I AM SO SORRY ONCE AGAIN FOR BEING LATE! I've been trying to get this book report done, and just... ugh ;-; (But, the story IS finished, so no there's no chance of me ghosting on you guys! This thing is getting finished whether it likes it or not!) And, once again, these reviews I've been getting recently are just... They just mean so much to me, I couldn't even describe the feeling :3 Thank you all so much for taking the time to let me know that my efforts are appreciated :D NEVER think you are wasting your time when review- I cherish every single one and I WILL respond to you to thank you personally (no matter how long it takes ;-;))
Honestly, I am... really, really nervous about this chapter :/ But, I REALLY hope you guys like it!
Also, WARNING! This chapter is VERY dark and violent. If you would like me to warn you more explicitly about the contents of this chapter, PM me! Otherwise, read at your own risk.
Special thanks to: Ebony umbreon, whycan'tIfindanamethatfits, RandomDragon2.0, GwenBrightly, KyraPlays, NaninaDaPanda, Inimidesert, agent. pebble, GameCubeGirl1, FullMetalPon-3, Katla1, TheKittenQueen, Plumcicle, Revlis Charm, GalacticD0nuts, Andrea Lundgaard Miller, MightyShipper, Wolfjem, WindNinja333, Tails FT Foxy, Drawkill Vear and Lycaran, TheYellowNinja, JBomb217, SpiritDragon, Rick Riordan1, RandomIsCJ, GlaceonSnow, FlightOfTheFury, and Anonymous for reviewing! :D
Replies to guest reviews:
MightyShipper: Haha, I'm so glad you found the chapter adorable! Thank you so much for reviewing! :D
TheYellowNinja: YES! The trust is back and everyone is needing to rely on each other once again! :D "Incredibly perfect?!" Thank you so so so much for all your kind words! Your reviews just really mean the world to me! :D Thanks, and I hope you're doing okay in school too! Episode 97 and 98... ;-; Thank you so much for reviewing! :D
JBomb217: Aw, that's so sweet! Thank you so much! Haha, we'll see if they survived... ;D Thank you so much for reviewing (twice!) :D
SpiritDragon: Haha, yep, the Bone Keeper DEFINITELY knows who he's dealing with! XD You never have to apologize for not reviewing! I hope you're feeling better now! Haha, no worries, I'm more excited for the fluff and the angst too ;D Thank you sooo much for reviewing! :D
Rick Riordan1: Oh my gosh, you screaming just means so much to me! XD Woah, I didn't even notice it was a LITERAL cliffhanger! XD I am SOOO ecstatic that you loved the chapter so much! :D Oh man, working on Season 11 of Ninjago? Talk about a dream come true! XD Thank you sooooooo much! :D
Anonymous: Ooh, good idea! We'll start with Zane this chapter! ;D Thank you so much for reviewing! :D
When Zane opened his eyes, he was on his back, staring directly into a bright, white light. He turned, hoping to find Lloyd beside him- and in doing so he discovered that his arms and legs were bound to the cot he was lying on.
Just like in Anne's lab.
Chest already heaving despite himself, he moved to tear the belts off his wrists, bucking and kicking and jerking his limbs in an effort to free himself- but it was useless. If he hadn't been able to break free from that lab in the real world, there was no way he would be able to escape here in the mindscape where the whole purpose was to trap him here.
Lying still, Zane began surveying the room. It looked exactly like Anne's lab, right down to the last screwdriver and pair of pliers on the nearby tray, save the fact that it was empty. How was he supposed to overcome his fear? Allow himself to be experimented on? As if he had a choice.
"Does anybody see them?"
"They can't just be gone. And, we know they didn't give up since we're still in here."
Zane gasped when he heard the other ninja's voices. Lifting his head as much as he could, he saw that the wall at his feet was in actuality a window. It was facing a bare stone room with the rest of the ninja, sans Lloyd, wandering aimlessly in its interior. They were dry, as if they had never been submerged in a tidal wave, and shaky, trembling relief flooded him once he saw that they were uninjured.
"Cole! Kai! Jay!" He called, frowning when no one responded. Fine, maybe the glass was too thick to hear him, but why couldn't they see him? Nya, after all, was standing directly in front of the window, studying it in consternation as if…
Zane let his head fall back against the cot once he realized it was a one way window: he could see them but they could not see him.
"What is the point of this trial, Bone Keeper?" Zane demanded of the empty room. "If there is no one here to operate on me, then how am I supposed to overcome my fear?"
