TW: brief descriptions of injury
The next attack takes them to Ninjago's Museum of History, and for all the baggage that place has, Lloyd thinks the city should tear the building down, artifacts be damned.
"That place is cursed," Lloyd tells Cole.
Unable to salvage Cole's vehicle, they instead hitch with some of the deputies dispatched to the area. They race through the streets for the museum, where Pixal reports the Mechanic and an entire team of thieves moving in.
"The weapons they are using were built on Borg's technology," Pixal explains through their headsets. Though her voice comes over fuzzy and broken between patches of static, they hear her cross tone.
"They operate by releasing a concentrated beam of energy," says Pixal, "allowing them higher means of damage with more efficient usage of power. They won't run out of ammunition, this way."
"That won't be a problem," says Lloyd, "I think my powers can mess their blasters up. I don't know how, but I disabled their weapons in the warehouse."
"How so?" asks Pixal.
"I think he was tripping whatever components they were running on," says Cole, "I didn't see it, but the last guy had smoke escaping his chamber when Lloyd ran his powers through it. It kept them from firing."
"Easy-peasy," adds Lloyd, wishing it were that simple.
"That might be a good thing," says Pixal, quiet as she thinks, "I'd still be careful when engaging."
"Aren't we always?" says Lloyd, nudging Cole and trying to summon the humor.
Cole gives him a tight-lipped, almost forced smile. He looks drained, from the fight and conversation they just had all at once.
"Have Jay and Zane reported in?" asks Lloyd, "Please tell me they're doing better than we did."
"They told me of the altercation at the museum," says Pixal, "They were on their way there thirty-two minutes ago."
"How was the university?" asks Lloyd, "Is it taken care of?"
Pixal is quiet a moment before she answers. "The attack on the university was effectively halted, with no injuries to any bystanders."
"Good," says Lloyd, prematurely.
"However—" says Pixal, and Lloyd's heart stops, "The university noted extensive damage to the labs and research facilities. Several classrooms are in shambles, and power outages are being reported as far away as several streets surrounding the campus."
"Power outages?" Lloyd repeats, "Can Borg's technology do that?"
"How many of those weapons were being operated there to cause that kind of damage?" asks Cole.
"The weapons didn't cause the worst of the damage," says Pixal, "or the bulk of it."
Lloyd looks at Cole, who just stares back.
"What?" he says.
"Some of the buildings have been blown open by large chunks of ice," says Pixal, and she pauses before continuing, "I think…they are angry."
Lloyd thinks over the implications of her statements and drums his fingers on the seat of the car, willing them to move faster despite already speeding through the streets. Power outages and large chunks of ice. Yeah, that sounds about right.
Lloyd rubs at a spot above his eye. Their team might as well be falling apart, for how poorly they're working together.
Before he can spiral down a train of self-loathing for not looking out for them, he feels Cole's hand on his shoulder.
"It's going to be okay," says Cole, "We'll straighten it out."
"We have to," says Lloyd, then he tries for Pixal, "Can you get into contact with them?"
"I haven't heard from them since they said they were going to the museum," says Pixal, "but I will try."
A strange beeping suddenly sounds over on her side, and then she's gone.
She doesn't report back, and she's nowhere in sight when they finally arrive at the museum. Though they move quickly, the inside is already wrought with the sounds of battle.
Lloyd sees flashes of light through windows and cracks in the walls. He isn't sure if they come from Zane, Jay, or the Mechanic, but Lloyd's heart is in his throat as he ascends the steps. The museum itself is looking worse for wear given its history, with rubble adorning the entrance and foyer. They follow the noise to the east wing, where someone is shouting.
Lloyd races inside, unsure of what he will find.
The sight is alarming. On one end of the room, before a passageway, several men stand surrounding the Mechanic, weapons raised and trained forward. Jay and Zane are in the middle of the room on either side, their own arms raised.
The hallways leading here are littered with evidence of their fight, and between that and the looks on the ninjas' faces, Lloyd doesn't doubt that they are willing to fight this out until the end.
"Green Ninja!" the Mechanic greets, showing off his flint corn smile as he grins, "So glad what's left of you could finally join us!"
"Save it, wise guy," Jay cuts in with a sharp tone, curt enough for Cole to glance over.
