Taking Control. (a Ninjago fanfic)

Chapter 38- The forgotten

J A Y

It was cold.

Not the kind of cold you feel in winter, but the kind that seeps into your bones, gripping onto you with its icy claws. The kind that snuffs out the fire in your soul, and leaves nothing but darkness in its wake.

My body wasn't mine anymore. My arms moved, my voice spoke, but it wasn't me.

It wasn't in my control.

I could feel him. The Overlord. His presence was suffocating, like a shadow pressing down on my chest, stealing every breath before I could take it.

I was exhausted. Starving. Injured.

He'd given me food, but not enough. Not even nearly. Just enough to keep me alive.

The Overlord wasn't loud anymore, not like he was before. No maniacal laughter, no booming threats. He was quiet, calm. That somehow made it worse.

"You thought you were strong," he whispered, his voice slithering through my mind like a snake. "But you're not. You never were. And you never will be."

I wanted to scream back, to tell him he was wrong, but I didn't. Couldn't.

His laughter was soft, sharp, like a blade slipping between ribs. "Your friends? Concerned about you? No," he drawled, each word laced with mockery. "They're relieved. Celebrating your absence."

No, no.

That's not true.

FUCK, JAY. You know that. It's not true.

"You were a burden, and now you're nothing more than a forgotten stain on their memory." He whispered.

Doubt crept in, slow and poisonous. I tried to hold onto their faces—Nya, Cole, Lloyd—but they blurred, like memories fading in a storm.

The Overlord took those, too. My memories. He dug his claws into every hope, every happy moment, and twisted them until they cracked.

I was losing everything.

Nothing was mine anymore.

I couldn't control anything.

My body, my mind, my thoughts. They all belonged to him now.

"Do you see now, Jay?" he murmured, and his voice felt like nails scraping across my mind. "You were never their equal. You were always the weak one."

I tried to fight, to claw my way back to the surface. Lightning sparked at the edges of my consciousness, dim and flickering. It was my power—mine—but even that felt out of reach.

He was taking everything from me.

My memories.

I was nothing.

I wasn't nothing. I was Jay. I was... something, wasn't I?

I dug deeper, searching for anything real. A laugh. A memory. A spark. Anything so I could remember who I was.

Why was this so hard-

Why was I losing who I was-

I found her.

Nya.

Her smile, her determination, the way she looked at me like I was someone worth believing in.

I squeezed my eyes shut, desperately trying to picture her. The sparkle in her eyes. Her flowing black hair-

A sob broke from my throat.

"I can't. Please- please, help me. I need you."

I buried my face in my hands. My fingernails throbbed relentlessly, reduced to ragged, bloodied stumps- chewed down to nothing in a desperate attempt to distract myself from his words.