(Artwork by Me :P)
Lloyd peered around the corner and down the dark hallway. No sign of life stirred. It was spooky. He shivered in the blue silk dress he wore and adjusted his wig. Where is everyone?
Earlier Little Leaf had noted there had been odd noises coming from downstairs, and when Lloyd listened he thought he'd heard something like people screaming. He had a bad feeling it had something to do with Black Blood and her Moon Tribe warriors. He hoped the rest of the team were all right.
"Where is everyone?" he repeated out loud, glancing warily up and down the empty hallway.
"Shh," Little Leaf—or Lloyd-Leaf, seeing that she was in his form and wearing his clothes—shushed him quietly. "I can smell them—my tribe-mates." A frown crossed the face that wasn't hers, and she brushed a strand of blond hair out of her face. "They're probably nearby, now that they've taken the castle."
"You're sure they've captured it and everybody in it?"
"I can't imagine them doing anything else." Lloyd-Leaf took a breath and looked at Lloyd in his feminine costume. "All right. We're going to split up: you go find the others, and I'll find my tribe-mates and distract them from capturing you."
"All right," Lloyd agreed with a nod, looking at his clone. "Just... be careful, OK?"
"Relax," Lloyd-Leaf assured as they turned a corner of the corridor. "I'll be fine—"
It was at that moment the two of them walked rather comically into a pair of a Moon Tribe warriors patrolling the hallway, who voiced startled meows when two teenagers bumped into them.
"OK, we have got to be more careful than that," Lloyd-Leaf groaned.
"Run!" The two of them turned and raced away, but Lloyd found himself tripping helplessly over the skirt of his ridiculous dress, and he sprawled onto the floor with a low grunt. Fortunately, his wig sat securely on his head, so the only hint that he wasn't a girl was the masculine groan he voiced when one of the werecats pounced upon his back and pinned him to the carpeted floor.
"Going somewhere, pretty thing?" Aaguttural voice purred mockingly in his ear. "Get up." A strong hand with long, dirty nails snatched the neck of his dress and yanked him to his feet.
Lloyd saw the second Moon Tribe warrior grabbing Lloyd-Leaf and dragging her over to him. Lloyd-Leaf grunted and struggled against her captor, then cried out indignantly in Lloyd's voice, "Let us go, you ugly fur-ball!"
Lloyd couldn't help but feel impressed by Little Leaf's convincing impersonation of him. He wondered if she had been taking notes on his personality earlier in case of a situation like this when they had first met. He found the thought rather creepy, and suppressed a shiver.
"And who might you be, young human?" the werecat gripping Lloyd-Leaf's arm growled menacingly.
Lloyd-Leaf met his catlike stare defiantly. "What makes you think I should tell you?"
The warrior's eyes flashed dangerously. "The fact that I am feeling hungry right now, and you look somewhat tasty, little tom." He raised the other hand up in the air, glaring at Lloyd-Leaf, and morphed it into a furry paw, where white claws shot out and glinted in the dim light of the corridor.
The werecat holding Lloyd abruptly raised a hand in the air. "Wait."
The first werecat whirled around and glared at his companion. "What?"
The second warrior was staring at Lloyd-Leaf, bright feline eyes narrowed to slits. Lloyd-Leaf shifted under his searching gaze, looking uneasy.
Lloyd held his breath. They won't recognize Little Leaf's scent, right? She should smell like me now—at least, I think she does. What will happen if they recognize her? Will they discover me? Oh, First Spinjitzu Master, please don't let me die in a dress!
"Bramble Wing..." the warrior said. "I think we ought to take this tom and she-man to Black Blood."
"What for?" Bramble Wing growled, scowling. "We've been working all night, and I'm hungry. We deserve a little treat."
"Look at the tom." The werecat nodded to Lloyd-Leaf. "Doesn't he match the description of the Son of the First?"
Bramble Wing glared at Lloyd-Leaf and shrugged. "So he's a young golden-and-green-pelted tom-man. There are probably lots of humans who look like him."
