Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The Merge.

The Coalescence.

An event once prophesied by the torrential bout of conflict between the gods.

Seems they couldn't keep to their own realms.

One of these gods, once a mere mortal, now just as great as the rest, knew this.

He knew it would happen, and he did all he could to stop it.

This event soon became a bedtime story he would tell his children at night.

One of them took it to heart. Promised his father he would continue to do whatever it took to keep such a horrific event from occurring.

He was a little too late.

The gods were angry.

Lloyd opened his eyes groggily, static buzz subsiding in his body. The sun shone down blindingly on his face, causing his eyes to struggle. He turned his head to the side, texture still manifesting itself into his world.

The rough rock of the monastery courtyard scratched against his hands uncomfortably as he sat up slowly. His head was pounding, his vision was blurry, but he could sense the familiarity of his home. Something was off, however.

As the blurring in his vision subsided, he took a look around himself. The fuzzy memory of the monastery as he knew it didn't quite match his surroundings, as his eyes panned over the vine-covered walls and the alien runes carved into every other piece of wood.

He was sure this wasn't how he remembered his home. But to be honest, he couldn't seem to remember much.

All he knew was that everything he had known before, was gone. Changed. Shifted into something new.

And he wasn't sure how he felt about it.

Lloyd took cautious steps throughout the monastery, struggling to chase his memories. Everything was familiar, but so different at the same time. It felt cold. Lonely.

He had felt this before. He just didn't know where.

The static buzz came back in waves, illuminating his vision in a slight tint. Sometimes it was green. Sometimes gold. Sometimes pink.

It spoke to him in different voices, each tint with its own respectively. Blabbering on and on inaudible things that pried at his emotions.

His powers.

His life force.

More important to him than any heartbeat.

And now it was so immensely there, stronger than ever before. Every sense of power he'd felt was boiling inside of him.

One was berating him. One was condoling with him. And one was serious but warm-toned. He didn't know which to follow.

He trailed his fingers along the dead walls of a place once filled with love and warmth. Gone, to the back of his mind, and the depths of the universe. Lost. That feeling was lost and he felt he would never recover it ever again.

He walked down the hallways, dodging vines that seemed to reach for him desperately for the little warmth emanating from his body.

He struggled minorly with the door to his bedroom. He wasn't even sure if it was his bedroom, memories fleeting from him as soon as he tried to recall them.

He collapsed onto his bed, little particles of dust rising in the air. He didn't even try to move into a more comfortable position. All of the energy inside him was gone.

Sleep came to him instantaneously, his cold surroundings dissipating into nothingness. But he didn't feel content.

He felt nothing at all.

Lloyd slept hours into the night, his hair matting up under the weight of his skull. He was unmoving, pale, and looked deader than ever.

And in some ways, he was.

He opened his eyes, rolling over with lack of effort. He observed the cracks in the ceiling, counting them up. He didn't realize how common of a practice this was for him. He didn't even remember.

He sat up slowly, the room illuminated only by the moon. He was aware of this, and didn't question how he could make out things in the dark that shouldn't be visible in just moonlight. His senses were overwhelmingly heightened.

He then brushed it off, standing up slowly. He ran a practiced hand through his hair, taking small steps in a familiar direction.

The doors slide open with ease despite their abandoned appearance. The moon revealed itself to Lloyd in a humble manner, its incandescent glow illuminating his face.

Stars speckled the pitch-black sky like freckles, each one unique in its own way. But the uniqueness was not visible to any mortal's eye, instead fuzzy and distant.

He clambered down the steps groggily, keeping his eyes on the moonlit sky above him. He leaned against the railing, decorated with mystery symbols that seemed to glow slightly in the dark.

He let out a calm breath, the glint of night surrounding him in its deep invisibility. Everything seemed to fall away from him in that moment, the stars blinking brighter as if they were conversing amongst themselves.

Lloyd pursed his mind over any memory, anything familiar. Distant visions flashed faintly in his eyes, but scurried away instantly.

He had some idea of who he was. Some idea of his life before it changed so suddenly.

It was there, but at the same time it wasn't.

His eyes flicked around, desperate to pull any sense of remembrance to his vision. Everything was there, then it was gone. The cycle repeated over and over.

Nothing made sense. The strain was too much.

Until something shoved its way to the front of his mind. Something different.

A memory. One without holes and gaps, one not drained of color. One that had been forgotten for a long time. Like someone had hidden it from him, until now.

He allowed this memory to overtake him, immersing himself in a vision full of color he hadn't seen in a long time.

He could see himself, younger. Standing out in the middle of nowhere. Grass greener than his gi spread out into the horizon, flattened completely.

A dragon, and a man, were standing in front of him.

He recognized them both.

The man spoke. Of many things. Important things, that his younger self was too naive to understand. That much was obvious.

He clung onto every detail of the memory, every word the man said. He was his grandfather, he already knew that. It had been drilled into his skull since the day he first learned of it.

He didn't remember how he learned of it, though.

But that would be alright. This is progress.

Lloyd awoke again to the burning morning sun against his skin. He arose with a new found vigor, grinning for the first time in who knows how long.

He had remembered something. Something important.

And this was the only thing he had left to cling onto. The only thing that seemed to keep him awake.

