The Darker Side of Him {A Ninjago Fanfiction}

Chapter 9: The Forest

(Sora's POV)

We walked into the dining room the next morning and I sat down next to "Lloyd". We all made a deal that we would take turns sitting next to him, so that we could keep an eye on him. As Zane brought out breakfast, Arin was talking to Euphrasia and Wildfire, saying that they would have to keep an eye on "Lloyd", in case he tried anything, while him and I went looking for the tea. Of course, our hunch could be wrong, but there's no harm in trying. Arin said that if "Lloyd" wasn't replaced by and oni, then the tea would do no harm to him. But if "Lloyd" was an oni, the tea would turn him into his oni form.

"How's your head feeling Sora?" "Lloyd" asked. "It's feeling better." I lied. I couldn't have "Lloyd" find out that my head was still hurting, if he did, he could use it against me. "That's good." he said. If he was an oni, he was pretty good at lying. I saw his facial expression change for a split second. Anyone who wasn't looking for anything wouldn't have seen it. But I did. That's because I'm looking for any sign of him being an oni. Does inner conflict count?

As soon as me and Arin were done our breakfast, I asked, "Can we go into the woods while we're on the ground?" "Lloyd" looked at the others and they gave him a thumbs up, showing that they're okay with it. "Sure, just make sure to be back before dinner, okay?" he said "And don't eat random foods or berries that you find in there." "We won't!" I yelled back as me and Arin ran towards the forest.

(Lloyd's POV)

Sora was acting strange this morning. She even lied to me about her head hurting. Why? Maybe she just didn't want to seem weak infront of people. I know I do that too, so I can't really blame her. But, she was giving me suspicious looks during breakfast, don't know what that was about. Though I couldn't shake the feeling that the kids were up to something. As I left the breakfast hall, I saw Wildfire follow me.

'Shit!' I thought 'She probably wants to talk to me more about what happened with Heatwave.'

I started to pick up the pace, she did as well. She was definitely following me. I decided to take a walk in the forest to see if she would follow me. I got out my phone and texted Kai that I was going to be taking a walk in the forest. I saw no reason to inform him about Wildfire yet. She probably just wanted to talk about Heatwave. But I really wanted to avoid that conversation.

I got off the Bounty and headed into the woods. Who knows, maybe I'd even run into Arin and Sora. I glimpsed behind me and saw that Wildfire was still following me, at a distance though. She was also talking into her com link. What are those kids up to?

(Sora POV)

"Arin, I just got a message from Wildfire. She says that she's following "Lloyd" into the forest." I said while making air quotes around Lloyd's name. We've all been doing that ever since our suspicion of Lloyd grew. "Why would he be coming into the forest?" Arin asked. "Maybe to follow us!" I said. "Then we need to hurry so he doesn't see what we're doing!" Arin said, as he started to run deeper into the forest.

A little while later, I got another message from Wildfire that he started going the opposite direction from us. I told Arin this. "Do you think that he's going to go meet up with other oni?" Arin asked me. "Maybe." I replied truthfully. I then proceeded to message Wildfire that if he meets up with anyone, don't engage them. 

Me and Arin then continued our walk into the forest. To be honest it was quite peaceful. The birds were chirping and the sky was a brilliant light blue. I never had time to appreciate the good of the world when we were running for our lives. Apparently, I got so lost in the moment that I didn't see Arin stop, and I walked right into him.

"What the hell Arin?!" I said, wondering why we stopped. He turned around to face me. "Shhhh." He said, holding a finger up to his lips. I wondered why we stopped. Then, I saw him.

(Lloyd's POV)

Wildfire had been following me for quite some time, so I decided to back onto the path that Sora and Arin took, so that I could ask them why Wildfire was following me. I didn't want to ask her myself, because that would just lead to a conversation about Heatwave, and I really wasn't in the mood to make up excuses. After a while I heard voices. Probably belonging to Sora and Arin, I thought. I hid behind a bush so that I could scare them, but, they stopped and Arin shushed Sora.

Then I got a message from Kai that looked urgent. So I went back the way I came, and went back to the Bounty to help Kai with whatever trouble he had gotten into this time.

(Sora POV)

"Why was he hiding from us?" I asked Arin. "Maybe he wanted to ambush us." Arin suggested. "Maybe." I replied. After that little accident, we continued our walk through the woods to find the tea leaves. Maybe about fifteen minutes later, Arin stopped again, but this time, I was paying attention. "We're here." He said. I looked infront of us and say a small tree with leaves on it. "Is that the tea tree?" I asked him. "Yes." He replied.

So we started picking the leaves off the leaves off of the tree and putting them into our bags. Then, we heard a noise coming from our left. I held a finger up to my lips to tell Arin to be quiet. We closed our bags quietly and got up and walked to where we had heard the noise. When we got to the clearing where we heard the noise, we were standing face to face with Lord Garmadon himself.

Word Count: 1031