The Imperial Battle II: The Emperor of Ninjago

Chapter 24. Caught in Crossfire

A/N: After this chapter, there will be a minor pause of updates because your author is going on a trip for two weeks. But after that, hopefully very soon after, there will be more chapters published. :)

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Lloyd watched as tons and tons of wet earth approached him. The mass of brown and gray was sliding towards him down the steep mountain. It was coming closer and closer by the second.

Like following an intuition, Lloyd took off running up the opposite mountain. He kept his course on the emptiness that lay behind the exit of the valley. It was safety. But he would never make it there in time.

Lloyd grabbed onto ledges and grass, anything his fingers could curl around. He dragged himself up the slope while making his way towards the end of the valley. He was getting closer. It was as though he was jumping from one spot to another, always coming closer and closer to the exit.

But just before he would've reached safety, a heavy weight swept over him and trapped him in deep darkness. It held him down, struck him, punched him, kicked him and pummeled him. Every inch of his body was brutally beaten until he was too weak to carry on. The earth kept piling up on him, leaving him with no oxygen, no light and no feeling.

Lloyd snapped awake and sat up abruptly, consequently slamming his head against a shelf, dropping objects and knocking over a few brooms. It took him and his panicked mind a while to remind himself where in Ninjago he was and why there were brooms and buckets around him, but eventually he remembered the events of the previous night.

Lloyd had, as planned, snuck aboard the Bounty and, with a lack of any great hiding places, taken refuge in the broom cupboard. It was a tiny room with a single, round window, dust everywhere, and lots of cleaning equipment. It had probably been the worst choice of hiding spot after the closet in the sleeping cabin. For practical and moral reasons, Lloyd had not chosen the closet.

Regardless, here he was now, traveling with the team unbeknownst to the team itself.

Slowly recovering from his terrible nightmare, Lloyd seated himself on the floor more properly, ensuring his leg wasn't in an uncomfortable position. He grabbed and opened his backpack to pull out his bottle of water, thinking water would help him calm down. He blindly rummaged through the bag until his hand came in contact with something— something soft and smooth. Fabric. It was not the same texture as the backpack itself, but something else.

Knowing he had opted not to pack clothing additional to the ugly jumper and jeans he was already wearing, Lloyd grasped the fabric and pulled it out of the bag to examine it. He brought it closer to the window to shed some daylight onto it in order to see it better. Just then, he realized what it was. Or what they were.

In his hands, tied together with a little ribbon, there were two pieces of clothing; a light green hanbok with golden leaf patterns on it, and a green martial arts hanfu with a dark green dragon traveling across the jacket, black details decorating the sleeves, a golden sash, and dark straps to bind the sleeves and trouser legs from flapping about. And near the collar, on a strip of dark green fabric, there was something written in golden, ancient letters.

The Green Ninja.

Realizing this must've been what his grandfather had put in his bag back at the manor, Lloyd gulped and his fingers tightened around the clothes. He felt a cold little twinge in his heart, both because he grew very confused over his conflicted feelings regarding his grandfather, and because the words reminded him of what he had not been able to do for months: protect his people.

Lloyd sighed and stood up in the middle of all the fallen objects. He carefully unfolded the hanfu in his hands and got dressed in it. During that he unfortunately caught a glimpse of the two painful scars on his shin and calf. The short, thick scars with cloud white, damaged skin around them. He paused for a moment, just staring at his leg and picturing the katana puncturing it like it had back at the fallen Oni Temple. He felt his body temperature surge immediately, which finally shook him out of his terrible memories and made him continue getting dressed. Once done, he made sure to adjust the red little Yang necklace Kai had given him, taking a moment to smile at it.