Birthright | Ninjago

𝐕𝐈. THE NOT-SO FINAL, FINAL BATTLE

CHAPTER SIX

HAVE YOU EVER FELT YOUR final moments of life approach? Before today, Hiro hadn't. He thought he had, of course, when he'd first been locked away; then again, when he'd escaped his father's grasp, only to run into the Ninja and be launched into a fight with them. Then he thought he was going to die when he was stabbed, only to be saved by the one person who probably wanted to see him dead the most (except for his father, of course).

But none of those moments compared to being surrounded by the Stone Army, swords pointed at him from every direction while being exhausted, hungry, and hurt, all while doing his best to protect his friend, the person destined to kill his father.

Later, Hiro would learn that a lot of people claimed that their entire lives flashed before their eyes as they experienced a life-threatening situation. That didn't happen for Hiro. For one, he didn't have enough of a life for it to be memorable, even to him. Two, he was too focused on protecting Lloyd (and the Ninja, he supposed) to get distracted by the meaningless idea of dying. Hiro had lived his whole life wanting to be dead. Now that he had something to fight for, dying wasn't a priority anymore.

"Avashiro," Kozu spat, his voice heard above the chaos. Hiro's eyes found him standing above the Stone Warriors, his sword pointed at Hiro. Hiro raised his own blade in a challenge.

"At least you aren't calling me Heir anymore," he muttered, taking a few steps in Kozu's direction. He'd just been issued a challenge by the leader of the Stone Army, and he wasn't about to back down. Besides, it seemed that the Warriors who were attacking him were stepping back, realizing that their leader wanted the opportunity of personally killing Hiro. Hiro wondered how much respect Kozu was going to get from the Overlord for killing his son. Hiro couldn't imagine that it would be a lot—his father didn't respect anyone, even those that he had created.

Oh, God. Kozu had been created by the Overlord, too. Did that mean he and Hiro were technically brothers?

"Hiro!" Lloyd shouted, stopping him in his tracks. "Stay back!" It was an order, not a suggestion.

Hiro growled under his breath and took a few steps back. He looked at the Ninja for a moment, seeing that they were still on the ground and surrounded by Stone Warriors. Their Elemental Blades would do little to protect them if they couldn't stand. Hiro closed his eyes and let his power wrap around a few of the Warriors surrounding the Ninja—any more and his power would fizzle, overtaken by his exhaustion. He opened his eyes and threw his arms out, sending the few Warriors into their brethren, creating enough room for the Ninja to stand. Kai, Cole, Jay, and Zane jumped to their feet, Blades held out. Hiro dodged an incoming attack on his right and managed to help Lloyd get to his feet.

"Watch out!" Zane yelled. Hiro turned, holding up his sword. Right as the Stone Warrior in front of him struck it, the Warrior froze.

All the Warriors froze.

Hiro slowly lowered his sword, suspicious that this was a trick. Hesitantly, he tapped the Stone Warrior, waiting for it to spring to life and kill him for good.

But nothing happened.

Hiro turned, sharing a confused look with Lloyd. He heard Zane tell the ground that the Army was frozen, but his attention was drawn to the top of Garmatron, looking for any sign of his father. There was none, only a soft glow from the clouds as the sun tried its best to get through the blanket of fog over Ninjago.