"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."
The door opens, revealing a large dark room. "To hold the rottenest egg of all." In the center of the room was a glass container, shining a light down upon the figure inside.
The warden backs up. "Well... good luck." He turns around and bolts before Lloyd and Katarina had time to react.
"Aren't you gonna—" The door slams shut before Katarina had time to finish her sentence. Lasers block the door's entrance. She hums uneasily. "Stay?"
Lloyd walks over to a lever and pulls it down, activating a bridge to get to the cell. They both walk on the bridge. He was the first to speak. "Hello, Father."
Lord Garmadon lowers the magazine from his face level. The cover had a devilish smile on his face. He dones the same smile at the two. "Well, well, if it isn't the Green Ninja." He turns his attention to Katarina. "And he brought the demon along. To what do I owe the honor?"
Katarina growls. Lloyd puts a protective hand on her. "You sent for me, remember? You said it was urgent."
Lord Garmadon raises an eyebrow. "Did I? Hmm. That doesn't sound like me." He turns his back on them. "I have all the time in the world in here."
Lloyd scoffs. "Fine."
"What a waste of our time-"
Their father turns back around. He smiles. "Oh, yes. I remember now. I did call you." Lloyd and Katarina turn back around to face him. "Do you remember the last time we saw each other? What I said?"
Lloyd furrowed his eyebrows in concentration.
Lloyd had been getting nightmares too, just like he did after Morro's possession. Those nightmares were bad after the possession, but they weren't now after Garmadon's terrible reign. He kept dreaming about Harumi and her death, his father and his Colossus, Keres, his friends dead.
Unlike his post-possession nightmares, he would lay in bed for as long as he could after he woke up in the morning, thinking about the recent events, until his friends or sister told him to get up.
Come to think of it, that was all he had been doing. Thinking. Thinking about his father's words before his arrest. He wouldn't exactly admit that's what's been keeping him up at night.
"When they come, nothing will be left."
"You said something was coming."
Lord Garmadon nods. "Yes, but you didn't listen. And now, I'm afraid there isn't much time"
"Time for what?"
A smile appears. "To prepare for the darkness, destruction. The end of Ninjago!" He turns back around. "And while I'm okay with that, in principle, I'd rather not be destroyed along with you, so I've decided to help you fight them."
Lloyd scoffs. "Fight who?"
"The Bringers of Doom. You and your color-coded little ninja are no match for them. There's only one thing powerful enough to stop them."
Katarina scoffs. "Hm...let me guess. You?"
Lord Garmadon's smile widens. "Let me out, and you might have a chance."
She scoffs again, this time rolling her eyes. "Yeah, right. Like I'm falling for that. Don't take us for fools, Father, because we aren't going to let you out of that cell to fight something that doesn't exist." She turns around and starts walking back to the door.
"You believe me, right, Lloyd?"
"How do I put this? No. N—O. Not if you were the last person in all of Ninjago. There is nothing you will say that will make me trust you ever again. Goodbye."
As he watches his children leave, he chuckles. "You'll be back."
"Bringers of Doom? The end of Ninjago?" Katarina scoffs as she and Lloyd walk out of the prison. "If he wants the end of Ninjago, he should take a look in the mirror and see for himself."
He looks behind him to see the security guards giving her a suspicious yet cautious look. He narrows his eyes at them. The guards, immediately getting the unsaid message, turn their attention elsewhere.
"Yeah. But I can't get what he said out of my head. 'When they come, nothing will be left.' Who does he mean by 'they?'"
She shrugs. "Probably just some last word he wanted to get out before being sent here."
He hums thoughtfully. She ruffles his hair. "You look like you've been thinking about this too hard. Better get home so you can rest that noggin of yours."
He chuckles. "Hey, stop messing with my hair!"
She ruffles it even more. "Never!"
Suddenly, Wu spoke through their intercoms. "Katarina, Lloyd. Are you there?"
Katarina stops messing with Lloyd's hair. "Yes, Master. What's the matter?" He asks through the intercom.
