Vundabar
••• Smile Boyo •••
folks are irrational
kids are all animals
truth's only shadows from fire cast onto walls
•••••
TW: guns
The Mistress of Amber peeked around the corner of the alleyway wall she'd pressed her back upon. Her sharp gaze followed the figure of the man she'd been following for the past day-and-a-half.
Beside her stood Neuro, the Master of the Mind. His yellow eyes narrowed at the man Skylor had called on him to help apprehend. It'd been a while since the last time they'd spoken - the brief relapse of the Anacondri battle heralded by Skylor's own father - but when she'd told him who she was tasked to track down, he couldn't refuse.
A tumultuous feeling cascaded through him like a hoard of red ants. They stung and stung him, filling him with poison. It tasted sharp and bitter. It tasted of betrayal.
"Is it him?" Skylor whispered, pulling Neuro from his darkening thoughts.
"That is most certainly Axon," he muttered bitterly. The last time he'd seen his brother was centuries ago, right before he'd died; or so he'd caused everyone to think. Neuro couldn't believe that his own little brother had pulled the wool over even his eyes.
Then again, Axon had always been the one with more talent. But with that, he was cruel and meddlesome, too. He wasn't deserving of the powers he abused.
"This is ridiculous," Skylor muttered. She pulled out a small phone from her thigh pack and quickly tapped the keypad without pulling her eyes from Axon. "All this time and he's been right under our nose."
Neuro sighed. If Skylor felt the fool, then Nuero thought as though he were the entire circus. She was only nineteen years of age, and only two years of being part of the Elemental Master's society and of understanding their history. Neuro had been tricked for almost three hundred years.
Still, he was silently relieved that he wasn't on the receiving end of Skylor's amber glare. Her eyes could cut through stone.
"It's not your fault," Neuro said in a hushed voice. "Axon had devoted himself into developing his powers for decades before he disappeared. It would take another Master of the Mind to find his hideout." He sighed again. "And his cloak is impeccably well done, I hate to admit."
Axon stopped at the entrance of a dilapidated, run-down apartment building. It was surrounded by a tall wire fence covered with demolition signs warning passerbys to stay away. He glanced up and down the street before stepping through the gate, his body rippling and disappearing into thin air.
Skylor held out a hand, and Neuro placed his in her grasp. Her own power pulled at his, tugging a duplication of it into her soul, where it bloomed and bled until it latched onto her. She winced upon the burst of false noise that entered her brain - people's thoughts and memories, a wall of images, laughing and crying and dreams and broken hearts.
She forced her eyes open against the cacophony and found a neat building where the run-down one once stood.
"Are you stable?" Neuro asked. He could read how much she struggled beneath his particular power. It was worse than most.
Skylor stiffly nodded. "Peachy." She turned a determined smile towards the Master beside her. "Ready to kick your baby brother's ass and get that spellbook?"
She stepped toward the apartment building, stopped only by Neuro's hand around her wrist. She looked back at him.
"We were not told to take him out," he reminded. "We were told to locate him. This is espionage only."
Skylor slumped in disappointment. "We never get to do the fun stuff."
🍃🍂🍁🍃🍂
While Pixal explained to the ninja whose vehicle was whose and what button did what, Borg rolled his wheelchair to my side. I took the chance to duck beneath his umbrella. I didn't have Nya beside me to create a dome of dryness like the one over Cole.
"Y/n, would you mind a quick chat?" he asked.
Still starstruck (because this was Cyrus Borg - and he remembered my name!), I could only nod listlessly with glazed eyes. He turned his chair and headed toward the edge of the courtyard, where we could talk without being collateral damage of the donuts Jay was currently making on his new blue bike.
Borg was surprised at seeing that Lloyd had followed, trailing after me with our hands entwined. It was like he was glued to my side.
"Well?" Borg looked at Lloyd plainly. "Go play with your new toys like the others." When Lloyd hesitated, his hand tightening over mine, Borg raised his brows. He flicked at him with his fingers. "Go on. Shoo."
Unhappily, Lloyd released my hand and trudged through the rain back to the others. I watched him go, faintly amused.
"I see you have become that boy's safety net," Borg commented.
I measly shrugged. "He's been through a lot."
"And so have you, I see," he said. When I turned back to him with a confused look, he nodded at my necklace. "I've been receiving the readings from your pendant." The expression he sent me was full of sympathy. "You have had quite the week, my dear."
I deflated a little. I forgot that it didn't just record my powers - it recorded my emotional state, too. He would've seen all the times I panicked and cried or jumped over the sides of ships. Awesome. Just the emotional bolster I needed.
