Pixies
••• Wave of Mutilation •••
cease to resist giving my goodbye
drive my car into the ocean
you'll think i'm dead
but i'll sail away
on a wave of mutilation
•••••
tw: blood, graphic depiction of gore, panic attack, assault, mind manipulation, just another day in ninjago 😋✌️
Is tbe also a horror fic? maaaaaybe. just a lil.
"Make sure you're back home in time for dinner," Mum said. She patted my hair and smiled. "Don't get lost in your book all day."
"And stay within the village!" Dad added from the kitchen.
I nodded before dashing out the door. It was spring and we'd just moved homes. I couldn't remember the name of the village, but it was a lot smaller than Ninjago City - I was particularly distraught about the five-book library.
Holding my book to my chest, I wandered the cobblestone streets and curiously watched people bustle about their day. It was autumn but it was warm, and most children my age would be in school. I wasn't allowed to start until next week.
The large fountain in village square seemed like a good place to read, so I found a spot and opened my book. It was my only friend in this strange, new place. My other friends had all been left behind in the city. Mum promised I could visit them, but that didn't stop the loneliness from weighing me down during the days in-between.
It's hot in the desert - hotter than the city. I dipped my hands in the fountain's lukewarm water to pat the sweat from my forehead and followed the shadow cast by the sculpture as the sun rolled overhead. Eventually, my shoes came off. I sat and read with my legs in the water.
I was there until my book was finished. It had an ending I liked, so I packed myself up to return home and grab another from my collection.
When I arrived I found a stranger in our box-filled living room. He sat on the couch with my parents, tall and wily and thin, a shock of white hair and yellow eyes behind thin-rimmed glasses. They were having tea. My parents smiled at me and didn't introduce us, as if I should've already have known him.
My skin prickled. There was a sheen to their eyes I didn't like. I didn't like the way the white-haired man was looking at me, either. He reminded me of the bad character in my book.
"Look who came to see us get settled in," Dad said warmly.
"Who is he?" I asked.
My parents frowned in confusion. The man continued to smile, sharp and unsettling.
"Your cousin," Mum answered. Her brows creased with concern. "Don't you remember your cousin?"
"Don't worry," the man said. "She will."
My gaze followed him as he set his tea down and stood. He was tall - far taller than me - and my neck craned as he approached. His eye twitched when I took an unsure step back. My arms hugged the book tighter to my chest.
"Hello, little vessel." He crouched before me with a smile that chilled my blood. "It took a long time to find you."
🍃🍂🍁🍂🍃
I woke suddenly and ungently, ripped from my sleep like a plaster being torn from skin.
It was the second time that night that I'd been roused from a nightmare. Beside me and deep in slumber, Lloyd remained still and soft. I stared at the ceiling and waited for my heart to calm. I hoped his dreams were more pleasant than mine.
Squinting my eyes against my phone's bright screen, I checked the time. My eyes closed in weary despair at its answer - it was still early in the morning. With the way that I woke so quick and alert, I knew there was no hope in me getting back to sleep anytime soon.
Carefully, as not to disturb Lloyd, I slipped from bed. I wanted to look at the stars.
It'd been a while since I last sat on my nook on the roof. Truthfully, I'd forgotten all about it, and only recalled my spot the other night when I was gazing at the starry sky. It stretched out before me, vast and wide and scattered with tiny glowing galaxies that lived so far away. It was enough to make my problems feel small.
"Hi," I whispered, just in case she was watching me. "I didn't get a chance to thank you for helping me, so... thank you."
It felt a little silly to talk to the sky. I'd never been particularly religious. Before Lloyd, I didn't believe in anything that wasn't solid fact. I knew science, I could understand science, break it down into bite-sized chunks of data and analysis. I didn't know magic - now, I didn't even know myself.
It was incomprehensible. You couldn't study magic like how one studied the development of fungi. You couldn't scan it the way you could scan brainwaves. Magic was formidable and dangerous and in a league on its own. Magic was undefinable.
I was undefinable.
"I'm not sure what your plans are for me," I murmured. I pulled my knees to my chest and held them tight. "I'm not sure if I can live up to them. I'll try my best to be someone worthy of you." I held my breath for a second. "If I can just... if I can get stronger, will I stop being so scared? Were you ever scared?"
I didn't know what I was expecting - a reply? A Kirin to fly through the air toward me and give a straight answer? I wanted her to reassure me like how she did when we spoke in my dream. I wanted her to tell me that it's okay for me to be terrified, that I was still young and that life was scary enough. I wanted her to tell me that I'd be fine.
The stars twinkled silently. My throat choked at her absence.
"Hey, chickadee."