"You know the Son of Earth was captured here and the Son of Ice and Daughter of Water were seen here during the fighting, right?" Lloyd's captor arched an eyebrow. "The only one not accounted for so far is the Son of the First."
Bramble Wing looked at Lloyd-Leaf, back at his companion, then sighed reluctantly. "Mouse dung... fine." He added with a scowl, "What about the female? At least..." He screwed up his nose and made a face at Lloyd. "I think it's a female. It smells bad."
Good, Lloyd thought with a small sigh of relief. The perfume's working. They can't tell I'm a guy. Of course, he added. Now I smell like a beauty parlor. I hope nobody I know sees me like this.
"Take her, too," the werecat responded.
* * *
Bramble Wing and the other werecat forced Lloyd and Lloyd-Leaf up a set of stairs that led to a different floor, where they were taken to a large, spacious room. The warriors slammed the doors open and dragged the humans inside, then flung them to the ground with a heave.
"Bramble Wing? Mist Rise?" A young woman's voice sounded from the other end of the room. "What is this, may I ask?"
Lloyd grunted and sat up on his knees, feeling that his legs were rather constrained by his skirt, and he marveled that any woman who wore dresses like these could even walk. He decided that Nya didn't get the credit she deserved for being able to fight skeletons, snakes, stone warriors, and nindroids in those dresses she wore before she became a ninja.
"We found these two wandering the hallways as if they owned them, Black Blood," Mist Rise replied, closing the doors behind him firmly. "One of them looks like one of the humans we've been after."
Lloyd quickly scanned his new surroundings. The wide, cold room they were in was sparsely decorated and dimly lit, with several torches lining the circular wall. The flickering flames reflected off of the clean surface of the marble floor, and everyone's movement echoed throughout the chamber. The only furniture were a couple of couches and a rug shoved to the side, and at the far end of the room a desk table stood. This had probably been some sort of lounge for the higher-ranking followers of Dog Bone.
"You think so, hmm?" the voice responded quietly. "I'll be the judge of that."
Lloyd looked up to see several people in ragged animal skins standing together at the desk table, as if in the middle of a discussion. One of them stepped forward and stared down at the two prisoners: Black Blood. She no longer wore the servant girl's simple gown. Instead she had donned dark robes that fell stylishly across her figure in mixed colors of night-blue, black, violet and a misty green. Her coal-black hair fell in soft waves around her face and down her shoulders, and her green eyes and red lips stood out on her pale, hard face. Around her waist was a leather belt carrying a sheathed sword-like weapon of some kind—whatever it was, Lloyd couldn't see it very well.
Black Blood walked up to the two humans slowly, eyes looking at them with a scrutinizing intensity. Lloyd glanced at Lloyd-Leaf. She/he crouched on her knees as he did, frozen rigid and staring at Black Blood. Lloyd wasn't sure if the fear he saw in her eyes on his face was real or not.
This must be really creepy for Leaf... Pretending to be the enemy and facing her sister who wants to kill the person she's impersonating as, he thought dimly.
Some sort of silent threat from the surrounding werecats kept the two teens kneeling on the floor wordlessly. Bramble Wing and Mist Rise had bound their hands before taking them up; Lloyd found himself helpless in the face of one of the most dangerous enemies he's ever faced.
Black Blood stopped and gazed down at the two humans. After several long moments that seemed like forever, she murmured, "What do they call you, young tom?"
Lloyd-Leaf cleared her throat unsteadily and replied in Lloyd's voice, "I'm— I'm Lloyd. Lloyd Montgomery Garmadon."
How did she know—? Oh, right, I told her about humans' full names. Right. Lloyd remembered.
He stiffened when Black Blood turned to him. "And what might they call you, young she-man?" She wrinkled her nose in disgust. "Who smells funny."
Lloyd found himself frozen. His name? They hadn't talked about a name! They hadn't even planned on him getting captured! This was all going wrong!
Lloyd-Leaf was staring at him pleadingly. Lloyd licked his lips and stared back up at Black Blood. Her eyes were cold and hard. Would she guess the deception? Did she already know?
