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

9 - Genie in a Bottle

"As for the rest of you," Chen starts. "Meet me in the throne room."

We all exchange glances, wondering why we need to have a meeting. We follow him anyway, and gather around his throne as we wait for him to start talking.

"I'm not oblivious," Chen says. "I know you've formed an alliance."

Nobody says anything.

Chen scowls and rolls his eyes, as if frustrated that we aren't confessing. After a few more moments of silence, he claps his hands, and a guard marches in holding onto Skylor, a knife pressed against her throat.

"Skylor?" Kai asks, confused.

"I'm sorry!" she exclaims to us, resiting against the guard's hands, which are holding her back from trying to escape. "Clouse heard our meeting downstairs, and he threatened to kill all of you if I didn't tell him the truth!"

I reach for Lloyd's hand and he pulls me in for a hug. I always feel safe whenever I'm in his arms.

"I was going to wait until only one was remaining, but since you all spoiled my fun, I've decided to speed things up a bit and just take all of your powers now!" Chen says.

"Here are the prisoners you asked for," Clouse says as he enters the room, along with Nya, Cole, and Camile.

"Good, good. I might as well extract all of their powers in one go, rather than do each of them individually after each match!"

Where are the others? I mouth to Cole and Nya. They both shrug their shoulders and shake their heads.

Chen holds the staff out towards us and starts extracting our powers. However, I use the power of sound to block the vacuuming waves. I didn't think it was going to work, but after a quick test of my powers, I realize that my idea was successful.

"Now, take them all to the factory!"

"Wait! Father, please, spare Kai!" Skylor begs. "You can have my power if you let him go."

"Fine, leave the red one! Oh, and also the f/c one; she's nice to look at."

I gag. "Creepy."

"It'll be okay, y/n," Lloyd assures me as he slowly lets go of my hand to join the others.

After the others are taken away, Chen leads me and Kai down a hallway full of artifacts with historical value. Chen points to certain pieces as we pass them, sometimes making up stories about them.

"...A scale from the great devourer, Captain Soto's peg leg, a cog from the celestial clock, Zane's pink gi—"

"How the f*ck do you even have that?" I ask. Despite the situation, I'm about to burst into laughter.

Chen ignores my question. He continues to go on about a few more artifacts, but I don't pay attention. I'm still snickering about Zane's pink gi; that was a really great prank. 

"And this!" Chen exclaims, pointing to a painting of a group of Anaconrai warriors. I'm not listening, so I don't hear the name of it. "It's beautiful, isn't it? The reds, the purples, the really dark purples..."

"I'm no professional, but I don't see any purple," I say. 

Chen glares at me. He's likely regretting his decision to bring me along. Ha, serves him right. 

I raise my hands up defensively and turn away from him. Once I'm facing the other way, I notice something that brings back memories.

"Is that... a lamp?"

"Why, yes! I'm glad you noticed," Chen says. "That is a magical lamp that contains a genie."

"Not for long," I mutter, and approach the pedestal. I take the lamp off the cushion it's resting on, and rub it.

"No, wait!" Chen cries, but it's too late. The genie—Nadakhan, or whatever his name is—floats out.

"Okay genie," I say. "I'd like to make a wish."

"I'm a djin," Nadakhan huffs.

"Whatever. I wish you would become a non-magical human being."

"No!" he cries, but he has to grant the wish. With a grimace, he snaps his fingers, and he becomes a human.

"Pleasure doing business with ya," I say, sticking out my hand.

Nadakhan doesn't return the gesture. Instead, he turns and walks away, grumbling to himself.

"What just happened?" Kai asks.

"I just prevented a huge amount of unnecessary suffering."

"Okay... well, anyway, I've got a plan," Kai whispers to me. Chen is so busy talking about the Anacondrai that he doesn't hear our conversation.

"What do you have in mind?"

"There's no time to explain! Just go with everything I say."

————time skip————

"Kai! Y/n! You escaped!" Lloyd exclaims, happy to see us after he broke out of the factory. But then Kai turns around with a grim expression.

"Kai?"

"Sorry Lloyd, this will all make sense when this is over."

Kai blows out the torch he's holding, and the next thing we know, both me and Lloyd are standing in an arena with Chen in front of us.

"Hold on—why am I here?" I state, narrowing my eyes.

"Yes, why are you?" Chen says, genuinely confused. "Bye bye!"

"Whoa!" I cry as Chen presses a button and a trapdoor appears beneath me. I jump out of the way just in time.

"Y/n!" Lloyd yells, grabbing my hand and pulling me against him. Then he turns to Chen; "If she goes down, so do I."

Chen scowls. "Well, I guess she won't be much use to you anyway."

"What is that supposed to mean?!" I protest.

"Get ready, Lloyd! Only one can remain!" Chen taunts, getting prepared for a fight.

"Let's just get this over with," I say, rolling my eyes.

"Agreed," Lloyd replies. We both summon our energy powers--his green, mine f/c--and get ready to fire them at Chen when the time is right.

"Ha, ha!" Chen cries as he uses his staff to fire a blast of ice at us, but I block it easily.

"That all you got?" I taunt, firing a stream of f/c energy at him.

----five minutes later---

"Wow," I say disbelievingly. "That was easier than I thought."

"Yeah," Lloyd agrees, finishing tying a rope around Chen. We had just defeated him, and are now tying him to the pillar on the side of the arena until we can decide what to do with him.

"Mark my words, you will pay for this!" Chen spits. "My partner in crime will make sure of it!"

"Partner?" Lloyd repeats. "You mean Clouse?"

"No, you fools!  He is just a servant! I've had an elaborate plan in mind for years, and my colleague will not be pleased with you, oh no, she won't."

"She?" I wonder.

"Yes, there are plenty of female villains in the history of Ninjago! Don't be sexist," Chen says.

"I am not!  I just can't remember any that are supposed to appear in the future..."

"Hey, n/n?" Lloyd asks sweetly. "Can you maybe save the crazy talk for later?"

"Oh, right, sure."

"C'mon," Lloyd says, pulling me. "We have to go find the others."

"Shouldn't we deal with Chen first?"

"Nah, he'll be fine. It's not like he can untie himself."

I sigh and roll my eyes. "That's what everyone says right before it happens!"