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Lloyd doesn't know why his body isn't as cold as it should be.
Stuck inside a cell made out of ice, where the ice never melts even when he sits on it for hours on end. His skin numbs but the ice keeps it's chilling cold to the touch.
He met Akita's brother, Kataru. But that wasn't much of a comfort, not when the other seemed just as hopeless as Lloyd was feeling. His hope of finding Zane was dwindling with each passing cold day and night, with each passing sad cold meal, and with each passing where his clothes would be wet with the ice he'd lied on but never melted. It was sad. To be stuck in a cold prison and yet feeling warm inside.
Lloyd was not cold. His fingers weren't turning blue, but he knew that even his advanced and weirdly built body wouldn't survive for much longer. There is only so much his Oni and Dragon blood could do to keep him alive long enough. He's running out of time and he knows this. And yet he still can't find a way out of this prison.
Footsteps echo through the cold halls, loud and sharp. It was a guard, one of the ones that came usually around noons for their first and only meal of the day.
Lloyd would have jumped at the opportunity to find aby junk of escape, but deep down somewhere dark and raw he knows he won't be able to get out of this. Dead or alive.
So he stays sit on the cold hard bed made out of ice, his hopes and dreams of getting out slipping through his fingers like silk.
The door to his cell clicks, keys jammed into the lock before his door was swung open and he was face to face with a guard of ice. Eyes avoid of emotions and skin the deathly pale blue.
He still doesn't get up, even when the guard enters his cell and the door swings with the taunt of freedom within a few feet of reach. A few steps and he could run out of here.
If he even makes it far enough to get out, but there is still the cold unforgiving tundra outside.
The guard grabs his arm and he winces at the cold. He's hauled to his feet and thrown out of his cell, his shoulder hits the wall of stone and he hisses when he pulls away and it stings.
The same cold hand grabs his bicep and begins go pull him. He's dragged through halls, his eyes wandering and looking for aby mean of escape, even if he knows he won't be running off to save himself. It's the training kicking in that's making him so in tuned with his surroundings and the lookout got any escape or weak spots. But there wasn't any weak spots to exploit either, so he was slumped either way.
Lloyd is dragged to a huge hall with huge doors made out of stone covered in ice with black cracks in them.
The ice had gotten darker in shade, cracks now appeared black and deep. Like ink in water.
It's gotten a lot colder, and his body was wrecked with shivers now that he notices the cold.
The doors open and he's dragged once more. The hand leaves and he's shoved forward, stumbling the slightest hit he manages to get a grip of his feet before he stands still. Looking up he sees a man made of ice on the throne, hand frozen to a staff equally covered in ice if not more.
Lloyd swallowed. A sense of recognition, but also fear settles in his stomach and he doesn't understand what is even happening. His eyes wander over what he guesses is the ice emperor he's heard so much about from Akita.
"You were the one who tried to break in just a few days ago." A man at the emperor side spoke first into the vast room mainly covered in ice.
Lloyd looks over at the man, he's the first one that can actually speak full sentences. The others can barely form a single syllable.
"You have stepped foot on our sacred land. Coming to find someone who does no longer exist." The man shifts, foot stepping on ice that had grown at his feet. His armour was made of stone and covered in ice. Beard covered in ice crystals and ice dark and cold.
Lloyd is pushed again, his feet catching him before he fell over onto the carpet that had long since hardened with the cold.
"My emperor, I suggest you get rid of this good for nothing. Or he'll end up taking your staff and your rule over this vast land." There was a loud crunch, followed by a creak and Lloyd looked over to see the hand around the staff of ice had tightened.
Was this so called emperor made of ice? Because that's all Lloyd could even see.
"Destroy him." The emperor got up. His body letting out loud crunches as ice crunched between his joints and icicles fell onto the ground. Lloyd watched, his heart suddenly beating a lot faster now that this ice emperor was walking down the steps from the throne surrounded by ice. Everywhere around this room was made of ice if not coated in a thick sheeting layer of it.
Lloyd knows he's scared, but he can't act like it. He's got to lull through, because the other ninja are still here and they still need their leader to come back safe and sound and ready to take action. He can't be scared. He just can't.
The room was silent and the only sound was the loud echoes of ice crunching and a staff hitting each and every step.
Lloyd couldn't help but stare into the cold eyes of the ice emperor, somewhere deep down he knew there was something deeper to look into. But his current state of mind told him that the only thing to look into was running away and getting out of this cold hell.
"He'll take your staff, ruin everything you've worked decades for." The man had started talking again, Lloyd couldn't care less about him and his weird black ice block he's got held in one hand as he continues walking a step behind the ice emperor.
"You don't want that. Do you? To get everything you've worked for ripped away. To get this life taken away because someone decided that you weren't who you say you are?" Lloyd blinked, his green eyes falling back onto the ice emperor standing right in front of him now. He could feel the cold, his skin pickled and he knew he'd start to feel the true extent of the cold sooner or later.
There was a groan from the ice emperor, eyes narrowing into even thinner slits behind the mask made of ice. "He wants to take everything away, don't let him." There was a wide smile on the man's face now. "So take everything away from him first. Starting with his life." Lloyd involuntarily stepped back, there was hands on his biceps within seconds and he was being shoved down onto his knees. Heavy boots pressed down on his ankles, his shoulders slumped with the weight of hands holding him down.
"Go on. Take what you so proudly deserve." Lloyd watched as the staff moved and the emperor took a single step back. The point of his staff was suddenly pointing at Lloyd and he sucked in a breath of air. The air was cold, there was sweat running down his brow and he felt too much and not enough to book it out of this cold place.
