Taking Control. (a Ninjago fanfic)

Chapter 53- The wilting flower

To ALICEDYERSIMPER ... I'm sorry. Please don't come after me.

K A I

The Mechanic came at me fast. Faster than I'd expected.

I barely got my guard up before his machine hand shot toward me, metal fingers aiming for my throat. I ducked, barely missing the strike, then twisted and sent a flaming punch toward his chest.

It hit. He staggered back a step.

But that was all.

He sneered, barely fazed, and swung his claw at me again. I jumped back, just out of reach, but he was already moving, already pressing forward.

My body ached, every movement sending ripples of pain everywhere.

He was bigger, heavier, sure— but he also fought with a precision I wasn't ready for. He blocked my next attack with ease, grabbed my wrist, and yanked me off balance.

I couldn't fight him, not now-

Not with everything that had happened—

Not with my injuries, not with Cole and Zane out of action—

Then came the pain.

A surge of electricity exploded through my body, knocking the breath from my lungs. I gasped, muscles seizing, as my legs gave out beneath me.

I couldn't-

The clawed hand shot forward, cables and wires unraveling from his wrist like a mechanical snake. Another one of his stupid fucking inventions.

Before I could react, they latched onto me—coiling around my arms, my legs, my chest—before locking into place.

And then—

Agony.

A current of raw electricity pulsed through me, white-hot and unrelenting. My body convulsed violently, my head snapping back as I choked on a scream. My vision blurred, the world spinning, burning.

I tried to move. Couldn't.

I tried to summon fire. Couldn't.

The cables tightened, forcing me onto my knees. I gasped, barely able to keep my head up as the pain refused to fade. Relentless, insistent, never ending—

"Gotcha," the Mechanic sneered. His glowing eye flickered as he loomed over me, victorious. "Pathetic."

Another pulse of electricity tore through me, and this time, I did scream.

It hurt, it hurt so much

I was so tired. So tired, and so defeated.

I barely heard the fight still raging behind me.

Barely heard Rue's desperate breaths, the Overlord's fury, the storm raging above us.

I was trapped.

Which meant—

Rue was alone.

The realisation hit me hard, and I forced my head up, blinking through the haze of pain.

I saw her.

Standing against the Overlord.

Fighting.

She was holding her own.

For now.

But she wouldn't win.