The Clash
••• London Calling •••
london calling to the faraway towns,
now war is declared and battle comes down,
london calling to the underworld,
come out of the cupboard, you boys and girls
•••••
Rewriting this chapter was hell, enjoy
TW: fantastical harm, manipulation
Chen's knee bounced as he sat at his desk, chewing on the end of a pen as he scrolled on his laptop.
He was meant to be searching for possible camping spots for his family's upcoming trip over Christmas, but his attention kept getting snagged by the news adverts that would line each website - the Green Ninja was always a top story.
The guilt was choking him.
Chen pushed himself away from his desk and sighed, running his palms roughly down his face. Finding out that Lloyd was the Green Ninja was a wake-up call of a monumental kind. He'd once preened himself on Lloyd's kicked-to-the-curb self, felt power upon his belittling, and now...
God, he was a dickhead.
Chen followed everyone else's footsteps by ostracising Lloyd without even really knowing why. Picking on him, calling him names, making his life a living hell. Lloyd wasn't Lloyd to the city, he was a punching bug. All he was was an evil tyrant's pathetic son.
Who was also the city's saviour.
Chen hung his head back. "Fuck," he whispered, because he really was fucked. It was as though a murky film had been removed from his vision and he could see clearly, now. He was following the crowd, sure, but that didn't mean he wasn't being an awful prick. He should've pulled his head out of his ass long ago.
The Green Ninja. It was all so... baffling. He'd spat insult after insult, shoved him against lockers, scorned the very one who kept his home safe. That was a monstrosity of a fuck-up. That was fucked-up on an atrocious level. Lloyd could've turned around and out-powered him at any moment, but he didn't. He just took it all on his chin.
Chen closed his eyes as his memory rolled through the past handful of years. How many times had he made Lloyd miserable? For what? For being the son of Lord Garmadon, something he didn't even have any control over? What gave Chen the right? What gave anyone the right?
When did get so blind-sided? When did he turn so cruel?
"Che-Che?"
Chen looked up at the call of his nickname. His younger sister, Bethany, stood at the door with her favourite stuffed doll in her arms. He pulled himself up with a smile when she entered.
"Hey, Bee," he greeted. The little girl clambered onto his lap, curling against his chest and hugging the doll. He hugged her just as tight.
What kind of role model was he being for Bethany? He didn't want his little sister to turn twisted and cruel, like path he'd been going down. He wanted her to keep her sense of kindness and selflessness. It was so rare to have such abundance of it in a person nowadays, and Chen was walking proof of the rest of the population.
His brown eyes slid back to his laptop's screen. Another Green Ninja ad played on the side of the website. It watched him, and all he saw was the fury of an all-powerful man with red eyes that haunted those who hurt the people he cared about. That was Lloyd unbridled.
Chen's arms tightened around Bethany. He could understand it - the protective rage. His back still ached from when he was slammed against the brick wall with the front of his shirt in Lloyd's fist. He was terrifying in that moment, a creature of raw anger. Chen couldn't even blame him.
And Y/n - Y/n, who'd he'd mocked. Who'd he'd insulted and indirectly injured and didn't even take the opportunity to blame him, even thought she should've. Y/n who'd bumped into him the other day with tears in her eyes as she fled some kind of scene. At least he picked up the keychain he noticed she'd dropped and brought it back to her - even though it did entail ditching his friends and racing through the rain.
He had to make it up to her, somehow. Chen didn't want to be mean. He didn't realise how mean he'd become, and it sickened him.
The apology Chen made was weak. It wasn't even to Lloyd, either. And it could be the best apology in the world, and it still wouldn't make up for the years he'd bullied him and his friends.
"Green Ninja!" Bethany called, pointing a hammy-fisted hand at the computer. Chen followed her gaze and found a new story of the Green Ninja popping up on the side of the website. Lloyd. That's Lloyd.
"Yeah," Chen sighed. "Yeah, it is."
He was antsy. Anxious. He knew the Green Ninja's identity and he didn't know what to do - or know what the Green Ninja would do to him. So when Bethany was called for a bath, he went for a walk to get rid of the excess energy making his nerves prickle and palms clammy.
This gave Lloyd a certain kind of immunity over him, Chen realised with a sudden wash of fear. He was in Lloyd's hand to do with as he pleased - Lloyd didn't have to conceal his power around him anymore, and Chen knew just how powerful of a guy he really was now. He could threaten him to stay quiet as easily as flicking a finger. He could follow through with that threat as easily as blinking.
It all made Chen's breath shorten in fear. He usually wasn't a nervous guy, he was used to things coming easy for him. He had a big group of friends, a loving family, he got good grades and was the captain of the cheerleading team. His life was good and worry-free.
