ninjago imagines

before i say goodbye

this one sucks (haha, my writing quality lowered drastically over midterms) but i wanted to write something for crystallized a while ago and finally decided to post this shitstorm 

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Sickly purple slips into the empty stairway, the uneasy color lighting up the room as Kai lifts the trapdoor, squinting at the bright glow of the sky.

Not from stars or the moon, though, and his breath catches in his throat as he catches the first glimpse of the crystals curled around buildings as far as he can see, crawling and scraping its way across the street.

He hadn't seen it properly with everything going on, more preoccupied with surviving to properly look across town, but now Kai wishes he never had. Maybe if he ignores everything else but fighting, he can forget it all after it ends. Pretend this part of his life had never existed, like a particularly bad dream.

A dull thunk shakes across the roof as a mech lands on the roof heavily, and Kai draws in a breath, fingers burning as he hauls himself onto the cold concrete. It's sometime near the first light of dawn, if he had to guess, and the gloomy light from the crystals illuminate the few figures standing a bit away, shadows cast long and eerie on the ground.

Part of him wishes he never has to say another goodbye like this, but another part knows he'll regret it forever if he doesn't and if something goes wrong. Which is just another terrible spiral Kai really doesn't want to go down right now, so he bites down on his lip, and makes his way towards the trio on the other side of the roof.

Lloyd looks up as he arrives, and a small smile makes its way onto his face, eyes lighting up. It doesn't mask the tired, gaunt air he's carrying, though, and Kai throws a arm across his shoulders in an effort to squash down his worry, ignoring the twinge of pain that shoots up his arm at the movement.

He's here. They're all here, so it'll be okay.

"Don't die, okay?" Lloyd says as he leans back into the touch, so quiet he can barely hear it, and Kai nods back.

"Come back safe." They've skipped past all the normal questions of "are you okay's", Kai notices, and wonders if it's because they all know no one is, anymore. Lloyd lets out a shaky exhale, and Kai blinks away the tears threatening to fall any second.

The steady beat of footsteps grows louder from a distance, and Pixal tenses, fingers tightening around the control in her hands.

"They will be here soon," she says, and her steady facade doesn't hide the break of worry in her voice. It's a long second before Lloyd pushes away, not looking back as he's pulled into another embrace by Pixal.

The next few minutes feel like a fever dream, and Kai can't quite grasp his own thoughts together for a proper goodbye as he watches the mech blast off in a flash of golden flames, Garmadon following behind closely with a explosion of purple trailing in his path.

Maybe that's good, though, because saying those suck, especially if they might not come back, and Kai really doesn't want to have to say goodbye ever again if he can help it.

The violet sky trembles with another rumble of power smashing into the ground, and Kai takes one last look at the disappearing figures behind he turns back to the stairwell, blinking away the tears that rise to his eyes.

After all, he's got a lot more goodbyes to say.