Rise of the Overlord

Chapter Seventeen

Down in the cellblock, sleeping soundly for the first time in over a week lay Lloyd Garmadon, curled up against his father. His head lay on Garmadon's lap, he snored softly as his father gently ran his fingers through his hair. Garmadon softly smiled and leaned his head against the stone walls, content to join him in slumber until he heard the door slam open. He and Lloyd jolted awake as the Overlord stormed his way through the hallway, each step created cracks in the stone floor as he stomped his way to them, Lloyd and Garmadon's eyes widened as the entire dungeon darkened at his presence. The Green Ninja swallowed his trepidation as the Dark Lord appeared. He wasn't in his physical human form but an obsidian shadow-like form with black and purple tentacles circling around him, he had a violet aura swirling around him as his eyes glowed angrily. The door was ripped open as the dark tendrils shot inside, grabbing Lloyd and yanking him away from his father.

"Dad!!" Lloyd cried, reaching out for him desperately but to no avail, he frantically clawed at the ground as he was taken away. He was dragged across the floors, up the stairs, past the Warriors that had gathered in the hallways and was thrown into the throne room, skidding across the floors before crashing into the chair. His head spun as blood trickled out of the corner of his mouth. New tendrils shot out of the Overlord's hands and wrapped around Lloyd's neck, lifting him back into the air. Lloyd frantically clawed at them, gasping for air as they tightened.

"Where is the Fire Ninja?!" the Overlord snarled, his eyes seething with anger and hatred. The energy in the room was suffocating...or maybe that was Lloyd.

The Green Ninja gasped, "I...don't...know!"

The tendrils tightened, Lloyd's cry was sharp as his face started to turn blue. "Tell me where he is! I know you have secret bases! I know he's out there! Tell me!"

"We...don't have...any bases!" he wheezed, tears forming in his eyes as his vision started to spin. Black spots started to appear in his line of sight, his body started to become numb and limp. "I don't...know...where...Kai is!"

"LIAR!!" the Overlord roared, the room shook at his booming voice. "TELL ME WHERE HE IS!!"

Lloyd was on the verge of unconsciousness, his hands that were grasping at the tendrils fell at his side. He hung suspended in the air, his vision going black. His face the same shade as Jay's uniform before his corruption.

Angered, frustrated and annoyed at Lloyd's lack of cooperation, the Overlord slammed him to the ground, causing cracks to appear in the floor.

The young teen gasped loudly for air, his chest frantically rising and falling as he struggled to regain consciousness, the color slowly returned to his face as he coughed and wheezed.

The Overlord covered the entire room in darkness, shutting out every ounce of the rare light that had made its way through the dark gray clouds, he himself blended into the inky darkness as he left Lloyd in silence.

The Green Ninja slowly lifted his head, still occasionally coughing, his eyes widened in fear as he couldn't figure out what happened to him. Why was he in darkness? What happened? Is he unconscious? Is he dead? Did the Overlord kill him? He pressed his fingers to his neck and was relieved to feel his pulse pounding against his fingertips. Lloyd shakily stood and looked around at the inky darkness around him, what the hell happened to him? He called out, "Hello?"

A figure was thrown in front of him, Lloyd recognized it immediately as Jay but he was uncorrupted. What was going on?

The Overlord's voice echoed through the darkness, "Tell me where the Fire Ninja is or I shall kill your teammate!"

"I don't know where he is!" Lloyd yelled, his body shaking. "Please! I'm telling the truth! I don't know where he is! We don't have any bases! Please!!"

A new figure appeared from the darkness, it was a Bizarro version of Lloyd; he had sickly pale skin, violet eyes and a sword that glinted in the nonexistent light. Jay cried out, "Please Lloyd! Tell him! Please I don't wanna die!!"

"I don't know anything!!" Lloyd wailed, reaching out desperately, his face soaked with his tears. He watched in horror as his Bizarro version stabbed the sword through Jay's chest, blood gurgled out of his mouth and soaked his blue kimono as he fell to his knees. Bizarro Lloyd yanked the sword out and grinned at his handiwork, a madness shown in his eyes as he stared at his counterpart.

Then another figure was thrown out of the darkness, it was Cole.

"I will break you, Green Ninja," the Overlord growled into Lloyd's ear. "Tell me or he dies."

"I DON'T KNOW!!!" Lloyd screamed, collapsing to the ground.

Bizarro Lloyd struck the Earth Ninja in his chest, he collapsed next to Jay.

Zane was thrown out, he looked terrified, staring at Lloyd with wide frightened eyes. The teen had never seen Zane scared before.

"Tell me."

"WE DON'T HAVE ANYTHING!!!' Lloyd screamed desperately, covering his head with his hands. The Overlord sent out tendrils, they wrapped around his hands and neck, forcing him to watch his friends be slaughtered in front of him. Zane lay next to his fallen brothers, his blue eyes staring blankly into the distance.

Nya suffered the same fate; Lloyd was dragged over to where their bodies lay, his eyes couldn't look away from the corpses of his friends, his teammates, his family. He sobbed louder, his body trembling in the Overlord's unrelenting steel grip, the tendrils tightened around his neck once again.

"This is your fault, you caused this, you caused their deaths."

"No! No!! Please I'm telling the truth! I don't know where he is!! Please believe me!" he wailed. "I don't know I don't know I don't know!!"

The Overlord growled and removed the darkness clouding them, Lloyd curled up in a ball as soon as the tendrils released their grip on him. "Do not doubt my power, boy. I can cause your worst fears to become reality, I can take away everything you love in a blink of an eye. This was just a taste of what I can do to you. You say you do not know where the Fire Ninja is, you may be telling the truth but I will not believe you until I find him and whoever is helping him. You will be interrogated again, and it will be far worse than this." 

He grabbed Lloyd and held him up to his face, enjoying the look of pure terror and the trembling of his thin body in his hands, he growled deeply, "I will break you, I will find the Fire Ninja, and when I do all of Ninjago is mine." Lloyd was tossed to the ground, Misako stepped forward and picked him up, slinging him over her shoulder. "Take him back to his cell until his next interrogation," he said, sitting down on his throne, ignoring the small pool of blood at the base. Misako nodded and left with her son, her heart broken at the sound of his sobs and whimpers.