Lloyd ran to his apartment hoping his mother was still there and safe. He used his elemental powers on his way to protect himself and whoever he could.
He tried not to think of what just happened. He tried not to think of her and focused on finding his mother.
~~~
The sound of footsteps made me stand up as soon as I could and stare at the guy standing at the entrance of the alleyway.
I had my dagger in my hand and the letter in the other as I said, staring at him in the eyes, "You're the one who wrote this."
He only nodded. I held up the letter for Francis to see and said, "I knew your handwriting as soon as I saw it."
He had his hands in his pockets and took slow steps towards me, and that smile, that smirk of his stayed as he said, "You recognized it from my profile background picture, didn't you?"
His profile's background was a picture of a bunch of handwritten outlines and notes. And his handwriting could easily be recognized as his own.
He said, as if the chaos and screaming behind him was nothing but music, "Honestly, I was disappointed when you didn't figure it out sooner. Garmadon told you he was working on a new project, and then I showed up. You also heard me talk when I was delivering the letter to your dear green ninja. So why did it take you this long to put the puzzle pieces together?"
"Well, excuse me for not being smarter, but your mask didn't make your voice as recognizable."
Three other generals stood at the alleyway entrance, guarding it and protecting Francis without getting closer.
A general handed Francis a dagger as he walked closer to me. I glanced behind me, other generals were guarding the other end of the alleyway. And there were two others on top of the buildings I was standing between. And that reminded me of something...I've seen this happen before...
No, I read this.
Chapter seventy-six. The character in it got surrounded in an alleyway before he got tortured as the enemies held his love interest and forced her to watch.
Everything fitted my situation, except for the love interest part. And I think Francis heard my thoughts.
"You remember this scene, don't you? The last one in chapter seventy-six, everything is happening now, except that I couldn't find green boy anywhere to bring him here."
I took a few steps back as he took ones forward. And at the exact moment I was thinking of running away and trying my luck on the alleyway's other side, Francis attacked, tripped me, and pinned me to the ground.
I tried to resist and attack him, but the tip of my dagger only touched his sleeve before he took it from me and threw it away.
My wrists were bleeding as he dug his nails in them. But I didn't yell or cry, I forced myself to show no sign of pain. As if that was useful.
"He was right, you're too easy to defeat." He released my left hand and held his dagger to my tattoo. The same dagger Brandon had the day I visited him.
I, again, tried to push him away or scratch his face with my nails or whatever, but he put my hand near my waist and stepped on it with his foot. I could not move it.
I asked, "What did you do to Brandon?"
"Oh, your dear brother?" Hold up- "I just locked him up...and may have given him some permanent scars in exchange for everything he knew about your mission."
"How dare you?"
"He's a strong man, it took him three whole hours of torture to say one useful sentence. And it required some threats to make him confess the rest. Threats about you, Amy, and Jane." He added, "He must have loved you, too bad he won't see you again."
The dagger touched my skin, very close to my right eye and could stab it at any second. But I didn't blink.
Brandon was tortured before I visited him, when I noticed that he was acting strangely, when he said he got a new mission. He was tortured by this psychopath. My brother was tortured....but why did he lie to me?
"Aren't you going to ask anything? Maybe beg me to let you go? Ask for a last wish? Nothing?"
"Not even in your dreams."
I could not free any of my hands, so I tried to kick him, but he was quick enough to stab my legs to force me to stay still.
I screamed. The pain was unbearable. Way worse than when my arm got accidentally stabbed when I was chased by wolves in that forest.
He said, looking bored, "Well, you brought this to yourself." He stabbed my left arm with the dagger.
Another scream, and the loudest I've ever had. Tears came down without a warning. And there was nobody willing to save me.
He took out the dagger and I was unable to move my left arm afterwards.
"Let's see," he said. "Which part would be the most painful and the slowest to kill?"
I glared at him and said with tears still running down my face, feeling as if I was close to death, "Just stab me in the heart and end it if you're so smart."
"Nope, that wouldn't be fun."
"A lot of villains said that before you, and they didn't have a happy ending."
"I don't want to kill you...maybe not now. leaving you here for Lloyd to find would be so much fun if you had a few seconds to say your last words. It wouldn't happen if you were already dead."
He brought the bloody dagger to my left elbow. "Any last questions?"
I asked, feeling dizzy as my vision was slowly drifting away from blood loss, "Where's Brandon?"
"I don't know. Home? He can't attack anyone or move too much with his injuries." He said, "His new mission was to kill you himself, but since he couldn't seem to do it, we had to change the plan at the last second."
He added for the last time, "And one more thing, Garmadon sent you this." He carved my left arm's skin with his dagger after he teared up and threw my sleeve away.
~~~
Brandon flew over the city before landing on top of a random building. He couldn't find Y/n anywhere. What if Francis got to her already? What if she was already dead?
He did not give space for any of his thoughts to develop as he jumped down the building from balcony to balcony and landed on his feet on the ground. Breathing got harder the more he moved.
He only dressed up in his work uniform because it could carry his weapons which could be useful in a situation like this. He didn't stop by to help or hurt anybody. His only goal was to find Y/n and save her before it was too late.
Garmadon's Octoshar mech was enormous and looked way creepier than before, because of the night sky. And to make it creepier, Octoshar destroyed the power stations and the electricity shut down everywhere in the city.
He dodged the starfish and the bullets flying around and stopped in his place when he saw who was standing in front of him.
Jane, who was running for her life, couldn't look any more shocked than she was when she saw Brandon's uniform.
"Jane, it's dangerous for you to be here!" He tried to take her hand and run, but she took a step back.
She looked heartbroken. "You...work with them..."
"We don't have time to-" He grabbed her before a bullet could hit her head. "We can talk later. You have to go and hide somewhere or you'll get hurt."
"Duck."
"Wha-"
He ducked when a starfish jumped towards him.
Jane said before she left, staring Brandon in the eyes, "I shouldn't have gone on that date with you."
She ran away, and he was only brought to reality when that starfish attacked him again, but it got shot the next second by Charlie, the general who arranged Brandon's date with Jane.
"General number one went that way," Charlie said and pointed somewhere. "Across the street from the arcade."
"Thanks." Brandon ran there as fast as he could and hoped that he would arrive before Y/n could take her last breath.
Because he knew he was taking his.