Thankfully Borg was smart enough to read my reluctance, so he didn't linger on the craziness of the past few days and how they'd affected me. He changed the subject, instead.
"How have your powers felt since you started wearing the necklace?" Borg asked.
"Kinda the same as before, just not as intense," I answered. My hand lifted to fiddle with the dragon-shaped golden pendant. "I was able to use my powers yesterday without bleeding and I'm not so tired. The headaches still suck, though. And I kinda feel like I've been hit by a car."
"And you have not yet learnt how to wield it?"
"No," I sighed. "It's still pretty touch-and-go. I feel like it controls me more than I control it."
Borg hummed and held his chin as he assessed my answers. I watched the ninja familiarise themselves with their new mechs and bikes, fooling around and laughing. Lloyd sat on a his motorbike that must've been picked up from the monastery, a little more solemn than the rest of his team. Once, before Morro, he would've been showing off with the others. Instead he sat quietly and snuck glances my way.
"All in due time," Borg said, and patted my back in support.
You'll get there soon, all in due time - that's what everyone kept saying. I was too impatient to wait.
I just smiled. "Thanks, Dr. Borg."
"Will you be fighting?"
Lloyd's head snapped toward me.
"I want to," I answer. He dismounted from his bike and began to approach. I quickly turned to Borg, resolute in my decision. "I've been thinking about something, if you can make it."
His expression lifted with intense interest. "Yes?"
"Water guns," I said. "I know it sounds elementary, but I'm good at target shooting and ghosts are vulnerable to water. That's the best way I can help."
Borg's eyes were gleaming with fierce thought, and I knew that his mind was already racing a mile a minute at the technicalities of my idea. He began to slowly nod.
Lloyd took my arm and turned me around. "What are you doing?" he asked.
I was already shaking my head at the words I knew were coming. "You can't make me sit on the sidelines, Lloyd. I spent all week proving myself. I'm not going to hear it from you, too."
Borg began to roll his wheelchair back into Steep Wisdom, all the while muttering to himself. Rain began to fall into my hair, again, and Lloyd turned his pleading gaze back to me. Water dripped down his concerned face.
"This is different," he insisted. He planted his hands on my shoulders, desperate for me to understand. "This isn't like fighting Morro - this is the Preeminent. It's too much for you."
"I have to help."
"No, you don't," Lloyd pled. "You don't have to do this kind of stuff - not yet, not until you're ready. You don't have to fight fate's battles."
It became clear then, what he was really saying; he didn't want me to become like him. He didn't want me to be Fate's next puppet to string around into fights - not while I could still help it. He wanted me to be a normal teenager for as long as I could, because he never got that chance.
But that ship had long ago sailed. I hadn't been a normal teenager since I stepped foot into the city on that first day of summer. And if I had to pick between that and Lloyd? It wasn't even a choice.
"I'm not fighting for Fate, I'm fighting for you," I corrected firmly.
"Y/n, please." Lloyd's voice went low with his fervid plea, and I seriously felt my resolve wobble at the look in his eyes. He was scared - but I was terrified of losing him while doing nothing to stop it.
I reached up to my shoulder and clasped my hand around his. "You don't know what it was like these past few days, Lloyd. I thought I'd never get you back. I can't go through that - I'm not letting you go again."
He closed his eyes tight. I was unwavering, steadfast, and he knew it. My mum said it herself this morning - she couldn't stop me even if she'd tried.
"You really are stubborn, you know that?" Lloyd asked, mumbling his defeat.
I smiled small, sad at the devastated look that'd taken over him. "I am."
Lloyd released a heavy, heart-laden sigh and pulled me into his chest. Bent over, he dug his face into my shoulder. His wet hair was cold. "If anything happens to you..."
I held him tight. I didn't want to think about that. I was determined - that didn't mean I wasn't afraid. But I was in his prophecies, our prophecies, so I'd better get used to being in battle fast, since it looked like I was going to have an entire life full of them.
"Come on," I murmured, and pulled myself back so I could hold his hands in mine. He looked wet and miserable. "Let's head inside before we get sick."
We joined the others under the cover of the tea shop where battle plans were being discussed. As I wrung out my hair, my eyes caught sight of a pair huddled away in the corner, and I had to do a double-take. Heads bent together, talking quietly, hands entwined. It was Zane and Pixal.
I gasped and tugged on Lloyd's sleeve. "They're-!"
Lloyd followed my stunned gaze and quietly chuckled. "I know."
"They're so cute." I turned to him with a wobbling pout.
His distant expression softened into a smile. "I know."
Taking one last look at the robot couple, I followed Lloyd to where the others had huddled around what used to be the front counter.
"Good, you're here," Kai said when we approached. "We're just talking about Axon."
