Here's the chapter we've all been waiting for. Thanks so much for the reviews/reads, I can't even describe how happy they make me, especially when I'm trying to crank out chapters. I hope you enjoy and continue to make my day XD!
- Fell_and_Fallen -
"Desmond," I breathe, staring at the phantom of the man before me. He looks exactly the way he did in my memories, but his eyes are nearly as empty as his puppets'- intense, furious, terrifying. His brilliant smile is chilling, and I pull Lloyd tighter behind me.
"Don't move, Lloyd," I whisper, feeling him tremble ever so slightly against my back. "It's about time you stopped hiding, Desmond. Now let these people go and face me yourself."
He laughs harshly, his white teeth flashing derisively. "The only coward I see is the ungrateful child before me," he glances around the decimated ship, where his puppets lie moaning and the ninja slowly start to regain their senses. He smiles. "I see you disposed of Hale. Did you make him burn?"
My hands clench at the memory of Hale's departure, of his words that smack around the inside of my head like a bad song. I struggle to shake them aside. "You used him, just like you used everyone else you've ever met. He was your kid and you just threw him aside."
"He was weak, hardly worth the air he breathed," Desmond snorts. The ninja start to struggle to their feet, but with a twist of his hand Desmond sends them tumbling back down. I cringe as Kai's head cracks against the wood, but can't do anything to stop it. My stomach churns. "I'm quite glad you ended him. Saved me the trouble."
Desmond's dark eyes bore into mine and it takes all of my strength not to look away. "How can you stand to judge me when you look on others with such hatred, hm? How could you condemn me for seeking revenge when you seek it yourself?"
"I'm not looking for revenge. I'm looking for justice."
Scathing laughter explodes from his lips. "Justice? For whom? Your parents? The bastards deserved everything I gave them. I wish you remembered it, Iris, how your father screamed while I ripped him apart, how your mother begged for your life-"
Cole lets out a shout as he blindly rushes at Desmond, pulling his scythe from his back as the man turns to face him. His eyes flick to me, and something in me snaps.
"Cole, stop-!"
A terrifying grin spreads across Desmond's face as he shoves his hand at Cole, slamming him into the railing with a crack and an agonizing shout. I take a staggering step forward, but can't leave Lloyd. The other ninja are slowly recovering, but not nearly fast enough.
"Who is this, hm, Iris?" Desmond's fingers clench tightly. Cole's face constricts as he fights whatever pain keeps him tight against the ship. The railing buckles slightly, and my throat chokes. "Another of your useless friends? Or something more, perhaps?"
"Let him go!" my words are strangled as I struggle to pull my gaze from Cole. "I'm the one you want."
"You said no, Iris, what else was I to do?" he chuckles. "You forced my hand, I'm only pushing back."
"Then face me yourself, coward!" I shout, my fists clenching at my sides. Spitfire lets out a low growl. "Or are you afraid to face a ruler at full strength?"
He laughs maniacally, his voice booming and shrill over the moans of his puppets. "You're a pathetic excuse for the pets of the first Spinjitsu Master," he sneers. "But for my purpose, you will suffice."
He slams his head forward and the railing cracks behind Cole. He lets out another pain-filled shout as the other ninja rush forward, only to be sent flying back by another wave of Desmond's hand.
"So what do you say, Iris?" he turns another brilliant smile on me. "Will you face your destiny or will you let your precious friend die?"
His hand presses another centimeter and Cole shifts another agonizing inch. I cringe. "Please, Desmond-"
"Iris, darling, make a decision."
"Ash," Cole's voice is strangled with pain. "I'll be fine. Don't let him win."
Desmond's eyes narrow furiously as he shoves Cole another inch. He hangs precariously near the edge, just an inch from falling overboard. "Shut up, boy, before I silence you myself."
"Let him go!" I scream as my desperation explodes in a searing arc of blinding white flame that blasts at Desmond's infuriating shape. He smirks and meets the fire with an open palm, dispersing them in a blast of dark energy.
He laughs softly, completely at odds with the terrifying rage that fills my stomach. "That's my girl. Are you angry, Iris? Do you want to tear me apart? It's alright, you can try."
I carefully swallow my anger, scorching my throat with its burning power. "No. Not this time."
"Then perhaps you need another push," his grin widens as his eyes fall to the trembling shape behind me. My stomach lurches.
"Don't you dare-"
Lloyd lets out a terrified shout as he and Desmond suddenly disappear. I desperately grasp at the empty air behind me screaming, "Lloyd!"
