Chapter Text
He lost track of time a long time ago (ha, a long 'time' ago).
How long has he been in this cage?
A day?
A week?
A month?
There aren’t any windows in this room nor anything that allows him to tell the time or what time of day it is. That’s probably intentional.
At least he gets food. Even if it tastes like cardboard, he can’t afford to be picky. It’s brought at inconsistent times, just another thing to distort his perception of time.
He’d never admit it out loud but it’s working.
Suddenly he’s not alone. Harumi is standing in front of the cage.
Her sheer joy at seeing him in a cage again makes an almost alien aggression bubble to the surface once more. He’s never felt angry to this degree before (he should have listened to that red flag).
He wants to punch her.
Actually, scratch that, just punching her won’t do: he wants to murder her.
Does he really? Is that Lloyd, the logical Green Ninja, taking? Or is it Lloyd, whose evil ex has locked him in a cage ( again ) taking?
He’s not sure. That should probably frighten him but it doesn’t.
The vengestone all around him might stop his powers but it doesn’t stop him from glaring daggers at the lady. If only looks could kill…
Harumi starts talking.
“This could all be over, you could be free of this-” Suddenly he’s very much aware that she has another syringe which is full of that strange green liquid, that forced him to be compliant and hallucinate for hours, which she’s brandishing like some kind of prize.
“And you could be free of this cage-” The Quiet One trails her other, unoccupied hand across the vengestone bars. “-if you just accept my offer to join the Crystal Council,” she proposes.
“My answer is still no . I will never join your side!”
Despite what he was expecting, Harumi doesn’t look pissed off at his answer, she doesn’t even look even a little annoyed, instead she looks…curious? What?
“We’ll see about that, Green Ninja,” she tells him ominously.
It was his mistake, in hindsight, standing so close to the bars, close enough that Harumi could grab his arm and inject the contents of the syringe into him.
The cotton follows within minutes and it tugs him down to the floor in a clumsy tumble. The last he sees of the real world is Harumi’s smirking face.
Two days ago, he would have tried to fight it, tried to resist its effect for as long as he could hold out.
Two whole days, forty-eight hours, of having that strange green liquid (that doesn’t seem to do anything more than causing hallucinations and inflicting mild paralysis) repeatedly stuck into him has taught him that the more he tries to fight its effects, the long he’s stuck within those cotton candy hallucinations.
The next few hours pass in a haze, much like how the majority of the last two days have gone. He doesn’t really remember them. That’s another of the many red flag that he overlooks.
His family features predominantly in the hallucinations (that are starting to feel more and more real).
He fights against them a handful of times. The time that ( not ) Jay manages to land a hit with his lightning, he actually feels it zap him.
After that one, the cotton dissipates and he doesn’t feel the prick of a syringe. When his vision clears, he sees Harumi perched upon what looks to be a hunk of raw, uncut vengestone.
Has she been there the entire time?
“Accept my offer, Lloyd, and this will all be over,” she announces. “No more cotton, no more hallucination, no more vengestone,”
He hates that it’s tempting. An end to fighting his friends over and over, an end to watching them leave him behind again, an end to watching Ninjago be destroyed by his own hand.
Hates that he was mere seconds away from accepting. “Okay, I’ll join your Council,” he wants to say but is unable to make his mouth move to actually say it.
The Quiet One frowns at his enduring silence (not that it was intentional).
“This can keep going for as long as it’s needed,” she says.
He’s expecting the prick of another syringe, he’s not expecting the searing pain that he gets instead.
He crumples to the ground and a blooming pain bursts from his head (had he hit it? He’s not too sure).
The next time he’s back in what he thinks is the real world, Harumi is still in the same room.
She tells him that all he needs to do is accept the offer to join the Crystal Council and he can be free of the cage.
Once again, he declines. Even though he wants to accept.
The cotton returns.
The cycle repeats.
Many hours (days) later, in a rare moment where the cotton has left him alone for a few minutes, he realises foggily that he can no longer stand the colour green. Too much pain is associated with it now.