No one responded. Zane hadn't expected the Bone Keeper would, but he clenched his bound fists by his sides.
This was ridiculous. He couldn't lie here trapped like this. Lloyd had fallen too- what if he was hurt? All of this had been for him, so if he was hurt… if getting injured in the mindscape somehow plunged his physical body back into the coma that they had risked everything to rescue him from…
"They need me!" Zane shouted, as if that would move the Bone Keeper to release him. He could hear the other ninja arguing in the adjacent room- if he wasn't there to play peacekeeper, if he wasn't there to rattle off knowledge and statistics, if they gave up in order just to escape that room…
"I need to help them!" Zane reiterated, yanking uselessly against his restraints once again. "I can't- I need to get to them…"
Over and over again, he jerked his arms. Logically, he thought that if he put enough sustained strain on the belts, they would eventually weaken and snap- and then he remembered that this was the mindscape. The belts would never break if the Bone Keeper didn't want them to.
"You can't- I don't know what to do!" Zane shouted at the empty lab, slamming his head back into the cot in a demonstration of frustration- and he had the fleeting notion to admit defeat simply not to be so utterly useless here anymore. "They need help…"
The nindroid trailed off.
He suddenly recalled the jet flight to Gem's castle.
"Yeah, you're a nindroid, but that doesn't mean that we expect more of you or something. It just means you're a… shiny human."
"We're the same, Zane."
"Brother sharpens brother. And, no ninja left behind."
"You're a person, Zane. A person that's allowed to feel all the same sadness and fear as anybody else and allowed to talk to his brothers to try to feel better."
Zane's greatest fear was not being dissected.
"I need help."
There was various noises of surprise from the adjoining room.
"Did you guys hear that?"
"Zane?! Was that you, bro?!"
"Yes, brothers!" He called back, entire body slackening with joy like someone who'd just finished sprinting a marathon. "Please, I am trapped!"
"We're coming, Zane!"
"Keep talking so we know where you are!"
"I am strapped to an operating table. There are tools and wires and switches and-" Words were pouring out of his mouth, as if his mind had recorded every single thing he'd wanted to say when he'd been in Anne's lab, as if being saved now would save him then, as if that past Zane could finally just admit to his brothers…
"And, I am scared."
And, that admission, that white flag Zane was waving at himself in order to form a truce between the nindroid and human halves of him, was met with the sound of shattering glass.
"Zane!"
"Oh, geez, this is sick, Bone Keeper!"
"Don't worry, bro, we'll get you out of here in no time."
"We got you, Zane."
And, in being transferred from the strangling hold of leather belts to equally as strong arms, holding him as if they could erect a wall around him, he had never felt more free.
"Hello?" Lloyd called as he wandered down the hall of a… rather comfortable looking little house. It looked vaguely familiar, though he was positive he had never stepped foot in such an abode. It most closely resembled one he spent long, sleepless nights imagining at Darkley's for him and his mom and dad to live in, if his mom hadn't left and his dad hadn't-
And, that's when Lloyd put his finger on exactly where he had seen the house. It was where his mind had retreated to once he had been put into a coma. It's where the other ninja had found him after their trek through the mindscape, and where they jogged his memory.
As he realized this, his feet loyally continued to carry him down the hall and toward the kitchen. Every detail was impeccable, from framed photos of himself and his parents to a coat rack- something as mundane as a coat rack!
"Nice of you to finally show up."
Lloyd jumped at his mother's voice just as he passed the kitchen's threshold. Misako was pulling a pan of rolls out of the oven, where they had baked to a perfect golden brown.
"Dinner's ready, and your father's already set the table."
Lloyd blinked as if he had no idea what a table was.
Because, this didn't make any sense. If he was supposed to be overcoming his worst fear, then why was he… here? In a flawless alternate reality with everything he ever wanted?
"Lloyd?"
It was Garmadon, standing in the doorway between the kitchen and the dining room. "Are you coming, son?"
"What's the catch?" Lloyd demanded, trying to stamp down the rush of affection he felt at seeing his father and replace it with distrust of the Bone Keeper's illusions.
"Catch?" Garmadon repeated. "You have a second chance at your perfect world, Lloyd. I don't see any kind of catch in that."
"No…," Lloyd mumbled, shaking his head as if he could throw off the confusion that way. "I'm supposed to be facing a fear…, aren't I?"
"No, Lloyd," Misako replied, setting the pan down on the stove top and removing her oven mitts. "There is no fear here. Here, you never have to be worried about being alone again."
Oh.