Darkness congeals and the far side of the ship, forming seconds later into Desmond and a petrified Lloyd. Desmond shoves Kai and Jay aside as they make a grab for him, and another wave of his hand sends Zane toppling over a barely-recovered Cole before he can send a shuriken at his head. He grasps Lloyd in his other hand, holding him out over the side of the ship and the towering forest below.
Desmond's feral sneer widens. "Am I making a more compelling argument now, Iris?"
Fire blazes to life in my hands, wild, bright, nearly uncontrollable. It takes all of my strength not to fly at his throat as I force myself to think about Lloyd and the others. I have to keep them safe. I have to keep my promise. "He has nothing to do with this, Desmond! Put him down!"
"He has everything to do with this!" he spits, eyes flashing with furious rage. His hand clenches tighter on Lloyd's clothes, and the kid scrambles to grab hold of his arm and pull himself back to safety. But it's useless. Desmond holds him even farther out from the ship with a dark glare. "He's just another pawn you've used to reform yourself! You are a monster, Iris, you've proven that a thousand times over! You may think you are in control, but I know the power you possess, I know the way it will inevitably consume you! If he has to die in order for you to learn your place, then I will consider it a well-deserved death!"
"Ash!"
Lloyd starts to slip through his fingers, screaming my name, and my veins explode with an unbearable wrath. I rush forward in a column of flame, letting out a feral scream as I watch Desmond's expression shift. I rip into him in a crash of fire, throwing Lloyd to the deck as Desmond twists under me, roaring with laughter as he and I topple into the world below. I struggle to pull myself upward, back to the ship, but Desmond's hands close on me.
"Embrace it, Iris!" he howls as his nails dig into the neck of my throat and arms. I shriek as he shoves under him, toward the ground, tearing into my hair in the same movement. "Embrace your destiny!"
A feral scream rips away from my throat as my body explodes in fire. I tear at his throat, my eyes filled with bloodlust as my nails rip into his skin. Desmond lets out an agonized shout as his weight suddenly drops below me, tugging me down until we're crashing through the trees. My face splits on an outstretched branch, spattering blood into my eyes that I ignore as I watch Desmond's flesh blister and burn under my grip. He laughs through the pain, his white teeth flashing through the flames. I realize with a start that so am I. I clench my teeth tight together, filling my tongue with the acrid taste of iron and blood as we continue to plummet through the towering trees.
We land with an agonizing crash, rocketing away from each other in the impact. I shriek as a thousand things snap inside my body and I skid to a stop, my shoulder crunching in white-hot agony that makes my vision explode with searing dots. Desmond's dark shape lurches into view nearby and I struggle to follow, but only an anguished scream bubbles from my throat. My eyes fall to the buildings that surround us, all-too-familiar buildings that make my mind explode with the terrifying memories of when I watched them burn. I clench my eyes shut, but their impression is branded to my memory, the way they stood as they did four years ago, just before Desmond-
Desmond.
I want to rip him apart, to make him pay for all he's done, for threating my friends, my home. For calling me weak, powerless, corrupted- for bringing back here and threatening the people who have already been through hell. Bloodlust shrouds my eyes in a furious stream, wiping the pain from my body as all my thoughts turn to him, the bastard who lies, crumpled, just a few feet away.
He crawls to his feet, his voice lost in a low, rumbling chuckle. His face is ruined, covered in charred burns that mar his entire body. He must be in complete agony, but he still greets me with a twisted smile that feels me with rage. His sins have gone unpunished for much too long. I want to tear him to pieces, to watch him be consumed in the fire he loved so much, to repay what he did to my parents a thousand times over. I want him to die.
"You're finally learning, Iris," he grins with a sickening smile. I get to my feet in a whirlwind of burning agony, but I don't care anymore. The rage fills me like a flood, washing away all pain as I focus in him, on the man I've condemned to die. I'll enjoy ripping him apart. "You always had a weak spot for helpless things."
Fire tightens around my hands as I lunge forward with an agonizing scream, ignoring the pain that consumes my body as I focus my wrath on the bastard in front of me. Spitfire roars to life, his eyes blazing and terrifying as his power engulfs me, driving me forward as Desmond and I clash in an explosion of fire and energy.