"If I were you," replies the Mechanic, losing his smile as something more ominous takes its place, "I'd avoid any more of your cracks."
Lloyd steps forward, meeting the line his friends make in the center of the room. "Let's not make this more difficult than it has to be," he says, though he looks between Jay and Zane as he says this.
They don't turn their heads, or even change their expressions.
"I'll say," says the Mechanic, "It's your team that's been escalating this, not me."
"You've launched what can only be called a full-scale attack on the city," says Zane, "that is plenty of reason to take drastic measures."
"With the damage you've been doing?" says the Mechanic, "Common criminals are hardly worth the effort."
"Pixal told us about the state of the university," says Lloyd.
He steps forward one more time. Since entering the room, the fight has stalled, but Lloyd has a feeling that a lot is going to happen very soon. He just isn't certain as to who is going to fire first.
"What are you guys doing?" Lloyd asks, somewhat quieter as he glances between Jay and Zane.
"What are we doing?" Jay turns his gaze once to give Lloyd this seething, horrible look, "What are you doing? Do you realize who this man is?"
The Mechanic shifts, as does everyone else. Zane's hands rise higher, and with it, the temperature lowers. The men around the Mechanic shift their stances and tilt their heads so they're staring down the lines of their weapons.
Cole also steps forward with the rest of them, but no one fires. Not yet.
"He ordered the attack on Borg months ago!" says Jay, voice rising unsteadily, "He's the reason our friend is dead! What do you say to that, Lloyd?"
Lloyd swallows. There is a lot he can say, but nothing he can articulate.
"Are we supposed to let him waltz through the city and take what he wants—!" says Jay.
"We're not here to kill anybody!" says Lloyd, feeling the need to say so, "You need to back off!"
"No, we're not killing anybody," says Jay, turning back to the Mechanic.
A humming in the air, which so far has been quiet enough to be ignored, grows louder as Jay's tone grows wilder. Lloyd has no doubt that if the lights in here weren't already shattered, they'd be blinding.
"He killed our friend," says Jay, "I want him to feel what we feel!"
"Jay," Lloyd opens his mouth, but the Mechanic interrupts.
"I had nothing to do with the death of your friend."
The men surrounding him are starting to spread out, and the ninja follow their movements.
"You ordered the attack on Borg," says Zane, who, while quieter than Jay, is no less thunderous in tone, "You must take responsibility—"
"I ordered the extraction of assets I needed, and Borg had," says the Mechanic, his tone and expression cold, "What happened to your friend was a mess of his own making. He ran into that building all on his own."
A fire burns in Lloyd's gut, and he knows that the Mechanic needs to stop talking before the pressure in and around him causes someone to crack.
"Do yourself a favor, boys," says the Mechanic, "Don't mourn the stupid."
At the same time that a bolt of lightning flashes across the room with a deafening clap, one of the Mechanic's henchmen fires at Zane. Zane sees it coming and dives, but the blast hits the wall and a pipe inside. Something explodes, and Jay's bolt makes the ceiling shake.
Lloyd ducks out of a path of rubble and dust, ears ringing. He trips over a fallen pedestal, landing hard against the ground.
Red blasts fire all around him, muffled with the sounds of his friends' elemental powers firing back. Lloyd can't hear it past the ringing, except the vague yells of anger and distress.
He sees red.
He is fuming, but he doesn't allow himself to fall apart. The green ninja doesn't get that privilege.
He just staggers into a stand, turns around, and waits for the dust to clear before he fires back into the chaos.
Most of the men take cover behind piles of rubble and broken exhibits, firing occasionally at the ninja. The ninja aren't nearly as careful in their responses to the attack.
Jay fires electricity with wild gestures, pointing wherever his blazing gaze lands. His focus is the Mechanic, who hides behind a stone statue. He is backed up by several of his men, and Jay just barely manages to dodge their fire.
Everyone else is occupied with Zane and Cole, who—Lloyd's eyes widen as he glances them over—aren't looking in the best shape. Zane clutches at the left side of his face, where his eye sits dark instead of light blue, and despite the columns of ice now standing before him, all that leaves his fingertips are clouds of frost.
Left to defend him is Cole, who sways where he stands. His own attacks are pitifully weak. Though tremors shake at Cole's feet, he still refuses to use his powers in a way that could worsen the state of the wrecked room.
