Rise of the Overlord

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Soft, high-pitched beeping brought Lloyd to consciousness, the feeling of lethargy weighed heavy on his body like a weighted blanket. His eyes fluttered open, grimacing at the rays of sunlight streaming through the partially closed blinds. He felt a heavy weight tucked against his side, wrapping around his stomach and chest. Achingly, he glanced down and saw Kai wrapped around his side, hugging his stomach as he rested his head on his chest. Lloyd's mind was still unbelievably fuzzy, struggling to recall where he was and what happened to him.

Lloyd realized that he was in a large room, bluish-gray walls surrounded him on three sides while the wall to his right was filled with tall windows. A small bathroom was to his left, and tucked into a small alcove next to it was the exit. Hanging near the ceiling on the wall in front of him was an old television set, switched off. In the center of the same wall was a whiteboard filled with garbled and unintelligible words, but that could also be the weariness in his eyes. To his right, sitting by the window were four chairs but only two were occupied at the moment. The seats on the left had blue and red jackets sitting in the center, while the seats on the right were occupied by Cole and Zane.

Cole was asleep, resting his head on Zane's shoulder as he snored quietly. His face would occasionally twitch, his eyebrows furrowed or contorted from his dreams before settling back into a peaceful repose. Zane, on the other hand, was sitting with his back resting comfortably against the chair. His blue eyes seemed to glow in the dim room, grinning warmly at him.

"Good morning, Lloyd," Zane murmured. "How are you feeling?"

"I... don't know," he slurred softly, his head rolling to the side. "What happened?"

"Quite a lot happened actually. After you reached your true potential, unleashing a shockwave of light that traveled across all of Ninjago, you passed out and lost your dragon. Kai managed to catch you before you could fall too far, but you were quite pale and couldn't be awoken. Everyone was in quite a tizzy; we got you to the first hospital we could find in Shihon and you've been in recovery ever since."

"How long?"

"You've been unconscious for about three days. Once we were allowed into your room, Kai refused to leave your side unless absolutely necessary. Even then, he would make sure one of us were here so you were never alone. Garmadon and Misako are checking in on Wu and my father in the rooms on this floor. Jay-"

The door creaked open. A familiar flash of auburn hair and blue clothes appeared in the room. Jay was holding onto a pair of cups filled with vanilla ice cream, each topped with pink spoons. "Did you say something, Zane?" he whispered, then his eyes flickered over to Lloyd. Instantly, his face lit up in pure joy and excitement. Nearly slamming the ice cream cups on the empty chairs, he rushed over and engulfed Lloyd in a bear hug that rivaled Cole's. "Oh thank God you're finally awake we were getting so worried about you but Kai was so frantic that you would never wake up he never left your side I mean we tried to stay here too but we also had to do damage control around the city and we had to check on Wu and Doctor Julien and get check-ups of our own but we never stopped thinking about you oh I'm so glad to see you're awake-!"

"Jay, I swear to God if you don't shut up I'm going to throw you out of the window," Kai grumbled, glaring at him from his spot on Lloyd's chest.

A new voice laughed, "He's been awake for three seconds and you're already talking his ears off."

"Oh, sorry!" Jay took a few steps back, his face and ears tinged pink. Stepping out from the doorway, Lloyd's heart skipped in joy as Nya appeared before him. Her eyes were back to their original ocean blue, seemingly brighter than ever before, as her tan skin was now void of any gray. She was wearing a new áo dài, still in her signature red but now had stripes of black and blue, along with her icon of the Phoenix on her waistband. She set her cups of ice cream beside Jay's then approached the bedside, pulling Lloyd into a warm hug. "I'm so glad to see you're all right."