The world ripples around us as I fight the darkness and close my scorching hands around his throat. Desmond lets out a feral scream as I tear into him with searing arcs of white-hot flame, ripping apart hair, clothes, and flesh with the inferno that scorches around my body in a thousand columns of streaming flame. Spitfire lashes at Desmond with fangs of fire that devour everything he touches, flashing like a snake's in the brilliant light that explodes from his eyes. Blood streaks from my arms mangled in the fall, but my vision is closed to everything except Desmond's maniacal eyes as he howls with laughter, his face twisted and mutilated as I rip into him again and again and again-
What am I doing?
I have to make him pay. I have to destroy him for everything he's done. I want to watch him burn, to die in screaming agony-
But he's not. I'm doing exactly what he wants. I'm losing control.
My hands grow still as Desmond blows me backward in a blast of dark force. My head explodes with agony as I crash into the ground again, snapping me with the crack of my neck back into reality. Darkness hazes my vision, threatening to pull me under, but I fight it and struggle to piece together coherent thoughts.
You're playing right into his game. You're doing everything he wanted. You're losing control.
"Come on, darling? Have you had enough already?"
His voice fills me with such a dark rage, a furious wrath that threatens to set me ablaze. I struggle to my feet as the fire fills my blood, scorching every vein, every muscle, every pore through my entire body.
No. This isn't you.
Blood pools from my fingers. Why shouldn't he pay? After all he's done? Why shouldn't he die?
It isn't your place. You promised Stella, your father, Sensei- You promised it wouldn't come to this.
"Iris, darling."
My hands shake violently in a scatter of wild flame. I bite down on my tongue, already bloodied, and fill my mouth with the taste of thick iron and scorching anger that nearly makes me heave. I want so badly to finish this, to watch the final light fade from his eyes as he realized the consequences of what he's done, of the pain he's caused-
Fight it, you idiot! Fight!
I swallow the blood and the rage, blistering my throat with its terrifying power. I think of Stella's words, of the promise I made to my ancestors, of the vow I made to my friends and myself. My gaze flicks to the town that surrounds us, to the petrifying memories I can never relive. I can't fall under his control. Not again. Not ever.
My body wrenches with an explosive pain as I take one step forward, then another, straightening up as Spitfire lets out an agonized growl. I face Desmond with a tight jaw, biting down wrath that threatens to escape my core.
"It's over," I whisper through the pain and caged wrath. My hands tremble violently against my sides and my legs threaten to cave beneath me. I'm in no shape to face Desmond head on, but I force myself to meet his eyes. "You lose."
He howls with a mutilated laugh. "Can't you see, Iris, you can never win!" his feral eyes are wide and filled with a brutal insanity I'll never be able to forget. "It's in your nature to destroy, to mutilate, to kill! Just look at what you've done to me! You're a monster!"
"You're the only monster I see here," I stand tall, drawing strength from Spitfire as I struggle to keep my resolve. "And you're going to pay for your sins."
Desmond spits. "You dare call me a monster? I'd look in a mirror before you start casting judgment on me, you pathetic creature. My sins are but a shadow on yours! The bastards you call your parents killed my Diana!"
"She was already dying!" the fire inside of my rages, and I force it back with clenched teeth. "My parents did everything they could to save her, but it wasn't enough! A disease killed her, not them-"
"You lie!"
Desmond's hand thrusts forward and something clamps down on my throat, choking off my words as my vision explodes with agony and blistering dots. My feet lift from the ground as I claw at my neck, trying to find purchase on whatever's holding me aloft, but it's no use. Desmond's hand closes tighter, and my neck cracks and pops in a thousand ways, throwing me even farther into darkness.
Desmond's eyes are wide, insane, demonic as he howls with laughter. "I never thought I would enjoy anything more than destroying the people who destroyed my Diana, but certainly I've never felt more satisfaction than in this moment," his terrifying, delighted eyes bore into mine as his hand clenches even tighter, his power gouging into my neck with pops of bone and blood that trickle down my mangled shoulders. "I should have killed you when I had the chance, when I could watch Lindell's face as I tore his daughter to pieces. I guess he'll have to enjoy it from hell."
His hand twists tighter and a screeching white noise explodes between my ears. I let out a scream as the agony pervades every pore, every part of my body with excruciating force. I want to give in, to let go of the pain and let myself slip away, but I can't. I have to finish this. I have to stay conscious, to fight the agony. But I'm not strong enough. I can't do it. Spitfire sputters on my arm, desperately channeling a flickering heat that rapidly fades as I feel myself slip. It wasn't enough. All the powers of my ancestors, of my father, it wasn't enough to stop him, to end the pain.