But this... this had terror tangling down his throat.
And it must've been palpable enough to lure sharks, because a sharp-voiced, shadowed stranger caught him in their caged grasp.
"I know you know who the Green Ninja is."
Chen's swift pace came to a jolting halt at the words. It was dark, near evening, and the unusually cloudy summer sky felt as though it were pressing down against him. The street was empty but he felt as though he were being crowded, felt as though he were squeezed until he couldn't breathe.
His eyes slowly turned towards the shadows.
A man with a shock of white hair leant against the wall, cast by the dark shelter of the tall building complex he rested upon. He was rolling something in his pale fingers - a chess piece. An onyx pawn shaped like an oni.
"What did you say?" Chen managed to ask.
The man lifted his chin as he stared at the pawn in his fingertips. It fell to his palm and his fingers curled over it, concealing it from view. His hand dropped to his side, as though bored of inspecting it.
"You know who the Green Ninja is," he repeated in his low, velvety drawl. A shiver ran up Chen's spine as the stranger's gaze slowly turned to his - yellow and sharp and manic, like the bite of a ferocious, fanged beast. "I saw you with him. I heard you say his name." The stranger leant towards him with a cold smile. "Lloyd."
Chen's brows furrowed. The stranger felt tense and coiled, like a spring about to snap or a lion about to attack. It made him uneasy. "Okay. So?"
The stranger's unusual eyes returned to his chess piece. "I don't like him. I know you don't like him, either, so-" he tossed the pawn to Chen's chest, and he scrambled to catch it "-how about we work together."
It wasn't phrased as a question.
Chen took a shaky step back. "Look, man, I don't know what kind of vendetta you have against him, but I don't want any part of it."
The stranger laughed softly. "You seem illusioned into thinking you have a choice." His smile dropped. "It wasn't an offer."
The hairs on the back of Chen's neck began to stand on end. His slow survival instincts had begun to yell at him to run, alarms ringing behind his eyes. Whoever this deranged guy was, he was dangerous. Dangerous enough into thinking he could take down the Green Ninja.
"Fuck off, man." Chen turned to leave, only to stop when his sight was suddenly taken. He yelled in shock and then fear, hands outstretched into the darkness that had become his world.
"I do not like repeating myself, Chen Daniels." The stranger's voice circled in his head. Chen felt the overwhelming urge to curl into a ball and cry in terror. "You will help me. It is only a simple task; I just need a single book."
"Who- what are you-?!"
"What I am is none of your concern," he said sharply. "But you may call me Simon."
Chen clawed for something to ground himself to in this empty void but he felt nothing, not even the ground beneath him. It was an eerie sense of lightness and crushing weight, as though he were drifting in space without a suit.
"My actions are being watched." A bunch of faces Chen didn't know the names of suddenly flashed before him. "So I must use my own pawns."
The oni-shaped pawn in Chen's grasp suddenly seemed to burn with a heat so intense that it seared through his flesh. Chen cried against the pain of it, tried to shake it off, but it would not drop. It was stuck there, burning his skin and melting into his palm, as though he had shoved it into a bucket of acid.
"Let me make this easy for you, Mr. Daniels." The voice boomed in his head, piercing through his ears, making him cower. A figure emerged from the darkness - brown eyes, brown pigtails, a doll in her grasp. "If you do this simple task for me, I will not hurt your precious little sister whom you hold so dear."
"Beth-!" Chen cried out for her, but she was swept away in the darkness. The pain was growing. His shrieks were shredding his throat.
"Do we have a deal?"
"Yes! Yes!" Chen cried desperately. "Yes, just- don't hurt her!"
And then the darkness washed away like the snap of a rubber band. Chen gasped for breath, fingers clenched tight around an onyx oni piece in his hand that no longer burnt.
He fell to his knees as he dragged in air. He was on the street. He was okay. His hand was okay. Bethany was at home, and was okay. It was all in his head.
Simon crouched before him and tilted Chen's chin up with a finger. His smile was thin and emotionless, sending daggers of fear down Chen's back.
"That's a good mortal," he hummed, though his yellow eyes were incredibly bored. "Always so easy to break." He pulled his hand away and wiped it on his dark coat with a subtle grimace. "You know what book to find."
And, just as he said those words, an image of a book appeared in Chen's mind. It was old and weathered, an ancient tome of times long past. It was a grimoire, the last of its kind, and Chen knew that the magic within its yellowed, stained pages weren't the stuff of unicorns and fairies.