My body ran stiff and cold like death had come for me already. I tasted bile on my tongue. Lloyd's hand on the small of my back felt faraway and electric, as if his touch was only static.
"What about him?" I forced myself to ask.
"Skylor got some help from Neuro to locate him. They've found his base." Kai turned his phone around and showed me the map of a generic downtown street of Ninjago City. It didn't ring any bells for me - neither recollection nor warning.
"Neuro? Isn't he Axon's brother?" I asked. My eyes turned across the group unsurely. "How do you know we can trust him?"
"Neuro and Misako have been friends for a few centuries," Cole answered. "He's the one who built the barrier around the monastery, and he fought alongside us when Skylor's dad tried to take over the world last year. We can trust him."
I was still unsure - it was well and good to have had a past fighting at his side, but it would still all depend on how close he was to his brother. Some people didn't care about their blood relatives; others, though, they'd stop at nothing to be on their side. Where Neuro fell on that spectrum was a mystery. I'd never been a fan of mysteries.
"Did she get the spellbook?" Nya asked.
"No." Kai tucked his phone back into his pocket. "But they're going to do a stakeout to make sure he doesn't try anything with it. After we deal with Morro, we can come up with a plan to take down Axon. Speaking of - do we have a plan?"
"I had one, but now we need to plan around moving our bikes n' stuff," Cole said. "I doubt Morro would let us waltz into Stiix with them. They're not exactly the blend-in-with-the-crowd type."
"Why is Morro unleashing it from Stiix, anyway?" I asked. "I thought ghosts were vulnerable to water. Stiix is a fishing village - the place is literally built on water."
Jay shrugged. "Reverse psychology? Maybe he wanted to try trick us."
"It's because the veil between our worlds is at its thinnest above Stiix," Garmadon answered. "The Preeminent wants to consume all of Ninjago. She'll need to preserve what energy she can." He peeked at the storm outside. "He has already used the Crystal, but it will take some time for her to cross over. Still - we are running on seconds."
"Which is why we need Lloyd to use his powers to destroy the Realm Crystal before that happens," Wu said, and glanced at his nephew. Lloyd nodded firmly.
"If Ninjago is cursed, then the other realms are sure to follow," Misako said gravely. "We cannot let that happen. The fifteen realms depend on it."
Zane, who'd joined at some point during the conversation, beamed a holographic map of Stiix onto the table. It was a place built on stilts that stood above a harbour, one of the oldest townships still surviving.
"The streets will be difficult to navigate in our bigger mechs, especially with panicking occupants," Zane said. "I suggest we split into two groups - those of us who are on offence, and those that focus on getting the people out."
"This, here." Lloyd pointed at a small building near the outskirts. "This is Ronin's shop. Morro took it as his base and I think that's where he's keeping the Realm Crystal. That's our point of interest."
"But he could still be expecting us," Nya reminded. "And Morro stole back the Sword of Sanctuary before he left the Tomb. Even with all these fancy new vehicles, how are we supposed to get close?"
"And how are we supposed to take on an army of ghosts?" Jay asked, before groaning in thought. "Knowing our luck, the military will show up, too! Then we'll have another problem."
I tried not to let my flinch be too obvious. Everyone's expressions soured at the mention of the military, and my fear stumbled into an new territory.
"That'd be perfect," Cole said sarcastically. "More stupid men with big guns meddling in affairs they don't understand."
"Maybe we could get their help?" I nervously asked. My glance was met by Zane's. "We could work together."
Kai scoffed. "That was a joke, right?"
"Last time we tried to ask them for help, they almost killed my father," Lloyd said, quiet with bitterness. My heart sunk further at the look of hate on his face. "We ask them for assistance, they turn their guns on us. They don't care about people, they only care about stopping us." He shrugged. "They're shitty people. Just the way it is."
Shitty people. That carved a hole right through my chest. Shitty people. The look of loathing on each of their faces made me more isolated than I'd ever felt with them before. If I told them who my dad was, if I told them where I'd spent my summers and who I considered my extended family to be, would they think I was a shitty person, too?
Shitty people. Lloyd had said that. Lloyd had called my family that. It wasn't a surprise - I knew of the animosity between them, but it still hurt to hear it from him.
"We do not have the best relationship with the military, Y/n," Garmadon said gently, mistaking the frown on my face for something else. "It was a good suggestion, though."
Beside me, Zane patted my back. It was a comfort shrouded with the same blanket of Garmadon's concern, but I knew what he was really consoling me for. At least I wasn't entirely alone.
Lloyd glanced at me.
"So, we need to get Morro away from the Realm Crystal, then," Kai said. "How do we do that?"
