The Second Master of Wind

Spilled Secrets

3rd Person POV

Time Skip to the end of Rex's repairs

"It's done." Aeria deadpanned as she wiped her hands clean on an already dirty rag and tossed it aside.

"What's wrong with you now?" Ronin asked with his arms crossed.

"You seriously think I'd be happy with fixing up your mechanical menace after all these years?"

"Uh, I get the feeling that I'm missing something here." Lloyd commented nervously as Aeria gave him another deadpan glare.

"You already knew that he used to have me steal from people for his 'business', right?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, what you probably didn't know is that he used to call it 'running errands' when I was little. When I finally wisened up, I tried to run away and he would send Rex to catch me with a net."

"Seriously? How long is the list of things you've done before that aren't OK?"

"I don't know, I don't keep track of stuff like that."

"'Stuff like that'?!" Aeria tried to charge at Ronin, but was stopped by Lloyd grabbing her around the waist with both arms.

"Let me at him!" Aeria struggled against Lloyd, writhing in his grasp as he continued to restrain her from fighting Ronin, who just stood back and watched Aeria attempt to get to him.

"You couldn't take me back then, what makes you think you can take me now?"

"Ronin! I'm trying to keep her from attacking you and you're really not helping!" Lloyd shouted to him as Aeria continued to fight him.

"So? You still haven't told her about the prophecy yet and I would think that she kinda needs to know about it." As soon as Ronin finished that sentence, Aeria stopped struggling against Lloyd and looked back at him with a warning glare,

"What is he talking about?"

"Do you promise not to attack us if I let you go?" Lloyd asked cautiously and Aeria just gave him another one of her patented half-lidded stares before Lloyd released his hold on her.

"It wasn't a coincidence that Xia found your gi and the bow that went along with it."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I think we might want to go somewhere where there's nothing breakable for this kind of news." Lloyd began to lead Aeria away, shooting a glare to Ronin on their way out.

Short Time Skip

"You're going to explain a prophecy to me in an empty room?" Aeria raised her eyebrow at the empty room Lloyd had brought her to.

"Well, you might not like what you're about to hear." Lloyd responded nervously before adding, "Plus, there's nothing to break in here if you go all... rage happy again."

"Alright, so tell me about this 'prophecy' before I decide to leave this ship real early."

"Sooooo," Lloyd dragged out nervously before Aeria shot him a glare that told him to get to the point, "Xia found it in Sensei Wu's meditation room, along with your gi and a special now, and all three had been glowing when you passed by it to get to you the other day to settle into your room."

"Just tell me already, what did the prophecy say?" Aeria asked with a hint of impatience in her voice.

"It said,

A lost soul shall rise to the task

Of overcoming their obstacles of the past

Led to this path from an unsure start

With a warring interest of divided heart

To prevent a second Armageddon

They shall rise and resolve their burden

What isn't their name will become their title

Lest their dark heart to them become entitled... After that, the rest of the scroll was torn off, so we don't know how it ends. And, after seeing how you reacted to the bow, we didn't think you'd want the one that came with your gi."

"What the heck does any of that even mean and how do you know that it can even apply to me?" Aeria snapped with annoyance in her voice.

"Because you don't know much about your past, your grudges from the past concern Ronin and us, and you're now a part of this team as the Violet ninja, your alter name."

"And what makes you think I want to join this team or be apart of some stupid prophecy that ends who knows how?!" Aeria was yelling furiously at that point, getting closer and closer to Lloyd as she yelled in his face to the point where he could feel a kind of heat coming from Aeria's covered eye.

"Look, I know this may seem confusing and frankly unreal, but you don't have to be afraid of it." Lloyd backed away slightly to where he was a fair distance from Aeria.

After a deep inhale, the anger melted off her face slowly and she closed her eyes and sighed through her nose before placing a hand over her covered eye.

"I-I need some time to process this." Aeria turned away and walked quickly to the hallway where her room door was heard to be shut hard. Lloyd sighed just as Kai was walking by and saw him looking dismal.

"Hey, what's wrong?"

"I know we all agreed to wait to tell her about it, but I told her about the prophecy and she doesn't seem too thrilled about it. I just don't know how we're going to help her if we don't even know how to help her face whatever she's gonna have to confront in the future. All this talk about the prophecy and future is making my head hurt." Lloyd put a hand to his forehead and groaned as Kai put a hand around his shoulders and tousled his hair a bit.

"You did what you thought was right and she'll come around, after all, I'm pretty sure you're the 'interest of her divided heart' that the prophecy talked about."

"How are you so cool with her now, I could've sworn you were the one who wanted to boot her off the ship first?" Lloyd asked, confused by Kai's sudden change of heart.

"Don't get me wrong, I'm still keeping an eye around her, but I guess I should give her a chance to prove herself." Kai grumbled out each word as if he had to force them out of his mouth, "Oh man that was hard to get through without gagging."

"Well, it's a start." Lloyd patted Kai on the shoulder as he jokingly held his stomach fake gagging until they were both laughing their heads off.

"I'm gonna go check on Aeria now, see if she's cooled off a little more." Lloyd choked out as he stopped laughing and wiped away a few tears that were at the edges of his eyes.

"Alright, just be careful."

"Don't go all big brother protective on me, I can handle myself around her during her rage spouts." Lloyd smirked at Kai as he left the room and Kai smiled while he was in Lloyd's vision range, but frowned when he was out of sight, worried about what would happen if he was wrong.

1133 Words