Taking Control. (a Ninjago fanfic)

Chapter 97- Do your thing

L L O Y D

It came in flashes.

I was walking around the courtyard where everything started.

The "mission."

But it was different. Not day, no, it was dark, shadows stretching and contorting into terrifying figures that loomed around me.

The bells started to ring out of rhythm.

I looked up.

The sky was wrong.

Jay stood in the center of the courtyard.

At first, he was laughing.

Not his normal laugh — too low, too sharp, too long. It echoed, bouncing off the walls and coming back warped. Sparks jumped from his fingertips, but they didn't snap and vanish like they should've. They clung. Crawled. Snaked around his body until it looked like electric veins on his skin.

"You've fought, you've struggled, you've clung to hope like a dying ember in the dark." He whispered.

FSM, no. Please.

Not this again.

"But soon, each of you will fall—one by one. I will watch as the light in your eyes fade, as your strength wanes, and your spirit breaks. There will be no honor, no victory, and no mercy."

I clutched my head, stumbling back, trying to block out those horrible words, the way those evil things came out of my brothers mouth—

"When the last of you breathes your final, pitiful breath, the age of the ninja will be nothing but a forgotten legend—a mere shadow erased by the dawn of my power." His head snapped back, turning to face me, leaving whatever he was looking at a crumpled shape in the snow.

"And I will save you, Lloyd Montgomery Garmadon, for last. You will watch all of your friends perish."

He pointed at me then, his fingers long and bony and accusing, stretching towards me, me—

"Prepare yourselves, for the end has come."

The lightning darkened.

"No," I sob. "Stop! Please, it's all over—"

"I- I don't want to relive this all again please—"

The ground shifted. Jay disappeared.

My breathing was shaky; shuddering, wracking my body with violent sobs. It all seemed so real—

Just a nightmare, just a nightmare, just a—

My eyes drifted to the crumpled shape where Jay was standing previously.

Their clothes were red. Stained with dirt and snow, and probably blood. They had sturdy boots on, with thick soles to make them look taller.

They had friendship bracelets on their wrists. And amidst the blood and the wreak of death, they had a heartbeat.

I scrambled to him.
Blood soaked through my hands, hot and slick and impossible to stop.

"No," I whisper. "No, no, no—"

My power surged instinctively, green light flaring — but it flickered, stuttering like it was being strangled. Every time I tried to push it forward, the shadows swallowed it whole.

"Kai," I choke, looking down at his unfocused eyes, at the katana lodged in his stomach.

His hand twitched weakly, fingers brushing my sleeve.