Oh look! I've written a story where there's no yaoi. How long has it been since this happened? It feels like too long.
Monday1113 owns nothing.
The Taste of Control
Chapter One
"It's perfect." Garmadon murmured, sitting up suddenly. Moonlight filtered in through a window, casting long shadows across the wooden floors of the Dark Bounty.
He cast a glance to where the Mega weapon stood, propped in the corner of the room. A faintly golden glow emanated off of it. With a smirk pulling at his lips, he knew exactly what he would wish for. This time, he knew his plan would be fool-proof, unlike the others.
Standing up, he walked towards it, grasping it in two of his hands. He could feel the power within the staff. It rolled off the golden scepter in waves.
"I wish..." Garmadon started, making sure to word his desire correctly. "I wish for something that could make the ninja work for me!" The words tumbled from his mouth excitedly, like a small child was talking to a parent after a day at school.
The Mega weapon glowed brightly, rays of its golden light filled the room, forcing Garmadon to close his eyes as it grew in intensity.
He could feel the warmth of the light on his skin. When the light finally dimmed again, Garmadon opened his eyes. Seeing what the weapon had left for his plan, he smiled.
Picking up the small box, he opened it. Peering at the contents, Garmadon laughed. "This will be the end to the ninja."
On a second glance, he grabbed one of the items inside, and set it aside. Only four of these would be needed. The fifth wasn't necessary.
Sun ran through the broken blinds on the window, crossing the floor to where several, thoroughly exhausted ninja rested. Light shone in the eyes of the youngest of them. Groaning, the small child rolled over, facing away from the window.
He hadn't been asleep to begin with, merely lying there until he had to get up. Even after hours of grueling training the day before, the child had gone to bed thinking sleep would come quickly. Unfortunately, it didn't. The child was once again left tossing and turning, only sleeping for short stretches before he would wake.
It was a tiring process that led to his teachers making him work harder because of mistakes brought on by his restless sleep. Closing his blue-grey eyes, he slowed his breathing, letting his body relax.
Images from his nightmares flashed behind his closed eyelids, forcing tired eyes open again. Lloyd freely shuddered, knowing none of the others were probably awake to see. Ever since his destiny had been revealed to him, the nightmares that had plagued him before he attended Darkley's School for the first time, years ago had returned.
It always was the same nightmare too. Lloyd was falling, and he could feel it, but it was so dark, that he couldn't see anything. All he had in the dream was the sensation of falling fast from a great height, getting closer to the ground. Right before he'd most certainly die though, he would always see a pair of fluorescent pupil-less eyes staring at him with a predatory glare
Whatever happened past that part of dream, Lloyd didn't know. The eyes were what scared him the most, and every time he had dreamed of them, he would wake up, shivering and clammy-skinned from fear.
Behind him, he could hear the sounds of Zane waking up. The nindroid would soon come to wake Lloyd up, as well as the others. Laying as still as possible, Lloyd continued to try faking sleep. He didn't want to have Zane lecturing him about needing sleep. Of all things, sleep was high on Lloyd's list of things he wanted.
"Lloyd?" Zane asked softly from his bunk as he rubbed at his eyes, one of the unnecessary habits he had that made him seem more human. "Are you awake?"
Lloyd silently cursed Zane's innate ability to tell if someone was awake or asleep, and sat himself up. "Yeah," He said back, just as quiet. "I'm up." He swung his legs over the side of his cot, pushing his blanket back. Swinging his legs, the tips of his toes just barely brushed the cold wooden flooring.
"Why?" The nindroid pressed for a reasoning for the child's early waking. Zane tilted his head at Lloyd. "It still is very early."
"I couldn't sleep." Lloyd replied, pointing towards the window. "The sun woke me up."
Not pushing his boundaries as he detected the lies in the green ninja's words, Zane nodded. "Ah." He looked at the clock, even though he knew exactly what time it was already. "Would you at least like to help me wake the others?"
"Sure." Lloyd said, trying to shake the image of the purple eyes from his mind.
"No, not like that Lloyd." Kai said, voice slightly exasperated. "If you try fighting someone like that, you'll get hurt." Walking towards the child, Kai knelt down, and fixed the boy's grip on the sword. "Holding it like this not only increases how you can strike, but it also protects you from hurting yourself."
"Thanks." Lloyd mumbled, yawning again.
"No problem. Your wrists will be thanking you later." Kai picked up his practice sword, since he and the others decided giving Lloyd weapons that could actually hurt weren't a very good idea right now, especially since Lloyd was clumsy, and prone to accidents. "Ready to go again?"
Lloyd stifled a yawn back, eyes stinging. "Yeah, sure. Whatever." He shifted his stance a little, keeping his own center of gravity low, just like Kai had taught him.
Kai struck first, catching Lloyd off-guard. Mind quickly speeding up, Lloyd blocked the attack, stepping to his left, and slightly back. Repeating the same motion, Lloyd sparred with Kai, holding his own against the swordsman for several seconds, before Kai snaked his right foot behind Lloyd's ankle, tripping him.
As Lloyd hit the mats of the dojo floor, the sword fell out of his hands. Kai placed a knee on Lloyd's chest, holding him down. "Good try kid. Getting better." He told Lloyd with a smirk. "Remember the first time we sparred? You went down seconds after we started."
