Alright, considering how long it's been since I posted a chapter of this, I figured it was about time I updated it! (All the way back in December, gosh!) How are all of you doing? How's 2021 treating you?

Anyways, have some more sibling fluff! To those who got drowned by the fluff in the last chapter, drown some more. Thanks so much to everyone for reading, and enjoy! Leave a review if you feel so inclined, I love the feedback.


The next day found Annalise and Lloyd hanging out around the city. She had shown him most of the city (it was pretty amazing), and they had opted to have lunch in the park, watching the world go by.

Annalise glanced over at him. "What's bugging you?"

He blinked. "No- nothing's bugging me. What makes you think that?"

Annalise laughed, tilting her head back to stare up at a tree above them. "I just can. You may be from a different realm, but you're still my brother."

"Alright then… I was just thinking about what Firstbourne said yesterday. About not knowing that this realm existed."

"What about it?"

"It's just-there seems to be a lot of those. I've been to other realms, and there's always been something extremely different about it. I mean, who "listed" and picked their favorite sixteen anyways?"

"No idea. Honestly Lloyd, I had no idea that you felt so terrible about what's happened here. This isn't even your realm…"

"Of course I do! I'm not heartless. Besides, Kai and Nya are like my brother and sister. I-I would never be able to forgive myself if they were hurt like that."

"I certainly know I haven't." Annalise muttered, flicking at a blade of grass.

Lloyd hesitated for one second and gave her a hug. "We're gonna wake Kai and Cole up, okay?"

"I am so scared that we can't. And what if waking them up only gives them a few minutes and they die for real?"

"We're going to figure it out, Annalise. We're not gonna let them die. We're going to make them proud."

Annalise sighed heavily, burying her head in her hands. "But, what if…"

He put his hands on her forearms, trying to catch her eyes. "What if what?"

"What if I can't win? What happens if he makes it down here and gets the Realm Crystal and I'm not strong enough to stop him?" It poured out in a rush, all the feelings and fears she'd been keeping to herself all this time came pouring out in a tidal wave.

"Annalise, you need to breathe and articulate. I can't understand you."

"The- the last time I wasn't strong enough, Cole nearly died." She finally looked up at him, panic in her eyes. "I can't fail, not even once. If I break, millions of people will die."

"Hey, hey, Anne, look at me." He made her look him in the eyes. "You're going to make it to the other side, okay? Nobody else is going to die. We're going to stop your insane brother and I'm going to adopt you so we'll be siblings for real. We're going to save your world and get everyone back above ground. Everything will be okay. The only way you're going to be able to do any of that, though, is to breathe, alright? In for three, out for four."

She nodded, squeezing her eyes shut and breathing deeply. "Tell me about your family, what are they like?"

Lloyd rubbed her shoulders gently, trying to ground her. "They're absolutely crazy. My mom's not that great, you probably don't want to hear about her. But my dad… he was always proud of me and who I was, even when I would have to be the one to destroy him. He told me once, 'Son, I am so amazed and proud of the man you've become.' He would love you too, so much. He was a defender, and when he wasn't infected, he would never hurt anyone first."

Annalise looked at him, his words making her sad for him. "You must miss him."

Lloyd nodded sadly. "I do, a lot. We didn't get enough time together, but in the time we did have, he taught me a lot."

"Heh, sounds like my brother before…" She faltered, not able to say it out loud.

Lloyd squeezed her arms a bit encouragingly. "Yeah? What was he like?"

"He was the best. Before everyone else figured out that he was the Green Ninja, he and I used to do everything together. Lloyd was the one who helped me to realize and strengthen my powers. Having a twin is… the best. I miss him so much."

He hugged her tightly, wishing there was more he could do. What could he say that wouldn't sound empty? Chances were that her brother- the way she used to know him, at least- was gone, and would never come back. He couldn't say that to her, though. All he could really do was be there.

"What about everyone else? You guys must be pretty close now."

"Yeah, we are. You should come visit after all this. It'll be a lot of fun; we'll all have a good cry. You can meet my girlfriend, Harumi. She'd like you."

