Sorry about this being a little late. Did some stuff with my friend's family this weekend and stuff ended up getting really busy between the visit and homework.
Chapter Twenty-One: Twisted
There was a hard tug on her arm, forcing her backwards, but she barely felt it. Laurie was numb. Voices mixed into a chorus of noise, but the red head did not pay attention. She felt like she was underwater, her vision blurred and ears muffled. Her movements felt sluggish and forced. It was her fault. This was all her fault, because she wanted to test something out. A test that had ultimately failed. And now Kai was hurt, cut by a tooth from the Great Devourer.
Just like my father.
Laurie's head was spinning. Just like my father. Evil, like my father. Kai could not end up like Garmadon, right? He was stubborn and strong. So was my father. She shook her head, trying to force the thoughts away. Kai was too good to ever succumb to something like the Devourer's venom. There was something that she remembered her cousin saying back in the Misty Forest. It sent a shiver down her spine.
Everyone harbors some kind of darkness within them.
"Even Kai," she breathed, finally feeling the chill of the snow around her creeping into her bones. Laurie closed her eyes. She had never meant for this to happen. If this was all real...then she had just ruined Kai's life forever. If it's not, her thoughts whispered soothingly, then you're upset over nothing. "But...that's two different Kais now," the red head whispered to herself, not even caring if the people around her thought her crazy. "I-I can't handle that."
The chill grew stronger and Laurie tried to wrap her arms around herself, keep the warmth of her body from escaping, but it did not work. She was freezing. It was fitting. The world was crumbling around her in more ways than one and she was trapped, being dragged down in a rip current among a sea of confusion. What if she never got out? What if she was doomed to wander these...these worlds forever? Was she being punished? Why?
Where there is light, there will always be shadow...
The Overlord. He had something to do with all of this, she felt it. But...how? Laurie did not know.
She was angry now, an uncontrollable rage suddenly consuming her body. Everything was falling to pieces right in front of her, before she was ripped away in time to witness something else go terribly wrong. It was not fair. Why her? Why this? A frustrated cry tore through her lips and echoed around her. She wanted to punch something. Kill someone. Anyone.
"Laurie, Laurie, it's okay. Keep your voice down or they'll come back."
She opened her eyes slowly and was met with a familiar face. "And so what if they do?" Laurie spat, her tone uncharacteristically harsh.
Lucas took a step back, elemental blade glowing bright in the otherwise dim forest. "It's really bad now, Laurie," the grey ninja whispered, gesturing to his own face. "Just...let me get you free and I'll take you back to the lake. We can fix you up there and the-"
"And then wait until it happens again, right?" Laurie narrowed her eyes. "And then the cycle goes on and on, over and over again for as long as I live." She felt her face flush with anger and her teeth clenched. "Because I'm useless now. I'm broken. I'm practically the enemy already, but you don't want to believe that. You can't believe it, Lucas."
She could see the light from his weapon reflecting in his hazel grey eyes. "No, I can't accept that you're the enemy, Laurie, because you're not." Lucas spun around and delivered a hard kick to the ice that still bound Laurie to the tree behind her. It gave way slightly, small chunks of the glassy material falling to the earth. "This isn't you talking, it's the Dark Matter and we both know that." He kicked again and the red head felt her entire body quiver as her prison was slowly chiseled away. "You don't actually believe any of this. It's the Overlord. He does this to people. He twists them into something they're not."
The ice finally crumbled with a sickening crunch, littering the ground like freshly mined diamonds. Laurie stepped away from the tree and picked up a large chunk, seeing her distorted reflection glaring back at her. Deeply ashen skin. A single blazing purple eye. The other was on its way to matching it. He's right, she thought, really studying the monster before her. This isn't you at all. It's just a shadow of you. You can beat this. You can find a way to save yourself, save your friends. But, you need to get a grip first.
I do have a grip though. I've never been more honest with myself than I am right now.It was odd. She was literally arguing with herself. Laurie felt a smirk tug at the edge of her lips and the distorted monster in front of her followed her lead. I am the enemy. There's no going back now. It's already happened. It's still happening. Destiny ripped my world apart. Killed my brother. Took my friends from me. If this is what I've become because of it, then there's nothing that change that. Her mismatched eyes settled back on Lucas, who appeared to be growing more concerned with every passing second. And if I have to suffer...then shouldn't everyone else?
Her hand instinctively twitched, grabbing the dagger that lay hidden within her cloak. "I believe all of it," she said, revealing the small weapon and running a finger along the dull side of the blade. "I mean, you make a point too, Lucas. The Overlord does tend to 'twist' people." Laurie took a couple of steps forward, her movements slow and methodical. Her cousin took a single step back to compensate and the red head scoffed in response. "But...is that a bad thing? What if we've just been denying ourselves the right of freedom until now? What have we ever done for ourselves, Lucas? Nothing."
