When I first came out with this story, my plan was to have a chapter dedicated to each ninja's grief, but I had no idea how to balance the C.J. Style series and this nor had I any ideas for what the other ninja's chapters could be about. Now that I think I have a pretty good writing schedule going on and have most of the ninja's chapters written down, I thought to myself, "Why not?" So, I give you the second chapter to Moving On.
Disclaimer: I do not own Ninjago.
It had been a full day since the memorial. Twenty-four hours since the ninja had said their final goodbyes to Nya, since nearly all of Ninjago came to pay their respects, and since Lloyd stopped lying to himself saying that he would be fine. He told himself that he would be able to continue on as he did before with the minor setback of some depressed moments, but no. He was already depressed and could hardly bring himself to get out of bed. He felt little motivated to do just about anything. Almost as bad as right after his dad sacrificed himself to defeat Chen's Anacondrai army. It wasn't like he had to be productive today, though. In fact, Master Wu had become much more laid back when it came to training. He no longer woke the ninja up for Sunrise Exercise and mostly left them alone. From the sound of it, Cole was the only one who hadn't taken advantage of this pass.
Lloyd lay in his bed, thinking of the last week since Nya sacrificed herself. It's been rather quiet around the monastery since then. Maybe because Jay hadn't been joking around as much. Or maybe because Lloyd hadn't been out of his room too much since the flood. He did enjoy the sounds he heard from outside, though. One he was currently hearing was the sounds of glass bowls and cups clanging against each other in the kitchen. As much as Lloyd hated the idea of getting out of his bed, he really needed to eat.
The kitchen was filled with so many good smells. Pancakes, eggs, syrup. Nya always loved that.
"Good morning, Lloyd," Zane greeted as he began to stand up from his seat. He grabbed a plate for Lloyd and placed it in his brother's spot before sitting back down himself.
"Morning, Zane," Lloyd replied as he sat down. "Hey, Maya. Hi, Ray."
"Good morning, Lloyd," Maya said warmly. "How are you doing today?"
"Kind of tired. I'll probably be going back to bed after this," Lloyd replied before taking a forkful of his pancakes.
"You feeling okay?" Kai immediately asked.
"Yeah," Lloyd replied. "I'm just tired."
Kai seemed rather uneasy by this for some reason, but Lloyd just rolled his eyes and continued eating. Once he was finished, he grabbed his plate and put it in the sink before going to his room, where he stayed the rest of the day.
The next day was the same as the last. Lloyd felt like all he wanted to do was sleep, but he realized he was hungry and went down to eat. When he got there, though, Kai seemed even more concerned than he did the day before.
"Hey, Lloyd," he said as the green ninja sat down at the table. "Are you feeling any better today?"
Lloyd shrugged. "I guess. I'm just tired."
"Still?" Kai asked.
"What? Our jobs are tiring," Lloyd replied. "Why are you so upset about this anyway?"
"I'm not upset," Kai said, immediately defensive. "Cole and I were just wondering if you were up for training today. We've been trying to perfect this move, and we were wondering if you could give us some pointers."
Usually, Lloyd would have loved that idea. They'd all make a fool of themselves and tell the others of their endeavors later that day. Jay would say something like how he wished he had joined them, Zane would give an amused smile, Master Wu would laugh even though he hated how much they goofed off like that, Pixal would add in from time to time how amusing it was to watch, and Nya would scold the boys for not letting her in on the fun. At least, she would if she was here. Jay would do that if he didn't leave to stay with his parents a couple days ago. Master Wu would do that if he wasn't so laid back now. No one was the same anymore and joining in would only be a reminder of what was lost.
"No, thanks. I just have a lot on my mind right now," Lloyd replied.
"Oh. Okay," Kai said, clearly disappointed. His concern seemed to be growing worse as well.
Later that day, once Kai and Cole got too tired of failing that stupid move, they decided to play a quick game of Prime Empire.
"Why doesn't Lloyd want to do anything anymore?" Kai asked.
"Well, I guess he's not ready to," Cole replied. "It's only been two days since the memorial."
"So? Jay's been doing all sorts of stuff with his parents!"
"A wise man once told me that 'Grief takes many different forms'. You do everything you can to stop thinking about it while Lloyd broods over it by himself," Cole explained. "I'm not saying it's healthy, but he needs his space."
"So when do we intervene?" Kai asked.
"I'll know it when I see it," Cole replied.
"So I'm just supposed to sit back and do nothing?"
