Chapter 6: Fighting Back

I walked into DADA. Clouse leered at me. "You're late, Mr. Umas." The whole class laughed and he forced the black quill into my hand. "Write: I will do as I am told."

No! I just wrote these lines yesterday! I couldn't write anymore. My hand shook just thinking about it.

"Write, Mr. Umas, or I will be forced to take more extreme measures." I looked up and suddenly all my friends appeared. I froze. What was he doing?

"Crucio!" Clouse yelled. Jay screamed, Zane began to spark and steam; Cole and Lloyd writhed in pain, and Nya…I couldn't look at her.

"Stop!" I yelled, but Clouse ignored me. "Stop! Please!" I screamed.

Clouse turned and glared at me. "Then write, Mr. Umas."

I tried, I tried so hard, but my hand felt like it was on fire and I dropped the quill. "I can't," I whispered.

"How disappointing."

I woke up with my friends' screams echoing in my ears. I shook my head. I hadn't had nightmares in a long time. In fact, I hadn't any memorable dreams since the whole Green Wizard thing. I wondered if this dream meant something, or if it was just because of the detention. Probably just detention. I was stressed about Lloyd and so that's why my friends showed up in my dream too.

Although Clouse was pretty evil… I wouldn't put it past him to torture students to get what he wanted. Once Lloyd was back to normal, we were going to have to get rid of both Clouse and Master Chen, but right now, we had to handle one thing at a time.

After tossing and turning for a while, I finally went back to sleep. And then I had a nightmare I overslept, and then I actually overslept, so I had to skip breakfast, sprint toward class, but then I realized I forgot to grab my essay, so I had to sprint all the way back, and then I was late to class. To top it all off, I could still see the words 'I will do as I am told' on the back of my hand. All in all, when I walked into the library for lunch, I was in a terrible mood. Lloyd was also nowhere to be seen, but after our kidnapping attempt, I didn't blame him.

"Hey, Kai," Cole said.

"Hey," I mumbled back. I didn't feel much like talking right now.

"So we got your letter, are you okay?" Nya asked.

"I'm fine," I said.

"You sure?" Jay asked.

"Yes, I'm sure. I just had to write a bunch of lines, and I didn't sleep well." I tried to force a smile. Nobody seemed to buy it.

"What happened to your hand?" Zane asked.

I flinched and hid my injured hand under my lunch tray. Leave it to Zane's android eyes to see my brand new scar. "Nothing. I probably just scratched it."

"Kai…" Nya said. I was in trouble now.

"I'm fine, really. You don't have to worry about me," I paused and my sister glared at me. She didn't believe me for one second. We had spent most of our lives worrying about each other and Nya wasn't about to stop now. I needed to change the subject. "So what happened with Garmadon? You didn't stay in his shack too long, did you?"

"Garmadon told us to come back later. Said he didn't want us risking our necks for him, and that he was going to get his wand back himself," Cole answered.

"Yeah, I was kinda glad too, that hut was horrible," Jay jumped in.

"We were going to wait for you," Cole added, "but then Lloyd woke up and we had a whole new set of problems to deal with."

"He was going to tell Master Chen everything!" Jay exclaimed. "I thought we were going to be expelled!"

I noticed Zane and Nya were still staring at me. "So then what happened?" I prompted. Nya frowned.

"Zane erased Lloyd's memory!" Jay said.

"Seriously?" I glanced at the android. I knew he was good, but to erase Lloyd's memories…? And wasn't that a bit extreme?

"I only erased his recent memory," Zane explained. "The last thing he remembers is our study session."

"Before or after he tried to run away from us?"

"After," Nya sighed. "He thinks he hit his head on the door while trying to escape."

"Yeah, he's not too happy with us right now," Jay said. We all looked at the empty spot were Lloyd should have been.

"We're going to fix this," I said. "I promise."

"I hope so," Nya said.

The lunch bell rang. "Can we meet back here for dinner?" I asked before everyone left. That would give me enough time to take a nap and to think about our situation. I wanted to start helping Lloyd as soon as possible.

"I can't," Jay said, fiddling with his scarf. "I have detention with Clouse."

I cringed. I forgot Jay had detention too. "Good luck," I said, trying to keep my voice steady.

Jay nodded and left to go to his next class. I watched him go, debating whether or not to warn him. But that would probably make Jay feel worse, and who knows if Clouse was going to make him write lines like I did. My heart clenched in my chest. I didn't want him to get hurt.

I tore my eyes away and looked at my friends. "What about you guys?"

Zane shook his head. "I have another engagement," he said cryptically.

Cole smirked. "You're meeting with your girlfriend, aren't you?"

"You have a girlfriend? Since when?" I gaped.

"It's Pixal," Nya explained for me. Oh right. She was Zane's date for the Yule ball.

"You kept in touch with her?" I asked, slightly jealous. I tried to exchange letters with Skylor, but with the Overlord's return and dark wizards everywhere, it didn't really work out.

Zane nodded. If I didn't know any better, I'd say he was embarrassed. "Well, I won't stop you," I sighed. There was nothing we could really do until we got Garmadon's wand back and he wanted to do that himself.