"Get me this by New Years, and I will guarantee your sister's safety," Simon murmured lowly. "And if you go to the Green Ninja about me, well... consider the lot of you dead."
Simon left, leaving Chen curled on the side of the alleyway with an oni-shaped pawn that had been beheaded.
🍃🍂🍁🍂🍃
"Excuse me, is Misako Garmadon here?"
The museum employee's face twisted with a grimace at the mention of Misako's name. Nevertheless, he pointed me in the direction of the history section. "She should be in her office. It's the door at the end of the room."
"Thank you," I said with a smile. It was not returned.
Unperturbed, I turned toward the history section and pushed past the artefacts that called for me to read their informational blurbs. Right, that was one anxiety-inducing thing down, now for the pinnacle of anxiety-inducing things - talking to Lloyd's mother.
She's at work, Y/n. She's probably busy. Just because you spent all night suffering under the weight of a million questions doesn't give you the right to interrupt her.
But talking with Garmadon the day before had inspired so many inquiries. I wanted to know everything, and there was nothing accessible that had anything actually substantial. The mythology books that Lloyd suggested had helped, but I couldn't be certain of the validity of them. I needed validity. Validity was what made the world go round.
So it was a battle between my indisruptable yearn for research and my social anxiety.
For once, my anxiety was losing.
I knocked on a door with Misako's name with a firmness I didn't realise I was capable of. It opened only a moment later, revealing a frazzled grey plait and the bright, brown eyes of a woman with a mission. She blinked upon seeing me.
"Y/n?" She spoke my name with astute surprise.
"I have about a million questions," I said solemnly, "and I'm pretty sure you're the only person I can ask."
She let my request sink in for a bit. Then, Misako closed her eyes with a satisfied smile. "I'm so glad my son is dating an intellectual."
I blushed warmly but didn't let her praise crumble the confidence that had taken an hour to build up. I could soften beneath her acceptance another day.
Misako opened the door to her office wider. "Come, come. I'll answer anything I can."
A bright grin crossed my face before I slipped inside, entering an office that looked like an organised site of chaos. Cases of artefacts and fossils lined the shelves and piled on couch arms and the coffee table. Files and papers covered even more.
"Step carefully, please," Misako said lightly. "I have a system."
I cautiously crossed the floor before perching on one of the seats beside her old mahogany desk. It looked vintage, edges soft with age and stained with the occasional ring of coffee and covered in notes and files and books. It was a desk I was instantly jealous of.
Misako sunk into a leather chair and linked her hands together before her. "Hit me," she said.
I inhaled slowly through my nose and out through my mouth. I reached into my bag and retrieved a notepad. "I wrote down my questions."
"You are the daughter I've dreamed of having," she said seriously. "Please, ask away."
A tingle of excitement shot through me. The pursuit of knowledge always got me excited - of asking questions and receiving answers, of broadening my world, of understanding things around me that much more clearer. Lloyd's world was something I'd been craving to understand the moment I learnt of it.
"There are no official records of anything to do with Elemental Masters anywhere," I said. "Everything was reduced to legend, but a book Lloyd gave me said that the sons of Uchū and the royalty used to work in tandem. Why did they disappear?"
Misako smiled bittersweetly. "Ah. I had a feeling this would be your first question. I hope you find that seat comfy."
It wasn't, but like I'd ever tell. "I'm ready."
Misako's smile softened at my eagerness. She pulled the glasses from her eyes and set them down carefully on her overburdened desk. She stared at them as she tried to find a place to start.
"We still have loose ties to the Royal Family," Misako began, "but our council has not been sought for generations. There are pockets of humans who know about us and the team, though they are very few and far between."
Misako leant back in her chair and roved her gaze across the ceiling with a sigh. She was reaching into the banks of her memories, pulling forth the information I so dearly yearned for.
"It must've been five hundred years ago when we disappeared," she said slowly, thoughtfully. "What was once a balanced world began to tip into the darkness, and those without powers accused us that we were at fault.
"We did not want a war, of course. We tried to subdue the tension with talks of peace as we once knew it, but the darkness had gotten a hold of them, and there was no reasoning with darkness." She broke to give a weary sigh, as though trapped in that era and that world of uncertainty. "They had grown jealous of our powers and tried to take them through means of dark magic. We did the next best thing - we hid, and eventually they forgot about us."
I hadn't realised I was leaning forward until my arms touched the edge of the desk. I sat back into my seat, silenced by deep thought.
I'd had a feeling that it was going to be a sad story, but the way Misako spoke about it... it was as though she had been there and still carried the weight of that history. It was so much worse than sad. It felt like agony.