I turned at my mum's familiar pet name. With her dressing gown drawn tight to escape the chill, she crossed the roof and took a seat beside me.
If it was any other night, in any other situation, I knew she would've told me off for sitting on the roof. It wasn't exactly safe. Instead of berating me, though, she just pulled me to lean against her side. I did.
"You're cold," Mum noted. She rubbed her hand along my arm to warm it. "You'll freeze up here."
The nightmare had brought something to light that I hadn't yet considered. I was so caught up in Axon having scrambled my memories that it never occurred to me that he'd done the same to my parents - or, perhaps even worse out of all of us, my poor Aunt Rose; she who truly believed she had a son.
"I'm sorry," I whispered. "None of this would've happened if..." if it weren't for me.
"Sweetpea," Mum said softly, "a maniac is trying to hurt you. None of this is your fault."
"I know." I struggled to comprehend that. I was the centre of it all - how was it not my fault? "It just feels that way."
Mum didn't say anything. My words sunk into her, lingering in the silence between us as we watched the stars. How could I feel at the center of the universe and yet so far removed simultaneously?
"I told you that I knew you were going to be the Gessei in the prophecy when the ninja first appeared," Mum began thoughtfully. "But I was wrong. I knew before then. I knew it the moment I first laid eyes on you."
I dropped my gaze from the stars to her.
"Maybe it's not guilt you feel," she said. "Maybe it's the part of you that knows who you're supposed to be - who you're going to be." Mum turned her eyes to the cosmos. "This is your story, Y/n. This is your world. Your world to protect and keep safe, and people like Axon threaten that." She shrugged in consideration. "Maybe it's not guilt. Maybe it's responsibility."
My brows slightly furrowed in consideration. It wasn't guilt but a sense of responsibility? I felt responsible to help fix things, to keep people safe? That it stemmed from my powers - the powers that were born from someone just as great and unattainable as Uchū. Someone I could never be like.
She had said that this was my world, after all. But how literal was she being? Could that be why I felt responsible?
Maybe Mum was right.
That still didn't make me any less afraid.
🍃🍂🍁🍂🍃
I sat in the garden and waited. The book I tried to read had blurred lines instead of words.
A finger tucked a fluttering lock of hair behind my ear. Lloyd sat beside me on the lawn, reading over my shoulder and probably failing just as much as I. My parents were inside, sharing the same block Neuro gave me. The blue sky was slowly being overtaken by heavy clouds rolling in from the east. Around us and hidden, the rest of the team were ready to pounce at their leader's command.
Aunt Rose and Simon were arriving soon. I hadn't spoken much all morning, my head drifting with fear and unease. Lloyd didn't attempt to make me converse - he just stayed glued to my side, silent and loyal and steadfast. Maybe he didn't want to talk, either.
I dropped my book to my lap and turned my head to rest against his shoulder. Lloyd's hand rose to cup my cheek, stroking his thumb beneath my eye, and I soaked into his calming touch. I didn't need to see his face to notice the concern he watched me with. I could feel it in the air around him.
"Tired?" Lloyd quietly asked when my eyes shut. I nodded.
I was exhausted. After the conversation with my mum and going back to bed, I still hadn't managed to get to sleep. I laid awake and listened to Lloyd breathe all night. Responsibility or grief - it didn't matter if somebody wanted me six feet under. It certainly wouldn't matter if he succeeded.
Lloyd tensed and I knew he would soon be here. A moment later came the sound of a car pulling into the driveway, the engine dying, the slamming of doors. My heart sped. My eyes opened to meet Lloyd's. The kiss to my forehead was chaste and firm, a reiteration of the promises he kept telling me.
His green gaze cut across the garden - Molly's roof, the tall bushes of Mei's backyard, the trees behind my house. All amongst them were his team. His single nod toward the forest was their silent signal to be on guard.
Molly and Mei were, thankfully, not home. The clay-making flyers Zane had printed off and placed in their letterboxes worked a charm.
I released a breath; strangely one of both relief and despair. I didn't want Axon to be at his base while Skylor and the others attempted to steal the spell book, but I also wished he was anywhere but here.
Lloyd's eyes returned to me. I wanted to say something to him, anything, but my tongue felt heavy and as if it'd been twisted into knots. He kissed me. He smelt of the rainstorm that was approaching, and of safety and comfort. For once, my mind didn't stop spinning. His kiss didn't subdue my anxiety.
"I won't be far," Lloyd whispered.
I forced myself to nod. Doing something despite my fear was what made me brave, that's what he told me. I didn't feel brave. I felt terrified.
