Flames of the Past #8: The Cost of a Hero (Ninjago Fanfiction)

Prologue

Put on a smile. A smile fixes everything. Laughter is the best medicine. Laugh the pain away. Put on a smile.

"Chester? You good?"

Nadia's voice jerked Chester from his head. He looked at the teenaged girl beside him before remembering to put his smile back on. "Of course, love," he chirped. He was perfectly fine. He just had to keep smiling. Keep laughing. A smile makes everything okay, his mother's voice continued to ring in his head. Put on a smile. Put on a smile.

"Are you sure?" His friend, Tao, drew to his side in disbelief. "You're looking a little pale."

Put on a smile. Put on a smile.

On Nadia's other side, Shirley added, "Your dad seemed pretty upset with you earlier."

At the mention of his father, an anxiety attack threatened to break Chester's happy face. Instead, he made his smile bigger. "Father had every right to be upset with me," he said carefully, allowing his voice to shift into a steady hum. "I let Chelsea leave. I should've stopped her." Maybe if Mother hadn't told Father that Chelsea took the Overlord Crystal right before she died, he wouldn't have cared so much, he thought bitterly to himself. No, he couldn't think that way.

Those mean emotions only make things worse, Chester, his mother would say. Just keep smiling.

His lungs still burned from the claws of his Baddie marking. The Overlord hadn't held back once he found out Chester had covered for Chelsea's escape. There was no way in hell their father would let his daughter—let his control over them—go, and certainly not with the Overlord Crystal, which Chester had only just found out existed. Why hasn't Mother used it all these years? Doesn't she know how powerful she could be with it?

But she gave it to Chelsea. A shiver of fear ran down Chester's spine. With the Overlord Crystal, Chelsea could become just as powerful as he was. She could outdo him. Then what would his father think of him? What would be his purpose? If not to rule Baddie Bend after his father, to take on the title of Overlord, he would have nothing.

Again, his mother's sweet voice sang in his head. Don't worry so much, Chester. Put on a smile. Laugh it off. Everything will be okay if you keep smiling.

"How long is this tunnel?" Shirley complained. "I'm exhausted."

"We can't stop until we find my sister," Chester reminded her, breathing through his anxiety. He could still hear the Overlord screaming at him.

"You let her go? Have you betrayed your own father?"

"No," he'd begged, gasping through the pain from his father's clenched fist. "I-I'm loyal to you, Father!"

"Prove it, then."

The Overlord had sent him and his friends after Chelsea to bring her back to the Bend, alive, and with the Overlord Crystal. Bring home only one or the other and he threatened to take away Chester's Inheritance.

Which won't happen, Chester thought with a forced laugh. I'm sorry, sis. I need that Inheritance.

He had to prove to his father that he was worthy. Worthy of his—love—power.

Nadia's gentle hand slipped into Chester's. She smiled at him—a real smile. "We'll find her," she promised.

Chester felt his smile soften as he gazed back at her. Nadia was one of the few people he felt he could truly be himself with. He didn't have to fake smile around her. She could see through it, anyway. It was one of the reasons why he loved her.