Wu and Nya watched along with the others the surveillance video presented by Celestia and Geralt earlier.

"Oh wow..." the latter muttered. "So... the person who did this has access to a dragon? But how?"

The sensei was lost in thought. All of his pupils knew him well.

"What is it, Sensei?" Lloyd asked.

He returned his gaze to the six. "Besides the elemental masters, there was only one being able to bring dragons from their realm to ours."

"Realm? The hell are you talking about, Sensei?" Jay questioned with widened eyes. "And what do you mean, the only one?"

Wu let out a soft sigh. "Come. There is a story you all need to hear."

¤ ¤

They all stared as their sensei turned around with a rolled parchment in his hands.

"Oh, great," Jay nervously laughed, "another prophecy."

"Not a prophecy," Wu began, "a warning."

That shut him up real quick.

He opened the paper toward them on the floor, lowering to his knees in front of it. The six leaned forward to have a closer look.

On the parchment was a shadowy figure with slanted red eyes and a matching colored, eerie grin. His hands were facing up at his sides. A crooked object resembling a crown resided on the right side of the shadow's head.

Two dragons flew opposite each other above a mountain. Based on the image placements, the figure was most likely controlling the animals.

Nobody said a word. Wu took it upon himself to begin explaining what the hell that scroll meant.

"I've had this hidden away for years, dreading the day that it would come to be. After seeing that footage, I fear we may have to take action."

"But what is that, Sensei?" Lloyd questioned. "It kind of looks like the Overlord, but..." He pointed at the crown. "I don't remember him ever being a royal."

"Because that is not the Overlord. This represents a being you do not know of yet: The Dragon King."

Everyone flinched. Sure enough, not a single one of them had ever heard the term.

"Who's the Dragon King?" Nya asked, eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

Wu lowered his head. "When I was a boy, the legend of the Dragon King was a story told by my father. A man who was incapable of holding power within himself, and so sought said power in fantastical beasts. For many years he went through a lot to learn how to tame them... but alas, he never could. And so it was said that he was frozen in time, that the dragons themselves stopped him. For how can a mortal believe he is capable of controlling an animal that is meant to be free?"

"But if he's frozen in time... then how could he be in the surveillance?" Cole questioned.

"I... don't know. But after seeing the footage, I have no doubt that it is him returned." The sensei rolled up the scroll. "And worse... he may have actually succeeded in controlling the dragons."

There was silence among them for a moment. Jay raised his hand.

Their master glanced at him. "Yes, Jay?"

"Can I ask a question?"

"... yes you may."

"Respectfully, what the hell does all this mean?"

"Jay, are you dumb?" Kai leaned his head down. "Respectfully."

"No, I'm serious. Like, where is he getting these dragons from?" the ninja in blue continued. "Okay, so our dragons became one and then dipped a while back. Where did they go, anyway? And how old even is this dude if he's been around since you were a kid? No offense."

"You do not age when you are frozen in time, Jay," Zane started to explain. "He was probably from Sensei's time, and, well... someone must have released him. And our dragons have returned to their home..." He then glanced back up at Wu. "... wherever that is?"

The old man sighed. "There is much you don't know."

"What I want to know is... if he's in Ninjago, there's going to be trouble. How can we compete against a dragon?" Lloyd asked. "If this guy's now got control of them... what's the best way we can defeat him?"

"Only sheer, strong power can be enough to defeat a dragon. The strength of the same beast, even," their master answered. "None of you are at that level yet."

The ninja in green sensed the hesitance in his uncle's voice. "But..."

"But there is someone who is." He turned his back to his pupils. "Before we make any hasty decisions... you must find The Dragon Ninja."

Everyone paused. "The Dragon Ninja?"

"You're saying there's gonna be another ninja?" Cole inquired in confusion. "Who?"

"Get me a recent newspaper or magazine... I will show you all."

¤ ¤

Scarlett sat on her knees, sitting up straight with a charming smile on her face as she raised her arms over her head to stretch. She then dropped them onto each one of her shoulders, fingers fiddling behind her neck.

She wore a lacy set of white lingerie, promoting its recent release. Even with numerous cameras flashing in her face, she managed to not blink once.

Mia sat against the wall, checking her work schedule on her phone. Once seeing the clock hit 4:00, she rose to her feet.

"Scar, I'm headed off to work. It's four," she warned her friend.

"What? Already?" The model frowned as she started to move out of her pose. "Are we done for the day? We're supposed to walk together to the café."

"We've been running late all week, Scarlett dear," one of the female photographers declined. "We just need a few more. We'll be done in another hour."

"Hour?" She frowned and pointed a finger at each one of the people in the room; which was quite a few. "Respectfully, you all wouldn't survive without the espressos and cappuccinos and whatever other coffees you drank all morning. You want me to wait an hour to take her to work? She is the backbone of our society."

Her friend's genuine protest made the redhead smile. "It's okay, Scar. You know I'll be alright."

"Are you sure? I'll walk out right now if you want me to."

Her threat made the photographers flinch, every eye in the room widening in worry. They didn't want her to walk out in the middle of a shoot, and worse in nothing but intentionally sexual undergarments. And the problem is that they knew she would.