I blinked and Lloyd was gone, disappearing into thin air like the ninja he was. I dropped my gaze to the book on my lap. It was another from the monastery; this one on the raising and care of magical creatures. It should've interested me - under normal circumstances, it would've. But it didn't.
I hoped my parents got Rose out of the house. They were going to take her to a café, so she'd be away from what was happening. She didn't need to see the outcome on top of learning Simon's true identity.
The door to the back garden opened with a squeak of its hinges. It screeched. It made my ears ring.
"It's going to rain."
I stiffened on instinct at his voice, the hair on my arms prickling as if zapped with static. I forced my body to loosen limb by limb and flicked my book back to my open page. The words still blurred.
But this was good. This was what we wanted; for Axon to be out of the house and in the centre of the hidden circle of ninja. This was our plan - and I was the bait.
"What a shame," I mumbled.
Axon stepped down the deck's steps and onto the grass, perusing the garden at a leisurely pace. My eyes lifted to him. His thin arms were tucked behind him as he scanned the dying poppies Mum had planted and neglected to take care of. His glasses gleamed in the weak sunlight.
"How's your boyfriend?" he asked, feigning concern. I would've fallen for it if I hadn't known better, I would've thought it was asked out of snarkiness instead of a mastermind playing with his prey.
"What's it to you?" My answer still would've been just as petty either way.
Axon turned back to me with raised brows and a small smirk. "Am I not allowed to worry over my cousin and who she holds dear?"
It took great effort not to recoil from his gaze. This was the man that wanted to kill me. This was the man that wanted me dead. I gripped my book hard and forced myself not to cave beneath my fear, forced my body to remain exactly as it was. I rolled my eyes instead.
"He's fine," I said shortly. When are the others going to attack? How long do I have to stall? The more he hung around, the more I was growing afraid that the block wouldn't work.
"Really? He didn't seem fine to me."
"Yeah, well..." My words trailed off as I took pause. What did he just say? What did he just imply? I turned to him with a startled look. "What's that supposed to mean?"
Axon chuckled and stared into the woods. The clouds were over us now, blocking the sun and the warmth it gave. I felt frigid for more than its lack.
"I know he's here. I know they're all here." Axon smiled back at me as my blood ran cold. "You can't out-think a Master of the Mind, little vessel."
Driven by adrenaline, I leapt to my feet just as the backyard was suddenly infiltrated by ninja. Axon chuckled lowly as he turned a circle, grinning at the Elemental Masters that surrounded him. Our plan of a surprise-attack had monumentally failed.
My feet stumbled over the grass as I was pulled back behind Lloyd. His grip was almost painful. Maybe I could do something. Maybe that shield I'd created back at the warehouse could be used as a prison.
"Lloyd!" Axon said saccharinely and clapped his hands. "How did you like my gift? Morro may not have succeeded in his plan, but he succeeded with mine." His eyes closed in delight, as if smelling a delicious dinner. "Oh, how fractured your mind is becoming. It's palatable."
"Get inside," Lloyd murmured.
"But-"
"Inside, now!" he snapped. There was no bargaining with him this time.
Reluctantly, I turned to flee inside. I made it up the steps and halfway across the deck before a hand caught my hair and yanked me around. I cried at the pain that seared across my scalp.
"I don't think so," Axon hissed. The image of him in the circle of ninja melted away into thin air. They turned to us in shock. "Not before I get my just revenge."
"'Just?!'" Cole echoed, brandishing his hammer in threat. "There's nothing just about any of this!"
"Your people sent my mother to her death!"
"It was war, Axon," Zane reminded sternly. His gaze kept jumping between him and I. "She chose to join. Your mother fought and died for a good cause - the freedom of our people."
Axon scoffed. "Mere propaganda. I bet you all think that."
"I mean - yeah," Jay said. "Because it's the truth. Who wants to be ruled by evil snakes?"
"Do you even know what propaganda means?" Axon dryly asked.
Jay huffed and scowled. "... yes. Obviously. Everyone knows - whatever, let her go!" He swung his nunchucks so quickly they blurred, flicking out bolts of electricity.
"Come peacefully, Axon," Nya urged in the calmest voice she could muster. "Let's talk this out."
"We know how you feel. We lost our parents, too," Kai added. Nya nodded imploringly.
"And I lost my mum," Cole said. "I know that its painful. We can get you the help you need, man. Just don't hurt Y/n."
My frightened gaze bounced from ninja to ninja, but always returning to Lloyd. His red eyes were unblinking, his teeth gritted. The look his face was turning with was eerie; contorted, unearthly.
My struggles were only met by a pain in my head so sharp that it was nearly debilitating. It was so sudden that it must've came from Axon's powers. It gaved me an idea.
