Darkness from Within #4: Fading (A Ninjago Fanfiction)

Chapter 1

A week had passed since the battle. The battle in which Lloyd and Ariana successfully stole the third elemental weapon: Zane's shurikens. The Overlord now had three weapons out of four, and the only weapon the ninja had left to protect was Kai's sword. In the battle, Lloyd had revealed the reasons he had turned against the ninja. He was hurt, angry. But what was worse was that he was gaining power. And a powerful, angry enemy on a quest for revenge was not something the ninja could handle at the moment. But whether they could handle it or not didn't matter. The battle was done, but the war had only just begun.

The ninja had all moved out of the hospital room now—except for Garmadon, who had barely gained consciousness again. Cole and Kai were standing across the room from the sensei now; Kai's gaze was firmly locked on him as Cole's was on Kai. Over the weeks, the black ninja had become more and more attached to the red ninja as his visions and power grew. He had been reluctant for help at first, but now that he saw how great Kai handled his power and how he always knew what to do and when to do it, Cole found himself slowly by slowly relying on the red ninja more often than he wanted. Kai helped him sort out his odd feelings and dreams, and Cole started to look up to the red ninja. Of course, Kai wasn't that much older than him, but the red ninja was more experienced in that sort of thing, and, since their power was strange and a bit scary to Cole, the black ninja gradually started referring to Kai as his mentor. In his head, of course. He would never say a thing like that to Kai's face—at least, not yet.

Now, Cole was shaking as he felt multiple weights pile into his chest. He drew in a painful breath as shivers shot through his body and he struggled to identify them all. Wincing in pain, he glanced sideways at Kai. "D-do you feel it, too?"

Kai nodded solemnly. He always seemed to handle pain better than Cole. "There's more emotion than I could imagine," he murmured. His eyes deepened as the intense shivers shot down his own spine. "There's stress," he went on, voice trembling. "There's pain, there's guilt. There's anger and worry, and yet, still a twang of love." Kai's thoughts whirled. "Somewhere out there, our brother is struggling through the deepest pit of emotions..."

* * *

Lloyd gave a groan of frustration and knocked over his night table, shattering anything on top. Then he crashed onto his bed and buried his face in his pillow, letting out an inaudible scream. He didn't exactly know what had made him so angry. Everything that had happened recently overwhelmed him more than he could bear.

He rolled onto his back and stared at the ceiling.

He thought he was angry at Garmadon for nearly killing Ariana. He thought he was angry at the ninja for pretending to care for him. He thought he was angry because he didn't retrieve the fourth elemental weapon. He thought he was angry that the ninja couldn't accept him for who he was now. No, he thought. None of that is it.

As he stared, deep in thought, a sudden burst of realization hit him. He sat up with a jolt. He wasn't frustrated because the ninja didn't love him, he was frustrated because he still loved the ninja.

But that's impossible! he argued with himself. I don't care about the ninja! How could I after how much they hurt me?

But the thought wouldn't leave his mind.

He remembered over the past week how often he had thought about his father, wondering how badly he had injured him. I would've killed him, Lloyd thought with a prickle of guilt. But Ariana stopped me. He blinked. Ariana stopped me? Why would she do that? She never cared for the ninja.

Tugging at his bangs, Lloyd felt his thoughts drift back to everyone he wounded. I would've killed Cole if Kai didn't stop me. I would've killed Kai if Jay didn't stop me. I would've killed Jay if Sensei didn't stop me.