"I could lure him out?" Lloyd suggested. "He always wanted to be the Green Ninja."
"No." Wu shook his head. "That will not work again. He won't leave the Realm Crystal unguarded until his master is freed."
"But even with our powers back, he's seen all our moves," Cole said. "And with the Sword - this is starting to feel a little impossible."
We couldn't face him head on and we couldn't lure him out. Cole was right, it was starting to feel like we'd never succeed.
"What if we distract him?" Nya suggested. "If someone else goes in wearing Lloyd's gi, then he could sneak in and destroy the Crystal while Morro thinks he's fighting him."
"But who would wear it?" Jay asked. "He knows us. He'd suspect something if one of us is missing. And the Sensei's and Misako need to get the townspeople out of Stiix."
They went quiet in thought. We didn't have time to come up with the perfect plan.
"I'll do it," I said.
"No way." Lloyd's instantaneous response was cold with surprising anger. "I'm not putting you into his direct path."
"Think about it, Lloyd," I reasoned, "it can't be one of the others. Who would Morro think you'd left behind?"
Lloyd's expression twisted with desperation.
"She's got a point," Kai said. "I'll stay right by her side the whole time. If you're fast enough, he won't even lay a finger on her."
"I can't take that risk!" Lloyd argued. "She can't face Morro, I can't stop him like I did before! There has to be a better way."
"It's the only way," Misako said, and he faltered at her insistence. "Have faith. Where's your hope gone?"
Lloyd fell into an frustrated silence. The plan was decided, with or without his acceptance.
It was decided that the mechs would be brought into Stiix by disguising the trucks that Borg used to bring them over as shipping transport, which Pixal had programmed into them easily enough. Soon, it was time for us to start preparing to leave.
"We'll need to adjust Lloyd's gi so you don't trip over yourself," Garmadon said to me, before nodding at the mopey blond mop beside us. "Go get your gi, son. Quickly, now."
Sparing one brief, worried glare at me, Lloyd silently retreated into the Bounty to retrieve it. I ended up following after him, hesitating at the entrance to his room while he picked up the deepstone gi he was supposed to wear. The sullen expression looked more miserable with his slightly sunken cheeks.
I didn't want to make Lloyd feel worse. I didn't want to make him even more upset, to disturb what fickle peace he had after the hell that tormented him so. But I couldn't just sit back and do nothing - it was the same thing over and over again, the intentions that had circled me all week. Protect him. Save him. Lloyd would never put himself first.
He dropped the gi back onto the bed and dragged a hand down his face.
I just wish it didn't come at the cost of his happiness.
"I'm sorry," I murmured. I leant on the doorframe with my hands behind my back, nails picking at the wood. "Are you mad at me?"
His hand fell, and his face raised to the ceiling. He held his breath for a moment, then released it all once. His eyes opened. They were ladened with weariness that boy his age shouldn't have.
"You need to stop thinking I'm mad at you," he finally said. "I'm upset at the situation, not with you."
"I'm not exactly thrilled, either," I quietly agreed. My heel pressed into my toes. "But-"
"I wish I could be normal for you."
My gaze lifted to his raised face. He turned to me, and his head lolled to the side, pulled by the weight of his longing stare. I stilled from the repetitions of his words inside my head.
"What?"
He shrugged, and it was small and weak and held much more care than he was letting on.
"We wouldn't have to deal with all of this," Lloyd answered. He picked up the gi and stared at it. "We could be going to movies and visiting the museum instead of this." He smiled bittersweetly. "You didn't fall in love with the Green Ninja, anyway."
I stood from the doorframe. "Yes, I did."
Lloyd huffed. "No, you didn't."
But I did. I just fell in love with Lloyd Garmadon first - but given enough time, given the theory I didn't figure him out, I would've fallen for the Green Ninja, too. I suspected I was already beginning to before I figured out the truth. I fell in love with the same person twice.
I lifted my hand and held his pale, faintly freckled cheek. It was warm and hollow beneath my palm.
"You're not two people." I turned his face toward me and smiled softly. "You're not Lloyd Garmadon or the Green Ninja; you're Lloyd, who just so happens to be the Green Ninja."
"Just so happens to drag you into the worst summer of your life," he grumbled.
"The best summer," I corrected, and his green eyes lifted to mine. "It's been the best summer because I fell in love with you, Lloyd. Not one side of you - both. All of you. Who you are."
"That doesn't take away from the fact that I'm a fucked-up mess," Lloyd mumbled, though he did spare me a warm smile.
I cradled his face and willed him to believe my words. "The most perfect, normal, safest man in the world could walk into this room and offer me the life I'd dreamed of, and I'd still choose you in a heartbeat."
