"What…?" Dr. Julien stared with utter shock at the coffin that was placed before him, "What in the dickens… in… in all of…"
With a trembling shake of his legs, Dr. Julien fell forward, clinging to the edge of the table he stood beside. Over, seeing the elder fall, held his hand forward. The shadow under him rose up and pressed into Dr. Julien's hands, helping return him back to his feet. When he was back up on them, he nervously fumbled for a chair and slowly collapsed into it.
"Thank you," Dr. Julien whispered. He leaned back into the chair, his strength utterly drained from his body. Over observed with worry, looking for any signs that something was off with him. All he saw, however, was the signs of an utterly defeated man.
The scientist and creator of the cores turned his head to look at the coffin. He waved his hand, unable to look at it any longer. Over reached forward and hit a button, causing Prime's still face to hide underneath the case once again. He had returned Prime to his people, knowing this was to be their reaction.
"How…?" Dr. Julien whispered, "How did this happen?"
"Prime lost himself," Over shook his head, "You are aware that he was not on missions these past months, yes?" Dr. Julien looked down with shame.
"I… knew he was hiding something. I knew he was going somewhere we couldn't see," Dr. Julien shook his head, "But I never imagined that letting him go, would come to this…"
The man raised his hands up to his head, pressing them down firmly and trying to suppress the emotions inside of him. He wanted to cry, weep and wail, but he couldn't bring himself to. Right now, he didn't have it in him. Instead, he looked back towards Over and gave him a pleading look of confusion, a need for some sort of actual explanation. But that look drained from his face as he saw the dark man standing before him, sensing that whatever the truth was, knowing it would bring him no peace of mind.
"Do you wish to know the full story?" Over spoke, "Do you wish to know each detail of what happened to him? Do you wish to mar your image of him, to change the savior that you have seen in your world until now?"
Dr. Julien raised his head, "Oh, normally I would say to hit me with it. But… I've been around long enough to know that you'd be telling me something I don't want to hear."
"Indeed," Over lowered his head, "I will simply say this, Dr. Julien: he fought for the sake of you and everything here until the very end. He never strayed from his ideal of protecting you. Know it was not you who caused this… and not you who must bear the burden of his deeds."
There wasn't a response from the elderly doctor. Instead, he simply gave a long, shuddering sigh and pushed himself up onto his feet. He slowly stumbled his way across the room, over towards a large window that overlooked the ruins of Ninjago City and the world as they knew it. The compound they lived in, a base formerly just to be used to repair the machines to protect them, was now the only oasis of life amongst this sea of vast emptiness, decay and crumbling ruins.
"Fancy that," Dr. Julien lowered his head, "I'm facing down the end of the world, and all I can think about is how I'm meant to tell everyone that Prime is gone. It shouldn't be that hard for this bag of old bones. Already had to do it once…" He gripped his lab coat rather tightly.
"Ahhh…" Dr. Julien let out a long sigh to clear his throat, "Don't you worry about me. I've been around for too long to fall over at this. Not that I'm happy about it. In fact I feel like I've woken up in a nightmare. Heh, though with how you look over there," Dr. Julien waved his hand at Over, "Shouldn't be surprised, eh?"
"You worry about how the people will respond?" Over asked calmly.
"Well, it's not how they respond, but how long," Dr. Julien put his hands behind his back, a small tremble in his bones, "Last time something like this happened, lots of things went wrong. Losing them to that battle, oh… it was terrible. And… now I have to be the one to tell them it happened again," Dr. Julien chuckled, "I suppose I don't even sound as sad as I should now."
"You cover your emotions with logic and reasoning," Over shook his head, "There is nothing wrong with that. In fact I say that it is an admirable trait."
"Admirable?" Dr. Julien blinked, "Hrmm. Well. I suppose you aren't wrong. But I don't think you're quite right," The scientist blinked, "It was logic that led me to creating those cores in the first place. Why, I was the one that even figured out how to bond them to a mech pilot. In a sense… this is just the logical conclusion to my work."
Dr. Julien gripped the lip of the window he looked through. The longer he talked, the more that he seemed to show his age. It was as though each word took a day off of him, pushing him even further forward towards the war-weary elder his words tried to hide. Oer moved over towards him and reached out, putting his hand on his shoulder to steady him.
