Chapter Text
If there was ever a time for his Spinjitsu to come in handy, it was going to have to be now.
As soon as Tommy stabbed his sword into the middle head, the following blast being trapped in its own throat rendered it dead. The other two heads had gone absolutely ballistic, adding more fervor into their attacks. There was no time for Lloyd to properly grieve the tentative new friendship that was too short lived.
All he could do now was make sure Tommy’s sacrifice wasn’t in vain and by the gods was he going to see that that thing die by his hands. His right arm was beyond saving at this point. It was numb, the blood vessels bleached of all colors, which meant that he was going to have to give it his all if he wanted to stand a chance.
“Ninja GO!”
The explosion of stony debris and skeletal limbs showed him that his hit landed. When the dust cleared, the left head laid limp and unresponsive. That was the good news then. The bad news is he used all his remaining energy into that spinjitzu attack. If he wanted to take out the third head, it was going to take a miracle.
Panting, he dove behind an outcropping of rocks as the enraged attack sailed past his head. That’s when he saw it. Half buried underneath rubble was the handle of the pickaxe Tommy had tried to use on him all the way when they first met. Lloyd had no idea how it got here. Probably fell out of Tommy’s satchel but he wasn’t going to question his luck now.
Whispering a quick prayer of thanks to the gods and Tommy’s spirit, he darted over to where the pick laid and pulled. Rolling to the side, he bent his knees and sprung up, bracing himself for one last spinjitzu. He needed to make this count.
“Ninja GO!”
This was it.
The pickaxe was gone from his hands.
As gravity reached up to drag him down once more, he watched as the weapon seemingly soared in slow motion at the last skull. The creature turned its head to meet it. Its mouth snapped open, an attack charging up. The pick lodged itself in the center of the energy ball and then…
Snap.
It shattered with bang.
No.
The wither furiously rotated its head to stare directly at him, jaws unhinging wider and wider, revealing a dark pit of despair reeking of death and lined with sharp teeth. Except it never attacked.
Instead, it began vibrating violently, whipping back and forth.
“What the-?”
Blasts of dark matter tore itself from the thing’s throat at speeds way too fast to be natural. Cracks began to appear along its body, light streaming out of them and providing a stark contrast to the emptiness around him. Lloyd gasped.
Growls of anger quickly turned into agonized shrieks. The wither was dying. It lashed out, slamming into the pillars that were barely holding the place steady. Something else more dangerous than it was now present and could very well come for him next. That was enough to jerk him out of his trance.
Kicking into action, Lloyd clambered up the rock he was one and jumped up onto a jutting precipice, pulling himself over. He did this until he was about eye level with the creature on the balcony.
Struggling to catch his breath, he looked around for something to use as a weapon. Seeing nothing, he wrapped his hands around a rotted floorboard and tugged, snapping the board roughly in half. This would have to do.
He crouched, placing the jagged side up, waiting for it or whatever was killing it to charge at him.
That was when its entire body cracked into pieces as the blinding light finished their job and consumed it entirely. He cursed. Two potential primordial horrors in one day? He’d rather fight the deal with all the Serpentine in Ninjago at once.
What emerged was no monster. A humanoid figure, glowing too much for the features to be distincts, but the wings on its back were clear as day. They were made of crackling fire in all of its forms. Liquid golds, burning reds, sunset oranges, even electric blue. The flames intertwined and separated from each other like it was a dance and only they could hear the music. He had only read about one creature who has these types of wings: the phoenix.
If phoenix were known for their powers of rebirth then does this mean…?
Throwing the board to the side, he vaulted over the balcony railing. Please let his guess be right. Just as he was about to reach the winged mystery, his legs stopped working and what feeling remained in his arms dissipated. He was effectively frozen in time.
With a gut wrenching wail, everything around him disappeared and he was thrown into the void beneath. He shouted in shock when instead of being swallowed alive by the void, he was spat back out into the altar where Seapeekay stood waiting.
He tumbled onto the brick. Lloyd winced. That would’ve definitely made it into a cringe compilation if anyone was around to catch it on tape. He flexed his fingers, checking to see if his arm was still damaged. He heaved a sigh of relief when he saw that his skin was mostly back to normal and that he was able to move it.
The sound of flapping wings alerted him to another presence. Lloyd turned around, letting out a whoop of disbelief as his hopes were confirmed.
“Tommy! You’re alive!”
“Lloyd?”
“That’s my name. Don’t wear it out.”
Seapeekay trotted over to them, ears pricked up in curiosity.