What would his grandfather tell him? Hopefully not some "encouraging" drag that he figured he was somewhat used to, with the way the words tasted in his mouth.

Bitter.

His grandfather wouldn't do that to him. He wouldn't give him false hope. Lloyd could trust his grandfather more than anyone.

But it would probably help if he were here now.

Chapter Text

Fixing up the monastery was a difficult task. Especially since the secret headquarters were gone.

The elevator was gone as well, no matter how many times he tried to activate it, it failed. He simply sighed and turned his focus elsewhere.

The vines invading Lloyd's home were extremely stubborn. So much so that he had given up a long time ago to try and remove them. He would have to live with them for the time being.

There was one room that succumbed the most to these invasive plants. A room that Lloyd could barely recognize. But he could sense it was important.

Shelves lined the walls, vines covering any sense of beauty left. On these shelves were his main objects of interest. The scrolls.

Scrolls of importance to someone. Someone who wasn't here anymore.

Lloyd carefully slid one off of the shelf, unraveling it gently. Crude sketches and ancient languages decorated the paper, displaying tales of artifacts and elements, warriors who fought and fell to tragedy. This was the only information he had left.

The only thing that could help him.

He spent the rest of the day recovering all that he could.

"Everything is connected. From the bark of a cherry tree to the howl of a wolf at night, from the patter of rain to the blossom of a water lily. Life is a part of us all. What matter makes up the sun and the stars make up our being and consciousness.

"We are everything that has existed. We are everything that will exist. We are experiencing ourselves, but we are also experiencing everything else.

"We are the magic of the universe on a molecular level. Our spirits guide us, spirits of past consciousness aiding our journeys. We are a repeat of everything that has happened.

"The cherry tree is you. The wolf is you. The rain is you. The blossom is you. And you are it, experiencing a higher form of intelligence.

"In this revelation, we achieve balance. Balance and harmony of all things. Good and evil mix and become one. Every living being reaches an eternal homeostasis.

"It is life's job to keep the balance. Floods, quakes, diseases, and wildfires are all vital to the sake of staying pure. To replace old with the new, and keep the cycle of nature as it should be.

"Balanced."

Lloyd's eyes stayed on the paper as he processed this.

A scroll, tinged with golden markings of swirls and edges, had gleamed out to him from the tops of the shelves.

It was in this scroll Lloyd had found something important.

At this point, anything was important.

If it could help him understand.

Meditation was the only thing that could keep his mind from reeling.

The calmness of the breeze against his skin, the distant chirp of birds and crickets. The sun shone down on his pale skin, kissing it with a fiery force intended to kill him, but failing miserably.

The smell of incense could never beat the pure, untouched oxygen so high on the mountains. The clouds felt closer here, as he perched upon a tall pillar of earth.

He was closer to the heavens in every way possible.

The monastery, on the largest mountain, outlined in the distance. The sight filled Lloyd with a sense of distant content. Memories stuck themselves to the wood and brick that held it all together, allowing themselves to never be viewed by intruders.

Lloyd felt less like an intruder with every passing day.

Himself in those memories wasn't him now. He had changed, for both better and worse. But at least he had something to cling to.

The flashes of color in his vision remained however. The whispers in his ears, spouting the secrets of the universe, bombarded him in the middle of the night.

Meditation was the only way to block them out. He felt that he would grow insane if he caved into their requests.

Raw, unaffected power flowed through his veins. He was aware of this, maybe too aware.

There were three different powers. One, he was familiar with. He could control it to his will, it obeyed him with great practice, leaving little space for freedom.

The idea saddened him, keeping this great energy restricted in his core. He let it loose when he could, feeling it attach itself to the life around him.

Any molecule that was alive became flushed of impurities, healing and shielding it from death. His green energy was a gift of life, pulled from the cells of living beings in pure natural beauty. Born into his body as a part of him, to wield in a life-bringing way.

He only had memories of destruction pertaining to his green power. He wasn't sure he wanted that anymore.

The second power he was less familiar with. He remembered it, a wave of nostalgia washing over him every time it spoke. He found it had incredible intelligence.

He could not wield it, no matter how hard he tried, it wouldn't allow him. Only when the time was right, it told him. May that be the day of his death, he would never know.

One thing was for sure, it held strong connections of spirituality. It had granted Lloyd the ability to tune into anything alive and hear what it had to say, whether it could speak or not. It sought truth, including Lloyd's own.

He would have gone insane without it.

The third power was… peculiar.

It was born into him, just as his green energy had been. But instead of peace or life, this power was dark. It was a side of him he had only remembered being afraid of.

It took many annoying attempts to contact him, even going so far as to try and take control of his mind. The second power, as named his golden power, always came to his aid when things got out of hand.

It would take a while to control this power, his golden power had told him. For now, he could only focus on keeping it contained. It wasn't ready for the outside world just yet.

In meditation, Lloyd was able to find a balance through all of the raging conflict inside of him. His green energy was released, attaching him to the life around him. His golden power surrounded him in a protective shield, ensuring nothing inside or outside would harm him. And the last power, deemed his oni power, would subside calmly into his core, leaving Lloyd to finally take a breath of fresh mountain air.