She was still waiting for an answer, and Lloyd feared to take another second longer. He cleared his throat, moved his voice to what he hoped was a respectable girlish pitch, and rasped. "E— Elizabeth. I'm Elizabeth... uh— Grayson."
Black Blood's lips curved in mocking amusement. "Are you some sort of special female friend of Lloyd's? You must be rather close to be on one of his missions. How sweet."
Lloyd thought, Welp, this just got weird.
Lloyd-Leaf chose that moment to speak up. "That's right, and if you so much as lay one paw on her, you'll pay!"
OK, so now I'm the damsel in distress. Great. I wonder if this is how Nya feels sometimes.
Black Blood glared at Lloyd-Leaf for a moment, then chuckled, "I'm sure." She straightened up. "I'm so sure. You being bound up and surrounded by several Moon Tribe warriors, not to mention the fact that two of the Seven Sorcerers are standing before you." She rolled her eyes. "But of course the Son of the First wouldn't know who we are, would he? You've done plenty of running about like mad squirrels who've had their nuts stolen, but you don't actually know who you are dealing with, do you?"
"You're Black Blood, daughter of Silver Mist, leader of the Tribe of the Moon," Lloyd "Elizabeth" replied firmly. "And you're mad about the time the Elemental Masters fought the Moon Tribe during the Serpentine Wars and how they destroyed a lot of your people—er, cats—and now you want revenge. You kidnapped our friends to get the lost moonstone pieces that the Masters stole years ago, but we don't know what you want to do with them. And I guess the Seven Sorcerers are just cat witches and wizards who are kinda like your second-in-command."
Lloyd felt pleased when Black Blood stared at him in surprise. The other werecats exchanged similar glances with one another. He glanced at Lloyd-Leaf, and she was glaring at him with a look that said, What do you think you're doing?!
"Well," Black Blood said. "Well, well... it seems that some of you humans know your history." She cocked her head. "Too bad your knowledge won't do you any good right now." She reached for the hilt of her sword.
"What are you hoping to gain from this?" Lloyd asked desperately, hoping to gain extra time—extra time for what, he wasn't sure. "Just getting your moonstones back? Hurting our friends for revenge? Is that all there is to this?"
Black Blood regarded the young girl with the weird voice in front of her. The other warriors watched warily in the background. The werecat slowly smiled down at the two Lloyds, and chuckled—a low, deep, cackle it was.
"Oh, young Daughter of No One," she murmured. "There's so much more to it than that."
Black Blood's hand left the hilt of her weapon. "You see, before the Sons and Daughters—or as you like to call them, Elemental Masters—destroyed half the bakeneko and nekomata tribes, the two clans owned vast stretches of territory, untouched and untainted by human hand. The nekomata had the high mountain regions, and the bakeneko had the valleys of forests. The land was rightfully ours; we had not stolen it from humans, as I'm sure you'd like to believe, but simply inherited it by our ancestors who had discovered it seasons upon seasons past.
"Over half that territory was stolen from us after the Red Battle. The forests were stripped bare of life to support human villages, and the mountains were suddenly teeming over with explorers, travelers, and hunters. Human life, as far-off and unreal as it had been before, is now crawling over the once-beautiful land like maggots on old meat, and, like maggots, they're spreading themselves and their diseases throughout what should be our mountains and forests.
"Thus what's left of the bakeneko and nekomata tribes huddle up in a little mountain in the center of it all, scared and defenseless, like rabbits being hunted by a pack of starving foxes."
A slow, calculating smile curved Black Blood's lips. "After the Sons and Daughters inevitably turned on one another and fell, our kind has been forgotten by the humans. Now we are merely old fairy tales." Her eyes flashed. "Until today."
Lloyd "Elizabeth" and Lloyd-Leaf listened wordlessly as Black Blood continued, this time with a rising vehemence. "I have brought strength back to our tribe. Kittens have been born and have grown up into strong warriors. The line of Seven Sorcerers is complete once more, for members of it had been killed in the Red Battle, and training a kitten to become a sorcerer isn't easy. We are at full power, with a taste for justice. We are ready to take back what is ours: the land the humans stole from us."
