On the day that Garmadon claimed Ninjago for his own, I officially became Ninjago's number one most wanted. I can say with confidence, that the first week of being hunted by the SOG and Garmadon was one of the hardest ones in my entire life.
Once I met back up with Nya and Pixal, we picked up my mother and Dareth. The five of us were the only ones in the city that we knew we could trust. Garmadon made it his prime objective to find me. Somehow, he knew that I was still alive, and I think that was due to the connection that the two of us shared. We needed to hide in the city for as long as we could.
After the first night of us running for as long as we could, the SOG started stepping up patrols. We thought about staying with Mystake, but Harumi knew about her and we knew that wouldn't be a good idea. Borg was gone, so we couldn't ask him if he had any safe zone. There weren't any places in the city we could turn to that would keep us, since just talking to us would mean they became guilty. We were running for hours just finding a place, up until she finally stumbled upon an abandoned building with a large freezer. We squeezed the Samurai X Mech inside and made it our permanent base of operations for that entire first week.
The first thing we had to decide is if we were going to leave the city. It was mom and Pixal who suggested it, saying that if we mounted an offensive from outside, we might be able to better resist Garmadon. I told them I wouldn't do that, though. Harumi was still in the city, and if we left we could end up bringing Garmadon's wrath somewhere else. We were sometimes woken up just by the sound of the Colossus stomping around the city. Imagining that being brought somewhere like Jamankai village or Stiix was too much for us to think about.
Now, I want to address something here. While Garmadon and the SOG were claiming I was still alive, the last that the city saw of me was me crawling away from being nearly killed at Kryptarium. While Ultraviolet was off trying to hunt down anyone that could help me, she was also claiming that I, somehow, was still alive. However, most people didn't know if that was me being actually alive or not. I didn't even realize that might have been the case until Nya brought it up. There was a good chance that most people in the city thought I was truly gone.
I wanted to show the people right away that I was still alive. While they were hunting for me, mom said it was perhaps just a scare tactic. If we could break that grip of fear that Garmadon was keeping on everyone, that Harumi was keeping on everyone, I could help save more people. But Nya said that it wasn't a good idea. If I went out and made myself an image in my current state, I could end up getting people hurt, on top of me getting captured. She didn't want me to give hope to the people until I was strong enough to truly put up a resistance.
I was the one that suggested we call ourselves the resistance. I didn't want to have a big and fancy name, so I just decided on that. We were fugitives, and we were rebelling against Garmadon. Just like ninja, we would never quit. We were going to fight Harumi, and Garmadon. And that was what we were going to do above everything else. Even at the cost of our lives.
And… okay, since I've done this a few times and I'm sure Zane will have to correct this, I sometimes say 'my father' and sometimes I say 'Garmadon.' I don't know why I say that. I know before that I said he wasn't my father, and he isn't. But I can't help but say that when I do it. It's hard to look at him and not think of him that way. He looks like how I used to know my father before he became Sensei Garmadon. I'm going to try to have Zane edit these out, but if I do let some slip through, I'm not doing it intentionally. I don't view that… thing, Harumi brought back as my father.
Once we were hidden away, the first thing Nya said we needed to do was train me. We had to confirm that I'd lost my power. I knew that I had, but I could tell that Nya needed something to focus on. None of us were going to talk about what happened, not yet. So I agreed, and for almost five days straight, all I did was train. Nya and Pixal took turns coming at me with everything they had. They would fight me for hours, putting everything behind me that they possibly could. I would do everything I could to fight them, and bring my power back.
I think the reason that we did was so we didn't have to think about the fact that we thought our friends were gone. I didn't want to bring it up, since I knew that Nya had lost evne more than I had. I'd just lost my family. Nya had lost her brother and her boyfriend. Pixal had lost Zane too. I know it sounds weird, but I didn't want to make myself look even more pathetic by crying over it. I didn't want them to think that I was saying I was suffering more than them. I think that's just the sort of person I am, the more I think about it.
