(Laurie, as I mentioned before, belongs to the wonderful KaitouKiwi. She actually wrote a one-shot, named 'Consumed', explaining the origin of Laurie's fear of the dark. I strongly recommend you read it, for not only is she a great writer, the story is absolutely adorable and will probably hit you with them Garmadon feels)

Chapter 35-The Trickster and The Queen

But maybe you're part of my story too.

Cole's words still resonated within Nadya's mind. No matter how hard she tried to snap back to her usual routine, she found herself thinking about the black ninja more often than she'd liked.

Part of her stubbornly reminded her that she was The Evil Queen, and that was who she'd always be. Even when Cole had been here, she'd still found time for her personal agenda of capturing his friends. It wasn't like she deserved any kind of forgiveness. The best thing to do, would be to let it go, forget who Cole was, keep living like she'd always had.

But the other part of her, the other part of her wanted to change. Cole had left a small seed of curiosity within her. What would it be like if, for once, she stepped away from who she was? What would it be like to fight alongside the heroes, instead of against them?

What would it be like to share a story with someone other than herself?

As Nadya paced around her room, her brown eyes stopped upon a magic rose, placed with care on her nightstand. The soft pink glow emerging from it made her heart ache. It was Cole's rose.

Nadya walked closer to it, gently taking hold of the frail flower. "You know. . . Cole really shouldn't have left without you."

It was a feeble excuse to set out in search for him. But it was all she needed.

Laurie closed her eyes, although it didn't make too much of a difference. Her chest tightened, making every breath a battle. She did her best to not think about her predicament, did her best to force herself to crawl forward, but it was impossible. Even with her eyes shut tight, she could feel the pressure of the darkness around her.

She tried to remind herself of Lloyd, tried to remember that he might be in big trouble. It didn't do much, except make her feel sicker than she already was.

Lloyd's in danger, and you can't even move.

Her fear of the dark was too strong. It had been set in her mind since she'd been a child, and it hadn't done anything but grow stronger as she grew up. Laurie hugged her knees to her chest, trying to stop herself from shaking.

She could feel the darkness consuming her sanity, like it had consumed her father so many years before.

"You're not Laurie,"

The person, or thing, pretending to be Laurie froze, slowly turning to look at Kai. There was a smirk on the girl's lips, eyes shining with amusement. "What do you mean, Kai?"

"Laurie's afraid of the dark," The red ninja shook his head, beginning to walk backwards, keeping his eyes upon the stranger. "And I really shouldn't have left her."

"Yeah, you shouldn't have." The shadows made by Kai's sword of fire began to crawl forward, wrapping themselves around the impostor. "Some hero you are. My type of hero actually."

Kai was frozen on the spot, watching the darkness claw at the person before him. For a moment, every bit of the fake Laurie's skin was covered in a cloak of shadows. When the darkness dissipated once again, Kai's eyes widened, and he took another step backwards.

"It's. . . It's you." Kai hissed, holding the sword defensively before him.

"The one and only," Dillon bowed, still smirking with satisfaction. "Though I should probably work on my acting skills. You figured this out a lot faster than I would have liked."

"What did you do with Laurie?" Kai held his ground, and Dillon began to slowly make his way towards him. "Where is she?"

"Me? What did I do with the redhead?" Dillon shook his head, brushing his hair back away from his face. "I didn't do anything. Just simply took advantage of the fact that you decided to leave her behind. I know throwing blame around is quite amusing, but trust me, this one's all on you."

"Well what do you want?" The red ninja hissed. "I'm not in the mood for your charades pal,"

"Pal?" Dillon smiled. "Aw. We've gotten so close, haven't we?"

Kai didn't answer, opting instead for staying silent. He watched the shadows around Dillon cautiously, doing his best to keep his distance. The way they crawled closer and closer to the red ninja send chills through his body.

"I'm just here to ask you a quick question," Dillon finally answered, "Why haven't you been working harder at the little homework I gave you? I gave you five too much credit. Only two of you have been able to figure it out, and both of you had help."

Kai looked at the words imprinted on his wrist. An unyielding weapon. "They haven't exactly been at the top of my priorities. Not with you running around threatening my friends."

"You've got a lot of something by standing up to me like this. Not many people have a lot of it." Dillon nodded towards the red ninja, and three of the shadows around him shot forward. Kai stumbled back, Slashing at the darkness. "Come on Kai, it's not that hard."

"What's driving you forward ,huh?" Dillon attacked again. The swing of Kai's sword was a bit hesitant, and one of the shadows sliced open a wound upon his arm. "An unyielding weapon. Something not many people have. But those who do, oh those who do can do great things. What is it, Kai?"

"My desire to slice you apart," The red ninja growled, his arm shaking from the fresh wound. " And the fact that you keep threatening my friends."

"Tsk,tsk." Dillon shook his head, and the darkness around him thickened. "Try again."

As Nadya walked through the labyrinth, the world around her seemed to darken. She couldn't be sure what path Cole had taken, but all she needed to do was make it to Neverland.

As the darkness around her continued to grow, Nadya made a small flame upon the palm of her hand. As the path continued to twist and turn, Nadya wondered if she was making any progress, or simply going around in circles.

Either way, she had to keep moving.

While she continued to move forward, Nadya heard a bit of moment. The Queen froze, squinting her eyes into the darkness. "Cole?"

"Kai?"

She recognized the voice. It belong to the girl she'd captured not too long ago. Except back then her voice had been cloaked with confidence. Now, her voice was weak and shaky. Nadya stepped closer.

"Not Kai, no." The Queen answered, for lack of anything better to say.

"And I'm not Cole," Laurie chuckled softly, more out of relief than anything. The pool of light around the queen allowed her body to finally relax. "What are you doing here?"

"Looking for Cole, obviously." Nadya responded. "And. . . you are?"

"Sitting in the dark," Laurie shivered, slowly coming to her feet. "Kai and I got. . . separated. And I was . . . patiently waiting for him to return."

"You look scared to death,"

Laurie shrugged.

"Well, um." Nadya lowered her eyes. She had to keep searching for Cole, but she couldn't leave the girl behind. Not if she was truly trying to change who she was. "We could look together."

"Why should I trust you? You kinda held me prisoner last time we met," Laurie was desperate for the light, but she wasn't about to walk straight into a trap. Not again.

"We both want to find someone," Nadya said. "Besides, if I wanted to hurt you, I would have already done it."

"Yeah that's not, that's not reassuring at all."

"Suit yourself," The Queen shrugged. "But I have the only light here. I don't think you want to go back to sitting in the dark."

Sighing, Laurie nodded. "Fine."