I wake up at the crack of "dawn." Of course, dawn just meant slightly less dark.
My dad had told me about this realm. It is a land of darkness and evil. Never has it had light or anything good at all, minus the time Sensei came here. And we barely encountered any of the problems.
I sit up in my cot and rub my eyes. I look to the others, who are also starting to wake up.
"Good... morning?" Jay greets us, not sure whether to call this morning or not.
"Zane?" I ask.
"Already on it...I broadened my search, and twenty miles from here is another building," Zane answered.
"Okay. Y/n might be there. Suit up!" I say. Everyone gets ready to go as a grab some supplies I found and stuff them in a bag. Food, map (doesn't have buildings, just topography), flashlights, heavy layers for us, a change of clothes that looks like it was for y/n and some traveling gear for her. After I found the supplies, we leap into the air and summon our dragons.
We arrive at the building fast, and we immediately know this is the one. There are lights shining from the vents in the walls and the occasional person outside. I don't think humans normally hang out outside in this realm.
I signal for the team to land behind some large rocks and hide. Hopefully those rocks aren't going to kill us.
We regroup and observe the building.
"Zane?" I ask.
"There are two guards at every entrance... windows are barricaded...the guards are armed with bostaffs...our best bet is the door in front of us," Zane analyzes.
I look at the door. Two burly men are holding bostaffs and are protecting the small doorway. We can take them out, but I doubt it'll be silent because sometimes we suck at the whole silence part of being a ninja. But luck is on our side, I guess.
The door opened and three more men enter the scene. A little light bulb goes off in my head.
"Guys! Five of us...five of them...all of them in uniform...are ya guys thinking what I'm thinking?" I say.
Kai smiles. "I think you're onto something. Let's do it!"
We quickly explain to the others our plan. Goal: save y/n. Steps to accomplish this goal: don't suck at being a ninja; pose as these five men; find where Damien is keeping y/n; secretly take her back to Ninjago...somehow...we'll figure that out later.
We all sneak over behind the men. We attack at the same time in silence, throwing the men off guard and dealing with them swiftly. We drag the limp bodies to rocks we hid at and take their clothes.
We put their black tactical gear on top of our own uniforms and put their black masks on. We quickly tie their wrists and ankles and gag them so that they won't be found. We leave them there in their white underclothes. We grasp the bostaffs and walk to the door.
"Let's go," I say.
I swing the door open and lead my friends inside. The halls are made of obsidian and other volcanic rocks. There are large steel doors leading to rooms along the hall. Now we need to find y/n.
"Any ideas?" I ask.
Cole reaches into his pockets. He does that a lot when he thinks. This time though, he raised his eyebrows and pulled out a laminated piece of paper. He reads it aloud to us, saying, "'Upstairs: Malcom's quarters, base of operations, etc. Ground: offices, supplies, etc. Downstairs: emergency, prison complex. Remember to memorize."
"I guess you happened to pick the rookie, Cole," Jay determines.
"Well, that was convenient," Kai says. "Kinda like that one moment in Fritz Donogan when he suddenly has a gun when he lost his twenty minutes before."
"We can talk about the convenience of that movie later, but the comics are still better," I argue. "Let's go downstairs and find y/n."
We walk around the complex, looking for a way downstairs. We find some spiral stairs going down and leap down them two or three steps at a time.
When I touch the last step, a machine pops out of the wall. "Stand still for eye scan," it said. I am about to back up, but Jay is right behind me and I can't go up a step. Before Jay can move for me, the machine finishes its scan. The green lights turn red. "Intruder alert; southwest prison entrance," blasts through speakers along the walls in the entire compound.
"Oh crap," I say as I hear footsteps coming down the stairs. A steel door closes between us and the prison.
"Crap," I repeat under my breath. We take a defensive stance and prepare for the wave of warriors coming to kill us.
Zane throws up a wall of ice between us and the attackers. "Cole! See if you can break through the door!"
Cole turns and pushes against the door with all of his body, grunting. He throws himself at the door again and again. I bite my lip. "Cole?"
Cole pauses his relentless pushing and pants. "Zane, can you freeze the door? After that, you guys just buy me some time."
Zane nods and shoots ice at the door, completely freezing it. He once again starts to push through it.
The wall of ice starts to crack. It won't be long until they are through. "Zane, once we get through, try to find a computer or something to see where y/n is," I say.
Zane nods. "Just make sure no one kills me while I'm doing it."
"Will do," Kai answers.
The ice wall is a few hits away from shattering. "For y/n!" I say.
"Hear hear!" Jay responds.
CRACK! The ice shatters and hits the ground. And the warriors come.
I throw a quick look behind my shoulder to check on Cole. The door is badly bent. I'm guessing he needs about two minutes or so. That we can give him.
Zane, Kai, Jay, and I leap into action. We kick, hit, and punch, doing anything to keep them away from Cole. I grab Cole's discarded bostaff and chuck it at an attacker, taking the wind out of him. I twirl my bostaff into the gut of the attackers in my vicinity.
