Phoenix Fading

Storm's Here

Zaga honestly could not tell if he was awake or asleep.

He could open his eyes, which made him think he was awake, but he couldn't see anything, which made him feel like he was sleeping. But he was in an uncomfortable position on his back, which made it seem like he was awake. He was so confused.

He tried lifting his head, but movement sent blinding pain through his head. He gave a cry, and that's when he heard the voices.

"I just heard him! Come on, we need to get him out!"

...Dad. That was dad. So he wasn't sleeping...?

He heard the scraping of rock-on-rock and tried to move his head again. Dumb move. His cry was now a scream, and he resolved to just stay still from now on. It wasn't long before the voices got louder, and he felt someone gently touch his cheek. "Zaga... Oh my god... Zaga, please tell me you're awake..."

"...Dad..."

He heard a sigh of relief from Garmadon. His breathing was shaky, though - was he crying? "Okay... Okay. You're okay, you're gonna be okay..."

"Dad... I can't see..."

Garmadon hesitated. He could hear shuffling and quiet words - Zane was here, too. "I... I know, Zag... It's gonna be okay... You're gonna.... you're gonna be okay..."

Something shifted and Zaga screamed again. He heard quick curses, a 'help me over here!', and heard the screech of metal on metal, a quick, annoyed comment. Zaga's forehead suddenly felt cold, like ice, and then a snap, and more pain, and he still couldn't see and pain and yelling and 'move move move' and and and

-

An odd bird woke him up.

No, not a bird. He'd made this mistake before. Not a bird - a heart monitor. Tamine had taught him that. Tamine had also taught him about birds. But Jay had gone in-depth about them. Different species, different... oh, fuck, he felt so dizzy.

He groaned before he could realize it, and he heard a snap of motion. "Zaga...!"

Different voice. Aza. He and Tamine had been helping sort out the sudden death cases of Anacondrai when... when...

"What happened...?"

"...The college collapsed, Zaga. Someone walked in... They were a human bomb. An Anacondrai member posed as a Squad member..."

"Was... Was anyone hurt...?"

"...Ah... Um..." Aza shifted. Zaga could tell he glanced away - Aza often did that when he was reluctant to say something. "...The bomb caught an entire Squad. The rubble killed three more Squads, and about twenty-eight are injured, you included. It was thirty-four, but... some didn't make it through the night."

"I... How was I injured...?"

Another pause, another glance away. "...The way the roof collapsed in the room you were in... The metal support beams bent at just the right angle. They'd snapped, making the ends sharp, and... One end hit you in the head. It knocked you onto a pile of rubble, where your spine was injured...."

"I... I didn't feel anything, though... Not until I moved..."

"That's because the beam didn't hit any nerve endings, any places that would register as pain. Well, actually, the strike was too quick, and your body gave you a rush of adrenaline to say 'hey, wake up, you're bleeding.' Moving triggered the nerves, the nerves triggered more adrenaline, but when we got you off the beam - thanks to Zane - the blood left your head very quickly. Zane suspects that's why you passed out. He managed to freeze the exit and entry wounds to keep the blood from draining too fast, and got you in here as fast as possible. The wound's cauterized - burned to stop bleeding - and he did a whole bunch of medical stuff I didn't understand..."

Aza trailed off. There was something he wasn't explaining, still. "Why can't I see?"

"...the beam went through your occipital lobe. It's... In charge of helping you see things. The... That part of your brain was completely ruined..."

Zaga's blood ran cold. "So... I..."

"...You're blind. And there's no way to fix it."

-

"One of my sons is blind, the other is missing, my husband is missing, my brother was killed in the blast, three of the people I'm supposed to be a father figure to are missing, and you don't fucking know who did this?!"

"Garmadon, please, calm down...!" Acronix held his hands up in defense. "If we could reverse the damage, we would, but we've been stripped of our Elements. We're doing the best we can, but there's so little evidence...!"

"I don't care! Where the hell did they go?! I need to know, Acronix! I missed out on so much because I was a goddamned idiot and I do not want anyone else to die because I couldn't help them!"

The younger of the twins flinched back, and Krux stepped between them. "Shut your damn mouth and we'll do what you're asking us to. We lost everything because we were idiots, too. Our parents, our friends, our chance at being normal. Join the stupid club and shut up."

Garmadon closed his mouth with an audible click as his teeth hit. He hadn't been injured aside from a few bruises. But he'd found Zaga looking like he was dead and Wu impaled with another support beam through the heart. The part that made him panic most, though, was the fact that Lloyd, Clouse, Morro, Kai, Cole, Jay, Tamine, and just under half of the Masters were nowhere to be found. A quarter had died. And they still had no clue what monster had been behind this.

"All we know so far," Acronix said quietly, gently, timidly, as if afraid to set Garmadon off again, "is that the bombs were strapped to a suicide bomber. We've identified the person as Korosu Hisui. His brother, Yowai, is currently in intensive care, but we'll question him when he's able to be questioned. We don't know where Korosu came from before entering the building, or if he met with anyone, or what, but we are trying."

Garmadon started pacing, tugging at his hair. "It has to be the Anacondrai. The deaths threw us off. We didn't know until it was too late. We... we..."

Acronix rested a hand on his shoulder. "Another thing, though. We managed to get a video feed from one of the outside cameras that survived. Korosu was walking in with another person that wasn't with him when he entered the building. He had long, black hair tied into a ponytail, and further inspection and careful hacking has shown the man to be Nadakhan, the Overlord's right-hand. They were talking, but it was too quiet to pick anything up. Khan had some sort of vial, though - something he drank right outside of the front doors."

Garmadon took a breath, thinking to himself. "...Find whoever was outside or at the front desk when Korosu came in. I want them questioned on what they saw."

His eyes darkened. "And I want Khan to pay for what he did."