Chapter Text
Samukai glanced up, grinning as he set his sights on the Monastery of Spinjitzu. The proud structure loomed just a few yards away now, the moon lighting it from behind. When he’d started his climb up the stairs of the Mountains of Impossible Height, it had been midday. His legs ached from the long hike, but he powered through the pain without struggle. As much as he wished he could’ve skipped the climb by some means of flight, he possessed no such means, and he was not one to let any task daunt him.
If that was not the case, he would not be approaching the home of the First Spinjitzu Master. Though, the danger had decreased greatly that month. Its owner had just passed away.
His armor clinking with each step, Samukai eventually reached the top of the mountain. Pausing a few feet away from the door, he raised a hand against the glare of the moon, which was quite large from this high vantage. The Monastery had a high white wall with a gabled black roof, the tower of the main structure rising distantly behind it. Banners fluttered in the breeze from flagpoles, and the single tree that grew along the right side of the building creaked as the wind pushed it lightly back and forth.
The Monastery itself looked quiet and lifeless. As though it was mourning the loss of its master.
Samukai mounted the final steps, reaching a small stone platform that gave way to a towering torri gate. The high door was rounded at the top, made of red wood and bound in gold, brass knockers clanking softly as the wind lifted them. Chuckling, Samukai fingered one of the knockers, wondering if he should use them. If the Sons were here, they would impede him whether or not he made his presence known willingly. And if they were not, his knocks would fall on deaf ears.
The knockers were a kind gesture of arrival. But he was not here to make friends.
Stepping back, Samukai fell into a solid martial arts stance before lifting up one leg and turning in a swift, roundhouse kick. Breaking into Spinjitzu, his body was lost inside a whirlwind the color of a stormcloud, and he spun forward with his accelerated strength and speed. The doors crashed open, slamming soundly against the walls inside the Monastery courtyard, the hinges screeching like the Wailing Alps.
Samukai swept through the shuddering doors and into the courtyard, his Spinjitzu dissipating as he neared the center. The courtyard was quite wide, flagstones making up the floor, a golden statue of a dragon perched at the center. A sheltered walkway traveled around the perimeter, granting access to the Monastery itself via various shoji doors. Taking the quiet scene, Samukai scanned the building complex, wondering where he would find his prize, and if anyone remained to guard it.
His second question was answered as the front door of the Monastery slid roughly open, and two young men thundered into the courtyard. Samukai smiled, removing his horned helmet and placing it on the head of the dragon statue. One of the youth had long, messy dark hair, and the other had short blonde hair. Both of them wore dark kimonos marked with glyphs, and both of them wielded a bo staff.
“I wondered if I’d find you here,” Samukai greeted cheerfully, in as pleasant a tone as his scratchy voice could muster. He leaned against the statue with his two right arms, his two left hands straying toward his belt, to his sheathed daggers.
“We live here,” Said the dark-haired Son on the left. Garmadon was a bit stockier than his younger brother, and there was a strange red glint to his dark eyes.
“Yes, I know. But I thought there was a chance you’d both be abroad. A Serpentine war is brewing, and the Alliance must be in considerable disarray. Your Father’s passing has gone unnoticed by no one.”
“You were mistaken to dream you would find this Monastery unguarded,” Said the blonde Son on the right. Wu was taller than Garmadon by a few inches, thinner but just strong, with a stern face. “And if the Alliance is suffering a schism, you are to blame.”
Samukai shrugged, pushing off of the statue and grasping all four of his knives in their sheaths. “I never really felt part of the Alliance. The other Elemental Masters and their powers always seemed so much . . . more. Can Form even be considered an element?”
“If you feel like an outcast, you deceive yourself,” Garmadon replied, his tone a bit lighter than Wu’s. “There was no contention toward you among the Alliance, Samukai. At least, there wasn’t before you turned your back on us. Come to your senses and stand down.”
“Feigning compassion is a feeble strategy. You’ll find I will not heed it. What makes you think I’d even want to remain a part of the Alliance? When have my efforts ever been noteworthy, or desired? If I had not mutated these extra arms, I’d argue people wouldn’t even know I possessed elemental power at all. A Master of Form is born to blend into the crowd, not stand out. I’m afraid I can no longer tolerate that.”