CRASH! Cole is through the door. The rest of the team jump through the opening. Zane unleashes an even thicker ice wall as I slap the machine that scanned my eyes off the wall and kick it across the room.
Zane goes to a small computer and touches it. "PIXAL?"
I turn to face the threats as Zane and PIXAL decipher the computer and locate y/n. After a minute, the ice is almost decimated.
"Follow me!" Zane shouts.
I turn and run after the nindroid. He motions us to go in front of him. When he is the last in our line of Ninja, he covers the floor behind us with slick ice. I hear and crash and people slipping behind us, but I don't look back. "Turn when I tell you to!" Zane says as he continues to track ice.
Damien's POV
I sit on a mat and meditate. I find that meditation helps me focus on my goals. I hear sirens suddenly. I open my eyes and look to the screen showing security camera feeds across the walls. Five men dressed as my own are a running down the prison complex, looking for a cell. The one bringing up the rear is shooting ice from his hand.
It's the Ninja. They've somehow managed to survive and are trying to rescue y/n. But I'm not about to let that happen.
After a split second on focusing on where I want to go, I open a portal to y/n's cell and go in.
Y/n shifts in her seat on her cot, intense fear and anger in her eyes. She is too scared to do anything stupid, not after I put her in a choke hold the other day.
"What do you want?" she asks in fear.
I walk to her and pull her to her feet. I grab her arm and half-drag her to the center of the room. "Don't do anything stupid," I advise her. She doesn't have to make this more difficult than it already is.
Lloyd's POV
"That door!" Zane shouts, pointing to a steel door on our right.
"I got this," Cole says, putting a fist in his other hand. Then he breaks his way through.
Your POV
You don't know what Damien is doing, but he wraps his arm around you and pulls you close to him. Your heart is beating at a thousand beats per second. You try to break free from his grasp, but his hold is firm.
Damien opens a portal in front of us before the cell door can fly into us. The door almost lands on the Ninja who are standing in the doorway, but Lloyd sends it flying down the hall.
The five Ninja walk toward you and Damien, and you relax a bit. They have finally found you! But your relief doesn't last long. Damien grabs a knife from his belt and presses it against your bare neck. You tense and hold your breath. You stare at the knife, lip quivering.
"Not another step," Damien says menacingly to the Ninja. The Ninja stop, and you see the terror in their eyes. They're worried about you, and Damien is in a position where he can kill you easily.
You put one hand on each arm of Damien's, trying to push them off of you and run to the Ninja. But Damien only tightens his grip on you, pulling you even closer to him. The knife remains pressed against your throat. You bite your lip to stop it from trembling, and your eyes well up in tears of terror that threaten to spill down your cheeks.
The Ninja shift their bodies to different battle stances. "Let. Her. Go!" Lloyd says angrily.
"I can't! I still need her!" Damien answers.
"For what?" Zane asks. "You've killed to get her. Why do you want her that bad?"
"Now, what's the fun in telling you? And may I correct you? I don't want the darling y/n l/n, I need her the same way I need oxygen," Damien comments.
"Yeah, we don't care all too much about the 'why,' Damien, but we do care that you took her, an innocent girl!" Jay replies.
Damien laughs. "You really think she's innocent?!" You scrunch your eyebrows in confusion. What does he mean? How could he think you aren't innocent? You're just a girl trying to live a normal life! You eye the Ninja, sending them the look that you have no idea what is going on. They almost imperceptibly nod and continue to try to negotiate.
"You're one to talk about innocence. You murdered an innocent man when he tried to stop you from taking her!" Kai shouts in anger.
"I think we can agree, one elemental master to another, that you have to take desperate actions in desperate times," Damien explains. You continue to fight against Damien's strength.
"Are times so desperate that you're willing to kill the girl you so desperately need?" Cole asks, calling Damien's bluff.
Damien frowns and releases the pressure from the knife on your throat, throwing the knife on the cot. Your breathing evens slightly. You slightly are at less risk, but terror still is flowing through you like a mighty river. As the knife is disposed, Damien's grip on your chest tightens until it is excruciating. "I'm impressed! You caught my bluff, Master Cole."
"Alright, Damien, let go of y/n and we'll settle this like men!" Jay suggests.
"Very well, Master Jay," Damien responds. In your ear, he whispers, "Stay down and don't do anything stupid, y/n." He twists you around his body and pushes you to the ground. You land on the hard floor with a soft thump. You stay put, Damien having intimidated you plenty.
You pull your h/l h/c out of your face and look up at the scene ahead of you. The Ninja run at Damien, now that you aren't in the danger of losing your life. Damien calmly pulls up counter attacks. You are surprised by how Damien holds up against the five Ninja.
The Ninja slowly spread out in a semi-circle around Damien. They attack him from all sides but Damien deflects their attacks. But it causes a pivotal moment in the battle. Lloyd and Cole end up behind Damien.
