Hey y'all! Welcome to the story. This is going to follow an arc, I promise, but there probably will be a couple random chapters added just for a lighthearted vibe. If you'd prefer a separate series of short stories outside the original book, I'd be happy to do that. Please read and review the story. This first chapter will be a little slower, but I promise it'll get faster than this. As an overview, this story starts at the end of season 3 just after the Overlord was defeated by Zane. This story will mostly follow the show's plot, but it is slightly AU because of my character. I absolutely love reviews and constructive criticism is also very welcome!
Another sad scream pierced through all the sirens and car alarms echoing all around the city. It bounced around the buildings like a ball in a pinball machine, passing through the people waking dazed on the streets. No one seemed to hear it over their shock, focusing more on the scratches on pale faces, the shattered glass on the ground, the ruins of their once fair city covered in ice. That was the shock.
The people of Ninjago were prepared for destruction, ready for wars waged in their streets.
They were totally unprepared for the death of a ninja.
The remaining ninja had been given a wide berth. They needed time and so did the families that had lost someone in the attacks. There was a mutual understanding between the ninja and the people as the police began directing cleanup crews and clear evacuation paths.
No one noticed the lone figure sitting on the edge of the noodle shop's roof. If they had, they would have recognized the Ninja of Earth from his attire. Cole had never felt more powerless. Watching people slip on the ice coating the ground below caused him to flinch instead of laugh. Looking down at them, hugging lost family members and solemnly avoiding large piles of ice shards and snow buildup, seeing cars trying to navigate around the colorless powder, all of it felt almost unbearable to watch.
Cole tried to focus on the kids throwing snowballs at one another, hiding behind the drifts without realizing the danger they had been in. They had no idea how close the city had come to its downfall before Zane had saved them. And died trying.
Cole quickly brushed away a lonely tear that had formed under his eye. The team needed him most right now, to be their rock and unrelenting support. He couldn't afford to hurt…
"Zane, it's only been a couple hours and I already miss you." Cole sighed heavily, his hands in a death grip on the edge of the noodle shop. "What are we going to do without a brother?"
The sky remained empty and Cole's head drooped even further.
"Cole?" Green flashed in the corner of his eye and Cole forced a smile as Lloyd plopped down on the ledge next to him.
"Hey." His voice caught. Lloyd somehow pushed the pain in his gaze down far enough to spare some concern.
"Hey." Lloyd looked down below at the snow and ice. Cole could have sworn he noticed a wince.
"If you came up here for a pep talk, I don't know if I feel up to it right now." Cole muttered, knocking down an icicle sprinkled in ash from the ledge. He watched it shatter on the ground below.
"You don't have to talk at all. I just came up to check up on you." Lloyd looked at him, his gaze searching. Cole knew there were so many things Lloyd wanted to say, encouragement, anything, but right now, there wasn't much the younger boy could do for him.
"I'm fine." Cole said past the lump in his throat. "Look, I know you're trying to help Lloyd, and I'm glad you're trying, but I need some time…"
Wordlessly, Lloyd nodded and stood up.
"The rest of the team is back at the bounty going through…" Lloyd paused, getting his emotions under control. "...some of our old memories. Anytime you need some company, they're waiting for you there."
Cole leaned his head back on the air conditioning system, noticing how Lloyd had said, they and not we.
"Where are you headed?"
"I need some time to clear my head." And find a quiet place before I lose it. "I guess I'll see you when we're both ready to go back." Sadness tinged Lloyd's voice as he turned and walked back across the rooftop. Cole watched him break into a run, jumping the gap between two buildings before disappearing onto the next roof. He was just a kid, and now he had to lead a whole team who had just lost a family member. Cole should have been happy for him. Lloyd finally had his father back, probably the only reason he managed to keep a brave face after losing his brother.
Except everyone was too focused on the loss of Zane to pay it any attention.
Even his own son.
. . .
Lloyd never made it to the Bounty, never even made it up the ramp before an overwhelming swell of misery swallowed him whole. Blinking back tears, the Green Ninja took off. He didn't care where he ended up, as long as it was away.
