Summary: Baku, a dream-eating yokai, trapped Ella inside her own dream as she must figure out a way how to wake herself up.
On a bright sunny morning, Ella slept peacefully on her bed until her alarm clock blared heavy metal music. She opened her eyes with a yawn and reached her hand over to shut it off. She stretched her arms and walked towards her closet.
In the dojo, Ella and her sisters began showing their elemental magic techniques right in front of Saldana. Donna formed a large fist out of rock and launched it at the wall after it was flying past the unmoved Saldana. Ellie summoned a small tornado underneath her feet, lifting her into the air with a satisfied smile. Ella shot out a barrage of small fireballs through her fast flurry of punches, which the fireballs then started shooting out powerful streams of flames one by one at the training dummy. Lee summoned a long tendril of water from her left arm and lashed at the training dummy with it, forming a sphere of water around it and expanding it in an explosion.
"That's it?" Ella asked Lee. "Is that all you got? If you're gonna to impress me, try harder."
"At least, one of us can." Lee retorted, crossing her arms over her chest.
Ella growled. She charged forward and started attacking Lee with swift punches and kicks. Lee was able to dodge each punch and kick by retaliating her own kicks and punches. Donna and Ellie stopped using their magic and watched the fight between their rivaling sisters.
"Here they go again." Donna said with a groan.
"Like over sixty times in a row." Ellie sighed.
Saldana stepped forward between her older daughters.
"Enough!" Saldana shouted.
Lee and Ella immediately stopped attacking each other and turned to face their mother.
"We'll continue training when you return home from school." Saldana said. "Remember, you two are sisters, not enemies."
Lee and Ella stared at the floor with a frown, but they rolled their eyes when they glanced at each other for a minute.
Afterwards, Ella stood right in front of her locker along with Lee, Ellie, and Donna inside Roosevelt High School. They placed their text books inside and closed their lockers just in time for their free period.
"Hey, Donna. Can I copy your chemistry homework?" Ellie asked.
"Stood up reading comic books again?" Donna inquired with a grin.
"Yeah." Ellie replied with a sheepish smile. "It's new issue of Justice Force. I can't say no to that."
"No surprise there, but sure." Donna replied as she rolled her eyes.
"Heading to the gym today?" Ella asked Lee.
"Yup." Lee answered. "I have an idea for a new routine for the tonight's game. And you?"
"Just heading to the library to prepare for my astrology test." Ella replied. She turned to Donna. "What about you, D?"
"I'm heading to chess club today." Donna responded. "I'm working on a new strategy that will beat the rival school for sure." She turned to Ellie. "Are you heading to the gym too?"
"Not this time." Ellie replied. "I'm going to get a snack from the vending machine and join Ella at the library, so I can copy your chemistry homework."
"Because you were reading comic books again last night?" Lee and Ella asked with sideway smiles.
"It was a new issue of Justice Force, so sue me." Ellie said with an irritating tone.
Then, the school bell rang.
"See you girls later." Lee said with a wave.
"See ya." Donna said.
"Peace out." Ellie said.
"Later." Ella said.
With that, the Lotus Ninjas walked off.
Later on, Ella arrived inside the library and searched around every astrology-related book she could find in one aisle.
"Okay. I need books on Jupiter and Neptune." Ella said to herself. "I've got every book on the other planets, except for them."
Ella skimmed the shelves and finally found the books that she was looking for.
"There they are." Ella said.
Ella grabbed the books on Jupiter and Neptune before walking over to an empty table at the center of the library. She sat down on a chair and opened the book about Jupiter in her hands.
Suddenly, one of the books hovered into the air. Ella's eyes moved away from the book she was reading and enlarged wide at the floating book. She quickly looked around to see that the floating book didn't catch anyone's attention.
"I don't know what's going on, but I better cancel this spell before anyone sees it." Ella said. "I know it can't be Ellie because she's still grabbing a snack from the vending machine. But then again..."
Before Ella could reach her hand out, the book started to grow into a large size.
"What the?!" Ella exclaimed in surprise.
The large book opened itself up and unexpectedly vacuumed Ella inside before shrinking back to regular size and landing on the table. As Ella screamed, she began falling straight into the depths through the rapid, flipping pages until one page dropped her into the verdant ground.
"If this is one of Ellie's prank spells, I'm gonna kill her." Ella groaned in annoyance as she got up on her feet.
Ella then gasped in amazement. She found herself gazing around at the open forest environment. She looked up to see the bright sun shining in the area.
"Whoa." Ella said in awe. She then looked down to find herself wearing a dark red cotton dress that showed slight bits of her undergarments on her sleeves. "I don't know where I am nor what I'm wearing, but this isn't so bad."
A Shire horse suddenly nudged his nose on Ella's back from behind, making her spin around to face it. The horse was black as night with white muzzle and fetlocks, while he was already fixed with a saddle and a head collar rope.