Lloyd conveys a message to Jay with his eyes and Cole nods. Cole runs behind Damien and continues to fight whereas Lloyd silently makes his way to you.
When he is next to you he crouches down. "It's alright, y/n, I've got you, it's alright," he says to comfort you. He helps you to your feet and keeps a protective arm around you. He helps you walk toward the doorway, occasionally using his body to shield you from stray attacks.
When the two of you are at the doorway, Damien notices. He pushes Jay off of him and sends him to a portal, causing Jay to hit the ceiling and fall on his face. Damien kicks Kai into a portal, sending him on top of Jay. He elbows Zane in the face and kicks him in the gut. He struts toward you and Lloyd. Lloyd steps in front of you and lights his hands with balls of green energy, ready to defend you. "Stay away from her!"
"You can't stop me," Damien replies sinisterly. He opens a portal next to him, leading behind you. He grabs you and shoves you into a portal, sending you several feet away from him and the Ninja. You're on the ground, lying on your stomach, struggling to get up. Before you can get on your knees, another portal gently drops the steel door to your cell on top of you so as to not hurt you too much but to still keep you pinned to the ground.
"The only reason she isn't fifty miles away right now is because I want her to watch me kill you," Damien told the Ninja. A few tears dash across your cheek. You want to go home so bad. You don't want to ever have to think of Damien again. You don't want anyone else to die for you.
You watch the battle commence. Before anyone can get close to you, Damien throws a portal between you and them and sends them back where they were. It looks like Damien is about to win until Cole runs and tackles Damien to the wall. Before Damien knows what happened, Cole has smashed his head into the wall. It doesn't kill him, but definitely knocks Damien out.
Lloyd runs to you and lifts the door off of you so that you can crawl out from under it. With a clash Lloyd lets it fall back on the hard obsidian floor. He once again helps you to your feet and wraps a protective arm around you.
Zane frowns. "The doorways are full of guards," he reports.
"How are we going to get outta here?" you ask timidly.
Cole smirks. "Who said anything about doors?"
Lloyd's POV
I smile, knowing exactly what Cole is doing. "Ready to run?" he asks. Us Ninja nod, and I tighten my reassuring grip around y/n's waist. She looks a little confused, so I decide to explain.
"He's going to smash our way through the walls to get out of here," I explain quietly to y/n. Understanding the idea, she nods and gets ready to run.
"Three, two, one!" Cole shouts before he smashes the first wall. We run after him. I help y/n keep up. She stumbles and almost falls. She is probably not used to running through an entire building without any breaks. I catch her and share encouraging words.
Eventually we get to a courtyard void of any life behind our own. Cole touches the ground and sends jagged rocks to cover the hole of our escape. Y/n grabs onto me and leans against me, struggling to catch her breath. I wrap my arms around her and pull her close to me. I run my hand through her gorgeous h/l h/c hair as I whisper to her. "It's alright, y/n. It's alright. We're going to get you out of here, I promise."
"I've got this," Zane says. He shoots ice up, creating a ramp onto the tallest portion of the roof. The ramp is more jagged and less steep than he usually would have done, but he was putting more in foot holds and making it easier for the both physically and emotionally exhausted y/n. I help her across the ice ramp and onto the roof. Once everyone is in the roof, Kai throws two balls of fire at it to melt it.
We swiftly walk to the edge. I am still holding onto y/n's waist, and I pull her close to me. "Y/n, we're going to jump off of the roof, but I'll summon my elemental dragon, and we won't even be close to the ground. I've got you," I whispered to her.
Fear floods her eyes, nevertheless, y/n nods. I smile. She is being very brave for a girl who has watched her boyfriend be murdered, be kidnapped by her boyfriend's murderer, been both physically and emotionally abused, threatened with a knife, had a steel door dropped on her back, and had to exert her already exhausted body to get this far. Most girls wouldn't be as courageous as her.
I wrap my arms around her waist and she smile at her. I wipe the tears away from her face with my sleeve. I rip the mask I took from a guard earlier and throw it off the roof. "It'll be fine," I assure her.
I tighten my grip on her waist and she holds onto my chest tightly. I lift her off the ground beneath us and jump with my teammates off of the roof. Y/n screams and buries her face in my chest. Before we could fall more than a yard, we land on my elemental dragon. Realizing we are rising, not falling, y/n stops screaming and looks over my shoulder. Still holding onto me for dear life, y/n looks over my shoulder slowly.
"It's alright, y/n. We're getting you out of here, " I say with the intent to calm her. Tears well up in her eyes and threaten to streak down her darling face. She is exhausted, physically, mentally, and emotionally. I can see it in her eyes.
"Thank you," she says earnestly. "Thank you." Once she says that, several tears stream down her cheek. Her cheeks redden in embarrassment, and she buries her face in my chest once more. The cloth where her face is grows moist. Y/n starts to tremble. I let go of my reins, knowing that my dragon will follow the others. I wrap my arms around y/n tightly, giving her the biggest hug. I continue to hug her as we travel across this dark realm.