"It's Faith and Firstbourne."
They both share a worried look, then nod. "We're on our way."
Lloyd, Katarina, Nya, Jay, Kai, Zane and Cole waited outside the Monastery for anything new abotu Faith and Firstbourne's condition. When Wu finally opened the door, they perk their heads up and immediately crowded around him so they can get a peek inside.
"How is she?" Katarina asks.
"Will she be okay?" Nya asks next.
Wu nods, walking out of the room with a teapot. He closes the door gently. "I've given her a powerful healing potion. She will recover. As will Firstbourne, though it will take time."
"Did she say what happened?" Cole asks.
Wu puts a tea leaf in his tea cup after he sets the teapot down at a nearby table. A black mist fills the cup before overflowing. "She said a darkness swept over the Realm of Oni and Dragon. She tried to resist it, but it grew and grew, consuming all in its path. Those who were touched by it were frozen where they stood like statues."
"Me and Katarina at Kryptarium Prison, visiting our father. He said something similar. He said 'The darkness is coming.'" Lloyd explains.
Jay immediately goes over to Wu and blows out the black mist. Wu leans his head away. "Well, that's creepy."
"But what is it? What is the darkness?" Cole asks.
Wu turns his attention to Lloyd and Katarina. "What else did he say?"
"He mentioned the Bringers of Doom, and to prepare for the darkness and destruction that will end all of Ninjago." Katarina explains.
Wu hums. "Bringers of doom." He sets the cup down and hurries over to another room outside the Monastery. He grabs a book and flips through the pages.
Finally, he finds what he was looking for. "There. That's it."
The majority of the page was covered in black, and the only thing standing out in the darkness was someone covered in bright purple light.
Cole winces. "I don't like the look of that."
Kai leans against Cole's shoulder and nods. "Oh. Me neither. What is it?"
"It is an Oni. My father called them the Bringers of Doom. He feared that they would one day spread out from their realm and cover all the lands of creation in darkness." Wu explains.
Jay laughs, causing everyone to turn their heads. "That's a crazy legend." His laughter slowly dies down. "Good thing it's just a legend, right?"
"Many legends begin in truth. And if there is any truth to this... we must prepare."
" How?" Lloyd asks.
"We must warn Ninjago City. There isn't a moment to lose." The Ninja nod in unison and run out of the room and towards the Bounty.
"Good thing we have the Bounty back."
Katarina looks at the page worriedly. "The Bringers of Doom." She whispers under her breath. As she continues to stare at the page, the figure in the purple light slowly turns to look at her.
She gasps. The room around her covers itself in darkness. She panics, and tries to make it to the entrance that led outside, but it was blocked.
A hand, her hand, grabs her wrist. She almost screams.
"You can't run away from me forever."
"Sis, c'mon!" Lloyd's voice cuts through, his voice bringing her out of her trance. She gasps, then looks around. The room wasn't covered in darkness anymore, and she found herself still standing in front of the book, which was still open.
She backs away from the book slowly, then turns to run. "I'm coming! Wait up!"
Little did they know, black tendrils were swarming their way out of the Realm Crystal back at Borg Tower.
The Ninja marveled immediately when they stepped foot inside the Bounty.
"No way. Look at this thing."
"Wow."
'Whoa."
"Huh. This looks just like the old Bounty."
Jay and Cole start to fiddle with the buttons and controls of their ship.
"They did a wonderful job."
As everyone marvels at the sight of their beloved ship, memories went through Katarina's head.
Lloyd looks at Katarina and hands Wu to her. "Here, take him."
She gives a surprised look. "What?!"
"Someone needs to handle Harumi. We both know that you have the best chance to make the jump."
"We have to go back." Katarina says.
"I'll circle around."
The Bounty tilts sideways, causing Katarina to gasp and tumble over the side of the ship as the Colossus slowly crumbles the ship. She summons one of her daggers and stabs it into the side of the ship.
