Ninjago City, Unknown Building, 4:30 pm
Lilly followed "Kai" into the main room of the building, stuffing her hands into her jacket pockets. She was told to come along, just so she wouldn't try to tell her teammates again. She sighed, feeling like she was being treated like a child. He should know she wasn't going to try to tell anymore, considering what happened back by the running trail not too long ago. She felt the side of her face, cringing a bit from the pain. At least my hair covers it and no one questions it, she thought to herself as they entered the room, revealing a table with scattered mechanical parts and a laptop. A woman Lilly could barely recognize sat nearby it, fidgeting with a mechanical arm. She looked up, acknowledging their presence.
"Alex! Il est ici!" the woman shouted to her right. Lilly could understand what she said perfectly, the language even igniting long lost memories within her mind.
"Marléne, you know I can't understand French! Speak English!" she heard Alex shout back. Marléne huffed.
"You know, I've said it so many times I thought you would understand. Are you telling me you're much stupider than you seem?" she retorted. The master of psion stomped into view, glaring at his comrade.
"No. You get ticked when I speak in Russian! How do you think I feel when you speak French!?" he exclaimed, crossing his arms.
"That's because I can't understand Russian!" Marléne shouted back. Alex opened his mouth to say something, then closed it and facepalmed. He turned towards the Bizarro ninja and Lilly, removing his hand from his face.
"Well, it's great to see you Re-" Alex began to say, but he stopped speaking once his eyes fell on Lilly. "You've brought a guest?"
"Yeah. Sorry. I just don't want my secret slipping out, and it seems she tries to tell everyone I'm away, despite my warning," "Kai" explained to the master of psion.
"Why don't you just kill her then? She's not of much use," Alex suggested as if she weren't there. Honestly I'd have a much better time with this if he just did that instead, Lilly thought to herself, sighing again.
"I don't want to, yet. I believe she can have a lot of use once 'the day' arrives," "Kai" declined, leaving the blonde curious on what exactly he was talking about. "The day?"
"If you say so, Red," Alex sighed, turning away. "Kai" yawned.
"So, how's Blue and the others doing?" he asked. Alex shrugged, starting to walk to a hallway. Lilly and "Kai" followed.
"I'm having trouble getting Black to function. I'm afraid I may have to..." Lilly could see Alex drawing a finger across his neck. Whoever this Black person was, she felt sorry for them. Though, she wondered who Blue and the others were.
"Tsk, what a shame. I was looking forward to seeing Black in action. He looks like a tough guy," Red replied, shaking his head. Alex nodded.
"Yes. Unfortunately, cloning doesn't always work out," the master of psion sighed. Cloning? Lilly thought, Who is he cloning?
"So, uh, how's my 'best friend' doing? Is he poking your eyes out with his hair?" Red questioned. Alex chuckled.
"Eh, he tries. He's tried to melt the bars I don't know how many times now. I'm wondering when he'll realize that it doesn't work," he answered. Lilly began to become more curious. Are they talking about Kai?
"So...you cloned Kai to create Red?" she asked, catching Red and Alex's attention. The master of psion nodded.
"I did indeed. Though, changing his DNA around was a pain in the ass," he replied.
"So, yeah, basically this little dwarf is my creator," Red smiled, using his thumb to point at Alex. The master of psion maintained a smile, but his eyes showed that he was indeed offended by Red's comment. He shook it off and stopped at a door that had a glowing red button next to it.
"Might as well check on your clone, Red," Alex said casually, reaching to press the button.
"Wait. Could I...perhaps...talk to Kai?" Lilly asked, stopping Alex from pressing the button. The master of psion raised an eyebrow and he pulled his hand away from the button.
"Talk to him? Well..." his voice trailed off as he looked over at Red. The Bizarro ninja nodded.
"There's really nothing you can give away anyway, so why not," Red approved. Alex sighed.
"Well, okay. I'm only giving you five minutes though. Make it quick," he said, pressing the button. The door slid open and Alex gently pushed her inside. Once inside, she could see a cage-like structure with someone inside. She assumed this person to be Kai.
"Back again, Debbie?" he asked, not turning around. Lilly chuckled.
"Who are you calling Debbie, Porcupine?" she said in a much more positive voice than earlier. At the sound of her voice, Kai turned around, his hair covering half of his surprised expression.
"Lilly?"
"There's only one person you know with a voice like this," she smiled, kneeling next to the cage. The master of fire brushed his hair out of his face, revealing widened, shocked eyes.
"It...is you!" he exclaimed, hugging her through the bars, "You don't know how happy I am to see you..."
"I bet, considering how long they've had you locked up in here," Lilly said. Once he pulled away, his expression immediately turned to concern.
"Is Nya alright!? Is everyone alright? Has that clone guy done anything!?" he asked in a worried voice.