Zane smiled. "Thank you," he said and left for his next class.

"I'll come," Cole offered. "You know I won't pass up dinner."

"Me too," Nya said. I swallowed. She was probably going to grill me about detention, but with Cole watching I couldn't really back down.

"Alright," I said, trying to muster a smile. "See you then."

Unfortunately, I was late to Professor Nuero's class, so he gave me a lunch detention for tomorrow. I groaned; my day just got worse. On the bright side, it couldn't be nearly as bad as Clouse's detention. My last few classes dragged on and on, but finally, I was done for the day. I dragged one foot in front of the other and crashed on my bed. I was out as soon as my head hit the pillow.

"Kai! Kai! Why were you late for the dinner?" Nya shouted. "I was waiting over an hour for you!"

"I was sleeping," I protested.

"Sleeping? Sleeping?" Nya shouted. "How could you? You promised you'd be here and you decided to sleep instead."

I jolted awake. It had only been fifteen minutes. I rolled over but now I was too nervous to fall asleep. I didn't want to make my sister angry. The last time we got into a fight, it nearly tore me apart. I sighed. I couldn't even nap in peace.

I walked into the dining hall and Cole and Nya were already there. I sat down and decided to try something different. Dumplings, Lloyd's favorite.

"So, Kai, how did you hurt your hand again?" Nya asked.

I jerked my left hand under the table. It still hadn't healed yet. "I told you, I scratched it. It'll be fine by tomorrow," I replied.

Nya folded her arms. "You're telling me that you scratched your hand into the exact phrase, 'I will do as I am told'?"

I cringed and took a bite of dumpling so I wouldn't have to answer right away. I swallowed and glanced at Cole and Nya. They were both waiting for an answer. I sighed. I couldn't keep it hidden any longer, so I told them everything.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Cole asked. "We're your friends."

"I didn't want to worry you," I said. "We need to helping Lloyd, and besides, it's not that bad."

"Not that bad?" Nya repeated. "Kai, Clouse tortured you with dark magic! We have to tell someone."

"Who?" I asked bitterly. "Clouse works for Chen, and everyone is afraid of him. Even the teachers don't stand up to him."

After Garmadon's complete humiliation, most of the resistance to Master Chen died, and any who did question him ended up disappearing down a trap door. After Professor Nuero fell in the middle of the main courtyard, the whole school fell into line.

Cole swallowed his bite of cake. "What about Master Wu? Couldn't we send him an owl or something?"

I shook my head. "He's busy fighting dark wizards and stopping the Overlord."

"We have to do something," Nya insisted.

"It's fine guys. It's just one detention," I said.

"What about Jay?" Nya demanded. "He's in detention with him right now! What if he gets hurt? We have to help him!"

I glared at my sister. "I know! But what choice do we have? The three of us can't just march up to his office. He's a grown wizard with way more experience and power."

Nya glared right back. "We can't just abandon him!"

"Nya," Cole broke in. "I hate to say it, but I think Kai's right."

"What?!"

"Clouse is too powerful and with Master Chen behind him, there's nothing we can do."

Nya stared at Cole, then turned back to me. Finally she sighed, "I know, but I still don't like it."

"I know," I replied. Silence fell over our table. I tried to go back to eating, but all I could think about was Jay. I pictured him fumbling with his orange scarf; Clouse looming over him, torturing him…If only there was something we could do.

"If only there were more of us," I murmured to my dumplings. "Then we could drive out Chen and Clouse once and for all."

"We could build a resistance," Cole suggested. "Tons of people hate being under Master Chen's rule. If we recruited them all, we might stand a chance."

I jerked my head up. I was only wishing out loud, but the way he put it…maybe we could actually do this. Maybe we could fight back.

"That's a good idea," I replied. "I think I know some people in my classes who would join us."

"Me too," Nya jumped in.

I grinned. This was actually happening. "I'll send an owl to Zane and Jay so they can help out too. Now all we need is a place to meet, and we'll be all set."

The three of us thought for a moment. "The courtyards are out," I said.

"All the classes are occupied or watched," Nya said.

"Same with the common rooms and the library," I added.

"What about Garmadon's hut?" Cole suggested.

I shook my head. "That place is a mess, and, besides, it's way too small. There's no way we could meet there."

"We could fix it up," Nya suggested. "And when Garmadon gets his wand back, I'm sure he'll help us too."

"Okay, unless we find something better," I said. We all grinned at each other. This might actually work. We could stop Master Chen and Clouse from ruining our school.

"Now all we need is name," Cole said. "Like the Spinjitsu Warriors."

"What?" Nya asked.

"The Spinjitsu Warriors, it's from a TV show I watched," Cole explained.

"We'll work on the name later," I promised. "Right now, we just need to focus on getting members and fixing up Garmadon's shack so we can have our first meeting."

Cole and Nya nodded. I grinned. I love it when a plan comes together.

AN: Sorry I posted late, I had a college visit on Friday and I didn't get back till today. I hope you enjoy this chapter, and reviews are always welcome!