"We'll be a family," Garmadon insisted, coming up to Lloyd and grasping his shoulder with that somehow strong and yet also gentle grasp that he reserved specially for this son. "And, we will never leave you again. You don't have to be afraid of being alone, Lloyd."
An all-consuming sigh ran throughout the length of Lloyd's body, tears actually springing to his eyes at the domesticity, the normalcy and safety that pervaded the scene.
Impulsively, he lunged forward, hugging his good, alive father. He knew it wasn't really Garmadon, but the Bone Keeper certainly made a convincing replica, nailing every detail perfectly, down to the long white scar trailing along his father's jaw one could only see from below.
"I am afraid of being alone," Lloyd admitted, squeezing the illusion as if admitting the fear would suddenly make it a reality. "But, I'm not alone. And, I never will be. Because what me and the other ninja have, what me and my dad have… It's inside me. It's mine."
Lloyd pulled away from Garmadon then.
Determination hardened his green eyes.
"And, nothing you say or do can ever take it away, Bone Keeper."
Lloyd blinked, and suddenly he was in an uncomfortably tiny room with all the other ninja.
"Lloyd!" Kai shouted, crushing the Green Ninja in a hug. "You're okay!"
"Stop scaring us like that!" Jay ordered, crossing his arms as if Lloyd being dropped off a waterfall was a personal affront to him.
"Congratulations."
The ninja turned as one to see the Bone Keeper standing in front of one of the six doors bordering the room, his arms calmly folded behind his back. His grin was firmly in place, as if the ninja overcoming each of their greatest fears had been part of his plan all along.
"Alright, Bone Keeper. We survived everything you put us through. You lose." Cole stated.
"On the contrary," the blue ghost replied jovially. "I still control the mindscape. Now that I've fulfilled my part of the agreement in appearing in the mindscape with the seven of you, I can put you though much more than what I already have. After all, I have a vast assortment of traumatic memories to choose from. Or perhaps more fears would suit you, like watching each other get torn apart and be helpless to stop it."
Chuckling at the ninja's stricken expressions, the Bone Keeper continued. "In short, I assure you that my stamina will long outlast yours, and so continuing to put yourselves through such emotional turmoil would be futile. I suggest you concede now."
Nya scoffed. "Yeah, right."
The Bone Keeper clucked his tongue. He lifted his arm and prepared to snap his fingers-
"Wait!" Lloyd shouted. "What about you?"
The Bone Keeper looked back at the Green Ninja calmly. "What about me?"
"It's your turn," Lloyd offered, as if it were obvious. The rest of the ninja were sharing subtly uncertain expressions with each other, all except for Morro. "After all, I think it's only fair that we get to see what happened to your daughter."
The Bone Keeper's grin dropped. "How did you-"
"Did you kill her?" Lloyd demanded, refusing to let the Bone Keeper have time to regain the eloquence he always so confidently weaponized. "Or just abandon her?"
The ghost narrowed his eyes. "You have no idea what you are-"
"And, what about the Weeping Woman?" Nya asked, catching onto Lloyd's drift to knock the Bone Keeper off balance. "Was she your wife? Did you kill her too?"
The Bone Keeper huffed in fury, raising his hand to snap once again. "You insolent-"
Cole and Kai simultaneously rushed forward, grabbing his arm and hand in order to stop him from snapping his fingers.
"What did you do to get sent to the Cursed Realm, huh?" Morro demanded, marching forward confidently. The Bone Keeper stumbled backward against one of the many doors while also wrestling Kai and Cole. "What could a miserable snake like you have done to get himself sent there, huh?"
The Bone Keeper shook his head even more vigorously than before, elbowing the two ninja restraining him with the panicked jabs of a wild animal. "You will respect-"
Before the Bone Keeper could speak, Zane rushed him, tackling him around the middle with such force the the door behind him swung open at the impact and the four of them- the Bone Keeper, Kai, Cole, and Zane- went tumbling inside whatever room waited beyond it.
Lloyd, Morro, Nya, and Jay didn't hesitate to sprint in after them, the door slamming shut behind them.
The three ninja grappling the Bone Keeper somersaulted over and over again, heedless of the fact that it was carpet instead of stone underneath them. Landing with the Bone Keeper flat on his back, Kai and Cole restrained his arms to either side.
Looking up hesitantly and trusting that the threat was neutralized, Zane slowly got to his feet, taking stock of their surroundings. Over his shoulder, he noticed that the rest of the ninja had joined them in whatever facet of one their minds.