Katarina tries to get back up to the deck of the ship while she helplessly watches parts of the ship fall to the ground. She could feel the ship shake from the Colossus, making it difficult for her to climb back up.
Finally, the Bounty crumbles and crushes in the Colossus' hands. Katarina screams and falls towards the ground with the remains of the Bounty.
Katarina opens her eyes weakly. She shakily supports the upper half of her body, and looks at the remains of the Bounty.
"Guys? Are you okay?"
"No sign of the Ninja or the child on board, Quiet One." Killow speaks into his comm a few minutes later.
"Good."
"Kat!"
Katarina snaps back to reality. She felt a hand on her shoulder. "Are you okay? You kinda...zoned out there for a sec." Kai's voice says worriedly.
She nods. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just thinking." She lies. She knew he wouldn't entirely believe the lie, but it was enough for him to nod, pat her shoulder gently and walk over to Jay.
Suddenly, the ship lurches backwards, causing her to widen her eyes and startle. She instinctively went to grab any part of the ship to keep herself steady.
"What was that?" Nya asks Zane from the steering wheel.
"Forwards, Zane. Not backwards." Lloyd tells Zane.
Zane looks at a sticker on one of the levers. He pulls it off and turns it around. "Someone must have wired the lever wrong." He reports to his friends. He pulls the lever down, allowing the Bounty to go forward.
Only then did she breathe a sigh of relief.
The Bounty sped over the water that led to the city at full speed. Zane looks at the computer, which was beeping a lot. "Uh, guys? I'm picking up a lot of distress calls on UHF."
Cole groans. "We're too late."
"Not if we have anything to say about it." Katarina says.
Lloyd nods. "Maximum speed!"
"Hold on, everyone!" Nya presses a button near the steering wheel that would activate the thrusters at full speed. As the Ninja waited for it, the thrusters sputter. She groans and mutters a curse word under her breath.
"Come on you, unhinged ship!" She kicks one part of the ship. The thrusters finally power up. The ship goes at full speed.
Meanwhile, the Commissioner and his police force were guiding the people away from the darkness. "Come on! Go, go, go! Don't look back! Don't stop! Just run! Get out of here!"
"Uh, sir. It's here." One of the officers stutter. They point to the darkness, which was slowly approaching the Commissioner and his police force.
The Commissioner cracks his knuckles as he kept his eyes on the darkness with determination. "Okay, boys...this is why we get paid the big bucks. Draw your weapons!"
Another officers clears their throat. "Uh, sir? Wha—we only have tasers, remember?"
"What?" The Commissioner swiftly turns around.
The first police officer pulls out a baton. "I don't even have a taser. I just got this thing."
Left with no other option and with the darkness only creeping ever so closer, they were only left with one option."Oh, for crying out loud. Fall back! Get out of here. Run!"
They do just that.
As they run, the darkness approaches from the other side, causing them to stop. "Where now?"
The Commissioner frantically looks around, until he spots a nearby alley. "The alley. Go, go."
They go into the alley, but as they continue to run down, they stop, coming up at a dead end. "Aw, it's a dead end."
The Commissioner groans. " This isn't my day."
"What do we do?"
He looks around. "Anyone have any bright ideas?" The first police officer gets out a flashlight and tosses it into the darkness that was getting closer to them. The flashlight flickers on and off before it turns off completely.
He backs up, protecting his fellow officers. "Steady, boys. Steady..."
Suddenly, rope and ladder go down in front of them. The police force look up and cheer. "The ninja." The Ninja jump down the rope and ladder. "Oh, boy, are we glad to see you guys."
"Commissioner, get your officers out of here." Katarina tells him. The officers nod eagerly and hurriedly climb up the ladder that led to the Bounty, one by one.
Once they were on the Bounty, Lloyd turns his head to Jay as they all turn to face the darkness. "Okay, let's see what this is made of. Care to do the honors, Jay?"
Jay smirks. "My pleasure." He summons his electricity in his hands. He twists his body in the air and lands on his feet. His lightning goes towards the darkness.
But the weird part was that it didn't have any effect on the darkness.
