, taking a fistful of the redhead's hair, both of their eyes meeting with each other, "It's useless to struggle, Mia— Those chains are made of vengestone and dark magic. They block elemental powers as long as they are on."

Sighing, Mia closed her eyes and reached her hand downwards— pulling out a hair clip from the pocket of her Gi and holding it between her teeth. She took note that Scarlett was now distracted by a conversation with the Queen, giving her a chance to pick the lock of the chains and they fell to the floor with a thud.

Quickly, she kicked the raven-haired girl from behind and ignited her hands with a glowing light, throwing a ball of her powers at the cage the others were held in. The bars of the cage melted away, allowing the others a way of escape out of their captivity.

Lloyd rushed over to his girlfriend's side, pulling her close to his chest and drawing the katana off his back, "You stay the hell away from Mia! You can't have her or her powers...!"

"Hmm, that's a clever way of thinking there, Green Ninja," Scarlett hummed, picking herself off the ground and smirking, twirling the knife she held in her hands, "However, you can't stop us from taking her powers! They will belong to us in the end!"

"Over my dead body...!" Mia seethed, gritting her teeth and biting the inside of her cheek from her burning anger.

But once the other heroes had joined in, that's when the real fight started between the Ninja and the shadows— weapons clashed with each other, powers emerged and destroyed shadows in every direction. Unfortunately, this gave the former Scarlet Ninja the chance to catch Mia off guard.

The Purple Ninja lit her hands ablaze, slashing and kicking every shadow that came her way but feeling a tug to her hair, she was knocked to the ground and found Scarlett hovering above her, "Sorry, love, but you're coming with me..."

Dragging her by the hair, the two left the large room and headed down the long hallway— finally emerging into a much smaller room with a metal table in the center. Mia gulped, an uneasy feeling overcoming her and making her want to curl up and hide away from this entire situation, to wake up and realize this was all just a terrible dream she was having.

But she knew that wasn't the case for her.

Throwing her down on the cold, metal table and chaining her wrists and ankles— Scarlett threw a wicked grin in the redhead's direction, the knife in her hands and she traced it down the redhead's body, but the blade wasn't close enough to draw any blood.

"I'm sure this situation is very familiar to you, yeah?" The dark-haired girl tapped her chin, pulling the blade back and going back to twirling it through her fingers, "Those shadows didn't understand how to truly steal your powers. But now that they have me, doing this will be much quicker and easier."

"What do you mea—?" But she couldn't finish her question, the knife having been plunged into her abdomen and drawing out her power, that was being sucked into the blade imbedded deeply into her skin.

Scarlett laughed, "It's exactly what it sounds like. I only need this dagger to steal your powers and nothing else..."

But unfortunately for the teen, her plans were foiled when both Lloyd and Kai rushed into the room, pushing her away from the Purple Ninja and the blond grabbed the knife, pulling it out of her stomach and watching the power return to her. He unchained her, allowing the redhead to heal the wound done to her.

"Son of a bitch...!" Cursing, the dark-haired teen got up and pushed her hands against the Fire Ninja, who just so happened to be the closest to her, "How dare you interrupt me like that!"

"You were gonna steal her powers!" Kai growled, grabbing her shoulders and shaking her, "Come on, I know Scarlett's in there... Stupid shadow, get out of her body before I go ahead and make you."

Scarlett laughed at this, about to have her say but was shoved out of the room and out into the hall, finding an angered redhead pinning her to the wall. Her eyes held a fire in them that was far beyond being controlled. Mia held out both of her glowing hands, taking a deep breath but it was her adversary who spoke up.

"You Ninja think I'm being controlled by a shadow? Pathetic." Shaking her head, she slowly approached the Purple Ninja, keeping the knife in hand, "I have no need to be controlled by anyone. This is who I really was meant to be...!"

Mia gulped back on her fear, "That... That can't be true!"

Scarlett chuckled.

Both girls glared intensely at each other— none of them dared to move an inch closer to the other. A few more seconds passed, allowing the redhead to rush forward and take out her daggers, swinging them at her best friend, who was easily able to dodge the attacks. But somehow, she lost her footing and felt the stinging pain of Mia's knife cutting her cheek.