To be pushed out of their own home, to be forced to go into hiding. To be witch-hunted. I couldn't imagine what that must've been like.
"Dark magic?" I asked.
"Yes," Misako said. "Necromancy. Curses. Magic that was not born of Uchū or good will."
"That exists?"
She gave a solemn nod. I exhaled slowly at the revelation and closed my eyes. That was a lot of information to digest just from one question. But I had to continue.
"When the team first appeared, they made everyone realise that the legends of Elemental Masters weren't entirely false," I said. "Why did they return if you were all in hiding?"
Misako gave a smile and a shrug. "Fate," she said simply. "We do not question it, despite how infuriating or confounding it may be. Fate has always guided us."
I supposed that made sense. Lloyd's family spoke a lot about fate. It seemed as though they lived by it.
"Are there other Elemental Powers outside of the Nineteen Houses?"
"Yes," she nodded, and the brightness to her eyes returned. "Over milennia some elements merged and created entirely new powers, such as the Element of Ash, which stemmed from fire, or the Element of Water, which was created from the element of ice."
I blinked. "Does that make Nya and Kai related to Zane?"
"Very, very distantly, yes," Misako answered.
"Huh," I said. They looked nothing alike. My eyes turned back to my notes and I grimaced at my next question. "How did Garmadon... lose his other two arms?" My face began to burn with shame as soon as the words slipped from my mouth and Misako grinned. "I- I'm sorry."
"Don't be," she snickered, "it's a very valid question. I would ask the same, if I were in your position. It is a lovely story, anyway."
Misako launched into a retelling of Lloyd's massive battle with the Overlord. I knew bits and pieces of this fight - mainly the general stuff, like that the entire world had gone dark when the Overlord emerged, and that it was turning people into mind-controlled slaves. That soldiers made of stone ran through the streets of Ninjago City.
What I didn't know, however, was that Garmadon had been possessed by the Overlord and that vanquishing the Big Bad had somehow purged Lloyd's father of the evil that ran through his veins. Thus - two arms down, two remaining.
"Wow," I said when Misako had finished. I shook my head. "That's crazy."
Misako hummed with a nod. She paused, then sent a meaningful look that I couldn't decipher my way. "You were meant to be there, you know."
I straightened in my seat. "I was?"
She nodded slowly, as though calculating just how much to tell me. "You were never meant to have left Ninjago City. Then something happened to the scroll, and things got a little topsy-turvy after that."
"The curse," I murmured. "Neuro mentioned an incident."
Misako huffed. "The Cloud Kingdom get quite pretentious when things don't go to their plans."
"The Cloud Kingdom?" I echoed in disbelief. I'd only heard tales of the castle above the sky that wrote out the lives of everyone who lived. A blanket of bafflement settled over me. "That exists, too?!"
"Oh, dear," Misako said with a soft frown as she watched me sit back in my seat with an exhausted sigh. "You seem to be getting overwhelmed. It is a lot to take in, honey. Perhaps we should do this in increments?"
I was absolutely getting overwhelmed and she was definitely right, however my hunger for answers made me beg for just one more.
"One last question?" I pled. She nodded for me to go, so I quickly scoured through my notes for a question that jumped out at me the most. I looked up at her. "When did you learn that Lloyd was the Green Ninja? I know he found out when he was eleven, but did anybody else know before?"
Since people knowing more about someone than they know themself seemed to be a trend. I kept that part to myself.
Misako shifted in her seat. "I knew as soon as I learnt I was pregnant."
My eyes widened. "How?"
"I was one of the few who studied the prophecy scrolls religiously," she said. "Outside those of the Library of Domu, of course."
"I knew the Library of Domu was real," I whispered. She smiled faintly.
"Indeed, and it's a magical place," she said. "I would like to show you sometime. Lloyd, too."
Misako sent a look around her cluttered office that spoke of a woman overworked and released a breath. She seemed to be building herself up to speaking, going to talk and then easing back into silence.
"It was difficult time," Misako finally said with a frown. She rubbed her stomach, as though lost to the memories. "Garmadon had succumbed to the evil that had poisoned him, and he had left to keep me safe. Neither of us knew I was pregnant at the time and then there was no way for me to tell him. I did not see Garmadon for another ten years after he left."
My heart sunk. "I'm so sorry."
Misako smiled softly, but it fell away. I wanted to tell her that it was okay, that she didn't need to say more if she didn't want to, but perhaps it was therapeutic for her. Perhaps speaking about it made it easier to burden. That was what my mother would say, anyway, and she was usually right.