“Tommy, you have wings. Have they always been there?” The man questioned. There was a glint in his eyes that reminded Lloyd too much of his mother whenever she brought up her research.
“I-I,” Tommy blew out a breath of amazement. “I don’t know how all this even happened. I mean, one moment I was dead or at least my physical body was, and then the next I was falling into that dark pit and now I have wings ! I don’t even remember anything about my parents, all Phil told me was that I just showed up in his and Wilbur’s village one day with nothing but the clothes on my back. I shrugged it off, thought me following the old geezer around was because he was the first adult who spoke to me but maybe it was some avian instinct deep down, you know, like that one saying? Birds of a feather flock together and since he was the only avian there I guess it just happened.” He rambled. His hands shook slightly at the end of his tangent.
Seapeekay nodded, expression pensive.
“More mysteries for the future to solve. I wish you the best of luck in figuring out more of your past, Tommy. What today has given you is a valuable gift in the form of knowledge. Cherish it. You’ll go far kid.”
Tommy’s wings fluttered at those last words.
“Like that one Oogway quote.” He nodded sagely.
Lloyd exchanged a puzzled look with the fox-man next to him.
“You know, the Oogway quote. From the first Kung Fu Panda movie.” Tommy added.
He was still met with confused faces.
““Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, and today is a gift that's why they call it present”. You know. That one.”
“I don’t know whether to be impressed that you can quote that on the spot or horrified you can quote that on the spot.” Seapeekay said.
“Both. Both are good.” Tommy cackled, mischief lined in every corner of his smile.
Seapeekay cleared his throat. Beckoning for them both to follow him up the steps, he led them in front of a wall with a dent in it.
“This is where we part ways with you Lloyd. Once you turn the key you got by defeating the first wither, the stray portal will stabilize itself enough for you to get home.”
That was when he noticed the chain around his neck. Attached to it was a rusted key, its tip speckled with dark veins.
“Will the portal on the other side still be in the same place I found it? If we have a random portal in the middle of a city alley, the architects aren’t going to be very happy.”
That question garnered a shrug from Seapeekay.
“Hey, you better come visit every once in a while ‘k? If you don’t I’ll actually pickaxe you.” Tommy interrupted, staring pointedly at Lloyd.
He laughed.
That got him a quick punch in the shoulder.
“Ow! What was that for?”
Tommy didn’t answer, opting instead to kick at the ground.
Lloyd gave a genuine smile.
“Of course I’ll visit whenever I can. Your SMP seems fascinating and the world always seem to need the ninja for something or the other. Hanging out with you would be fun.”
That got him a small smile in return. Their not quite goodbyes done, Lloyd turned to Seapeekay.
“Thank you for all of your help.”
“No problem. Travelers look out for each other.”
Taking the key from the necklace, Lloyd inserted it into the lock and turned it 90 degrees. The wall gave a weary groan, sliding back to reveal a swirling blue doorway. It was time to go home. Giving one last glance back at the duo of this strange world who dropped everything for him, he raised his hand in farewell.
“See you soon!” Tommy waved back.
Seapeekay gave a small wave of his own.
Not giving himself anymore time to linger here, he stepped into the portal. With a whoosh, the colors dropped to pitch black and he felt the familiar falling sensation, although this time it didn’t feel as malevolent. It was almost like being on a vertical air current of early spring breezes.
To his pleasant surprise, he didn’t emerge back into a dingy alleyway. It was the ruins of the ninja’s old monastery that greeted him.
“Would you look at that?” He murmured.
Maybe, now with a safe way between his realms and his new friend’s, this place could be renovated into becoming something again.
The screech of a falcon drew his attention to the skies. Zane’s mechanical pet circled lower, swooping down to land on Lloyd’s outstretched arms.
“Hello to you too.”
It flapped its wings, shifting so that one eye was facing him. A virtually projected Zane appeared alongside the rest of the ninja, his parents, Wu, and Nya.
“There you are! Where did you go, we’ve been searching for you all day!” Kai cried.
“Yeah, when the guys got back and you weren’t with them we all thought something bad happened. And is that soot on your face?” Nya chimed in.
“Are you safe son? Don’t tell me that’s the old monastery behind you.” his dad said worriedly.
He waited for them all to settle down, excitement and a feeling of peace rising in him simultaneously. He couldn’t wait to tell his friends and family about what he discovered. The future suddenly seemed so bright.
“It is but don’t worry, I’m safe. Now anyway. I couldn’t have done it alone, you guys just WAIT until I tell you all about it! I want to say it started with my new friend Tommy chasing me down and swinging at me with a pickaxe but it was really about a portal in an alleyway...