Tuesday

Lloyd blinked, finding himself staring at a—once again—very familiar stone ceiling. He jerked up into a sitting position, looking around in surprise. He found his parents and Master Wu over by the fire, most likely getting breakfast, lunch, or supper ready. The ninja stood off to the side, deep in conversation.

How had he gotten here…? And how had they escaped?

He stood up, feeling much better then—last night, was it?—and walked over to his parents.

Misako was the first to notice him. "Lloyd! You're awake! Are you alright?"

Lloyd nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine…"

Misako still looked worried.

"You told us you'd be fine, and then you got yourself captured!" Garmadon scolded him.

Lloyd winced, rubbing the back of is neck awkwardly. "Heh heh, yeah…"

His father glared at him.

"But, they made it out fine, brother," Wu interjected, putting a hand on Garmadon's shoulder. "And by themselves, too."

Garmadon shook his head. "Yes, and they came back with Lloyd unconscious."
Lloyd frowned. "Uh…"

Wu smiled. "But they brought him back. I think that's progress."

"I still don't trust them," Garmadon growled.

"Well, I trust Nya and Jay," Lloyd told him. Especially Nya…

Garmadon just shook his head. "Be careful, Lloyd. They're still humans. And just because they've helped you in the past, or just because they're staying with us, doesn't mean they won't turn on you one day."

Lloyd shook his head firmly, narrowing his eyes. "No. Nya would never betray me."

Garmadon rose an eyebrow. "I thought you just said you trusted both of them?"

Lloyd frowned. "Uh… well, I guess I trust Nya more…. But that doesn't mean I don't trust Jay!"

Garmadon gave him a look.

"What?!" Lloyd snapped.

"So what exactly happened at Bane Bete Noire?" Garmadon asked, changing the subject.

Lloyd felt a little guilty for suddenly snapping at him, but… He'd been feeling a little defensive. He did trust Jay! …Didn't he?

"I thought the ninja would've told you?" Lloyd replied.

"They did. I want to to hear it from you."

Wu and Misako looked at him expectantly.

Lloyd shifted awkwardly. "Well, uh… On the way there, we ran into a few of the Emperor's soldiers from his new army. We found out that they were actually robots."

Wu nodded. "Yes, the ninja told us."

Lloyd rose an eyebrow at him. "Okay, so if you already know… Why am I telling you this?"

"The ninja said the leader of Bane Bete Noire took you somewhere to torture you," Garmadon told him bluntly.

Lloyd swallowed, the bad memories flooding back. "Yes… And?"

"What did he do?" Garmadon narrowed his eyes.

Lloyd avoided his gaze. "Uh…"

"Perhaps now isn't the best time for interrogations?" Wu interjected.

Lloyd took the chance while he could, hurrying away.

Garmadon watched him go and join the ninja, a worried frown on his face.

"Garmadon, we both want to know what happened, but we can't press him," Wu told him, turning to face him.

"I agree," Misako said. She also had a worried frown on her face.

Garmadon sighed. "I know, but…" He trailed off, frowning.

Lloyd joined the ninja, hearing the tail-end of a sentence from Kai—about Zane.

"Any plans, yet?" Lloyd asked hopefully.

They all looked at him.

"Lloyd! You're up! How're you feeling?" Nya asked.

"Fine," Lloyd replied.

Nya looked like she didn't believe him for a second. "Well, we were just discussing how to rescue Zane." She shook her head. "We still have nothing."

Lloyd sighed.

"All we've got is just going into the palace blind, and figuring out a plan from there," Kai told him. "We've done it in the past, like Bane Bete Noire just a day ago, and when we went to defend the city from the oni."

Lloyd frowned. "I don't think that's a good idea… Bane Bete Noire and the oni were different. This is the Emperor. He's far more powerful."

Kai huffed, crossing his arms and shaking his head. "Come on! The Emperor isn't that powerful!"

"Yes, he is!" Lloyd argued. "He's got an army on his side!"

"So did the oni! And Bane Bete Noire!"

Lloyd shook his head. "No. Those were different. Bane Bete Noire is just a gang. The oni— they are powerful, and probably similar in power to the Emperor—but the oni weren't in their own territory. They were on unfamiliar ground. The Emperor isn't."

Kai rolled his eyes, but he didn't say anything else. He knew Lloyd was right.

"Then what are we going to do? Is the Emperor really unbeatable, like Master Wu says he is?" Cole crossed his arms, frowning. "There has to be a way! No one's unbeatable."

Lloyd nodded thoughtfully. Cole did have a point. And, Kai's suggestionwasthe best they had…even if it sounded foolish.