"Whose memory is this?" Jay asked, scratching his head. In front of them was an exquisite staircase, covered in blood red carpet and bordered by a golden railing. Paintings and vases dotted the foyer of what appeared to be a mansion.
Before anybody could claim ownership of the scene, the ninja- and the Bone Keeper, who had gone still with an expression one could only describe as dread- turned at the sound of the large double doors swinging open.
It was- well, it was the Bone Keeper, though it took them a long moment to recognize him. It was the Bone Keeper, but the only major difference was that this Bone Keeper was alive, a heartbeat and breath bringing life to the dapper human as he grinned.
"London!" He called, shutting the huge doors behind him as he scanned the entryway for whomever he was calling. "London, darling, I'm home!"
A few tense moments passed in silence- even the invisible spectators didn't utter a peep.
"Elias."
The Bone Keeper looked up- at his name, Elias was his name- at the ornate staircase to see a tall blonde woman standing at the head of the stairs in a white dress.
Only then did the ninja break their vow of silence. In unison, Kai and Nya whispered, "The Weeping Woman!"
"London!" The Bone- Elias greeted warmly. "And, where is my precious little flower?"
When London didn't immediately respond, Elias raised an eyebrow. "Er, um, why are you all wet, sweetheart? I thought we were going to throw the party as soon as I got home."
London smiled drowsily, her eyes half-lidded.
Slowly, hauntingly, she shook her head.
"There is no party. There never will be again. You made sure of that."
At this, Elias began mounting the steps, moving to meet London where she stood. "What are you talking about, my dear?"
"You think I don't know about the other women, but I see things. I hear things. You might be blind to the pain you've caused, but I am not. And, I made sure our daughter never would know that pain."
"What- What are you…? London, what have you done? Where's-"
Over the Weeping Woman's shoulder, he saw a room with the light on, the carpet directly in front of the door soaked through with water London had presumably tracked out of it. With one last glance at his wife, Elias pushed past her, running into the bathroom to see-
"Chrysanthemum!"
The ninja, save Morro and Lloyd, gasped, their hands going to their mouths.
London drifted into the bathroom after Elias, followed closely by the morbidly curious ninja. He was pulling his daughter's- and it was Gem, it was Gem's body in her infamous white party dress he was lifting out of the overflowing bathtub, Gem- Chrysanthemum- was-
He did not attempt resuscitation. It was clear to everyone present that Gem had been gone for a long time.
Elias cradled the small body close to his chest, water streaming from her hair and clothes as he rocked her back and forth.
"What have you done?!" Elias demanded, turning helplessly to London standing perfectly content to one side as her husband clutched her murdered daughter's body. "You- You killed her! You killed my baby girl!"
"No, you killed her!" London shrieked, seemingly coming to life at the accusation. "You killed her, you killed her, you killed her, you killed her with your gambling and your drinking and your cheating!"
"Shut up! Shut up!" Elias demanded. Carefully, as if handling a priceless artifact, he laid Gem's body on the tile floor before rising to his feet. He stomped toward London, his fists clenched. "Shut up!"
"You're a murderer- a murderer!" London screamed, lashing out at her husband as if hoping to drown him as well.
Elias pushed her back and she toppled to the floor, her head cracking against the tile floor.
Elias was on top of her immediately, snarling as his hands wrapped around her neck, squeezing, squeezing, squeezing the murderess's life out of her just like she had drowned the life out of their precious, little flower-
London's hands weakly thrashed, pushing at Elias's face with no avail.
Her arms dropped back to the floor.
Her head lolled to one side.
All at once, Elias jerked his hands away from her neck as if it had burned him. His jaw relaxed, his eyes lost their bloodlust, his entire body thrust backward, as if shocked to find himself where he was.
"London?"
No response.
"London?"
He swallowed.
"Don't play with me like this. London. London!"
Elias waited.
He stood up.
He walked out of the room slowly, more like a zombie than a ghost.
Before the ninja could move, he returned.
With a gun in his hand.
Moving Gem's body to lay beside London's, he laid down on the floor on his daughter's other side, raising the gun to his head-
The Bone Keeper broke free of Cole and Kai's grip only to throw himself against the floor, ripping at his hair.
"Enough, enough, enough! I give up!"
Sooo, um. Yes. Thoughts? ^-^;
(Also, in case you're wondering, yes, Forgotten Memory will be longer than Lost Soul and Broken Circle, which were both 25 chapters long. That being said, there aren't that many more chapters to go... Ugh, I'm getting so sad that this story is nearing the end! ;-; ;-; ;-;)
But, I love you all, and I hope you have a wonderful day! :D