Black Blood wandered over to the desk table by the other Moon Tribe warriors and glanced down at a wide piece of paper, presumably a map when she said, "The largest city in this stolen land is what you call Yōkaiville—ironically named, considering the breed of creature you make us out to be. Perhaps it was deliberately named so. Several human villages surround this city, and while the population is not very large by your standards..." She raised her eyebrows at Lloyd-Leaf. "The sudden loss of this many people would be... startling."
The two Lloyds exchanged a stunned glance. Lloyd-Leaf managed to stay in character and rasp, "W— what do you mean?"
"You already know we want to take back what's rightfully ours," Black Blood hissed, narrowing her eyes. "We are going to retrieve that land... and destroy all who live in it."
"What!" Lloyd exclaimed, mind reeling. All those people...? "You can't do that!"
"They did it to us," Black Blood retorted. "It's simply justice. I need to feed my clan. When winter comes, the kittens cry for food, and the elders grow too weak to speak, while my warriors search endlessly up and down the little bit of land we've managed to keep to ourselves for some scrap of food, all the while growing weaker themselves. We need our home back," she said with a snarl. "And I am willing to go through whatever means to get it."
"But those people didn't do anything to you! Those aren't Elemental Masters down there. Those are innocent families!" Lloyd protested. "They probably don't even know that where they're living used to be your home!"
"You would have our kittens starve, Daughter of No One?" Black Blood glared at Lloyd.
"No— I— there has to be a better way!"
"This is the better way," the werecat leader growled. "And you're a beetle-brain if you truly think otherwise. Just as the cats cried over their dead loved ones that fateful day that your ancestors caused, your people will cry over their own dead, and justice will prevail."
Despite his bonds, Lloyd leapt to his feet and shouted furiously, "That's not justice! That's—!"
"I don't care what it is," Black Blood retorted sharply. "Just so that it feeds my tribe and rights the ancient wrongs."
"You'll never get away with this, Black Blood," Lloyd said, clenching his jaw. "We— I mean—" He nearly forgot he was supposed to be a girl named Elizabeth, not a ninja named Lloyd. "The ninja will stop you!"
"The only way to stop me is for you to kill me," Black Blood snarled.
"Then they'll do that if they have to!" Lloyd said. "Ninja never quit, and if we— uh— they have to kill you themselves, they will. They'll do whatever it takes."
The surrounding werecats glared at Lloyd, uttering warning growls. Lloyd-Leaf kept glancing at her sister and Lloyd worriedly, eyes wide.
Black Blood didn't speak. She merely stared at Lloyd. He wondered if he had gone too far.
Then, to his surprise and confusion, Black Blood smiled—and laughed. Not a loud, brash one, but a small, quiet, chipper little chuckle, like one who knew a secret nobody else did and they thought it was the funniest thing in all the world. Lloyd was perplexed when she replied easily, "Well, in all honesty, maybe you will. Maybe you will somehow fight back the Moon Tribe, avoid the curses of the Seven Sorcerers, and perhaps," At this she smiled again. "Perhaps you may be able to kill me."
Lloyd and Lloyd-Leaf shared a confused glance as Black Blood continued casually, "Perhaps you will find it in you to take my last breath. I don't doubt you have the courage to do it, whatever you may say about showing an enemy mercy.
"So, let's suppose in this story," At this she turned her back and drifted away from the Lloyds. "That you manage to destroy me. It is a very arduous task, and it happens in the middle of a great battle between man and beast. But, at the end of your strength, in a deadly duel between you and I, you summon one last surge of power, and finally rid Ninjago of its most recent enemy once and for all. A success like that is momentous, and you walk away from the battlefield as a triumphant hero."
Suddenly she whirled around and grinned at the Lloyds, hissing quietly, "But can you do it nine times?"
Lloyd blinked. "'Nine times'?"
Beside him Lloyd-Leaf tried to stifle a knowing gasp, and Lloyd shot her a questioning look. However, she shifted guiltily under his gaze and wouldn't meet his eyes.
Black Blood turned and walked back to the humans, eyes gleaming dangerously. "You admitted earlier that while you knew we are after certain moonstones, you don't know why we seek them so desperately. Well, I'll be gracious enough tonight to tell you before I kill you.
