Autobiography of a Legend

The First Final Battle

The Horns of Destruction, according to my mother, meant that the massive weapon she and the ninja had seen while getting the helmet was finished. We didn't know what it did, but the light of the Celestial Clock gave it form and power. It was sort of like putting something into an oven to cook; Garmadon had put everything he needed together, and the clock baked it all into the massive weapon. Garmatron had just been completed, and Ninjago's balance was officially at stake.

We swam our way back to the island's shores and followed the coast to get back to the Bounty. The walk back gave my head enough time to clear from everything that was bothering me. I felt cold all over, and not just from the fact we were dripping wet by the time we made it back. Kai dried us off, but that still didn't make how cold I felt go away. I wasn't cold on the outside, I was freezing on the inside. The thing I'd been dreading the most was right in front of me, and I was going into it feeling like I had no chance to do what needed to be done.

I was somewhat dull inside when we finally got back to the Bounty. My mother had given me false hope and it'd been ripped away from me in the worst way possible. Not only had we lost Nya, something that I was still processing, but the literal worst case scenario had happened. We were lucky that we escaped the way we did.

We had barely made it back to Dr. Julien when Wu was already reminding me that we were going towards the final battle, and going fast. The Golden Dragon technique relied on me being able to focus, which I guess is why I was still producing green beams despite having the dragon. The less I focused, the harder it was for me to use it all. But I didn't care about my new powers, I only cared that Wu was saying everything rested on my shoulders, on me, and that I'd already failed. I could have stopped all of this, and I hadn't.

That left me where I was, standing there on a beach surrounded by my friends and family, all telling me that it was too late to turn back. No matter what I chose, it had to be to go and face my father. I tried to tell Wu I couldn't, but Misako just said that I had to, that I didn't have a choice. It didn't matter anymore what I wanted, what I needed, or anything but the fact my dad had taken Nya, and I didn't have the chance to say no anymore. It was written that I'd go and fight this battle, so I obviously had to. That was what both Wu and Misako were saying to me then.

The ninja, however, said something different. They said that they would be behind me. That I had their elements, their friendship, and their trust. They knew that I had a lot to think about, understood me better than my own mother and uncle. I don't know what it was about how they said it, each offering their powers to me, but it made me think there for a moment. About something more than what was 'written in the scrolls.'

My dad didn't want to fight me, but he claimed he had to. The evil inside him was what made him do it, and that meant I had a chance. I didn't want to fight him, but I'd spent so long avoiding the decision to go and fight, I didn't have the right mindset anymore. I wasn't thinking about this in the whole picture. I couldn't let this be the end of everything. But, I couldn't let that decision be because Ninjago depended on it. I had to make that decision, because I depended on it. If I ran away now, I'd be throwing away the trust the ninja put in me.

The ninja pulled me out of a life of trying to imitate my father and doing serious bad things because of it. They took me in, and showed me that it wasn't about being seen, or recognized, or whatever it was I thought it was about. It was about doing good, doing what was right. And what was right wasn't easy. Kai had to give up his own pride just to see that I was more than just that bratty kid they were keeping at their house. Zane had to come to grips with his father, and his identity as a person. Cole and Jay both had to overcome hurdles that were holding them back as people just to see who they could really become. I had to stop thinking about all this, like I was some separate person from the Green Ninja. I was a ninja, like them. Ninja never quit. It didn't matter how easy, how hard, or how painful it was. I had to do it.