Thorns

Chapter Eleven: Reconcile and Lost

Despite all the arguments and despite his better judgment; Garmadon was at the entrance to the diner alone. No backup, no weapons to speak of, no way of knowing that he will be safe with her. Thorn's note burned in the back of his mind and the thought of her having not one but two elemental weapons frightened him. He was always told by his father, the first spinjitzu master, that only the green ninja could carry that type of power but Thorn was now challenging this.

Thorn was more than she ever let anyone think she was and was hiding some dark power away from everyone that Garmadon thinks even rivals the golden master.

Despite this fear of her, Garmadon pressed on and entered the diner.

He looked around for a moment, it was who knows how early or late it was and only the employees were at the diner. They all moved around like they were stuck in a loop, moving slowly and without thought. Garmadon then looked down to see one person in a booth; he saw Thorn.

She looked rough. There were black smudges left on her cheeks, her hair was in a stringy mess, and her hands and face were starting to show bruises. She stared deeply into her cup of black coffee as if it were the only thing in the world right now. It broke Garmadon's heart when he saw his daughter beaten up like this. However, from what the ninjas said of their fight; these bruises weren't from that fight. When he finally walked over to her booth, she looked up at him with tired and unimpressed eyes.

"And here I thought you wouldn't show up," Thorn spoke, "Desino" Thorn spoke her magic, and the two employees left to go into the back room.

"We need to talk," Garmadon replied as he took a seat in the booth across from her.

"No shit," Thorn spat.

"I only have 10 minutes till the police come to arrest me for breaking house arrest," Garmadone explained.

"The note I left made a decoy of the signal coming from the ankle monitor, so to the system, you are still at the monastery," Thorn reassured, "I didn't want our conversation to be interrupted."

"Where are the weapons you stole?" Garmadon demanded.

Thorn looked unfazed by this slight glimpse of anger coming from her father. She just lifted up her coffee to drink as she ignored him for a moment, finally getting to drink her coffee.

"I don't think you are in a position to make demands or to try and order me to do something," Thorn declared, knowing she held all the cards, "Besides, I didn't bring you here to make a trade with them."

"...Then why did you want to meet with me? You could have left them with Cole when you had him under your spell," Garmadon questioned.

"I did no such thing, that's just my natural charm," Thorn said dryly as she put down her mug that she had already finished.

"What am I doing here then?"

"I brought you here to tell you to never come after me again," Thorn threatened, "I gave you enough warnings, next time I won't be as nice."

"You call trapping your brother and the other ninjas in a statue nice?" Garmadon argued.

"I could have done worse, you know that," Thorn argued back, "All those spells you left with me yet I didn't use a single one. Despite you and Wu convincing everyone that I am evil incarnate, I didn't use a single spell to harm the ninjas tonight, I only trapped them long enough for me to get away."

"I suppose we should thank you for that," Garmadon said snarkishly.

"You should," Thorn challenged, the coffee next to Thorn began to stir as Garmadon watched in fear, "I could have decided to become everything you feared me to be. Become a better villain than you. I could have ripped their beating hearts out, cast a spell to turn them against you, or turned them all into nightmare-ish creatures to forever roam the night. But I didn't. I didn't do any of that because I can show restraint," Thorn explained while everything began to settle down once more.