Chapter Text

Lloyd strode the dirt path with a rare vigor, as today had been quite peaceful since the moment he awoke. The reason being, his oni power hadn't nagged him at all today. Peculiar, of course, but Lloyd figured enjoying the silence was better than worrying.

It's not like it was gone, a faint cold buzz in his core reminded him. But what better than to savor the moment of solidarity with a walk around the mountain?

He had created this path himself a while ago, and everytime he tread it it grew more blatant in contrast to the lush green surrounding it.

Other than meditation, this path had to be one of his most enjoyable moments of everyday. The sharp chirp of birds' mating calls, the slight temper of crickets hopping blades of grass, the warm, sweet wind of April creeping up behind every step.

Seasons had become unbalanced after the Merge, that much was obvious. Of course, they still existed, but the winter had been unnervingly warm and cut-off.

Lloyd had figured out that it had been in late March when the Merge had taken place, which was a struggle to determine since some of his electronics had disappeared, including his phone. Thankfully, the TV was still there, but it seemed to be broken.

Oh well, Lloyd could survive without video games if he tried hard enough. And so far he was doing fine. Plus, nothing could beat a sunny, spring day. He was lucky it hadn't started raining, if it even would.

A soft rustle in the bushes caught Lloyd's attention. He snapped his head to the source of the sound, his senses on full alert. He slowly walked to the spot, figuring to see just a small animal or something.

But there was nothing there.

Except…

A necklace?

—-

Lloyd held the necklace gingerly in his hands, observing the charm with a sort of hyper-focus. He had taken it back to the monastery as soon as he had found it, more invested in this peculiar-looking necklace than the rest of his walk.

The charm itself is what caught his attention. A large, white tooth hung from the string, perhaps a shark's or a big cat's. A Yin-Yang symbol was carved with great precision on the tooth, painted with black and white. It was utterly impressive.

And it almost appeared to be glowing.
—-

Lloyd drifted off into the darkness of the night, necklace in his hand but not around his neck. It radiated a dim light in the dark room, and its presence seemed to calm him.

His eyes were heavily shut, and he slowly prepared himself for another night of gray and colorless shapes instead of the vivid dreams he knew had been normal for him.

But boy, was he wrong.

Pops of color manifesting into his vision almost startled him awake, forming unfamiliar figures in his mind. Unlike other nights, he was well aware of how his body felt, and he could feel texture on his skin.

That texture shifted, however, and he felt gravity change around him. He gripped the necklace in his hand, as though it had been transported with him to his dreamland.

Though this wasn't a dream, but a vision.

It had become apparent enough when the world had finished loading around him, and he could spot a figure in front of him.

A young boy, not much older than Lloyd, stood tall in front of him, his back to Lloyd. He was clad in a crude conglomeration of armor and clothing, both of which seemed to have been made by the boy himself. His platinum-blonde hair ruffled in the breeze, suspiciously well-kept, and in a half-ponytail. He seemed confident, standing there.

Lloyd stepped forward, eventually reaching the other boy’s side. He didn’t make any move to acknowledge the new presence, as if he were caught in a trance by what he saw. Lloyd followed his gaze, peering down into the valley below them.

A large group of oni were gathered around a dragon, in an uncoordinated battle. The dragon was roaring annoyedly, whipping her tail around to fling oni into the air comically. It was almost laughable to watch from a distance, resembling ants trying to take down a lizard, but Lloyd knew better. He glanced at the boy next to him, as if trying to signal him to do something, but again he was met with no acknowledgement.

The vision then shifted around Lloyd, dream logic taking place as he was flung through time and space, landing in a new spot. It resembled the first spot, in the same barren lands, and the young boy in front of him. Lloyd repeated his actions, momentarily stumbling as he got used to the feeling of just being thrown this way and that through the void.

He reached the boy’s side once more, followed his gaze, and froze in horror at what he saw.

It was as if the atmosphere became flooded with grey clouds to fit a certain mood, and it wasn’t unobvious what that mood was. Oni and dragons, hundreds of thousands of them, locked in a fierce battle unlike Lloyd had ever seen before.

It was brutal, but he couldn’t take his eyes off of it.

Flashes of red and purple exited bodies that not one moment later laid stone cold on the ground, their blood pooling under them. Roars and screeches echoed throughout the air, and any sane person would wince at the inhumane sounds.

But not Lloyd.

Not when he could practically feel the desperation in those voices. Hear exactly what they were saying, screaming. Understand them and their pain. With the sense of familiarity in those voices came the revelation that maybe this wasn’t a dream and this was real. Maybe Lloyd was standing in front of a battlefield in real time, next to a boy who’s power radiated but never was encouraged to join the fray and protect those attacked. Maybe Lloyd had finally returned to reality, and everything he had lived through up until this point was a lie. Maybe he would never see his family again. Maybe he was utterly losing it.

As if he read his mind, the boy turned to him. If Lloyd could feel any more shocked, he would, at the face staring back at him. It was a clone of himself.

“You’re not losing it. But this isn’t truly happening either. No need to worry,” the boy smiled, his voice soothing Lloyd out of his terrified stupor.

“This,” he gestured to the battlefield, “is what I grew up with. This was my life. The greatest war this world has ever seen, takes place now, hundreds of years ago, and hundreds of years to come. Believe it or not, this is what it takes to achieve balance.”

