Two hours of ranting and raving, plotting and planning, talking and swearing and defending and accusing, and it was finally time.
One hour ago, Wu, Garmadon, and Koko had left to scout out the area and secure the perimeter. Koko had even donned her Lady Irondragon armor and pulled out a huge spear that certainly none of them had even suspected she kept in her closet. (Except apparently Garmadon, who took the transformation from office lady to warrior queen in stride.) The adults stressed the importance of not letting any clue to Lloyd's situation and whereabouts escape.
The Ninja were ordered to wait until 7:00, not one minute before. Ten minutes before Skylor's time. They couldn't risk scaring her off, and if she was being watched, they couldn't risk anyone noticing them waiting around on the roof.
Skylor must have martial arts training, Kai thought, somewhat sadly. A week ago that would have made him ecstatic, something more they had in common. But now... Not only was most of the group determined to believe the worst of her, but she had as good as admitted to particular talents with the location of their meeting. Talents that would fit right in line with spying and drugging and kidnapping.
Had she ever even liked him? Or had this been about Lloyd the entire time?
Kai shook himself, literally whipping his head from side to side like a dog. This was no time for being selfish. No time for moping about a girl he'd never even been on a date with - as Nya had ruthlessly pointed out when he tried to defend her.
Only Kai had defended her, wanting so badly to believe she'd just stumbled on something and wanted to help. At least Zane and Master Wu were willing to hear her out. Koko, Garmadon, and Nya were out for blood and had to be physically held back and talked out of just smashing Chen's Noodle House and capturing Skylor immediately. Jay and Cole were suspicious and believed this was a setup of some sort, but also wanted to hear her story before deciding anything.
Kai stood in the middle of the rectangular roof, since he'd been the one given the note. Each of the remaining four Ninja took a corner. When Skylor arrived they would circle her. Where it went from there, nobody was sure.
Master Wu, Lord Garmadon, and Lloyd's mom were all positioned somewhere in the shadows on surrounding buildings, having given the all clear to the Ninja twenty minutes ago via the secure communicators each of them was wearing and had been since Lloyd's kidnapping.
And she arrived. Climbing over to the top of a nearby building, taking a running start, and gracefully clearing the distance between the two rooftops. He swallowed, his throat suddenly dry.
"Hi Kai," she said softly as she approached, smiling that smile that made his stomach drop and his heart squeeze.
Before Kai could react, which was just as well as he was somewhat at a loss, the other four Ninja as well as Lloyd's parents and Master Wu had Skylor surrounded.
She held up shaking hands in surrender and didn't resist as Koko roughly searched her for weapons and listening devices, didn't shout in anger as Lloyd's mom found and destroyed her phone, stabbing it through with her spear. Jay finished the job, zapping the remaining pieces to be sure the electronics were truly dead.
Finally Koko nodded to Wu, who took the lead. "You said you were being watched and that you want to help," he stated.
Skylor nodded shakily, eyes glancing in terror towards a growling Lord Garmadon.
"She looks like Anita," hissed the warlord. "You know what that means, brother."
The girl Kai had been crushing on for months, who always came across as confident and strong, at least when she knew people were watching, paled before their eyes at the name.
Wu nodded and gestured for his brother to calm down.
"You are Anita and Chen's daughter," he again stated instead of asked. "And the new Master of the element of Amber."
She nodded, looking scared and ashamed.
The seconds ticked by and Skylor realized what Wu was waiting for. Ever so slowly, trying her best to be completely nonaggressive, she snapped the fingers of her right hand, her left still bandaged, creating a small flame that she let flicker out after a moment. She raised the hand back up.
Wu nodded coldly. Garmadon and Koko looked furious. The Ninja mostly looked completely bewildered at how she could use Fire.
"You kidnapped my nephew."
Kai stared, as did everyone else. She gulped, but didn't deny it.
"Drugged him, followed him home, and stole him out of his own bed."
She stared at her feet, trembling hands still raised in surrender. After a couple seconds she nodded.
Garmadon lunged forward, possibly for the kill. Zane and Cole each grabbed an arm to hold him back. At least until they were finished here.
"On Chen's orders. Because he knows about Green," concluded Wu, sounding suddenly exhausted. "You had no choice - or didn't think you did. Until you talked to Lloyd. He won you over."
Skylor looked up in surprise and sudden hope, meeting those wise, kind eyes. "Yes," she finally said aloud. "Yes, exactly."
"Green?" interrupted Jay. "Why would anyone-"
"Chen! I knew it!" whispered Garmadon darkly, lava bright eyes flaming, clenching the hilt of the massive sword strapped to his back that he'd taken to carrying around since Lloyd was captured. "I told you we should have killed him, Wu! They must be on that blasted island!"
"I am confused. Who is Chen?" asked Zane.
Koko turned her angry eyes on her brother-in-law, who now had his own look of guilt on his face. The old master squeezed his staff as he glared at his own hands.
"Chen is a tyrant that Garmadon and I once banished from Ninjago. And I have not been completely honest with all of you about what the First Spinjitzu Master instructed me about Green before his passing."