He hesitated. His cheeks went red, and his equally coloured eyes searched mine with a kind of scared hopefulness that broke me.
"Scars and all?" he asked.
"Only lives unworthy of tales live with bodies unscathed." I picked up the robe of his gi and slid it on with a smile his way. "I didn't even get that from a book. I made that one up."
Lloyd's expression softened at how I struggled to roll back the sleeves of his gi. He took over my feeble attempts with deft twists of his fingers, folding it flat against itself faster than I ever could. I watched as he did the same on the other sleeve, and I felt like a little kid playing dress-up. Only one person was meant to wear this gi.
"You're fast," I murmured after he swiftly knotted the tie around my waist and buckled the extra belts. The deepstone infused material made the gi heavier than normal, but I was sure that I'd be able to manage.
"Been doing it for years," Lloyd murmured, and my heart sunk further when he sent me an imploring look. "Do you have to do this? Aren't you afraid?"
Yes, I was scared. I was terrified I was going to get hurt or worse, and I was terrified that Lloyd would get hurt even more than he'd already been. I'd been living in this constant state of fear since I first felt that awful feeling on the ship all those mornings ago. I tilted my head with a gentle smile.
"'Fear?'" My eyes squinted when his gaze turned unamused. "'Fear isn't a word-'"
"'Where I come from.'" Lloyd finished the quote from his favourite franchise with a half-hearted roll of his eyes. "Alright, my little nerd. I get it."
I took his hand in both of mine and squeezed. "Of course I'm scared. I'm scared of a lot of things - of pretty much everything. But I'm tired of letting it control me."
He exhaled slowly at my declaration. "You grew wiser at this kinda stuff faster than I did."
"I'm older than you were," I reasoned, and then my own reminder had my soul crushed. "You were just a kid. To be fourteen and have to deal with all this - worse than this... I can't even imagine." An eighteen-year-old soldier of fate was bad enough. Fourteen was far too young.
Lloyd's eyes dropped. He stepped back and picked up the dark pants for me to take, and his eyes held an inscrutable amount of guilt. I slipped them over my sport shorts while he stared out the window, silent again. I supposed he didn't like the reminder of it, either.
The pants were far too long and ill-fit, but made of comfortable, loose material that breathed easy. I picked up the mask and the green and black of it stared back at me. I found myself wondering about the me in the future vision; ink-stained, wild-haired, confident-eyed me. Did she ever get her own gi? Did I ever get good enough? Do I ever catch up?
Lloyd took the mask I was holding and slipped it over my head. It smelt faintly earthy and metallic - the infused deepstone a heavy scent. The expression on his face as he adjusted it was impenetrable. He was Alcatraz again.
"How do I look?" I faintly asked.
Lloyd stared at me with pained longing. "Like I've said before; you look good in green."
If my eyes could turn colour when I felt love, they would've. But they couldn't, so I had to trust that Lloyd would be able to read it on the sliver of my face that wasn't hidden, and he could. He'd always been a better reader than I.
A knock on the door interrupted us and we looked over when Garmadon poked his head inside. He had a sewing kit in his hands. He entered when Lloyd stepped back from me.
"Look at you," Garmadon said to me with forced cheerfulness. He brandished a pair of scissors and began snipping at a folded sleeve. "Our very own Elemental Mistress of Unknown Origins."
"A step up from the Elemental Mistress of being a Danger Magnet," I said, and Garmadon chuckled. My gaze turned to Lloyd, but he wasn't even able to manage a smile.
When the sleeves and pants were cut to length, Garmadon left with a ruffle of his son's hair. I followed him out of the room so Lloyd could get changed into another gi of his and found Borg outside the Bounty. He was joined by Misako and Wu.
"There you are!" he said. The rain had stopped, but the clouds still echoed ominously with the distant thunder. "I have finished your water guns."
"That was fast." I took the offered handguns and turned them, observing the mechanisms that had seemed to have been put together out of spare parts. Garmadon stared curiously from over my shoulder.
"I am known to excel during time crunches," Borg said, a little smug. "They're instant-reload, no cocking required."
"Do I need to refill them?" I asked, testing their weight.
"Not at all," Borg said. "The mechanisms at the butt of the guns take moisture from the air and compresses it into water bullets. I'm quite proud of it." He ushered me to a spot where a target had been set up on the other side of the courtyard. "Go on, go on. Try them out!"
"I regret to inform you that I will be able to offer no tips," Wu said as he watched me adjust my position. "Guns are not a weapon that neither Garmadon nor I learnt."