His flight and fight was frozen. The same way his blood went when the point of the staff lowered down to his chest rather than his face.
"Yes, yes, just like that my emperor. And now... just let it go." Lloyd felt as the cold burned into his bones. His muscles tensed and his bones creaked when the cold suddenly engulfed him and he was struck with the staffs' power. Lloyd gasped out when the cold reached his lungs, with one breath of air his entire body seized and he fell to the ground with a heavy thump. At the emperors feet, breathing in pained his insides and he groaned out.
"Good... very good. Now, take him away!" The staff hit his shoulder and Lloyd winced when he felt another stab of cold pierce into his shoulder this time. His chest ached with unbearable pain, his teeth clenched tight.
Hands grabbed at him and he was dragged up onto his feet. His entire body was locked up and his feet dragged on the ground as he was dragged away from the emperors feet.
Lloyd was thrown into his cell. His body rolling before he stopped on the good one. Taking a shaky breath in, he hissed out when his body seized all over again. Exhaling heavily when his muscles finally released all it's tension. Lloyd steadied his breathing as well as he could, his mind swirling with even more thoughts of getting out and going to the rest of the ninja in hopes that they had found Zane and they could save him.
But they can't. He doesn't know where they are. They don't know where he even is, locked away in a cell inside an old castle that's coated in ice.
"Ninja?" Lloyd took another breath in, trying his damn hardest to not make himself seize up again. There was scratching against the wall, and he knew it was Kataru, in the cell right next door. "Hey, answer me, are you alright?" Lloyd shivered, glancing down he could see his hands with his fingertips turning darker and darker with each passing second. His eyes close for a second and he exhales,fl feeling his breathing slow he opens his eyes again and forces another breath of air in.
It stings.
His lungs hurt and his blood is starting to slow. All around is cold and he's freezing down to frostbite.
He feels sick. Or he feels more like nothing at all.
"Ninja, I can't have you dying on me. Didn't you say you came in with my sister?" Lloyd took in a shaky breath, closing his eyes for a second and opening them up to see the outside was darker than before.
He fell asleep and he hadn't even noticed.
Mustering up his dwindling strength, he spoke. "Ka.. Kataru?" There was a scratch against the wall and Lloyd felt the corner of his lip twitch up. His strength was weakening, he hadn't moved since he was thrown in and he knew the exact reason why. His body was steadily being frozen from the inside out, his blood had slowed, his heart beat with a weakness, even his limbs felt like bricks.
"Ninja? Hey, just stay awake. Don't sleep, you'll die faster if you do." Lloyd hummed. His eyes closed and he forced them open, glancing down his stomach dropped when he saw what was protruding from his chest. It wasn't big, but ice had ripped apart his ninja GI and stuck out right where the point of the staff had poked him hours before.
That must be why he's struggling to breath. Ice was growing from within inside of him, at least there's no signs of bleeding out soon.
"Are you injured?" He's brought back to the fact there's someone else right beside him.
"No..." His words were weak, but it's all he muster before his body begins to tense as if awaiting for something that never comes. He slowly exhales, eyes rolling back before he forces his eyes open again. Its getting harder to stay awake.
There was silence for a long time. The darkness of the outside world melted away into the bright white that bounced off the white of the ice and snow.
The ice grew and grew. Slowly but surely it's size doubled once night fell again, his chest cavity was nearly entirely engulfed in the ice. His green GI at the chest was ripped apart and all he could do was watch and stare as he dies.
He couldn't feel anything anymore. His fingertips has long since turned black, nails growing horribly as if he was aging hundreds of years within hours. His hair had grown too, its once short length had now fallen down to a little farther below the shoulders. Not that he's moved to see if he was right, he's been stuck on the ground ever since he's been dropped. Too exhausted and in pain to get up at all.
Kataru would speak to him from to time. Lloyd had the hunch that the other knew that he didn't have long to live, so he was giving him as much company as he could from the other side of a stone wall. Stuck in nearly the same situation.
But only one of them was dying.
The door next door was opened and Lloyd silently pleaded to the first spinjitzu master that they don't take Kataru away. Akita needed her brother, the one family she had left in this cold desert. The door was closed again and Lloyd was happy to hear footsteps on the other side, those that belonged to Kataru.
Lloyd watched as his chest was being ripped open by ice. The pain was nonstop but he couldn't even feel his arms or legs anymore. Swallowing his own spit has gotten hard to do too, even going as far as opening his mouth to let some of the spit in his mouth drip onto the ground. That had been hours ago, and his muscles were nonexistent. He couldn't feel even his face.
"You're dying. Aren't you?"
Lloyd couldn't respond. His entire body was nothing and all he could feel was the pain that the ice ripping his chest apart was giving. His bones ached, and deep down he knew that if he moved right now with the little strength he had he'd only serve himself his fate faster.
But then again, he was still going to die either way.
There was no saving him, his body was slowly shutting down. His stomach had stopped grumbling, his mind has stopped thinking so quickly, his blood had long since slowed, his lungs struggled to take in a single breath, and his heart struggled to keep beating the little warm blood he even has left.
"I'll tell her you fought to try and get out. I'll tell her how nice you were." Lloyd couldn't help but feel as his eyes burned. And for the first time in a long while, tears streamed down his face and onto the ground. His lower lip trembling with a familiar pain that throbbed through his body now that his eyes had cried.
"Thank you, for making sure she was safe." And that's all Lloyd needed to hear before his eyes closed and he felt his mind finally rest for the first time in forty hours. His eyes ached and burned, his skin loosening with his relaxed features.