So I was a bit later than I expected in updating this. I aim for once a week now.
Gosh, it's hard thinking of something else to write here now. Hope you like it!
Chapter 28: Destinies Intertwine
Jay and Nya were walking towards the restaurant they had chosen. They still had no idea that Lloyd was no longer with them. While they knew they had separated from Cole and Reyna, what they didn't know was that the green ninja was kidnapped. They continued their conversation without looking back even once while other people at the park looked at them as they passed by.
At last, they reached the restaurant they had chosen to dine at. It was the same one as the first date they had. "Okay, Lloyd," the blue ninja turned around to speak to the green one. "Lloyd? Where'd you go?"
Nya turned around as well, wondering if he was actually gone. Of course, the blue ninja's eyes weren't failing him. Lloyd was truly gone.
"Hey, Lloyd, where'd you go?" the cyan kunoichi called out. Instead of Lloyd, she got a bunch of other people looking at her. "Um, maybe we'll find him later," Nya told Jay, not liking the extra attention she just drew to herself.
She dragged the lightning ninja inside while he kept looking to spot Lloyd. How hard was it to find someone wearing full green? Apparently, very hard.
Lloyd woke up to find out he was lying flat on solid ground, and it felt like he was chained to the ground. It was pretty dark, but there seemed to be a fire or candle near him that brightened just enough so he could see his surroundings. He could see rocks in the light. "Is this a cave?" he asked, even if he had no idea if anyone could hear him. Surprisingly, his voice didn't echo, meaning it was unlikely that it was a cave.
"Wow, you're awake!" a lovely female voice exclaimed. "And I'm surprised you didn't say the typical movie or book line: the 'where am I?' line."
Lloyd's heart beat faster just by hearing the voice. Wait, could this be the kunoichi of life I just heard? No way, Lloyd! She's just another person! There's no way I can possibly like a kidnapper! Lloyd cleared his throat. "That's…nice, I guess. Could you explain why you brought me here?"
She chuckled. "Because you're the green ninja."
Lloyd groaned.
"What's the matter? You are the green ninja, right?" she asked.
Lloyd nodded. "Yeah." From the sound, it felt like she was somewhere to the left of him, quite close, actually. "What does that have to do anything?"
"Oh, me and the girls wanted to see you close-up!" she squealed in delight.
Lloyd rolled his eyes with his eyes closed. "You could've done that without bringing me here! Could've just asked for my autograph or something! What is this place, anyway?" he raised his voice.
"Oh, don't worry about that," she replied. She whistled and about a dozen girls came streaming in out of nowhere. Or…what seemed to be nowhere to Lloyd, because the light didn't allow him to see far enough.
"Oh, it's the green ninja!" one of them squealed.
"I can't believe I'm seeing him in person!" another exclaimed.
Like this, all of them began saying things Lloyd couldn't even hear because it was too loud. "Uh…who are all these people?" the green ninja asked loudly to the girl, wherever she was.
"Allow me to introduce us all," the girl with the voice that made Lloyd's heart beat faster said. "You see, all of us girls work at Mega Monster Amusement Park. This is just a meeting spot for us when we have a break or something. It's pretty nice, actually."
Lloyd groaned and rolled his eyes. "Are you kidding me? All of you work at the park, yet you kidnap me like I'm your enemy?!"
"Don't get so upset! You can leave if you want," she replied.
"This is ridiculous. Ridiculously stupid," Lloyd spat. "And was that about me being able to leave? How can I leave when I'm chained to the ground?"
"You aren't chained to the ground," she replied. "You only think you are because that's what always happens to people: they get chained."
Lloyd looked over at his arms and realized she was right. The chains were only an illusion. But if that were the case, why did he feel like he couldn't move? "Then why couldn't I move before?" he asked.
She shrugged. "It was your imagination. Nothing was holding you down in the first place."