I grinned as I held the gun up, testing the scope and how weighty it'd be to lift. The mental image of the Senseis sweeping around a battlefield with a gun in hand was both improbable and hilarious. No, ninja didn't use guns, but I wasn't a ninja yet.
I touched the trigger and a volley of water-bullets launched from the muzzle. Five of them at once, a rapid-fire weapon - they all hit the bullseye of a target that was a little too easy for me. It felt great. This was something I knew - this was what I was confident in.
I offered Wu a polite smile. "I think I'll be okay."
"Oh?" Misako said with raised brows, equally as impressed as her brother-in-law. My cheeks warmed with bashfulness. "Well, you're adept."
"She's got a good eye," Lloyd agreed as he joined us, wearing his normal gi. "Should've seen her at Mega Monster Amusement Park. She won every shooter game - it was incredible."
He smiled at my appreciative look. I'd always melted under praise, but praise from Lloyd was like having my entire body disassembled down to the very molecules, rebuilt by petals and tied together with velvet. His was the one I valued the most - his was the one that had always felt genuine. I found myself never double guessing him.
"Target weapons suit you," Garmadon commented, and Lloyd nodded in agreement. "Perhaps something to consider for when you choose your first weapon."
I bloomed at his consideration. Maybe there was a future for me in the team, after all.
"Ah-ah-ah," Jay said, and I flinched at his sudden voice and turned toward him. It appeared I'd had a bigger audience than I was aware of - the whole team was watching. "But what about a moving target?"
He kicked up a piece of rubble from the ground and kicked it again to launch it into the air. It was just like clay bird shooting, which (aside from reading) had been my favourite activity at Dad's base. I raised the gun and shot. The rubble cracked and splintered.
"Okay." Kai nodded with a considering look. "You've got potential."
"'Potential,'" Nya mocked. "That's not just potential, that's skill. The target was tiny!"
"I didn't think you were actually going to hit it," Jay confessed, a little stunned.
"Your lack of confidence is very reassuring," I replied with a dry smile. "Just because I'm not a ninja doesn't mean I don't have strength in other skills."
"How'd you learn to shoot like that?" Cole asked, and my sarcastic grin dropped.
"It is almost time for us to leave," Zane cut in, and my gaze jumped to his with relief at the interruption. "We should make our last preparations."
The others scrambled off to do their finishing touches and I smiled at Zane with thanks. He nodded in return before walking off to do his own last-minute checks. When I turned back around, I found Lloyd watching me with a puzzled expression. My blood ran cold.
He could probably hear it. He could hear the secrets I was keeping - the jump of my heat would've given it away, the hitch of my breath. Lloyd was a good reader, after all. I was no master secret keeper.
But mercifully, like how I was with his own secrets, Lloyd let it go. He brought his hand up to my shoulder and pulled me into his chest for a hug, and I took the opportunity to sink into his comfort while I still could. I had a horrible, sinking feeling that our chance to do so was slowly growing smaller.
The mechs and bikes were loaded back into Borg's trucks, and civilian clothes were shoved over the tops of gis for those sitting in the front cabs. Three trucks - one for Jay's GT, Jay himself, Nya and Cole, the second holding Cole's bike and Zane's ice mech, Zane, Kai, Lloyd and I. The last truck was for the adults to take.
After a quick farewell to Borg and Pixal, we set off. Zane and Kai took the front cab while Lloyd and I sat the back, sitting side-by-side in the gloomy darkness of the truck's storage. My head rested on his shoulder while the engine rumbled. Our hands rested between us, entwined.
The drive was silent for a while, our bodies shifting with each bump the tyres rolled over. I could faintly hear Kai and Zane talking in the front. Kai said something, his voice growing a little louder, and I thought back to this morning. Lloyd had no problem telling him the truth about how he was feeling, but not his own parents.
"You and Kai are really close," I said.
"Yeah," Lloyd answered. His fingers slung through mine absentmindedly. "When uncle Wu took me in, Kai and Nya basically raised me."
That gave Kai's reaction about me risking my life another layer. If I was someone that meant a lot to Lloyd, then regardless of how much Kai cared for me, I was someone he needed to keep safe. His promise to Lloyd was more potent than I'd realised.
Kind of weird to phrase it as being raised by a kid the same age as you - but if he didn't have his parents at the time, then what else would you call it? Wu admitted himself that he wasn't good with children, and Kai was already basically raising his sister. I guess raising Lloyd wasn't too much of a stretch.
I vaguely recalled Misako talking about how she was unwillingly absent for most of Lloyd's childhood, and how Garmadon hadn't even known he had a son until he was eleven. All of my accounts of Lloyd before I met him came from other people - Naomi had said that he used to be a brat, Skylor said he used to be a personable stick-in-the-mud, Garmadon had said that he used to want to be like his evil self, and Zane had called him an enigma. None of what I knew of him came from him.
