angels - a ninjago fanfiction [complete]

twenty-two · lost futures

COLE

I have something important to tell you guys.

Nearly identical words had been spoken by her Yin a month before. Cole looked at Jay, but the blue Ninja looked equally confused. He didn't know what she was talking about.

"What do you mean?" Kai looked suspicious and Cole saw a similar expression on Lloyd's face. On the other hand, realization dawned on the Nindroids' faces almost at the exact same time, further confusing everyone except Nya.

Cole tried not to look concerned. "Go ahead, Nya. Though please know that none of us have any clue as to what the heck you're talking about."

She muttered something under her breath that sounded like Please don't kill us before explaining.

WU

The Omega liked dramatic entrances, which seriously annoyed Wu for some reason.

Knowing that the Oni wasn't going to kill him worked to the sensei's advantage. When the warlord appeared at the monastery in a cloud of darkness, the first thing Wu did was march right up to him, give him the death glare, and-

WHACK.

-slap him hard.

The force of it nearly toppled the Omega, to Wu's satisfaction. Half a second later, however, the Oni blasted him backwards. The old man hit the sliding doors to the monastery and heard the papery screen rip from the sudden impact.

"That was for everyone you hurt," Wu snapped. "For every person you destroyed for your own enjoyment."

"It was less entertainment, but more a lesson taught to you. It was to teach you what the Oni are capable of. It was a warning, and I will make your life miserable if you show that you have not learned."

"You're forgetting who the Sensei is here."

"You are forgetting who has more power here."

With that, the Omega vanished into the shadows.

---

There was something he needed to do.

He was forgetting to do something. It was the feeling of knowing something needed to be done, but not knowing what that something was. Wu ended up going in circles around the monastery, trying to remember what he needed to do.

In the past two days without the Ninja, the sensei had shut the doors to the bunkrooms and avoided it completely. He did the same to the Destiny's Bounty after Cole and Morro... left. Its gas tank was nearly empty and the console was on the verge of breaking down, but it managed to take him back to the monastery-- the only part of Ninjago that seemed to be spared from the darkness.

This was the first time Wu returned to the Bounty since then. He climbed the gangplank and walked around the ship that had once been so full of life and family. Knowing that four of his students' last moments had been on the very ship he stood on brought a lump to his throat. If what the Omega had said was true, then their deaths were Wu's fault. The Omega had destroyed them to get to Wu.

When he passed by the bunkrooms, two of the beds were unmade and messy, as if Lloyd and Cole were to return any minute. He could almost see them running past him, shouting their greetings while escaping Kai who was chasing them. Zane was right behind them, dragging Jay and Nya along but also chastising Kai for his language. Pixal was in the kitchen, cooking food for everyone while they fooled around.

They were like visions. Sometimes Wu thought they might actually be there, that they were alive and smiling and laughing and teasing each other and saving the world.

But then he would remember.

And that made everything hurt more.

He tugged on the door, about to close it for the last time, when he noticed the corner of a box poking out from underneath Lloyd's bed. Curious, he walked over and pulled it out.

It was a green box, glossy and cold to the touch. It was rimmed with an ivory-like metal and was tied shut with a spare strip of fabric that doubled as a belt. There was a dragon's face on the side and the name "LLOYD" was embossed on the lid.

That was when Wu remembered what he needed to find.

The lock boxes.

---

Six boxes were lined up in front of him in color order- red, maroon, black, blue, green, and white.

Of course, that was not the order he was going to open them in. It just looked pretty in color order.

Wu had given the Ninja "lock boxes" for them to store their most valuable possessions in there. Being Ninja meant their prized possessions weren't diamonds and wedding rings, but rather things that were meaningful to them. Without saying it explicitly, they had all understood to never snoop around anyone else's lock box.

"Hey, if anything ever happens to us, Wu gets the right to look into our boxes," Kai declared one night at dinner. "It's kind of like a scavenger hunt, where he has to figure out why we put that stuff in there."

"Isn't the whole point of the lock boxes to be secretive?" Nya had asked skeptically.

Cole had raised an eyebrow. "Yeah. And I don't think that's what a scavenger hunt is."

"Yeah sure, Dirtclod," Kai teased. "And if I'm dead, it doesn't matter," he had said nonchalantly. "We're not criminals or anything. You shouldn't be putting something dangerous or illegal in there anyway."

Lloyd shrugged. "I guess that makes sense. I hope you don't die," he added softly. "All of you. We're a team, and we're gonna stick together, right?"

"'Till the end," Zane said firmly.

Which was precisely what happened.

Per the Ninja's wish, he decided to see what they put in there. It felt like an invasion of privacy, but they wanted him to see. He had a feeling they could be watching from the Departed Realm, likely placing bets on what would be inside.

Each of them had a colored belt tied around it and they all were done differently. Some were free of dust, while others looked like they hadn't been touched recently. All of them reflected their owner's personality.

It was one of the last things that connected Wu to the Ninja, and it was an important one.

He had a bad feeling about this.