This completely pissed her off, "Shit...! You're gonna regret ever doing that to me, Mia!"

Lloyd and Kai stood away from the fight, frowning as the fight between the two friends continued on. They hated to see this happening to them, fighting like it was all that mattered to them but they could see the redhead was trying her hardest not to hurt the dark-haired girl, while the other was simply enjoying the satisfaction of it.

"Stop it...!" Lloyd shouted at the two teens, but neither of them acknowledged him and continued to throw punches at each other, "You guys don't need to fight like this! Come on, I can't stand watching this!"

"Shut up, Green Ninja...! Scarlett hissed, landing a punch to the redhead, that sent her flying into one of the stone walls.

Lloyd turned his eyes to the Fire Ninja, which had grown wide from the scene playing in front of him, "Kai, go get the others...! We have to stop them from fighting, before things get to be too serious here!"

Kai nodded, not hesitating to run off and back in the direction of the large room the others were in, the sound of the girls' fighting leaving his ears. The Purple Ninja didn't take any notice to this, however, throwing endless balls of light at Scarlett, trying to knock her down. Her body was already covered in bruises— with a cut to her shoulder and ankle, which was a bit unfortunate for her. Scarlett wasn't much different, but she didn't seem to have as many as her former friend, who panted to no end from the amount of power she was using.

"Tired already, M?" Scarlett cooed in a sweet voice, stepping closer to her, "I think it's time to finish things here, don't you agree?"

"Scar—!" Mia gasped, being pinned to the wall behind her by the girl in front of her, who didn't hesitate in stabbing her in the stomach. The redhead cried out in pain, her power flowing into the dagger and making her vision sway, "Don't worry, this will all be over soon, love."

"Mia...!" Lloyd called out, racing towards her but Scarlett shot him back with a beam of dark magic, allowing her to finish taking the girl's powers.

Finally, the last drops of her powers were absorbed into the knife, which gave it a warm, radiating glow to it— But unfortunately, the other Ninja had arrived just as Scarlett pulled the blade out of the powerless girl.

Mia took a few steps forward, but her legs gave out and she would have collapsed to the ground, had Lloyd not caught her beforehand. He kneeled down with her in his arms, stroking her hair and noticing how shallow her breathing had become.

He finally glared at the person responsible for her pain, "How could you do that to her...! She was your best friend, all she wanted was to save you!"

"Why should I care?" Scarlett scoffed, waving a hand at them and crossing her arms, "I mean— if she lives, whatever... if she dies, also whatever. I could care less about what happens to her or the rest of you."

"How can you say such things like that?!" Cole yelled, ready to pounce and grab her at any moment— but he was far too late for that, considering she had already run off.

Everyone flipped off their Ninja hood-masks, standing around the Green Ninja— who had his girlfriend cradled in his arms, who wore a mixed expression of pain and sadness. She reached up, her shaky hand taking hold of Lloyd's.

"I-I'm sorry... that this happened." She choked out, her voice weak and feeble as she spoke out to him.

The Green Ninja shook his head, "Don't be sorry, Mia, none of this was your fault. You only wanted to get Scarlett back and I don't blame you for wanting that. She was an important friend to you... to all of us."

"I know," Mia mumbled, letting out a cough as blood escaped her mouth and she gripped onto Lloyd's Gi desperately, feeling her vision slipping away from her. She felt something inside her, knowing the feeling well— a small fraction of her power left inside her. Knowing that, she gripped his hand tighter and let the power leave her and gave it over to the blond unknowingly.

"L-Lloyd... I'm so sorry!" Mia cried, her vision getting more blurry and she wrapped her arms around him from the fear of dying, "I... I love you so much! I don't want to leave you like this! Not like this! But... promise you won't forget me, please?"

He shook his head, clinging to her and kissing her on the lips, "Don't leave me like this, Mia... Please! You mean everything to me!"

"I'm sorry..." And with that, her eyes finally closed and her body went completely limp in his arms— her skin going pale and that left the whole team in tears. Lloyd cried into her chest, not wanting to believe the reality of the situation.

That the Purple Ninja was dead.