“If only they knew how to achieve it correctly. Fighting is not worth it, it never is. Fighting takes us nowhere. Protecting what you love is what matters, but not fighting. Not like this. The gods believe this is the only way, the only way to keep the world from shattering. But I know there’s another way. And I’m set on protecting what I love. That’s why I created Ninjago.”

And then it hit him. It was so obvious he almost hit himself for not realizing. This carbon copy of himself, this twin of his, was his grandfather. But a long time ago, or atleast, in a form from a long time ago.

The First Master smiled as he watched his grandson’s expression change into that of understanding.

“And that is also why I created the necklace you hold in your hand,” The First Master gestured to the tooth necklace that Lloyd only just realized he still had. He brought it up to inspect it, as if he was truly seeing it for the first time.

“That necklace is a tooth from a dragon that was killed by a group of oni. More so, it was a battle between the two and losses pertained on both sides. It was retrieved from chaos and infused with peace. I created it in order to keep myself safe during the war. Being the child born of both worlds is a controversial position, as you know,” The First Master chuckled to himself, “ and this necklace was part of the reason why I survived long enough to create Ninjago and become sort of a god myself.”

“The necklace itself was crafted to block out any sense that I was of enemy blood. Neither side would ever treat me nicely, except Firstbourne, because they could sense their enemy within me as well as their ally. This necklace blocks out any of that doubt or confusion, and shows both oni and dragon that I am a trusting figure, and that I mean them no harm. It was quite simple of a craft, really. I’m surprised it took me so long to figure it out.”

“The reason I’m speaking to you now through your mind’s eye is because I want you,” The First Master grabbed Lloyd’s hand with such gentleness and care that Lloyd thought he was about to burst with a newfound admiration for his grandfather, “ to have it. You need it much, much more than I do now. I hope it can protect you when I can’t.” He closed Lloyd’s fist around the tooth charm.

Lloyd nodded, at a loss for words and not quite sure if he remembered how to speak. He didn’t have time to remember, however, as the world began caving around him. His grandfather smiled and waved, disappearing into the darkness.

Chapter Text

"Kai?"

Kai groaned, rubbing the fuzziness from his eyes. He squinted at the figure above him, the bright light from the sun blurring his vision.

"Oh thank the First Master you're ok!" Nya breathed with relief.

"Wha- Nya? Ugh, what happened?" Kai propped himself up on his elbows.

"I, I have no idea. The last thing I remember was being dragged into that weird storm thingy," Nya scrunched her nose in thought.

"Are-are the others… ok?" Kai sat up slowly, taking in his surroundings.

"I don't know, I haven't seen them. But you're sure you're ok? You aren't hurt, right?" Nya said worriedly, inspecting her brother for any damage.

"Hah, Nya I'm alright. Let's just, figure out where we are right now. We'll find the others soon," Kai placed a comforting hand on his sister's shoulder. She nodded back at him.

The two quickly figured out they were in the middle of the Realm of Madness, momentarily worrying them until they had learned about The Merge from a tribe of Craglings.

The Craglings were surprisingly welcoming to the duo. Their leader, King Crag-Nor, supplied them with everything they needed, and shared with them information about the recent chaotic events.

Not long after, the two set out on a little journey in order to find the rest of the ninja. They could only hope the others weren’t too far, since the realm had practically doubled in size with the new additions. They continued North.

Cole cracked an eye open, shifting uncomfortably on the rough terrain. Finally coming to his senses, he shot up with a gasp of realization.

“Wh-what? What happened?” His eyes darted around his surroundings in panic. Memories of the recent events flashed through his mind in an overwhelming blur, causing the first pangs of a headache to attack him.

After a long and stressful moment of attempting to catch his breath, he was finally able to take in his barren surroundings.

Rocky plains spansed the horizon as he lay in an abandoned heap on the side of what seemed to be a mountain, free of vegetation or any sign of life. It was desolate, not contributing much to the growing feeling of loneliness.

The last thing he remembered was getting sucked into that weird storm, lights flashing around him enough to give any sensitive person a seizure, before he fell unconscious. It felt as though he had only been asleep for a few minutes, but at the same time, it felt like a year since he had moved his limbs. His skin was dry and cracked, and so was his throat.

And he was alone.

“Nyaaaaa I’m thirstyyyyyyyy” Kai glanced annoyed over at his sister. The two were only a day into their trek, and Kai had been finding excuses to complain the entire time.

“You already drank all the water in our canteens. There’s literally no water here,” Nya rolled her eyes.

“Nyaaaa, you’re the water ninja! Just create water!” Kai stomped his feet like a child.

“Kaiiii, you’re the fire ninja, but you can’t create fire in space,” She argued.

“What’s that got to do with anything?” Kai shot back with annoyance, and a hint of confusion as to what his sister was getting at.

“I mean, there’s no oxygen in space, or any air for that matter, so you literally can’t create fire. Just like me, I can’t give you water IF THERE IS NO WATER HERE!”

“That’s not fair…” Kai pouted. Nya sighed.

“We should be coming up on a lake soon. You’ll get your water, hot-head,” Nya rolled her eyes for the one-millionth time.

After another few hours of walking, and of Kai complaining, they finally reached said lake. Nya immediately went to fill the canteens, while Kai took a more unorthodox approach and simply drank from the lake itself.