"Save it," Axon spat. "I don't want to hear your noble speeches - I don't need help." He unsheathed a knife from beneath his shirt and my blood ran cold. My concentration slipped. I forced it to return. "I just want revenge."
Get him away. Get him away. I desperately dug for my powers.
Just as Axon went to plunge the knife into my throat I felt something familiar billow along my veins with a snap. He stumbled backwards with a yelp, dropping his knife and holding his head in pain. I staggered toward the first pair of arms I could. His sudden headache was probably just as bad as my own.
"It's okay!" Jay said quickly. He pulled me backwards across the lawn, where we were sheltered by the others. The clouds above had begun to spit slow rain. "You're okay! Let's get you out of here-"
Before Jay could summon his dragon, he was knocked aside by the butt of Axon's blade. I looked up in alarm. His outstretched hand was a hair's breadth away from snatching me before he was yanked back by Zane and Kai, his weapon wrestled from his grip. Jay staggered upright with a hand on his temple and a dazed look in his eyes.
"No!" Axon screamed. The look he pinned me with was haunting, unbridled bloodlust. He struggled in his captive hold. "Let me go!"
"You missed your chance," Kai growled. "Now we gotta do this the hard way."
Zane held him down with less difficulty than Kai. "Please, cease now. There is no use in fighting."
But Axon continued to struggle. Nya grabbed my arm and began dragging my stunned self toward the other side of the lawn - another attempt to get me out of the line of fire. I scurried after her with my heart in my throat.
"Y/n has nothing to do with this," Lloyd finally managed to say. His voice was odd, like he'd just finished a marathon and struggled to speak calmly through the adrenaline. The knuckles at his side were sharp pokes against his pale skin.
"Oh, she has everything to do with this." Axon bared his teeth at Lloyd in a snarl. "If it's not one God, it's another. They abandoned us to fight their war for them - and your parents, Lloyd, your parents let them." He scoffed. "Both of your Gods could've swept the Serpentine away with a flick of their finger, but they sat back and did nothing."
Nya summoned her dragon and turned back toward the others to guard. My hand kept slipping against the saddle. My power-induced headache was growing worse.
"You really think killing someone innocent is what your mother would've wanted?" Lloyd asked.
"It doesn't matter what my mother would've wanted. She's been unavenged for centuries." Axon's yellow eyes turned back to me, glinting with danger. "I'll cut the flower from its stem. It's already dead."
Lloyd unsheathed his sword and swung it toward Axon. The tip pressed against his chest in threat.
"You need to learn to know when you've lost," Lloyd said darkly. "I'd stop talking before you dig yourself an even deeper hole."
"Deeper than the grave you'll have to dig for your girlfriend?" Axon coed.
Lloyd's face twisted. "Don't push me."
"That's exactly what I intend on doing."
Just as I managed to haul myself into the dragon's saddle, Nya suddenly fell to the grass as if struck by an invisible force. Her Elemental Dragon disappeared just as fast. I collapsed onto the ground beside her with a yelp, disorientated.
"Nya!" Jay cried.
Kai yanked on Axon's arm with a thunderous scowl. "What did you do to her?! Tell me!"
Axon dropped his head. He began to laugh.
"I really hate it when they laugh," Cole said worriedly. "Bad things always happen when they laugh."
I knelt beside Nya and shook her shoulder. "Nya? Nya?" She remained unresponsive, her grey eyes glazed as if no-one lived behind them. My terror grew so quickly I choked on it.
Axon's final laugh was shrill. I met Lloyd's gaze just as multiple Masters of the Mind with blades in hand began to build up out of thin air, clones of Axon that shared his frantic desire for blood. We were the ones surrounded.
The clouds started to pour.
I shielded my head when the Axons launched themselves at the ninja. One grabbed for me, snatching my wrist with a grip so tight that it felt like he was squeezing my bones together. I yanked back with a yell but he held fast. My fist came down upon him, fighting for freedom.
Lloyd slashed his sword through a fake Axon. His form rippled before disappearing into thin air. Kai and Zane tried to avoid the attacks of five that surrounded them while keeping the real Axon in their hold, but it was too much. He escaped and disappeared into the chaos of too many hims.
"They're just an illusion!" Lloyd shouted. "Find the real Axon!"
"It feels pretty real!" Jay complained. He was quickly overtaken, his nunchucks tossed aside.
Another Axon grabbed my attacking arm and another behind me kicked out my legs. My knees hit the ground. My gasp was cut short when the sharp blade of a knife pressed against my neck. Jay was in a similar position, as was Kai, and then the fighting ceased just as quick as it'd began to rain. Zane and Cole glared at the Axons surrounding them.