"I sent Lloyd to boarding school as soon as I was able," Misako admitted, and her voice was coloured with guilt. "I couldn't stand to see his perfect little face and know the cruelty of the future awaiting him - of him having to fight his own father who didn't even know he existed at the time, and all of the trials he'd have to face as a solider of fate afterwards." She rubbed her eyes exhaustedly. "I lived those years searching for a way to get him out of the prophecy, but..."
"They're unavoidable," I murmured. Neuro had said the very same thing.
"Yes," she said, and sounded incredibly aged. "It was futile in the end, and all I managed to do was push my own son away."
Jesus Christ. When I arrived at the museum, I'd arrived wanting answers. Now I had a handful of them and I didn't know what to do. I didn't expect so many of them to be so sad and it tugged at my heart strings. All I wanted to do was pull this poor, tired woman into a hug.
"But you two are close now?"
Misako's guilt faded into a warm smile. "Very. He is a good boy, just like his father."
My smile matched hers. I felt a few more pieces of the jigsaw puzzle that was Lloyd settle into place.
"Right," Misako said and pulled in a deep breath. The somber atmosphere immediately drained away. "That's enough downer talk for one day. I trust you have a lot to digest?"
"My mind is full," I confessed. She chuckled.
"The team will be docking at Borg's private pier to pick up some new street bikes before going home," Misako said as she pulled on a cardigan from the arm of her chair. "I'll be meeting them there. You're more than welcome to join."
"Oh." My heart began to race a little faster. Lloyd's almost back. I pushed back the instinctive urge to fold away on myself and decline Misako's offer, to not be a bother - I wanted to see Lloyd. I wanted to go. I was tired of letting my timidity run my life. "Yeah. Please."
Misako smiled softly at me. Maybe she saw the brief struggle in my mind. Maybe she knew that, if this were me a few weeks ago, I would've said no and gone home kicking myself.
"Shall we, then?" she asked. I nodded and we carefully picked our way back through her crowded office.
Misako drove us to Borg's private docks while telling me about her latest project for the museum; identification of some prehistoric fossils. I listened with rapt attention as she berated the other members of what was called the 'Explorer's Club.'
"They all think it's the tooth of a brachiosaurus," Misako said with a ludicrous shake of her head. "They're not ready to realise that half of their finds are the remains of the dragons who followed Uchū here. The Grundle, for example, is a species of dragon who evolved to lose their wings."
Huh. Even museum's got stuff wrong. Judging by Misako's face, it was a fault she took personally. It made me want to double-check everything that I knew to be sure it was right.
"Lloyd told me you're interested in history," she continued, an ever-spewing splurge of conversations. "I'm so pleased. Historical knowledge has saved the team on more than one occasion."
"I don't think I'll be saving the team anytime soon," I admitted with a weak smile.
"Nonsense," she said. The car pulled into Borg's docks, and I watched as warehouses grew taller as we approached. "Fate works in mysterious and often infuriating ways, but it knows what it's doing."
I really doubted that I'd be of any use for a long while but I stayed quiet. Misako stopped at a gate and inputted a code and, with a successful beep, we were granted access.
"After the ninja helped Borg get rid of the Overlord when it took over the city, he began to sponsor the team's tech," Misako explained. She parked the car outside a warehouse. "Things like bikes, jets, mechs, you name it. Nya and Jay draw up the schematics and send it to Borg for final designs and assembly."
"Impressive," I replied. How does any of the team find time for schoolwork? Or to breathe?
"Ah, there's Garm now," she said. Misako unbuckled her seatbelt and stepped out with a wave towards her husband, who was walking over with a bald-headed man in dark red robes. "I brought a stowaway."
At first I thought she was speaking to me as Garmadon was still quite a bit away and her voice didn't raise in volume. But he lifted his arms in joy and I remembered; ah, super-hearing. I forgot he was where Lloyd got it from.
"Y/n!" Garmadon called my name with great joy when we were in speaking distance. "What a brilliant surprise! This here is Dimitri, he's my servant."
"I'm the head monk," Dimitri corrected dryly.
"My servant," Garmadon whispered to me. I smiled at him, which only made the monk reluctantly sigh. He glanced at his watch.
"They should be arriving in twenty minutes," Dimitri announced. "Shall we inspect the new tech?"
"Please." Misako swept her arm towards the warehouse entrance. "Lead the way."
I stayed behind while they entered the warehouse, busy scouring the horizon for the ninja's ship and unsure whether I was allowed to follow. My palms grew clammy with anticipation and a little bit of nervousness; the last time I saw Lloyd's whole team, I'd smacked him in the face with a football. I loathed to think how I'd make a fool of myself in front of them, now.