“You do know that water is probably disgusting, can’t you wait until I purify it?” Nya looked over at her brother with an expression that could only be worn on the face of a sibling purely done with her other sibling’s antics.

“Don’t care, more likely to die of dehydration than cholera,” Kai said quickly, water dripping down his chin, before he went back to drinking.

“Since when did you even know- you know what, I’m not gonna argue,” Nya continued purifying the water and filling the canteens, decidedly ignoring her brother for the time being.

Atleast 10 minutes later, the two silently agreed to continue travelling North.

It was only until after he tried to stand up did he realize his leg was hurting like hell. Broken, probably not, but he definitely sprained and bruised something. It hurt enough that he couldn’t walk, so much for that.

Cole managed to drag himself to shade, escaping the hot sun. His stomach rumbled and his throat was screaming for hydration, but he paid it no mind. Not that he could solve those problems anyway, he couldn’t even stand. So much for ninja never quit.

If only his friends were here.

Eventually he spotted something in the distance. Two somethings to be exact, two little dots on the horizon, warped by the heat. They seemed to be getting bigger, closer to him.

Too bad he passed out before they reached him.

“...Co-.....Cole…Cole, can you hear me…?”

Cole opened his eyes blearily, vision blurred and headache pounding. He attempted to sit up, but felt warm, calloused hands push him back down. He barely registered the cool sensation of water going down his throat, as he mindlessly drank until his aching throat was cured.

At last his vision returned to normal, as he could see Kai and Nya’s worried expressions above him. He smiled weakly, risking speaking.

“Hey guys… what’s wrong?” He croaked out. The two siblings grinned and laughed, and Cole could’ve sworn he’d seen Kai cry, but said man wiped at his eyes immediately.

“Dude, you had me so worried! I’m so glad we found you,” Kai pulled Cole upright a bit, and hugged the ever-loving soul out of him. Nya joined in the hug moments later.

“So…where a-are we?” Cole said, grimacing, his voice was still dry.

“The Realm of Madness. Or really, we’re still in Ninjago. Or- ok. It’s hard to explain, but you’re alright now, that’s all that matters, yeah?” Kai wiped at his face again, though if Cole ever brought that up in the future, Kai would’ve denied it immediately.

“That’s totally not confusing. Where are the others?” Cole cocked his head to the side.

“Uhh… We’re still trying to figure that out ourselves…” Nya answered, looking at the ground. Being one of the more observant ninja, he realized Nya’s hesitation was likely because of Jay.

“Don’t worry Nya, we’ll find him,” he said, Nya smiling sadly back at him and nodding.

“You’re still too weak to stand,” Kai said, changing the topic, “we can’t look for the others until you get some rest.”

His tone was no-nonsense, something that would’ve fit Nya much better, but Cole still nodded and scootched back closer to the rocks that gave him little shade. He leaned against them, breathing a deep sigh.

Nya handed a half-full canteen to him, and the three sat in silence, sipping on cool water.

Chapter Text

Jay awoke with a start, sitting up quickly despite the pounding pain in his body. His head whipped around, taking in his surroundings.

The last thing he remembered was getting struck in the stomach by something, and then an explosion happening a mere 20 feet away from him. After that, the world had gone black.

And now, somehow, he was here. Wherever this was. Piles upon piles of junk and metal parts, reminiscent of his childhood home in the junkyard. Wherever his parents were, he hoped they were ok. He really needed them at the moment.

The sun seemed to be setting, rays of blinding orange light filtered through the junk surrounding him. Only then did the shock wear off.

Waves of horrible, burning pain emanated from his chest, leaving him gasping for breath. He pulled off his top layers to inspect the damage.

Purple bruises covered most of his torso, mainly near his ribs. He placed a gentle hand on his skin, and hissed in pain. No doubt, he had broken a rib or two. Not even his extremely handy pain tolerance would get him through this one.

After a moment of questioning his life decisions, he pulled himself to his feet, wincing. He knew that Zane would reprimand him for not resting, but he didn’t care.

Speaking of, where was Zane? Or the others for that matter?

He began searching through the place, his mind almost on autopilot in order to block out the pain. His eyes scanned the area, trying desperately to spot one of his friends.

There! A flash of polished silver, white fabric, that had to be Zane. It just had to be.

He moved as quickly as his body would let him, pushing away pieces of rubble and metal. His suspicions were correct.

Zane was discarded half-hazardly on the ground, unconscious. His titanium “skin” was a little worse for wear, some scuffs and scratches ruining the polish. His normally cool blue eyes were gray and lifeless.

Jay turned the nindroid on his side, opening up a panel on the back of his neck. There he screwed with some buttons and wires, until he was able to force reboot him back to life.

Zane’s blue eyes flickered back on, lines of code appearing momentarily as he came back to reality.

“Zane, buddy! Can you hear me?” Jay spoke for the first time, wincing as his throat scratched up against his dry vocal cords.

“Ugh- What? Jay?” Zane squinted up at the other, adjusting to the light.

“The one and only,” Jay smirked. Zane rolled his eyes.

“Where are we? What happened?” Zane asked, calming down from having just been rebooted.

“I have no idea where we are, but I do know that it had something to do with that weird colorful thingy that happened, and the explosions, and- yeah,” Jay could feel himself begin to ramble, and paused before he started having a mini panic-attack.