"If it makes you feel better, go talk to him. See what happens."
Kai didn't need to be told twice. He stood up without even pausing their game and marched over to Lloyd's room, Cole followed quickly behind. The two waited patiently for a moment after Kai knocked on Lloyd's door, but there was no reply.
"Lloyd?" Kai asked.
A moment longer.
"Lloyd?" Cole asked as he pushed past Kai and opened his brother's door, but Lloyd wasn't there. "Where'd he go?"
"I should've intervened," Kai said as he ran out the door to find Lloyd.
Hours after the monastery realized that Lloyd had gone missing, Kai got an idea. He ran over to Jay's room and grabbed a huge box from underneath. It looked like it hadn't been touched in years. After opening that, he began looking through hundreds and hundreds of comics, and finally he found one he recognized. Starfarer: Fritz Donnegan and the Legend of the Three Moons. It was the same name of the new Starfarer movie that was coming out.
It wasn't long before Kai finally made it to the movie theaters. Lloyd was there too, sitting on the front steps to the theater, but he looked...anxious. Almost like he was hiding, but Kai only knew that because he'd known Lloyd forever.
"Lloyd?" Kai asked as he ran up to his baby brother and sat down next to him.
"This was a mistake, this was a mistake, this was a mistake," Lloyd muttered to himself over and over again.
"What was a mistake?" Kai asked.
"I shouldn't have done this," Lloyd said. "I shouldn't have bought that stupid ticket."
"What do you mean? You love those movies."
Lloyd's eyes suddenly went wide. He looked up at Kai as if this was the first time he had seen him. He began wiping at his eyes, but Kai grabbed his wrists to prevent this.
"Lloyd, what's wrong?" he asked.
Lloyd opened his mouth to say something, then closed it, then opened it again and said, "I thought this would get my mind off of...everything that's happened recently."
"So why don't you watch the movie?"
"Well, this is the first Starfarer movie since the guy who played Fritz Donnegan passed away, so then that made me start thinking about death, which made me think about funerals, which made me think about the memorial, which made me think about Nya leaving, and-" Lloyd stopped himself before he could get any further. He knew that if he did, he'd never be able to calm down. Plus, he didn't want to make Kai sad too, but when he looked up to see his brother, he was already gone. He looked around a bit, and before he knew it, Kai was right back where he had come from.
"What-? Where-?" Lloyd asked.
"Maybe this will help?" Kai suggested as he gave Lloyd two tickets to a different movie that was going to start in fifteen minutes.
Lloyd took the tickets to see that the movie Kai got tickets for was called "Catnip and Jack."
"Really?" Lloyd asked when he saw this. "That stupid kids show they turned into a movie?"
"It's the stupidest, most generic thing I could think of," Kai replied. "What do you say?"
Lloyd looked at Kai for a moment, a ghost of a smile creeping on his face.
"How bad could it be?" Lloyd asked.
Kai smiled when he heard this answer before taking out his phone and letting the others know that he had found Lloyd and everything was going to be okay.
Two hours later, Kai and Lloyd were just about crying from how much they had been laughing.
"That was the worst thing I've ever seen," Kai laughed.
"Yeah," Lloyd agreed. "Thanks."
"Anytime, Little Bro," Kai replied as he lightly punched his shoulder.
Lloyd smiled slightly as he rubbed his shoulder.
"You think you're gonna be okay now?" Kai asked.
"I don't know," Lloyd replied, eyes suddenly downcast. "I still wish she could've seen that."
"I do too," Kai replied, "but Nya wouldn't want us to be upset about her leaving. She'd want us to be happy with the memories we have."
Lloyd groaned. "I want that too, but it's...hard."
"We all do, but locking yourself in your room isn't gonna help anyone. Especially not you," Kai told him.
"I know. But what am I supposed to do?" Lloyd asked. "I never really feel like doing anything."
"You didn't feel like watching the movie, but you still had fun. It's weird, but sometimes you just gotta force yourself to do something, and you might just have a good time."
"What if I don't?" Lloyd asked.
"At least you got out of bed," Kai shrugged.
Lloyd sighed. "I guess," he said.
"You wanna play a game of Prime Empire when we get home then?"
"Nah," Lloyd shook his head. "I'm done running from my problems."
Kai smiled.
"Good for you, Bud," he told him.
I hope you guys liked that. Next chapter should be out soon. I'm aiming for next week, but it could be in two.
As always, leave a review if you'd like, and have a great day/night!
#God'sNotDead