"Girlfriend, huh? I'd like that."

"You'd like her too. She, uh, tried to stab me once." He blushed a bit, making Annalise laugh.

"Okay, so that kind of relationship then. It sounds complicated."

Lloyd shrugged. "A bit, it used to be. Thankfully it isn't so much anymore. Oh, and Kai also has a girlfriend. When we wake up your Kai, we should introduce them." He grinned mischievously. "See how possessive mine gets."

Annalise smiled, starting to cheer up. "That'll get a bit awkward. I love the idea. Are Jay and Nya dating in your realm?"

"They're engaged."

"Really? Wow… that's amazing."

"I know right? He actually proposed in the middle of a battle."

She laughed. "FSM, that is totally something he'd do."

"No kidding. He worried about it for, I kid you not, weeks, and then he does it last-minute while we're holding off an army." Lloyd shook his head with a smile. "Typical Jay."

"You guys have done so much for your Ninjago, it would be nice to see it, you know… whole."

"Hey, you've done a lot for your realm too. Give yourself some credit, you're doing amazing. And the best part is, you aren't alone anymore, I'm going to help you defeat him and everything will be back to normal."

"Well, it's certainly a welcome change to have someone up there fighting too. It just gets exhausting after a while, you know?"

"Don't I know it…"

"Thank you so much, Lloyd. Having my twin back and actually… good again is really nice. I've missed it." She took a deep breath, brushing her hair out of her face. "So, got any ideas for what we can do about my brother? Honestly, I am all out."

"We could try to ambush him. Bait him into thinking we have the Realm Crystal and trap him? Especially since he now knows that I'm here."

"Well, he does know that we have the Realm Crystal down here, that's what he's been after this whole time. His whole plan is to find one of the staircases so he can get down here, kill a bunch of people and then escape to another realm and do the same thing."

"Like some sort of interdimensional vampire? Other me, that's just creepy, no THANK you." Lloyd shook his head, feeling chills go up and down his arm. That was just plain weird.

"Yeah, you could say that. He's obsessed with how sucking the life energy makes him feel. Our reactions to it just makes it even better."

"So he's a life force druggie? That is the most backwards addiction in the world…" He sighed, thinking hard. "So, what do we bait him with, then?"

"What are you planning on doing once he takes the bait?" Annalise asked. "A lot of things won't work, he's absorbed too much energy over the years."

"I hadn't gotten that far yet, honestly. Just… I dunno, corner him? Trap him and overpower him?"

Annalise shrugged. "That'll be tough. We can't do it down here, where there are things to corner him against, and anything we could build up there would immediately make him suspicious. Cornering him runs the risk of someone getting badly drained. Overpowering him is a long shot, but…" She shrugged again. "I've never tried it with another Garmadon as powerful or more powerful than him and I are."

"Are there any mountains or valleys? The cold saps my power a lot. If we can wedge him into one…"

"If there are, they're far away from here. We've just about destroyed all the ones closest to us."

"You destroyed the mountains?" He blinked in surprise, running a hand through his hair. "I mean, I really shouldn't be surprised, but still!"

"Yeah… that fight you saw yesterday was nothing. We practically leveled the buildings left above ground on our first battle, and our powers weren't nearly as destructive as they are now."

"Okay, to be perfectly honest, that is terrifying. I'm starting to think that Dad had incredible control to only level Borg Tower when he got possessed by the Overlord…"

Annalise smiled. "Well, you shouldn't be that surprised. You also are a lot more powerful than you let yourself think. You don't have much use of it in your Ninjago; you have to be careful about hurting someone."

"That's certainly true. People are breakable." He paused for a second. "It's depressing…"

"Depressing is one word for it."

"I mean, there's been a lot of bad stuff that's happened in my realm, but I feel guilty talking about it. You've been through so much more."

"Pfffttt, I don't really care. Anything that hasn't happened here is an adventure I just haven't experienced yet. Honestly, I don't mind, I love hearing all the stories."