“Ah. I see. I can also see that you are injured, unless my sensors have been damaged. Have you been feeling any pain?” Zane sat up, moving some limbs in order to make sure they too hadn’t been damaged.

“Uh, no, no I’m fine!” Jay gave a less than convincing smile. Zane sighed.

“Jay, don’t lie to me. The least I can do is diagnose you, so that you don’t hurt yourself further.” Zane scowled, resembling a mother reprimanding her child.

Jay groaned, “Fiiiine. Something hit me in the ribs during the storm thing and now there’s some bruising, but I swear it doesn’t hurt that bad.”

“Let me see.”

Jay groaned again and lifted his shirt, revealing the horrendous purple bruises on his body. Zane, even though he couldn’t feel pain the same way a human could, winced nonetheless at the sight. He placed a cool hand on Jay’s ribcage, only to pull away immediately when said ninja had to stifle a yelp from the pain.

Zane ran another scan on the injured ninja, “Three broken ribs, extreme bruising, it’s honestly a miracle that there’s nothing else wrong with you,”

“Wow, thanks,” Jay rolled his eyes and released his shirt. He sat down next to Zane gingerly, making sure not to hurt himself.

“We should make some kind of shelter for you to rest in, until you’re a bit stronger. I will go and search for anything I can use to keep you from hurting yourself further. I estimate you have at least a few days before any major movement should be done, much less fighting,” Zane gave his speech, to which Jay simply nodded.

The two spent the rest of the day searching for a safe spot for Jay to rest. Zane went out searching for food, water, bandages, anything that could help Jay. Personally, he could survive just fine without any of those things, but Jay was in no place to walk that far.

Jay wasn’t worried about food, or water, or anything. After a while, nothing decided to flit through his mind except Nya, and the monastery, and the feeling of being safe. Everything was a bit abrupt, and his mind didn’t know how to react to the fact that he had been separated from his friends.

All he wanted now was to be safe. And even with Zane by his side making sure he didn’t move a muscle, it wasn’t enough.

He wanted Nya back.

Once the sun went down, and the rocky desert became much cooler, the three began on their journey once more, albeit a bit slower, as Cole was trying his best not to favor his leg. Thankfully it had already started to heal. Cole, Lloyd, and Kai always healed extremely fast compared to the others. Cole had no idea why he healed so quickly, but he knew Lloyd’s reason was probably his heritage. Most of Kai’s injuries were his own fault, as his element would oftentimes burn him if he wasn’t careful. Plus, he had the power to cauterize any deep-wound injuries, which was painful as all hell, but his reasoning was that he got sick scars from it. Cole would never understand the fire ninja’s logic.

“So where exactly are we headed again?” Cole asked the siblings.

“We’re headed to a realm, or I guess land, called Imperium. It’s the closest land to here, so we might as well go there first. Plus, it’s now connected to Ninjago by land, so we won’t have to cross water to get back home,” Nya debriefed the earth ninja.

“But we will have to cross water to get to Imperium. Thankfully, there’s supposedly a fishing port exactly where we’re headed, so if we can snag a boat, it’ll be a piece of cake!” Kai jutted in.

“Please don’t mention cake right now…” Cole groaned. Kai laughed at his antics.

After what felt like ages of walking, and minor breaks for Cole, they finally reached the fishing port.

It was a measly old town, reminding the three ninja greatly of Stiix, except even poorer, if that was possible.

It also seemed abandoned.

The three walked into the town, wary of their surroundings. There was not a single person, animal, or any sign of either ever residing in the town, making Kai shiver.

“It’s like a ghost town…” Kai commented offhandedly, side-stepping closer to Cole, who rolled his eyes.

“Seriously? Don’t tell me you’re afraid of ghosts?” He teased with a smirk on his face.

“Oh, wait! I-I didn’t mean-”

“Jeez Kai, calm down, I’m kidding” Cole whacked him lightly and playfully on the back of the fire ninja’s head, said man smiled in relief.

“Sometimes I forget you turned into a ghost,” Kai chuckled.

“Me too, actually. It was fun for a little while, but I prefer having my mortal body back, thank you very much,” Cole grinned.

“If you two lovebirds are done chatting, I could really use some help with this boat!” Nya shouted back to them. Kai angrily flushed and covered his face.

“NYAAA SHUT UP!”

“I’ll help!” Cole jogged over to the port Nya was standing on.

I-I’m gonna go look f-for supplies… ‘n stuff!” Kai yelled out, then walked away towards the buildings, pouting. Nya laughed at her brother.

Chapter Text

The sun was setting lazily on the horizon as the three ninja made their way across the water. It was a bit unorthodox, this method of traveling, compared to their usual vehicles. But since they had no idea where anyone was, or what even happened to their realm, it was the next best thing.

Cole gazed at his reflection in the water, deep thought written all over his face. Kai was the same too, sitting next to Cole, staring at the sky as if it owed him something. Nya glanced up at the two occasionally, as if she was just making sure they were still there with her.

The entire trip was strained with paranoia, and as the three managed to reach the supposed “Land of Lost Things,” it had only gotten worse.

