Chapter Text
“Alright. The Oni are old news. Maybe we can finally do some sight seeing?” Jay asked, resting his hand on his jaw, completely bored.
Ever since the defeat of the Oni 3 whole days ago, they’ve been doing nothing but damage control. Not all them though. They had to stay at the Monastery while Kai, Lloyd and the other dragons went out and about. They all seemed oddly serious after the first day but even now being able to speak like them and understand them didn’t get them involved. Sure the mountain was pretty amazing on its own but there’s only so many times they can go hiking along the height of it before they grew sick of it.
“Don’t get your hopes up. Things are still a little tense around here.” Nya says with a shrug, laying on her back and cloud watching, eyes occasionally drifting to the planet’s rings and moons, still visible in the light of day.
“Nya is correct. If the dragons have reason to be tense still then we shouldn’t relax either.” Zane told them, resisting the urge to listen in on a group of very anxious dragons speaking to each other in low tones.
“I’m more curious how we can understand them though. We haven’t been here for as long as Kai.” Cole says with a contemplating look.
“I have a theory for that.” Zane says, focusing on Cole. “Logic doesn’t quite work the same here so it is safest to assume that it is due to our powers were merged with the other dragons’ for some time. I feel our powers have drawn from the draconic ways during. We can’t say for sure if they can speak like us now however. Not without asking and at the moment, interruption is not a good idea.” He says, looking across at the brooding Smoke and Shadow dragons.
“Huh. The more you know.” Nya says intrigued.
“That’s cool and all but th- ow!” Jay yelped then stuck his now bleeding tongue out.
“I think that’s a safe sign for you to shut up.” Cole chuckled and Jay pouted as they laughed at him.
Meanwhile, Kai and Oni Lloyd looked back at them hearing their conversation, the first half sending a feeling of guilt through them both. They’ve been so busy with the dragons, they accidentally left their friends in the dark… Again. They shared a look, no words passing between them, their expressions saying it all. Kai sighed, looking troubled before he nodded. They both took a short lope over on all fours, stopping before the group.
“So. Bad news.” Kai says once he had their attention, his long scaled tail flickering anxiously. “The Oni may be gone but the damage they left behind still lingers.” He told them and they looked confused.
“What kind of damage? The crater?” Cole asked, puzzled.
“The crater is not even a problem to begin with.” Lloyd spoke up, sitting on his haunches. “The clouds they spread out almost globally is the problem. It might be gone but it had been there a while.” He explained, tapping a claw against the rock that made up the mountain beneath them.
“Two months or so.” Kai clarified. “The wildlife here couldn’t handle it, the lack of sunlight combined with the heavily reduced oxygen levels… Well, that leaves us with over 80% of both flora and fauna perishing.” He says and they all gasped.
“Holy heck! That’s- that’s mass extinction, isn’t it?!” Jay asked, looking to Zane.
“Correct.” The Nindroid confirmed but frowned. “But if that is the case then-”
‘We can’t live here anymore.’ They looked up to Morro who padded over with Lloyd and the others. 'At least, not for long.’ That last bit was hushed.
'It would take years for Nindrago to recover from this. Years we don’t have. At the rate of how things are going… We’re on the brink of extinction as well.’ Dragon Zane says solemnly. 'All of our major food sources have dried up already. The rainbow fish from the underground river ran dry today. What we’ve gathered is hardly enough to feed us as is.’ He continued and the ninja looked horrified.
'Our future… Looks very bleak.’ Dragon Lloyd says quietly.
'W-we can’t just sit back and let that happen!’ Jay yelled, getting to his feet. 'There has to be some way to fix things!’ He says determinedly, the others agreeing as they stood.
'Unless you can magically reverse the damage the Oni left behind, there’s nothing to do.’ Morro growled, glaring at Jay.
'Take it easy Morro.’ Kai says, reaching out to stroke his closest leg comfortingly. 'There has to be a way. And we’ll find it.’ He says, looking up at him, eyes blazing in determination.
Morro wanted to say otherwise, to put out that foolish hope they all had. But.. The truth of it all is that he was hopeful too. In his eyes, Kai can do anything. Surely he could help them with this too.
'If only we could live in your world instead…’ Dragon Jay huffed sadly.
They all snapped their heads up at that.
'That’s it!’ Human Nya gasped. 'They could live with us!’ She grinned.
'Yeah! And since time runs slower there than here, they could always go back after a few years have passed here!’ Human Cole agreed.
