Determining Destiny (Book 3 of the Enchanted DVD Player tetralogy)

13 - Aspheera's Anacondrai

Kai's POV

Ten minutes have passed since my teammates went to the museum. Not gonna lie, it's kind of boring to not be a part of the mission.

"Oh, screw it," I mutter, and start running towards the museum. "I don't want to miss the action, with powers or without!"

"Aspheera got away with the scroll!" Lloyd calls as I approach the front doors. "We have to go after her!"

"Not so fast, grasshopper," I say, grabbing him by the hood as he tries to run past me.

"Kai's right," Zane says. "We should think things through before attacking again."

"Well, we can't just stand here!"

"Well, then how about this? You, Nya and Zane will go find Aspeera and try to take back the scroll, while the rest of us head to the serpentine to find out more about Aspeera and the treacherous deceiver," Cole suggests.

"Sounds like a plan," Nya says. "Let's go!"

——————y/n's POV, the monastery———

"Wait, you are the deceiver?" Cole exclaims, just as Sensei finishes his story.

"Yes, boulderbrain, he just explained it!" I exclaim.

"Your version of the story is much different from the serpentine's," Jay observes. We had just come from the sewers where Scales' librarian friend told us the story of Aspheera and the treacherous deceiver, or at least, what they knew of it.

"Yes, well—What was that?" Sensei stops mid-sentence as we hear a crashing noise in the courtyard. We all rush to the window to see what's going on, and speak of the devil, Aspheera and her giant fire snake are breaking down the doors.

"With a snake that size, why doesn't she just slither right over the walls?" I wonder, but then Cole grabs me by the arm and pulls me to get going.

We rush out to the living room, following Pixal to a high-tech looking door. She presses a button, and the door leads us to a secret safe room with a lot of interesting technology.

"Whoa—when did you build all this?" Jay asks.

"I've been working on it while you've been gone," Pixal answers. "Mr. Borg allowed me to leave his industry to help you guys, and with you at the tournament, I've had a lot of time on my hands."

Everybody nods with approval. "So, what's the plan?" Kai asks.

"There's this project I've been working on," Pixal says, pressing a button to reveal a mech. "But it's not quite finished."

"Cool! New mech!" Jay cheers.

"Let's get working!" Cole adds.

"Hey, Pixal?" I ask while the others go get blowtorches and stuff to fix the mech. "You got a pillow I can borrow?"

"Uh... does a seat cushion count?"

"Good enough."

I take the cushion, press it to my face, and scream as loud as I can into it.

"Everything alright, y/n?" She asks.

"Yep, just fine."

Pixal takes the cushion back and goes to help the others with fixing the new mech.

"Something is troubling you," Sensei observes.

"What gave it away?" I ask sarcastically.

"What's wrong?"

I sigh. "Things are getting a little out of hand," I say. "The whole Sons of Garmadon thing happening at the same time as the tournament of elements was enough on its own, but now we have to deal with Aspheera, too? There are too many things happening at once... not to mention we still have to get back to the island so we can prevent Harumi and Clouse from resurrecting Garmadon."

"Resurrecting Garmadon?" Sensei repeats.

"Oh, yeah," I say meekly. "I forgot to tell you about that."

"Knowing Clouse, I'm sure they're planning on bringing back only the evil side of him, which is a horrible idea."

"Exactly," I say with a nod. "You know, I tried to warn the other ninja not enter the pyramid with Aspheera's tomb, but they didn't listen. They haven't been thinking about the consequences of their actions, and now things have gotten unmanageable."

"Not unmanageable, just more difficult. I'm sure we can come up with a plan."

"For the sake of Ninjago, I hope so," I sigh, just as another loud crash comes from outside. "At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if Aspheera was the one building an army of Anacondrai."