Onyx and the Tournament of Elements

Prologue: Aftermath

After Zane's memorial, the team fell apart. Jay went on to host a game show, Cole left Ninjago entirely with a lumberjack company, Kai had somehow gotten involved in an illegal fight club, Lloyd kept up the ninja work, and Onyx had managed to get employed at a greasy,
hole-in-the-wall burger joint. She'd been right about not having anywhere to go if the team fell apart, and she'd fallen back on the one thing she could reliably do without a birth certificate. Waiting tables at ridiculous hours for conceited people.

Onyx felt lost without the team. She'd been so young when Wu took her in, and the others had become her family. She'd spent longer with them than she had with her original. When they'd begun to go their separate ways, she'd felt helpless, like a ship being thrown around in a violent storm.

Onyx walked down the sidewalk after a particularly late shift, tugging at the itchy collar of her too-big uniform, going back to the room in the monastery Misako and Garmadon had been kind enough to lend her. Lloyd was staying there as well, but Onyx had hardly seen him about lately. She scrubbed at her face with her collar, trying to get rid of the sticky feeling from a soda a particularly rowdy customer had thrown at her.

She froze as she heard someone shouting in an alleyway. Onyx hesitated for a moment. In the months following Zane's death, crime had increased, and with only one ninja handling it, things were even worse. She'd been avoiding fighting, because every time she battled, misdirected fury at the Overlord threatened to spill over. Onyx shook her head as the female voice screamed again and dashed towards it. She hoped that it was just a mugging.

Onyx quickly located the source of the trouble. A thuggish man was pinning a short woman up against the alley wall and rummaging through her purse. Onyx curled her lip. Deliberately targeting someone smaller who wouldn't be able to put up as much of a fight? That wasn't something she'd ever be able to tolerate.

"Let her go," Onyx ordered. The man's head swiveled to her. "Who the hell are you?" He asked, smirking, assuming that he'd easily be able to handle the skinny teen. Onyx answered by blasting him in the face with her element. The moment he was down, she leapt on top of him, kicking his face into the ground and twisting his arm behind his back. "Drop the bag," Onyx ordered. The man immediately complied. It was pathetic how easily he gave up in the face of adversary. Onyx tossed the purse back to the woman and jerked her head, signaling for her to run.

When the woman had gone, Onyx's eyes narrowed at the man. People insisted on hurting each other over and over. It'd be so much easier to just permanently stop them. Maybe if they'd done that, Zane wouldn't have-no. No. She couldn't let herself fall down that dark rabbithole. Onyx shook her head and stepped off of the man. He wasn't the Overlord.  He didn't deserve to die. "Leave, before I change my mind," she snapped. The man nodded and staggered away, cupping his bleeding mouth. Onyx stared after him and frowned. She hadn't used her element in upwards of a month, and utilizing it again made her miss the team all over again. She leaned back against the brick wall with a groan, sliding down it into a sitting position.

"Need a hand?" A familiar voice said. Onyx jumped and looked up at Lloyd. A dry smile twisted the corner of her mouth. "It's been a while," she remarked. Lloyd nodded. "That's what this is about. It's time we get the team back together," he said, extending a hand. Onyx sighed and nodded, accepting his hand. "And it's about time we started to move on," she added softly. Lloyd only faltered for a brief moment. "Yeah. We've already grieved. There's nothing more we can do," he agreed, walking to of the alleyway with Onyx.