"Is it an illusion, Lloyd?" the Axon with the knife to my neck hummed. Lloyd turned to us and froze. "Am I real? Is this blade real?" He dug it deeper into the flesh of my throat and I inhaled shakily. "Do you want to find out?"
Lloyd stared at me in horror. Even when he was overtaken by Morro, he didn't look this scared. Even when he was stolen into the Preeminent he wasn't this afraid. The ninja were still. His clones were still. Nya had yet to rouse from whatever he'd done to her.
"Which one is real?" an Axon across the lawn asked with a tilt of his head. "You only get one chance."
I trembled and dared not speak. I hadn't been taught to escape something like this, and the distraught look on Lloyd's face told me he was cursing himself for it. His red eyes were darting. He was trying to find the best way out of this situation.
"Well, Lloyd?" another Axon venomously encouraged. "Make like a leader."
My neck stung. It stung so bad. My mind had run blank. My concentration was too scattered to draw my powers back and pull the same trick. I was too scared. This wasn't the plan.
He yanked my hair back and my head went with it. My neck arched and the wound burned as it tore wider and the sound I made was shrill with agony. Lloyd stepped forward with a whisper of my name.
"Ah-ah-ah." Axon pressed the blade back against my neck and shook his head. "I like the game too much, Lloyd. I'm not just going to give her back."
Lloyd gritted his teeth. His breath had grown shorter and sharp, his eyes blazing with rage. His sword fell to ground with a thump. I shuddered at the sight of his anger - he'd never looked like this before, like it was reshaping him before my eyes.
"Let them go," Lloyd ordered.
"Are you going to beg for their lives?" the Axon behind me taunted. "Get on your knees, Green Ninja. Maybe I'll only kill Y/n if you ask me nicely. She'll be a martyr, isn't that nice?" Axon looked down at me and dug the tip into the skin above my jugular until I winced, and then pushed it in some more. "What say you, little vessel?"
"You're insane!" Kai shouted. The Axon restraining him knocked his elbow into his temple, and it might not have been real, but it certainly could be. Kai's growl of pain sounded real enough.
Lloyd's fury was palpable. It shifted within him until he became unrecognisable. His breath was laboured and short. He was losing control.
"Time's running out," the Axon holding Jay's struggling body sneered. "I grow impatient."
"Don't let him trick you!" Jay shouted. "Ugh-! He's blocked our powers!"
"Lloyd, what do we do?" Cole frantically asked. "He'll kill them!"
Zane shook his head with a panicked look. "I cannot find a solution. Every simulation I run ends poorly!"
"Come on, Lloyd!" the Axon to my left shouted. My hair was yanked again and my gathering thoughts scattered. I felt the warmth of blood dribble down my neck. "This stalemate bores me!" He raised his knife into the air.
I was too dizzy with fear to see how Lloyd changed, too frightened to see him launch his attack of bared teeth and taloned fingers on an Axon standing to the side - the real one. The clones holding me disappeared and I landed on the grass, delirious with relief as I gasped for breath. The wound on my neck still stung.
"Lloyd!" Cole yelled in horror.
I looked up to find Axon with a demon atop him - but no, it wasn't a demon, it was Lloyd. Or at least he looked like Lloyd, maybe, a little. The crown of horns and the tusks sheathed in Axon's shoulder and the inch-long talons digging into his skin didn't look like him. The purple eyes didn't look like his. But it was. It was all him.
Nya awoke with a splutter and a rasping cough, gasping for air. Jay was just as frozen as I was, staring at the scene of Axon struggling under Lloyd's altered form with a look of terror. Kai and Cole glanced at each other, startled and at a loss.
"Lloyd, stop!" Zane grabbed his shoulder and yanked him backwards. With a fling of his arm, the nindroid went sailing across the lawn before crumpling into a heap with a static-peppered groan. Kai's and Cole's attempts were met with similar fates. He was deaf to their pleads.
Lloyd ripped his tusks from Axon's shoulder and stood over his writhing form. His hands began to swirl with purple energy - something wrong and malicious. He was lost. He was going to become something he loathed. He was going to kill him.
I scrambled to my feet. I didn't dare look at the mess Axon had become, nor did I let my thoughts linger on the fact that it was Lloyd who caused it. I stopped beside him but couldn't bring myself to get any closer, let alone drag him away - if he'd even let me. The purple energy surrounding his fists made me more nauseous the closer I got. It felt wrong.
Evil was in his blood. I knew what he really meant by that, now.
"Lloyd!" My voice came out more frightened than I wanted it to sound. I wasn't even sure if he was still in there.