"Before the Red Battle, for countless seasons the Seven Sorcerers guarded an ancient treasure of the nekomata tribe's: a beautiful moonstone, hidden in the depths of underground tunnels that only they knew how to get through. It was as tall as three humans standing atop one another, and perhaps just as wide. This stone was guarded jealously; not just for its beauty that shimmered in both the dark and daylight, but for its powerful secret.
"Long before Red Alder became leader of the nekomata tribe, there was an ancient leader whose name is still known today: Ember Star. He was the one who found a home for his clan in the cold, barren mountainsides that the nekomata came to roam peacefully for so long, and he fought great battles in honor and justice. He was a great cat, and there are many stories about him and his adventures.
"One of them explained the source," At this her voice grew lower, as if she were sharing a great secret with Lloyd and his physical clone. "Behind his unusually long life."
Black Blood's fingers played over the hilt of her sword idly as she continued in a murmur, "Legend says... that he lived much longer than any other cat in living memory... because he had more than one life to spare."
Black Blood's gaze shot up at Lloyd-Leaf. "We are aware of your stupid human sayings about cats: 'cat got your tongue', 'curiosity killed the cat', 'cat out of the bag', as well as," she said with a smirk. "the one about a cat's nine lives. Well, Ember Star went to the great moonstone hidden in the depths of the secret tunnels and met his ancestors from the realm of the departed. Yes, cats who passed away long ago. They had great powers of the heavens, and they gave Ember Star nine gifts: nine individual lives to spare, so that he may live one long and prosperous life.
"Since then, no other cat has had to chance to receive the same gift, and it was completely out of the question," at this point her voice hardened. "when, during the Red Battle, the Daughter of Earth destroyed the moonstone. The Sorcerers were able to reshape it after many years, but large, vital pieces of the once-glorious moonstone—seven, to precise—were stolen by humans. These are the pieces that we are after."
Lloyd's mind reeled. "So once you get all the moonstones back—"
"I will meet my ancestors and, like Ember Star, receive the gift of nine lives," Black Blood finished triumphantly. "You may be able to kill me once, but I will only grow stronger each time I return from the departed realm, and thus the Moon Tribe will always have me as their leader, and we will reclaim what was stolen." She sneered at Lloyd-Leaf. "Not even the Son of the First—the Green Ninja—is as powerful as that!"
Nine lives... I thought that was just a stupid saying... So we'd have to kill her nine times to win! Lloyd thought, stunned. That's crazy! Even with the Overlord, we just had to fight him twice, and if Zane hadn't sacrificed himself, he would've won!
"Makes your head spin, doesn't it?" Black Blood chuckled. "Killing me might get monotonous after a while, wouldn't it?"
"We'll stop you," Lloyd responded weakly. "We'll get all the moonstones before you and make sure you can never use them."
"Cute." Black Blood smirked and dug her hand into a pocket in her robes. "Think again, Elizabeth. We already have over half of them, and as we speak I hold the fifth—"
She hesitated. A look of puzzlement crossed her face. She dug around in her robes some more. "What? Where is it?"
"Elizabeth" and "Lloyd" shared a glance.
One of the werecats standing in the background spoke up. "I thought you had it."
"Of course I had it!" Black Blood spat. She was now glaring down at the floor and the surface of the desk, as if wondering if the moonstone had dropped there. "It was just before I captured the Son of Earth! Back in the big hall..." Her voice trailed off, and she frowned in thought.
"Could you have dropped it there?" Mist Rise inquired quietly.
Black Blood shot him a chilling glare, and he shrunk back. "Why don't you go down and check? Take Bramble Berry and two others with you. And why aren't you patrolling the halls like you were ordered?"
"Well, because we were taking up these two—"
"Ivy Wing, Dotted Leaf!" Black Blood spat, and two warriors—both women—darted forward. "Take Bramble Berry and Mist Rise's place in the patrol. Look out for suspicious activity, as well as the missing moonstone. Violet Swift, Jackdaw Eye," At this she turned to the other werecats standing together. "Go with Sky Pelt to take these two down to the dungeons. Do what you like with the female, but the Son of the First is mine. You two," She gestured to two more. "Come with me. At all costs, find that moonstone."
