Ninjago - Heart of Stone

Chapter Five: The Release

All Lexi saw was a flash of black and orange, and her brother was falling, crumpling to the ground, still and silent, like he was dead--

But he wasn't, she told herself, because that hit wouldn't be enough to kill him, and the serpentine weren't trying to kill her or Lloyd, because they needed Garmadon on their side, and murdering his children wasn't going to do them any favours. Not to mention, the snake had been reacting partially out of shock when Lloyd turned around so fast, and the only reason he'd even knocked him out was because Constrictai were amazingly, frighteningly strong. Lexi reasoned all this out in a few seconds, the exact span of time it took for her to decide how to react.

"Lloyd!" She screamed, her words flying from her mouth right as his body hit the ground. The snake looked up, his eyes lighting up when he caught sight of her, and it occurred to Lexi then that the serpentine might not know who they were after all. They had, she recollected, just been aged by magic, something the serpentine could not have known.

"Get her," the Constrictai growled, stepping closer towards her, and by extension, over Lloyd's body. Lexi froze, her blood going cold, and suddenly all she saw was Lloyd, lying unconscious and vulnerable on the ground, that massive wall of flesh and scales looming over him, feet and hands that could crush him into fine powder, that could splatter his brains out all over the sand...

The words to describe the sudden rush of emotion she felt would come later, when she was calm and clear-headed, but in that moment, she did not know if it was fear, or anger, or hate that filled her every fibre and made her blood boil. All she knew was that she needed to protect Lloyd, and how she planned on doing it.

As she raised her hands, allowing the hot, blazing power to rush through her and explode outwards, she remembered a time, barely weeks ago, when she had failed to protect her brother. She remembered Pythor, holding a knife to Lloyd's throat, laughing at the ninja's powerlessness to save him. The fear in his eyes as he was dragged away by the Anacondrai. Kai, yelling at Lexi afterwards because she'd failed to do anything, because she should have done something...

"Wish you were here, Kai," Lexi hissed, narrowing her eyes as her dark power surged from her hands. The Constrictai didn't have time to blink before he was swept up in the current, lifted high into the air and flung headlong into a row of tents, bringing them all down, sending up a cloud of sand on impact. The power didn't stop there. The black tendrils swooped, and like the coils of a great snake, began wrapping themselves around the nearest soldiers. Lexi felt panic, icy and desperate, filling her heart. The power was acting on it's own accord. She couldn't stop it.

She tried lowering her hands, but they wouldn't budge, held in place by the power that filled her. Her eyes grew wide, and she felt her head getting light and airy. It was almost as if she was leaving her body... she didn't really need it, anyways, it was so heavy, so useless...

She heard screams, saw, through a blinding light, with blurry vision, the figures of the snakes, writhing, twisting, suspended in the air by her power... by her... Lexi closed her eyes, trying to force herself to stop... the heat in her palms became searing, unbearable, she couldn't take it anymore--

Suddenly, her hands dropped, and she fell to her knees, weak and shaky. Head bowed, panting, her heart hammering against her chest, Lexi crawled forwards across the sand to Lloyd, who was beginning to stir.

"L-Lloyd?" Lexi shook his gently by the shoulder, rousing him further. Her brother sat up slowly, placing three fingers against his temple gingerly. "Ugh," he moaned, rubbing his head and closing his eyes, "what... what happened?"

Lexi swallowed hard, afraid to look up and see what she'd done. "I... don't know."

Lloyd opened one eye, frowning at her. "Are you okay? You look... weird."