Happy Friday! Another week, another chapter. Hope it's okay.
Chapter Twenty-Three: Questioned Loyalty
"I'm not sure if this is going to work," Lloyd finally said, lowering his arms down to his sides. The green light that had been casting a soft glow in to the night sky dissipated. Sighing, the blonde haired boy turned towards his sister who seemed to have a renewed sense of energy about her. "Look, Laurie, I know that you think the others will come to help us, but what makes you so sure that they're going to see this? Maybe it would just be better if we actually went to go get them instead." His emerald eyes gazed around the roof that they currently stood on, horrible memories seemingly flashing back to life. The strong sting of tears began to rise up, but Lloyd forced them back down. "We're kind of trapped up here if you think about it and I really don't want anything bad to happen. Not again…"
Laurie could see where her brother was coming from and felt a wave of iciness overwhelm her. "Lloyd, you get a little weird sometimes, like you're hiding something from me." She placed a gentle hand on the green ninja's shoulder and felt him tense up. "Ever since you healed the gash on your arm the other day I've just felt like there is something you aren't telling me. I let it go at first, but it's really been bugging me." Laurie walked around her sibling, now standing directly in front of him. "Lloyd, I promised that I would never go away or leave you. Can you please just answer some of the questions that I have, please?"
Shifting uncomfortably, the young boy conceded defeat. "Okay, Laurie, what do you want to know?" He knew that this was going to happen eventually. Lloyd was just hoping that he would not have to talk about it so soon. It had only been a few months since the incident on the Bounty with the pirates, but the emotional wounds were still fresh. Honestly, he should have talked about this with Laurie when she had first started asking the questions. It would have been easier to just get everything out there.
"Someone taught you how you could heal yourself, you said so yourself. Who taught you how to do that, Lloyd?" Laurie softened her voice. She did not want her brother to feel like she was attacking him. Nothing could have been farther from the truth. There was no telling what would happen tonight and she just wanted to make sure that Lloyd could tell her anything before she was no longer here. As much as Laurie was hoping that both she and Lloyd could best their adversaries, there was a part of her that felt as if tonight was the end; her end. "You know you can tell me absolutely anything, Lloyd. Nothing will ever change that."
"His name is Lucas," Lloyd answered plainly, crossing his arms over his chest. "He taught me how to that because he can control water." Feeling slightly better, the green ninja looked up at his sister, seeing a wide smile grow on her face. He knew exactly what she was thinking and could not help but laugh. "Yes, that's why I can use water. You finally got that question answered too." It felt good, talking about Lucas out loud. "Is there anything else you want to know?"
Of course there was more she wanted to know! "This Lucas guy, why didn't he stay with you guys to help you train more? I mean, the more the merrier, right? The more good guys there are, the easier it is to beat the bad guys. Why isn't he here?" She could see the shadow of disappointment cross Lloyd's features. Maybe she was being a little to overbearing with her thoughts and questions. "Sorry, I'm just a little curious is all. I really didn't mean to-" Her sentence was cut short as the door to the roof flew open. Laurie spun around, expecting to see the ninja arriving, but to her dismay a familiar, small figure stood in the doorway.
"I promise that I'll answer those questions of yours, but only if we get out of this, sis," Lloyd smirked.
She felt her face turn red with both anger and fright. Of course Lloyd would give her an ultimatum of that sort. Unfortunately, her curiosity was too great. The orange ninja was hoping that it would be enough to possibly overcome a prophecised death. "Don't worry, I'll hold you to that promise," Laurie said, watching as the young girl moved out of the doorway and on to the roof. Her long, blue hair was draped over her left shoulder and she brandished both of her small weapons. Within seconds, Rhea was charging towards the siblings, her teeth grit with determination. She had to stop them here and now. There would be no more second chances.
