Ninjago: The Purple Ninja - Book 2

Crystalized: Chapter 6 - A Painful Promise

"We're running out of time!" Wu says worriedly to Pixal and Skylor, while he paces around the room anxiously.

"Not sure how long I can keep this up!" Skylor grunts.

"The cooling units are pushed to their limits, but the temperature keeps rising." Pixal says. Aspheera looks behind her, seeing that the trio was busy, and gets up from her chair to busy herself elsewhere. She had been meaning to take a real good look around the place for a long while. "If she gets too warm, Nya will completely melt."

"And we'll lose her forever." He says sadly.

The main computer shows the Ninja and Keres had gotten on the truck that had Aspheera's staff, with Zane sending a message that they need more time since something had clearly gone wrong. 

"The Ninja and Keres have acquired Aspheera's staff, but there appear to have been complications. ETA 45 minutes. We need to stall Aspheera." Pixal whispers.

Both Wu and Pixal turn their heads to see Aspheera was no longer sitting down at the table where they left her. She was gone. "Where is Aspheera?"

The serpent slithers her way to one part of the hangar bay, her eyes catching on to a machine with arms. She hums and looks down at its button, and decides to press them to see what it'll do. Pressing one combination of buttons had the arms bend upwards, while another combination revealed what was in the center of the area she was in.

There, hidden in a secret compartment, was the Golden Weapons of Spinjitzu, forged by Kai in order to help them defeat the Omega and the Oni. They were inactive now, holding no power. She smirks and slithers in front of them. "The Weapons of Spinjitzu."

Just as she reaches out for them, Wu stops her. "Please. Don't make yourself at home."

"Isn't it dangerous to have them so close together?" She asks the man in front of her.

"They are currently powerless. There is little risk in keeping all our eggs in one basket at this point." He presses a button that put the compartment back down in its place. She yawns.

"I wouldn't be so bored if I had some paper. I make fantastic origami." She gets out a small origami snake and shows it to him proudly. "It's a hobby I picked up in prison. You know, where you sent me to rot?! Where you reduced me, a sorceress and leader of armies, to folding paper into animals."

"We have more pressing matters here than your arts and crafts, Aspheera!"

"Ah, yes. Your little Nya-sicle. Wish I could help, but your ninja never came back. So I'm leaving." She slithers away from him, but he uses his Spinjitzu to hurry towards her. He gets back in front of her.

"You agreed to save Nya by draining her powers!"

"If you brought me my staff, which you didn't!" Aspheera reminds Wu. "The ninja clearly failed, so time for me to ssslither on down the road."

She slithers away from him again, but desperate to keep her here until the Ninja and Keres came back with the staff, he runs towards her again. "Wait! I'm sure they'll be back soon. What will keep you here?"

She stops in her tracks and smirks. "Interesting question. When I was in prison, I spent a lot of time dreaming about defeating the Treacherous Deceiver in a variety of ways." She points directly at him. "That's you. You're the Treacherous Deceiver."

She resumes her slithering. He catches up to her. "I know you believe that of me."

"Then why did you stare like you had no idea what I was talking about? Don't make me the villain."

He sighs. "What do you have in mind?"

"How about a series of contests? To test our strength and cunning." She suggests. His eyes widen. "With Nya in mortal danger, you expect me to –?!"