"I know." Lloyd replied with a frustrated huff. Kai got off of him. Offering out a hand, Lloyd took it, letting the ninja of fire pull him off of the floor. "I'm just tired of you guys beating me all the time! How am I supposed to beat my father if I can't even beat you guys?" His small hands curled into tight fists as his frustration ran through him, turning into anger.
Taking a deep breath, Lloyd's fists unclenched themselves.
Kai gave Lloyd a wistful smile. "You can beat your father. The final battle's a long ways away Lloyd. By then, you'll be a lot stronger." He said. Lloyd's eyes met Kai's, and Lloyd nodded, taking his words in, and acknowledging them. A smile broke out across the boy's face.
"Thanks Kai." Lloyd said, internally sighing at the thought of fighting his father. "I needed that."
"No problem." Kai said, Lloyd's smile coming off as real and genuine to him. He was completely oblivious to the fact that Lloyd's smile was forced.
Kai started walking towards the door of the dojo, putting the training swords away. "Come on, Jay told me a package came earlier. Apparently there's something for each of us."
"Really?" Lloyd asked. Usually, when things came for the ninja, Lloyd was left out. Hearing that there was something for him was unusual.
"Really." Kai said.
Lloyd followed Kai out of the room. As they started their walk back to the apartment, Lloyd suddenly felt uneasy. It had been several days since his father had tried anything, what if the package was his father's way to sabotage the ninja?
He shook his head. His father wouldn't send anything that could possibly hurt him, and even if his father had sent something, they would have caught it quickly, and gotten rid of it.
Walking back into the tiny apartment, Lloyd nearly gagged. The smell of something burning assaulted his nostrils almost instantly. Smoke curled out of the small window, billowing up from the sink. Pinching his nose in attempt to block out the smell, he walked towards the sink.
A pot filled with a thick, dark-colored sludge was the source of the smoke. He recognized it as Cole's chili, except this time, it was burnt.
"Mmm," Kai hummed, making a face. "That looks great doesn't it Lloyd?"
Lloyd turned around, and glared at Kai. "It sure does. I'll make sure to let Cole know that you're super hungry, and want extra tonight."
They both busted out laughing. It wasn't that Cole's chili was awful,it just had some pretty bad after effects.
"I'll give both of you extra if you don't stop laughing." Cole said from behind them, making the two jump in surprise. He moved the two aside, removing the smoldering pot from the sink. Setting it back down on the stove-top, Cole turned around. "How'd training go?"
"It was okay, Lloyd's getting better at sparring." Kai said, trying to make it sound like Lloyd had done better than he actually did, just to make Lloyd feel better. "What about the package?"
"Oh yeah, that. Some fan sent sugar cookies for us. Little baggies for each of us." Cole looked at Lloyd. "Except for you."
Lloyd's face fell. Once again, everyone else was getting something, but Lloyd still got nothing.
"Someone sent those sour cherry candies for you." Cole said.
Lloyd's eyes widened. It felt like forever since he had sour cherry candy. He could remember the tart flavor that quickly turned sweet, and smiled. "Really?"
"Really." Jay said, tossing the bag of the candies at Lloyd. He caught them, and heard the spheres inside the bag clicking against each other. "Just don't ruin your appetite with them. We all know how much you love chili night."
Cole turned around, brandishing the spoon he was using to scrape the burnt chili off with. "Shut up about my chili Jay. It's delicious, and you know it!" He turned the heat back on under the chili, making sure it was on low. Setting a timer, he took the spoon covered in the crisp chili towards the trashcan, scraping it off. "Alright, let's see how good those sugar cookies actually are."
Jay grabbed the four remaining bags out of the box. "Right, here's Zane's," He tossed the bag towards the nindroid, who caught them without looking up from the book he was reading. "And these are Kai's, and these are Cole's." Jay tossed the two bags towards their rightful owners.
Lloyd sat himself down contentedly on his bed. Opening the bag, he stuck one of the cherry sours in his mouth, eyes clenching shut at the sudden sourness. Looking at the others, he saw Jay take a bite of the cookie. He chewed it for a minute, before his eyes went wide. "These are pretty good actually."
Cole was the second one to taste the cookies. "Yeah, kinda interesting flavor though..." His thick eyebrows knitted together as he tried to identify what he was tasting.
Zane and Kai both nodded, agreeing with Cole's confusion over the flavor. "It tastes...slightly nutty, but I detect no nuts." Zane said. His internal mechanisms were working hard on trying to identify the flavor, but there was no match.
Cole shrugged. "It's not as good as cake, but it's still pretty good."
"Better than your chili..." Kai muttered, loud enough for Cole to hear him. With a glare from Cole, Kai finished the cookie, re-sealing the bag they came in.
Lloyd finished the candy, swallowing the tiny bit that remained with a shudder. This bag was different. It didn't get sweet over time, it just stayed sour. His stomach twisted with worry about what his father could be planning, and when he might strike next. Setting the bag of candies down on the floor next to his cot, Lloyd laid down on his side, and closed his eyes, drifting into the darkness of his dreams.
Do you guys want me to continue this? If no one's interested, I probably still will, but knowing that people want to see how this ends would be cool.