Chasing Shadows (Lego Ninjago)

Chapter 8: Facing reality

\\Lloyd//

She was here. The Purple Ninja of Darkness was here. The girl in my dream, she was here. Reanne, was here.

As if on cue, a blurry image of a girl began to form in the centre of the room. Shadows ran up the four sides of the room making us jump, our eyes followed them up to the ceiling and across to the middle where the four met, spiralling. After a couple of turns, they fired down onto the girl, in like a shadowy fire, making her more visible. I recognised her automatically.

She was wearing a Ninja gi, identical to our older ones that we wore just before they were upgraded in the Temple of Light, but in purple. The shoulder pads were silver, like Jay's and Cole's. Her hands were tied together behind her back, her raven hair was matted and her head hung low.

The Shadows lifted from her and began to change into the shape of a person on all four walls, covering the whole surface area. The shadows were in sync, a dry cackle came from all of them. My guess, it was the same..thing, person, whatever, projected into four.

"I see you have found your way into my lair.." It mocked, I clenched my fists.

"That's Reanne..anyone got a plan?" I turned to my fellow Ninja either side of me.

"It's a bit early Lloyd..don't jump to conclusions" Cole whispered and tried to be smart, I wasn't in the mood for this.

"There is nothing-" I began angrily.

"Ninja..Ninja..how the time is running out.." The thing repeated from the vision, all the shadows took some sort of sword from its hip and held it firmly.

The shadow directly opposite them waved his free hand out to signal Reanne, our gaze followed his hand and look at her. She was looking back up at us, she was trembling, her mouth slightly open as she was breathing heavily for air.

"Hey, guys..what are we going to do about 'The Shadow Man' over there?" Jay quivered.

"The Shadow Man? That's perfect Jay, just perfect.." Kai muttered.

I felt so much hatred towards..'The Shadow Man', whoever he was, for whatever he had done to Reanne. Something snapped inside. He would pay, I would make him. No-one would get away with hurting her. Zane, like he had read my mind, put his hand on my shoulder.

"Hurry, Ninja.." The vision..it was becoming reality.

Tears began to fall from Reanne onto her cheeks, then rolling down her face and off her chin to the floor. I felt my eyes beginning to swell up too..but I fought them. I wasn't crying now. Then, all of a sudden, the shadow opposite snapped his hand into a ball, which caused Reanne to gasp and fall to her knees, like he had just stabbed her with an invisible sword. She bit her lip, and fell to the ground in a heap.

I reacted badly.

Shaking Zane's hand off and away from my shoulder, I charged at full speed to Reanne. I ignored the others calling me back and to stop. I skidded onto my knees and rested on my heels as I put my hand on the back of Reanne's head, and my other on the back of her knees.

Lifting her tear-filled eyes to mine and struggling for breath, she rested her hand on my forearm, surprisingly, I was quite comfortable. But I quickly got that thought out of my head.

"I got you" I had to force a smile, a small half grin. I thought it would awkward, but it felt..natural, like I knew her, but not just who she was, but personally.

She managed for force a weak smile back "You..need to go help them..go now" Reanne strained to say, her voice just as soft as I remembered.

Little did I know, the entrance to the cavern we were in had been sealed by a massive boulder, barricading us inside. I looked over my shoulder to the Ninja who were..in a fight?

They were fighting shadows..and loosing. Some of the Shadows had glowering eyes that were either blue, red, white, green, dirty brown, or none at all. Well, they did, but they weren't visable. But all were a dark purple colour. The Ninja's punches, kicks, swings with their Elemental Blades just went through the shadow people, ineffective. I turned back to face Reanne's limp body.

"I'm fine..I'll get up in a minute" She smiled again, I didn't know how she could.

I nodded and jumped up, creating a plasma ball of recreation in my hands, and aiming for the Shadow..Minions.

"Back off!" I yelled, catching everyones attention. When the Shadow Minions faced me I realised like a shadow; you couldn't see any of their features.

I fired the energy recreation power directly at them, it went straight through them, since they moved and reformed somewhere else, leaving the plasma ball hitting the wall behind.

Dang.

Did these guys have any weakness? I heard a few chuckles as I darted next to Zane and Jay, we were all back to back, step by step walking around in a circle. My mind was powering away, they were shadows..I looked around my surroundings..

"This was a bad idea.." Jay had to find something to moan about.

"Kai, the torches!" Zane pointed at some slabs of wood on the cave walls that could be used as a light source, as they were unlit..maybe the shadows would vanish at the light?

It took Kai a second the react to Zane, he raised his hands and threw several fire balls at the seven torches. Not that it did much difference. The opening lighted up slightly, and the flames on the end of Kai's arms evaporated. Some of the Shadow Minions did puff up in smoke, but not a lot.

We were pretty much screwed.

"The clock is ticking.." The Shadow man daunted.

I looked at where I had left Reanne resting on the cold, stone ground. She wasn't there..infact, she wasn't anywhere. Surely, being in dark purple would stand out against all the black figures in here. No..she couldn't have been taken..I felt my heart rate increase after it had skipped at beat, the Shadow Minions were closing closer to us..

Until, just infront of me, Reanne used Spinjitzu to travel over, she spun around in a dark purple, foggy, black mist of a tornado, and then slid to a halt.

Then, my eyes wondered off towards the cave wall, her shadow was fighting the others. She was clutching a Elemental Blade in each hand, the one in the left she held forward, the one in the right backwards. They were just like the other Ninja's, a golden handle shaped like a dragons head, a jagged appearance. Her blades were both black at the tip, and a faded dark purple at the bottom which were surrounded by a black mist.

How did she? She was on the floor a minute ago? I don't know, I was amazed.

Her blades swung around her, then were hit against the Shadow Minions, causing them to disintegrate. I felt hopeless though, having to just stand and watch, she was doing a pretty good job, but she couldn't keep this up..we had to do something.

"Uh, you think we should be doing something..?" Jay asked, also asking everyone's question.

"Fight the shadows with shadows! You know!.." Reanne flipped her head back to look at us, her voice still like the beautiful sound of the soft notes of a violin. I saw the outline of her long hair fall back over her shoulders. I blushed as I found myself staring.

"I understand, we must make our shadows fight theirs!" Zane quickly explained.

So, we did as they said. of course we took..a couple..of fists in the face, but we were getting the hang of it!

"..AND THE CLOCK HAS STOPPED! TIME IS UP!" The voice boomed around the room.

We all looked at each other frantically as we stopped fighting, there was a 'crackling' noise and a dark blue gas flooded into the air. I began to cough, so did the others, including Reanne.

I felt my world go dizzy and I stumbled uneasily on my feet. I turned to see Reanne, and as I did I saw her eyes roll back into her eyelids, her legs gave way and she fell to the floor with a 'thud'.

Then the same happened to Jay..

And then it was Kai..

Next was Cole..

Zane..

After I saw my brothers collapse on a hard, cold floor, I only felt anger before everything faded into nothing.