In that sense, they are nearly ineffective.
As Lloyd runs forward, he notices something else that makes his veins run cold. Cole has blood running down his forehead, in fresh trails, on the same side of his face as Zane's injury, and Lloyd tries desperately not to wonder if that was what Kai had looked like before—
Lloyd's next breath rattles in his chest. He summons a bright ball of energy and flings it across the room, careful only to make sure that it misses his friends.
"Guys!" he shouts, voice cracking as he makes himself heard over the hiss of his powers and clatter of everything else, "Please listen to me!"
No one does, or at least Jay doesn't, for he drowns Lloyd's voice out with his own sorrowful cries.
"Guys!" says Lloyd, wishing for control over the situation.
All he does is call the attention of his attackers, who fire his way. Lloyd tries summoning another wave of his powers to disable their weapons, but like the rest of his day, his powers just don't work like he wants them too.
He screams in frustration as he settles for dodging and attacking, sending bursts of green at his enemies, and hoping to somehow stop them. He's angry enough to kill but determined to keep his head on straight.
The green ninja does not lose control. He can't let himself or his teammates do this.
Still, with all the sounds and movement happening in the room, Lloyd thinks of how this wouldn't have happened if Kai were here. The scale of the attack was a calculated move in response to the ninjas' reduced numbers, and it was nearly correct. Lloyd isn't leading his team, and his team is out of control.
It is some solace that, despite how badly this fight is going, they aren't necessarily losing, by any means. The fight is ultimately a growing stalemate until Cole's ankle twists.
Lloyd isn't sure how it happens, if Cole stepped wrong, or if the hit to his head caused more damage than they thought, but Cole falls and doesn't get up in time. Zane steps over, attempting to shield from whatever will happen next, but even he seems to be aware that the half-blind thrusts of his sputtering powers won't do much.
Lloyd scans the line of attackers at the other end of the room and spots two people getting ready to fire.
Sucking in a breath, Lloyd lets out his powers. They flare with a pathetic spark, but before they reach their targets, a bolt of lightning shoots past and catches a pillar.
Rock flies as the structure collapses.
The Mechanic's henchmen are forced to run for cover, and for a moment, Lloyd fears the whole room will fall over their heads.
A beat passes where nothing happens, and Lloyd turns in time to see Jay frozen in place. His hand is still pointed forward, and he doesn't seem to comprehend what he just did, just staring at the pillar and destruction left in its wake.
Spotting the opening, the Mechanic himself fires next, aiming at Jay's unguarded chest.
Lloyd also sees the movement, and shouts, "Jay!" as he releases a beam of energy from his hands.
The green catches the blast just as the Mechanic fires, and the resulting wave of white from the fusion of the two forces tosses everyone across the room, or in Lloyd's case, through the wall.
He lands with a jolt against the foundation, and he rolls down until he's flat against the pavement outside. Blinded and gasping so hard that he's gagging, Lloyd brings a hand to his chest, which pounds worse than the pain in his gut from the events of today.
It's raining now, droplets the size of small coins thundering down on him like bullets.
He can't see his friends, but the noise continues, impossibly. With it comes a lingering sense of despair and exhaustion at the prospect of getting up and going back in there. He can't see an end to this, not for him.
Lloyd is trapped here and in his head, fighting a battle he can't win.
Lying there, he sucks in his breaths and tells himself to get up. His friends need him, but Lloyd's limbs won't listen. His back hurts where it hit against the debris, and his arms shake from the strain of battle.
He knows that his friends are losing. He can hear it—feel it, even, and it kills him. His friends are going to die because Lloyd couldn't pull himself together when it counted. Because none of them could.
The weight of failure hangs heavy over him. He's failed the ninja, and not just them, either. He's failed his uncle, the world—he's failed Kai—
It kills him, and he nearly drowns in despair.
He closes his eyes and brings a hand to cover them. He wishes he could hide here until it all goes away, but something happens before his mind dwells further on the bleakness of their situation.
A hiss fills the air, and the clank of machinery draws close as something flies by. Air suddenly blows past him at an amazing speed, blowing water out of the way. Lloyd takes his hand away from his face and sees Pixal landing nearby in her Samurai suit.