"Your sister is fine, I've been keeping an eye on her. He attacked Zane last night, shattering the poor guy's eye and taking Pixal and I got thrown into a bookshelf by him not too long ago," Lilly informed him, patting the back of her head, "but please do not worry. I don't think he'll hurt any of us for the remaining time."
She tried to give a smile of reassurance, but it only made Kai more concerned. Though, she could see rage hiding in his eyes. Then, she saw his eyes shift to the left.
"What happened to the side of your face?" he asked, reaching to brush her hair away from it, "It's all purple..."
She let him brush her hair away, but winced when he touched the bruise on the side of her face.
"Did he...?" he began to ask. Lilly sighed.
"It's nothing new. My mother has done worse," she said quietly, shivering at the memories that leaked into her mind, "It's okay."
She heard the sound of Kai's fist connecting with the floor and looked up. The fist that had connected with the floor was flaming, while the other was simply steaming. "No, it's not okay!" the master of fire shouted, then calmed his voice, "No one should treat you that way!"
"I just thought it was just the way my life was gonna go..." Lilly's voice trailed off as she looked away, the memories still swirling in her mind, reminding her of her childhood. Kai sighed and wrung both of his hands of flames. He then placed both hands on her shoulders, causing her to turn her head to look him in the eyes.
"That's wrong. You shouldn't let people treat you like that. You have to get away from people like that and stay away from them. Don't let them hurt you, Lilly," he told her in a much gentler voice. She began to feel conflicted.
"But...I'm sort of being forced to stay around Red...your clone...what do I do?" she asked. Kai blinked and looked at his knees for a minute, then looked back up at her.
"Try to avoid him if you can. If not, don't let him touch you. If he tries to hit you...this may sound like bad advice try to block it, okay?" he told her. Lilly nodded. A small smile came to his face.
"Your clone and Alex keep talking about killing me at some point. Honestly, I wish they'd just get it over with and spare me of all of this. It'd be so much better," Lilly sighed, leaning against the bars. Kai began to look concerned again.
"Come on, don't say that," he said in a reassuring voice. It didn't effect Lilly at all.
"It'd be so much easier. I mean, I wouldn't have to deal with my mom anymore, people wouldn't use my artificial powers against me, I wouldn't be used as a pawn, I wouldn't..." her voice trailed off as she struggled to speak, but she ended up breaking out into a sob instead. She leaned her head against the bars, sniffing and wiping tears from her face. Kai reached through the bars and hugged her, a sympathetic look on his face.
"But everyone would be devastated if it happened to you," he said, "Listen, Lilly, if you're having issues where you're feeling like these, you need to talk to someone. Like, talk to one of the guys or girls when you get back. I'd talk to you about it, but I'm stuck in here and I'm pretty sure you have a limited amount of time being in here."
She nodded, wiping her eyes again. The time she had left in here couldn't be much, considering how much time has passed. She couldn't help but feel like she wanted to stay longer.
The second she heard the door slide open made her jump, startled by how sudden it was.
"Hey, times up," Lilly heard Alex say from the door. She turned and nodded, then turned back to Kai. She didn't want to leave yet. She slowly pulled Kai back into a hug.
"Listen, I'm going to come back at some point and get you out of here, okay? I promise," she whispered as quietly as she could, making sure Alex and Red couldn't hear her. Lilly pulled away and Kai nodded in response. She whispered a goodbye, then proceeded to walk out of the room. Though, as she approached the door, she could hear Alex and Red talking.
"...Yeah, that's what I'll do. I don't care if there's over ten of them. It'll be an easy job if I can get Blue ready in time."
"Uh-huh. What about the old farts?"
"Are you kidding me Red!? It's like fighting a child going against them. Easy win."
Lilly couldn't really tell what they were talking about, but she felt it had something to do with her team. There really wouldn't be anything else they would be talking about. They're talking about the meetup tomorrow, aren't they? she thought to herself. Then, she realized what they meant. Easy win!? Easy job? Like fighting against a child? Oh god...he's gonna ambush us and try to kill them!
The Next Day, Steep Wisdom, 5:01 pm
I wrapped my magenta scarf around my neck carefully, making sure to not accidentally strangle myself or screw up the order of which scarf tail goes where. Once finished, I looked at myself in the mirror, admiring how I looked in my old gi. Gosh, it's been a while since I've worn this thing. It still fits as great as ever though!
"I'd wear the deepstone gi...but it's kind of heavy," I commented, turning to Cass, who was sitting on Lilly's bed. She and Sammie had decided to join us and talk to us as we all prepped to go to the forest by the Fire Temple, uncertain of what would actually happen. We were instructed by Sensei Wu to wear our ninja gi and carry our weapons just in case anything happens. Alex wasn't someone to put your full trust into anyway.
