! WARNING ! This chapter involves brief usage of pokey medicine injectors (me hoping my reader friendly terms are understandable ;-;)
Read at your own risk!
Anyways, Chapter 18 will be the conclusion of this plot involving Yuraggi. I hope you guys are as excited to read the final chapter as I was to write it!
Also, for those of you who missed the memo chapter 18 IS NOT the end of this story just yet. Following chapter 18 will be a series of 7 epilogue chapters that will take place in the months between Chapter 18 and the beginning of Ninjago Season 7.
That's right, 1 chapter for each season leading up to my next story which will be 'Hands of Time' coverage! No spoilers from me though!
Last but definitelynot least, I would like to give a shout out to Zephyr, who is the official first person to comment on my story here! I'm really happy you're enjoying the story, and I hope you'll stick around for what's to come! :D
Okay, okay, I'll let you guys get back to the story now! I love you all, and I hope you have a wonderful day! - Bananapugg
The ninja came to a stop as the Master of Water held a hand up, signaling the others to halt their running as well.
"Why did we stop Nya?" The green ninja was the first to speak, asking the question they were all wondering the answer to.
"There should be a sewer grate through the alley over here that leads straight to Yuraggi's hideout." The teal ninja answered before jumping down from the roof and into the alley way below. Following her lead the rest of the ninja and Master Wu jumped down as well.
"Here." Nya called out as she stood beside the aforementioned sewer grate.
"Cole?" Lloyd called the black ninja over, knowing his eldest brother was the strongest of all of them, and would have no difficulty lifting off the heavy manhole cover.
"On it." The Earth ninja answered, walking past the others before bending down and removing the sewer lid.
Jay and Lloyd both grimaced a bit as the hot smell of the undercity wafted upwards. However their reactions, and those of everyone else changed to surprise when they noticed the familiar man situated on the ladder below them. It was the 'Shapeshifter' Jimmy.
"You!" Kai shouted as he pulled the man out of the sewer and pushed him against the bricked wall of the nearby building, lighting one of his hands ablaze to discourage the man from getting any ideas.
"Alright slime ball, where's Destiny?!" The Master of Lightning questioned as he and the white ninja moved to either side of the red clad hothead.
"Wait! Wait! Wait!" Jimmy pleaded as he held up his arms in surrender.
"Stand down guys!" Lloyd interrupted the group, trying his best to defuse the situation before anyone's emotions got the best of them. "Let him speak first." Kai gave the young ninja master a hesitant look but after a moment put out his flame and loosened his grip on the defenseless man.
"T-Thank you." Jimmy thanked as he placed a hand over his rapidly beating heart in an attempt to calm himself down.
"Don't thank anyone yet. Tell us what you did with Destiny." Cole spoke in a tone the other ninja rarely heard.
The Master of Earth was beyond mad, the fumes of his anger brewing just below the surface; but to anyone else it was easy to miss due to his outward persona seeming so calm. The black ninja had since thrown down the manhole cover as well, the thick lid creating a web-like series of cracks in the ground where it landed. Jimmy gulped, swallowing his fear before speaking again.
"Y-Yuraggi captured her when we try to rescue Janissa Pierce." Jimmy explained with a shaky voice. "Jimmy came to find the ninja. Destiny is in trouble! Jimmy overheard 'Shapeshifters' mention chrono-steel-"
"Chrono-steel?" Master Wu cut in, his face one mixed with fear and shock.
"Master?" The Master of Ice questioned. All the ninja and Jimmy were now looking to the elder expectantly, waiting for him to elaborate his reaction to the mentioned material.
"What's Chrono-steel?" Jay added meekly, afraid to hear the answer.
"Chrono-steel is a very rare mineral, it was thought to be extinct due to its scarceness. However, it is very powerful, and has been used to steal and store the powers of elemental Masters before." Master Wu explained. His words brought newfound expressions of worry and dread to his students' faces.
