The Second Master of Wind

Betrayal

Lloyd's POV

"What do you mean 'no', Lloyd?" Aeria questioned cautiously. I sighed and looked down with my eyes closed as I felt the guilt of keeping the truth from Aeria building up inside of me after she admitted that she trusted us, trusted me...

"Pythor's not wrong, we have encountered your brother before..." I looked back up to see her face filled with confusion and uncertainty. Aeria turned her head away from me and stared at nothing in particular as it looked like she was processing what I just told her.

"What..." Aeria whispered to herself as the photo and her memory box dropped from her hands onto the floor and her head bowed down to where her bangs completely covered her face in shadows.

"I'm sorry, I wanted to tell you, but we thought that you wouldn't be ready to hear-" I was interrupted when Aeria looked back up, her eye blazing more darkly than all the previous times and her fists clenched the edge of the bed so hard, splinters were breaking around her fingers as the bed creaked in protest.

"Hear what? The fact that you've been lying to me after you and the others knew how much pain the loss of my brother had been for me!" Aeria pushed me against the wall with a thrust of her arm and kept me pinned to the wall with a harsh gust of wind as she stood in front of me with fury practically radiating off of her.

"I stood up for you guys against Pythor! I told him you'd never lie to me like that and I was actually dumb enough to believe it!" I was thrown to the side with another powerful gust of wind.

"Please listen to me!" I tried to reason with Aeria, but it was in vain as she continued to yell at me,

"No! I don't want to hear any more of your lies, ever again!" She sent a rush of air at the door to where it was blown out and turned back to yell at me,

"The deal's off, I'm outta here!" She ran through the doorway and I could hear her running up the stairs to the deck.

"Guys! Stop her!" I yelled out the door after I got up and ran after her.

Aeria's POV

I ran out of my room, eyes stinging with tears and a heat I never felt before, but I didn't care. I just had to get off this ship and away from these liars.

I was so close to getting away when the others surrounded me, preventing me from going any further than the entrance to the main deck.

"You need to hear us out Aeria, please!" Nya tried to plead with me, but I rapidly formed a sphere of darkness in my hands and fired it at them in my haze of anger. It missed them and ended up hitting the mast, taking a small chunk out of it and sent splinters flying into the air.

"Sorry Sis, but it looks like we're gonna have to take her down." Kai wielded his sword in front of Nya as the others got out their weapons. I growled angrily and formed two purple-black spheres in my hands as I readied to attack again.

"Her anger is growing and must be stopped now." Xia told the others as she trembled while holding her shurikens in her hands. I could see that she was wincing in pain and I could feel my anger starting to die down as I tried to calm myself. I lowered my head down when I began to feel a painful tug in my mind and the same icy piercing feeling in my back like from my dream as it felt like I was being controlled from inside my body,

"Good luck with that..." I lifted my head back up as my voice warped into one that wasn't my own, but that I've heard before.

"Aeria?" Lloyd came out from behind me as he joined his friends in front of me.

"It's Darkstorm to you now!"

My vision went entirely thermosensitive as I saw the ninja as bright red and orange heat signatures and both of my eyes blazed even harsher along with the spheres in my hands, making Xia seize her hands to her head as she cried out in pain. I threw the spheres towards her, but Zane picked her up and disappeared as Jay, Kai, Cole, and Nya stayed to try and fight me.

3rd Person POV

Cole punched the ground, sending out a shockwave of dirt and dust at Aeria, but she repelled it back with a swiping motion of her arms and sent it right back at him, hitting him before he could even try to phase through it.

When he went down, Kai came running forward with his sword and dodged every darkness projectile sphere and managed to land a blow to her side. Aeria fell to her knee, feigning pain as Kai and Lloyd cautiously walked toward her. Meanwhile, Jay went to check on Cole and Nya had gone to check on Zane and Xia as they came back up to the main deck.

"Now that she's down, let's get her back to her room until she's calm." Kai reached down for Aeria's arm, but she grabbed it, threw him back into the broken mast, breaking it even more, with a single shove, and lept up into the air as she performed Airjitzu to the top of the highest mast.

Suddenly, she grasped her head and looked off into the distance behind the ship and growled,

"I don't think so!" Aeria leaped off the top of the mast and spiraled down below the clouds and was lost sight of.

"Where'd she go?" Jay questioned as they all ran to the edge and looked for any sign of her as the ship was lowered below the clouds to the ocean just beyond Ninjago City.

"I don't know, but she's out there and so is Pythor." Lloyd sighed as he rubbed his sore head just as a voice said,

"Who's out there?" And they turned to see Wu and Misako, dusty and tired, but alright nonetheless.

1016 Words