"They do look kind of heavy...but I think they look cool too," Cass commented, standing up and pulling on her fingerless, black gloves. Her gi was identical to Sammie's, with the only difference being the colors and symbols on their belts.
"Eh, I wonder how I'm going to sneak around with this color," Sammie said, looking down at her yellow gi. I shrugged in response.
"Well, Zane has snuck around in white...and pink. I think you can do that with yellow too," I told her. She sighed.
"I hope you're right. I don't wanna be known as the 'Highlighter Ninja'," she said as she pulled on her boots. I tried not to giggle at the nickname.
"Nah, you're more known as 'The Girl Who Nathan Accidentally Confessed to While Arguing'," Lilly commented as she adjusted her sleeve. Sammie's cheeks became pink.
"Yeah, I was supposed to keep that a secret, but when he blurts it out in front of everyone..." I shrugged. Sammie's cheeks started turning a darker shade of pink.
"Nathan acts like he hasn't blurted that out at all and hasn't talked to me about it. I'm gonna have to confront him about it soon," the master of light informed us as she brushed her hair off her shoulders. Lilly smirked and slid to her side.
"Oh, Sammie-senpai has come to confess to me!? Surely my heart shall explode!" Lilly mimicked Nathan's voice, giggling afterwards. Sammie's cheeks steadily became pinker. I decided to join in on the fun. It wouldn't hurt too much I suppose.
"Oh, Sammie-senpai, of course I'll kiss you under the falling cherry blossoms! It'll be just like in the movies!" I tried my best to mimic Nathan's voice, despite my higher pitched voice. I heard Cass and Lilly laugh.
"Let's dance this night away Nathan! Take me into your arms!" Cass mimicked Sammie's voice, accidentally falling on top of Lilly. The whole room broke out into laughter.
"Okay, that's enough guys," Sammie giggled, getting up. I smiled.
"We should mimic Lilly and Kai next," I suggested as I pulled on my gloves, snickering.
"Or, we could mimic you and Lloyd," Lilly shot back, making my cheeks warm intensely. Did she have to bring that up!?
"Oho! That sounds interesting," Cass grinned. I had to change the subject.
"How about Cass and her slice of cake?" I suggested. The master of wind gave two thumbs up.
"I'm good with that," she agreed. Sammie gave a confused look.
"How do you mimic a cake?" she asked.
"Like this!" Lilly said, lying down on the floor and staying completely still. Cass giggled.
"I think that's mimicking a rock, Lilly," she said. The blonde shrugged.
"Close enough," she got up, brushing off her sleeves. At the same time, Nya opened the door to the room, peeking in.
"Are you guys done getting ready? It's almost time," she asked. I looked to the others, then nodded.
"Yeah, sorry, we were just goofing around," I smiled as I walked over to the door. Nya chuckled.
"You guys having fun without me as usual," she said.
"You don't have to be a stranger. Tag along with us any time!" I told her, still smiling. Nya made a tiny smile.
"I'd tag along if I'd get free time," she said quietly before leading us down the hallway. I felt kind of sorry for her, knowing that now she was going to be busy making a mech for someone we didn't entirely trust. If only she didn't have to make it for him.
••••••••••••••••••••••••
Forest, Fire Temple, 6:40 pm
Lilly followed her friends through the forest, becoming much more anxious per step. Alex was going to strike and any moment with Blue and take out her friends. She could sense it. There would be no other reason why he chose this place out in the sea of trees to meet them. In fact, his words when speaking to Red had confirmed her fears. Her friends were going to die, but what could she do!? Red was going to kill her if she said even a peep about all of this.
Though, the thought of watching her friends die made her shiver. No, I can't let that happen, but what do I do!? Her thoughts were conflicted, making her just want to freeze time and abandon it all. Just leave everything frozen where it is. Unfortunately, she was not Xavier.
She was left with only one choice. One choice that could save them, but as for her, her life was uncertain. Her life didn't concern her though. She was only focused on her friends' futures. She looked forward to spot Red leading the crowd. This could go somewhat perfectly. She first made sure her katana was still hidden in her sleeve, then she took a breath. Here we go.
"Wait, guys," she spoke loudly, stopping everyone. Most turned to look back at her.
"What's wrong?" Cole asked. Lilly took another deep breath. Come on, do it.
"You all have been lied to this whole time! Kai is not what he seems!" she shouted, pointing at Red. He began to glare at her, and she could see him reaching for something. Go ahead, fight me asshole.
"Kai's the trai-!" Lilly began to shout, but was cut off abruptly by a sharp pain near her chest. She gasped, beginning to tremble. Her eyes widened as she felt a sharp object get pulled roughly out of her body, then she fell to the ground.