"Oh well, that's just great!" The red ninja stated with a panic laden voice as he threw his arms up in the air.
"That means that with the Chrono-steel Yuraggi can steal Destiny's elemental powers." Nya stated, concern coursing through her.
"It is safe to assume that has been Yuraggi's plan this whole time. It would also explain why Destiny was such a key component." The nindroid concluded.
"Yuraggi stealing Destiny's powers is like the ultimate revenge plot!" The blue ninja yelled, a frown on his face as he subconsciously moved closer to the red ninja for comfort.
"We need to go, now." Cole interrupted all of the panicking, silently clenching a fist to his side.
"Jimmy, can you take us to Destiny?" Lloyd questioned as he turned to look at the former 'Shapeshifters' member. Jimmy nodded his head several times.
"Y-Yes, Jimmy can take you! This way!" Jimmy answered as he slid his way back down the ladder he had been on earlier.
"I. Do not. Trust. Him." Kai articulated as he watched the rest of the ninja descend the ladder.
"We do not have a choice if we wish to get to Destiny in time." Zane informed his red clad brother before sliding down into the sewer system.
Kai sighed to himself, he knew the nindroid was right, but that didn't mean he liked their situation any better. Pulling his ninja mask down the Master of Fire mounted himself onto the ladder, pulling the sewer grate back into place before sliding down into the methane filled tunnels and catching up with the rest of his team.
With Destiny -
Destiny groaned as she began to stir awake. Her vision was rather blurry, and she blinked a few times to try and clear it. Finally starting to come back to her senses, Destiny squinted her eyes and her action was followed by a sharp pain shooting through her skull.
The yellow clad girl winced in pain and moved her right hand up to feel that back of her head. Hidden beneath her hair was a large egg sized bump, no doubt the source of the agonizing headache that pounded against her brain. Destiny then struggled to look up, her strength not yet fully returned to the rest of her groggy body.
Studying her surroundings the first thing she noticed was that she was in a rather small cage, suspended over… something. Something quite bright and warm. Was that- a pit of lava? Great, nice to know Ninjago City came with lava pits now. First she left without the ninja, and now here she was. Captured. Destiny knew the risks when she and Jimmy had left the Bounty, but she wasn't as mad about being caught as she was about the fact that her sneaking buddy had completely abandoned her.
"How could I have been such an idiot..?" Destiny sighed quietly as she looked down at her hands. Suddenly the young girl heard movement to her right, and turned to find the cause of the disturbance.
"Destiny De'milo Pierce. You are not an idiot." Destiny's mother scolded from an identical cage several yards away. "You are the smartest girl I know. You found me, didn't you?"
Destiny gave her mom a bittersweet smile as she continued to listen to her words.
"If anyone is the idiot here it's me. Your father told me that Yuraggi had returned. He told me I needed to get you somewhere safe. I couldn't do it though. I just couldn't leave him, and I couldn't take you away from your father." Janissa paused, hesitating before she continued. "I thought that by moving us to the city that we'd be safe; but I guess I was wrong."
The conversation between the two stopped for some time. The only sounds in the large cavern being those of Yuraggi's goons forging weapons from the magma. As well as a constant wave of chatter, and the bubbling from the lava. Eventually, Destiny decided to resume their discussion by asking her mom a question that had been on her mind for some time now.
"How come you and dad didn't tell me any of this?" The young teen questioned. She felt hurt. Her mother had known the truth of everything that had been going on, and yet decided to exclude her from the reality of what had been going on behind the closed curtains.
"I didn't tell you because I couldn't." Destiny's mother said sadly, "Your father made me promise not to tell you. He didn't want you to get involved with, well, any of this." Janissa explained as she gestured to the space around them.
Destiny shifted uncomfortably at this new news. Her father hadn't wanted her to get involved. Did that mean he never wanted her to know she had inherited his powers either? If he knew she had agreed with Master Wu to become a ninja would he be mad?