Lloyd might have collapsed in relief if he weren't already lying down. Then he notices something else; Pixal isn't alone.
Nya, dressed in her old Samurai armor on top of what might be pajamas, hops down from a perch on the suit's shoulder. She lands against the ground and, without looking at Lloyd or even hesitating, she commands the water rushing down from gutters and puddles to blast against the building, swarming the attackers inside.
Two of them had been standing over Jay, who was also struggling to stand, and Nya sends them flying backwards.
Lloyd blinks at the water running into his eyes, convinced he's somehow seeing things. He's hit his head too hard, or he's gone insane from grief.
"Nya?" he calls, just to make sure.
Pixal turns, but Nya doesn't.
Nya moves forward, steady in her path as she enters the building through the hole Lloyd fell out of, jaw set. Lloyd watches her go, unsure of the feeling that tears through his chest. Breathing slowly, he lets his head fall as he tries not to think of how she didn't look at him.
She had to have seen him here, but she didn't look.
Pixal says something, but Lloyd isn't listening. She doesn't get to finish, either, for something hits her suit that sends it beeping, so she turns away to follow Nya inside. Lloyd remains where he is, making no move to stand or even roll over.
His mind is scrambling, and he doesn't think his heart can keep up with it. He feels many things: relief; sadness; but most of all, anger. The sight of Nya combined with this situation somehow fills him with rage, and he can't discern why. It should be joy—she is here, and she is the backup they need to end this fight, but all he feels is anger.
That isn't right. After so long, she's finally here. After all the pain, all the missed calls and changes—so many changes—she's here, and she didn't look at him.
Lloyd knows he shouldn't be thinking about it like this, but he can't stop the torrent of emotions welling in his chest like a big beast. It is the same beast that has been chewing away at his heart for the past few months, and it roars.
How can she expect to jump back into their lives like the months of absence didn't happen? How can she do that?
Stupid. He feels like an idiot for even having these thoughts. He stares at the sky, watching the clouds swirl.
He doesn't think they can do this. The green ninja wouldn't exist without Kai, and he can't see how to go on, now. Today has been enough of a demonstration of how they work without all the members of their team, and he doubts Nya can help them now.
Even if she did put a stop to this, what will they do when the next threat comes along? What will they do against evils far greater than this, as cruel as this may be?
Lloyd mourns for what his team has become, for what he has become, and he mourns for Kai. He tries but struggles to imagine Kai now, to see if there is possibly a way his friend could have made this situation better.
He squints and pictures Kai crouched beside him, blurred from the rain that washes into Lloyd's eyes. Lloyd stares at the figure and wonders: if Kai were here, what would he say?
I'm dead, Lloyd, Kai says, There is nothing you can do to change that.
Like Lloyd doesn't already know that, thinks he, like they aren't completely lost and unable to function without Kai.
You're not lost, Kai says. He won't look at Lloyd—or Lloyd can't make him turn his head. You're still a team whether I'm there or not, and this team is worth fighting for. That's your family in there, Lloyd. Stop thinking about what you've lost, and focus on what you have.
Lloyd frowns at the thought and wonders how he could ever stop thinking about Kai.
I'm not talking about me, says Kai.
Right. Maybe not. Lloyd thinks of what he has. He has a family, if smaller and disjointed. He has a hobby, and a life outside of being a ninja, if he is willing to face it after today. He will have to if he can get himself off the ground.
"It doesn't feel fair to you," says Lloyd.
What's fair? says Kai, When has life ever been fair to us? It's never stopped us before. We make do. We'll come back from this. It's going to be hard, and I doubt it will ever get easy.
Lloyd blinks, and Kai is fading from his imagination. The world clears as he blinks and rubs the water away, but Kai remains blurry, a mix of memory and illusion. Nothing more.
But Kai keeps talking, or Lloyd keeps thinking.
Take a breath, breathe a little. You'll get through this, but you'll have to do it together, alright? Go fight for your team. And most importantly—
For a second, Lloyd can almost hear Kai's voice as he sits up.
—kick some butt.
Lloyd looks around, alone.
Hello there! I just wanted to say that every chapter for this fic is written, but because the editing process is taking forever, updates will be kind of slow. I'm hoping to have this completed soon, though!
As always, thank you so much for reading, and thank you for your support so far!