Eyes narrowing, Wu stepped closer and slammed his staff to the ground. Samukai’s eyes followed the movement, noticing the slight golden hue to Wu’s staff, which Garmadon’s staff lacked.
“Might that be the staff your father held?” He inquired before Wu had even opened his mouth to speak. “Curious that the younger brother was bequeathed it, rather than the elder. What say you, Garmadon?”
“Unlike you, traitor, I do not bother envying those that hold what I don’t.”
“Enough talk,” Wu said before Smaukai could make another reply. “Our father left us in command of the Alliance, and we will see that it does not fracture further in light of your betrayal. You have come to claim the Golden Weapons of Spinjitzu, we presume. You cannot have them.”
“Why not?” Samukai mused, unsheathing one knife and balancing it on one of his thick, hairy fingers. “Your father isn’t using them anymore. He’s dead, in case you haven’t noticed. And who better to wield the four greatest weapons in Ninjago than a four-armed man?”
“You’d be surprised how common that trait is across the other realms,” Garmadon mumbled.
Giving his brother a quieting glance, Wu stepped closer, holding his staff out like an extension of his arm. “Begone, Samukai. This season is a time to mourn, and so we will spare you on account of our father’s passing. But if you do not take our offer, we will be forced to vanquish you.”
Samukai laughed, splaying out his arms. “Am I not so dangerous that you’d fear to let me walk free? Do you think so little of me?”
“Your actions in the past can be atoned for later,” Wu said. “You have killed, plundered, and threatened, but those crimes are insignificant next to the atrocities you would commit if you took possession of the Golden Weapons. If you stand down, we will offer you redemption. You will be punished for your actions, but you will retain your life. But we will not give you that mercy if you stand your ground.”
Shaking his head, Samukai glanced between the two brothers, searching for some hesitation or weakness in either of their gazes. He found nothing. Sighing, he stood upright, his four-armed torso allowing him to tower a full head taller than either of the young men. Flexing the muscles on his four arms, he returned his helmet to his head, then he unsheathed the rest of his knives, holding them each out away from his body as he stanced up, grinning as he braced himself for battle.
“Let’s be on with it, then. Which of you will accept my challenge?”
“You fight us together,” Garmadon said, adjusting his grip on his staff and coming to Wu’s side. “Or you don’t fight us at all.”
“Come now, Garmadon. I am a warrior of honor. I abide by the laws of one-on-one combat.”
Garmadon smirked. “I see. I wouldn’t want to force you out of your comfort zone.”
Samukai’s expression soured. “I am not afraid to fight you both. If you insist, I will take you both on. But do not think your combined efforts can contend with me.”
Wu gave a firm nod. “We accept your challenge. At your leisure.”
Samukai no longer gave a quarter. Without further hesitation, he charged forward and threw one dagger forward, before bursting into Spinjitzu. While the dagger sailed toward Garmadon, Samukai spun rapidly toward Wu, slashing out with his remaining daggers. The younger man ducked and leapt out of the way, pursued by Samukai in his whirlwind form, and a moment later, Wu too broke into Spinjitzu. A golden tornado collided with Samukai’s own stormy gray one, and sent the four-armed warrior reeling.
Rearing away, Samukai dissipated his cyclone, then turned his attention to Garmadon. The older brother had deflected his airborne dagger with his staff, and he swung his weapon at Samukai as they neared each other. Ducking and dodging, Samukai made lunges with his daggers between blows, eventually leaping back when Garmadon spun where he stood. In a matter of seconds, he too was lost in a cloud of Spinjitzu, this one blazing purple. Samukai stumbled away, watching carefully as the two brothers circled him in Spinjitzu, slowly closing in.
As the tornados neared him on either side, Samukai turned and grabbed the golden dragon statue, hefting himself up. He jumped back toward the roof of the Monastery, grasping the edge of the roof and pulling himself up, while Garmadon and Wu’s Spinjitzu whirlwinds collided and rebounded, the two brothers reverting to their normal selves, glaring up at him.
