The Second Master of Wind

Two Halves Reunited and Aftermath

3rd Person POV with Dark Aeria

After sending Lloyd out of harm's way, Dark Aeria flew up through the ceiling of the crumbling mountaintop and punched their way through solid stone to make it to the outside, where the blown-off top was crumbling down toward the city.

"We're gonna have to give this our all plus one!" Aeria shouted over the noise to her counterpart, to which she chuckled and spoke mentally,

Like anything else would be better?

Aeria smiled before holding both of her hands in front of her, taking a few seconds to gather up the emotions she would need to fuel her next move.

She thought of the rare moments Ronin actually mentored her in things other than thievery, training and fixing cars with Jeff, the moment she shared her inner feelings with Nya and Xia through her origami creations, every moment she had with Lloyd...

Purple energy gathered around her outstretched arms and created a barrier formed from pure, hardened wind, reinforced with streaks of darkness, as soon as the chunks of mountain hit it, they were forcibly dissolved into smaller bits of rock and gravel and blew away, harmless as dust in the wind.

From the base of the mountain, the ninja were able to make it back to the Destiny's Bounty after Misako had picked up on their situation and informed Wu to steer the ship toward them and planned to do the same with Aeria. Unfortunately, once they made it to the deck, a stray boulder was sent their way and severely damaged once of the thrusters, grounding them as they witnessed what happened next.

The aftershock on the impact sent a shockwave that knocked into Aeria with the intensity of an earthquake, knocking her unconscious as she was sent hurtling toward the ground.

"Aeria!" Lloyd's shout was heard all around as Aeria came closer to the ground, helpless as she remained out cold.

"You didn't think I'd completely leave her, did'ja?" A new voice sounded over the ship's intercoms much to everyone's surprise.

Just when it seemed she was done for, a red ship came out from nowhere and steered to the side to catch Aeria and steered toward the Bounty. When the ship came in close enough range, they could see it was Rex and the person who saved Aeria was none other than Ronin.

"Ronin!" Everyone cheered as Rex landed right next to the Bounty and they all ran toward them.

When the door opened, Aeria was barely awake with an arm around Ronin's shoulder as he helped her stand until Lloyd came forward and took her before hugging her.

"How did you-?" Jay's question was cut off as Ronin chuckled and told them,

"I've told ya before, I keep tabs on people of interest, Aeria pretty much fits that category."

"As your former mentee?" Wu questioned with a wise smile.

"Somethin' like that." Ronin crossed his arms with a light smirk.

"Thank you." Lloyd thanked him with genuine gratitude as he led Aeria away to the rooms to rest.

"You really do care for her..." Nya smiled from where she stood with Xia nodding in confirmation.

"Just call it payback for fixin' Rex."

Nya raised her eyebrow, expecting to hear more which made Ronin sigh and add,

"I practically partially raised her, I couldn't leave knowing she was in that much danger."

"Well you did us a service by saving one of our own." Misako thanked him before they were rejoined by Lloyd.

"She'll be up again in a little while if ya wanna stick around a little longer." Lloyd informed Ronin as he shook his head and commented,

"Nah, I better be goin', just tell her I'm glad she's alright." Ronin hopped on Rex and flew away, giving them a salute before taking off to the skies.

"Huh so I guess he's not totally heartless." Jay commented mildly.

"Not completely anyway." Cole added on.

"Well, I'd say we should look for Pythor, but I think we all know he's going underground until our next faceoff." Lloyd told the others before shrugging it off.

"Yeah, let's get somethin' to eat."

"Totally, I'm starving."

"Skylor's?"

"Of course."

Everyone walked away to get some food while Lloyd stayed on the deck to watch the sunset over Ninjago. As he leaned against the railing, he felt something hard within his gi pocket and, after some rummaging, he found the golden swirled mineral within one of his pockets.

She had complete faith that she wouldn't need it... Lloyd thought to himself as he held it up to catch the last rays of the sun before it completely sank behind the horizon.

"I'm just glad to have you back with us..." Lloyd whispered as he tossed the stone up before putting it back in his pocket to head back inside as Nya arrived with some bags of food.

"Uh I thought you just left to get food?" He questioned in confusion at the fast pickup.

"We field tested Aeria's new motorcycle features and they were working perfectly." Xia explained from where she was laying out plates for everyone.

"Come on, let's chow down!" Jay was about to dig in with Wu smacked his hand away with his chopsticks before saying,

"Not everyone has been seated yet." Looking over to Lloyd to get what he meant. Nodding, Lloyd went over to Aeria's room and knocked lightly before entering to find her already awake and stretching her arms up as if she just woke up only seconds before.

"Hey." She gave a little wave from where she was sitting before she got up.

"Hey... Aeria or...?" Lloyd trailed off and Aeria got what he meant answering,

"It's me Lloyd, Darkstorm and I worked out an agreement, she only gets to come out during real battles."

"Oh OK great..." Lloyd stayed in one place, but he nervously shifted his foot in place, looking like he needed to say something.

"Is there something you needed or..."

"I just wanted to talk about the.... you know..."

"The kiss?"

"Yeah...I mean u-unless you don't y'know want to-" Lloyd blushed dark red as he looked away in embarrassment before Aeria walked over and took one of his hands in hers.

"I would make up some excuse that I needed you distracted so you wouldn't argue against me going at it alone even after I said I never needed to but, truth be told, I didn't want my feelings to go unsaid if anything went sideways..." Aeria looked Lloyd in the eyes as she admitted that with genuine emotion clear in her voice.

"Oh O-OK..." Lloyd stuttered out before Aeria smirked and messed up his hair saying,

"Now what was it you were gonna tell me before the mush-fest started?"

Lloyd chuckled a bit at her sudden attitude change before answering,

"I was coming to see if you were feelin' up for some dinner?"

"Asking me out already are we?" Aeria joked but Lloyd's face once again flushed bright red before she side nudged him saying,

"I'm kidding, let's go join the others before they take all the good dumplings"

Lloyd sighed before following behind her to join the others as they celebrated the end of one disaster and the start of a brand new friendship with their newest team member; the Second Master of Wind and Darkness, the Violet Ninja.

The End

1177 Words