Taking Control. (a Ninjago fanfic)

Chapter 30- A city in ashes

K A I

The workshop door burst open with a loud bang, making me jump and snapping me out of my sleepy state in an instant.

Pixal's silhouette filled the doorway, the light behind her casting sharp shadows across her face. Her normally calm expression was gone, replaced by something I rarely saw on her face-genuine alarm.

It hit me like a punch to the gut. Pixal didn't panic.

Ever.

"You need to see this," she said, her voice tight and sharp.

"What's going on?" I asked, already bracing myself for bad news.

"Now," she urged, not answering my question. The nindroid stepping into the room, a glowing tablet clutched tightly in her hands.

Cole, who had been working on the tracker at the workbench, froze. He glanced up sharply, his brow furrowing. "What happened?"

Pixal ignored him, heading straight for the wall-mounted TV. She didn't waste any time; the remote was in her hand, and screen lit up before I could even process what was happening.

My stomach dropped.

What was going on...

A bright red banner screamed EMERGENCY BROADCAST, and my stomach flipped.

The image that followed felt like a punch to the gut.

Chaos. Pure chaos.

Buildings crumbled like sandcastles under a relentless tide, collapsing into heaps of concrete and steel.

Pure and utter destruction.

Blue lightning carved the sky into jagged shards, illuminating the devastation below.

Flames licked at the debris, their glow eerie against the blackened city streets. People ran in every direction, some tripping over the rubble, others disappearing under it.

In the center of it all stood Jay—or, rather, what was left of him.

And his face—man, I'll never get that image out of my head.

My stomach twisted as I stared at the screen. His body was alive, moving with fluid, deadly precision, but his face... it wasn't his. Not really. His mouth was twisted into a wide, unnatural grin, stretched far too wide, like someone had taken a chisel to his face and carved it there.

His eyes glowed, bright and blazing, but they weren't Jay's eyes anymore. They were hollow. Cold. Empty. And purple.

I'd seen it before, sure. But it didn't help stop the shivers down my spine.

Purple

like dusk suffocating the last light of day.

Purple

like a bruise spreading across skin.

Purple

like storm clouds heavy with unspoken threats.

Purple, like pure evil.

The Overlord's presence radiated from him like a dark cloud, suffocating even through the screen.

Jay laughed, a low, guttural sound that turned into something sharp and piercing. It didn't belong to him. It couldn't.

"Stop smiling like that," I whispered, but the words felt pathetic, empty. I knew he couldn't hear me, but I felt I had to say it. It wasn't him. He didn't - he didn't look like that. He wasn't like that.