Discovering Her Path

Prologue

A/N:  This story takes place between Rebooted and Tournament of Elements.

     Lloyd panted as he emerged from the training course. An older man, about thirty-five years old, rolled towards him in his wheelchair. Cyrus Borg

   "How was it?" He asked

    "It was–pretty–good." Lloyd replied in between breathes. "Very realistic. Oh, um I had to knock out quite a few Nindroids. Sorry." He added.

     "It's quite alright," Cyrus Borg chuckled. "This was only the first test, but try not to destroy them too much next time."

     An older man in the room gave a laugh. Dad. Garmadon had come with his son to see the new ninja training course that Borg had made.

    "What was my time?" Lloyd asked. Cyrus rolled over to a nearby console with flashing numbers reading 3:49.

     "Since this is your first time, we have nothing to compare it to, but here is your time. I have lots more tweaks to change out, so expect it to be different next time." he added with a wink.

     "Well, we wouldn't want to get in the way," Garmadon said, clapping a hand on Lloyd's shoulder. "We should be going. I'm looking forward to see the changes."

     After they said their farewells, father and son entered the elevator to go to the ground floor.

     "So what did you think? Cool, huh?" Lloyd asked his dad on their way down.

     "Well, it was...different. But in the good way," He answered. "I'm not used to this technology stuff." He added with a smile. Lloyd was glad to be spending time with his father without having to worry about Ninjago being taken over. That threat happened WAY too often.

      The pair walked down the sidewalk of New Ninjago City, heading home, aka Garmadon's monastery. They traveled in comfortable silence, while the citizens bustled by, running their errands. Ahead, to the side of the sidewalk, Lloyd noticed a crane, obviously doing some renovations to an older building. People still bustled by however, paying no mind to the noise.

      On the sidewalk ahead of him, in front of the building in renovation, was a boy, about ten or eleven, sitting on a bench listening to music through his headphones, not a care in the world. What Lloyd would give to be that carefree again. A women he assumed was the boy's mother, stood a few yards away, peering into the window of a shop.

     Lloyd had no idea that this small–seemingly normal–scene would change his life.

      The crane was now hauling concrete slabs to the roof of the in-renovation building.

      Then a rip! broke through the air. A yell shortly followed. Lloyd immediately knew there was trouble. His eyes searched the environment. The crane's cable had snapped! Concrete slabs hurtled through the air in freefall.

        "That boy!" Garmadon exclaimed. He pointed to the kid sitting on the bench, listening to his music. He had no idea that those slabs were heading straight toward him.

      From that point everything happened in slow-motion. Lloyd and his father ran towards the boy. They had to save him. Lloyd prepared an orb of green energy in his hand, ready to obliterate the concrete slabs with it, when his father stopped him. A girl about his age ran from across the street and stood in front of them, her back towards him, blocking Lloyd's aim. The boy now only had five seconds at the most until he would be flattened.

       Lloyd was about to rush past her, when he stopped. This girl, about six yards away from the would-be human pancake outstretched her arms, aiming them at the concrete slabs, still soaring mercilessly towards the ground, when the most bizarre thing happened, and that's saying a lot coming from him.

        Tendrils of gray emitted from this girl's hands, heading straight toward the slabs. Lloyd looked up. As these wisps reached their target, the concrete slabs jerked, then they were just left suspended–floating. In midair! The girl grunted in effort. She was actually controlling the concrete! Lloyd and other passerby's stared in amazement as the gray wisps from this girl's hands enveloped the concrete and she brought it gently towards the ground. People clapped and cheered. The boy's mother, now realizing what had happened, ran towards her son and embraced him as tears streamed down her eyes. This kid had no idea what just happened. That strange girl just saved his life.

     He stared at the girl. She was panting in exhaustion, wiping sweat of her forehead. Lloyd looked up at his father.

      "What just..." He began, but stopped when he saw a strange look in his father's face. Not amazement, but surprise. And some other feeling was shown in his father's face...recognition. Lloyd didn't have time to ask what was wrong, because just then, from the corner of his eye, he saw the girl collapse into a heap on the ground.