The werecats fumbled around to find their groups and obey their leader, and Lloyd and Lloyd-Leaf were shoved away and into the hall by Violet Swift and Jackdaw Eye, with Sky Pelt—an old man who wheezed when he walked—following close behind. The groups split apart with Black Blood still growling orders, and the prisoners found themselves marching down a corridor with their silent captors.
"Did you know about this?" Lloyd hissed to Lloyd-Leaf. "About your sister trying to get nine lives?"
"Everyone knows about the tales of Ember Star's nine lives," Lloyd-Leaf whispered back. "And it's not exactly a secret about the moonstone. But I didn't know she was going to try to get nine lives herself!"
"She's crazy!" Lloyd exclaimed.
"Prisoners don't talk!" One of the werecats cuffed Lloyd around the head. His eyes watered, but he stayed silent and kept his head down.
Man, it's a miracle my allergies haven't started acting up yet, he thought to himself. I guess it's because everyone's in their human forms right now, so there isn't really any cat hair floating around.
Naturally, it was at that moment the old man—Sky Pelt—grunted, "Bah! This old castle's too drafty for my liking." He shrunk and shifted, and a skinny cat with a pale blue-gray pelt replaced the bony human.
"Much better," the cat sniffed, flicking his tail.
Of course. Lloyd stifled a groan when he felt his nose tickle and his eyes water. "Ah— ah— ah—!"
Lloyd-Leaf shot him a panicked look. "No, don't—!"
"Ah-CHIEE!"
Lloyd's wig flew off of his head and fell onto the floor. One of the Moon Tribe warriors stopped and picked it up, then handed it to Lloyd. "Your wig."
"Thanks." Lloyd put it back on.
"No prob—" The werecat's eyes bulged. "Wait, what?!"
"Surprise." Lloyd wrenched himself from his captor's grasp and spun around. "Ninjaaa-go!" His Spinjitzu vortex bashed into the werecat, who flew into the air and smashed against the wall with an angry shriek.
Jackdaw Eye hissed and slashed his hand at Lloyd, which he had morphed into large paws. Lloyd felt claws swish by his face, missing him by a hair, and turned his mini-tornado toward the werecat. Both Jackdaw Eye and Lloyd-Leaf were flung off their feet and tumbled across the floor by the force of Lloyd's vortex.
Just as Lloyd was turning toward Jackdaw Eye, he realized his skirt was wrapping around his legs. He suddenly tripped and fell, the Spinjitzu tornado disappearing.
"Oh, for the love of—! I hate this stupid dress!" Groaning, Lloyd proceeded to push himself up.
An invisible force wrenched Lloyd off of the floor and held him in midair, hovering above the carpet. He was turned around and found himself facing Sky Pelt. The skinny old cat was standing upon his hind legs and had one forepaw stretched forward, where strange lights that resembled tiny purple stars or sparks flickered dimly.
Uh-oh, Lloyd realized, stomach sinking. I think Sky Pelt is one of the sorcerers.
His prediction was answered when the cat voiced a rough, wheezing laugh. "Never had to face a Moon Tribe sorcerer before, eh, Son of the First?" Sky Pelt's whiskers twitched in amusement. "You look rather funny in a female's pelt, young one." His eyes narrowed. "Who's the other tom?"
Lloyd sneezed—"Ah-CHIEE!"—and strained against the force binding him in place, but the magic Sky Pelt was using to hold him was as strong as iron. He glanced back to see Lloyd-Leaf staring back at Sky Pelt fearfully, frozen in place when she realized the sorcerer was scrutinizing her from across the hall.
He knows. He knows I'm the real Lloyd, and that it's probably a werecat pretending to be me. Run, please, Little Leaf! Run!
Before Little Leaf could obey Lloyd's unspoken plea, Jackdaw Eye and Violet Swift recovered themselves and grabbed her by the arms, glaring at her and holding her firmly. She was still in Lloyd's form, but the deception was discovered. All they had to do now was find out who exactly was disguising themselves as one of their most hated enemies.