"I'm… sor-ry," the two words gasp from my lips, not directed at Desmond's howling shape, nor the town, or even my friends. All I can see as I fall into the darkness is my father's face, his gentle eyes as I saw him for both the first and last time.
I'm sorry, father.
My eyes close… and the world explodes with light.
The force around my throat disappears, replaced by an intense strength that fills my body and drives breath into my lungs. My eyes fly open as flames roar to life around me, surrounding my body with a blistering warmth that floods the air in spiraling columns. A thousand shapes flicker to life on either side of me, my ancestors- tremulous, powerful, and emanating a strength that fills my body with intensity. My father's shape appears next to mine, barely visible in the columns of towering flames as an unfamiliar warmth charges through my blood, sharpening my mind and bringing my body to life. My veins hum with intense energy as I face Desmond lying crumpled on the ground, his eyes furious and absolutely panicked in the face of our power. I let out a breath and a massive wall of flames surrounds us, forming a dome over our heads that screams with a heat I can't even register. I speak, my voice combining with the thousand others in a brutal chorus until the words pound in my ears and through the air like thunder.
"Desmond Vizier, you have committed unforgivable crimes against Ninjago, crimes that have gone unpunished for far too long. You made the choice to chase a dangerous plot of revenge that would have ended in the destruction of not only the very guides created by the first Spinjitsu Master, but of all Ninjago. As keepers of the peace, we hereby sentence you to banishment in the dark realms, where you will wander endlessly until the end of time."
"No!" he screams through mutilated lips. Half of his face is charred beyond recognition, hardly moving despite that passion that explodes from his mouth. "You will not silence me! You are all monsters, driven by selfish need and uncontrollable power!"
"You have been blinded by revenge and have forgotten all the vows you made as an advisor to the rulers of Ninjago," our gaze focuses on Desmond, clouded with light as our power continues to grow. "Your wife passed into the next realm with no such thoughts. She accepted her death, as you should have. Instead of taking her place and raising your son, you committed unthinkable atrocities. Your sentence will be carried out to its fullest extent."
"You will never take me!" Desmond spits. He raises a blackened hand cloaked with darkness. "Not the same way you took Diana!"
With a will of its own, my arm rises and words I don't understand stream from all our lips in deafening unison. A bright light surrounds me as gale-force winds roar to life, merging just beyond Desmond into a whirlpool. Blinding light snaps to life in an explosion of sound and reveals a doorway to a place swallowed by darkness, a portal that wrenches Desmond toward it in a scream of wind. He snatches at the ground, ripping clumps of grass and earth that disappear in the wind. He fights his fate despite the brutal wind that screeches into his face, tearing away pieces of loose, charred flesh that are lost in the void. His head turns to face the abyss and his eyes spark with a sudden inexplicable terror. He looks up at me with pleading eyes, for a second the man he must have been before all this happened, the man Diana knew. Instead of hatred, fury, satisfaction, I'm overwhelmed with pity. This man who was so grieved for his wife's death, driven to complete madness.
"Iris," he whispers, his dark eyes wide, lucid, pleading. "Please. Don't do this. I'm so sorry. Please."
I meet his eyes, guilt and overwhelming pity shoving against my ribcage as I listen to his desperate pleas for help. It's all I can do not to give in. I close my eyes.
"Goodbye, Desmond."
The man who was a nightmare for so long lets out one final, agonizing scream before he finally slips and spirals into the void, his voice lost in the endless darkness.
The world fades away from me. I collapse to the ground in a heap, unable to scream as my neck explodes with throbbing pain. The fire and light that had surrounded me disappear, replaced by the blistering agony that quickly invades every part of my body. My shoulder crunches agonizingly in its joint as I shove myself onto my back with a lurch, moving just enough to face the smoke-filled sky. I struggle to take a breath, my lungs shuddering as I'm impaled by pain. My eyes streaming with dirt and crusted blood fall to Spitfire. He chokes on my wrist, twisting in a mirror of my agony as he shrivels and goes eerily still. I try to move my arm, but it twitches uselessly.
"Spit-fire," I croak, trying to revive the graying dragon. A lance of fear pierces my heart. "No. Wake up."
He doesn't move as my arms go completely numb. A strange coldness starts to creep through my veins, freezing my once raging blood into streams of agonizing ice. My breath fogs as I struggle against the sudden swords of ice that pierce my chest, but I can't fight it. The frigid darkness clouds my vision with lace-like patches of frost, and I can feel my body slowly slipping away from me as the world fades away in brutal cold.
My eyes slide shut and everything goes still.