For a moment, Nya didn't react. She was staring at someone she knew— multiple people she knew— but she couldn't quite place where she'd seen them. She recognized spiky hair and tanned skin and ninja uniforms, but she didn't know where from, and something seemed to be drilling into the back of her head as she struggled to figure it out.
Then, the words enemies of the master slipped through her mind, and she began to move. She was halfway across the beach and still running at the enemies when they started moving too, gathering weapons and scrambling to their feet, backing away, calling her name...
"Nya!" The spiky haired one held up his hands, dropping his sword to the ground. What a fool. "Nya, it's me, it's Kai—"
Kai? She had a brother named Kai. She used to, at least. Whatever life she'd been living, it was dead now. Gone. That was what the voices told her when she let the darkness in.
"Kai!" Several horrified voices chorused as Nya launched herself at her former brothers face. He staggered back, toppling under her weight as she slammed into him full-force, grabbing the sides of his head and twisting. He screamed, but before she could snap his head around she felt someone grabbing her around the waist, hauling her to her feet and holding her away from Kai as he scrambled to his feet, aided by a man dressed in blue...
Jay. She recognized his face, and she knew the taste of his lips and what his hands were like intertwined with hers. Cursing, she kicked back and knocked over the man who was holding her, whirling around and pulling her sword from her belt. He leaped back, his own sword raised, but held loosely. He wasn't willing to hurt her. None of them were. Just as Lloyd has been stupid enough to submit, these people would die before harming a hair on her head. She felt Overlord's eye on her and she smiled. He wasn't helping because he knew he wouldn't have to. He trusted her.
"Nya, snap out of it!" That was Jay, and that was annoying. Nya whipped around and swung her sword at his chest. He didn't jump back in time, and her blade grazed his ribs, slashing through his shirt and leaving behind a streak of blood that oozed from the thin wound. He gasped sharply, and a man in white rushed to keep him on his feet.
"Nya, please," Kai cried, ducking out the way as she thrust her sword at his heart. She jabbed again, wasting no time in recovery, this time catching him in the shoulder. The wound wasn't deep, and she tore the sword out again quickly, but blood still spurted from the wound, and his knees still buckled and he fell.
Next came the old ones. Wu placed himself in front of Misako and Julian, and she swung at his neck, aiming to sever it from his head. At the last moment, Cole grabbed her again, this time her wrist, and turned her around bodily to face him. He looked more afraid than anything else, and Nya knew he wouldn't dare fight her. She could stab him until he was nothing but bloody ribbons, and he wouldn't even lift a finger to defend himself. Grinning, she tore her hand free from his and lifted her sword. He gasped, but he didn't move, paralyzed with fear, shocked at the sight of a woman who was once his friend about to deliver his parting blow. Nya breathed in deeply; she could feel Overlords gaze warming her.
A split second before she brought the sword down on his head, something slammed into her with the force of a freight train, knocking her to the ground and sending her sprawling. She and her attacker rolled across the ground, and she felt hands on her arms, pinning them to her sides and rendering them useless as her sword flew from her grip and got tangled up in a bush.
They came to a stop on the sand, inches away from where it ended and met dirt. Nya was on her back, looking up into her assailant's eyes. Lexi, her name was. That girl who was her friend, her sister.
Lexi pressed a dagger to her throat, and Nya went cold as she felt Overlord's gaze shift to her. She struggled, but Lexi kept her pinned to the sand, the blade sharp and cold against her exposed throat. She gasped, staring at Lexi with wide eyes.
"Do it," she snapped, leaning her head back and pressing her hair into the sand. She felt the grainy substance digging into her skin, sticking to it. The rain kept it plastered to her, and for the first time since being overtaken, she felt uncomfortable. "Come on, Lexi."
Lexi held the knife where it was, utterly still. Her eyes were blank, and for a moment, Nya was wildly afraid that she was about to die.
Then a sudden loud cry echoed across the island, louder than the rain and the thunder and the roiling waves, and Lexi jumped to her feet and staggered back, leaving Nya lying there on her back, panting and clutching her throat. Overlord's aura spiked with glee, and Nya felt a surge of adrenaline rush through her. She pushed herself upright, suddenly able to ignore the wet sand clinging to her skin, and she turned and rushed back towards him.
"We're too late," Kai wailed. He was being supported by Cole, one hand pressed against his bloodied shoulder. Lloyd was leaning against his mother, and Wu was still standing protectively in front of them, his arms held out wide. Zane was clutching Jay's arm with one hand, the other holding his father's shoulder, and Lexi stood before everyone, holding the dagger in one hand, staring through Nya and at the Overlord, and at who had appeared on the beach beside him.