"What was it like?" I asked quietly, and his face grew shielded again.
"Not now," Lloyd mumbled, and his entire self seemed to shut him away from me. The wall had come up hard and fast. "Later, okay?"
I guess that was why I only knew of second-hand accounts.
I went quiet. I could hardly judge - he knew I was keeping something from him, too. I didn't want his hate for my dad turn toward me - the vile look in his eyes, the sneer in his voice, the coldness of him would kill me. That was why it was so hard. That was why I was so afraid. I was too cowardly to take the leap and confess because of an outcome I couldn't even be sure that would happen.
"I'm sorry."
I looked up and found Lloyd watching me apologetically. He wrapped an arm around my shoulders and held me tight, and it almost made me feel better. How could loving him be both effortless and so challenging? I felt like Sisyphus pushing his boulder up the hill.
"Me, too," I whispered into the front of his gi.
His family was one full of secrets. I guess I'd just become a part of them, too - but I didn't want to be like that. I didn't want to have secrets from Lloyd, and I didn't want him to have secrets from me.
I spent the entire ride to Stiix trying to work up the courage to tell him the truth about my dad. My words kept failing me. I kept succumbing to my terror, tongue tangling and volume abandoning me. The pressure on my chest felt like the sky itself, pressing its entire weight down onto me.
"Lloyd-" I managed to whisper, just as the truck rolled to a stop. The engine guttered out. My words slipped away from me again.
"We're here," Lloyd said grimly as he stood. He pulled me to my feet, and his hands stayed firmly planted in mine. "Are you ready?"
Zane opened the back doors. Light spilled in, and with it came the heavy smell of the ocean. The air was so full of salt that I could taste it. Beyond us, Stiix stood, the calm centre of the storm that raged across the rest of the world. The sky was eeriely devoid of birds.
"No," I admitted. I inhaled, held it, and then released it in a rush. "Okay. Let's do this."
Zane let us clamber out before hopping inside and retrieving his ice mech. He ditched his civvy clothes while I stretched out my anxieties and stared at the small, unsuspecting township.
I'd never been to Stiix before, though I knew a little about it. It was a fishing village built on piles, a tiny, humble place full of people who worked hard and a type of close-knit community that only grew in remote places. They didn't see the mechs and bikes being pulled from the trucks we'd hidden. They didn't know of the impending disaster. They fished and toiled away the time, their quiet lives calm and unsuspecting. I was a little jealous of their peace.
At least Stiix wasn't a big city. That would mean the evacuation wouldn't be so difficult - the chances of a full success was far more likely. It was a needed reassurance.
"Phase one was a success," Zane said as his mech clambered out of the truck. His voice flooded through the comms in the hood I wore. "Phase two is a-go."
Phase two. My turn.
I looked at Lloyd in alarm. I didn't know what to do, I didn't know what I was doing - why on earth did I offer my help? This was way above me. This was far more than I could handle.
"Hey." Lloyd cradled my face and pressed his forehead to the green material that covered mine. "You're going to be okay."
This was a far cry from the worries he'd blurted out earlier. The guns felt like lead in their holsters. My heart raced even though nothing had yet happened. If Morro truly had used the Crystal, then it didn't look like it.
"I'm scared," I whispered. My confidence had slipped entirely away, fallen out of reach. I couldn't do this.
"I know," Lloyd murmured. "Kai won't let him hurt you."
"But what if he hurts you?" I nervously asked.
"I'll be okay," he vowed, then gave me a crooked smile in hopes of reassurance. "We still gotta finished Avatar, don't we?"
I managed a shaky smile. "Yeah-"
An echoing boom shook the ground, and a shockwave of a sickly green light bled into the sky from the epicentre of Stiix. I felt my breaths grow shorter. My eyes roved the shaken village in panic.
"Y/n." Lloyd's firm voice pulled my scattered focus back to him. His hands were strong on my shoulders, his eyes wide and serious. "Who's my favourite girl?"
I startled into a blush. "... me?"
He nodded. "Who's beside me in our prophecy?"
"Me."
"Who's the strongest person in the world?" he asked.
I shook my head desperately. "I'm not-"
"You are," Lloyd insisted. "Do you really think Fate would put you in the prophecy if you weren't strong? You're a warrior, sunshine, it's in your blood."
I tried my best to believe him. In my blood, in my blood, in my blood. My ancestor called this our world. I had to protect it - I had to protect Lloyd.
He leant forward and pressed a kiss to the bridge of my nose. "To being a little fucked up and saving the world."