"So, do you want to hear about the time evil robots took over, or when Kai's girlfriend's father turned out to be an evil noodle emperor? It's actually kinda funny in hindsight…"

Annalise snickered. "That's what I was about to say, honestly. When you put it like that, it sounds hilarious. Life-threatening, but hilarious nonetheless."

Lloyd snickered too. "Okay, yeah. It all started when Sensei Wu decided that having a school run by ninja was a good idea. By the way, he was wrong. Thank goodness I wasn't a teacher."

"Why not?"

"I was getting awards and such for defeating my dad. Basically, a lot of traveling. Anyways, I come home from a surprise visit to spot my friends getting attacked by these evil robots. Yada yada, swoop in, save the day with my golden power. That's actually when Zane met Pixal."

"It seems like there's quite the story there."

"Oh, there is. Basically, she was a sleeper agent for the Overlord until Zane freed her code. They even shared a heart for a little while. Gotta say though, meeting her at first was really weird."

"Heh, no kidding." Annalise agreed.

"How did you meet her? Does your world have a Cyrus Borg?"

"Yeah, we have a Cyrus Borg, but it was way different than what happened in your world. Zane was asked to the city to help him with a program, this is when my brother was still good. When he came back to the Monastery that evening, he was all starry-eyed." She grinned. "It was so weird. The very next day, he brought home this girl named Pixal and they've been together ever since. It's really helpful to have two Nindroids though, it's harder for Lloyd to drain them. I love that they shared a heart for a little while. It's so sweet."

"They're adorable, I love them." Lloyd smiled, suddenly missing his family so much that it hurt. It had been a long time since they had been split up like this…

Annalise seemed to notice that something was wrong, because she gave him a faint smile."I agree. I have to say, you've done so much all these years. I'm kind of jealous."

"Well, what have you done? We haven't had a break in the past six or seven years."

She thought about that. "Well, besides obliterating cities and mountains while trying to stop my insane brother from leaving this realm and repeating the carnage in another, not much. I've been a bit preoccupied."

"Well… what was it like before that?"

"Before Lloyd turned evil, we had just defeated the Serpentine. It wasn't hard, but it was only a week after defeating the Great Devourer that he disappeared."

Lloyd frowned. "So he just up and left?"

"Yep. No note, no warning, no reason. He just disappeared and we didn't see him for a while. He reappeared one month later completely bonkers."

"Do you think the Great Devourer did something? Because… that's what happened to Dad."

Annalise shook her head. "That's practically impossible. Neither of us were even allowed near the city during the battle, much less the Devourer. I'm inclined to think that it was the thought of the upcoming battle with Dad that freaked him out." She was quiet for a second. "He couldn't handle the pressure."

"… Who knows. For me, it took awhile for it to sink in, and then it was just fighting, fighting, fighting as my dad tried to delay the inevitable, then the final battle."

"We never got that far… In a way, I wish all that had happened instead of—" She gestured around at the city underground. "—This."

Lloyd looked around at the city, sighing heavily. "Honestly, I wish that too. You should have had to deal with all this… What I want to know is why the FSM didn't even realize that something like this could happen."

"I have no idea. It seems like there was a lot of things that Grandfather never saw coming. The prophesied Green Ninja turning evil, for one."

"It sounds like he wasn't nearly as wise as everyone says." Lloyd muttered. "And for another thing, why did he have four sons and name two of them Wu and two of them Garmadon? It doesn't make any sense. The only reason I can think of is that maybe the FSM was actually more than one person…"

Annalise tilted her head to the side thoughtfully. "That sounds kind of weird. I mean, from what you've said, there's a lot more Lloyds in different realms. That means that we're all the same person, but with different experiences, making us different people. This one, for instance, is a split-off from the main one, where Dad had twins instead of one kid."

"So like… multiverse theory?" He considered that. "I guess the other Lloyd I met is a split-off where his mom was a ninja."

"Hm, imagine how many different realms there could be then. Thousands of them, millions even!"

Lloyd grimaced. "I don't want to have to think about it. That sounds like far too many headaches just waiting to happen."