"It's just… they were so young," Dr. Julien raised his head, "None of them got to experience what it was like to grow up. It's… it's the saddest part of all of this. They never got to see what it was like to… to get to see the world change thanks to them."
"What will you tell them?" Over cut off his thought, seeing how Dr. Julien slumped. He refused to make the man suffer any longer, knowing what that train of thought would do to him.
"Huh? Oh, yes, right. A speech… those aren't really my strongest suit, eheh…" Dr. Julien turned to look at Over, "... You know, the longer I look at you, the longer I start to think that you might just be the Overlord. Heh, how silly is that? You can't be, after all…"
"I am," Over stated firmly. The moment he did, the other man blinked in confusion. There was a momentary flash of fear, mingled with confusion, and dissipated into a calm acceptance.
"...Oh, I see," Dr. Julien looked down, "Is it too much to ask you to spare this life, if only for a few days longer?"
"I am not the evil that befell your world, though Prime seemed to think I was," Over informed him, "... If you do not wish to give them a speech, I can think of something that might suffice in turn."
"Oh?" Dr. Julien nodded, "Well. Anything at this point might be helpful. Anything other than this…"
Over nodded, gently nudging Dr. Julien back from the window. Over took his time looking over the vast landscape in front of him. He'd fought Mage out there atop the crumbling, ruined skyscrapers. Clawed his way through clogged underpasses and dusty streets to find himself again. And most of all, he'd seen how powerful the loss must have been to Prime, to see his home, and all that he loved, reduced to utter and complete ruin.
"I have brought Invictus with me," Over nodded, "The mech was not as badly damaged as I believed it was. I believe that I can put on a show of sorts… something for your people to latch onto in lieu of a speech."
"What do you have in mind?" Dr. Julien asked quietly, "Anything to ease their hearts when they see this… it may be for the best."
"... A lie," Over informed him, "A rather simple lie. One that will be told for kind reasons, but mean nothing to you. I will make them believe that Prime died as he lived. Trying to save each and every one of you."
Dr. Julien thought about that for a moment. He wasn't sure what that meant, but a lie like that would mean many things to the people that were here, those left behind. Whatever Over was planning, the man couldn't think of any reason to say no. None that didn't hinge upon the unknown element of what he was planning. And so he came to slowly nod his head, not wanting other words to mar his intent.
With that said, Over nodded and left the room. There was little noise to accompany it, almost as though he vanished like the ghost he seemed to be. The coffin, however, was still there. No amount of hoping that perhaps this was just some nightmare would make the thing in front of him go away. And so, Dr. Julien leaned back and waited, waited for a rather long time. Long enough that, soon enough, he would begin to drift his eyes shut.
When the elder opened them again, the base was blaring with an alarm. The room had gone red and the lights were hurting his eyes. Slowly, he stood up and stumbled his way out into the hall. Without even thinking, he followed the rushing crowd of personnel throughout the facility and over towards the main control room. As he stumbled inside, he found himself walking up towards the large command chair with all the computers flanking it, a massive screen that displayed the world outside their compound to him. With little more than a yawn, Dr. Julien looked around and cracked his back.
"Status update…?" Dr. Julien asked quietly. He wondered what it would be this time. Falling debris? Another major storm? Natural disaster?
"Sir… it's…" One of the operators stopped, revealing he was white in the face, "I-It's…"
The sirens shut down, just in time for Dr. Julien to turn towards the screen. The second he did, his heart skipped a beat and nearly brought him down onto his knees. The image displayed a sight that was along the main path to the compound, one that made his blood run cold.
"I'm getting a positive reading!" Another operator turned her head around, shouting, "There's no mistaking this… it's him!"
Dr. Julien watched the screen. On it was none other than a massive dark cloud of a building purple storm that was rapidly consuming everything around it. The longer he watched it, the storm began to build and flare into a massive set of shrouding thunderclouds that spread out like wings. Those wings then built together into the massive talons of a demonic creature dragging itself from the depths of the abyss. Two massive, purple eyes opened inside of it, their pupils burning with dark malice. Dr. Julien's breath froze, then he took off running.
"S-Sir?!" One of the operators grabbed his arm, "W-We need a commanding officer on deck!"
