We Hope Your Rules And Wisdom Choke You

Chapter 22: Choke you Pt2

"What happened?"

The simple question makes his knuckles turn white, face beginning to fume. But he cools it, attempting to stay poker faced despite the way he twitched in rage. He simply blinks at the man. And this time, he responds, "I don't know."

Nya lunges forward, clearly as ticked as Lloyd as Jay holds her back from bashing in the glass barrier. Still, she leans forward, pulling at the edge of her restraint as her face turns red.

"Cut the crap, Lloyd!" She plunges forward again, snapping one of Jays hands off her shoulder, yet she progresses no further, instead standing menacingly in front of the glass and glaring forward at her surrogate brother. "You tried to kill us. Jay could have died!"

Blue winces behind her. Lloyd glances at him, back to her. "He's fine now, isn't he?"

Her face sours and she turns her head down at him. Steam practically explodes from her ears as she bitterly mutters "The nerve" under her breath. She huffs away the steaming rage. "What's gotten into you? Where's the Lloyd that I know would do anything for his friends? Where's the self sacrificing, idiotic, trusting leader I knew?"

A laugh tutts through his teeth uncontrollably, the slightest hint of a smile taunting his face. It's cruel and it's only fuel to everyone's simmering frustration but it feels right, because this was funny. He doesn't intend to respond, but his lips move without his permission, chanting the words whispered into his ears. "You were all in my way, you were slowing me down..." A single shuffle towards them, everyone but Kai steps one back. "You would have stopped me."

The latter approaches, gently nudging past Cole and his sister to be the closest to Lloyd. To be the most heard, to garner his attention. It works.

"Stopped you from doing what, Lloyd? What are you trying to do here?" His voice cracks and stumbles as he talks. A calloused hand presses against the glass, years of bending fire to his will visible in the scars coating his palms. His face melts, like a puppy, genuine and raw sadness drowning his every feature in a way that was so unlike Kai, but that fire, the rage that he knew him for, it still lay just beneath the surface of his unwilling facade, ready to be unleashed. "What is so important that you had to betray us to get it?"

Finally, the smile on Lloyds face breaks as he paces to meet Kai. His palms press against the dried blood, both of them, one over Kais. He pulls it back as Lloyd leans in, close enough for his breath to fogs up the glass when he speaks:

"I never wanted to be the green ninja." He whispers the first part. It's like a secret, one he only wants Kai to hear. It will hit him extra hard, harder than the others, because that had been his dream, hadn't it? To be the green ninja?

He knows the others heard him, but that wasn't the point. He saw the cracks in his brother's facade, he knew how close he was to snapping. "I never wanted to lead this stupid team, I never wanted to dedicate my life to being a throw away soldier for the city. If my chance to get out happens to involve destroying whatever's in my way, then so be it."

It's not entirely true. He wasn't just trying to get out, but topped with the horrible scowl on his face it did the job perfectly.

The thread holding him together snaps in two as he lunges forward, dragging his palm backwards to smash his fist into the glass. Lloyd doesn't flinch as it lands just above his face, still more than a foot away from him. Smoke shoots out from his ears like a steam train and his eyebrows arch hardly inwards as his eyes lit up with fury. He bashes the glass again, a metal sound ringing through the air, and for the first time Lloyd notices a thick-black band around his wrist.

A laugh bubbles in his chest, and as Coles hand grips Kais shoulder from behind he struggles to hold it there. Cole tries to pull him back, stern yet excessively worried, but Kai shoves himself out of the mans grip, yelling.