~~ Ch34:Mon3, Kidnapped (Again) ~~

School was... well, in a word, weird. I didn't see hide or hair of any of my usual bullies, and most people smiled when they looked my way. (A surprising amount of them were wearing cat ear headbands, but no one mentioned it so I didn't either.) Karen was waiting in front of my locker with another cute gift bag, which I still wasn't comfortable taking from her, so she handed it to Kai. My locker was actually untouched, and I realized Karen or one of her... club members? Must have been guarding it and double checking all the letters people wanted to stash in it, only approving a small handful that were all positive and in a neat stack in the gift bag.

And school went on to continue to be weird. Pretty much everyone left me alone, as they'd agreed last Friday, and we just, just went to class. Did our work. Had lunch. Etc. It was pretty much what I had always wanted in a school day. Well, other than Karen and her weird fanclub, taking their 'job' much too seriously. Guarding my locker, following me (thankfully at a distance), and outright glaring at any of the few people to still shoot me doubtful, suspicious, or outright hostile looks.

It was actually kind of boring. But nice. I think I went through some sort of adrenalin withdrawal thing, since all this non-action where I'd usually be super on edge was leaving me kind of sleepy.

I should've known such a nice day could only end in trouble.

It was stupid. I was stupid. So stupid. I should've seen it coming a mile off.

I could list a million reasons why I wasn't paying attention. But it all boils down to one. I let my guard down. I knew better. I KNOW better. I had buckled down in my training these last few years for exactly this reason. Because of this exact person.

Four years later. And Pythor still has the power to freeze me in place in complete terror.

~~ ! Go Ninja Go ! ~~

Ice watched coldly as the Anacondrai shimmered into being behind Lloyd. The boy obliviously continued running through the start up sequence for his shark mech.

The previous Ice Ninja had been tracking the Serpentine, in conjunction with his investigation into Lloyd's hospital visit and the legend of the Green Ninja. How could he not, on realizing Pythor and his cronies were still at large? Still an active threat to Lloyd, the only kid to ever look up at him and smile. Most brats tended to cry.

Knowing the real danger Lloyd was in, especially after Zane had reported to him that Lloyd had been jumped after school last week, Ice had been keeping an extra close eye out. Either on Lloyd himself or on Pythor and his minions.

Lloyd was unaware of this, but low-brow Serpentine had been steadily infiltrating the city all week. No doubt looking for opportunities to either attack or kidnap Lloyd. Ice believed it to be the second, as this seemed too elaborate just to settle any grudge of Pythor's, especially after so long with the Anacondrai not even bothering to verify Lloyd's death.

Pythor had come back to Ninjago City to find leverage on Garmadon. Just like last time, he found that leverage in Lloyd. And this time Lloyd was double insurance, as he undoubtedly knew by now that the kid was close to the Ninja as well.

If he was looking for insurance against meddling, Pythor was once again close to releasing the Great Devourer. The idiot.

More importantly, however, it appeared Lloyd was incapable of defending himself, and didn't that irritate Ice to no end. Lloyd Garmadon, the chosen one, the Green Ninja, was helpless. That just wouldn't do.

Wu was wrong. Lloyd was so far from ready, it was a tragedy. He couldn't even defend himself from a stupid snake.

~~ ! Go Ninja Go ! ~~

I had waved goodbye to my friends and climbed up into my shark mech in my usual cove. Sat myself in the pilot's seat. Pressed the button for the hatch to close.

"Hello, Lloyd."

And I froze.

I had a million and one options at hand. My spinjitzu, for most of them. Running away. Screaming for my friends to come back. Shooting off an emergency flare from the shark mech. Slapping a button, ANY button, on the control panel in front of me. Even just saying something cocky.

Instead I just froze in horror, eyes locked on the absolutely enormous purple Serpentine looming over me.

He leered down, looking twice as large as his normal seven feet from where I sat. He reached out, grabbing my wrists and pulling them away from the control panel, turning my rotatable pilot's seat to face him.

Again. It was happening again.

My mind flooded with the last time Pythor captured me. Tortured me. Tried to kill me. It was happening all over again. It was going to happen. All over again.

I couldn't move. I couldn't breathe. Couldn't do anything but stare at him in morbid dread as his toothy grin grew.

"My, it hasss been a long time, hasssn't it! And here I thought we'd lossst you, all thossse yearsss ago. I had jussst been thinking how... ussseful you'd be, if I hadn't killed you - only to hear you were alive!"

Then HE froze - literally.