That doesn't mean I wasn't torn up about it. While I didn't let myself cry, I could sleep at all. When I did, I'd just start to have nightmares about it. And waking up to the sound of the Colossus moving around just made me think I was about to have to leave as soon as possible. Since I couldn't sleep, I couldn't fight. And since I couldn't fight, I just ended up feeling worse. That entire week was miserable for me… and I didn't have anyone to turn to about it that wasn't all pushing for me to grow stronger and help the city.
I know that they all meant well. Dareth was perhaps the one that I was thankful for being there the most. Dareth has always been someone that didn't have expectations of me. Or at least, someone that didn't always know what I was doing. He was someone that helped to ground me. I think he knew that we were all feeling down, and understandably so. And I know he was hurting seeing the ninja gone too. He'd been around since I became the Green Ninja. We were his friends. More than anything, he was there to help us. He was putting himself in harm's way just to help me. Knowing that, and then seeing him always trying to be supportive, gave me enough to keep going when I felt like I was going to quit. Yes, this another time that I'm saying Dareth deserves way more respect than he gets. If Dareth wasn't there, I would have lost. Again. That's just how Dareth is.
When I told Harumi I was going to fight her, I wasn't lying. But saying something and doing it are different. When I told that to her, I was doing it at that moment. I had just watched my friends die. But then having to spend each day hiding, trying to get my power back, while knowing that Harumi was finding anyone that could help me and rounding them up… it hurt. It hurt knowing that UV was running around and capturing people. (Ronin, how did you even get captured, you're smarter than that!) Harumi wanted me to go and try to confront her, and she was doing it by making the city I'd spent all this time protecting feel the pain of hiding me.
Each day just made me want to go out and tell everyone I was there to protect them more. But I couldn't even beat Nya and Pixal. I was able to stand up to them, but never beat them. Normally I could easily take them, but that was with my powers. Now, I was just a normal ninja. Someone that knew how to dodge attacks, was rusty with a sword, and didn't have anything to help me take down Garmadon. I was just a normal person with the ability to jump around and kick hard, at that point.
Dareth was the one that got us food, and he always came back when I was fighting. I could tell they all were worried about me. They wanted me to be stronger than I was. Even if I couldn't make my power, they needed me to be stronger. It reminded me of the feeling when I was on the Dark Island… which didn't help me. Having to remember that bit about my past just made it even worse knowing that I was going to have to face Garmadon like that. I didn't want to think about what Harumi had basically made completely invalid now. And again, me being upset led to me losing fights. And that just made them more worried about me. Again, it just kept looping around over and over the more that I kept doing it.
Nya would snap at me a few times. Normally it was her trying ot train me. But after Pixal snared me up after I finally managed to land a good hit on her mech, I couldn't break free. I gave up. I told her that I couldn't go and just get stronger like they needed me to. No matter how hard I kept trying, I'd just keep losing. And that was one of those times that Nya fully snapped at me. She reminded me about the fact that she'd lost things too, and that she wasn't going to quit. That we were going to lead this resistance, because we didn't have anything else. Our only option was to fight. And if we didn't, well, then what was the point of us living?
I really want to thank Nya, for being there for me. Like I've said before, I've always kinda considered her apart of the group, so when she became the water ninja I didn't think much had changed. But Nya was there for me, when nobody else was. Well, I mean other than Pixal and Dareth. I mean she was the one that was pushing me the hardest. She was the one making me think I could maybe do this. She was the one pushing me to keep going, even when I didn't think I could. I really appreciate that, I really do. And I just need her to know that, since after that first week, things started to happen really fast. Too fast for me to really point it out later.
After all those days of trying to find me didn't work out, though, Harumi sent Mr. E after us. He managed to find our hideout, and so we were forced to run. Knowing that we had to get going already just punched me all over again. But what hurt more was the fact that, as soon as e left, we were forced to run towards the docks where the Colossus had destroyed hte Bounty. The others kept going, but I saw the pictures we had framed there just spread over the ground with the rest of the ship. It hurt enough I couldn't keep going. I knew we were being chased, but I didn't care.
Seeing the ship just made me ask what the point of all this was. Without my friends, the ones that I'd fought for, and been by my side for the hardest moments of my life, what really was I going to do? Garmadon was already winning. We'd been hiding like rats, knowing that if we got caught it was all over. I couldn't leave the city or stay in it. The others wanted me to go on, but I couldn't. Seeing the ship just… it just broke me in a way that I didn't want to say. I felt like giving up. And, if I hadn't found that tea leaf… I might have.
