Wisps: Recollection (Ninjago X Reader)

11. Frustrating Fear

Slight Gore Warning

After rushing out of the sewers with the Ninja, you grouped up in Borg's skyscraper where he explained the next course of action. To save Lloyd, the Ninja would bring the attack to the Overlord by becoming digitized themselves through Borg's technology powered by Pixel's borrowed energy source. It was ingenious, you give him that. However, the Overlord wouldn't give time for Borg to thwart his plans. Droves of nindroids are right at the entrance, where you were fighting with some civilians.

Already, they had cleaved through your glassy shield. Each slash of the nindroid's sword was invigorated by the Golden Power the Overlord is siphoning off of Lloyd. Several times, steel gnaws at your flesh, leaving weeping nicks. Other people weren't doing better - they were doing far worse than you. A man was sobbing at his stump for a hand, cradling the two bones peaking out. Another was trembling, a sword lodged in the middle of his stomach, every breath a dribble of bloody bile coating the hilt. One is long dead, their face a damp lump of brown hair and torn muscles from being trampled by steel shoes.

This shouldn't be happening, people fighting with things they found lying around to swing as weapons.

One man was still as a mouse, up to the moment these words left your mouth: "You! Help the injured-!"

"Like hell I'm doing that!" He ran, dampening the fires of courage in others.

Some scampered off after the coward, prolonging their lives. You don't blame them. Cowards they were, but has there ever been a stupid one? As with warriors, has there ever been a smart one? Perhaps, however, they don't live for long, suffering the same fate as their enemies. Those that do survive carry the lives of the dead and you the spirits of others.

In the corner of your eye, you see Borg's artificial limbs crawl behind the door, a flick of ivory slithering after. More nindroids are flooding the entrance, the line of defense crumbling against the sharp metal stained in red. As clear as day, a choice reared its ugly head in front of you.

Hands twitched, the starting numbness pricking your skin, goading you to go and leave them all behind. No matter what, a stretching desert with their cries for mercy looms in your sleep. These are memories that will stick with you even in death in the same way blood smears the concrete. Your shoes pump against the pavement.

Selfish, that's all you think when your legs don't stop running to the door. Selfish, that you were going to leave them. Leave them to fend for themselves. That oath to live a better person than in your forgotten past pushed to the back of your mind. The only thing you were thinking of, was her, and you are selfish. You stopped in your tracks.

You press the button on your earpiece. "Pixel, stay safe. More are pouring in."

"Are you okay?! Do you need-"

You talk to Nya through your earpiece, "Some got through, we're trying our hardest" - you ducked under the sharp edge wanting to slice your throat - "I'll stay here and prevent more shits from getting in."

"They're here-"

"Keep Pixel safe."

"What-"

You clutched your bandaged hand that was once a pristine white, now stained with the blood of your own and others. Pixel patched you up, telling you to be more careful, not wanting to see you wounded. You're afraid of not making it, not seeing her. You are scared, for the first time in years since that dark day. It's practically the same, you can't do anything, stuck in a sea of Stygian metal.