“King Crag-Nor told us that the Land of Lost Things is apparently an Imperium legend, but he managed to get the location of the real place, and marked it for us. If this isn’t the ‘Land of Lost Things,’ I dunno what is,” Nya stated, observing the map. The three stood atop a small hill, in front of them a deep valley full of piles upon piles of scraps, junk, metal, ect.

“‘Hoarder’s Paradise’ would probably be a better name for this dump,” Kai deadpanned. He skipped down the hill, into the valley.

“Wait, why are we even here in the first place?” Cole asked Nya as the two began descending into the valley.

“Jay’s constantly getting lost. It would be pretty fitting for him to be here. And who knows, we might find Zane or Lloyd instead, or all three of them. It’s worth a try,” Nya shrugged, and went off after her brother.

Kai was zipping through the piles of rubble, scouting more or less observantly for any sign of a familiar face. However, he skidded abruptly to a halt when the sound of rustling sounded not too far away, in the brush of the few plants that dotted the valley. He ducked, on instinct, behind a giant metal piece, and peered out towards the invisible perpetrator.

“Kai?” A voice said in the same direction as the rustling. The voice sounded robotic, almost as if…

“Zane?! Is that you?!” Kai left his hiding place excitedly. His suspicions were correct.

He ran up to the nindroid and just about near crushed him to death with the force of his hug. Zane smiled nonetheless and returned the hug.

“Did you come with others?” Zane asked, pulling away from the hug.

“Yeah, Nya and Cole are with me. We got stuck in the Realm of Madness, or the Land of Madness, I guess,” Kai explained. Zane cocked his head to the side, confused.

“What do you mean, the Land of Madness?”

“Oh, you didn’t know? The realms have merged now, I guess. That storm we were in, that was what everyone calls “The Merge” now. It looks like you landed in the Realm of Imperium, er, Land of Imperium. That’s gonna take some getting used to…” Kai trailed off.

“Now that you say it, I was coming up with some peculiar things on my sensors, but I assumed I had just damaged something,” Zane recalled. An idea then seemed to pop into Kai’s brain.

“Are you with anyone else?” He asked simply.

“Yes, actually, Jay was the one to reboot me after I had fallen unconscious. He’s terribly injured, however, and I have not been able to find supplies or water for him. I’m afraid he’s not doing very well,” Zane gave Kai his previous assessment.

“Oh jeez. Well, let me go find Cole and Nya. They’ll be happy to see him,” Kai then ran off in the other direction.

After a few minutes, Zane could spot Kai, along with Nya and Cole, making their way through the maze of junk. Nya and Cole said their hellos and gave their hugs, then Zane led them to the alcove where Jay had been resting.The piles of junk were even taller in this part of the valley, and Cole eyed them warily, visibly nervous. Eventually, they made it to the alcove.
“Jay, I’m back,” Zane peered into the alcove of junk.

“Cool…didja get water?” Jay asked, his dry, croaking voice making Nya, Cole and Kai wince.

“I got something even better,” Zane smiled.

“Jay?” Nya called out to him. Silence ensued.

“Nya…?” Jay said, limping out of the alcove. He grinned like a madman when his eyes set on his three friends.

“Oh gosh, I wish I could hug you guys right now, but Zane would yell at me,” Jay laughed scratchily. When the three looked visibly confused, Zane explained.

“He’s broken three ribs, and has some bruising,” he stated.

“I also haven’t had water in like, a million days,” Jay glared at the nindroid, who decidedly ignored him.

“Don’t worry dude, we gotcha covered,” Kai said, pulling out his canteen. He handed it to Jay, who drank greedily.

“Wow, I feel better already. Now get in here, there’s enough room for everyone,” he motioned for the others to follow, then disappeared into the alcove.

The alcove, or more like cave, now that they could see the full size of it, was ginormous. It was relatively dark, save for the glimmer of sun rays peeking through gaps in the junk that made up the walls.

“Well this is definitely sturdy,” Kai commented, as Jay led them to his little makeshift living room.

“It was already like this when I found it, and trust me, it’s sturdy, I’ve tested it,” Jay answered him, motioning to the burn marks on one of the walls, “My element is back, but just barely.”

“Same here,” Cole said, with the others nodding in agreement. Jay sat down on the ground with a bit of struggle, and the rest followed him.

“I would say it would be a good idea to rest here for a bit, but we still haven’t found Lloyd. I don’t think I’ll sleep well knowing he’s still out there.” Nya brought her knees to her chest and hugged them.

“Hey, don’t worry, Lloyd’s tough as all heck, he’s handled being alone before, and he’s always come back to us without a scratch. We’ll go searching for him tomorrow, alright?” Jay assured Nya with a warm smile. She nodded and returned the smile, and somehow the mood lifted even more than it already had.

“So, I think we need to make sure everyone’s on the same page. Sis, do you wanna explain?” Kai cocked his head towards Nya, who nodded and visibly relaxed, falling into her no-nonsense mode.

“Okay. I’m sure we all remember what happened before we fell unconscious and woke up in random places,” Everyone nodded, “Well apparently, the weird storm thing we were dealing with before, with all the rips in the sky and extremely heavy things floating in mid-freaking-air, was what people now call ‘The Merge.’ The storm was basically all of the realms colliding with each other and merging, hence the name. So that means a bunch of new people and civilizations doing First-Master-knows-what across the Merged Realms. Which means Lloyd, Master Wu, Garmadon, and pretty much everyone else we know is somewhere possibly dangerous, and we need to get them back.”

