~~~Sixteen years ago~~~

Garmadon's POV

It was a warm, calm night. I was in bed with my back to my sleeping wife, Misako.  We decided to settle down in an isolated part of Ninjago where we live on a cliff with many acres between us and the edge of the cliff.  The cliff overlooks the calm ocean, and the sound of the waves crashing on the beach can be heard along with a slight breeze that began to pick up. It is around 2 AM, two hours into our children's birthday.

Our children, Lloyd and Katelyn Garmadon, sleep soundly in the room next to ours.  They are both 1 year olds now.  Funny how much time can fly.  It feels just like yesterday I was standing over Misako who was in the hospital bed, holding our newborns. I close my eyes and exhale, trying to catch a bit of sleep, when I hear a crash in the room next to me and two screams coming from the toddlers.

I shoot up from my sleeping position, so does Misako, and we dash to the next room over faster than a cheetah running for it's prey.  I kick open the door to the twin's room and I see three figures that look like they're made out of pure shadows with sharp weapons.  They turn our way and stare at us with voided yellow eyes that glow in the dim lighting of the room.

The room is trashed.  Broken glass and splinters of wood are scattered all over the floor.  The two cribs that once stood in two of the four corners of the room were now knocked onto their side.  Two of the three shadowy figures each hold in their arms a crying baby, screaming out of fright and confusion.  The third figure, who holds no child, lunges at me with it's sword.  Misako grabs a bat from a closet outside the room and gets into a defensive stance as I use spinjitsu to throw the figure into the wall.

No one's POV

Misako takes the bat and swings it at the second figure holding Katelyn, attempting to knock it out, but she stops, figuring that wouldn't be such a good idea for Katelyn.  The figure takes her hesitation and tosses Katelyn to the first figure who is holding Lloyd.  He books it out the window as the fighting commences inside.  The second figure kicks Misako to the ground and gets ready to strike her with it's sword.

Suddenly, as it's about to strike Misako, Garmadon rams himself into the person with spinjitsu, and takes a sword he had with him and stabs the shadow person.  The figure slowly fades out of existence in shadowy waves of black, navy, and purple, it's glowing, pupiless, yellow eyes looking into Garmadon's.  Misako looks for the third person but Garmadon tells her he had already defeated the third.

The couple then book it out the window that the third figure had gone through and they run into the direction it had run.  They then hear the screams of their children as they come to the edge of the cliff, that is overlooking the ocean, to see the figure holding their two beloved children by their shirts over the side of the cliff.  Misako screams and I lunge for the person, but it's too late.

Everything is in slow motion.  The figure loosens it's grip on the twins and they slowly drop into the pitch black ocean below them.  Garmadon freezes in his tracks and Misako drops to her knees, screaming louder than she thought she ever could, tears flooding down her face.  She's never felt so helpless in her life.  All she wants to do is run to her children and save them, but she can't.  She's frozen.  Glued to the cold grass with the breeze blowing through her long messy hair.

Garmadon, too, is frozen. This has to be a dream.  It has to be.  He thinks. 

He's in shock.  He doesn't know what to do.  His thoughts are interrupted as the figure tackles him to the ground and pulls out it's katana.  Garmadon was too shocked to react quick enough, but he manages to miss a blow to his head.  The figure tries again but this time, it succeeds in slicing off Garmadon's hand.  Garmadon screams in pain.

He feels the Weight be lifted off of him as Misako takes all her pain, anger, and every emotion she is feeling in that moment, and kicks the figure so hard in the face that it dissolves into a shadowy mist and disappears.  She rushes to her husband who is almost unconscious, and screams for him to stay awake.  She's doesn't know what to do.  She just lost her children, she will not loose her husband too.

~~~Present day~~At the monastery~~~

Garmadon watches the five ninja train in a tournament against each other with his brother at his side.  After the incident that happened on that fateful night, he and Misako went to live with his brother, Wu, so they could recover from the trauma they had received from that experience.  He and Misako wanted to find who was responsible for the death of the twins, and put an end to their evil rein.  After about two years of living with Wu, Misako went on her own to do research on the shadow assassins and find out how to stop them while I stayed with Wu.  I eventually began to help him train a group of teenagers to become ninja, the protectors of Ninjago, who will one day help us to find the evil doers and put an end to them before they can do any more harm.