"Mom?" Destiny asked meekly. Her mother looked over to her, seemingly prompting for her to continue. "You knew that dad had powers… was, was he upset over the fact that I inherited them?" Janissa looked at her daughter with a look of shock, and quickly shook her head.
"No, no honey. It's not like that." Janissa turned her attention away from her child as she seemed to recall a distant memory.
"We both knew that there was a chance any children we had would inherit his powers. He always said that if, or when, you discovered you had his powers that they were no longer his. They would be yours, and that you would be free to use them if you so choose. He didn't tell you about them though because he wanted to keep you safe. We just wanted to give you the opportunity to experience a normal life." Janissa explained as she turned back to her daughter.
Destiny looked down at her hands. Master Wu said he had felt the presence of her father's elemental power laying dormant within her. So, she knew it was there. In a way it was almost like her father was still with her too.
"Destiny, your father and I may not have told you about his past but I promise he is still the same person he always was. He loved you so, so much." Janissa could feel her voice break as she pictured her late husband's kind eyes in her mind. "He tried his hardest to stay with us; he really did. He wanted nothing more than to watch you grow up into the beautiful and strong young woman you'll be one day. If he were here now he'd tell you just how proud he is of you."
Destiny could begin to feel tears prick at her eyes, but before any of them could fall the intimate moment between her and her mother was interrupted.
"Aww, aren't you two just touching?" The familiar voice of Yuraggi stated from Destiny's left. As Yuraggi approached the edge of the cliffside she grabbed hold of Janissa's cage, and moved it harshly so the imprisoned mother was now facing her direction.
"Well, now that you're both awake how about we get started?" As Yurragi finished speaking one of the 'Shapeshifter' lackey's appeared beside her, handing the tall woman a metallic syringe.
Yuraggi then used one hand to forcibly hold onto Janissa's forearm with an iron grip as her other picked up the syringe. Janissa did her best to break free of Yuraggi's hold, but her attempts were in vain. Before long Yuraggi was sliding the contents of the needle smoothly into her old friends' bloodstream.
Once she was satisfied with her work Yuraggi let go of Janissa, and walked over to stand in front of the yellow clad teens' cage. Destiny backed away from the edge of the cage, but there wasn't enough distance between the two of them to stop her captor from getting a hold of her jacket sleeve.
"Leave her alone Yuraggi!" Janissa shouted angrily before breaking out into a raspy sounding coughing fit.
"Ah, it sounds like your medicine is working already, old friend!" Yuraggi said happily as she pinned Destiny against the bars of metal before pricking her with a second metallic syringe. With her task completed Yuraggi let go of the young girl and returned the second needle to her lackey, who took both and left without another word.
"What did you just do?" Destiny questioned, glaring at the woman in front of her as she rubbed the part of her arm that had been injected.
"Oh I am so glad you asked!" Yuraggi said happily as she grabbed a keyring from her belt, waving it around in the air as she spoke. "That medicine was a healthy dose of diluted Tiger Widow venom!"
Destiny could feel the blood leave her face at Yuraggi's words. Destiny had done a report on Tiger Widows back in high school. They were an extremely large species of arachnid, and also were hardly known. Due to the fact that Tiger Widows could only be found on a single island in all of Ninjago that meant Yuraggi had gone to great lengths to acquire the venom.
However, she also mentioned it was diluted. Another fact Destiny had discovered during her research was that it only took a single drop of venom to kill someone, and because of its rarity there was no cure for a Tiger Widow bite. This woman had diluted it to ensure her and her mother would die slow and painful deaths.
"You- you're insane!" Destiny shouted as she gripped the bars of her cage.
Yuraggi suddenly went silent at Destiny's words, stopping her fiddling with the key ring as well. She then proceeded to stare at the teen for an uncomfortable period of time. Destiny could feel her courage begin to waver as the smiling ivory mask faced her, emotionless and unblinking.
