Tides of Reality| Ninjago | Monkie Kid

Chapter 27 - the Ritual

TW horrid pictures and scenes?? idk

The palace was still standing. That was surprising considering the events that took place in it.

Inside, instead of the previous red, green and gold, everything was black. The destruction from almost a month ago still very much present in smeared, half burnt walls, in fragments of the ceiling laying around, in dead bodies littering long, dark hallways. Most of them without a limb or two. Those were laying usually not more than a few meters from their owner.

Some guards still had their weapons, some hanging from the ceiling or collapsed on fallen debris, most likely passed out from the amount of smoke, whose remains were ghosting the place, adding a suffocating smell of burnt wood to the nauseating sweet odor of human bodies.

No one was talking, everyone silently processing the amount of destruction the fire had caused. The only voice they all heard was Sky, giving them instructions through the comms. She probably wasn't really aware of what they were seeing. Good. Mei wanted her to rest, not stress more than she already was.

On the third level, floor was really burnt, in a way that left more holes than the floor. But that didn't matter too much. They all could get through it effortlessly. Even Harumi, who, it turns out, had a bit of parkour skills on her side.

"Now to the left and you should see a small door in one of the walls. That is the secret passage to the altar." Sky's voice rang in her ear, comforting as always. Her technical tone was nice and grounding.

What Sky's voice didn't tell, was that right after the door was a five storey drop. Luckily Mei was able to stop falling after a few seconds. Oh, thank Dì for her powers.

"Careful! It's like an elevator shaft! At least a five storey drop." She warned the rest, before continuing her way down, this time in a controlled fashion. The ninja followed right after, using their grappling hooks.

After everyone got to the bottom, they found themselves in an underground corridor dimly lit by an old work lamp on the ceiling.

At the end was a spiral staircase leading up. Unfortunately the stairs were wooden and quite old, so when someone stepped on a wrong one it would creak, potentially giving away their position.

Despite that, everyone made it to the top, without any problems. Except Jay almost falling down. But luckily, Liv caught him.

At the top was a giant wooden door. And someone was behind it.

"Ma-e r of d-ep io !, Ma e o -a re-!" It was Nick's voice. And he was calling out to... Masters of deception, hatred and vengeance...? Wait, were those the oni masks? Yeah, he was definitely talking to the masks.

Not waiting another second, the team barged in, immediately feeling the strong wind blowing around the infamous Dragon Slayer. Around him were floating the three oni artifacts. No one really knew what was happening.

But Mei wasn't one to wait. She jumped at Nick right away, summoning her sword, swinging it at his head.

She had to admit, it was a bit harder with raging wind swirling around, throwing you off balance. But hey! At least it's not trying to fly in a tornado with Ao Guang!

Even though her aim was affected by the air current, she still managed to wound her enemy.

The Dragon Slayer (lame name by the way. He can't stand against one half dragon in a fight, much less slay any.) snarled and lifted a hand to his face to inspect the cut on his cheek, when his henchmen were attacking the team.

It was 8 on 16, but it also was a bunch of friends who sometimes beat up bad guys, vs. a whole pack of thugs and bikers straight from prison.

It was no surprise that after a few kicks and punches the victorious teenagers were ready to move on to kicking the bad guy's ass. They were just about to, when he suddenly started screaming and fell to his knees.

That was weird in and of itself, but worse was that his eyes started glowing purple. And it was not a soft hue, it was a full on beacon shot into the sky.

Needless to say, the ninja were pretty spooked by this. Mei, however, was quite used to things like this happening, and so went on and tied the guy up when he dropped lifelessly to the floor.

"Come on, we got a bad guy to deliver to the police!" She yelled, lifting Nick up and swinging him over her shoulder. The rest just did as she said, getting up and helping in transport of the villain.

-

Okay, to be honest Mei didn't really think that the guy would stay in jail for more than a few days, but this was new. Nick didn't even wait 15 minutes and escaped right after he woke up.

Well, it was three hours after they dropped him off in jail. Nevertheless it meant that they no longer knew where he was.

To say Sky was freaking out was a huge understatement. She has gone past the stage of stress, past the stage of total panic and was now at the stage of total nihilism. Her body has reset it's stress level, and probably some brain functions too, because now she was just sitting on their bed and staring into a wall in silence.

-

She didn't know what to do. Nick was another unpredictable variable, just how Rain was before she disappeared. His whereabouts were a mystery, just as the outcome of the ritual that took place three hours ago. Did he summon someone? Get new powers? No one knows.

And maybe that's okay, right? For the past three years Sky was able to predict the future. Now that advantage was gone, and everything went back to normal. She was gonna live like a normal person.
And maybe that's okay. Maybe she can stop helping her siblings out like that. Maybe it's time to let the ninja go and spread their wings, even if that can end up in death and/or trauma. Maybe that's exactly what they need.

She flopped onto her back, sprawling herself on the bedsheets, grabbed Leo, who, for some reason, was here and set him onto her stomach.

He seemed very satisfied with it, and laid down seeping up her body's warmth. She should definitely spend more time with him. He's so careless, free of any kind of stress. He was just enjoying his life as it was.

She snickered. Of course he was.

Having calmed down, Sky started trying to get a hang of the situation again. Nick wants her the Dragon Warrior dead. So either he'll attack the city trying to get their attention or sit around and wait until they show their face again. 87% chance for attack.

Now what will he attack with? No one knows. Deep breath in. And out. We'll know, when we'll know. It's gonna be okay.

"Hey, you okay?" Lloyd walked into the room, interrupting her internal monologue.

"Someone's attacking the city."

btw please comment and ask questions I'm literally so thrilled to share the lore with you please <3

If you see something that doesn't make sense/is not clear enough, please tell me. I'll happily tell you what's going on! <3