Sky Pelt, still making Lloyd hover in place, sniffed the air and stared at Lloyd-Leaf. "Is that—?"
"Ninjaaa-go!"
A blast of ice burst out of nowhere and hit Sky Pelt right in the face, throwing the cat backwards with a muffled yowl and freeing Lloyd from the spell. Lloyd hit the ground and spun around to be shocked by the sight of Zane and Nya racing down the corridor together and shooting their elemental powers at the werecats holding Lloyd-Leaf. Violet Swift sputtered and hissed when a stream of water doused her and had her coughing for air. A large ice shard hit Jackdaw Eye in the shoulder and, with a cry of pain, he fled down the corridor, transforming into a black cat as he ran.
Nya whipped out a katana from her belt and swung at Violet Swift, who was still sputtering and hacking up mouthfuls of water. The female shrieked when struck and fell back with a snarl, cat ears growing out of her head and a muzzle protruding from her dripping face. In the state between human and feline, Violet Swift wiped water from her muzzle, unsheathed her claws from her human hands, and leapt at Nya with a yowl. Nya met the werecat with a matching shout and used the blade of her sword to block Violet Swift's claws.
Violet Swift took advantage of the odd position of Nya's weapon and yanked it from her hands. Nya grappled over the sword with her, but ended up slicing the palms of her hands over the blade's edge and watching the werecat chuck the sword across the room.
The two females glared at one another, then pounced and fell into hand-to-hand combat. Violet Swift's yowling mingled with Nya's angry shrieks.
Zane stepped back and allowed the two women to fight. Lloyd and Lloyd-Leaf too stood back warily and watched. Before long, Violet Swift wrenched herself from Nya and fled down the hallway with a panicked yowl, racing past the ice cube containing a very cold Sky Pelt.
"Lloyd!" Zane turned to Lloyd-Leaf with a relieved smile and grabbed her in a tight hug, Nya joining in.
Lloyd-Leaf stiffened in shock when she suddenly realized a nindroid and a human had their arms wrapped around her, restraining her from free movement. She squirmed and stared pleadingly at Lloyd as if to say, What are these people doing to me?! Please make it stop!
"Uh... guys?" Lloyd cleared his throat and took the wig off of his head. "Over here."
Zane and Nya stared at Lloyd, then at Lloyd-Leaf. She took a couple steps back and looked at them with a sheepish smile—still in Lloyd's body. Nya and Zane suddenly realized they were looking at two Lloyds.
"Wha—?" Nya sputtered, swinging her head to and fro to stare. "How—? Which one's the real Lloyd?!"
Before Lloyd could reply, he sneezed. "Ah-CHIEE!"
"There he is," Zane announced with a smile. He looked inquiringly at Lloyd-Leaf. "Then you must be Little Leaf, if I am not mistaken."
In a second Lloyd's body shifted and shrank to a feminine figure. Little Leaf shrugged and smiled mischievously. She looked tiny in Lloyd's green sweater and baggy pants. "Guilty."
Nya was so startled and relieved at the same time, she threw back her head and laughed out loud. "You were—? You stinker!" Again she hugged Little Leaf, who blinked, and decided not to try resisting this time. "Why were you—?" She looked up and stared at Lloyd, then burst into louder laughter. "Lloyd— why in the world are you wearing a dress?!"
"It's a disguise," Lloyd replied with a embarrassed flush. "Little Leaf's idea. She saved me—again." He cast the werecat a grateful glance. Little Leaf blushed and smiled in return.
"How is that Little Leaf was able to transform into a duplicate of your body?" Zane asked curiously, suppressing a smile at Lloyd's outlandish attire.
Lloyd grimaced and drew back a sleeve, revealing a long, red scratch running down the underside of his left forearm.
Nya's face blanched as she gasped, then she glared forcefully at Little Leaf. "Did you—?!"
"I let her!" Lloyd protested, stepping in front of Leaf. "It was part of the plan! If I got caught by the Moon Tribe, they'd give me the Dark Sleep and that'd be it! She was protecting me by pretending to be me while I pretended to be a girl."
