Ninjago: The Purple Ninja - Book 2

March of the Oni : Chapter 1 - The Darkness Comes

"Maybe things would be better if you never existed in the first place!"

"I can give you the power to be stronger. So your opponents won't get away from you."

"Face it, Kat. You're immortal, because your sister was too selfish to die by the hands of old age. You bought the lie of the immortal curse from Artemis, which proves you were so naive to question the truth behind the lie."

"Come on, Greenie, you know what. I'm bringing you over to your father. He finally wants to see you for the pathetic, powerless mess you are!"

"Come on. Just be a dear and let me help you."

"My name is Keres. And I have a feeling you and I are going to be very good friends."

Dawn holds the mirror inches in front of her sister's face. "There, now doesn't that look a lot better?"

The mirror shows a demonic face that was smiling devilishly from ear to ear. It screams.

Katarina instantly snaps her eyes open and sits up violently on her new bed. Once her breathing calmed down, she takes a deep breathe and closes her eyes tightly. She runs her hand down her face.

"It's real, it's real. You're not there anymore, you're here. They're fine, you're fine. Everything's going to be okay." She mutters the mantra Lloyd told her when the nightmares started again.

They started a week after Garmadon's defeat, having Lloyd sleep with her because she wouldn't stop waking up in a cold sweat, shaking violently as the panic instantly setted in. He had to keep hugging her telling her she wasn't trapped in her mind, trapped with one bad memory after another.

Some nights, she would just refuse to sleep, causing her stay awake for two or three day maximum. The Ninja had to keep an eye on her to make sure she wouldn't fall on the floor from sheer exhaustion.

Katarina sighs. Her head hits the pillows. She looks up at the ceiling. It had been two months since Garmadon's defeat, since his reign, since Keres, since the S.O.G, since her friends almost died and went to another realm and came back.

Two weeks since the Monastery got rebuilt and she and her friends moved back in their old home.

She grabs her phone off her beside dresser. She looks at the time.

3:00am.

"Huh, the devil's hour. If she comes out and unleashes havoc, I will not be surprised. I mean, demons love 3:00am, it's like their happy hour, maybe that's why they call it the devil's hour-" She groans. She was doing it again, dammit.

"I need a hobby. Wonder if Lloyd is still awake."

That's how Lloyd and Katarina spent the rest of their evening staying up and talking again.

"This is our maximum security wing. We spared no expense, I assure you." The warden explains to Lloyd and Katarina, who had insisted on coming because she didn't feel like spending another moment in the Monastery.

"Very wise." Lloyd mutters. Katarina turns around and sees a security camera keeping its eye on her. She made an uneasy sound.

"They're just a little shaken up from Garmadon's reign and the S.O.G. Can't blame them for being scared." Jay said to Katarina one afternoon.

She sighed. "That doesn't change the fact that I hurt them."

"You didn't hurt them. She did." Kai assured her.

"Easy for you to say."

Lloyd and Katarina came up to a metal door. The warden leans down. A machine scans his eye. "Yep. The entire wing was built for one purpose."