Narrowing her ice blue eyes and widening her defense stance, Laurie barely managed to catch Rhea's left wrist as she brought it down. The two struggled, Rhea attempting to push the karambit in her hand downwards. With every ounce of strength she could muster, the young girl quickly thrust her arm downwards, cutting Laurie on the side of her forearm. The orange ninja sucked in a deep breath, but refused to let go of Rhea. Blood began rising to the surface of the wound, softly trickling down towards the red head's elbow. Rhea let out a grunt of effort and swung her right arm across Laurie's abdomen.
As with their first battle, Laurie saw this coming. She relinquished her grip on Rhea's wrist and jumped backwards, watching as the steel tip of the curved blade caught the material of her dress skirt. Acting simply on instinct, the orange ninja knelt on her left knee and held her hands out in front of her. A rush of wind blew past Rhea, put she held her arms in front of her face and placed her right foot behind her, bracing herself against the attack. She could feel herself slowly sliding along the roof and rolled to her right. Quickly getting to her feet quickly, the young girl came face to face with Lloyd.
He threw a punch at Rhea which she quickly ducked under before kicking out in retaliation. Lloyd stumbled backwards a few steps before regaining his balance, but Rhea wasted no time in using this to her advantage. She leapt forward, catching the front of the green ninja's sweatshirt and pulling him towards her. The karambit in her right hand wavered near his throat, but Lloyd just narrowed his emerald eyes. "Go ahead," he challenged. "It wouldn't surprise me one bit if you killed me. I thought you'd changed, I really did, but I guess I was wrong." His blonde hair was plastered to his forehead with sweat and Rhea bit her lip.
She shook her head back and forth wildly, tears welling up in her eyes. The weapon near Lloyd's throat was shaking and she lowered it just as she had earlier in the warehouse. As quickly as she had grabbed Lloyd, she released him, promptly stowing her twin blades back up in her hair. With unsteady hands, Rhea slowly backed up, fumbling in her jacket pockets for the pen and pad of paper that lay within. Laurie noticed this and quickly made her way over to her brother. "Sorry I let her get so close to you," she breathed, examining the new gash in her dress. Nya would be so mad at her when she found out how much abuse the dress had gone through tonight. "I won't let it happen again."
"She let me go though," Lloyd countered, somewhat surprised. "Just like she had back in the warehouse when I couldn't see you." He noticed Laurie making her way forward, but, against his better judgment, Lloyd grabbed on to her arm. "I-I don't know what she's doing right now, but I don't think she's going to hurt us." Laurie rolled her eyes and held out her right arm. The blood that had traveled down her arm had stopped flowing now and was dry. "Okay, well it doesn't look like she wants to hurt me," he answered, his eyes still wide. "Maybe if you just stay behind me than you'll be okay."
Rhea could hear the two siblings talking, but she was not paying them much attention right now. Her hand was flying back and forth across the paper, trying to transcribe every thought that was going through her head. When she glanced up to find Lloyd, the girl noticed him trying to push Laurie behind him. Taking in a deep breath, Rhea ran forward and watched Laurie try to shake Lloyd's hand off of her arm. The tension between herself and the orange ninja was thick, and Rhea never took her eyes off of Laurie as she handed her notepad to Lloyd.
Hastily, the green ninja took what Rhea offered him. When the Overlord said that he used me to find you, I was surprised. I had forgotten that he could do stuff like that. I'm really sorry, Lloyd. I didn't mean for you to get dragged in to any of this. You've been nothing but nice to me ever since I came and I wanted to tell you how sorry I was. He looked up in to Rhea's familiar brown eyes that were almost completely hidden underneath of her bangs. "So, you didn't know that he was coming tonight?" Lloyd questioned, handing the pad of paper back to Rhea. As she reclaimed ownership over her possession, the young girl shook her head. "Laurie, Rhea didn't know the Overlord was coming. She didn't know that he was going to use me to get to you."
"She's lying to you!" Laurie growled, pushing past Lloyd and tackling Rhea to the ground. Rhea felt the air leave her lungs as her back hit the roof, causing her to cough uncontrollably. Laurie pinned the girl's arms to the surface beneath her. "Rhea knew about the necklace, Lloyd. The Overlord said so back in the warehouse." She could feel Rhea struggling against her, but Laurie did not yield. "Don't let her keep on fooling you. There has been nothing but trouble since she showed up. That isn't going to just end now. It's that mark on her face, the Overlord was the one gave it to her! That's how he managed to find you two; I don't think she just could have 'forgotten' that it was there."