"I'll command from up there!" Dr. Julien gasped out in a harsh wheeze, "I need… I need to confirm that this is real!"
Before the operator could stop him, Dr. Julien raced out of the room. He wasn't anywhere near as fast as he once was, but right now he felt nothing holding him back. He scrambled his way down the hall, clutching a headset as he did. He made his way to an elevator and slammed his keycard against it, opening it and demanding it take him to the outer level with a violent crush of the button inside.
When the elevator stopped, it was in a small hallway that led out to a massive door. Putting his headset on and quickly checking its connection, Dr. Julien stumbled his way down the hall. He grabbed the door, trying to push it open. Some force, however, refused to let him. He took a few deep breaths, trying his hardest to keep moving. If that was what he thought it was, he couldn't just watch it happen from down there!
Finally, Dr. Julien shouted and threw the door open. A massive breeze rushed in and hit him, nearly swinging the door back at him. He rapidly moved out of the way as it slammed shut behind him with a tiny crash. The sheer force of winds was enough it forced him to put his arm up in front of his face. He stood now on the top of the massive wall that made up their complex. The only thing between him and a plummet down double the height of Invictus' multi-story mass was a single railing that he grabbed onto and desperately raised his head up to look over.
"Sir?! Sir!" The voice of the operator flared up on his headset, "Do you have visual?!"
"I… I do…" Dr. Julien began, "This… this is the worst possible-"
A massive, draconic roar cut him off. As Julien raised his head, he was staring down the mass of the Overlord himself. His dark aura washed over him, even from what had to be almost a half-mile of distance. The storm that kicked up around the dark cloud of the Overlord ravaged the ruined landscape. The few buildings that remained standing began to sway and creak. The massive amounts of debris on the streets were churned up and pulled into the air, only to be flung out to break apart what little was left. There was no rain, but the darkness that was cast over the empty streets, broken plazas and derelict vehicles almost looked like some had truly fallen.
"We…" Dr. Julien whispered breathlessly, "Put up… activate the…" He had no words. He let his arms drop to his sides, leaving the operator's desperate voice to fade his headset. He had nothing to give to this. His mind flashed to the coffin that lay in that room, soon to be destroyed along with the rest of this place. The only one that could stop them, and he was…
"Here!" Another voice opened up in his headset, "Prime is here!"
Dr. Julien wanted to at first admonish them, but he stopped himself. To rip them away from hope would just be cruel. He started to chuckle, thinking about what would happen now. He would be the only one that would know what truly happened. He started to close his eyes. There wasn't any need to watch oblivion approach.
A flash of blue made him freeze. There was no blue in the Overlord's colors. Slowly, Dr. Julien raised his head. Once he did, his eyes widened. When he looked out towards the distance, he reached out to grip the railing so he didn't fall over in shock.
"By Invictus' Light!" Prime's voiced shouted from a fully fledged Invictus, raising its combat knives into the air, "I will stop you!"
Dr. Julien watched in awe as the mech held its swords aloft, charging them. Somehow, the blades charged up into their fully alight blue form. The blue power throughout the mech was burning bright, and with the swords held aloft, the mech charged right into the darkness itself.
The sight of it stunned the elderly inventor. He watched as Invictus slammed its blades into the darkness, burning holes in it. The Overlord screeched out and its jaw-like clouds came down to try to crunch the mech's arm. Invictus side-stepped it, allowing him to slam his blades into its head. The clouds broke apart and reformed around the mech, wrapping around it and trying to crush its arms to Invictus' sides. The mech took a few moments to struggle, then with a flash of power, it broke free.
"Prime is… is fighting it," Dr. Julien spoke with disbelief, "He's fighting… the Overlord."
"I can't connect to Invictus' signal!" The operator crackled out back, "What's its status?!"
Dr. Julien shook his head, making sure it wasn't a dream. Invictus activated its jets, flying into the air and spinning around, kicking the Overlord's mass and slash its blades into it. The clouds continued to burn and froth away under the combined assault. As the clouds tried to dissipate, the mech rose its arms up and let massive blasts from its cannons out to go after it.
"He's… winning," Dr. Julien blinked, "I… think."