I couldn't tell which were other vessels or the ninja's boat that cruised along the waves of the harbour. Bigger container ships slowly pulled into place in other private dockings to unload their stock, and I watched with bored fascination. Still, with each minute that passed, I felt my suspense rise and the tugging sensation in my gut increase.
A small stretch of sand beside the docks called for me to traverse, to at least dull the edge of my excess energy. After sparing a look back at the unassuming warehouse, I ventured down the weathered concrete stairs and to the beach.
The lull of the water sipped at my anxieties and directed my breathing; in, with the roll of the waves, and out with the pull of the tide. The surf made breathing easy again. In and out. I strolled alongside it. In and out. My heart calmed.
I sunk my toes into the sand with each step and sighed. Okay - a lot of information to sift through since the last time I saw him. Lloyd went to boarding school. Lloyd opened the Serpentine Tombs. Lloyd was estranged from both of his parents for a time. They were all more puzzle pieces filling the gaps, refining my picture.
And I... was fairly certain that Garmadon was trying super hard to get me to like him in spite of his past. To his credit, it worked remarkably well.
I strolled through the surf with my tongue between my teeth, gnawing in thought. It was a lot to learn about a person, and Lloyd wasn't just any person to begin with. He was an enigma, a Pandora's Box of unending curiosities and questions. Perhaps that was part of the reason why I adored him so.
I inhaled the salt air. I missed him. I released it from my tongue. I love him. He was everything, all around me. And I supposed that feeling wasn't entirely ridiculous since he was the descendant of the very person who created the entire world.
A wooden ship on the waves slowly rocked towards the pier beside me. It looked like that of an old pirate's ship, a sore thumb standing out in comparison to the steel-hulled container ships that dotted the harbour. It had to be them.
I let myself stop walking, watching with my heart between my teeth as the ship approached. My phone buzzed in my pocket and interrupted my stare.
Jesus💗:
home soon :) ill come see u when i can escape
Sent 12.13pm
My heart fluttered at his text. Why couldn't his boat come faster? It could fly, but it was still slow to sail? I wanted to see him - I needed to see him, I had to hold his face and welcome him home with a kiss.
Despite my wants the ship moved no faster, rolling along the swells in a leisurely pace while the wind caught the sails. I pushed my phone back into my pocket and sat in the sand, hoping to pass the time by counting waves that would cross over my toes. On the tall pier beside me Garmadon, Misako and Dimitri returned to share my watching.
And, after an eternity, the ship pulled into the docks. The ninja and Wu disembarked the vessel, greeting their waiting family, but I couldn't pay attention to what they were doing. My focus had simply fixated on the blond hair that shone like gold corn-silk in the summer sun.
"Lloyd," I whispered, and it truly was unintentional. Nevertheless, his super hearing picked up at the breathy tumble from my lips and turned his head. His gaze zeroed in on me.
I froze at the stare, breath caught between my teeth as the waves rolled over my toes and pulled at my psyche. Lloyd broke from the trance first, succumbing to the strong gravitational pull towards one another and leaping down from the docks and to the sand with an impossibly easy landing. I'd barely made it to my shaky legs, almost teetering from the force of the tugging, when he was upon me.
My name barely escaped his lips when his arms encircled me with such force that the both of us tipped backwards onto the beach. I squealed a laugh at the impact, landing on his chest with sand erupting around us. My head spun from the tackle, and it spun only faster when Lloyd laughed delightedly from beneath me and sat up to dig his face into my neck.
"Hi," he said, voice muffled by my skin.
I grinned at his simple greeting and sifted my fingers through the soft hair above his neck. "Hey, hero."
"You welcomed me home," he murmured, and discreetly, so softly, pressed his soft lips against my collarbone. My body shivered, breath sucking in sharp at the affection - such a visceral, bodily response for such a tiny thing.
"I did," I said breathlessly. Lloyd sighed contently and snuggled deeper into me and I welcomed his cuddliness enthusiastically. I smiled, weak with fluster. "You missed me that much, huh?"
"More," he groaned, and tightened his arms around me. "Missed you so fucking much."
I giggled airily, heart racing. I was sure that even without his Jesus-hearing he'd be able to hear it, racing in the chamber of my chest like a wild rabbit. "I missed you, too."
"Hey, lovebirds!" Cole called from across the distance. I glanced over Lloyd's shoulder and found the Master of Earth failing at hiding a grin as he stood on the dock, sandwiched by a sniggering Jay and Kai. "Help us with the new bikes, would ya?"
"I think that's our cue," I said, only to backtrack when Lloyd made an unpleased growl from the back of his throat. I chuckled. "Or you can ignore your team, which I'm sure your uncle would love."