"Master," Garmadon said, kneeling on the wet sand and bowing his head, "forgive me, I beg of you. I am ready now, to be your humble servant..."
"I am sure of it," Overlord said. The rain seemed to be falling harder, and the air had turned bitterly cold, a harsh wind tearing leaves off of trees and whipping the sand through the air like a tornado. Garmadon kept his head bowed low, and Nya wondered if he could feel Overlord's gaze on him, or Lexi's.
"The time has come!" Overlord's voice echoed through the air, and his army turned to face him, unabashed by the stone around them. Nya stood tall, aware of the cold and the pain of sand whipping her skin but choosing to ignore it. "I finally have all that I need to conquer the world, and to take all sixteen realms in the name of darkness!"
Cheering erupted from among the soldiers. It sounded like a landslide, and it would have grated on Nya's ears had she been aware that it was grating. "In the name of darkness," she echoed, grinning from ear to ear.
Garmadon was still kneeling, and so he didn't see when Overlord began to spin. He didn't see when his master began to bulge, his purple hue fading, taken over by black tendrils of smoke that rolled into one mass of darkness, gyrating and coiling like a great serpent. He noticed only when Overlord began to laugh, cackling into the storm, sounding like a thousand voices laughing down on Garmadon.
"I have all that I need," Overlord cried, and plunged himself into Garmadon's body.
Behind her, Nya heard Lexi scream, as though she had been stabbed through the heart.
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Garmadon felt nothing but peace. He felt like he was floating, like he was drifting out at sea, his body submerged in an ocean of nothingness, the sky above him dim and full of a million twinkling stars. He felt weightless, like he wasn't even there, just his mind drifting along.
Then came the pain, and the understanding of what was happening to him.
He saw, through glazed, red-tinged eyes, the sand below him growing, then being pulled away as he rose to his feet. He turned, looking past Nya, distorted and ruined, to see the ninja. His brother, his wife, his son, his daughter...
Lexi screamed. She screamed like she was dying, like she was watching someone die. Garmadon felt her scream ripple through him, and he wanted to scream too, but he found he couldn't. His body wasn't his. His mind wasn't his. His soul wasn't his.
"The Celestial Clock has reached its countdown!" The voice that came from his mouth wasn't his, either. It was deep and guttural and it belonged to Overlord. He belonged to Overlord. "The time has come to march on Ninjago, and to take the realms for our own!"
Garmadon felt himself lifting his hands, and searing heat spread through his arms. It took him a moment to register what was happening, and as he looked through the driving rain at his daughter, he found he still maintained some control.
"No!" He cried, jerking his hands upwards as the surge of power exited his fingertips. It shot through the sky and dissipated in the rain, smoking and hissing. Someone screamed, and he heard, very distantly, someone calling his name. He wanted to listen, he really did, but he couldn't.
Of course this is how it works. The one time I really want to do good, I literally can't.
Overlord turned back to Lexi, and this time, Garmadon was powerless to stop himself from attacking. His hands were trembling with the effort, but he remained unable to take control of them. It felt like there was static in his head, and he was dizzy, weak. All he saw before blackness flooded his vision, and he was enclosed in darkness, was the horrified face of his daughter before him, and the gleaming dagger she carried.
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Lexi knew there wasn't anything she could do. Running would be pointless now; wherever she ran he would follow, and there was no where to go. So she stood proudly in the face of her foe, and she fought back.
Her own dark power wasn't as strong as Overlord's, but she was. She dropped the dagger by her feet and used both hands to keep the stream going, digging her heels into the wet sand, gritting her teeth in determination. Behind her, a chorus of terrified yells went up, but she didn't look back. She knew she'd break off her stream if she did, and then it would all be over.
"They're leaving!" Out of the corner of Lexi's eye, she saw the stone warriors beginning to march. They walked into the tide, wading through the stormy ocean, and the waves bore them up. They walked across the foamy sea, even their bodies of stone not sinking.
"Stop them!" Vaguely, she was aware of people running by her, and she heard the distant sounds of elemental power being used in futility to try and keep the army from escaping. Nya was screaming, or perhaps she was laughing. It didn't really matter now. Lexi pressed harder, but her arms were weakening, and Overlord began to laugh.