Garmadon POV

I fidget with my artificial hand as I watch the teenagers battle against each other in their training.  Wu looks to me with a questionable look.  "What troubles you brother?"  He asks in a calm voice.

"Their birthday is in a month." I say sadly.  "And their anniversary. In a month, they would have been seventeen."

Wu's expression turns to remorse and he places his eyes onto his students.  "I'm sure they will happily be celebrating it in heaven.  Watching over you like they always do."  He says reassuringly.

"I appreciate you trying to make me feel better, brother, but my feelings simply cannot be helped.  They were murdered in cold blood." I stiffen as I close my eyes.  "I can still hear their screams." I shudder as I try to hold my tears. The memories flood into my mind, the shadowy figures, the twins, Misako's screams, the pain in my hand.  I grip my wrist where my hand was cut off and rub it, trying to soothe the burning sensation it is giving off from the memory.

Wu looks at me and places his hand gently down onto my shoulder.  His reassuring voice picks up once again.  "Perhaps you should take a break brother."

I shudder and nod.  I thank him and excuse myself as I slide open the door and close it gingerly behind me.  The tears break free and I'm left standing in the room, trying not to let my cries be heard.

Kai's POV

I block Cole's earth punch and push him backwards with my sword.  I use spinjitsu towards him and I'm able to successfully knock him to the ground.  He backwards somersaults and jumps into a fighting position.  I make my fist on fire and I shoot balls of flame at him.  He dodges them and unexpectedly swings his scythe at me,  knocking me to the ground.  I get up and get ready to fight, my hand once again on fire, only to see out of the corner of my eye, Sensei Garmadon quickly shuffling his way into the monastery.  It looked like he was upset. He was hiding his face.  I suddenly receive a punch to my face and I fall backwards onto the ground. I look up to see the earth ninja staring down at me with a smile on his face.

"What was that? I thought you were better than that!" He laughs and sticks out his hand.

"Yeah, whatever. You surprised me." I say taking his hand. He helps me up and Master Wu announces for us to stop. The fights around us stop and we stand around him, awaiting his orders.

"You all did good today." He said. "Training will continue tomorrow at 5 AM sharp!"

We all groan. "Master, why do we have to get up so early! Can it at least be 6?" Jay whines.

"Evil never sleeps and neither should you." He says back.

"Uh, master? We need sleep to function." Cole says matter-of-factly. Wu answers him by hitting him on the head with his staff.

"You all have a duty to protect Ninjago. Only when you defeat the darkness that is to come, will you be able to rest." He says, looking the five of us over. We respectfully bow with our fist in the palm of our hands.

"Yes Master." We say in unison. He dismisses us for the day and Cole and Jay run for the video game room. Zane heads to the kitchen, and Nya heads for the workshop. I head to my room and get undressed from my gi to put something more comfortable on.

I put on gray sweatpants and a red shirt.  When I'm finished, I head to the kitchen to see what Zane's up to. He greets me and I lean against the counter as he chops up vegetables. "What brings you here Kai?" He asks me.

"Oh nothing much." I say. "Just wanted to see what you were up to." He looks at me suspiciously and places down the knife he was holding. "What's wrong?" He asks.

"What?" I ask him, confused.

"You don't like watching me cook.  Ever.  You'd normally be cheering on Jay or Cole while playing video games, or be in your room. So why are you really here?"

I sigh and move from my spot leaning against the counter to sitting at the kitchen table. "You're too smart for me, tinhead."

He continues to look at me, expecting an answer. I sigh again. "Has sensei Garmadon seem a little... off to you lately?"

He puts his thumb under his chin and thinks. "He has seemed a little distant lately." He says after a minute. "Why do you ask?"

"When we were training, I saw him rush inside. He looked upset. I think he was maybe crying."

"That is peculiar." He says.

"I wonder what's wrong with him." I say to Zane while pulling out a small box of grapes from the fridge and popping a few into my mouth.

"He seems to always become down around this time too the year.  Remember last year?"