Lloyd pulled his head back and hung it towards the sky with a disgruntled frown. He dropped his chin again and set me with a serious look.
"We're cuddling soon, okay?" he said solemnly. I couldn't help but laugh again at his expression and nodded.
"Sure," I agreed amusedly. "I like the sound of that."
Lloyd smiled, pressed a kiss to my cheek, before leaping to his feet and helping me up. He had sand granules covering his back and side and I was sure I didn't look much better. At least it was dry sand.
"Gee," Kai said with a teasing grin as Lloyd and I approached the team. "We don't see that kind of enthusiasm towards training from you much anymore, do we?"
"Ha-ha," Lloyd said, unamused. He looked down at me and ignored Kai's snicker. "Did you have a peek at our new toys?"
I blinked. "Am I allowed?"
Lloyd sent me a smile that looked as though he didn't know whether to laugh or gently scold me for such a thought. His hand squeezed over mine.
"Of course you are," he assured, before beginning to lead me to the warehouse. "You're a part of this, now."
I inhaled deeply. I really gotta wrap my head around that. "Okay."
I felt Misako and Garmadon's gaze as Lloyd guided me through the warehouse's entrance and into the brightly-lit space, which was completely empty aside from a line of six impressive-looking and surely illegal bikes.
"Colour coded?" I said, because the bikes were the colour of each of the ninja.
"Makes it easier to know which one belongs to who," Lloyd answered. He led me towards a deep blue bike and pointed at the rounded half-sphere just before the handle bars. "This bike here is Jay's. It's got an electric generator at the front that boosts his powers if he's feeling tired."
"Wow," I breathed. He let me lead him towards the green bike, decorated with gold decals and designs. "Why are you associated with gold, too? Every other bike is just the other's main colour." I sent him a sneaky smile. "Is this team leader privilege?"
"No," Lloyd chuckled. "It's just... a reference to my previous powers." At my intrigued look, he shrugged. "Gold stuff. It's unimportant."
Behind us, Garmadon snorted a cough into his hand at a poor attempt of disguising his laugh. I glanced back at Lloyd's parents (who I didn't even realise followed us in) before sending Lloyd a look of unimpressed disbelief at his nonchalant words. He just shrugged it off with a cute smile.
I exhaled with an amused shake of my head before getting distracted by the rest of the team coming in to retrieve their bikes and take them to the ship. They oh'd and ah'd over their new toys before kicking the engines in a cacophony of quiet rumbles and guiding them out of the warehouse.
"We're going back home," Misako said warmly. "You're more than welcome to return with us."
"Oh." I felt Lloyd slip his hand into mine and give it a hopeful squeeze. It gave me the confidence boost I needed to smile confidently. "I'd love to."
Misako beamed like it was the best news she'd heard all day. She took her husband's hand and towed him outside, leaving us alone. Lloyd chuckled.
"I think you just made her day," he said. "She's been talking about having you around since you figured me out."
I blushed and turned my attention back to his road bike. It was pretty, in that deadly, glossy, very illegal sort of way. I wondered what my dear old dad would think of me, admiring his 'mortal enemies'' vehicles.
"What does your bike do?" I asked. "And why do you even need bikes? Don't you have your dragons to get around on?"
Lloyd leant against the seat and watched as I traced my fingers over the design of golden dragons that ran along the side of the bike. Unneeded or not, the mental image of Lloyd riding this bike was excuse enough for me. It was a sight I appreciated immensely.
"It's hard to do street chases when your dragon can't exactly fit in the streets," he explained. I gave a thoughtful shrug - that made sense. "And my bike has missiles."
I snatched my hand back. "Missiles?"
"Yep."
"Missiles."
"Yes, ma'am," Lloyd said with an amused, lidded-eye smile. "Just small ones. You wanna go for a spin?"
I gave a nervous laugh and took a step back from the bike. "I think I'll stick to street-legal, non-missile-having vehicles, thank you."
Lloyd placed a hand against his chest in fake hurt. "You don't trust me?"
"It's me I don't trust," I corrected with a wary side-eye at the bike. "I might accidentally press a button and blow up a building."
"Hm. True." Lloyd sent me a sharp, teasing grin before swinging his leg over the bike's seat. The engine turned over with a near-silent purr as he pressed a button beneath the handlebar. "Probably for the best if we keep you away from live weapons, then."
"Probably," I breathed.
"Stop teasing the poor thing," Garmadon chided as he entered the warehouse again. I startled at his soundless return. "And get that bike into the ship, you show-off."