"I guess that's why they're supposed to stay separated, so that disasters like this don't spread and affect the other realms. Going by that logic, however, why were Realm Crystals created? If the realms are supposed to stay separated for their own protection, then it seems kind of pointless to make Realm Crystals that have the ability to jump realms like that."

"Honestly, I have no idea. We may never know."

"It's certainly working both ways for us in this circumstance."

"I guess so." Lloyd shrugged."Let's just hope that the other me isn't smart about the other realms…" He trailed off, realizing how painfully unlikely that was.

"What, about there being other realms at all?" Annalise asked.

"Yeah. I mean, he knows they exist, but does he know anything about them?"

"No idea. Heck, I don't even know where he goes when we aren't battling. I've tried tracking him, but his teleportation is too difficult to trace. He knows that you're here though, and through that he knows that there's another realm exactly like ours out there." She sighed. "I let you put your realm in danger to try and save mine…"

"No, you didn't!" Lloyd exclaimed. "You helped me warn them. They're strong, they can defend my world, let me help you to defend yours. You're my sister, and there's no way you can convince me to go home now."

She was quiet for a little while, staring out into space. Her thoughts were unreadable, her expression a mask. When she spoke again, it was quiet. "I've been thinking about what I should do about Lloyd. So far, I haven't told anyone else, mostly because the ensuing conversation would wear me out, but you'll understand. Honestly, I'm not sure there's any way to turn him… I've been trying for years to get him to see that what he's doing is wrong and destructive, but he won't listen to me. I don't think there's a single argument that I haven't tried, but he just laughs them off or refutes them all.

What if… what if my only option to protect Ninjago is to kill him? All this time, I've been trying to avoid it, but what he says is true. I can't do this much longer. Each time we fight, I get closer and closer to losing, I can feel it. If I don't make a decision, one of these days he will knock me down and I won't be able to get back up. If I lose, so do the rest of the realms. I really don't want to, but what if that's my only option now?"

Lloyd looked over at her, trying to properly articulate how he wanted to respond. "Well… I honestly can't blame you. It's horrible, but it's true. He can't be stopped by anyone else and he's clearly willing to hurt people to get what he wants, even if that means killing them. I don't know if it's right to say that he had it coming, but honestly Anne, it's what I'm thinking. If worst comes to worst, it might have to happen."

Annalise hugged herself, looking like she wanted to go to sleep and not wake up for a few weeks. "I don't want to though! He's my twin brother! We share facial features, attributes, a last name! Heck, when he isn't all powered up we even sound the same and have similar hobbies and likes! I don't know if I'm strong enough to do that if I have to…"

Lloyd put an arm around her, knowing exactly how she felt. "I know. This is all just horrible. I am so, so sorry."

She threw her arms around him, burying her head in his shoulder. "I can't do this anymore…"

Lloyd rubbed her back, holding onto her tightly. "It's okay, Annalise. It'll all be okay, I know it will be."

"Are you sure? Or are you just saying that to convince both of us that it will be?"

He chuckled. "Heh, shhh, I'm trying to be a supportive older brother here. You are incredibly strong, Anna. I know you can do the right thing."

She shook her head. "I don't feel very strong…"

"Sometimes, it's not necessarily about feeling strong. It's about looking around you and recognizing that you are strong. Don't just take my word for it, though. Look around at everything you've accomplished, at all the lives you've saved. Courage is only half the battle."

She pulled away, an exhausted smile on her face. "A very long battle."

Lloyd chuckled again. "Yeah, really long. But you're doing great."

Annalise rubbed her eyes. "Great is such a relative term."

"Well, that may be so, but I still think you're doing awesome, so take that, self-esteem."

She grinned. "You are such a weirdo, has anyone ever told you that?"

"Surprisingly, you aren't the first one to say that. You also probably aren't the last to say it either, though."

"Oh ha ha." She took a deep breath, starting to gather up their lunch things. "Well, either way, I want to show you where the Realm Crystal is being kept, just in case you need to get to it for some reason."

Lloyd stood up, offering a hand to help her up as well. "Now that you're in a better mood, sure. That's probably a good idea."

