Onyx and the Possession

In a Silver Garden With You

Onyx knelt beside the shallow grave she had dug with her bare hands, the air laced with the sweet scent of sakura flowers and earthy smell of soil. The fishy stench of Stiix didn't reach up here, the scent of the blossoms covering it up.
She carefully placed the small bone beside their mother's resting place.

"Morro...," Onyx whispered softly, her voice barely audible above the gentle rustling of the flowers. She rolled the bone between her fingertips, remembering. She remembered the day Morro had taken her fishing for the first time, the way the two of them sat on the dock and cast into the murky water. She remembered the day he'd sewn Fishy's leg back on after a rat had chewed through it. She remembered when he'd done everything he could to take care of her when she was sick, despite the fact that he'd been shaking with fever.

She remembered the pain in his eyes when he'd sent her off to a better life.

Tears welled in Onyx's eyes as she gently placed Morro's bones into the shallow hole. She covered them gently with earth, patting it down with trembling hands, the dirt cool against her palms. The sakura petals continued to fall around her, and she had to wonder what these trees had seen. What stories they'd heard from the souls of the dead.

Onyx sat back on her heels, her gaze lingering on the makeshift grave beneath the sakura tree. The breeze whispered through the branches, as if carrying the pain away. She closed her eyes, imagining her brother's smile one more time, back before everything had fallen apart. "Beati quelli che piangono, perchè saranno confortati. Arrivederci, fratello," She murmured, reciting an old funeral saying before getting to her feet and starting down the hill. The world of the living was waiting for her.

As Onyx reached the bottom of the hill, she saw Lloyd standing there, waiting. She approached him, and he offered her a soft smile. Onyx nodded at him, her throat feeling tight. "Thank you," she whispered. Lloyd looked at her with sympathy in his eyes. "Are you okay?" He asked. Onyx didn't bother with hesitating. "No. But neither are you," she said.

Lloyd sighed. "Yeah," he murmured. Neither of them were okay, and they wouldn't be. Not while Lloyd was still pale, his eyes shadowed and colourless, his hair speckled with black. Not while Onyx's bones still ached and the cut on her hand still stung and bled when she moved her hand too roughly. Not while the memories were still fresh and the nightmares still tormented them.

Onyx sighed deeply, looking back up at the trees on the hill. "We'll be okay eventually. We'll get better and stronger. That's what ninjas have to do," she said. Lloyd shook his head. "No. That's what people do," he said. Onyx looked at him, her eyes tired. "But we're not normal people, are we? We're ninja. It's our job to save Ninjago, just because we were born differently. We'll never be normal people," she said. Lloyd's eyes lowered slightly. "No. We won't. But... that's even more a reason to be like them. We should try to be like the people we save. At least a little," he said.

Onyx sighed and nodded. "Yeah... you're right," she conceded. Lloyd offered a small smile, his thin lips twitching upwards. "Are you ready to go home?" He asked. Onyx cast one last look back at the tree on top of the hill. The tree where her mother's metacarpals had been buried so many years ago, and the tree she'd just buried Morro's beneath. She watched the dimming light of the stars catch the petals for one more moment, staining them silver, before nodding and looking forward, towards where the sun would soon rise.

Onyx reached out and tangled her fingers in Lloyd's. "Yeah. Let's go home."