His furious gaze lifted to mine. They were pupilless, without an iris - the entirety of his eyes were glowing the same eerie, violet shade as the powers making me sick. His chin was red. His fangs weren't small and cute - they were massive, sharp and terrifying. They'd ripped through Axon's shoulder as if it were paper.
"Lloyd." I covered a hand with my mouth.
He shook his head and the purple energy receded back into his hands. I released a breath as my ill feeling went with it. Then, as if seeing him for the first time, he staggered backwards from Axon with a scared look.
His voice was a croak, a double-layered timbre that sounded both familiar and not. "Y/n." He lifted his hands to stare at them, touched his malformed face. His breath grew short. "What happened?"
I didn't know how to respond.
"That's right." Axon glared up at us in triumph. The hand clenched over his shoulder was slick, and his face was splattered with rain and his own blood. He hissed his pained breaths through his gritted smile. "You're a monster, Lloyd Garmadon. You're as sick and vile as those that came before you. This is who you truly are - you're a demon just like your father-"
Enraged, I kicked him square in the face. Axon went limp. He wasn't able to say much else.
When I turned back to Lloyd, he was gone.
🍃🍂🍁🍂🍃
The rain had turned into a storm.
Lloyd had disappeared. After they secured Axon and left him for the Senseis and Neuro to deal with, the boys searched for Lloyd on their dragons with a promise to keep me updated. Nya was recuperating in my bed from teetering on the verge of being brain-dead. Everything that could've gone wrong went wrong.
I'd showered and changed and watched the rain from where I leant against the lounge room window. The glass was cold against my forehead. I should've grabbed a sweatshirt but I couldn't bring myself to move. The wound on my neck had faded away, but the ghost of its pain still lingered.
Was that what Lloyd meant about the changes he'd been feeling? The volatileness? The evil in his veins? Maybe he was right. He'd looked like his dad when he was evil, except for the purple eyes and the horns. I could only recall Lord Garmadon having red, and he never had horns.
The door opened and my heart leapt with hope and trepidation. It sunk when my parents entered, followed by a teary-eyed, listless Rose. They were all relieved to see me alive.
They must've told Rose the truth. I looked away - I couldn't handle anymore heartbreak that night.
"Y/n?" Dad approached my huddled from while Mum kept tending to her sister, taking her into the kitchen. "How did..." He started over. "Is everyone okay?"
I watched a raindrop slide down the glass. "We're all alive," I mumbled. That was a positive. "Axon's probably in prison by now." Another positive.
"That's not what I asked, kiddo."
I exhaled until my breath made a circle of fog on the window. Dad took a seat and watched me poorly draw a dragon with my finger.
"Do you want to talk about it?" he prompted again.
I lifted my teary eyes to Dad. I nodded.
He sat and listened to my recount of what happened. I stared at the floor just so I wouldn't have to see his reaction, the horror, the fear. By the time I was finished, I was in tears. The shock of it all finally left during my explanation and the terror of what almost happened to me - my death - and of what I saw - Lloyd's attack - left me wrung and tired. It wasn't supposed to go this way. Lloyd wasn't supposed to be pushed into becoming something else.
Where was he? Not knowing scared me the most.
I left for my room, too tired to keep talking. Dad let me go reluctantly. I sat at my desk and stared at my phone as I waited for a text, while Nya slumbered in my bed. I could imagine that Lloyd's parents and Wu were out searching for him, too.
My phone dinged. I scrambled for it.
Kai:
still cant find him. has he swung by your place?
Sent 5.32pm
I dropped my head with a sigh. My hope had diminished just as fast as it flared.
Me:
no
Delivered
Where was he? Lloyd could've been anywhere. He had a dragon - he could be long gone. When would he return? Would he ever?
If he did return then Lloyd would probably hide himself away from me again. I couldn't blame him, but it did make me upset. I only just managed to open his gates a crack. He'd just began to let me in, just began to trust me with his secrets - only a little, but granted, it was more than it had been.
His phone kept going to voicemail. I kept staring at my splintered lock screen, at the selfie of himself in the middle of summer before everything first started going downhill. I wanted to go back. Things were still complicated but it was leagues easier than this. I laid my head on my desk and despaired.
I wanted the book fair and losing my mind over whether Lloyd was the Green Ninja or not. I wanted to get lost in the forest and found by him. I wanted a date to the amusement park. I wanted to go on hikes, on picnics, to the library, to arcades. I wanted to go back to the secret lake he showed me.
I lifted my head.
The secret lake.
I grabbed my phone and called Kai. He picked up immediately.
"I know where he went," I quickly said as I grabbed my coat. Nya slept on. "Come get me."