"So what are we going to do?" Jay asked, wringing his hands nervously.

Lloyd finally shook his head. "I… actually agree with Kai. We can't keep waiting. Zane needs help, now." He knew that his decision was mostly influenced by what Cole had said before, about going out to liberate the Outcast, but… Cole was right. They couldn't keep putting this off, waiting for a plan to present itself. They needed to take action.

"Wait, so we're just going to wing it?" Nya asked in disbelief. "If we screw this up, we could get executed."

Jay visibly gulped.

Kai smirked. "See? I have good plans!"

Nya glared at him. "That is not a plan, Kai!"

"Pfft! Is too!"

"Is not!"

"Okay, guys, focus!" Cole snapped. He turned to Lloyd. "So we're just going to barge in?"

Lloyd shook his head. "Of course not! We'll sneak in. Wu had implied before that someone may be able to get in and out, just without kidnapping someone. So we can sneak in, but to get out, we'll have to improvise."

"Wait… so we're kidnapping Zane?" Jay asked, looking confused and a bit disturbed. "I kinda like to think of it as rescuing."

Nya laughed. "Don't worry, Jay! We'll do the kidnapping, you can do the rescuing!"

Jay frowned.

"Okay, guys," Lloyd said, grabbing their attention. "Here's the plan: we sneak in, find Zane, get him out—improvised, of course—and then head back here."

They all glanced at each other, then nodded, hopeful smiles starting to appear on their faces. Hope crept in—dangerous hope.

Zane walked through the forest, two black katanas strapped to his back. He wasn't dressed like the others—with armor and ordinary katanas. He wore a black gi, given to him by the Emperor.

He was marching towards Dragon Land, accompanied by an army of nindroids—the Emperor's army. He'd been personally sent by the Emperor on this mission because of his skill. He hadn't gone to the Outcast to help conquer it because the Emperor needed him at the palace. But now… Because the dragons would be much harder to defeat, he'd been assigned to it.

And he was terrified.

He had no choice on the matter, still being controlled by that awful remote. The chip had completely taken over him, aside from his mind. It seemed that the Emperor wanted to torture him, by allowing him to see everything that was happening, but Zane not being able to do anything about it.

As they neared their destination, Zane felt his fear increase. He wished he could move, or speak—anything—but he couldn't. He was just a tool in the Emperor's game.

Wreckage was everywhere. Fires burned, lighting up the trees, and sending black smoke billowing into the sky. The dragons had fled, having finally realized that they were outmatched. Some of them lay motionless on the ground, having refused to flee because of their eggs or their young ones. The eggs and the young dragons lay dead as well, near their mothers.

Zane felt horrified by it. He'd never seen such… destruction. Decimation. And he'd helped cause it. By his hand, he'd killed the dragons, helped destroy their eggs, chased them from their home. If he wasn't currently being controlled, he was sure he would have cried—or whatever nindroids did.

"The Emperor has ordered us to return to the Outcast," one the nindroids suddenly said, snapping Zane out of his thoughts. It turned, heading into the flaming forest and back to the Outcast.

Zane found his limbs obeying the order, forced to follow the others. He vaguely wondered of they were being controlled, too, like him. If they felt the same pain and sorrow that he did—or if they were just droids, with no emotion and no wants or desires of their own. If they were just programmed to follow orders.

Probably.

The ninja, Wu, Garmadon, and Misako stood atop the mountain, staring at the great big plume of smoke rising from the north.

"What is that?" Jay asked quietly.

"There must have been a fire," Misako replied, a worried tone in her voice.

"But in the dragon's land?" Garmadon asked skeptically. "That's extremely rare. They have water and ice dragons to put them out."

"Yes, I agree…" Wu murmured. "Something else happened…"

"Like what?" Kai asked.

"I'm not sure, but it can't be anything good," Wu replied. He turned, heading back down the mountain.

They'd come up originally because Nya had seen the smoke from outside the cave, and had wondered what was going on. She'd thought that perhaps there was a forest fire in the mountains.

But the fire had turned out to be much farther away.

They'd all come up to see the smoke after Nya had told them about it, and now, after seeing it, it had created even more questions and no answers.

They all followed Wu down, back to the cave.

Once there, Wu turned to the ninja. "You should all resume your training. I don't want you to get rusty. Especially now, since you're the only defense Ninjago City has, since the army is gone."

They all glanced at each other, nodding.

"Lloyd, you'll have to sit this one out again," Wu told him before he could join.

Lloyd frowned in disappointment. "Why?" he whined.

Wu gave him a look. "Because you got injured, again. Which means you should be resting." His uncle smiled in amusement. "If you keep this up, soon the others will be better than you."

