Chapter Text
There was an unsurprising truth that there was a time before the merged realms, there was an unsurprising truth that there was a time before the explosion causing strange new realms to take part in the already growing strangeness. Sometimes the sky looked the same way it once did, the way the stars would line up. And sometimes strange new planets would decorate the unfamiliar sun sets with new specks of energy to be cataloged.
At some point people had started writing books about the new skies, the planets, it seemed as if everyone had already adapted to this new world.
3 weeks into the merge Lloyd didn’t do anything. He would gather as many scrolls as he possibly could, but even Wu’s library could not supply the information for anything. Even the destroyed scrolls didn’t give him and info. He knew they didn’t because even Wu had read every scroll that existed in Ninjago, in the Library of Domu, even Misako couldn’t find anything.
And of course Lloyd would have gone anywhere he would’ve been able to find Wu or Misako, if they were alive; but after just simply looking around at the maps he once had, he realized everything was changed. New cities began growing, new towns, homes, shops, everything. Nobody, he’s heard from nobody. Talked to nobody except himself. At some point Lloyd had stopped believing his friends were even alive.
He had nightmares about it for a while, then he just stopped sleeping. Hours would go to minutes and then even those seconds were just a nightmare in itself. Sometimes he sat on the steps just drinking teas he found in the kitchen to calm his mind. It reminded him of home. Home. Not here, this isn’t home.
The monastery was normal, the structure anyway; but the weird vines and plants growing from the sides. The odd glow. Lloyd never knew the feeling of being watched in his own home until he woke back up in the courtyard entirely alone. He liked the way the tea tasted, the warmth it gave him when he sat out in the cold air on the steps.
He would listen as the chatter in the new places would die down, as the lights would turn out and a comfortable silence would fall over, animals would make their final goodnights to the sky, it was just silent. Like it had always been. Of course it wasn’t that calm after only being 3 weeks, but that’s how it felt. Some were still coping with their new surroundings, others would cry in the night missing their families, Some slept better. Some grew happier being far far away from the place they would never call home. And for that Lloyd was grateful some could get away, that some could find a better place to be accepted. It was the loneliness of others he felt empathy for, he felt it himself.
The bounty had gone missing weeks ago, he knew that. It was when it returned he had panicked because with what he thought,there was no way it should have been back and a attacker must have been prepared to murder him. Which could have been the sleep deprivation talking, but at the time it seemed most logical. It was eerie walking back on that ship, the way the floor creaked under his weight. The newer scratches that scarred the deck, the creaks that didn’t come from his own careful steps. He froze when he heard other steps from below, steps that sounded light like his, but with no attempt at hiding them. Lloyd attacked.
The figure had fallen and pleaded for him to stop while shielding his face from Lloyd’s element. At first Lloyd had thought he’d been wrong, then he saw the red, the voice. Kai.
“Jeez Lloyd, you tryna kill me?!”
“Wha- Kai? I haven’t seen anybody in weeks, my bad for being vigilant.”
They both laughed before hugging, “I didn’t think I’d ever see any of you again.” and Lloyd had said that more in a whisper than he wanted too, but really he could’ve sworn they’d all be dead.
“I went looking for Nya. For anyone really, but I got lost. Even the Bounty’s map couldn’t figure out where I was. It’s actually really cool sometimes like the way the sky looked, the realms I saw. Dude I found talking horses.” Kai pulled away from the hug to hop off the bounty and stretch his arms.
“It’s like every realm found it’s way into Ninjago or like-... wait did you say talking horses?” Lloyd placed his first train of thought aside.
“Yeah! Or well more like horses and I think I saw unicorns. When we find Jay, don’t tell him. I’ll owe him so much money.” He shuddered at the mere thought of Jay winning that bet. It had been on going for years now, god he probably owes him at least a hundred dollars now.
“Wu never said anything about a realm like that. What if it’s more than just the 16 realms we knew of? What if there are other realms that got caught into.. whatever this mess is.”
“The merge.”
“What?”
“People keep callin’ it the merge so I guess we’ll go with that.” Kai sat on the step picking up the chipped mug Lloyd had dropped earlier and placing it in the corner of the bottom step.
Lloyd joined him, “Oh. The Merge.” He said in a dramatic tone with a slightly hand gesture, “That sounds like a dramatic dystopian book.” Kai laughed at Lloyd’s antics. They both missed it more than they let on. The way things were. Like when someone dies or when you have to move one. Apart of you longs to go back to those simpler times where nothing really hurt the way it did now.
Where you think it’s all just a dream you’ll wake up from at any moment. But with the nightmares, just how real it all felt; this was reality. A horrid world he would have to face everyday while silently hoping with every time he awoke, everything would be normal again. It kinda felt selfish in a way, to want to wish it all away just for things to go back the way he wanted. This new place would become home for hundreds of different species. People were saved and could live lives they never would have thought they could.
Well actually nobody would have ever thought to live in a world like this.
Perhaps they wanted to speak more. Catch up. But the sky cracking open with a strange vortex aided by elemental energy, it had only been the beginning. The beginning of countless realms and planets falling into the lands of Ninjago. Kai said he passed by 3 he knew, 1 he didn't, but he left with the Bounty once more after the 'mergequake' had settled and Lloyd had been left alone with a few scrolls his brother had left for him.
Messages sent every few days on what he had discovered and for some reason it had been a lot of information about the talking horses. Caves he had never seen before. Oceans of ice lingering around the coast of other realms. Mountains in other quadrants.
Lloyd sighed. It had been 5 weeks since this started. He needed to get out there, he needed to search for the other elemental masters. He needed to find his family, find Wu, find.. anyone really.
He never truly knew what he'd find.
It certainly wasn't what he expected for the future set for him. But then again, isn't that how Ninjago always was?
Just now, he had a few more people he'd meet. People he'd never get to talk to before this. People who might have changed his mind about the merge just a little bit. People who guided him without even saying words.
So without a further thought more, the young leader-to-be had walked down those steps and into unknown lands, this time without anxiety but with determination. He'd find the others. He knew he would.