Lloyd felt his face fall and he leaned forward, grabbing Laurie's shoulders. She protested against him, but the green ninja was unyielding. "Can I please just talk to her? She's not going to hurt me, Laurie." After minutes of nothing but silence mixed with the quick sound of Rhea's shallow breathing, Laurie finally stood and let the young girl get to her feet. Narrowing her eyes, Rhea charged forward, pulling one of the weapons from her hair, but Lloyd grabbed her around the waist. "No," he stated, keeping the two girls away from each other. "I want to talk with you, Rhea."
Inhaling, Rhea ceased her attack and readjusted her jacket. No matter what Lloyd had to say to her, she still had to kill Laurie tonight. The girl was scared of what the Overlord would do to her if she did not. What do you want to talk about, Lloyd? she wrote quickly, holding the paper in between them. There isn't too much to talk about and if you want to get out of here you need to do it while you still have the chance. He'll be here soon.
"You're not lying to me, right? You really didn't know that the Overlord was coming, right?" He just wanted answers. As much as he felt like there was still a part of Rhea that was the girl he had become friends with, a cloud of doubt shadowed this thought. What if Laurie was right and she was just lying? "Please, Rhea, I just really need to know."
So he really did not believe her after all. With a loud sniff, she wiped her eyes with the back of her hand before replying to Lloyd's questions. No, I'm not lying, but you probably won't believe that either. She was feeling angry and slightly betrayed, but that was probably how the others were feeling right now too. Yeah, he managed to find me because he did give me my scar. It kind of bonds us, but maybe you don't even believe that. If you want to live, I suggest you leave now. She threw the pen in her hand to the ground and pushed the paper roughly in to Lloyd's hands.
Laurie watched as her brother took the time to read what the young girl had written, but while she was distracted, Rhea lunged towards her. The weapon in her hand buried its way in to her side and the orange ninja cried out, stumbling backwards and pulling the blade from her side. It was coated in dark, sticky blood and she suddenly remembered her dream from the other night: just her and Rhea fighting while Lloyd was on the outside. Gritting her teeth together, Laurie threw the blade behind her, hoping that it had fallen off of the side of the building and far away from Rhea.
The pain radiating from her newly acquired wound was somewhat nauseating, but Laurie pushed forward. Rhea gave a small smirk and gripped her remaining weapon, but was knocked to the ground almost instantly. She looked up to see Lloyd, his eyes blazing with newly found hatred. "You think I don't believe you? You think that I don't trust you? How do you expect me to trust anything you say or do when you're constantly trying to kill my sister?" He barely recognized his own voice as he and Rhea struggled against one another.
Laurie knelt down on the ground, trying to apply pressure to her bleeding gash with her left hand. She was anticipating the cold she had felt in her dream to consume her at any second, but all she could feel was the warmth of the blood seeping in to the material of her red dress, the colors blending together. The stars that had once been gleaming in the sky seemed to dull completely, almost acknowledging that an end was approaching. It was so clear up here though, high above the city lights and bustle. Why would the stars just disappear? There was the sound of Lloyd yelling and Laurie returned her attention to the two children. They were locked in a tussle and Rhea flipped the green ninja over her shoulder. He was dangerously close to the edge of the roof and, to Laurie's utter disbelief and horror, Lloyd could not keep his balance.
"Lloyd, no!" She felt her breath catch in her throat as Lloyd started to fall off of the roof.
Lucas belongs to Packerfan95. I've kind of been hinting about him for a while now, but there's still more story to go so we'll see what happens. :)
Hope this chapter was okay. I may be updating a little late next week because I'm going on a mini vacation with my family. It'll still be out on Friday, but it may be out in the middle of the day or something. I'll see what I can do. Thanks for reading and I'll see you next week. :3