Kai arrived ten minutes later, both he and his dragon soaked from the rain. He held out a hand and pulled me onto the saddle behind him. I blinked away the water that settled on my lashes.
"Where is he?" he called over the wind. I shook my head.
"I don't know how to get there, but I'll recognise it." I pointed at the woods. "Fly over the forest. It's a meadow with a lake."
Kai urged his dragon back into the swirling gale and the splintering rain. I had to keep wiping my face to clear my blurring vision. My jacket was slowly dampening right through, not suited for the sheer amount of water that was bucketing down from the clouds.
The forest was beginning to grow misty, shielding its glades and meadows from sight. My teeth chattered and my body shivered even with Kai's heat. We zigzagged over treetops for almost an hour until I finally felt a tug in my stomach. My heart jumped. I patted Kai's shoulder to get his attention.
"There!" I yelled. "Down there!"
The dragon swooped low, disturbing the mist with the beats of his wings until it cleared just enough to find a safe place to land. Lloyd's secret meadow was unsettling in the dark, the trees bending and groaning in the wind, the shadows stretching in the gloaming and looming overhead.
The rain buffeted me from all sides as my tugging led the way. A humanoid figure was hunched at the edge of the water. His purple eyes glowed in the gloom, reflecting against the lake's surface, refracting amongst the rain. My pace picked up.
"Lloyd!" I shouted over the storm.
"Wait." Kai grabbed my shoulder and brought me to a stop. "If..."
I impatiently shrugged his hold off. "He's not going to hurt me."
"He wasn't exactly himself," Kai argued. I scowled up at him and he groaned, knowing all too well that I wouldn't budge. "Give me a call if you need help."
Freed, I turned to trudge through the long, wet grass toward Lloyd. I didn't hear Kai depart, but when I peeked back, he and his dragon were no longer in the meadow. I continued on.
Lloyd still had his horns and tusks and talons. His face was still twisted with... whatever else he was. He feverishly scrubbed at his chin with the lake water but I didn't see any blood. He kept scrubbing nonetheless.
"Lloyd?" I softly called.
He turned his face away. His breathing was erratic, lost in tempo and short and wobbly. He hitched on his sobs. His talons buried themselves into the rocks and sand.
I knelt at the water's edge beside him. "Hi, hero."
"It's not going away." Lloyd was choking on his panic. "I can't make it go away."
My heart fell and shattered like it was glass. I was at a loss at what to say. No words could make this better - nothing could. His entire perception of who he was had probably been rewritten in an instant.
I ducked my head so I could catch his gaze. Now that I wasn't so afraid of Axon and what Lloyd had done, I noticed the pretty shade of them, how they illuminated his dark lashes and the slick forelock of his blond hair that fell across his face. He closed his eyes in turmoil.
I still didn't know what to say. Finding him beautiful was probably not the best thing to start out with.
"Can I hold you?" I asked instead.
He shot me a disbelieving look. "You should be afraid of me."
I smiled sadly. "Why would I ever be afraid of you?"
"I'm a monster!" He stood, and the rain ricocheted from him, sliding down the tiered sets of black horns and the ridged designs in his skin. "I'm worse than one - I nearly tore his shoulder off!" Lloyd turned away and yanked on one of his front horns hard enough that I feared he'd break it. "I can still taste-" He drove his fist into the tree beside him.
The thick trunk cracked like thunder and fell aside with a whoosh of leaves. I flinched when it thudded loudly as it landed, rocking the ground with its immense weight. Lloyd faltered. He stepped away from the damage and wrung his hands.
I rose to my feet and staggered in the wind. The rain was freezing, akin to icy shards. Lloyd's gi was so damp that it stuck to his skin. There were bumps down his back like the spines of a dragon.
"You're not a monster," I said gently. He turned at my voice, his purple eyes regarding me with a look of anguish. "You're Lloyd. You're my Lloyd. You're my favourite person in the whole world."
"I'm not a person," he bitterly reminded. "I always knew I wasn't human, but this..." Lloyd closed his eyes in despair. "I knew something was wrong with me."
"There's nothing wrong with you," I soothed. I held out my hands in offer and, after a moment's hesitation, he placed his taloned fingers in my palms. The back of his hands were scaled green-gold, as were his cheeks. They looked like freckles.
Every moment I spent looking at him, the more I noticed. He had three sets of horns, each one higher than the other, sitting around his head like a crown of his own making - the king of this world. His breathing was beginning to calm.
Lloyd shook his head. "You can't talk me out of this one, sunshine."
"I'm only telling you the truth."
"So am I."
"Then I'll say another; you protected me." I smiled up at him and squeezed his cold hands. "I'm alive because of you."