Now, I know I said that Mystake gave the others Travler's Tea. And, again, I'm not mad at her for not telling me. For one, we couldn't even find her for all that time. And I don't know if she was certain they would use it in time. She'd given them the key, but she wasn't around to tell me that. Maybe if I'd gone the entire time not knowing if they were alive, I'd be more angry. But I'd learned they were okay, and I had the chance to see them again. There was a chance that they were still alive. The fact that only half the Bounty was there, the more we looked, meant they hadn't been fully crushed. Wherever they were… we had hope.
Of course, it isn't like I was allowed to be happy for long. We spent too long there, and Mr. E showed up with the Mask of Vengeance and the entire SOG he had on hand. We were surrounded, and didn't have any chance of escape. Dareth was willing to stand up to Mr. E, and said he was prepared to give his life for me. Again… Dareth deserves more credit. And if the Elemental Masters hadn't shown up, he would have given his life for me.
We'd considered trying to contact the Masters before that, but we both didn't have a way to, and we didn't know if they would even come. Part of me thought if I did call them, it would just make UV go on that weird game show thing of hers to track them down. Karlof, Shade and Turner showed up to save us. I don't think I'd be able to ask for a better sign than that moment. Not only were my friends still alive, possibly, but we had allies there to help us, and ones that were able to help get us away. On top of that, Skylor finally showed p after having disappeared for a long time. We thought she'd maybe gotten captured. Thankfully, that wasn't the case.
Now that we had allies, we had a chance. We fled on a garbage truck and made our way to the rest of the Masters. The ninja were gone, but I knew that I couldn't give up the fight just yet. I had allies, and not everything was hopeless. The Resistance had just grown to be a lot bigger than the ones the ninja had left behind. We were going to stand up to my father.
No matter what happened, the Resistance Never Quits. We were going to make sure all of Ninjago City knew it.
"Okay, I know that's not a lot, but that's good for me," Lloyd stretched his back out, "Did I do a good job?"
Nya nodded her head at him, "Course you did. You were there. It's your book, write it like you want."
"Yeah, but I don't want to like, make it seem like I'm leaving out details," Lloyd shrugged, "All we did that entire week was just train how to fight."
"And I think it paid off," Nya informed him, "You grew stronger because of it, Lloyd. You grew stronger because of all of this. Don't forget that."
"I won't, Nya," Lloyd smiled, "I'm… past the big parts I didn't want to talk about now. I know I knd put those all on Jay, but, I'm going to be okay now. You know?"
"I mean, you did scare Jay for a bit there," Nya shrugged, "But I trust you. If you say you're going to be okay, you will be. You told the others this too, right?"
"Kinda… wait, how do you know?" Lloyd blinked.
"Kai warned me," Nya told him, "But I know it's going to be fine. I did want to ask, though: are you going to talk about the others?"
"You mean what they were doing in the First Realm?" Lloyd paused, "I mean, maybe. Only if I have to. They don't really come in until the end and… well. I wasn't involved in it. Like, when I did the Morro stuff I had to but, now I don't have to. You know?"
"Works for me," Nya told him, "Is that all? I was going to go help out some people down in the city."
"Doing what?" Lloyd asked her.
"The city is still rebuilding from the colossus, and a lot of people had their homes get crushed," Nya stood up, "The Commissioner asked if some of us could go and help out. There's a group that's helping gather supplies and helping out the construction crews. They're kinda overworked. Plus we do some other smaller stuff."
"Wait, really?!" Lloyd leapt up to his feet, "Can I help?"
"...Uh," Nya blinked at his sudden emotion, "Sure, we can always use help. But don't be surprised if you get recognized. You're pretty famous now."
"That's fine," Lloyd shook his head, "I just want to help out the city. I'll do anything!"
"Alright, alright," Nya nodded, "Well, I'm getting ready to leave soon. Get changed and we'll get going here soon."
"On it!" Lloyd was already rushing out of the room to go and get changed. Nya blinked for a moment, then rolled her eyes playfully and left the room to follow after him.