Mia released a chuckle from her lips. "I'm very sure. Save your dignity, please. I'll see you later."

The teen smiled too. "Well, okay then. Bring me a frappe?"

"Of course. I'll text you."

"You better!"

When her friend left the room, Scarlett turned to her team with slight disappointment. "You know, you guys don't have to hold me hostage. How bad are these pictures that you have to keep taking them?"

"That's the stereotypical life of a story model, Miss Dragonfire," one of the cameramen replied. "Isn't this what you went for?"

"Huh... goddamn it, I hate that you're right."

Almost out of the building, Mia put her black and green hoodie on. Leaving it unzipped, she tucked her hair under and flipped the hood up to completely conceal the crimson red. She made her way through the streets to reach the café, which fortunately wasn't that far.

As she passed by a store, she found a certain man in green garments looking over the magazines and newspapers. Realizing exactly who it was, she began to walk faster.

Of course, he just had to look up when she sped by. He cocked his head to the side about an inch. "Mia?"

"Nope. Wrong person, sorry."

He knew the voice was familiar. But seeing as she never stopped, he only turned back around and settled for a newspaper. He flipped through the pages, seeing multiple people throughout.

"I hope this will do."

Mia silently sighed as she reached her place of work. Did the ninjas give her a good reason to resent them? No, maybe not. But she had a bad feeling about them that she couldn't shake off, and the mere thought of having to speak to them gave her the ick.

¤ ¤

Wu was sort of overwhelmed when all of his pupils, Nya included, ran into his quarters at the exact same time holding different kinds of magazines and newspapers.

"It is so difficult finding these around town!" Jay dramatically huffed. "Especially because some of them barely have any people in it."

"Because, dumbass, you're supposed to find magazines," Kai insulted as he shoved one in his face. "Those have people in it."

"You dick."

Cole gently grinned. "Gotta give it to him though, they aren't exactly easy to find regardless. You only find them in two kinds of stores: grocery and shopping."

"I've also discovered that newspapers tend to be thrown on citizen lawns by a boy or girl on a bicycle," Zane added with an excited smile. "How nice. I did have to steal one, unfortunately. I really hope they don't notice."

Wu glanced at them all, blinking in surprise. "I... see."

Lloyd ended up being the first to hand his uncle one of the city newspapers. "Here, Sensei. Are any one of the people inside the Dragon Ninja?"

He flipped through the pages, a low hum leaving his lips. When he got to the end, he shook his head. "Not in this newspaper. Next?"

Zane stepped up and handed him another newspaper. This was the one he got from the driveway of a home, so it pertained more to the average citizen than the higher ups.

Their teacher flipped through it again. And again he said, "No. Next one?"

The nindroid frowned. "How peculiar. Not a single person?"

Kai confidently grinned as he handed Wu a magazine. "I got this, Sensei. Unlike these fools, these are full of random people."

"Ah, but you should not be searching for just random people," he calmly reprimanded as he took the paperback. "This person is very special. And very well known, might I add. I'm surprised two of you have already failed in finding the ninja."

That was like a sucker punch to both Lloyd and Zane's guts. And that only made Cole and Jay anxious.

From the corner, Nya rolled her eyes. Kai wasn't sure whether to keep up his confidence or stoop to his friends' levels of shame and nervousness.

Once more, Wu casually hummed as he searched the pages. The closer he got to the end, the more the ninja in red began to sweat from his forehead.

As expected, the wise man shut the magazine cover and sighed. "Cole and Jay, let me see both of yours. I'm starting to see a pattern here."

The remaining ninjas hesitantly handed their master their magazines. Well, Jay had a newspaper and Cole had a magazine. Wu flipped through both effortlessly at the same time and reached the end fairly quickly.

"Well, none of you have found the Dragon Ninja. Can you guess why?"

The five boys looked at each other, shaking their heads.

"Well, respectfully Sensei, you didn't give us anything to go off of," Jay spoke up. "We didn't know what we were looking for."

"You said you saw a pattern. What did we do wrong?" Lloyd asked.

"It didn't matter whether you gave me a magazine, or a newspaper, a pamphlet or even a brochure," Wu began his lecture, "because all you brought me were photos and stories of men."

The five were silent. To tell the truth, none of them saw the issue at first.

Seeing as they didn't understand yet, Wu held his hand out to the samurai. "Nya, may I please see what you've brought to the table?"

"Of course, Sensei," she assuredly took a few steps to reach him, handing him another magazine. "I think I have exactly what you're looking for."

And he didn't even need to open it up. Because right on the cover page was the future ninja he wanted to see.

"Ah... it seems only one of us has an open mind. Excellent job, Nya," the bearded teacher complimented. She grinned. "Come closer, so you can see who your new comrade will be."

Already disappointed that they were one-upped by her, the heroes trudged over. They leaned over each other, but eventually all of them saw who this person was.

Now they understood what he meant by having an open mind. In unison, they all muttered, "Ohh..."

But then the reality hit them that this person was probably the last they expected to be a ninja. And so in utter shock, the five shouted, "What!?"