And He Had Already Accepted It

Chapter 2

(Designs I made for this story! Hope you enjoy them!)

(A/N): I couldn't resist posting the second chapter! My OC Min (I know, she has the same name as me, but I don't want to ramble on about why) is Pearl in this, but she and Garmadon have a parent/child type relationship, not romantic like Pearl/Rose, so,,, yeah (if you don't like my OC then pretend it's Harumi I guess, I can't stop you lmao) Hope you enjoy! 

"Your excellency," Zane greeted the overseer, bowing down as he parted the thin curtains of the palanquin. He stepped forward, taking in the sight of his current superior.

"Mr. Julien," Cyrus Borg rasped out, with a robotic voice that seemed not quite his own, "You have been called here today for one specific purpose. Do you know what that is?"

"Yes sir," Zane nodded. "I am here to foresee the upcoming rebel attack." He kept his posture straight and hands folded, intimidated by the metallic monstrosity in front of him.

"Very good..." Borg nodded back. "Now, Mr. Julien, I am a very busy man. I don't have all day for this debacle. What is it you foresee for the attack?"

Zane closed his eyes and took a sharp breath in. In the darkness of his mind, he began to see. "The rebels will attack shortly," he announced. "They will injure, but not kill, seven of us. This includes two of my guards, and myself. Then the rebels will be cornered, and shortly after taken into custody. The rebellion ends here."

Zane opened his eyes again to see the relieved face of the overseer.

"Thank you, Mr. Julien," Borg said, the soft smile on his face contrasting sharply with the large mechanical structure of his body. "That's all I needed to know."

"I look forward to speaking with you again shortly once I recover from my injuries," Zane said, bowing again to pardon himself before walking back out to his guards.

"So," Kai asked as the psychic walked back from the palanquin. "How did it go?"

Zane stayed silent, his eyes downcast.

Kai started to sweat, both from fear of the noble and from how embarrassing he thought he was being. "You know, this mountain really is beautiful," he nervously said, trying to lift the tension and break the ice.

Zane smiled. "Indeed. I just wish I had gotten to see more of it."

"There's still time to walk around and look at the view, if you want us to accompany you."

Zane let his mouth curl into a small, sad smile. "That is a nice thought, but, no..." his face fell back into its downcast state.

"CYRUS BORG!" A shouting was heard from off in the distance.

"It's the rebels!" Nya cried, pointing off somewhere to Kai's left. Kai swiftly turned, seeing the rebels in person for the first time.

There he stood, Master Garmadon, with his prodigy, Minerva Walker. They both were perched towards the top of the Sky Arena, Garmadon with his staff and Min with a simple sword. The two actually seemed less scary in person than Kai thought they would, especially since it was only two people.

"You will not take advantage of this land any more!" The master shouted. "Leave this place, return to your homeland, and do not come back here!"

Panicked whispers filled the arena. Cyrus Borg had in fact already fled the scene with his servant, hurrying away using his robotic legs. Two of his own guards remained, however, and they headed straight for the rebels. Min leaped off from her perch above, striking down on both of the guards at once with one horizontal slash. She kept at them until they were incapacitated, but not dead.

"Let's go, guys! What're we waiting for?" Skylor ordered the other two, already rushing in herself.

Kai snapped out of the daze he was in while watching the fight, and he rushed alongside his friends toward Master Garmadon.

"Guys! Triple Attack Formation!" Nya shouted out. The three attempted to get into position for their special attack, but before Kai could even take another step, he felt the world give under his feet. He landed on the ground with a crash, confused as to what just happened. He looked up and saw Master Garmadon standing behind them and facing away from them. Wasn't he just in front of them? And where was his prodigy?

He looked over to his right and saw Nya and Skylor already defeated by Min, the armored girl raising her sword triumphantly. He gasped at what he realized would happen next. Min had spotted her next target, the only person in the crowd not fleeing or fighting. Zane.

The girl quickly went for the easy target, speeding towards the young man and stopping right in front of him. She paused, scanning him for any tricks or deceptions, before raising her sword.