"Huh.  You're right.  Ever since we've met him he gets down around fall." I say throwing a grape into the air and catching it in my mouth.

"Maybe fall makes him sad." Zane says with a strait face.

I look at him and burst out laughing.  "Ohh Zane.  Did Jay update your humor settings or something because that's that funniest thing you've said in a looong time."  He looks at me with a confused expression as I laugh more.

"I don't get what is so funny about my comment.  All I said was that fall may make him sad."

My laughing dies down a bit and I look at him.  "That's the point tinhead." But seriously, what is so sad about fall that Garmadon, the guy who use to want to concur Ninjago, sheds tears?

"Perhaps what you saw weren't tears of sadness, but tears from allergies?"

I eat another grape.  "Nope, they were definitely tears of sadness."

"Well, whatever the reason may be, it is none of our concern." He says as he resumes cutting vegetables. Maybe, but I'm too curious to let this go. I'm gonna find out just what he's thinking.

No one's POV

A woman walks through the village at a fast pace. The sun has begun to set and a blanket of shadows and darkness begin to cover the village. People all around her whisper and talk in hushed voices. She walks past a particular group of people who aren't so quiet.

"I heard they were abandoned at the sea shore, dying of suffocation from too much sand and water!" One woman whispers

"I heard they're the same age. Probably siblings." A man says.

"I heard they were abandoned. There was no one around for miles." Another man says.

"Who would abandon an infant on the beach? No less two! It's inhuman!" The woman speaks again.

The woman continues to walk along the gravel pathway and past the wooden buildings and huts. She makes her way up to one hut and opens the door. She walks in to find a tall man in a leather suit talking to a doctor. "Chief," the woman states. The tall man turns to her and sets his blue eyes onto her. He smiles.

"Ah, good, you're here. Thank you for coming, Splenda." The woman nods and the man turns back to the doctor. "Splenda, this is doctor Ivy."

Ivy sticks her hand out and Splenda shakes it. "I'm glad you could help in these... odd times." Ivy tells Splenda. "I'm glad you allowed me to come." She says in return.

"Come with me." Ivy brings the chief and Splenda into another room to find two cribs, each one holding an infant. The two stare in shock at the sight of the children. "They were found on the beach half way in the water. They were separated by a few yards, hardly breathing. If those villagers had waited any longer, they would be dead."

Splenda walks up to one of the cribs and looks at the sleeping child. Dark circles surround it's eyes and their skin is pale, too pale. Their breathing is slow and for a second, she thought they weren't breathing. "You know the genders?" She asks Ivy.

Ivy nods her head. "You're looking at the boy. The other one is a girl. We also ran some tests and we found that they are fraternal twins."

The chief strolls over to the girl. "Will they make it?" He asks after looking at her. She looks to be in the same condition as her brother.

Ivy looks at them, a pitiful expression on her face. "We... aren't sure. We'll just have to see how they are throughout the night. But right now... it's hard to say. It's a miracle that they've survived this long considering the state they were in when they were found."

Splenda continues to look at the boy in the crib. "And it was just them? Nothing else? No sign of a mother anywhere?" Ivy moves across the room to a tray on the counter.

"Well," she says. "They had these around their necks." She holds up two pendants, each attached to a long, strong black string. The pendants are the split halves of the yin and yang. The chief moves closer to get a better look. "These were just hanging around their necks? Where they choking them?" He asks her.

"No, they weren't. And look at this." Ivy flips the pendants over to find engravings on the back of both of them. The engravings each spell out a name that is then traced neatly in red paint. Below the names are smaller engravings with a date on them. We stare at the names.

"Well, at least we know what to call them now." The chief says to no one in particular. "And look! That date is from exactly one year ago." He states. Ivy nods.

"Yes. We also found that the children are 1-years-old. So we have reason to believe this is their birthday."

Splenda looks back at the boy and stares at him in concentration. She suddenly closes her eyes and shudders. It is like a wave of cold air cut through the humidity and sliced her.

"Splenda?" Ivy asks her. "Are you okay?" Splenda opens her eyes and looks at the children once again. She smiles. "Yes, Ivy. I'm fine. And I get the feeling there's more to these kids then we think there is. I think they are going to have a very bright future."