The dungeon.
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Bree followed through with her leap at Clouse. Attempting to punch at him as he flew back. Bree couldn't exactly fly so her attack was far less effective than Krux's. Krux fought with all the ferocity and viciousness he had. Bree was impressed. But again it wasn't just himself he was fighting for. It was his son and grandson. Bree thought of her daughter then and it incited more rage. The hell if this thing was getting anywhere near her daughter.
With a powerful punch Krux threw Slate into the far wall and rushed after him. Coincidentally the wall with the keys. Bree saw them gone and smiled.
"What the hell is that for, you aren't winning my dear. In fact this would go a whole lot smoother if you would just calm down and we could have a nice talk" Clouse cooed to her.
"You are an old creep!" Bree snapped at him. Drawing up a ball of purple magic caused the necklace around her neck to burn and sting. But she did it anyways and fired it at Clouse. It was a close enough hit that his decaying raggedy clothing was singed.
Clouse seemed shocked that she still could pull off any magic at all. But his face growing even more demonic as he became angry. Pushing a button in his hand pulled from his robes he pressed it firmly. Bree shrieking in pain and dropping to her knees.
Shouts and screams from the wall where the ninja and others were chained didn't distract her. Bree...wasn't standing yet. Still on her knees she had paused to get her breath and then was pulling the necklace up off her neck to get a closer look at it.
"I gave that pretty necklace to you with a few special little upgrades. Id prefer to give you finer jewels, but that will have to come later after you learn to behave yourself." Clouse told her in his gruesome slimy voice.
"What the fuck are you talking about" Cole bellowed from his place on the wall.
Clouse was about to yell at him to shut his mouth when Krux and Slate rolled and crashed in front of him. Krux looked like he won as Slate could no longer get the decaying body to hold together. Ghosting out of it and hovering in the lime green color of a ghost. Dropping what was left of his brother into a heap in front of him caused Krux to recoil in horror.
"I won, let me take my family and go!" Krux yelled this time.
"You know I really don't care to put any effort into the both of you." Clouse snarled and waved his hand before closing it sharply with a crushing sound.
Krux hit the ground clutching his chest and was gone. To Brees magically trained eye and likely to Wu as well it was obvious one of those crystal hearts had been Krux's and not the little boys. Bree scooted to him where he fell and tried to shake him awake, then tried healing him. But the necklace was shorting her magic out big time.
With another swish of his hands Clouse hit Slate with some sort of spell. As Bree looked up she knew exactly what it was. A fairly easy but effective banishment spell. On a human it would toss someone away from you in a hurry. But used on a ghost it would be a pretty sound way to get them thrown right back to the departed realm.
Slate had a few seconds to look at Bree with understanding passing between them. Clouse never meant for Slate to do anything more than his bidding. And when he became inconvenient and annoying to Clouse that was the end of his use. However Slate had been wrenched out of the departed realm he was going right back in a hurry. With a pop he was gone and the lime green light faded. The other ghosts in Clouses employ had heard the commotion and came to the dungeon. After watching the scene they said not a word or made a sound. But vanished from sight to where else no one knows. They saw how their peers would be used. To them if they had nothing tying them here there was no point continuing to fight for a person who would so quickly discard them.
"Please stop, just stop" Bree yelled up at the wraith. Still beside the body.
"Well now we are getting somewhere" Clouse answered. Floating down to level with her.
"What do you want, what is the point of all of this? The point of killing and hurting so many people?" Bree asked barely above a whisper.
"Well my dear, you. You are the point of all this. We are better than all this trash." Clouse said with a gesture to the chained Ninja and Elemental masters on the wall.
"Our kind should have been ruling Ninjago for hundreds if not thousands of years. Emperors and Empresses have come and gone. So have Lords. So have the dam Garmadons. None of them are fit to rule as I am. None of them can hold power or wield it properly. This form I have acquired is... distasteful. And not as strong as my old body magically. I had to steal your mothers spellbook and get others do do my bidding half the time. But you can fix that, You know exactly how to conjure a body from the grave. I have everything prepared. I just need your magic to help me" Clouse told her with a smug and evil grin.
"Why would I do that just for you to kill my friends and I as soon as I'm done. I mean you just royally screwed over a couple other elemental masters. Why not me too" Bree retorted sarcastically.
"I have no plans to harm you at all my dear" Clouse replied eyeing her up and down.
Bree said nothing save hold out the necklace with a finger and pointed to her friends.
"Well no more plans to harm you my dear, You are very very special to me. You and your daughter belong here with me. As it should have been with all our kind from the beginning" Clouse answered her with a softer tone. Reaching behind her back quickly and pulling her to him and off her feet. His stinking teeth in his slime covered face right in hers. Bree's eyes going huge in understanding.
"OH FUCK NO! Get your hands off her" Cole roared again Pulling at the vengestone. The others screaming protests as well. Wu jerking off the ground to his feet in a hurry and pulling to the end of his chains.
"I will do absolutely nothing for you unless you let my friends go first" Bree answered him with a whole lot more steel in her voice than she felt.
"We can talk about which ones are useful to us later my love" Clouse cooed to her again. Now touching her curling hair with the free hand not holding her up.
"They all go free or I do nothing" she answered him.
"Would it make you happy my dear?" He asked. Now reaching to touch other parts of her available skin. Making her want to gag and her skin crawl.