'Is it even possible? I mean, it’s all of us this time, not just a few. That’s a little over a hundred dragons. Can your world handle so many of us?’ Dragon Lloyd asked seriously, wanting to hope this was the solution but not wanting to pressure their world with their presence.
'Ninjago is large and admittedly mostly empty. Most of the population resides in New Ninjago city. Otherwise, it’s scattered villages and small towns. My estimate indicates we would have enough resources to hold the entire population for a very long time. That is, if there isn’t a population bloom.’ Zane was quick to calculate, his robotic eyes glowing even more as he ran the estimates.
'No need to worry about that. We dragons live for a very long time. Mating is only once every 200 solar cycles. We are only 14 in.’ Blaze reassured them.
'So it’s possible?! Are we really doing it?!’ Dragon Cole asked excitedly.
'Hold on, I should let my dad know first.’ Dragon Lloyd pointed out.
'And we should probably talk to Sensei Wu about this too.’ Oni Lloyd added.
'Then we’ll pop back into our world real quick and grab Sensei to discuss here.’ Kai says, pulling out the Dimensional Crystal.
'We’ll see you in a bit.’ Dragon Lloyd says, walking over to nuzzle Kai.
'Don’t worry, we’ll sort this out.’ Kai says softly, reaching out to pat Morro’s snout once he came closer.
'I don’t doubt.’ Morro huffed, pressing his snout into Kai’s hand for a moment then stepped back.
Kai grinned at them then stepped back a bit.
He then held the Crystal up, watching it glow before opening a portal back to their Monastery.
“Let’s go!” Cole says, swinging his bag over his shoulder. “The quicker we do this, the better.” He says and the other ninja nodded.
They hopped through with all of their supplies, landing out in the training yard of their Monastery.
“Ok, let’s find and grab Sensei Wu.” Kai told them and they nodded, rushing in and dropping their bags at the door.
“Sensei!” Nya called out, looking around for him.
“Oh? Back so soon-”
“Sorry Sensei, no time for talking here.” Zane says, taking him by the hand as Kai held up the crystal again.
“Wait, I-”
“We can talk later. In you go.” Kai says, going in before them as a precaution before Cole and Zane all but carried Wu through.
The other ninja followed with Lloyd taking a last glance around before hopping through, the portal that vanished immediately after. The Sensei blinked once he arrived in the draconic world, awed at the large Monastery they had.
“Ok, so here’s the deal Sensei.” Jay began to explain. “The Oni are dealt with thanks to reverse rules here but the Oni messed up basically the whole planet.” He says, surprising Wu.
“The cloud over blocked the sun for an extended time period that also included drastically reduced oxygen emissions inside the cloud.” Zane took over. “This lead to a mass extinction of both fauna and flora life. The Dragons are already low on food right now and the only way to save them all-”
“Is by letting them come with us to Ninjago to stay.” Lloyd told him, watching their Sensei frown.
“Zane’s already run the numbers. They can all live with us in Ninjago while this place recovers. It won’t impact Ninjago too much, aside from a little over 100 dragons living there. They’ll stay away from cities and villages!” Nya added.
“And even then, they still have a lot of space to roam! Lots of food too!” Cole piped in.
“Their world, Nindrago only needs a few years to recover. In about two months in our world, 5 years would have passed here. By then we could start checking to see how things are going.” Kai added and they all looked to Wu, trying to will him to say yes with the force of their collective puppy eyes.
“… I see. The situation does indeed seem dire.” Wu spoke up, stroking his beard as all 6 of his students awaited his decision. “But perhaps it would be wise to discuss this with the dragon elders before hastily deciding.” He says and the team grinned but their grins quickly fell as they noticed their Sensei’s clothes moving unnaturally, as if something was crawling up to his neck.
“Uh, Sensei… What’s-” Before Jay could finish his sentence, a small head popped up from his collar.
They all stared at the charcoal serpentine head that peered out from their Sensei’s collar, the shiny red slotted eyes looking at them curiously. The eyes then locked onto Lloyd before the creature gave an excited chirp, launching out of Wu’s clothes despite him trying to catch and stop him. The small- dragon they could now see it was- landed painfully on its back but that didn’t stop the wingless dragon from skittering towards Lloyd and climbing up him quickly, coiling its small, lean body around his neck, rubbing against his cheek with happy purrs.
They all stared at the dragon that was quite cuddly with Lloyd then back at their Sensei who cleared his throat.
“That was what I had tried informing you of. But right now, we have more important matters to attend to.” Wu says, gesturing for them to lead the way.