It had only been 48 hours ever since the agreement of the SOG and Resistance to team up during the invasion of Ninjago. It's funny that in this little much of time, the team has gotten so far. Weapons were being repaired, the vaillant Bounty was soaring through the soft skies, Harumi realized the mistakes of her ways and the green ninja truly thought he has gotten his father back from the cruel and sombre world he has been forced to live in ever since the man got bitten by that vicious snake. It was around 6AM, a reasonable time for a ninja to be awake. The green-clad blonde gazed at the horizons, the soft breeze wafted through his seemingly golden-coloured hair. It was only the sunrise's effect.
He sighed and thought about such things: "A lot has happened so far, but can I really keep fighting? Everything is so overwhelming. Rumi's redemption, my reunion with the rest of the resistance as well as my father's change of heart" he murmured quietly. It was lucky for his case that no one responded, for no one was around. He only assumed that most of his teammates were asleep at this time. There was no rush nor major assaults coming their way so he didn't need to burst into their rooms to wake them up. He shut his eyes and leaned his head back. He took a light breath.
"I'm proud of everything we've done so far. I'm proud of my team." After pronouncing these words, he reopened his eyes and was met with the red skies reluctantly fading into a reasonable shade of orange. His hands were loosely removed from the fire-coloured railings of his beloved Bounty.
"I'm not surprised you're awake, Lloyd." A voice called out to him from behind. Tracking down the distance and how loud it resonated, he could only predict that it was coming from the center of the decking boards. There was a good 4 meter distance between the edge of the main deck and the middle, where the sewer drain was. Snapped out of his thoughts almost immediately, the green ninja turned around only to be faced with the familiar black haired female, in which her hair was elegantly tied into a bun. It seemed that she had time to fix it this morning. Usually, her buns were always roughly done or even undone since she was always out at war. Lloyd gave a weak smile and raised his hand gently to wave at her in this fine morning. "Hi Nya." He replied. She walked closer to him to close the gap, until she passed him and placed her two elbows on the railings.
She leaned her body forward so that her chest was pressed against the wooden rails. To give more support to her balance in case her hands' grasp gave up on her. Not only that but to make herself more comfortable. "You were just about to train, weren't you?" Nya didn't bother looking at Lloyd, but kept an eyebrow raised. The boy,who noticed her look of curiosity, nodded and rubbed the back of his head, embarrassed. "You bet I was. But I didn't know you'd be awake at this time." He responded. That earned him a swift nudge on his right shoulder. At first, Lloyd was surprised to why she did that until he noticed that her arms weren't on the rails anymore, but rather crossed. She gave a severe look at his statement. "Did you forget that I was a ninja as well? Remember, we usually trained with the others at this time." She spoke.
Lloyd rolled his eyes, to avoid eye contact with the black haired girl. "I didn't forget. I was just wondering." He blurted out quietly. Nya huffed: "Yeah yeah." She played along. However, it was obvious that she didn't buy his quick blurt.
There were a few minutes of silence between the two ninjas before the girl turned to the blonde who decided ever so slightly to position himself back beside her on the railings. She sighed, blowing a strand of her gorgeous raven-like hair away from her cerulean pearls that allowed her vision. "Something's on your mind, boy. I know it." She patted his shoulder again. Lloyd flinched at the contact once again which wasn't something the boy did often, but he did. Finally, trying not to keep her waiting long enough, he spoke with slight disappointment: "Yep, you guessed right." He said and glanced to his side. The sun got in his eyes. Nya covered her own eyes as a reflex and replied to his discouraged comment with an offer to talk about that thought.
"Come on, Tell me what's up? You can trust me Lloyd. I'm here to listen." She tried to convince him, succeeding at its last minutes. Lloyd agreed because he felt close to Nya. Like he could trust her, he really did see himself having an older sister whenever he was with her. He chuckled when she vocalized those words. "Go ahead and tell me everything that refrained you from staying positive at our current situation."