Invictus stopped as the clouds curled up into one massive ball. As the ball stopped moving, the one that was puppetting it, Over himself, focused. Inside of Invictus, every joint, limb and the entire cockpit had been filled with Dark Matter, puppeted about with pinpoint precision. With the help of one other inventor that had agreed to help from his wheelchair, small batteries inside of the mech's arms kept the energy swords charged up. Inside the cockpit, a playback recording of Prime's voice, spliced together from many outings, was ready to open up and broadcast the illusion to all.
"You won't hurt them!" Prime's voice shouted out, "Invictus will stop you! If you think you can get past me, do you even know who I am?!"
The cloud suddenly shot out in a massive mist, wrapping around Invictus and hiding it away inside. The mech rapidly began to slice out and cut away at the darkness inside, causing blasts of power and the blue glow of swords to momentarily peek out from it. The longer the mech stayed within the cloud, the longer that it became a solid black, a circle of void to Dr. Julien's eyes.
"P-Prime…?" Dr. Julien, still stunned, spoke up.
"We're losing him!" The operator shouted back, "I still can't read his core status!"
"Communications aren't working!" Another one barked out, "He's dark out there!"
The darkness grew deeper around Invictus. The fighting inside seemingly went on and on, Invictus refusing to let himself be taken in. The mech slammed its blades forward and tried to cut a hole to escape from, but the darkness yanked him back inside. Over let the mech appear to escape over and over again, each time with a flashier display of power. The power needed to maintain this was immense. Just moving the Dark Matter was most of his focus.
Invictus gave one last push to get out of the darkness. He tried with all his might, but the darkness dragged him back inside. Upon seeing it, Dr. Julien, even knowing in the back of his head it was a ruse, felt his heart be tugged in fear. He could barely watch Invicuts be swallowed whole. The Overlord looked to be winning, looked to be… whatever was happening, it was a sight that felt like out of a dream.
"...You won't defeat me!" Prime suddenly shouted, making Dr. Julien's head raise up, "You won't… you won't! I won't let the people…. I won't let them fall!"
Suddenly, there was a glowing inside the ball of darkness. It began with the darkness beginning to turn purple. Then gray. Then white. Then blue. As it happened, the blue turned into a deep green. And finally, the darkness began to writhe and howl out a primal sound that made Dr. Julien want to cover his ears.
"YOU WON'T DEFEAT ME!" Prime shouted. Just as he did, something came flying out of the darkness. It was a sparking, crackling object. A core. It frothed in the air just as Prime leaned forward and shouted, throwing his sword into it and spearing it.
Dr. Julien, realizing what was happening, raced back and threw the door shut behind him. The core didn't explode, but Over's eyes flared up. All at once, the Dark Matter packed into Invictus shot out of him and into the ground. Over let out a loud screech that filled the air, echoing and rippling through the world, then the darkness. He focused all the power that he could, everything in his body, into one massive ball of purple power. With the last of his strength, he commanded both the Dark Matter and his power to explode outwards in a massive ball as the core seemingly erupted at the same moment.
The explosion and the massive rippling force of Prime's core detonating rocked the entire compound. The door behind Dr. Julien sounded as though it was ready to rip off the hinges, to go down and crush him. The man put all his desperate strength into it as the crackle of power came rushing over him. He held on, held on even as he heard alarms blare, then shut off, as the wind defeated him and as he felt his heart hammering so quickly he was ready to pass out.
The explosion seemed to never end. The recording equipment on the compound broke. The visuals, monitors, everything shut down. All that those inside the walls could know was the sensation of the world rippling and cracking. They could only know the fear of what was happening, and little else. It was a sight that left them all terrified, knowing that something terrible, whatever it may be, had come.
Finally, the dust settled. The world stopped shaking. Dr. Julien nervously looked up, seeing the window in the door above him had been shattered. He heard nothing but a tiny whistle of breeze through it. Slowly, he coughed as he stood up, carefully avoiding the shards on the floor as he slowly moved to grip the door.
"S….r" The headset that Dr. Julien wore sparked in and out, "Ca… Hear. Need… cyst…"
Realizing the thing was useless, Dr. Julien tore the thing off his head and let it fall to the ground. He reached out for the door, knowing something had just happened behind it. He didn't know if he wanted to open it. The elevator, however, likely wasn't working, and he didn't know if he could wait. Somehow, inside, he knew that he needed to see what lay beyond the door.