Lloyd released an exhale that shuddered. Careful of his horns, he set his forehead on my shoulder. Maybe it was stupid to not be afraid of his tusks being so close to my fragile skin, but I simply wasn't. I trusted him with my everything.
We'd been through terrible things before. We'd get through this, too.
"You're okay," I reiterated. "You're a good person."
I crawled my hands up his arms slowly and cautiously, testing his limits. When he didn't move away I linked them behind his neck and held on tight. He buried his face into my jacket and snaked his arms around my waist.
"I'm sorry," Lloyd whimpered. "I'm so sorry you had to see that."
I carded my hand through his damp hair. "I'm sorry you felt like you had to hide."
He didn't respond to that. He was always hiding.
"You're not going to leave me?" he whispered.
I kissed between his two front horns. "Never, hero. I'm not going anywhere."
I wasn't sure how long we stood in the rain, but it was long enough for Lloyd to calm down. As I patted his hair the way he liked, I felt his horns slowly recede until they were no more than mere bumps beneath his curls. When I pulled back to check on him, his eyes were back to normal - his normal. My favourite shade of red.
I wiped away the water that dripped from my nose. Any longer in the rain and we were both going to get sick. I brushed the rain from his cheek and he nuzzled into my touch like he was desperate for it. The sad look in his eyes still lingered. It wouldn't be gone in one night.
"Let's go home, pretty boy," I whispered.
Lloyd hesitated, his gaze dropping in thought. But he was as wet and uncomfortable as I was, even with him heating the both of us with his fire powers, and home sounded good. "... okay."
Bentley was uncharacteristically shy, subdued by Lloyd's emotions, but I wasn't. In a role reversal of our first time meeting, I slung my arms around his broad, scaled neck and hugged him firmly. His tail thumped twice on the ground. His snuffles in my hair wasn't as eager as they usually were, but they were fond.
Lloyd flew us above the clouds where the rain wouldn't touch us. The stars were small and far away, the moon nonexistent, but Bentley's glowing green body was luminescent enough. Lloyd cradled my linked hands at his front the whole way home.
Kai must've told the others that we found Lloyd because everyone was at the monastery when we arrived, including Nya. Misako was the first one down the steps, ignoring the rain and racing across the gravelled driveway toward us. She barrelled into her son with a cry of his name.
"Don't you ever run away like that again!" Misako sobbed. Lloyd weakly held her back.
"Sorry," he said.
The hug was carefully joined by Garmadon, who looked like he'd aged years by the news of his son's transformation and what happened after. He held his family in such a solid grip that even Lloyd wouldn't be strong enough to escape.
"Are you okay?" Misako took Lloyd's face and checked him for injuries. "Oh, my baby. You must've been so scared."
"Sorry," Lloyd apologised again. He warily glanced at Garmadon. "Is this something you..?"
Garmadon slowly shook his head, heavy with thought and consideration and worry. "We had no idea." He glanced up at the entrance, where rest of the ninja were waiting and jostling each other, muttering beneath their breaths. "You should talk to your team. They were worried."
Lloyd nodded and pulled away to do just that. He was bombarded in a group hug halfway up the stairs. I was stopped before I could follow.
"Oh, you darling thing." Misako pulled me into a hug so swiftly that I was taken by surprise. "Thank you for always looking after him."
I smiled. "My pleasure."
"Let us continue this out of the rain." Garmadon gently guided us after the others.
"Oh, yes." Misako nodded. "You need to get changed. You must be freezing!"
I grinned sheepishly. "A little."
Garmadon ruffled my damp hair in gratitude when I turned off to get changed. Lloyd prematurely extracted himself from the conversation with his team to do the same. We walked down the hallway together and left a trail of water behind us.
Lloyd watched the floor. First Morro, and now this. I felt pain just by looking at him. He didn't deserve all this hurt, one after the other as if it were some cruel, cosmic joke. Was his life always like this? What other instances hadn't he told me about?
I took his hand. I didn't know how to help the boy I desperately loved, but I was going to try my damned hardest. I'd set fire to the Fates if I had to.
Lloyd looked down at me with a faint smile. His eyes were exhausted. I wanted to make him smile again, I needed to.
"I think I need to bring some of my clothes over," I said, thinking of how this was going to be yet another instance of me borrowing a pair of Nya's pyjamas.
He sent me a weak, warm look. "I'll make some room in my drawers if you do the same."
I held up my pinkie. "Promise."
He grinned proper at my elementary move. Still, he wound his pinkie through mine. I was pleased. Mission success - pinkie promises remained supreme.
"Promise," Lloyd echoed.
It was unspoken. We both knew our promises meant far more.