“Is that all?” Samukai laughed. He reached out toward the courtyard, calling out mentally to the magic dagger that’d fallen. Shuddering briefly, the golden knife spun and rose into the air, sailing into one of the many hands of its master. “Exhausted already? Please, give me a challenge!”
The brothers gave no response, turning and jumping onto the roof from their own side of the Monastery. Samukai braced himself and charged before they’d even reached him. He spun as they flanked him, blocking one of their staffs with two of his knives, lashing out to the other side with his others. Wu and Garmadon reared, taking turns lunging toward him while the other hung back, allowing Samukai to focus on one at a time.
He caught their attacks on one side, then had to pivot to dodge them from the other side. He caught their staff with his blades, cutting into the wood and keeping them from striking him, pushing the brothers back his superior strength and weight. Samukai found himself laughing, whirling into Spinjitzu again and forcing the brothers to back away. It was as though they weren’t even trying.
Samukai broke out of his Spinjitzu and darted straight for Wu. With a heavy kick, he sent the younger brother reeling and tumbling from the roof, landing with a thud on his side in the courtyard. Garmadon flinched, almost leaping after Wu, and Samukai used the distraction to lunge. Garmadon turned just in time to block, but Samukai got two of his daggers under the staff and jerked upward, sending the staff flying upward. Garmadon dodged the next slashes, and when he ran after his fallen staff, Samukai was on him in seconds, delivering another smooth kick.
Garmadon stumbled, slipping on the edge of the roof but managing to keep his footing. Samukai lunged, but the nimble brother dodged behind the attack and gave a sharp punch to his neck. Grunting, Samukai whirled and threw a dagger, but Garmadon leapt down from the roof and dodged the projectile. Rubbing the bruise on his neck, Samukai summoned the fallen dagger, watching as Wu and Garmadon scrambled to retrieve their fallen staffs.
Grinning, Samukai saw his opportunity and took it. While Garmadon’s back was turned, Samukai ran up to the edge of the roof and jumped, sailing down toward the distracted youth. Daggers pointed downward, Samukai had almost reached his victim when he caught something in the corner of his eye.
A flash of golden light exploded to his right, and then he was caught off guard by a strong punch to his stomach. Launched skyward, Samukai bellowed in pain, spinning as he fell, his daggers falling away from his grasp, and he hit the ground with a soundly thud. Wincing and aching, he stumbled to his feet, retrieving his daggers and glaring up at his opponents, trying to realize what had just happened. A trace of golden light still shone, and it was coming from the open palm of Wu.
“What is this sorcery?” Samukai scoffed, getting to his feet, holding his daggers aloft as Garmadon approached. “You aren’t elemental masters!”
“Our father was the master of all elements,” Garmadon retorted. “Do you think we inherited nothing from him?”
Samukai growled, backing up, on the defensive for the first time. Wu and Garmadon had never revealed any sort of powers during his time in the Alliance. What did that make them, if not elemental masters? They were clearly not gods like their father had been, but they possessed some caliber of his power. That golden light looked like it could have come from the Weapons of Spinjitzu, but the brothers had the weapons nowhere in sight. What did that mean?
“You draw power from the Golden Weapons!” Samukai accused, pointing with two of his daggers.
“Not exactly,” Wu said, following behind Garmadon, the light in his hand fading.
“You sound afraid, Samukai,” Garmadon mocked, smiling as his brother came to his side. “Would you like to revoke your challenge?”
Samukai gritted his teeth and splayed out his four arms again. Regardless of this new power, he would not let the brothers triumph. “Never.”
He rushed forward, blades whirling, and Garmadon charged to meet him, swinging his staff in a downward arc. Samukai ducked and kicked at Garmadon’s legs, but he reared out of the way and swung his staff at his helmet. Samukai jerked one of his daggers upward to intercept the staff, then used two others to stab at Garmadon’s hands, but the younger man spun his staff to deflect the blades, then stepped back.