The Ninja of Water was growing frustrated. "If you'd snap out of it for two seconds and actually listen to yourself, you'd see how crazy you sound."
"Everything we do, everything we've always done, has been about protecting Ninjago. Protecting Lloyd," Laurie continued, ignoring her cousin's protest. "What has Ninjago ever done to repay us? Absolutely nothing. How did Lloyd repay us for teaching him, for always putting our lives on the line just to make sure he was safe? He died, that's how. The little brat..." She let out a throaty chuckle. "He died, Lucas. The Overlord killed him. All of our hard work, washed away in an instant because Lloyd couldn't step up the plate when it actually counted."
Lucas raised his blade slightly, tightening his hands around it. "You loved Lloyd," he argued, the pain in his voice evident. "Everyone loved Lloyd. He didn't die because he was weak or anything like that. He died because we didn't prepare him well enough to fight the Overlord. It's our fault. No one wasted anything. We did this because we were chosen, because we wanted to help Ninjago."
She drew her arm back and threw the dagger as hard as she could. It soared through the air and barely nicked Lucas' left cheek. He felt the small wound trickle an insignificant amount of blood and he wiped it away defiantly. "I don't want to fight you," he said, tone steely.
"Why not?"
Lucas removed his second elemental weapon from its holster, the iridescent blade glowing to life from out of the golden hilt. "Because you'd lose."
Laurie ran forward, watching as her cousin swept one of his blades down low, trying to take her feet out from under her. She jumped over it and managed to land a hard punch right on his face. Lucas staggered back very slightly before regaining his balance. Crossing both blades over each other, the Ninja of Water brought them apart, releasing a torrent of pressurized water that knocked Laurie backwards, sending her to the ground. "I don't plan to," she spat, wiping her arm across her face and getting to her feet.
Lucas met her this time around, thrusting one of his blades towards her abdomen, but the red head side stepped the attack before twisting her body around and unleashing a kick. Her cousin caught the attack with the hilt of his other weapon, but Laurie lifted her other leg in response and kicked her cousin's stomach. The grey ninja squeezed his eyes shut from the shock and pain as Laurie tumbled to the ground again, breathing hard. They were both back at it seconds later, blocking and dodging in a dance that was somewhat familiar.
She was noticing a bit of a pattern now, how Lucas would tend to block her attacks with both weapons, cancelling out any momentum, but leaving him vulnerable for just a small amount of time. A window of opportunity. Laurie smirked and brought her weaker arm around one more time, watching Lucas block it, but immediately afterwards, the red head thrust her right knee into the brunet's abdomen, sending him stumbling backwards relentlessly, stopping against a tree. He would be back up at it soon. Lucas never really stayed down.
"Have you had enough yet?" Laurie asked, throwing up the hood of her cloak and shrouding her face in darkness. It had always terrified her, the darkness. But now...it was almost comforting. "Or are you still ready to shower me with your words of encouragement?"
He stood shakily, inhaling. "I've beaten you before, Laurie," he answered. "There's nothing that'll stop me from doing it aga-"
A sturdy fist connected with the side of the grey ninja's face and he was back on the ground in a second.
Laurie saw Cole give her an uplifting smile as he reached down and yanked up the boy he had just punched. Lucas lashed out at the Ninja of Earth, but only managed to have one of his blades dislodged from his grip in the process. "Give it up," Cole sighed, kicking the weapon away as soon as it hit the ground. "You're surrounded."
Refusing to weaken, Lucas brought his remaining weapon up in an attempt to jab his former friend in the shoulder. A warm shock spread through his arm and Lucas felt his muscles unwillingly tighten around the hilt of the elemental blade before it slipped from his grip. Jay smiled. "Doing that to people never gets old. It's so much fun!" The auburn haired man grabbed Lucas' other arm, holding him as he fought for freedom.
"You did as well as I predicted." Laurie turned around and saw Zane approaching her from out of the darkness.
"Hey, I think she actually did much better than you thought she would," Kai laughed, walking beside the nindroid. The spiky haired brunet closed the short distance between himself and the scene of the struggle before resting an arm around Laurie's shoulders. "Not bad at all."
She smiled, feeling accomplished for the first time in a long while. Shrugging Kai's arm off of her, she walked towards her cousin whose narrowed gaze looked deadly. "Lucas, there's no hard feelings, really," she said, her expression placid. "Yeah, sure, you've beaten me before. I can accept that. But this time, you lost."
Laurie saw her dagger strewn upon the plush grass and bent down to retrieve it. "Because you're alone, on the wrong side of the fight. If you don't figure that out soon, you'll never win again."
Thank you for reading. Thanks for being patient. Next update is...February 21st. See you then.