"Yes" was the simple answer. Bree had a plan. And now only she knew it because Krux was dead.
"Very well if it makes you happy my dear. The little beasts can go and we can go finish off a spell or two quickly" Clouse laughed.
With a sweep of his hand the chains on Cole and the others vanished. They were across the dirt floor with the chasm in between. Clouse glided himself and Bree out of the room wooshing as they went. Bree twisting and turning in panic to look back at Cole.
They were no longer chained to the walls. But with every entrance sealed and no apparent way out. Cole jumped to the first door and gave it several terrifyingly strong punches. His arms glowing. The doors didn't budge.
"Get over here and help me!" He yelled.
Kai, Jay, Zane and Karlof all jumped the chasm and hit the door. And still nothing.
"Powers?" LLyod asked. Getting a nod from the others. Fire, Ice, Earth, Lightening, Metal. all did absolutely nothing. Cole screamed in frustration.
"I don't think these will move with our powers. Clouse put these in for a reason. They are probably laced with vengestone and who knows what else. We are going to have to find another way out of here." Wu explained.
"I don't want to get out of here at all. I want to go after Clouse and kill him!" Cole yelled at him.
"Yelling at Wu is not likely to help open the door Cole" Zane stated coolly.
"Shut up Zane!" Cole snapped back at him.
"Why don't you shut up Cole and stop yelling at all of us!" Jay screeched.
Coles arms lit up orange again as he glared at his best friend. Before he huffed and walked off. Checking the edges of the cavern for weekness or any open spot.
"What the hell" Jay hissed. "Why is Cole so freaked. I mean yea Im freaked, we are all freaked. But Bree is a adult. She can take care of herself."
"Wouldn't you freak out a little bit if that sadistic dick carried your wife down some dark cavern after seeing him paw at her" Morro said quietly.
The others gawked at him. Cole on the other side of the room tensed briefly, they had wanted to wait and tell the others together in a happier date and time. Cole sighed and unclenched his fists before going back to looking for a way out.
"When in the god dam fuck did that happen? And how do you know? Oh wait. Fucking Harumi" Lloyd snarled.
"What the hell would you like to say about Rumi?" Morro growled back.
This was going to start a pissing match that had been long coming. Morro and Lloyd squaring off.
"Enough!" Wu snapped before they started trying to kill each other. "We have much bigger problems than whenever you each get married. I hear something coming. And I don't think we are going to like what it is."
Everyone froze. Sure enough they could hear the sounds of crawling and scraping coming from somewhere. Looking around in horror they couldn't see the source right away. Sklyer carefully leaned over and looking into the great gaping crack in the floor. Instead of an endless drop to dark nothing. Kappa were crawl up the sides. Grunting and growling with the effort of pulling their oozing rotting bodies up the walls.
"NOW I'M FREAKED OUT!" Jay screeched.
Kai and Skyler started throwing fireballs to try and knock the Kappa back down the hole. It was effective, but more and more just kept coming.
"We need to find a way out of here now." Nya yelled across the room. She tried jumping and air jitsu. It worked. But not all the elemental masters knew how and it was turning into a running, screaming scramble to both get away from kappa and get out of each others way.
"The doors have all sorts of inscriptions on them!" Zane yelled. "They must be incantations that allow Clouse to open and shut them!"
"Not really helpful unless you're Clouse or Bree. Maybe Rumi could but we didn't exactly bring her with did we!" Morro yelled in an accusatory tone as he tried knocking more and more Kappa back down the hole.
Cole looked at the largest door that Clouse had left though taking Bree with him. Morro had a point. Bree could probably open this. It was just like opening and shutting their door at home. With a jump Cole got to the injured man and the little boy. Throwing the adult over his shoulder and carrying the boy in his arms.
"Over to this one guys! Karlof take him!" Cole bellowed over the noise.
Holding a free hand out Cole drew up a wisp of purple magic. Moving it side ways quickly he slide the latch on the door opening it. The rest of the group ran through, dragging or carrying the others. Then Cole let it slam shut as he let go of the magic as quickly as it came. Everyone stood huffing and puffing in the darkened tunnel.
"What and might I repeat, what in the fuck was that Cole?" Jay asked. His voice was not amused.
"You are most defiantly not related to a master of magic. Nor are you likely to be pregnant with one, as you are male. So I concur with Jay. What was that?" Zane asked.
Cole groaned and didn't answer at first.
"I can, on rare occasions, share a little of Bree's elemental magic. She said it wasn't much different than Nya being unaffected by your powers Jay" Cole admitted.
"It kind of is Cole" Lloyd retorted.
Cole didn't know whether to be ashamed or embarrassed about his friends knowing. He was already feeling some guilt about not telling the rest of them about him and Bree. Harumi and Morro only knew themselves because they also were trying to keep their own business private.
"We just really haven't had time to sit down and tell you guys everything." Cole stated.
"So you and Bree were lying when I talked to her about it the other day?" Wu snapped at him.
"No we weren't. I just frigging asked her recently" Cole retorted. Cutting off the line of questioning Cole gestured down the tunnel one way and then the other.
"I am going after Bree. Some of you need to take the injured back to the fortress. The others can come with me, but I am not forcing any of you to go. Its up to you." Cole ordered. Squeezing the little boy in his arms before handing him off to Griff.
With that Cole turned and started running down the tunnel. Leaving the others to either catch up or head back.