Zane's memories leaped up from the rooftops as he ran, but the blurriness of his eyes protected him from seeing what caused the cold to erupt on his face.
Lloyd ran, and ran, and ran, away from his father, mother, uncle, brothers and sister, ran until his lungs turned to acid and his legs dropped him in the middle of the street.
Cold blossomed in his chest, and through blurred eyes, made out the heap of snow he had collided with. His eyes screwed shut and he let his head drop, tears swirling down his face. Zane was gone.
He couldn't be saved, like Lloyd had saved his father. He couldn't be found, like his mother. He couldn't be rescued, couldn't be put back together.
Lloyd's lovable, smart and crazy brother was just gone.
The freezing wind nipped at his neck, picking up speed as it shoved ice crystals through the street, but Lloyd just lay there in the snow, as if embracing his brother one last time.
A clump of snow found its way down the back of Lloyd's suit, and he sat up. Wiping the freezing tears off his cheeks, he shook off the snow and looked around.
His running had carried him to the middle of the disaster zone, gaping burned apartments stripped bare, and some even cleaved down the middle, leaving their insides exposed. People across the street filed out of the shelter, some crying when they saw the destruction.
Lloyd straightened and stood. He'd do what he could here, before he had to face the facts in the aftermath.
Before he could take a step, he noticed a man point across the street at one of the apartment buildings, talking to the woman at his side. She covered her mouth with a hand, and quickly looked away. Lloyd guessed it was their home, one of the apartments that had been half-burned in the attack.
The woman's gaze caught him staring at her. Briefly, a stupefied expression crossed her face. Then, she marched up to Lloyd. He shifted under her scrutiny, unusually shaky.
"Pardon me, mister ninja." The woman's brilliant hazel eyes were watery, either with dust or sadness or both. "You probably have a lot to do right now, but I need you to check an apartment. Third floor, two doors down to the right. I don't know if the hallway is still there but-"
"Ma'am." Lloyd cut off her string of words. "I'd love to check your apartment, and I know you're upset, but I can't right now."
The woman's face grew desperate.
"No, you don't understand. That's not my apartment. It's my friend's. They thought it was safe and she took her husband and daughter to salvage their belongings. But they never came back." She took a deep breath, her eyes pleading with Lloyd. "Please. I need to know."
"Okay." Lloyd nodded. "I'll check on them. Is there a way I can reach you to let you know?"
"I'll wait here." The woman said stubbornly. Lloyd sighed, not even bothering to ask her to see the paramedics. He could already tell she was practically cemented in the middle of the street.
By the time he found a way to get past all the wreckage in the stairway, clouds had covered the sky, filtering an eerie gray light through the windows. He picked his way through the still smoking hallway, careful of the glass littering the shredded carpet, and found the apartment.
Any other day, he would've looked at the way that half the apartment was missing or caved in and searched fervently for a sign of life.
Today, it felt hopeless.
He would've turned around and gone back to the stairwell if he hadn't noticed the footprints in the ash-covered floor. They made their way to a still-smoldering sofa, obviously trying to wrench it away from the wall, and then travelled to the edge of the apartment. They ended where the wall had come crashing down and fell to the ground. Lloyd swallowed hard. Whoever they had been, they were gone.
But what had they been moving the couch for? Protection? Hiding something? Someone? Lloyd then remembered. Two parents and a kid. Those were only two sets of footprints on the floor.
He stumbled over to the couch and peered behind it, letting his eyes adjust to the dull grey light.
A small mound curled behind the couch, barely visible through the thick smoke in the air and covered by a blanket. A shoe poked out from underneath, unmoving. Lloyd felt his heart drum.
Please be alive.
Shaking himself awake, he grappled at the edge of the sofa and pulled it away from the heap, sinking to his knees. Ash coated the blanket, and even when Lloyd gently peeled it away, the cloud resettled on the girl, as if it had found the perfect home. The ends of her hair were burned away, and the white ash coating her skin and her hair made her glow like a ghost in the faint light seeping through the broken windows. She couldn't have been more than fourteen. His age.
