Ninjago NG Book 2: Dark Mysteries

7: Sacrifice

Paige slowly returned to consciousness. The first thing her eyes laid on, however, were thick bars made out of vengestone. She took a double take and realized that she was in an entire cage crafted out of the only bane of every elemental master's existence. Korwareta and Adekave must've removed their chains once they were placed in this rotten place once they were assured none of the team members could escape. Soft snores brought Paige's awareness to Brook, who, ironically, was sleeping quite soundly on her shoulder. Looking ahead of herself, she found Alex already awake, and still tending to Karl's wound. In his unconsciousness, Karl couldn't stop mumbling something about ice cream and cotton candy.

"No... Come back, cotton candy unicorn!" Karl mumbled as Alex rolled her eyes, barely smiling. She proceeded to stroke his hair and softly talk to the matter wielder. Thankfully, his wound had stopped bleeding, but now it was a matter of if he would wake up. His skin was flushed, and he kept on with his endless mumblings about cotton candy unicorns and ice cream sheep; nevertheless Alex kept gently rubbing his head and shoulders for as long as she had to.

Paige placed a cool hand on Brook's forehead. She took a second to scan his vitals, and it informed her that her friend had only taken a light blow to the head just enough to knock him out; it wasn't anything fatal or serious. Reassured, Paige looked up again to search for her final two teammates. She sighed in relief when she found Homura and Seth-- unconscious, but still alive-- at the opposite corner of the vengestone cage. Homura's head laid on Seth's shoulder, and Seth's head laid on top of hers. Paige took the liberty to scan their vitals as well, and thankfully no serious injuries had been detected with either of them, as well. Homura was recovering well, just like Brook. Seth also appeared to have recovered from the sedative he was given. However, Paige found something odd. Why did Seth still have his chains? Did Kowareta forget to remove them?

A door slammed shut, startling Paige and Alex, as well as scare the rest from their sleep. There was no time for any sort of reunion, since the room immediately grew tense at the new presence in the room. Homura shivered slightly. Noticing this, Seth made the quiet effort to lay a gentle hand on hers and give her a determined look as if telling her that things were going to be okay. The master of fire calmed down and took a deep breath. Taking what he 'said' to heart.

The last time the team was this tense was when they first encountered Adekave a few months ago. It was inevitable that he would strike again and wreak havoc on Ninjago City. It was common logic, since it seemed to be the same with these villains, always wanting some form of domination over Ninjago. It sickened the teenagers; the fact that these people would put innocents in harm's way just to pull the heroes out of hiding to fight them. And who knows if that was the villain's plan or not to face a determined hero.

The air was heavy. There were two people with the heroes, and it wasn't rocket science to know who those two people were. Red eyes appeared in the thick darkness that surrounded them, making deep eye contact with each victim. "I bet you are all wondering why I had Korwareta bring you here," Adekave took his time speaking. The team stiffened. Seth narrowed his eyes at the darkness. Homura tried to fight back the returning anxiety that threatened to make her cower, just like the time when she last saw her father... No. She was not going to run away this time. Nor was she alone. Alex took a quick glance at Karl, accidentally making eye contact with him. She gave a quick half smile, of which Karl returned. It seemed he was okay, which relieved Alex.

Adekave took a breath before redirecting everyone's attention back to him. "I'll cut to the chase, seeing how much you seem to care for each other." he paused to chuckle to himself and mumbled, "This'll be even sweeter."

The second figure partially stepped out of the dark cloud. "We need something from you all."

This wasn't the first time Homura had seen something like this. When she got ambushed, it seemed to be under the same pretenses as this time. The rest of the team, however, were baffled. None of them had recalled any tale of the last generation of heroes dealing with a villain that wanted something from the heroes themselves, besides from Master Chen's elemental tournament stunt. However, in his case, the elements were said to be harbored in a staff. Here, there was nothing to be found, so they seemed to be at a loss. By now, wouldn't villains have some recycled motives here and there?