Wu came at him next, and Samukai surged his daggers upward to catch the fall of his staff. Wu’s staff began to glow gold, and each blow it dealt had greater weight behind it than it had before. Growling, Samukai backed away as Wu leveled his staff at him and blasted another bolt of golden light, and he tried to use his dagger to deflect it. He yelped as the dagger caught the blast, but instantly became hot as magma, and it clattered to the courtyard floor.
He glared at his red, blistered hand, then up at Wu. Whatever this magic was, he wouldn’t let it get the better of his superior skill.
As soon as the light faded, Samukai rushed forward again, throwing one dagger at Wu while spinning the remaining two. As expected, Wu dodged the aerial blade, but was too slow to react to Samukai charging him. A moment of panic flickered across the young man’s face, but Garmadon stepped in front of him, clashing with Samukai. The four-armed man bore down with his blades, which stuck to the staff, and he used his two free hands to grab the staff and jerk it back.
Garmadon’s grip was too firm, so he raised one of the daggers and brought it down. Gasping, Garmadon released the staff and stumbled out of the way, and Samukai was left holding the staff. Chuckling, he held his daggers out to the side, then brought the staff down, snapping it over his knee. The crack echoed through the courtyard, which was now scattered with chips of wood, and Samukai threw the broken halves of the staff to either side, before summoning back his two lost daggers.
He hissed slightly, noticing that the blade Wu had blasted was still hot. Not too searing that he had to release it, but quite warm. Wu was clearly stronger than he let on, and he needed to be dealt with quickly. Without delay, Samukai ran to Wu, and though Garmadon rushed to his aid, Samukai threw one of his daggers at him, forcing him to dodge.
Wu raised his staff, but like with Garmadon, Samukai had a plan to get it away from him. His daggers dug into the wood, and with his free hand he latched onto the staff, using his remaining dagger to force Wu to back off. And that he did, and Samukai broke the second staff, tossing the halves behind him, over the wall of the Monastery.
Garmadon and Wu, both without weapons, met each other’s eyes, their expressions growing grim. Seeing their apprehension, Samukai laughed.
“You are both unarmed. No shame in yielding.”
“Unarmed, but unspent,” Wu answered, his eyes blazing gold. “You should not have come here.”
“You’re forcing our hands, Samukai,” Garmadon agreed, his own eyes glowing crimson. “Greet our father in the Departed Realm for us.”
Wu came at him first in a blur of golden motion. Startled, Samukai broke into Spinjitzu a second too late, and Wu hit him like a battering ram. He hit the wall of the Monastery with a pained shout and slid down to the floor, getting to his feet just in time to dodge Garmadon, who was rushing at him with a fist coated in purple light. Samukai rolled away, and Garmadon’s fist collided with the wall, which cracked and shook the entire Monastery. Horrified, Samukai’s eyes followed the purple mist curling from Garmadon’s hand, which was completely uninjured.
“What are you?” He whispered, his gaze darting between the brothers. “Demons?!”
Neither brother responded. Wu entered a cloud of Spinjitzu again and rushed Samukai, but he reacted accordingly this time, dodging out of the way, then forming a tornado around himself. Whirling and glowing, they clashed, Samukai forcing Wu back, but his cyclone was broken when something else hit him from the side. He stumbled onto the ground, Garmadon chasing him down in Spinjitzu, and before Samukai could react, all four of his daggers were pulled from his grasp and into the tornado. The four blades were launched out of the Spinjitzu cloud a few seconds later, all of them sailing into the air and past the Monastery walls, out of sight.
Unarmed, Samukai scrambled back as Wu rushed him, golden beams shooting from either hand. Samukai was hit in either shoulder, stinging pain shooting through his body, and he slumped against the wall, panting, his clothes steaming. Samukai pushed himself upright and threw a punch at Garmadon. As if in slow motion, Garmadon’s hands burst to life with purple fire, and he used one to grab and hold Samukai’s aloft fist, and the other to deliver a sharp punch to his chest.
Numb with pain, Samukai collapsed with a weak gasp. Blinking, his ears ringing, too injured and sore to lift himself up, he grasped for his helmet and chucked it feebly at Wu. The young man caught the helmet with ease and dropped it behind him, his eyes still gold, Garmadon’s red. Panting, Samukai laid back, the bloodrush ending, his pain growing distant, giving way to anger.