Once Destiny began to move her posture back away from the edge of the cage Yuraggi suddenly moved again. Her actions seemed unpredictable, and there was no way to read what the woman before her was thinking.
Yuraggi then inserted the key into the lock of Destiny's cage. Once the door was opened Yuraggi acted faster than Destiny could even react, grabbing the teen with one arm and throwing her onto the dirt covered concrete.
"Get up." Yuraggi said simply. Her voice was no longer cheery, and instead it was now cold and articulated.
Destiny looked up at her warden as she picked herself up from off of the ground. There was no way she'd be taking her eyes off of the threat in front of her.
"Y'know," Yurragi began speaking again in the same eerie tone, crossing her arms behind her back as she began walking in a small circle around Destiny. Seeming to let her eyes feast on the teen just like a vulture circling overhead its next meal. "You remind me so much of Herman, it's sickening. Now more than ever do you look just like he did. Watching me with a focused gaze as venom courses through your veins."
Destiny froze. Yuraggi wasn't saying what she thought she was saying… was she? No, no there was no way.
"Y-You, you're the reason Herman-" Janissa began to speak, but was cut off by their captor.
"Now you're getting it Jani! Gold star for you!" Yuraggi said enthusiastically, before deadpanning back to Destiny. Her amber eyes staring straight through the young girls' soul. "I killed Herman Pierce."
Destiny could feel hot tears start to fall uncontrollably from her face, her blood boiling white with unbridled hatred. The young girl then let out a loud yell as she lunged towards her father's killer. Destiny swung at the large woman half a dozen times, but each of her punches were easily dodged.
"You really are disappointing. Your father would have managed to land at least one hit on me." Yuraggi taunted the young girl under her breath. These words only served to fuel Destiny's anger further though.
"You don't get to talk about him!" The yellow clad girl screamed, but was swiftly silenced by a hard-hitting back hand to her cheek. The force of the blow throwing the girl back to the ground.
"Yuraggi!" Janissa shouted in defense of her daughter, tears streaming down her own face as well.
"Well then, shall I talk about how you need mommy dearest to stand up for you instead?" Yuraggi questioned the young girl beneath her before letting out a wicked cackle. Destiny tried to stand back up, but her arms were shaking now, and she fell back to the ground.
"Come on! Get up!" Yuraggi says strictly, kicking the young girl in the side before waiting for her to get up.
The yellow clad girl attempts to lift herself off of the ground again, but her struggles were in vain. Yuraggi wanted to make the teenage girl mad. She had wanted Destiny to throw those punches, because with each motion it allowed for the venom inside her to work faster. Yuraggi then turned her attention to the sobbing mother a ways away, a vile grin hidden behind her mask.
"I told you that you would get to see me break your daughter, dear old friend. Though I must admit, it's quite disappointing that she didn't last longer. Oh well, I suppose that's one of the side effects of moving around so much when there's venom in the bloodstream!" Yuraggi says in a sing-song voice as she grabs a handful of the young teen's hair in her hand before pulling the girl up to her knees. Destiny screamed in pain and would have grabbed at the hand holding her if she had had the strength to.
"Let her go Yuraggi!" A new voice to the right of the pair shouts.
Yuraggi turns her head in the direction of the voice that had gotten her attention. To her surprise it was the ninja. She hadn't expected them to arrive in time. Nevertheless, their presence provided the hulking woman with some more entertainment.
"Ninja, and Master Wu? Well! I wasn't expecting so many guests, but welcome! You've made it just in time!" Yuraggi shouts cheerfully as she squished her face against Destiny's as if they were close friends.
Destiny tried once again to free herself of Yuraggi's grip, but only succeeded in getting the woman to remove her face and stand back up straight. Suddenly, another random 'Shapeshifters' goon appears and hands the large polearm Destiny had seen before to their boss. Yuraggi then takes the polearm with her free hand, spinning it before hitting the bottom of the rod against the ground with a loud clang, the sound echoing throughout the cavern.
"Our main event is just about to begin!"