Jay laughs nervously and backs up. Kai summons his fire. "Let's see how it likes fire!" He directs a fireball at the darkness, but it doesn't make any difference. Kai stands there, baffled.
"Okay, everybody at the same time." Lloyd orders the Ninja. Everyone nods in unison and summons their powers at the exact same time.
"Ninja go!"
They strike their powers at the darkness in unison. But even using their powers at the same time did nothing. And that was starting to become frustrating.
"Our elemental powers appear to be ineffective." Zane notes.
Kai scoffs. "Yeah, no kidding. What do we do?"
"Nya, get us out of here." Lloyd speaks through his comms.
"You got it!" One by one, the Ninja climb up the ropes and ladder as the Bounty rises into the air. When Cole gets on the rope, a black tendril snakes up from the black cloud and wraps itself around his leg, causing him to yelp with surprise.
"Uh, guys? Help! It's got me!" They look down to see Cole's grasp was slipping from the rope.
"I got this!" Katarina says. The tendril finally manages to bring him down. He hits the ground, hard. The tendril then slowly drags him towards the cloud.
As the tendril brings him closer, he sees a flash of purple in the dark cloud, outlining a figure within. His eyes widen, both in curiousity and fear.
She lands on the ground, and summons her magic. She was about to hit the cloud so the impact would be just enough for the tendril to draw back.
But she couldn't. Her magic, she used to hurt people, innocent people, she can't bring herself to use it again, she can't.
Summoning her magic away, she runs over to Cole. She raises her foot up in the air and stomps on the tendril. It draws back into the cloud immediately. She helps him up. "Come on, buddy. I got ya. Time to get out of here!" She grabs onto another rope as he wraps an arm around her shoulders.
The darkness was coming in fast.
There was no time to lose.
"Reel us in! NOW!"
The rope pulls them up.
Hours later, more citzens were on the Bounty. The Ninja tend to the frightened and shake-up citizens, by offering them tea and assurance. But while they were busy doing that, Lloyd was looking over the Bounty.
The city was shrouded in darkness now.
He couldn't help but think his father was right.
Nya, Kai, Zane, Cole, Jay, and Katarina join him moments later.
"We hit it with everything we had, and it did nothing. It just went right through it." Kai says.
"How are we supposed to fight something like that?" Nya wonders aloud.
Cole, on the other hand, shudders. " I-I touched it. It was colder than anything I've ever felt. And there was something inside the cloud. I think it was an Oni."
"An Oni? In that dark cloud down there?" Katarina says.
"Maybe we can't fight it. But I know someone who can."
Her eyes widen when she realizes what her brother meant. "Oh no! Absolutely not!"
"It's the only way."
"The last thing these people need right now is him! They're already scared and shaken up, bringing him here, on board, will only increase that."
"Do you have any other bright ideas? I'm all ears." Lloyd says, crossing his arms. He sighs softly. "If we bring her into this, she wouldn't be able to help."
She sighs. "I know. But what if he's lying? About being the only one to help us beat them?"
"He was right that we weren't able to go against them. He was right about the darkness. I have my reasons to think that he'll be right about this one." He explains.
She reluctantly nods. She puts a hand on his shoulder. "I hope so."
That's how the Ninja ended up at Lord Garmadon's cell. He couldn't help but smirk at their pity arrival, while he sat at his table. "Well, well. Look who's back."
"How do we stop it?" Lloyd asks him. He watches his father brush off nonexistent dust off his table.
"You can't." He gets up and walks towards the front of his cell, facing Lloyd and his friends. "f you were to enter the darkness, you would succumb to it. The only way to defeat an Oni is with another Oni. You need me."
Katarina growls, baring her teeth a little. She glares at her approaching father. Jay laughs nervously. "Ha, ha, ha. Like that's gonna happen. Ha, ha. That's not gonna happen, is it?"
Lloyd huffs. "What choice do we have? Open cell one!"
The glass dome that was his father's cell opens up slowly.
And just like that, he was free.