Ninjago - Heart of Stone

Chapter Twenty Three: Healing Flame

It hurt. It hurt all over, and Nya didn't understand why. Her blood felt like flame, and she convulsed violently, her body moving of its own accord. She opened her mouth to scream, but nothing came out. Blackness began floating off her skin, like smoke floating away from a roaring fire. It felt like her flesh was being torn off, ripped from her bones as with a knife. Foam spilled from between her parted lips, dribbling down her chin and soaking the front of her shirt. It stank of blood and it was as thick as oil.

Suddenly, her mind went white. It was like memories were flooding back in, washing away darkness like a flood washes away the earth. It burned like fire but it felt good, the same way it hurt to pull a nail from your foot. All around her, she heard screams and crashing and it felt like she was falling. Something shattered, and something else collapsed, and then there was nothing.

Until she was lying on her back, staring up at a blue sky and feeling the wind on her face. Her whole body felt new, clean. She felt like she'd been bathed in fire, though she'd suffered no burns.

"Nya!" She sat up quickly at the sound of her brother's voice, and before she could react she was enveloped in a hug. Kai was kneeling beside her, and Jay was right behind him, grabbing them both and crying. A few feet away, Cole gripped Zane's arm and laughed, and Zane smiled like he'd just made his very first friend.

The moment of bliss was exactly that. Nya looked over to see where Lloyd and Lexi were, and what she saw cut through to her very core and tore her heart right from her chest. All over again, that feeling of fire in her blood returned, but this time it was icy cold. "Guys," she said softly, and they all turned to where the Garmadon family was gathered around their daughter's corpse.

All at once, the world around them came crashing down, smashing into smithereens like glass from a shattered snow globe. There were people all around them, dazed and confused and hurt, but Nya took no notice. She was too busy staring at Lexi, lying stretched across the ground, her chest soaked in blood, unmoving.

Misako was crying, sobbing on her knees and clinging to Lloyd for dear life, looking as though her world was ended. Lloyd was standing beside her, staring blankly at his sister, his lips moving wordlessly, almost like he was praying. Wu stood a little ways away from them, looking at the ground, tears rolling down his cheeks silently. They looked out of place and wrong on his face— Wu was made of ice, and ice could not cry. But nor could ice feel, and yet feel he did.

Garmadon was the only one who was touching Lexi. He was the only one who could, it seemed. She'd pierced herself with a blade soaked in the darkness of the Overlord, and she was drenched in it. Her touch was now lethal, but not to Garmadon. Not to the only one person in the world who was corrupted as she was.

"Lexi, don't go," he begged. It was almost frightening, to see a man like him begging. Before today, Nya hadn't though there was a thing in the world that could make Garmadon beg, and yet here he was, cradling his daughter's corpse and pleading for her life. "Please, not now, not yet... you can't die."

Nya felt herself pressed against Jay, felt the sobs racking his body, and then realized that she was crying, too. Kai was gripping her arm, staring dead ahead with his jaw set determinedly, his eyes ablaze with a sort of angry flame. Zane was standing beside his father, and they were both bowing their heads, paying their respects. Cole was the only one not with the group. Cole had gone ahead, standing as close as he dared to the family, staring at Lexi's still body, held in Garmadon's arms.

"I'm sorry," Garmadon spat. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry I wasn't there, and I'm sorry you never had me at your side..." he was crying openly, tears rolling down his face and splashing onto Lexi's. He didn't seem aware of the people surrounding him, he didn't seem to care at all that they were there. "I'm sorry I wasn't the father you needed, and that I can't even be the father you need now. I'm sorry you had to fear me, and hate me, and fight me... I'm sorry I was so evil, and you so good. And now... now I'm sorry that you had to die for my mistakes, and for my cruelty, and stupidity, and arrogance... I wanted this, I wanted to destroy the world, and now I have. I've destroyed you, and I deserve all of this pain, and all of this regret— but your mother doesn't, and your brother doesn't... and.... and my brother doesn't."