(A.N) For any new readers, hey! This is a rewrite/revival of an older fic I kinda left hanging earlier this year. (Not a good thing to do. Hopefully, reviews'll motivate me to keep writing.) The DotD special was so good, I just had to bring this back. And also, what better time to bring back a horror fic than Halloween? ... I know I'm late, don't tell me.

And my readers who've read the older version of this, you deserve an apology. I'm so sorry for leaving you like that, and I'll try to make it up to you. You'll notice that the first chapter isn't very changed? I like this one, but everything afterwards will be a little different. I've been thinking about this fic all year and the changes in the plot, while insignificant for now, will definitely happen. (I'll have you know that I didn't want to write this set anywhere after season 4 because of how complicated writing ghostie Cole would be with this. But thanks to the special ... :D) If that wasn't hint enough, this is set after DotD! But ... but before the Dark Island books. Those are .. a lot.
I'll post this and get to writing the second chapter! It's amazing now that I've got time to write.

I should probably warn for ... oh boy. It's not going to be a very fun time, first of all. If you're looking for a fix of feel-good, this is not the fic for you! It's also going to crawl a little bit, and I'm trying to squeeze all the exposition and buildup into it as I can. The characters will seem OOC! Very OOC at points. There will be reasons, I promise.
Not to mention, there's a good amount of blood/general dark times in store for all of them, and some creepy supernatural stuff, and, ahem, allusions to death and a past war aplenty, because I don't know how to chill! Probably not for the faint of heart.
Also will not be writing any ships, including 'canon'/established pairs, because I can't write romance and anyway this probably isn't the fic for that ...

A deserted house in the dense forest, hours from Ninjago City and only accessible on foot.

Trees, houses, rivers, all flashed by in a blur of green and blue and marbled patches of other colors. Wind blew into its pointed face, over its streamlined body, helping it forward. A flap of black wings, all parts and gears, propelled it forward, into a thick spot of forest. Slowing, lowering in altitude, flapping its wings to control the partial descent, before spreading them again and resuming flight.

Something twitched in the corner of its vision.

A black-feathered head turned towards the miniscule disturbance. Two clawed legs reached for a branch, the rest of it perching soon after. Two eyes glowed faintly blue, illuminating the bark of the trees in the otherwise dark area, and scanned the area.

Nothing.

A rustle in the leaves below.

When the sound registered, it found itself face to face with a cluster of sinister white, glowing eyes, the only break in a void of black.

It was the only warning it received.

No one knows how long it has been there or who used to live in it.

"Whoa. That is a huge mansion."

Four people stood in front of a old, large mansion. It had likely been painted white once; now, the paint was faded and peeling, revealing the dull bricks underneath. Ivy crawled up the sides. For a few moments, they just stood, letting the wind blow their clothes and hair a bit to one side, and dead leaves from the trees, whose thick, dark green leaves blocked out the sun almost completely and left the sky a dark grey. A patch of sunlight fell on an auburn brown head of hair, making it shine bronze in the dim forest.

The brown-haired boy spoke up, breaking the silence, blue eyes gleaming. "I know. Those rumors the villagers were spreading about this place are really something, aren't they?"

The person on his right, dressed in red with spiky, dark brown hair, turned to him, looking faintly deprecating. "Don't get your hopes too high up, Jay. Some of those rumors were pretty ridiculous if you ask me. I mean, a monster that hunts down anyone in there? Who do they think they're fooling?"

"I would not be so quick to dismiss these rumors, Kai. There may be an element of truth to them," remarked the boy on Jay's left. A patch of sunlight hit his shoulder, and it glinted a metallic silver.

To his left, Cole nodded. "Zane does have a point. Remember way back with the whole dragons and Serpentine shtick? And if you told past me I was gonna become a ghost and then get turned back into a human, I'd ... have never believed it."

Kai glanced at him before turning away and eyeing the large, grandiose exterior again. "...I guess. Besides, it is pretty creepy-looking," he added with a smirk. "Who knows, maybe going in there will show us who the real men are."

"...I do not understand. Are we not all fully-grown already?"

"It's a saying, Zane, it means...uh, it means-oh, never mind," Jay muttered.

Cole tilted his head up, scrutinizing the mansion from top to bottom. "We know the plan, right? We find Lloyd's group, inspect the place, find Shade, and leave. We have a duty to protect Ninjago-" He stopped when he heard a soft noise to his right. "Did you say something, Jay?"

Said ninja looked up and shook his head. "Huh? Nah...keep going."

"Like I was saying," Cole continued. "We have a duty to protect Ninjago so we can't leave it unwatched too long. ... And I wanna take a nap when this is over. All the recent fuss has me tired."

"Don't forget the elemental reunion Skylor's planning," Kai piped up. "If it weren't for Shade, that would've already happened."

"You seem awfully eager to meet up with the other masters again, considering half of them are probably still out for your blood," Jay commented drily. He held up the phone he liked to carry around in his pocket, while holding the book he'd taken with him in his other hand-the screen showed the connection he had established with the falcon rather recently (with Zane's permission, of course.) The blue light from the screen washed over their faces and glowed eerily in the dim light.

"The falcon is flying around here to check for things, right, Zane?"

Zane nodded, following the motion of the red dot that represented his falcon with his eyes.

Cole spoke up. "I think we've got everything under control for now. If Shade's here, we ask him what exactly he was thinking staying in there that long, and leave. Or something ... creepy happens and we can't stay. Either way, we'll have Zane's falcon to warn us about stuff and contact the Bounty, and that's if we can't use our phones or communicators. Hopefully nothing goes wrong here."

"You'd be surprised." At the note of bitterness in his voice, everyone stared at him in surprise. Hurriedly trying to explain himself, he added, "Saying that kinda thing'll just jinx any luck we have! If there's one thing to learn from Murphy's Law" - here Jay stopped and continued in an overly-serious, dramatic voice - "it's that there is always something that could go wrong."

Kai rolled his eyes.

"Well, I'm getting the creeps just standing here. I hate the whole vibe." Cole admitted. "Let's make this quick, shall we?"

"Stop worrying, Jay," Kai said. "This can't take too long; we'll go in and come back out before there's even time for anything to happen. Come on."

With that, Kai gingerly pulled on the door. Once it creaked open, he walked in. Zane went in after him, shortly followed by Cole, who both took a swift look at the outdoors before going in.

Jay waited a moment more to go inside, looking at the mansion as Cole had earlier, something flickering in his eyes. Then, putting the phone in his pocket and clutching the weathered book tightly, he walked in and closed the door, not looking back.

Rumors said that it was ... haunted.