He helped her to pack everything up and followed her a few blocks down the road to an obscure building, almost hidden behind two apartment complexes.

Annalise smiled, stopping in front of the large metal doors and opening a keypad. "Heh, I have to say, you've certainly got the supportive older brother thing down." She typed in the password, stepping back a bit so the doors could open, revealing a vault filled with hundreds and hundreds of artifacts.

"Really? I feel like I'm copying everyone else just a bit…" He trailed off in amazement, looking around at the sights. "FSM… this place is incredible."

There were many different types of artifacts in the huge room, all labeled and encased in glass for protection. The room housing all of them was gigantic, almost like a museum of some sort, and had banners and still more artifacts hung up on the walls. It was… impressive, to say the least.

Annalise maneuvered around a wand labeled 'Usage Unknown' and headed towards another metal door set in the center of the room. "Well, as the girl who hasn't really had an older brother in years, you're doing great. Isn't this place awesome? Most of these artifacts don't even work anymore, but we keep them down here for safekeeping. It's just a lot easier." She quickly typed in another password, her fingers flying over the keypad. "These doors are reinforced steel and Vengestone, making it extremely hard for elementals to break through. It would definitely take him a bit to crack these, much less break them." The door opened into a smaller room, and sitting in the middle, enclosed in a glass box, sat the Realm Crystal. It sparkled in the lights, even brighter than he remembered.

Lloyd whistled in appreciation. "Wow, it's a lot prettier than I remember. If it wasn't responsible for so much destruction, I'd almost call it stunning."

Annalise made a face. "Did your Realm Crystal make a lot of trouble too?"

"Yep. It may or may not have led to the summoning of the living personification of the Cursed Realm, which then got destroyed by its sister realm." He was quiet for a second, staring at the shimmering crystal. "It's responsible for the death of my father and the whole reason I got possessed by a ghost for a few weeks. That wasn't fun."

"Yeah, no kidding. Yikes."

Lloyd shuddered, a pained expression on his face. "On a side note; stay away from anyone named Morro."

"Side note made." She blinked, shaking her head to refocus. "Anyways, the password 072320114. Don't ask me what it stands for, because I have absolutely no idea."

"It doesn't sound weird to me."

"No, not weird, just… random. Cole was the one who came up with all the passwords around here and I always meant to ask him if it had any significance, but… I suppose I waited too long." She sighed, glancing back at the crystal.

Lloyd mustered a smile. "I suppose we'll just have to ask him when he wakes up, then."

She nodded once, tearing her gaze away from the crystal. "Yeah, I suppose so." She took a second to recollect herself and smiled at him. "Alright, now that you've seen most of the city, do you want to head home and maybe do some things there?"

"Uhh, sure. What is it you have in mind?"

Annalise smiled mischieviously. "Oh, I have a few plans."

"Okay, it's official, that smile makes me nervous. What exactly are you planning?"

She shrugged and turned on her heel, locking the doors of the vault behind them. "I'm not telling! You'll have to find out on your own."

"Anne-!"

"Don't 'Anne' me, Lloyd! If you want to know, you'll follow me." She grabbed his hand, starting to pull him down the street.

Lloyd laughed, allowing her to drag him. "You're still making me nervous, sis."

She stuck out her tongue at him. "As you should be. I'm a very frightening person."

"If by frightening, you mean a teddy bear in armor hyped up on coffee, then yes, I wholeheartedly agree."

"A teddy bear…?"

"Yep."

"On a caffeine high?"

"And wearing armor." He grinned. "Neon pink armor with glitter."

"PINK?" She shrieked. "Okay, it's official, you're going down."

"You can't take me down if you can't catch me!" He twisted his arm out of her grasp, bolting down the street and towards the park.

She laughed, immediately chasing after him. He couldn't stop his laughter either, winding through the crowd and not even bothering to try and lose her. As soon as he helped her to defeat her brother and wake up Kai and Cole, everything would go back to normal. Except… maybe this new normal would include another sibling...


As a reward to reading all the way to the end, have some cookies (:) (:) (:) (:)

Leave a review if you feel so inclined to and thanks for reading!