the other side | ninjago

friendly fire

"Uh Lloyd, listen, buddy, can we pull ourselves together?" said Jay.

"Jay, I don't think he's going to listen," said Nya.

Sensei Wu and Misako ran to the upper deck because of the commotion they heard.

"Lloyd?" questioned Wu.

The three remaining ninjas readied their weapons. He hadn't moved yet, but they knew it was coming soon.

"Misako, Wu, go back downstairs," said Kai quietly.

The two of them disappeared quickly back down to the bottom of the bounty.

Kai tried to reason with Lloyd, but they all knew it would be futile. When he suddenly flipped up his hood, the others knew it was time to fight another friend. He charged toward Jay first, knocking him off his feet with a few punches. Kai attempted to get ahead of him by using his elemental powers, but he had forgotten that he could no longer use them now that Lloyd was gone.

Jay returned a couple of punches, one of which was just enough to knock Lloyd to the ground. But Lloyd climbed back up from the ground as if nothing had happened, ready to quickly launch another attack.

"Don't hurt him!" shouted Nya.

"We have to at least a little bit, or he'll hurt us first," shouted Kai back.

They stayed on their toes just in case Sadie would follow them anytime soon as well. Lloyd used his powers against them, which they found extremely frustrating due to their lack of power. As they fought, instead of the usual green burst of energy Lloyd would use, something completely unexpected happened. The same vines that had been tormenting the team before now came from him. Was Sadie nearby, or did he do them himself?

"Wait... WHAT?" yelled Jay from where he now stood. 

"So this is more of a problem than we thought huh?" said Kai. 

They looked around to see if they could find Sadie toying with him from anywhere, but she was nowhere to be seen. How was this possible?

Nya charged in to throw a punch at him, but Lloyd dodged out of the way, causing her to lose her balance. As she fell, she grabbed his sleeve and ripped it down the middle, revealing his forearm. Nya stood up again, but this time she caught a glimpse of his arm, which now had green lines pulsating through it. They almost appeared tattooed, but Lloyd had no tattoos that they were aware of.

"Do you guys see his arm?" shouted Nya.

"No," said Kai whilst he and Lloyd were going back and forth, "he won't sit still,"

Just as Kai finished speaking, Jay ran up behind Lloyd with a bucket that had been lying around and clocked him over the head with it, knocking him unconscious.

"Jay! "I said not to hurt him!" said Nya, now running towards the two.

"I didn't have a choice, did I? Let's get a closer look at that arm," he said back.

They ripped the rest of the sleeve off to discover that the vines had moved beneath his skin, forming a vine-like tattoo that wrapped around his forearm. The vines were now inside him, but how? They had no idea how these worked, but they knew they didn't have much time before he woke up.

"Well what do we do?" asked Jay.

Nya and Kai did not have much time to answer before Lloyd's eyes sprung back open from where he lay, and he jumped up from the ground. Lloyd jumped at Jay, who he swung from one side of the bounty to the other. Jay landed on a pile of junk that had been laying on the side. Next Nya came for Lloyd, but it wasn't long before he sprung vines from the ground, grabbing her and settling her into one place.

"Kai! Help!" yelled Nya. Kai ran up to Lloyd who had seemingly settled for a moment.

"Lloyd, stop. We know you're in there," said Kai.

Jay got up from where he was thrown, but he was in too much pain to fight again at this moment. Kai slowly walked up to Lloyd again to try and see if he could get to him. He had done it once before with Morro. He could do it again, even though this time it was very different.

Lloyd had his back facing Kai.

"Lloyd, fight it, I know you're in there," said Kai, even closer now to Lloyd.

"He's not going to respond Kai, we know they don't respond," said Nya, still tied with vines. Every time she moved, they pulled her tighter to the ground. 

Kai was now close enough to where he could tap Lloyd's shoulder. He hadn't moved in a bit, so Kai thought that he might have gotten to him. Kai shot his arm out and grabbed Lloyd's arm, hoping to pull him back. Instead, Lloyd turned quickly, grabbing Kai by the throat.

"Kai!" said Nya, screaming.

As Lloyd continued to strangle Kai, the team noticed he had already gotten stronger. Lloyd was strong, to begin with, but now he was filled with a power they had never seen before from him. Jay got up to run over to Lloyd from behind him, but the vines grabbed him too before he could reach him. 

"Lloyd, stop, this isn't you. You don't want to do this. Sadie is doing this to you," said Kai, gasping for air as his friend continued to suffocate him. The team did not expect a response from him, but what they got was even worse than they could have imagined.

"Actually, Kai, it is me, and I'm going to enjoy every last second of this," said Lloyd, now smiling as Kai struggled within his grasp.