The Djinn Princess

Chapter nine

Another week went by and Nya continued her plan. She hung out with Nadakhan and talked to him about different things. She felt like she had created a new personality for herself, that she used only around Nadakhan. This version of her was scared, dependent and a big admirer of Nadakhan. Basically the complete opposite of the REAL Nya. Nya didn't like this new personality, not only because it wasn't her, but also because she was scared of the fact that she had to use it so much. And every second she spent with Nadakhan it became easier to act like this another version of her. It was driving her crazy.

Nya had started getting out of the palace by herself. She just wandered around Djinjago and Nadakhan didn't try to stop her. Like he had said before, she was a Djinn princess and practically free to do anything. But she knew that Nadakhan was still keeping an eye on her when she went on these walks. But as soon as he would trust her enough to let her go freely, she would be out of here. That was the only thing that kept her going. It would have been so much easier to just lock up into her room and never talk to Nadakhan, living like a prisoner and wait for her friends to save her.

"Is everything alright, darling? You have been quiet today", Nadakhan asked when they were having breakfast together. Nya was startled by the question and smiled at Nadakhan.

"Don't worry, dear. I just... I didn't sleep well. But everything's fine", Nya reassured the djinn. She was wearing dark green, high waisted pants and a beautiful, green top with some small diamond accessories. Wearing green felt weird to her, because it had always been Lloyd's colour. 

"Do you want to talk to me about it? You can tell me anything", Nadakhan said and smirked, which didn't really suit his voice that was trying to be reassuring. 

"Okay. I had a bad dream and kept waking up. The dream kept coming back again every time I fell asleep, so eventually I just gave up", Nya explained. It was actually the truth, she did have a nightmare the night before.

The dream had been about dying. She didn't remember much about her death, because the venom in her veins had made her head very fuzzy. She didn't even remember what she had said to Jay just before she died. Maybe it was something about love stories? She couldn't remember. But in her dream she had died again. Tiger Widow's venom had been spreading from her chest to every part of her body, her veins were burning and her skin feeling numb. She had felt sharp pain in her heart just before it stopped its helpless fight against the cruel venom. It had felt so realistic that when she woke up, she had had to make sure she wasn't dead and this was not the Departed realm.

"Well I'm glad you could confide in me, my beloved princess", Nadakhan said. Soon breakfast was over and Nya followed her daily routine of going outside after the breakfast. But this time something was different. Nadakhan's eyes didn't follow Nya's steps when she headed out. Nya was confused. Had her plan worked? She could maybe finally go and find her friends, her annoying but still lovely brother, and Jay! The boy who she... loved.

But did she really? She had thought she did, but suddenly she didn't want to leave Djinjago? She felt a sharp sting of doubt inside her. Maybe her dream from last night had something to do with it. 

She could have been dying over here, and her friends still weren't here. She felt like it had never taken this long for the ninja to save a lost member of their team. 

Nya started shaking and she sat down on the ground. Why did she feel like this? She was supposed to be strong! But suddenly she realized somethig horrible. Her other personality had broken through and was now taking control. 

It was hard for her to think about living without Nadakhan. And it was so easy to think about staying here.

But at the same time Nya could feel something was wrong. She just didn't understand why.

"I'm... I'm a Djinn Princess. I have to... I have to stay here", Nya figured. She stood up and returned into the palace with very mixed feelings. She felt like her friends had betrayed her... and Nadakhan had saved her from them. He loved her and only wanted the best for her. 

But little did she know, this all was Nadakhan's doing. After breakfast the djinn had gone into his bedroom and came up with the most evil and twisted wish no one had ever seen.

"She thinks she can outsmart me, and for a moment she really almost did. But I have started seeing her true colours. She has just been trying to gain my trust again. But she is forgetting who she's dealing with. 

I wish I could change her memories a bit..." 

. . .

"Do we have everything?" Lloyd asked, already on his elemental dragon. On his dragon behind him was Casey, one of the few who volunteered to help the ninja. No one had ever heard of him before, but he was a college student who had taken several self-defense classes while he had been young. His hair was white blonde and his eyes were grayish blue. The other volunteers had ended up backing out, but they had helped the ninja build some small jets that Skylor, Ronin and Flintlocke, who were also coming on the mission, could use. They had had the chance to only build three, which was why Casey was now traveling on Lloyd's elemental dragon.

"I guess", Kai said, not sounding too certain. 

"Assuming that my calculations are right, we have a 35% chance of surviving and a 15 % chance of winning. Is everyone absolutely certain about this?" Zane asked with a serious tone. Everyone nodded their heads. It was about time they did this!

"Okay. Let's go over the plan one more time. We will make a subtle appearance for some of the pirates, so that they will come out of Djinjago. We have to make sure that we are barely visible and as far away from Nadakhan's palace as possible, so they don't go and tell Nadakhan about this. Flintlocke will try to reason them, and when it hopefully works, they will show us a way past the force field around Djinjago. Then we will do our best to not let any of the pirates tell Nadakhan, and clear out a path to the palace for Jay", Lloyd started. Jay shivered a bit upon hearing his own name.

"Nadakhan probably won't escape immediately, since he loves torturing people, especially me. But if he does, we must be spreaded out to every part of Djinjago, so that he can't escape from us. And some of you haven't used any wishes, but I do not want you to wish for anything. It will only make things worse", Jay said to everyone.

"Jay, you have to be very quick and get to the point with Nadakhan soon. While you're keeping him busy, we will try to find the djinn blade and Nya. One of them we will bring to you so that Nadakhan can wish himself into it, and the other we will take with us and bring here", Lloyd continued. Everyone nodded their heads. The plan had so many holes and there was so many things wrong with it, that no one wanted to count them. But it was this or nothing, and at least they had a 15 % chance of success! Assuming that Zane's calculations were correct.

"Okay. It's time", Cole said and everyone flew into the sky. The citicens remaining in the town cheered for them, knowing that this might be the last time they would ever see them. But no one wanted to think about that.