To try to see if what she was saying was true, he moved his arms. Nothing held them. He got up slowly after. The girl was completely right. Lloyd was not restricted in anyway. Then he looked in the direction of where the voice was coming from and saw the girl at last. The little light shining towards her changed what she actually looked like, but Lloyd couldn't help to find her beautiful just like her voice. Lloyd's heart seemed to have started beating faster when he saw her. It…it has to be her, he said in his mind. The kunoichi of life is essentially Lloyd's choice to pick, although he was sure destiny had a part in it as well.
"Uh, I need to talk to you," he told her. When the other girls around him didn't move, he added, "Alone." That made them move and they talked and murmured away with each other. Lloyd still couldn't feel that he would be heard if he talked here, so he asked her something. "Any private place here? Somewhere where it wouldn't be easy to hear us?"
The girl raised her eyebrows and gave a piercing look. "Fine. Follow me."
Together, in silence, the two walked out of the light and reached a place of darkness. Then, after a few turns, there was light again. Not sunlight, but torchlight. "This place is far from the rest. Nobody comes here anymore. It should be fine for whatever you're going to say."
Lloyd nodded and saw a rock. He sat down on it. He couldn't help but feel that his shadow the light produced was actually a person that he was being spied on. "First things first, you know my name, so why don't you tell me yours?"
She nodded. "Sure. My name is Zoe Kristen."
Lloyd raised an eyebrow at her. She seemed very straightforward and answered what was asked of her.
"So, is that all you're going to ask? If that was it, you could've asked me there, instead of walking all the way here." Zoe sounded a bit edgy.
Lloyd shook his head. "There's more to it. Way more."
Zoe took a seat on a rock in front of him. "Then tell me what it is."
The green ninja took a deep breath. "This may sound crazy, but it's important and 100% real. My uncle and sensei, Wu, saw a prophecy a month ago about four new heroes of Ninjago - the kunoichi; female ninja. But there's one more. Just like how I can control the elements of the ninja, there's a fifth kunoichi that can control the elements of the other four kunoichi. We've found all the kunoichi except the fifth one. My uncle and a childhood friend of his say that the kunoichi of life will be found because of a gut feeling." At this point, Zoe looked at him like he was crazy. "I know, very unreliable. But, we have yet to find the kunoichi of life."
"Uh, sorry for interrupting, but why are you telling me, a stranger, all of this?" she inquired.
Lloyd sighed. "Now the even crazier part. It's because I think you're the kunoichi of life," he blurted out.
Zoe sat back and crossed her arms. Then she laughed out loud. "Nice, nice. Nice joke." When she saw the confused look on Lloyd's face, she elaborated. "Why would I be this all powerful kunoichi of life, of all people? I work at an amusement park!"
"But I told you!" he protested. "Gut feeling!" He left out the part that the gut feeling would happen whenhe ended up falling for a girl, which was about now.
Silence fell between the two for several minutes. It was so silent that the flickering flames could be heard. "So? What's it going to be? I'm not lying."
Zoe gritted her teeth. "How do I know you're not?"
He sighed again. "Why would I lie about this? If you still don't believe me, then I promise on my title as the green ninja that I'm not lying, that I honestly think you're the kunoichi of life."
A smile creeped on Zoe's face. "You know, Lloyd, I've always wanted to do something new. Working with the ninja…and now the kunoichi…that's amazing."
Lloyd was so happy on the inside. "So is that a yes?"
"Not quite, green ninja," she answered very quickly. "As much as I'd like to…I'm not sure if I could."
Lloyd was dismayed now. "Why not?"
"That's a BIG job, and I'm sure you know that," she answered. "It's just…hard for me to take in, that you, the greatest hero of Ninjago, think that I can be a hero as big as you. Then there's things like family and friends to worry about. It's overwhelming."
Lloyd lowered his eyes. "I…I actually can't relate to that, despite being in a similar position. I accepted my destiny even though I hated it…it meant fighting my own dad for the good of Ninjago. It seemed fun at first, before the time came to fight him. But I hated it when I had to fight him. I haven't seen him since the final battle."