~~~~~~
The first part of the conversation was nothing new. It was just Lloyd's simple rambles on how the world thought that the green ninja was this perfect individual that was living their life to the fullest. Since he had to represent goodness and kindness, he couldn't snap back and unleash his anger at all those people who thought that way. Scream, wail, cry at them and proving them that his father's absence changed his mentality and choices in life entirely. He was a poor child. Abandoned by his own mother for his safety, ending off at a school for bad children just because he wanted to feel linked with his father again. He wanted to see what it felt like to act like the man every child relied to first. Later on, he discovered all of Ninjago would be dropped on his shoulders. He cared for these people too much, he couldn't drop the city from his shoulders and abandon everything. So even though he drank that tomorrow's tea back then, he kept fighting, but cried himself to sleep every night for he was still a lost child trying to do the right things for this world to keep existing.
Then, the conversation arrived to today's events. "The night I was abducted by a few SOG members. I was brought to Borg tower. Trust me when I saw that the decor made the building as dreadful as ever. Like an abandoned and eery factory. Like the ones you see in the horror movies about two years ago." He compared. It was impressive how he was able to recall a place's interior like that. Nya raised her hand slightly to pause the talk for a few minutes. "Must be quite the sight." She sarcastically slipped in a careless comment. Lloyd chuckled and rubbed the back of his head, "Yeah definitely." He paused to swallow. He kept talking afterwards. "I didn't remember the exact details but I met with Harumi. She seemed overjoyed to see me all vulnerable. It hurt me to see that she was only happy to see me, just because I was going to receive the beating of my life in several seconds later. But that was nothing compared to the assaults my father did to me. Heck, i still have a few marks." Lloyd unrolled his sleeves and showed his companion the crimson-red bruises all along his two arms. The girl's initial reaction to that was to gasp.
"How horrible! I'll make them pay I swear!" She tensed up and offered. But Lloyd raised his hand to refrain her from doing so. He shut his eyes and moved his mouth. Nya immediately understood that he didn't want her getting into these petty scoldings so she lowered her shoulders and kept listening to his story. "Like I was saying, after I passed out due to pressumingky blood loss? I was brought to the SOG's main dungeons. It was freezing down there, I only relied on the sole torch to warm me up. The bars felt lifeless, always chilly and it didn't help for comfort that the stone flooring were hard as bricks itself. I spent a few hours down there until Harumi came rushing down to me for forgiveness and help with this whole ordeal until now." He explained, earning a perplexed look from Nya. He addressed her the ability to talk. She coughed and spoke. "Ahem, woah there. You never told me how you and the other generals fell from the skies along with the ultra dragon. What caused the whole alliance to happen in the first place?" She inquired. Thus, Lloyd began explaining.
He kept the explanations brief though. "Harumi claimed to have found my father's journal layering around. I think it was just him and his disorganized trait. It cost him big time since his second-in command exposed it to her closest friends: Ultra Violet ans Killow. Later on, to me and Mr. E." he responded to her question. Nya asked again when she heard the nindroid's name. "Mr. E? I havent seen him accompanying the two then generals on their motorbikes during the two last weeks. Did something happen?" She questioned on the reason to the nindroid's sudden disappearance and mention in the story. That, take note, had a two week difference between the two. A spark of light illuminated in Lloyd's mind. He raised a finger, gathering his words to respond to that. "That's right. According to a talk me and Killow had, he was destroyed by my father out of impatience. However, remember that day when I came back to the base late? I was walking along the streets and just found robot parts all around, all trampled in a box found in a near alleyway. The nostalgia of having similar parts to Zane struck me and I couldn't resist to come check it out myself. Having knowledge on to fix a nindroid, thanks to you, Nya, I managed to fix him slightly. He's still a bit broken and mentally late in the reality but hey, he's still whole." Lloyd told her. He continued right after. "That night, I returned to the base and he returned to Borg tower and snuck in. We met again in the dungeons but offered no help to break me free, afraid of me getting caught trying to escape the facility."