Ice stepped around from behind Pythor, casually shoving the ice cube over. And I don't even know or care how he got into my mech without me noticing. With Ice, it was very possible he'd been there all along.

My wrists were now free, having slipped easily from Pythor's loosened grip in the instant he realized he was in danger but before he could actually react.

"Disgusting snake," grumbled Ice, before turning to me. "And you, Lloyd! What was that?!"

I suddenly was able to breathe again and sucked in a shaky breath, holding my hands close to my chest as if to ensure they were still free, unbound, not trapped.

"Lloyd!"

"That," I managed to choke out, irritated at Ice's tone even though I was grateful he'd rescued me from who knows what. "Was probably PTSD. You're the one that said you know what happened that night! Forgive me for having some leftover issues from almost DYING!"

"Pythor is chump change! You could easily take him out with your spinjitzu, and if not that, your Green! Just blast him, next time! With your power -!"

"I don't HAVE any power!" I exploded.

"You do," insisted Ice. "It saved your life that night. It's active. All you have to do is USE it! You said you would be the Green Ninja last Friday, and you KNOW your power is essential to both unlocking the last part of the scroll as well as ensuring your victory against your father -!"

"NOT NOW, ICE! Gah! Why do we always end up fighting?! I don't have anything like that, Ice! Can't we just drop it?!"

"I can prove it."

"Ugh," I groaned, covering my face with my hands. Very deliberately not looking at the Pythor-cicle just laying there. "You know what? Fine. Prove it."

Ice blinked, surprised.

"Really?" he asked, sounding confused.

"Go on. I dare you, if you're so sure of yourself. Go ahead - prove I've got some legendary power that can save the world."

I leaned back in the pilot's chair, folding my arms and glaring at him. Waiting for him to pull out another stupid ancient scroll or something. Let him have his say, then we could finally move on.

Instead he hesitated, frowned, shrugged, then stooped over, grabbed me around the waist, tossed me over his shoulder, and hopped out of the shark mech.

I was in too much shock to resist as he carried me to an ice mech, very similar to the one Zane used in battles against Garmadon, but this one was apparently part submersible. We dropped through the hatch, he set me down, secured the hatch behind us, took his own seat, and began typing in coordinates.

Wait a...

"Ice! I didn't give you permission to kidnap me!"

But we were already sinking beneath the sea and into rather dark waters.

"Ice! Listen to me!"

He didn't even glance back, adjusting the heading, flicking on the inside lights as we plunged into darkness.

Oh, yeah! I quickly yanked out my phone. Then groaned. No service. Either from his mech or from being underwater, I don't know, but it hardly mattered.

"I have to at least let my dad know I'm safe, Ice!" I exclaimed, getting to my feet from where Ice had dropped me to the floor. I stepped forward, planning to approach Ice. Reason with him, look for a radio or something.

Ice waved a hand and my feet froze to the floor.

"Ok - not cool! Ice!"

And now he's totally ignoring me.

Ugh. I should've known better than to tell Ice to prove something. Well, he had to be going somewhere. Hopefully that somewhere had cell service or something.

Not knowing what else to do, I sat back down. Hugged my knees, since I couldn't move my legs from the ankle down.

"Energy, or Green, exists in all elements," commented Ice randomly. "If you use your power, you can easily melt my ice."

Except I don't have any powers. Ugh. Even if... even if I did, I don't have any clue how to use them. I don't even know how the others use them. It doesn't exactly come up in normal conversation.

(And I don't actually want to know.)

I lay my forehead against my knees and waited. Hopefully this wouldn't be too long a ride. Maybe I'll even be back home by tonight, my dad none the wiser. No harm, no foul.

Nope.

It was a very long ride. I fell asleep long before we got there.

~~ ! Go Ninja Go ! ~~

Author's notes: Did anyone think the captor would be Pythor? We certainly haven't seen the last of him, but the guilty party here is actually Ice! Don't worry, Lloyd won't be hurt and really isn't scared at all, but there absolutely will be consequences to Lloyd just disappearing.

Thanks to all of you wonderful readers, and especially to Sunny Lighter for helping me plan out the plot and a lot of the details over the next few chapters! Next chapter especially will be extremely important to the plot. Along those lines, I just might be late on the next chapter. I am working on it, and fully intend to finish by next Friday, but I am currently reworking a critical scene. I post my progress on my profile, so please check there if you do not get an update alert next Friday.

Also, to those of you that have read my fic Venom in My Blood, I've actually been encouraged to post a bonus chapter that takes place when Lloyd was still little! It's actually rather serious and very sad, but ends on a good note (at least I think so). It will be posted as chapter four of that story sometime next week.