Julia paced up and down the thin track, with Lindsey listening intently. Kai still struggled to free himself from the iron grasp of the monsterbot, but to no avail.
She scowled, searching her mind for a reason why she should tell this insolent young whelp her life's story. She found none, but felt the words spilling out of her mouth despite her misgivings.
"I was a young girl once. Beloved, sweet, and doted on to my heart's content. It was just me, my older sister Ketlyn, and my parents. We were a family of no great means, but we were happy. But then it all changed. My wisp of a father landed a job at a high ranking company, and soon we were drenched in money. My mother was constantly gone, and of course, my father was working. He loved his work. Ketlyn and I enjoyed our time together in the big new house, but after several months of living there, she was struck down by a terrible illness. My father paid exorbitant amount of money to doctors across the land to cure her, but to no avail. My sister died four days later.
"I was left alone in the world, entitled to anything I wanted. Anything but people. My sister was all I had left, and eventually, she left me too. I got a nursemaid every now and then, but they did absolutely nothing, only cleaned and ignored me. I realized that the reason no one wanted to have anything to do with me was because I wasn't good enough. Not for them. Not for anyone. I wasn't good enough to save my sister, even after watching the doctors care for her constantly. I turned to technology to alleviate my loneliness. I thought maybe if I made something good enough, something worth noticing, then I would be welcomed back into society's arms. But it didn't work. By the time I turned sixteen, I was sick of this treatment. I wanted my sister back, but the cruel world had taken her from me. I left a short note and bid my home goodbye, bringing with me only my technology and my skill. I skipped around, looking for somewhere, someone, that would value me for who I was, but I never found it.
"Then, when I was twenty-seven, I met a man. This man showed me my true potential. He taught me the ways of the dark, and I grew in my power. But eventually, he realized I wasn't good enough for him either, and he left me in a strange world to fend for myself."
She cast a scornful look over her shoulder at Garmadon, then continued, "I made a name for myself here. Julian Renala, master of technology. I realized that the only way I would get the recognition I sought was to make people see it. I would become ruler of the world. But two worlds is better than one, and I heightened my ambitions. I was on the outside for so long. But now you will be on the outside. And I will be on the top!"
"You don't have to do this, Julia," Lindsey finally whispered. Her words seemed to bounce around in the silence, rivaled only by a grating chuppa-chuppa sound far below them. "Making people bow to you won't make them appreciate you. It won't make them your friend." She looked down. "Trust me, I know." Then she paused. "Is this what Ketlyn would've wanted?
She saw something flicker in the brunette's eyes, and a spark of hope shot through her heart, but whatever it was disappeared instantly, and Julia regarded her coldly. "If you still believe that, then you've got a long way to go, little girl." She scowled and gave a pointed glare at the monsterbot holding Kai. "Drop him."
"No!" Lindsey gasped, watching in horror as he plummeted out of view, a look of despair and terror on his face. "Kai…" She dropped to her knees and reached out, mouth working in silent desperation.
Julia felt a smirk tugging at the edge of her mouth, relieved that she has beaten the girl. Lindsey made her uncomfortable, asking questions she couldn't answer. Now, she just needed the key. "One down, four to go," she said loosely, "Which one do you want next?"
"Don't touch my friends," she muttered, hatred burning in her eyes.
A wind kicked up, swirling Julia's loose hair around her head. She tossed it carelessly. "Then tell me."
Something in the back of her mind twitched. She had grown accustomed to the soft disruption, in the last ten minutes or so since she had defeated it, and went to tamp it down again, but paused. She sensed something new in it. Something… servile. Bendable. What if… no. It couldn't be that easy.
Could it?
Lindsey saw something out of the corner of her eye, drawing her back to reality, and she took in a sharp breath of air. There was something racing across the tracks. Her eyes grew wide as she recognized it as the roller coaster car. And riding in it was a figure, clad in bright blue. Jay? Julia's back was to it, and Lindsey squinted her eyes to make out the blue ninja. He was in the front of the car, leaning precariously back towards the end car, where someone else rode. Could it be… Kai?
She felt a spark of hope blossom in her heart. If Kai had miraculously landed on the coaster car instead of the ground, then he was alive. Maybe even completely fine. Much of her despair vanished, giving way to relief. As she watched, three other figures leapt aboard the speeding coaster car: Zane, Cole, and Lloyd. Safe.
Wait. She frowned, brought back to present day. The roller coaster was on it way, hurtling toward the portal at who-knows-how-many miles per hour. And she and Julia were in the way. She knew she didn't want to get smushed, and as much as she hated Julia, no one deserved to be hit by a roller coaster car. But the woman didn't seem to notice. "Julia…" she began. Julia pursed her lips in impatience and snapped, "Tell me what I need to know!"
Lindsey reminded silent. Thoughts swirled around her head like debris in a raging river. Faces. Places. Memories. Everything about the ninja. Her. It was her greatest fear. She had her friends, almost family. But she still stood alone. Forever alone. And this woman didn't even care. Lindsey ached inside. She couldn't stand against the rush of opposition. There was no way.
Then something dawned on her.
She wasn't alone. She had her friends. Maybe they weren't standing next to her, but they believed in her. They would always be there for her. Hidden strength welled up in her, present but unused. She recognized it as strength she had unconsciously used in defeating the virus. I am strong, she realized, People believe in me. People NEED me. I AM NOT ALONE.
She had an idea.
She grinned. "You need to know… if you can land on your feet!"
This had to be timed perfectly. She paused for a split second, not quite long enough for Julia to figure out what she meant. Lunging forward, she tackled the woman roughly, and they both fell from the track, with Julia clawing at her desperately.
Lindsey knew she had seconds. Closing her eyes, she imagined lifting the door of an iron cage, freeing the dark blob of nothingness she knew was inside. The virus. It was similar to what she had battled not long before, but much smaller, and it had a thick chain attached firmly to it to the cage, courtesy of Lindsey's mind. She bit her lip in concentration. She could sense herself grasping Julia's, and she issued a command to the servile virus to go through her arms and into Julia's. She felt it dart away, held in check only by the chain, and strained to direct it to a specific area. She felt Julia jerk and twist in her grip as the virus took hold, but she hung on, desperate to maintain control over the virus. Though she knew she could, she didn't want to destroy her enemy's mind, just… rehabilitate it.
As the ground came rushing up, she jerked the virus back out of Julia's mind and shut it in the cage once again, hoping desperately that her idea had worked.
Then they impacted.
And bounced.
The heavily cushioned seat of the roller coaster car rebounded them several feet into the air, and Lindsey eked out a breathless gasp of relief, relieved that her split-second calculations hasn't failed her. Jay grabbed her ankle before they were too far out of reach, and pulled both of them safely inside the car. Julia was unconscious, overcome by the powerful virus but with Lindsey's arm still locked around her waist. Lindsey quickly pulled the bar down over the two of them and squeezed her eyes shut, clutching it with a death grip. I never did like roller coasters.
Sparing a split second glance over the side of the speeding car, she caught sight of the vast army of monsterbots, standing completely inert. Good-they wouldn't be going anywhere. And with Julia in another world, they would be standing there for a while more. The wind pressed against her face, trying to force her eyelids shut, but she pried them open again just in time to see the swirling wall of purple approaching.
Then they plunged through it.
Again.