I managed a small, shaky smile. "To being a little fucked up and saving the world."
The mechs and bikes were out. Weapons were given their last checks while the colour of the sky grew dimmer and dimmer. It was truly the beginning of an apocalypse.
"Alright, team," Lloyd announced to our little group. "Cole, Nya, I want you helping the Senseis and Mum evacuate the city. You're on bikes, so start at the far outskirts while those on foot focuses from the centre. Jay, Zane, I want you keeping an eye on wherever it may be that the Preeminent emerges from - take point, hit it with everything you've got." His gaze turned to me. "Kai, Y/n, you're goal is to head directly..."
I tilted my head when Lloyd trailed off mid-speech. His wandering gaze stared out to the horizon, searching for something I couldn't see. His waiting expression hardened.
"You've got to be kidding me," Lloyd growled. "How did they know?!"
"Who is it?" Nya asked.
"The military," Wu said gravely, and I ran still. "They must have been keeping tabs."
"They're always sticking their noses where they don't belong," Lloyd snapped, before slipping his mask on when the first of the army trucks rolled into view in the distance.
I could feel my heartbeat screaming. My legs were numb and wobbly, and I was sure I was going to collapse from stress at any second. This couldn't be happening - not now, not here! Zane magically appeared at my side and squeezed my wrist. I didn't realise I was shaking until he held my arm still.
"Get started on the plan," Lloyd ordered his team. "I'll deal with the gatecrashers."
He and his father stormed forward to where the army's trucks had begun to park and spill their soldiers across the street. The others slowly clambered into their mechs and bikes, and the sky grew evermore darker. I gripped Zane's gi before he could leave my side.
"Please," I shivered. He was the only rock I had left.
"I was not aware of their surveillance over our current situation," Zane said lowly. "Did you say-?"
"No!" I shrilled beneath my breath. My eyes glued onto an approaching party dressed and strapped with gear I knew too well. "Please-, Zane, I didn't tell him anything! Believe me, I would never-!"
He patted my trembling hand. "I trust you."
Lloyd and Garmadon came to a stop, and so did the military's small party. My eyes scanned their faces - faces I all knew. Those who knew me, who watched me grow. The mask I wore was my only safety from their knowledge of what was surely my betrayal.
"Well, well," a familiar voice began sarcastically, filling me with a brief spark of elation before I was quickly consumed with chilling dread. "Look who it is? My favourite criminals."
"Sergeant Major," Lloyd greeted stiffly. "What brings you out all the way out here? A drive through the countryside?"
My dad, his eyes so familiar, his smile usually so warm and genial, grinned coldly. "Let's skip the pleasantries, boy. Mask, take it off."
Lloyd refused to move.
My father unclicked the gun from his hip and held it aloft. "Mask. Now."
Lloyd and his father were unflinching. How many times did they have a stand-off like this? How many times had they almost hurt each other before Lloyd and I even met, before our paths got tangled into one? Each breath I dragged in tasted raw.
"I can't do that," Lloyd snipped. No quips, no sarcasm, no charm.
The click that struck my ears told us all that the safety had been flicked. Zane's grip tightened over my wrist.
"Y/n," Zane warned.
"He wouldn't," I whimpered. "He wouldn't." Not my dad. Not when there was a bigger monster to face than his petty vendetta. Not when the world was at stake.
"You think I won't shoot?" my father scoffed.
"Try me," Lloyd taunted.
The gun lifted further, took aim between his eyes. Dad wasn't bluffing anymore. He could find a million and one reasons to justify the Green Ninja's death - he'd probably been reciting them in his sleep.
I couldn't run. If I ran, I'd set something or someone off. I still couldn't use my powers, and the shield I'd managed to make all those weeks ago was something I hadn't been able to create again. My options were whittling away. Lloyd still wasn't moving.
My father's finger touched the trigger. My decision was swift. My hand raised, and the sharp, startling explosion of a gun split through the air.
Tens of muzzles took aim at me. I stared them down, held at gunpoint by my own family. Lloyd and Garmadon turned to me in shock. The ninja paused.
"What's this?" my dad snarled, his gun switching from Lloyd to me. His sharp eyes jumped between the two Green Ninjas.
My heart was skipping beats. I raised a palm in calm surrender, and when my upheld arm with the gun slowly lowered, my mask was tugged off with it.
"Don't-!" Lloyd called, but it was too late. I could taste his fear. It mingled horribly with my own.
I met my fathers confused gaze, and the horror that swiftly turned his face made my stomach churn faster. The gun in his hand clattered to his feet.
"Y/n," he breathed.
"Hi, Dad," I weakly greeted.