"Oh, hello there. Where did you come from?" Ella asked, rubbing her hands around the horse's face. She then noticed the bow and arrows on the saddle. "Is the bow and arrows for me?"
The horse nodded as a response.
"Alrighty then." Ella smiled. "I could go for a few rounds. I haven't done archery since I was a kid."
Without hesitation, Ella jumped over the fence and sat down on the house. She grabbed the head collar rope, causing her house to neigh and gallop. They rushed across the castle ground and headed out through the gate that led them out to the forest mainland. As her horse galloped across the trail, Ella took out an arrow from her quiver on her back. She readied her bow and fired the arrow at six targets that fastened to a tree and two more targets that were fastened in a rope. The horse then jumped over a fallen tree just as Ella readied the arrow and fired it at the center of a target overflowing with the previous arrows.
"Oh yeah!" Ella cheered with a holler.
Ella and her horse then rested at a hill, where they viewed a beautiful valley spreading out. The horse was napping on the grass while Ella carved a heart on her bow with a smile with her mini knife. The sound of rapid water made Ella look up with wide eyes before letting out a challenging smile.
Ella began climbing halfway on a tall, sheer vertical stone, but she almost lost her grip. Her horse neighed in fright from below. Ella grasped tightly to the cliff and gave a brave look to her horse before continuing to climb. Ella finally reached the top of the large stone. She slowly rose to her feet and spun around to gaze at the setting sun with a smile.
Ella turned to the waterfall behind her, where she noticed the sunlight reflecting on the water that resembled the beautiful color of fire. She cupped her hands under the water and pulled them back. She drank the water in her cupped hands and then cheered with excitement as she threw her hands up in the air.
"This is. So Cool!" Ella hollered.
After that, Ella galloped to another area under the afternoon sun.
In a dark void, Baku was watching Ella through a glowing bubble with interest.
"This mystic must be related to Leona." Baku spoke. "Time for round two."
With a wicked smile, Baku blew on the crystal ball, freezing it and dropping it into his hand. He then shook it like a snow globe and crushed it in his fist. When he opened his palm, a strange black blob took form.
Ella continued smiling in amazement as her horse kept galloping into the forest in a much faster speed. The horse suddenly halted, sending Ella flying and then landing in someone's arms.
"Fancy meeting you here."
Ella looked up to see Raph smiling down at her.
"Raph?!" Ella exclaimed. "Wh-what are you doing here?"
"Let's just say I happened to stop by." Raph said as he placed Ella on her feet. "But this place is truly amazing."
"Yeah. It really is." Ella answered. "I always imagine being free like this sometimes."
"Well, on the bright side, we're alone." Raph grinned, wrapping his arm around Ella. "You know, the two of us."
Ella grinned back with a flushed face, but she gasped sharply for a moment as she clapped both hands to her forehead and stumbled backward.
"What's wrong, Ella?" Raph asked. "Are you okay?"
"Something's…not right." Ella said with confusion.
"What do you mean?" Raph asked again.
"I need…I need to remember…" Ella said. "The last thing I remembered…is when my sisters and I…were fighting…fighting…fighting…" Her eyes widened in sudden realization. "Baku! That yokai freak!"
Raph narrowed his eyes. He wordlessly approached Ella from behind and withdrew his sais.
"It's alright, Ella. We're gonna get to the bottom of all of this." Raph said. "Let's just endure your endless dream, where nothing ends for eternity."
Raph swiped his sais at Ella in a X motion, but Ella quickly melted the sais with her magic in a nick of time.
Raph's eyes widened in fear when he watched blazing flames enveloping Ella's hands.
"You should know not to mess with fire, Raph." Ella said firmly.
Ella unleashed a huge blast of flames from her hands at the fake Raph, incinerating him and the entire forest into nothingness. Her illusionary dress changed back into her kunoichi outfit.
Ella then found herself in a throne room that was set up with raised steps and under a canopy. She saw Baku sitting on a dark grey majestical throne chair.
"You!" Ella shouted angrily.
Ella began to charge towards Baku as fast as she could. She shot out a powerful stream of flames at Baku, who protected himself in a reddish-black force field around himself. Ella then fired a fast barrage of large fireballs flying towards Baku at fast speed. But Baku protected himself again with his reddish-black force field.
"Baku." Ella said with a glare. "No dream is gonna stop me from freeing my family and my friends."
Then, several reddish-black energy tentacles lashed out of nowhere and wrapped tightly around Ella's arms and legs. Ella struggled to break free, trying to prevent herself from getting dragged away. But it was no use. Ella screamed as she got dragged into the darkness.
"Looks like Rafaela has woken up from her dream world as well." Baku said. He turned to the two crystal balls. "That only leads two more to go."
To Be Continued...
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