Lloyd saluted his acknowledgment to his father before sending me a sly smile when he left. "Are you sure you don't want a spin? We can see if we beat the others home."
I sent the bike a considering once over. "You won't crash?"
Lloyd smiled smugly at me and rested his arms over the handlebars. "I never crash."
"That's what people say before they crash."
Lloyd cocked his head to the side and held out a hand. "Pinkie promise."
I stared at his outstretched pinkie with a thoughtful purse of my lips. Then, relenting with a sigh, I linked mine through his. "Got any spare helmets?"
"Atta girl," Lloyd hummed, pleased. He slipped behind the seat and lifted it to reveal a compartment containing two helmets and a pair of leather roading jackets. He handed a helmet and jacket to me. "Borg always thinks ahead."
"Does he know about me?" I asked incredulously as I stuck the helmet between my knees and pulled the oversized jacket on.
Lloyd shrugged. "He usually puts in spares incase we pick up stragglers."
"Ah, I see." I pulled the helmet over my head. "I'm just a straggler to you."
"Very funny," Lloyd said. He pulled his own jacket on and slid himself forward again, patting the seat behind him. I took a breif moment to appreciate him in a leather jacket (again). "Hop on, princess."
"Why do I let you make me do these things?" I sighed to myself which he, of course, heard anyway. He chuckled as I lifted myself onto the bike behind him.
"Because it's fun," he said through the helmet. His foot pressed against the gas and the engine rolled louder. I tensed, wrapping my arms around him. "Hold on tight, sunshine. It'll be a fast ride."
I held him tighter. "Just don't let me die, please?"
His hand patted my knee in reassurance. "You're safe with me. I pinkie promised you, didn't I?"
"I suppose," I said with a sigh. His thumb rubbed a circle against my knee and my traitorous heart stumbled with it. His supersonic hearing really was unfair.
"Ready?"
I swallowed and curled myself against him in anticipation. "Ready."
The bike shot forward with power not unlike his dragon, tearing through the warehouse's exit like a bullet from a gun. My own gasp was swallowed back into my throat as we zipped forward, turning past his surprised team and parents and the unsurprised Dimitri.
I blinked and we were on the streets, Lloyd manoeuvring through traffic with an ease that spoke of his experience. My heart raced, my breath stopped, adrenaline high-kicking me in the back of the head.
No. No, this was certainly not what I predicted for my summer. Not that I minded.
"Am I a bad influence on you?" I yelled over the wind after recalling the looks on his parents' face as we drove past and left them in the dust. I couldn't hear his response, but I did feel his shoulders shake with the weight of his mirth. I'd take that as a yes.
Figures.
Lloyd took us through streets with lower traffic. My helmet kept spitting out words and directions in a robotic woman's voice, but my ears were ringing too loud for me to understand them, though I was pretty sure that it was some kind of fancy GPS system. It felt as though I'd been transported into a Marvel movie.
Soon enough, the bike tore through the emptier streets of the city outskirts before breaking through the forest. The bike traversed the uneven terrain with ridiculous ease. It felt as though we were simply driving across a flat paddock, not the rocky, hilly terrain of the Forest of Tranquility.
The tires skidded across a gravel surface and I gasped as we slid to a stop in a near-sideways halt. Stones sprayed from the back tire swinging across the surface of the driveway, and it took a few moments of regaining my bearings to realise we'd made it to the monastery. The others hadn't arrived yet, though a few monks by the pond did stare in shock at our abrupt and dramatic arrival.
Lloyd pulled his helmet off with a sweep of his blond hair and a bright-eyed smile. "How was that?"
I slid off the bike, shaky with adrenaline. I had never been so thankful for solid ground. "Terrifying."
Lloyd grinned as he unclipped my helmet for me and slipped it from my head. I blinked against the sun's light, too accustomed to the tinted shield of the helmet's visor.
"But you'd do it again, right?" he asked hopefully.
I smiled wobbly. "For sure. Just let me get my stomach back, first."
Lloyd laughed, energised from the race, and the sound of it swung over the tree tops of this desolate, ancient place. The monastery was just as pretty as the last time I saw it, though now I had the added benefit of seeing it in the sun and not being on the edge of passing out from being so sick.
A sound from the far-off tree tops made us look up. The ship - yep, it really was a flying ship - sailed over the forest towards us. My mouth dropped open in shock at the sight, and Lloyd's amusement only soared at my reaction.
Lloyd pulled me into his chest and rested his chin on my head as I watched the approaching flying ship. He pressed a kiss to my cheek.
"Wanna proper tour?" he asked in a murmur against my skin.
My response was only a listless, dumbfounded nod.