Lloyd glowered, not amused. "Well, that's not my fault," he grumped.

Wu patted him on the shoulder. "Don't worry! If you be more careful, and stop getting injured, you'll be able to join the others in no time!"

Lloyd scowled. He turned, walking over to his mother. She was currently taking stock of their very limited food supply.

"We need more food. This isn't going to be enough." She frowned.

"Could we try foraging someplace else?" Lloyd asked.

Misako shook her head. "These mountains are the safest place right now. I don't think we'd be able to go undetected anywhere else."

Lloyd sighed. At this rate, they really were going to starve.

He glanced at his friends, watching them train. He desperately wanted to join them. Wu stood off to the side, watching and correcting, and Garmadon stood there as well, observing.

Lloyd turned to look back at his mother. "What if—"

There was suddenly a startled yell from Kai.

Lloyd whipped around. The ninja were being attacked, along with his father and uncle—by about twenty of the Emperor's new nindroid army.

Horror, despair, and fear slammed into him. They'd been found.

Lloyd hadn't even noticed that he'd started to run towards the fight. His legs had just started moving.

He lit his hands up, blasting two of them back, before spinning into spinjitzu and flattening three more.

They were all left with just using their fists, except for Garmadon and Misako, who had two katanas each, and Wu, who had a bamboo staff.

Garmadon passed one of his katanas to Nya, and Misako didn't hesitate to hand Jay one, as well.

As Lloyd spun around and delivered a kick to one of the nindroid's faces, he heard Wu say, "We need to retreat!"

He tried to find his uncle, but through the mayhem, he could barely make out anyone.

A nindroid suddenly kicked him in the side, sending him to the ground. He tried to get up, but the nindroid threw him against a boulder.

Lloyd gasped as pain flared up in his side. He scrambled to his feet before the nindroid could do anymore harm. He punched it in the face.

As the fight dragged on, Lloyd realized that he was being pushed back, away from his family. His parents, Wu, and the ninja were still by the cave. They were trying to separate him! Not knowing why, Lloyd felt a panic build up in his chest. He tried to push through the nindroids, and eventually did, seeing his parents and the ninja and Wu.

Before they could try to push him back again, he said, "Guys—"

He tried to warn them about what was happening—but he couldn't have anticipated what happened next.

His parents and Wu had been forced by the edge of the cliff, along with the ninja. They were fighting desperately, the nindroids closing on them. Jay almost slipped over the edge, but Wu had grabbed him at the last minute.

One of the nindroids held something up, small and oval shaped. He clicked a button on it, and a red light started blinking. The nindroid threw it at the ninja, Wu, Garmadon, and Misako.

Lloyd watched in horror—everything seeming to suddenly slow down—as the thing exploded. Smoke went up, but it wasn't thick enough to block out his friends and parents and uncle. The entire cliff cracked, breaking away from the mountain, with them on it.

Wu and Garmadon seemed to realize what was happening first. Garmadon tried to grab Misako and make a jump for it, but he was too late. Wu had tried to leap forward as well, but…

The cliff disappeared, Lloyd's parents, friends, and uncle disappearing over the edge with it. The nindroids that had been forcing them by the cliff in the first place were sent over as well, plummeting to their doom.

"No!" Lloyd gasped, trying to lunge forward. Something held him back. He struggled against it for a few minutes, his mind not even comprehending what was going on around him anymore, until he suddenly felt exhausted—hopeless. Drained.

Lloyd felt his throat close up, realizing that… his family was gone. As the realization hit him, tears gathered in his eyes. An overwhelming feeling of despair and grief slammed into him.

He was suddenly being dragged away, and Lloyd just realized cuffs had been placed on his wrists.

"No…" he whimpered. He allowed himself to be dragged off, feeling completely hopeless, as a sob escaped him. Tears finally spilled from his eyes, and he didn't try to stop them. He was soon bawling pitifully, grief overcoming him.

Garmadon, Misako, and Wu had been his only family, his only friends, mentors, the only people he could talk to, for practically his whole life. Before he'd had friends, they'd been there for him—through thick and thin, no matter what. And now they were gone.

And then—the first friends he'd ever made, the first people besides his parents and uncle who didn't hate him, despise him, or want to murder him—were gone too. He knew that Cole had still hated him… but he'd saved him from the burning building. And Kai… even though he was still unsure how the red ninja had felt about him, Kai had protected him from the guards at Bane Bete Noire. He'd helped him out of there, and as the others had told him, Kai had carried him the whole way back from Bane Bete Noire.

