The Black-Hearted Ninja (The Dark Triangle #1)

How?

Third Person P.O.V.

The sunrise that November morning was beautiful.

      Pink and orange and gold spread across the sky, streaks of blue appearing between the warm tones. The light was bright, coming out of the darkness for the first time in a long while.

     A beam of light shone through the window, illuminating a pair of wide-open green eyes. The eyes had been open for far longer than they should have, and it was only now that they fluttered shut and open again.

Lloyd Garmadon blinked.

      And gasped, and sat up as fast as he could. He had to warn the others...Cole was going to kill them all if he didn't do something! The last thing Lloyd remembered was being held tight in Cole's grasp, having the life crushed out of him as he tried to summon enough strength to use his green power, screaming out for Kai with the final breath he didn't have. How had Lloyd survived?

He hadn't.

     So how was he there? There, in the training room, with the sun shining into his eyes and no sign of the blood anywhere? Lloyd had no idea. All he really knew was that he hadn't been able to save anyone from Cole. He was supposed to be the chosen one! He was supposed to be able to take care of himself! Even now, struggling for independence, what Lloyd wanted was for Kai to be there and tell him it would all be okay.

     Lloyd's green eyes scanned the room, looking for some clue of what had happened. There was Zane, whose gears clicked into place and eyes regained their glow. Pixal, frowning and scanning herself, muttering, "Illogical. This is highly illogical." Skylor, who seemed in awe, a strange kind of half-smile on her face though when she turned her head Lloyd could see a glint of something-something not happy-in her gaze as she rubbed her neck. And there was Kai, his best friend Kai. Kai, whose eyes passed straight over Skylor and locked right on the green ninja.

"Lloyd!" The name could barely be caught through Kai's rapid intake of breath.

    Kai wouldn't be held back by the fact that they were 10 feet apart. In what seemed like a millisecond, Lloyd was held tightly in his warm embrace and both of them were crying, Lloyd's head on Kai's shoulder, Kai's arms holding Lloyd's small, trembling body close to him.

"How?" Kai gripped Lloyd's shoulders and pushed him away, staring into his large green eyes with disbelief. "How are you alive?"

"What?" Lloyd's eyes widened even further.

    "You died-Lloyd, you were killed. I saw your heart, it was ripped out. Cole ripped it out!" Kai was more upset than Lloyd had ever seen him, speaking in short, halting phrases, punctuated by deep breaths, breaths full of wonderment. There was a strange expression in the older boy's eyes, a kind of hot desperation. One couldn't call it anger because Kai wasn't angry; he wasn't sad, either, how could he be?

     Lloyd's fingers instinctively felt the spot over his heart through his shirt. The green ninja was wearing green pajamas, and through the soft cotton he touched something that hadn't been there before. Undoing the top three buttons, Lloyd pulled down the upper left corner of his shirt and gasped. There, stretching from just below Lloyd's collarbone to the faint outline of the top of his ribs, was a scar. It was messy, jagged, and looked new, but was healed and was barely even pink anymore. The second he looked at it, a spike of searing pain shot through Lloyd's chest, and a tear slipped down his cheek.

    Kai's fingertips were as warm when they brushed against Lloyd's scar, but his face grew pale when he lifted the bottom of his own red t-shirt and stared at the words written deep in his skin.

Love, Cole

    Lloyd looked at Kai, and Kai looked at Lloyd, and both of them, for once, were thinking the exact same thing.

How?

"Don't ever scare me like you did again, okay, Lloyd?" Kai changed the subject and placed one hand on Lloyd's arm, and, to reassure himself, felt for a pulse that was most definitely there.

     Lloyd stared into his protector's face, and noted that Kai was different. It was the way Kai held himself, a kind of helplessness staining his features, that showed Lloyd that a lot had happened after he died. A lot of things, but nothing good. Kai hadn't been just scared by Lloyd's death, he had been completely devastated. Kai didn't say anything, but Lloyd knew. And he knew he would feel the same way if the roles were reversed.

"I promise. And I'm sorry for not listening to you." The green ninja said.

"What do you mean?" Kai frowned.

"You told me to not play video games, and I did anyway. I hope you're not mad at me."

     Kai gave a small laugh, but there were tears within his eyes, and he opened his arms once again. Lloyd nestled into the warmth of Kai, so different from the cold that seemed to have taken over his body before, and laid his blond head in the curve of Kai's neck. Kai felt the strong beat of Lloyd's heart on his own chest, and managed to smile at his friend. "I could never be mad at you, Lloyd."

"We-we are alive!"

The exclamation came from across the room, and it was the happiest anyone had ever heard Zane. "Pixal, we are alive!"

     Pixal accepted Zane's hug with a look of puzzlement on her face. "Yes, we are indeed living. However, this does not compute. It is impossible to reverse the effects of death, and yet, there is Lloyd, and my scans show that he is every bit as living as us."

     Zane's joy wasn't dampened by the existential question. "For once, I do not care how we got to where we are, I only wish it to stay that way." He held on to Pixal tighter and spun her around, and eventually her face melted into a smile as well.

     Skylor was still rubbing her neck, biting her lip, sitting on the floor between the two pairs. In one abrupt motion, she stood up and said, "Sorry to interrupt any happy lovey-dovey reunions or whatever, but can someone tell me what the hell happened?" This sufficiently gained the attention of Pixal and Zane, who looked at her intently, and Kai and Lloyd, who both reddened and mumbled something about how they weren't together before Skylor cut them off. "One minute you, you, and you," she pointed at Lloyd, Pixal, and Zane, "are dead, and you," her finger moved to Kai, "are all 'depressed my world is destroyed I wish I could just die because that would be better than living,'" Kai blushed more, "and Cole's got a rope around my neck, and the next I wake up in the training room and we're all completely fine. What's that about?"

      Kai was direct as he stood as well, bringing Lloyd with him. "You died. Then I died. Then, somehow, we came back to life. I guess someone who was left managed to save us all from Cole."

     "According to this information, there were only three people left. Cole himself, Jay, and..." Zane trailed off when a slight moan came from the corner of the room. Every ninja standing turned their heads to see a boy in blue pushing himself up from where he was crumpled on the ground. His auburn hair was a mess, sticking up in random places, his face was pale although the color was gradually returning to his freckled cheeks, and his wiry arms buckled as he frantically tried to stand. When the boy lifted his left hand, the ring finger was gone, nothing left but a tiny stump off his knuckle.

     Jay Walker's bright blue eyes were no longer empty. Now they were wild and disturbed and tormented. Nobody could bear to look at him, yet everybody felt a strange need to.

    Jay would talk about whatever crossed his mind. But in that moment, there was only one thing in his thoughts.

"Nya."

What happened to Nya? What happened to Cole? Only one more chapter left in The Black-Hearted Ninja. (Then the sequel).

Also, happy Thanksgiving if you're from the United States like I am!

Stay tuned for the end!