"Oh." Nya relaxed. "That's really smart, actually."
"Where're Cole, Liana, and Talon?" Lloyd asked.
Nya and Zane shared a glance—one that made Lloyd's stomach sink. They quickly explained the situation to him, including the appearance of Ronin and Misako's sorcerer-controlled bodies.
"We were really lucky to get past the warrior cats so far," Nya concluded. "They're all over the place!"
"Black Blood's taken over the castle," Lloyd responded grimly. "She's taken all the humans here prisoner, and pretty soon she'll find the fifth moonstone."
Nya grinned and pulled a sparkling mineral from the pocket of her jeans. "I'm not so sure about that."
"The moonstone!" Leaf gasped, her feline blue eyes widening at the glimmering stone. "But... how?"
"It fell out of her pocket when she was fighting Cole, and I grabbed it." Nya jammed it back into her pants. "We have the moonstone. But now we need to free our friends."
"And enemies," Zane added. "They may all be gangsters and criminals who made money following Dog Bone, but the people taken prisoner by the Moon Tribe must be freed."
Lloyd nodded. "We have to get down into the dungeons—without being detected by the werecats, if possible."
"If you could shape-shift, it'd be so much easier," Leaf commented. "But you're all as obvious and helpless as a scatterbrained rabbit, and your senses of smell and hearing are awful. No offense," she added sheepishly.
"Not quite sure how that was supposed to be not offensive," Nya muttered with a roll of her eyes.
"You forget, Little Leaf: we are ninja. We are masters of stealth and are trained to hide in plain sight," Zane said. "I am sure with you to look out for your tribe-mates and our own human skills combined, we will be able to get past the warriors and free the prisoners."
Leaf looked at Zane, Nya, and Lloyd, and raised her eyebrows. "You guys do realize you're asking me to betray my tribe, right? They're my family. I've come this far with you, but to help you deceive and put my tribe at a disadvantage by taking away our prisoners is crossing the line."
Zane and Nya stiffened, while an expression like that of guilt crossed Lloyd's face. Before they could reply, however, Leaf said, "But, my brother is imprisoned along with everyone else, and Black Blood will think he betrayed her if she or anyone else finds him in disguise with Cole and Liana." Her eyes widened with dismay. "I can't let that happen to him. He's trying so hard to fulfill his end of the deal you made him agree to, but he's betraying his tribe at the same time."
Lloyd flinched at the note of reproach in her voice. "I'm sorry, Leaf," he said earnestly. "When this is all over, you and Talon can go right back to your tribe, and we will never tell any cat about our deal. It'll be like it never happened. I promise."
Leaf held a catlike gaze with the three of them for a moment, a mixture of hope and fear in her eyes. Then she nodded. "Let's do this. What's that you ninja say?" She cocked her head. "'Ninja-go'?"
Nya smiled. "You got it. Ninja, go."
As the four of them turned down the corridor, Lloyd placed a hand on Nya's shoulder. "Hey, Nya?"
"Hm?"
"Can I just say, I don't know how you were ever able to fight the way you did in these dresses," Lloyd said, gesturing to his own gown. "After wearing one of these things, I'm surprised they didn't drive you crazy!"
Nya looked at him and chuckled. "Well, it takes a certain amount of skill to be able to fight and look good at the same time," she responded impishly. She was about to turn away when she paused, then sniffed the air. She gave Lloyd a funny look. "But I never made a habit of wearing perfume."
Lloyd flushed hotly. "Leaf's idea. To block my scent. Otherwise the cats would have smelled me and known that I was a tom— I mean, a guy."
Nya covered her mouth with one hand in a poor attempt to hide a laughing smile. "Well, don't come too close to me, OK? I'm severely allergic to perfume."
"Gotcha."
"And is that—?" She leaned forward and stared at Lloyd's face. She suddenly exclaimed laughingly, "Is that lipstick?!"
"Cherry," Lloyd growled. "Wanna try?"
"Ha, ha." Nya rolled her eyes. "I don't think Jay would like that very much."