Ninjago: The Purple Ninja - Book 2

SOFS: Fire Chapter 5 - The Explorer's Club

A/N: Please know that Katarina will be using they/them pronouns when she uses her power of Form in this chapter, as she goes by she/they pronouns. Please respect that. Thank you, and enjoy the chapter.

After Zane, Nya, Katarina and Lloyd learned that Wu was the Treachorous Deciever, they were surprised. Cole explained the whole thing to them, and told them to look for Clutch Powers and ask him for the second Scroll of Forbidden Spinjitzu. It turned out he was in the hospital, recovering from his encounter with Aspheera, and told the group it was at the Explorer's Club.

The entire ride to the hospital and to the Explorer's Club, Katarina was silent. Nya assumed she was angry at Wu, and just didn't want to show it, and Lloyd knew she was right. Katarina had been stewing in anger from the moment Cole told them the news. Lloyd knew just how to get her mind off it.

He clears his throat as they were nearing their destination. "So...new daggers, huh?"

Katarina perks up and turns her attention to him. She nods slightly. "Yeah, Keres gifted them to me. Long story short, we trust each other now."

"That's nice of her. And that's nice of you to trust her, even after what she did."

"Yeah." She summons one of her daggers. He takes a look at the golden blade.

"No offense, but your new daggers look so much better than your old ones. I love the way the blades look." He says, admiring the look of the golden blade. "It's so...cool, I'm envious."

She examines the blade. "The handle looks pretty nice, too. At least now my weapons are up to speed with yours. I have been thinking about getting some new ones for a while, so my old ones wouldn't look so out of place with yours, but I didn't go through with it."

"Sis, you know I don't care whether or not you're keeping up with us, in terms of weapons and stuff. Why didn't you go through with it before?"

She sighs. "Sucker for sentimentality, I guess," She summons her dagger away. "Why do you think the scroll didn't work for me? Is it true that I can't harness its power because of what I am?"

"What do you mean?"

"Back at the museum, the scroll didn't work for like the way it worked for you and Aspheera. It made you guys powerful...and for me, it turned me into the worst version of myself."

"When I saw you hold that scroll, it turned you into some...demon. It looked similar to Keres' demon form when she attacked our father. But the scroll responded to you, just not the way you expected. At least it made you powerful, in a way."

"But that power...it didn't...feel right. When I held the scroll, it hurt for a moment. But after that...it was gone. It...It felt like I was connecting myself fully to Keres, like I was harnessing her power along with mine. Maybe the reason it hurt was because I was taking Keres' power momentarily and...it hurt her, too."

He puts a hand on Katarina's shoulder. "You know you didn't mean to hurt her, sis."

She sighs. "Yeah, I know. I just wish it didn't have to be so painful for the both of us."

A few minutes later, she, Lloyd, Katarina and Zane arrived at the Explorer's Club in both the Land Bounty and the ShuriCopter. They run towards its doors, and kick down the doors. Zane had his shurikens held out threateningly, as he, along with his friends, got into their fighting stances. They were prepared to attack anyone who got in their way.

They quickly got out of their fighting stances when they see no one in the lobby to greet them. Someone clears their throat. They look to their left to see it was an old man wearing glasses and a light brown vest. He had a dark brown bow tie and a white button up shirt, along with a small beard and mustache. He was carrying a cup of tea in one hand as he stood behind a desk.