He threw the door open. The top hinge snapped, causing its corner to hit the metal floor and screech the rest of the way open. Slowly, Dr. Julien put his arm up to avoid the wind around him as he stumbled his way out onto the walkway. It was covered now in a strange, gray dust. He didn't know what it was, but it left footprints as he walked. And when Dr. Juilen finally made it to the railway, he reached out and grabbed it to raise his head and cough.
The sight in front of him took him several tries to believe. First, he blinked and rubbed his eyes, hoping he wasn't going mad. Then he shook his head and blinked several times to look back up. Finally, he brushed his hair back to make sure that everything that he was seeing, was real.
The ruins of Ninjago City, were gone. As far as the eye could see, all the rubble, all the crumbled skyscrapers, all the paths filled with concrete and broken beams, all the ruined roads and vehicles, were gone. The ground was now nothing more than the dusted streets, intact infrastructure and a freed city. All that remained of the buildings was a single, small overpass bridge that was one of the few things left standing before. Somehow, this sight of a world that had been frozen in its last moment of time, was nothing more than a clean, blank slate. All that remained of what was before was the dust that seemed to cover everything.
There was a loud thud behind him. Dr. Julien turned to see someone had landed behind him. Over stumbled forward, leaning hard on his staff. He was coated in sweat and seemed to tremble on his feet. He looked as though he'd just fought to an inch of his life without a single blow onto him.
"... I have… fulfilled my promise…" Over groaned out, "I have created the balance that Oni wished for."
Over pointed. Dr. Julien followed the hand to see Invictus laying in the midst of the dust. It was splayed out among it, curled up partially onto its side. Its swords were broken, its head was scorched, and the chest had ripped open from the core being ejected from it. Somehow, however, the dust that settled around it almost made it appear as though it was laying on a bed of it, earning some kind of rest that was long overdue. The clouds overhead had parted from the blast, allowing sunlight to filter in and shine down on Invictus, causing its armor to shine . The white beauty of the mech's power was visible to all as it lay there amongst its seemingly eternal rest.
"You… how…?" Dr. Julien asked, "The… the city…"
"... I am the Overlord," Over grunted, "I used all my strength… I blasted away everything except this place to dust. You… you cannot rebuild if you do not have grounds on which to do it. The explosion covered the Dark Matter dragging all of yur ruins into the earth itself... " Over chuckled, "I thank Harumi's city for that idea."
"But… what?" Dr. Julien gasped, "This place, it's… it's," He blinked, "Is this what you meant?"
"Mhm… I imagine it will be some time before they manage to get to Invictus… you have that time to find how to 'discover' Prime's body… but this way, he didn't die somewhere else… he died here, a true hero stopping the last resurgence of the Overlord."
"Do the people have a right to believe that lie, though?" Dr. Julien asked, "Are we allowed to have the happiness of knowing that our hero… did not go how you said he did?"
"He fought… long and hard for you," Over coughed, "And that will be all you must know. Preserve his memory this way, Dr. Julien. I.. .do not wish to burden you with this knowledge, but I know from experience you would be willing to overlook what happened here."
Dr. Julien was about to say more, but the sound of the elevator opening up caused him to turn around. All at once, several men came rushing out, seeing him clutching the railing and racing out towards him. One in particular stepped forward.
"Sir! You're okay!" Nelson gasped out as he gripped Dr. Julien's arm, "We… we were afraid when the explosion hit… w-we're doing a check of all personnel! We don't quite know what happened!"
"What happened?" Dr. Julien blinked, "Oh, y-yes, yes, I do believe I…"
Dr. Julien looked around. Over was nowhere to be seen. There was no one here that knew what had just happened, but him. And as that thought came to his mind, he slowly looked down and felt a smile, a twisted one, a kind one, forming on his lips. As he raised his head to look at Nelson one last time, he thought back to what he had seen, and nodded.
"I believe that… everything is quite alright for us," Dr. Julien turned around. The massive landscape of ruin, rubble, debris, was gone. For the first time in their lives, they had something to hold onto. A chance to finally move forward, to rebuild not atop a city of ruin, but upon a canvas of hope. As his eyes skimmed where Invictus lay amongst the newly dusted lands, he let out one last little sigh.
Dr. Julien smiled one last time, "We have Prime to thank for this."