~~ ! Go Ninja Go ! ~~
A beeping started up on one of Clouse's monitors. He glanced over and frowned. The tracker on Skylor's phone had been broken. Silly girl probably dropped it.
He ignored it and continued to work. Skylor would report in any minute from another of her team's phones to explain what had happened. She knew their policy.
Fifteen minutes. Half an hour. One hour.
Clouse frowned when he took a break from his computer, stretching and noticing the still blinking alert. How odd. He texted her team at the restaurant.
The reply was YNX. Yes, left work on time. No, has not checked into the next checkpoint on her way home. X, has not reported anything to pass on. Well, teenagers were entitled to wander a bit. She did that from time to time, her status as heir granting her a bit more leeway than the average minion.
Although, out of curiosity, he pulled up the GPS data on her phone's tracker.
It's last location wasn't too far from the restaurant. Actually... He blinked. No, wasn't that?
He quickly opened up another file. And started cursing.
Lloyd and Koko Garmadon's apartment building.
Skylor might be compromised.
Clouse quickly pulled up all the security information for the island. There was no sign of any problems. He sent out a request to report in.
Station three was unresponsive.
One agent not reporting in he could ignore. One station losing contact was serious, but could have a reasonable explanation. But add the two together, and you get a sum of Ninja.
Skylor had betrayed them. He was sure of it.
He swore some more, grabbed some hand tools and equipment from the shelves, and raced to the laboratory they had the Green Ninja imprisoned in. He knew he should've prioritized those shields!
~~ ! Go Ninja Go ! ~~
Lloyd was awake, and not feeling all that bad. A little hungry, a little thirsty, a little exhausted from coil number six earlier, but he was conscious and not in agony, so no real complaints.
He was actually sitting against the wall of his jar, playing with his new power. It was fun shifting its form and state, though he found just holding it as a warm, glowing globe or watching the flickering sparks swirling around his hands to be calming. Something he could control, even as a prisoner.
Suddenly Clouse ran around the corner into his line of sight, charging for the control station he'd been at the first time Lloyd had woken. His arms were full of tools and equipment the names and purposes of which Lloyd wouldn't be able to even guess at. The vampire scientist guy threw all his stuff on the ground and pounded a large button on the controller.
Lloyd braced himself, but no pain followed. Instead, there was a hissing sound and a strangely sweet smell filled the jar.
Great. He was going to be drugged and moved.
Lloyd leaned against the glass, expecting to fall unconscious any moment. Instead of any mental fog, though, all strength seemed to sap out of body. He slumped over, still wide awake but unable to so much as twitch a finger. The green power he'd been playing with faded and dispersed.
Why was he still awake? This was weird. And it had to be deliberate, considering he'd been unconscious every time they'd done something in the past.
Even as Lloyd's thoughts raced, a clamp of some sort lowered from the jar's lid. It lowered and grabbed him around his waist, lifting his limp torso. The lid and clamp both raised, lifting him right out of the jar and onto the ground next to it.
He couldn't see what Clouse was up to, but he needn't wonder long. Within seconds a frantic looking Clouse was at his side, attaching chains around the ninja's wrists and ankles. Within a minute, the chains were retracting, dragging him back against the cursed glass wall from his last time out of the jar.
It was painful and humiliating, hanging there from the chains like a doll, and frankly he preferred the jar. Though that didn't explain why he was being kept awake this time.
Clouse was fiddling around outside his line of sight, and soon came around. Carrying a stupidly large needle.
Lloyd panicked, not that there was anything he could do. He clamped his eyes shut, wishing he could also block out the pain as the sharp needle pierced his neck and a stinging liquid rushed into his veins.
Lloyd gasped as feeling and control immediately returned to his muscles. More concerning though, his mind was suddenly racing, actually painful in its sudden over-awareness. The light was too bright, any sounds too loud. He could feel himself twitching and flinching and he had no idea why.
"Can't have you crashing," mumbled Clouse, more to himself than Lloyd. "And there's no time to finish the next coil. We'll have to do this the old fashioned way."
Why now? Why the sudden rush? What could be -
They were coming. His family was coming.
Lloyd couldn't stop his smirk, even knowing things were probably about to get much worse for him. Just a little longer.
~~ ! Go Ninja Go ! ~~
Author's Notes: Credit to my wonderful beta Sunny Lighter for all her help and encouragement! Also, it was totally her idea for Koko to be Lady Irondragon again for the rescue!
Special thanks to last chapter's reviewers: lloydskywalkers, Fabro de Omres, EMPFangirl02, Carrie2sky, Watcher321, Sunny Lighter (of course!), and Bookkeeper2004! As well as my three guest reviewers! You all definitely made my day, my week, my month! And it's even more amazing that pretty much ALL of you are Ninjago authors too - that just makes any praise from you guys THAT much more special!
And that's it for the filler, everyone! From here, everything's action, climax, and (hopefully!) a very satisfying ending!