~~~~~
"From there, I was freed and the three of us recruited Killow next. There were a few post-complications that came afterwards like the grappling hooks we used to flee the place bailing out on me specifically. It was kind on the part of Harumi and Killow to safety drag me into a broken abode. Not wasting more time, I recovered and we traveled to the underground." He paused again because Nya tapped his shoulder to grab his attention, presumingly wanting to ask a question. He swallowed and let her speak. "Underground?" She showed mild confusion hey impressiveness In her tone. Lloyd nodded at that. "Yes the underground. Because apparently that's where Ultimate Violet- Sorry, Ultra Violet spars. After ditching her formal-general persona back at Borg tower, she applied to be the next Ninjago-wide wrestler. Her plan of doing so obviously worked for she had achieved several fans in a few hours since her disappearance." He giggled at the ridiculous stunt that he knows only Ultra Violet could pull off. Nya rolled her eyes, but couldn't help but laugh quietly.
"After talking to the 'star', we escaped the underground and found ourselves in the recent situation of my first attempt of battling my father. It led to no avail and according to you and Skylor, we were falling out of the skies. You see, the real thing that occurred was that we were riding the Ultra dragon but our plans of attack and to get away from my father backfired, the stone colossi found us and were brought upon, crashing down. Due to the impact, I met up with unconsciousness for the second time when I crashed onto the decks of our Bounty." He said. Nya sighed and formed a smile. "Yeah I wondered. You see, last I checked, you guys aren't exactly angels." She joked. Lloyd picked up on his explanations. "Next was the unexpected ambush from the SOG. It honestly brought back memories from when I was abducted on the first night however you know what's better? I managed to fight this time. I didn't remain helpless and defenceless like last time. With the help of the serpentine, we fought off the guards and eventually I defeated my father. Finally.." he smiled himself and glanced at the skies. "I still don't know if he's actually serious on his behaviour however, he seemed to have changed completely." He turned to Nya to check her reaction. All she had was a frown.
"I'm not too sure about that. I'd keep an eye on him if I were you. Though I understand if you think about it that way. He's...your father and you're supposed to trust him right? Instead, I'll keep an eye on him instead of you. Just please, be careful." She reminded him, the blonde responded with a nod and formed a chuckle.
"By the way, Nya, thanks for listening. I hope I didn't waste any of your time." He cut himself off and looked at the skies. They were completely orange, a tint of blue appearing ever so slightly. It was very hard to see. But for all the two knew, it informed them that it was close to morning. Meaning it was 7AM. Lloyd and Nya both looked at each other and shrugged. The black-haired girl walked away from him but patted him one last time on the shoulder before doing so. "It's no problem. I was wondering about your misadventures myself. It was rather enjoyable." She warmly thanked him herself. However, she continued afterwards with an invitation.
"Now come on. I bet everyone's awake or starting to wake up. Breakfast will probably be held. After we eat, I wanted to show the team the new weapons I smelted a few days ago! Come on!" Nya let out a quick giggle and ran back inside of the control room and into the kitchen.
Lloyd crossed his arms and was quite pleased with Nya's mood this morning. He followed after her, but at a slower paste. From there on, the boy knew that there was nothing more in his life that refrained him from preparing for their hardest battle yet.
~~~~~
A/N Yes! This is a recap chapter guys! I'm sorry if you wanted more action for today's chapters though I felt the need to repeat the events that happened in the book so far to not leave anyone behind, the ones that are still confused on a few things. However, I can assure you that in the next chapter, the team will be back in action! I hope you guys are ready! Anyways, the reason why I made this into a recap chapter was because I seriously had no idea what to write for this week's chapter. I'm currently writing this on Wednesday since I'm sick. I had taken the habitude to write Reconciled hearts chapters very early from the usual publication dates. Is that healthy? Well that's all I had to mention on my author's note, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter either way! And any questions of theories you had in the past are sort of answered? If you still have questions, feel free to ask! We'd gladly answer you! Back on track here , if you enjoyed, please leave a vote and this is one of the co-writers: LillaSmolBean, ending off this chapter right here! Cya guys!^^