Panic welled in Lloyd. She looked so still, so broken, so...dead. He hardly kept himself from starting CPR right then and there as he shakily reached out and touched her neck.
Violet searchlights jammed open, and the white ashen ghost flinched away so fast, Lloyd retracted his hand. Her limbs jerked alive as she scrambled away into the corner, hugging her knees to her chest. Her burnt hair fell into her face, giving her the straggly appearance of a wild animal.
"D-d-don't touch me." Her voice caught and she coughed. Lloyd winced at the sound of her ragged breathing. The fear in her eyes was enough to hold him back from trying to reach for her. Who knows what she'd been through.
"Hey, I'm not here to hurt you." He said, sitting down the rest of the way. Her wide eyes followed his movements apprehensively. "I'm here to help you."
It was obvious she didn't quite trust him, the way her piercing violet-Lloyd had to stop himself from bristling at their color-eyes raked over his form. However, she seemed to recognize the uniform he wore.
"You're the golden ninja."
"Just green now." He replied gently. "I never looked good in yellow anyway."
She stared at him silently. The shock was getting to her.
Lloyd dramatically raised a hand to his chest, trying to look offended. "Don't tell me you agree!"
If she snickered, he could barely hear it. The girl shifted and looked around him.
"You're alone?" She sounded confused. Lloyd realized then that whenever the ninja were on TV, or even caught in the streets, they were always together.
With Zane.
The thought stung.
"Yeah, it's just me today."
"Me too." The girl whispered. Her strange eyes welled up and she blinked, staring down at her ash-covered hands. Lloyd's mind flickered back to the pair of footprints, walking off the edge of the ashes only to crash into the ground below. Something broke in him as the girl tried to fight back her emotions, losing the battle as she shoved her face into her arms and sobbed.
She was alone, alone in a big wide world. Just like he had been.
Keeping in mind that fast movements might cause the jittery girl to run, he rose and eased himself next to her, not caring that the charred walls were leaving black stains on his suit that would probably never come out.
The girl quivered slightly, but her head didn't rise.
"I lost someone today too." Lloyd's voice cracked, but his eyes were clear enough to stare at the blackened floorboards. He blamed it on the lack of water. "Someone very important to me. And I wish he was still here to help me see what to do next, how to move past the pain, but… the important thing is that he's safe in my memory. That's what keeps them alive with us."
The girl was silent. She'd stopped crying. Lloyd looked up at her, catching the violet orbs again, red and puffy, but still bright in contrast to the grey world around her. She said nothing, but silent tears made paths in the white ashes on her skin, dripping off her chin in dirty grey splashes. Hesitantly, Lloyd placed a shaking hand on her knee. She grabbed hold of it like it was a life line anchoring her to earth. Lloyd swallowed, trying to shove down the lump in his throat.
"What's your name?" He kept his voice soft, trustworthy. Her eyes flickered as if he'd broken some trance. "I can't keep calling you 'the girl' now can I? That would be confusing."
The ghost of a smile graced her lips at his attempt of a joke.
"I'm Callista, but everyone calls me Callie." Her body's shivering slowed a little. "And you're Lloyd Garmadon."
"Yes ma'am." He stood and offered her a hand. He couldn't help but feel a twinge of hurt when she didn't take it, instead eyeing him like he was trying to poison her. "Come on. I'll take you somewhere safe."
"I don't want to go out there." She muttered, her arms tightening around her knees.
"You can trust me Callie." Lloyd said, smiling. "We've already beat the worst of it."
Callie seemed to battle with herself for a minute between trusting a stranger she'd only ever seen people fawning over on TV, or staying buried in the ashes of her old home. The trusting side must have won. She slipped her dusty hand into Lloyd's and allowed him to pull her up. Now that she was standing, Lloyd could see the rips in her clothes and the burns underneath. Sympathy for this poor girl flared in him, and right then and there he made a decision that never would have happened on any other given day, a choice that would change both their lives forever.
He decided to bring Callie home.
A/N: Phew! Okay so that is my rough draft for the prologue if anyone has suggestions. Please leave a review if you have questions or want to see more, etc. i appreciate you all! Thanks for reading!