“You cheated,” He snarled.
“We penalized no rules you instated,” Wu retorted. “You lost. Surrender, or we will kill you.”
Samukai shut his eyes, his four fists trembling in fury. “I yield.”
It was as though something vital inside his body had just shattered. A pillar supporting a ceiling inside of him snapped. He had just yielded. He’d just surrendered. He was the greatest warrior in Ninjago- the strongest, fastest, most deadly man alive, and he’d just given up. He had tutored under so many masters, been taught so much, and yet he’d given in to the one philosophy he was to adhere above all others. Ninja never quit.
He’d never considered himself much of a Ninja. He wasn’t an assassin or a spy, he was a barbarian, perhaps one day a tyrant if his dreams were reached. But in Ninjago, Ninja was the proper term for anyone that achieved the highest caliber of martial arts. He was a Ninja, and in becoming one, he had taken a vow to never surrender. A vow he had just broken.
“It’s settled, then,” Wu said. The golden light in his eyes died, as well as the red light in Garmadon’s. “Samukai, Master of Form, you will be sentenced to life in prison. You have turned on your Alliance and betrayed the oath you swore to our father, the First Spinjitzu Master. You have plundered and pillaged, and you have attempted to steal the most dangerous weapons in Ninjago. We will allow you to keep your life, but it will be spent behind bars.”
Samukai glared up at the brothers, tears of anger forming in his eyes. “You can’t do this to me. I am the greatest warrior of our time! You will not reduce me to a rodent in a cage!”
“Your fall came by your own hand,” Garmadon replied. “You insisted on an honorable duel. You got your fight, and you lost. But I guess honor means nothing to you, does it?”
Samukai inhaled sharply, and he did not let the breath go. His heartbeat hammering in his chest, his blood rushing, he fixed his eyes on Wu, who had already turned away, leaving. His hands curled into fists so tight they threatened to bleed. He wasn’t going to sit back and let these foolish sons of a passive god mock him. He wouldn’t let them cut his destiny short.
With a roar of anger, Samukai rushed to his feet, shoving Garmadon aside before he could react, throwing himself at Wu. The young man spun, but he was too slow, and Samukai was on top of him, four hands wrapping around his throat. They fell together, Wu trapped under Samukai’s larger, stronger body, spasming as he was choked. Breathing heavily like a bull, Samukai paid no mind as Wu kicked and pulled at him, increasing the pressure on his windpipe.
“ Enough !”
Samukai was picked up and thrown, and he crashed into the Monastery wall yet again. Bellowing in pain, he slid to the ground, his body throbbing, and he looked up in horror to see Garmadon. His entire body was flickering, covered in purple light, his eyes glowing red like hot coals. Wu gasped on the floor of the courtyard, remaining still as his breath returned to him.
“You have disgraced your honor,” Garmadon shouted. “Your challenge was accepted, you were bested, and you still sought blood. Do you know what happens to oath breakers?”
Samukai’s eyes widened and he shook his head, the gravity of what he’d just done sinking in. “I didn’t . . . no! I meant no . . . I’m sorry . . .”
“Your apology means nothing, Samukai,” Garmadon said, his voice growing cold. “You have made a mockery of every vow you’ve ever sworn. For your crimes, you will not be permitted further shelter in our father’s realm, but you will never see the peace of the Departed Realm.”
Samukai gasped, feeling his body change. He looked down in terror at his own hands, feeling chills erupt all across as his skin. Then, it was as though he couldn’t feel anything at all. His skin was fading until he couldn’t even see it . . . just bones.
“Please, I beg of you!” Samukai cried. “I’ll serve my sentence- I’ll do whatever you want!”
Garmadon’s glowing eyes narrowed, and the glyphs on his kimono began to glow. Samukai had seen it before. The brothers had done it before. Whenever they caught someone who was beyond redemption, they were sent to suffer beyond Ninjago. They had no access to the Cursed Realm without a book of spells, and so criminals were sent to the closest equivalent.
“I want you to pay for your actions,” Garmadon said. “Goodbye, Samukai. Enjoy the Underworld.”