They were all gone. He was alone, really and truly alone—and for the first time in his life, no one was coming to save him.

The nindroids dragged Lloyd into the Emperor's throne room. They shoved Lloyd down and onto his knees when they neared him.

Lloyd had stopped crying by now, having no energy left in him. A numbness had come over him, and an indifference to what happened next.

The Emperor stood up, walking over to them. "The Green Ninja… and the half breed."

Lloyd frowned.

"Look up at me, hybrid!" the Emperor ordered.

At Lloyd's silence one of the nindroids kicked him. Lloyd winced a little, but he found that he didn't really care.

The Emperor bent down, lifting his head up by his chin.

Lloyd, for the first time, finally got a look at the Emperor—the one who'd been hunting him down for days, and the one who'd murdered thousands of others before him. His dark, cruel, unempathetic brown eyes—almost black—and the dark black crown he wore. The pitch black robes. The dark black hair. The grin of glee on his face at his capture.

Lloyd stared back at him, his face devoid of emotion. He found that he didn't care what happened next—why should he? He had nothing now… nothing to live for.

"Hmm," the Emperor hummed. He stood back up, letting Lloyd's head fall back down. "Nindroids, what happened?"

"We ambushed the foe. We threw a grenade at them after we'd separated the target. The ninja and the hybrid's family is dead. They fell off the mountain," one of the nindroids replied.

"Dead? The ninja?" the Emperor growled.

"Yes, sir."

A brief feeling of grief hit Lloyd, but he battled it down until he felt nothing again.

The Emperor snarled in rage. "I told you to get the half breed! I never said to get rid of the ninja! How is my city supposed to be protected now?!"

The nindroid didn't say anything for a moment. "…I don't know, sir."

Lloyd may have laughed at that, knowing the Emperor needed their help to protect his own city, even though he had a whole army… but nothing about this situation was amusing.

The Emperor turned to someone behind him. "Take these droids to Crypto. I want them reprogrammed."

"Yes, sir."

Lloyd looked sharply up at the voice.

Zane walked over to them, completely blank-faced.

"Zane?!" Lloyd gasped, overjoyed and relieved to see his friend—and to see that he seemed unharmed.

Zane didn't reply to him, seeming to ignore him completely. "Follow me," he ordered the other nindroids.

He turned, the nindroids following him.

"Wait, Zane!" Lloyd called after him desperately, struggling against his captors. He didn't want to be alone right now… "Come back! Please…" He watched Zane disappear. Tears gathered in his eyes once again. What was wrong with him? Had the Emperor done something?
"Now, then," the Emperor said as more nindroids came to replace the others, "bring him to the dungeon."

The nindroids lifted Lloyd up, dragging him away.

Lloyd looked back at the Emperor, struggling—he'd just given him a reason to fight. "What did you do to Zane?!" he growled, angry and hurt.

The Emperor didn't answer him.

Zane led the other nindroids into a room, the same one he'd been led to the day he was captured by the Emperor. Crypto was already in there, along with P.I.X.A.L. Brief suspicion and worry came over him.

He thought back to Lloyd, hearing him call to him—desperately. He was still shocked and alarmed that he'd gotten captured, because now, he would most likely get executed. He was also still trying to process the fact that his friends were dead. He would never see them again… and Lloyd would soon be gone, as well.

"The Emperor ordered these nindroids to be reprogrammed," he suddenly found himself saying.

"What?" P.I.X.A.L gasped, horrified.

Crypto grumbled something incomprehensible. "What, they're not good enough for him?"

"No," Zane replied. He found a little joy at Crypto's annoyance, but only briefly. He found himself angry at the Emperor. These nindroids did not need to be reprogrammed. The Emperor should have been more specific when he sent them out.

Crypto told the nindroids to "get over here". They obeyed immediately.

Crypto started typing something on his computer.

P.I.X.A.L walked over to Zane, looking at him with sadness and the same anger Zane felt. Glancing back at Crypto, she saw that he was too occupied with his computer to notice them. She took Zane's hand, and Zane so wished that he could speak to her. They hadn't spoken to each other once since Zane was first brought here—he'd been under the control of the Emperor the whole time.

P.I.X.A.L glanced at Zane, seeing his still-emotionless face. She knew he was still conscious—that's what the chip was designed to do.

It was cruel.

She wished they could speak to each other, but that obviously wouldn't be happening anytime soon.

"P.I.X.A.L, come here," Crypto suddenly ordered.

P.I.X.A.L looked at Zane one more time, sadness coming over her. She squeezed his hand, once, and then walked over to Crypto. She felt grief slam into her when Zane didn't squeeze back.