AN: And now for what you've all been waiting for: the kidnapping! I hope you enjoy!
Turning off the lights in his room, Lloyd flopped back on his bed, sighing dreamily. It had been an incredible afternoon and evening. His parents had gone all-out for his birthday, bringing him to comic book stores and arcades and amusement parks and candy shops and letting him do and get whatever he wanted at each place. His parents had even commissioned several special inventions for him, including a new video game and a little robot that picked up his candy wrappers for him so he didn't have to call a servant to do it. Now he was pleasantly full of sweets and nicely cozy in new pajamas, and he was ready for sleep. Tomorrow wouldn't be his birthday, but with his parents behind him, it was sure to be almost as great.
Humming a little to himself, Lloyd turned over in bed, pulling his covers up over himself. Everything was good.
Well. Not everything. He needed to convince his parents to find a better system of distributing justice than firing people out of a volcano, because that was really not good. But that was okay. Nobody's parents were perfect; Lloyd's parents just happened to be a little more disciplinary toward rebels than was necessary. Oh well.
Snuggling into his blankets, Lloyd closed his eyes. Mmm. Sleep was on its way, he could feel it hovering just out of his reach. He could almost hear its footsteps as it stepped closer and closer with every moment he stayed still and quiet.
Wait. He could definitely hear its footsteps. But that had been just a metaphor for falling asleep, so there shouldn't be any real footsteps. Why could he hear footsteps?
"That you, butler-whose-name-I-can't-remember?" Lloyd called out sleepily, not opening his eyes. "I don't need anything; you can go to bed."
Something rough brushed against his cheek and Lloyd opened his eyes, only to be met with utter darkness. That was doubly wrong, for one because nothing rough should be in his bed as his parents made sure his sheets and blankets and pillows were of the highest quality and softness, and for two because it shouldn't be completely dark in his room as he always left the door cracked open so a little light from the hallway could filter in.
Startled, Lloyd tried to sit up, but the rough thing that had brushed against his cheek enveloped his head, cinching around his neck, and something else that felt like hands pushed him back down.
"He's awake! Why is he awake? You said he'd be asleep by now!" A voice hissed.
"He was supposed to be asleep by now! Don't blame me, the servants I talked to said he was always asleep by now!" A second voice retorted.
Why were there people in his room? What was around him? Why was he being pushed around? What was going on?
Lloyd was very confused, and he said as much. "Uh, I'm confused."
"Well, unless he talks and sits up in his sleep, then the servants you talked to were wrong!" The first voice growled.
"Stop blaming him and do something about it!" A third voice called from a ways away. A third voice? Wasn't two random people in his room enough?
"Right. Okay, kid, sorry about this," the first voice said, and it almost sounded like it was talking to him.
Lloyd didn't have the time to wonder if he was being spoken to, however, because a moment later something hard slammed into the side of his head, making him see stars in the dark. The hands holding him down let up, but Lloyd didn't move, since he was too stunned from the hit.
"What did you do that for?!" The third voice demanded.
"To knock him out," the first voice said, as if it was obvious.
Regaining control of himself, Lloyd bolted upright into a sitting position and scrambled off his bed, grabbing at whatever was wrapped around his head as he backed away into a corner.
"He's not knocked out!" The second voice exclaimed.
"Duh!" The third voice added.
"That was supposed to work, why didn't that work?" The first voice demanded.
"Because life isn't a movie and punching people in the side of the head doesn't actually knock them out reliably," the third voice scolded. "You're a ninja, not a heavyweight boxer, so be a ninja!"
"Oh, be a ninja, great advice, not like you just stated what he is," the second voice said sarcastically.
At that point, Lloyd finally managed to get the thing off of his head. Tossing it to the side, he looked around the room. Three figures, each with some kind of fabric mask wrapped skillfully around their head so that only their eyes and eyebrows were visible, stood around the room, one leaning against one of his bed's bedposts, one lurking by the completely closed door, and one standing in the middle of the room.
"Aaand now he's seen us. Great," the figure by the door remarked, their voice the third voice Lloyd had heard.
"It's not really a problem, since we were taking him anyway. That's the whole reason we're here in the first place," the figure in the middle of the room stated in the second voice Lloyd had heard.