Their streams were meeting in the middle, fizzling and sparking, but now it began to move. Lexi's eyes widened in horror as it began to slide towards her, and no matter how hard she fought, she couldn't stop it. Overlord continued to laugh, and it still sounded like a thousand voices.
"If only I had kept you by my side," he crowed, "what a lord you would have made!"
Lexi shook her head, her entire body pushing back by the force of his power. "Never," she hissed through gritted teeth. Overlord grinned wickedly.
"Then goodbye," he said. Lexi's stream of power vanished, blasted back through her hands, and his own dark power collided with her. She couldn't have leaped out of the way in time. She couldn't have escaped this.
"LEXI!" She heard Lloyd screaming as she flew back, her body landing with a painful crunch on the sand at least twenty feet back. Pain and heat were all she could feel, and something was seeping into her chest, like blood, but cold. The rain no longer seemed to touch her, although it might have helped cool her. She tried to roll over, tried to rise to her feet, but she couldn't move, so she stayed where she was, lying on her side in the sand, watching Overlord stalk towards her. He stepped over the dagger, pressing it into the sand with his heel, and Lexi's heart gave a sudden throb.
He marched across the sand and came to stand before her, so close she had to crane her neck to see his face. His eyes gleamed, and he was grinning like a maniac. He looked like her father, except for his grin, and the gleam in his eyes.
"Tell me, Lexi Garmadon," Overlord said, lifting his hands to deliver the fatal blast, "did you ever imagine it would be your father who would end you?"
Everything went quiet as he prepared to fire. The rain stopped falling around her, and the wind stopped roaring, and she felt her heartbeat slow to almost nothing. Then, as she stared up into the face of certain death, she saw a blur of sizzling green, and then Lloyd was there.
"Get away from my sister!" He shot another blast of energy at Overlord, and he turned away from Lexi to face Lloyd. She slumped against the sand, one hand going to her chest, where she felt a soft, tender wound blossoming, bloodless but still painful.
"Lexi?" Someone was at her side, rolling her onto her back, holding her head in their hands. "Mother," she whispered, the word scraping against the inside of her throat. Her chest tightened with the sheer difficulty of speaking, and she closed her eyes.
"You're gonna be okay," Misako said. Her voice was shaking, and Lexi could tell she was crying. She felt the rain again, and she smiled a little. "I know," she mumbled, hating herself.
Suddenly, she heard Lloyd hollering, and she opened her eyes to see Overlord marching back towards them, hands raised, black smoke already pouring from his fingertips. Misako pushed Lexi behind her protectively, and Lexi felt her grip tightening around her.
"Look out below!" Someone hollered from above, and Lexi looked up in time to see the Bounty come soaring into view. Misako let out a whoop of joy as the ship blew past them, careening into Overlord right as he let lose his blast of power. The ship jolted roughly and smashed into the sand, and a dusty cloud rose into the air on impact. Smoke billowed from the crash, and there was a hole blown in the haul of the ship, but the driver escaped unscathed. Julian stumbled dazedly from the wreckage, grinning ear to ear and chuckling.
"Thank you," Misako gasped as he headed over to where she and Lexi were sitting. Lexi closed her eyes again, gritting her teeth against the searing pain in her abdomen. Misako ran her fingers through her hair as she talked, but her words didn't find their way to Lexi's ears.
From beneath the wreckage of the Bounty, Overlord emerged once again, covered it door and bits of splintered wood but otherwise unscathed. Rather than going to finish off Lexi, however, he turned to the sea, and to Nya.
"The waves are calming," she cried, standing in the tide but not going any further in, "we need to go, master!"
Wordlessly, Overlord stride towards Nya and marched into the waves, his feet gliding over the water gracefully, as if it were solid stone. Nya followed closely behind, grinning and waving cheekily to the ninja still gathered on the beach.
"After them!" Kai yelled, running into the sea, but as he splashed forwards it became clear that his feet would not bear him over the water. He stood there, waist-deep in the sea, staring out after the stone army, the Overlord, and his sister, his mouth agape, unable to move.
Lexi groaned, her hand sliding off her chest and falling to the ground. "My dagger," she mumbled, her fingers feeling blindly for something to grab onto, "I need my dagger."
"This one?" Someone— Jay, it sounded like— was holding it in front of her. He placed it in her hand, and she relaxed, running a finger along the rain-slicked blade.
"Yeah," she whispered. "That's the one." Then her mind melted, and her entire body went numb, and she didn't bother fighting it when the tide pulled her under, plunging her into a heavy, silent darkness.