Zoe looked at him in shock, surprised that he had gone through so much. She would never be able to muster the courage to fight a friend or family member. "I'm…I'm surprised you had the strength to fight your dad. I know I wouldn't."
Lloyd looked back up. "Enough of these sob stories. Are you with us, or not?"
Zoe gritted her teeth. "I'm not sure, Lloyd. It would be cool…travelling along with you guys…"
Lloyd looked straight at her, pleading to her to join them with his eyes, but she wasn't looking at him, so she didn't notice.
"It's a big choice," she said after a minute of silence. "But I think I won't regret too much."
Lloyd's heart was pounding, hoping she was making for a 'yes' answer. "Regret what?"
"Regret joining you, silly!" she answered happily.
Lloyd did a sigh of relief. "Oh, wow. I thought you weren't going to regret coming with us much."
She laughed a fine and true laugh. "I told you, I wanted to try new things. Doing this would be amazing!"
Lloyd laughed with her. "Good. I'm glad I could convince you. I was scared that you might not have. Our hopes of saving the world once again would have vanished without the kunoichi of life."
Her laughter died down. "Saving the world again? That's why this whole kunoichi thing is happening?"
Lloyd nodded. "My uncle will explain it to you as soon as we get back to the Bounty, our flying ship."
She jumped up excitedly. "Then let's get going!" She pulled Lloyd by the arm and brought him up and ran through the tunnel through the direction they came in…or so Lloyd hoped because he couldn't see anything with the torches gone. Eventually, they burst into the evening sunlight.
"Wow, I spent a while in there," Lloyd remarked at the darkening sky. It was definitely darker since he got "kidnapped" of course. The park was still quite full, mainly of people waiting to get a glimpse of the ninja again.
"Lloyd!" a familiar voice shouted out. They turned around and saw Cole and Reyna running towards them.
"Lloyd! Where have you been? And who is this?" Reyna bombarded the green ninja.
"Well…where do I start?" he said. "I kind of got kidnapped by a bunch of girls who work here, and then I met here inside," he gestured towards Zoe.
"The name's Zoe," she said happily to the other two.
"And while talking to her, I got the gut feeling that she is the kunoichi of life," the green ninja finished his short story. Then he looked at her properly in light. She was even prettier outside than she was inside that…place. He could see dark blonde hair and what seemed to be black eyes, although he couldn't tell because he couldn't directly see her face and there wasn't enough light.
Cole and Reyna looked at the newcomer with amazement and curiosity. They wondered what kind of teammate she would prove to be.
"Um, where are Jay and Nya?" Lloyd asked the other couple.
"They went to the other side to look for you," Cole answered. "They finished their dinner…and so did we." He had a light blush on his cheeks, and so did Reyna. Lloyd, understanding what had happened, said nothing more about the matter. He figured Cole and Reyna must've had dinner somewhere together, too.
"Let's go find Nya and Jay," Reyna changed the topic. The four nodded and set out to look for them. Eventually, they found them, with Jay trying to buy a stuffed animal for Nya, but the cyan kunoichi was declining.
"Let's get to the Bounty," Zoe said excitedly after the green ninja gave their two other friends about what had happened. They all nodded and headed for the flying ship.
Lloyd got kidnapped, but he finds the kunoichi of life in the process...and the love he was looking for. Will Zoe return it? Will she even stay with them after Sensei Wu tells her about their mission? Well...I know you know the answers to this...but if you don't, I won't spoil it. It's obvious.
Fight scenes will become cooler sounding now that everyone has a Blade. Expect it to be like bending from the Avatar series, but with swords controlling the elements rather than the people. The history of the Blades will also be key to the story, so stay tuned! Oh, and the ninja and kunoichi will finally learn how to counter their dark counterparts.
Hope you liked it!