"Yeah, but we were supposed to take him in his sleep so the first thing he'd see would be the Master, not us," the third-voiced figure retorted.
Ninja. Master. Take him. Finally it clicked for Lloyd, both the situation and some of the things that had been said by the woman in the throne room.
He was being kidnapped by rebels so they could get rid of him and get closer to fulfilling a prophecy to destroy his parents and all of Ninjago.
Lloyd bolted for the door, opening his mouth to scream for help, but he didn't even make it three steps before the figure in the middle of the room had stepped in front of him and clapped their hand over his mouth.
"Hey, take it easy, you're okay," the second-voiced figure soothed.
"Like he's going to believe that," the figure by the bedpost scoffed in the voice Lloyd had heard first. "I literally just punched him in the side of the head. Let's just grab him and get out."
"If we convince him to come with us, it'll be a lot easier," the second-voiced figure pointed out.
"That wasn't part of the plan!" The third-voiced and first-voiced figures protested in unison.
"Neither was him being awake when we came. This way we can talk to him, get him to come along quietly, and not have to carry his unconscious body out the window," the second-voiced figure offered.
"My unconscious body?" Lloyd repeated as he managed to pull the figure's hand off of his mouth.
"You're not helping the mission," the first-voiced figure scolded.
"I'm not helping the mission? You're the one who punched a guy to try and knock him out instead of using pressure points that would actually work!" The second-voiced figure argued.
"Stop talking and use the pressure points," the first-voiced figure ordered.
"Why me? You're the one who was put in charge of knocking him out!" The second-voiced figure protested.
"But you're closest to him, so do it, dude," the first-voiced figure stated.
"Fine, fine, whatever," the second-voiced figure grumbled, and they turned to Lloyd. "Sorry about this."
Lloyd cringed back from whatever the figure was going to do, but the figure just stood there.
"Uh, which pressure points do I use again?" The second-voiced figure asked after a moment.
"Are you serious right now?" The third-voiced figure asked exasperatedly.
The second-voiced figure shrugged. "I wasn't paying attention for that lesson."
"You weren't paying attention for any lesson, probably," the third-voiced figure said waspishly.
"Okay, you guys keep arguing, I'm gonna go now," Lloyd said brightly, and he tried to slip past the second-voiced figure and head for the door.
The second-voiced figure grabbed him by arm and used his own momentum against him, swinging him around and flinging him across the room, right to the first-voiced figure still leaning against the bedpost, who grabbed Lloyd by the shoulders and steadied him. Lloyd began squirming instantly, trying to get away, but the figure's grip was too firm.
"Now get over here and do the pressure points, I'll hold him still," the first-voiced figure demanded.
"Okay, okay, stop being so bossy," the second-voiced figure complained, but Lloyd could hear them getting closer.
"I'm the leader, it's not being bossy when you're actually the boss," the first-voiced figure retorted, not letting up on their grip on Lloyd.
"Don't remind me," the second-voiced figure grumbled, coming right up behind Lloyd. "Okay, so which pressure points are they again?"
The first-voiced figure hummed under their breath for a few moments, then they burst out, "Eight through eleven!"
"Did you just hum through that goofy song you made to remember which pressure points do what?" The second-voiced figure teased.
"It's not goofy, and yeah, I did, because that way I remember them, unlike you," the first-voiced figure replied.
"Ouch," the second-voiced figure laughed. "Okay, pressure points eight through eleven, here we go."
They settled their hands around Lloyd's neck and part of his shoulders, pressing at four specific points.
"Hey!" Lloyd protested automatically, then more weakly, as he started getting dizzy, "hey, stop that, hey-"
"Keep going, he's not out yet," the first-voiced figure ordered.
"Do you see me letting go?" The second-voiced figure asked sarcastically. "Trust me, I want this to work just as much as you do, I'm still going."
"Stop," Lloyd begged, feeling incredibly out of it, "please, I don't-"
His legs buckled and he would've hit the floor if it weren't for the first-voiced figure's grip on his shoulders. The last thing Lloyd thought before he lost consciousness was "This has got to be the worst way to end a birthday ever."