What is he doing? Kai frantically thought. He's going to get himself killed!

"Kai," Zane called out to the guard. Kai snapped his attention to Zane's words, scared of what was to come. "Good job," Zane gave a smile. "You did your best."

Zane had already accepted his fate. He knew every moment of his life, how it began, and how it would end. This was just another moment in that large timeline of life, and he had accepted all of it. But Kai. Kai could not.

"No!" Kai jumped up, racing to get to Zane before he got hurt. Just as Min was about to strike, he tackled Zane, keeping them both out of harm's way. He heard the high pitched scraping sound of Min's sword swiping the floor, but kept his body shielding Zane's, squeezing his eyes tight just in case an attack came at him.

"U-um, what is... this..." Zane trailed off from beneath him. Kai opened his eyes and immediately felt himself choke on nothing. Face to face would be an understatement to how they were. They were so close that their noses were touching, and all Kai could see were the icy blue eyes of the noble underneath him.

God, he thought, how are his eyes so bright?

Kai quickly propped himself up, and found himself feeling even more embarrassed, not even thinking about the rebel swords-woman that could attack. The way they had landed had Kai, the lower class bodyguard, on top of and and this point basically straddling, the higher class psychic Zane, who lay defenseless on the marble floor of the arena. Kai didn't even hear the offended gasp of the crowd this time, he was too entranced by the young man who lay beneath him.

Meanwhile Garmadon and Min had both paused when the nobles did, looking at the embarrassing sight before them. Min saw her opening, and raised to strike, but Garmadon grabbed her arm, holding her back. "Wait," he whispered to her. "This is..." Garmadon was about to finish, when he noticed the crowd whip their attention back towards them. "Let's go," he ordered, tugging on Min's arm.

"Uh, bye!" Min awkwardly shouted out, and threw down a smoke bomb. When it cleared, the two rebels were gone.

With the rebels gone, the crowd turned their attention back to Zane and Kai, the two still in that unfortunate position on the ground. They had never seen such a blatant slap to the face to an upper class civilian before, this offensive position with a noble. Zane heard their protests:

"Disgusting!"

"Unbelievable!"

"This is unheard of!"

Cyrus Borg, having just returned, rose above the crowd. "The rebels have escaped! Mr. Julien, this is not the scene you described!"

Zane pushed himself from under the bodyguard's grip, quickly standing up to properly address the overseer.

"This, this is not what I saw!" Zane pleaded. "I don't know what happened, I-"

"No!" Kai shouted, jumping up from the marble floor and standing in front of Zane, seemingly guarding him. "It was me! This was my fault!"

"Clearly," Borg growled. "How dare you even touch a member of this court!"

"Forgive me!" Kai begged, "I-"

"You will be executed for this!" Borg roared.

The crowd closed in around the psychic and the guard. Kai felt himself hyperventilating, repeating in his head the word "executed" in his head. Who knew his life would end this way? Killed for doing his job, protecting the noble class. In a strange way, however, he felt comforted. Zane was safe, and that was all that mattered. Zane couldn't be replaced. Kai was just a common guard, there were tons of others just like him, and so while he was scared, he had accepted his death.

But Zane had another plan.

As the crowd cornered them, Zane grabbed onto Kai's wrist. He looked for an opening in the mob, and once he found one, burst off running. 

"Woaaaaaaahh!" Kai yelped as he was thrust forward, being pulled along by Zane. "What are you doing?!" He shouted as they approached the edge of the Sky Arena. Man, Zane was faster than Kai expected, and Kai was almost out of breath as they approached the edge. But Zane wasn't stopping. At the last moment, Kai looked back at the mob chasing them, who were still far behind them. But his attention was forced back to Zane as he realized Zane had jumped off the edge, still keeping a tight grip on Kai's wrist.

"Noooo!" Kai screamed as he realized they were both falling through the clouds and not planted on the Sky Arena's marble flooring.

And Kai thought that's how he would die, forced off a building a thousand feet in the air, by a crazed noble that he was supposed to protect. But he was wrong.