Ninjago: The Purple Ninja - Book 2

Crystalized: Chapter 14 - The Darkness Within

Lloyd opens his eyes with a weak groan. He was met with a room with a soft pink hue, with crystals surrounding the platform he was hanging mere inches from. There were four crystals on the platform with one large crystal in the center. He found himself hanging on his side by Vengestone, his arms bound.

"What?"

On the other side of him was Keres, who was hanging by her wrists hanging above her head in Vengestone. He gasps and struggles against his Vengestone restraints, to no avail.

"Enjoying the view?" Harumi's voice spoke from nearby. She was walking towards him, with Aspheera, the Mechanic, Pythor and Vangelis following close behind. He gasps. They were holding the Golden Weapons of Spinjitzu.

"Weapons of Spinjitzu. How did you get those?!" The Quiet One walks up to him and strokes his hair. He shivers from the touch with disgust.

"Settle down, Lloyd. We have a long day ahead of us and we wouldn't want you wasting your strength." A smirk appears on her face. "We got them from the Monastery. Where else?" She walks away from him while pushing his legs to turn him around.

"Master Wu would never hand them over without a —!"

"A fight?" She finishes for him with a nod. "Oh yes. And what a fight it was. But in the end, your friends failed. They're gone now, like the other ninja."

His eyes widen with horror, and his breath starts to come in short gasps. "No. You're bluffing!"

"I don't bluff, Lloyd. You should know that about me by now." She answers bluntly.

"You're lying. You're lying!" He roars as tears well up in his eyes. There was no way Master Wu and Nya and Pixal and Skylor could be dead. He refused to believe it, even if a small part of him did.

"How does it feel, to have no one left? I know that feeling well. I went through the same thing after the Great Devourer took away everything I had in this world." She walks up to him as he continued to breath harshly from the reality he was now facing. "After I lost my parents, I felt so alone."

She lifts his head up for a moment to look in his eyes, before dropping it. "Now it's your turn to feel that grief. You can let it overwhelm and destroy you, or you can let it harden and strengthen you, as it did me."

He struggles against his binds again, swinging around back and forth as he did so. "You're the reason I'm alone. You're the one who did this! Which makes you no better than the Great Devourer. And you're gonna pay, Harumi, I swear! I will make you pay!"

Harumi makes a tsking sound with her tongue. She smiles. "Ooh, there's that darkness again. Just like your father."

Lloyd takes a few shuddering breaths and he looks down on the floor with his eyes closed shut. "You're wrong. I am nothing like my father."

She hums with disapproval. "Mm, perhaps not. Perhaps I underestimated you." She walks up to him again and spins him around, before she and the villains walk away from him. "I have a ritual to prepare. It is time for the coming of the Crystal King."

When he finally stops spinning around, his eyes lay on Keres' still form. "Keres...Keres...can you hear me? If you can...I'm sorry...for everything." His eyes well up with tears and he lets them fall. He takes another shuddering breath, his sad eyes replaced with anger and hatred towards Harumi.

"But I promise you that we will get out of here....together....and when we do, we're going to make Harumi pay."

Kai and Katarina ignite their fires once again, revealing the situation they, Zane, Jay and Cole were now in. It was even worse than before; Instead of them being trapped in a subway car, they were trapped underneath all this rubble and what was probably left of the subway car. They were either laying on their backs or stomachs, with barely any leg room to spare and with no way of getting out.