“Huh. Well that certainly isn’t the weirdest thing that’s ever happened to us,” Jay deadpanned.

“Wait, but what about the Departed Realm? How does that work?” Cole pointed out.

“Well, the Departed Realm is the afterlife, so the only way to get there is to die, or in Harumi’s case, be mentally ill,” Kai snorted in amusement, “So it should still be that way. People in the Departed Realm aren’t like the ghosts of the Cursed Realm, so I can only assume that the Departed Realm has merged with us, but is a separate plane of existence,” Zane theorized.

“Huh. I guess it makes sense,” Cole nodded.

“Of course it makes sense, it’s Zane, has he ever been wrong?” Jay shot back lightheartedly.

Cole paused for a moment, “I don’t think so,” he said finally. Zane rolled his eyes.

The five got up early the next morning. Zane had finally deemed Jay strong enough to go with them, as long as he took plentiful breaks. They all set out not long after, Nya guiding them with her map towards the city of Imperium. It would’ve been a good idea to stop by, in case Lloyd or anyone else they knew ended up there, but Nya decided against it. It was better to just make a straight shot back to the monastery so they could gather their bearings, and sleep in real beds. Lloyd could hang on a long time, she was sure of it. Cole and Jay were still weak. Knowing Pixal, if she wasn’t already at the monastery, it would be her first destination, and Zane was visibly uncomfortable without her. Nya didn’t want to have to convince herself that going straight back to the monastery was a better idea than setting out to look for Lloyd, or Master Wu, but it was and she knew it.

The journey started out relatively normal, and with plentiful breaks, courtesy of Jay’s injuries, no one was tired until they had finally reached Ninjago. Unfortunately, mountains and forests were surprisingly much more inconvenient than the deserts of Imperium. At first, the group wanted to stop at Ninjago City, but from the looks of the outskirts of said city, they decided against it. No one was mentally ready to see their city in ruins, or a ghost town, both of which seemed likely.

It wasn’t long before they reached Nya’s target rest stop. The old Samurai X cave, the one she first built when she created Samurai X, and their home base for a while during the whole Master-Chen-creates-an-Anacondrai-army-and-tries-to-kill-everyone escapade. It was still perfectly intact, just as she had left it, and hopefully still had running water.

“We can rest here for a while. Last time I checked, the cabinets were stocked with fiber bars, and the sinks should be working,” Nya told the others, before collapsing on one of the chairs with a tired sigh. Jay, Cole, and Kai practically raced each other across the rampway and through an inconspicuous little door, one that led to the mini kitchen and makeshift bedrooms.

Zane, not needing food or water, instead went over to the computers and snatched a large cord from behind one of the monitors, sitting down and plugging it into an outlet on the side of his head. Nya watched as he went into a sort of unconscious charging mode. He rarely needed to physically charge, simply “sleeping” was enough to keep him powered for days on end, but Nya assumed he was just as tired as the rest of them, and doing this would give him a much faster boost of energy. It wasn’t necessarily the most comfortable thing, but Nya assumed it was the same as drinking a can of some caffeinated drink. It was a quick energy boost, but without the crashing side effects of stress or fatigue after it wore off.

Nya, not feeling too hungry or thirsty, instead allowed herself to close her eyes. Not to sleep, but just to rest. Just to take in all that had happened over the course of a little over a week. Just to come to terms with the fact that her reality had shifted into some weird conglomeration of realms and possibly even new people. She thought back to what Lloyd had said about some of the realms he had been to during the whole disaster with the Preeminent and Morro. When he and the ghost were fighting over the Realm Crystal, all whilst trying to use it to their advantage by leaving the other in an unfamiliar realm, they had traversed multiple realms that none of the other ninja had ever dreamed of existing.

One of them, probably the weirdest, Lloyd had said, had people who looked more like animals walking on two legs than anything. If King Crag-Nor was right, and there wasn’t a single realm left out in The Merge, then that meant there were more walking, talking animals among them. Of course, it wasn’t really a big shocker, Oni weren’t technically human either, and yet Lloyd, Garmadon, Master Wu, Mystake, among other Oni they had come across, were just as human as they were. And then there were civilizations like the Geckle, the Munce, or the Serpentine, who certainly didn’t appear human, but were nonetheless. If someone was expecting Nya to feel prejudiced against new kinds of people from different realms, they were sorely mistaken.

Nya’s eyes opened once more to the sound of rustling next to her. Zane was done with his charge—that was quick—and was typing away on the computers.

“Watcha looking at?” Nya asked him, watching tabs open and move around on the screen.

“I want to do a more accurate geographical scan of the Merged Realms. I believe some of my hardware is glitching, so I’m hoping this will be better,” Zane replied, opening up a map of Ninjago and typing in some code.

“I haven’t been back here in forever, but I’ve made sure to update the computers here via the ones back at the monastery, so as long as The Merge didn’t damage digital devices, the scanners should be working fine,” Nya informed him, turning on one of the smaller monitors in order to run diagnostics simultaneously.

“The scan is finished,” Zane announced in less than a minute. Nya’s eyes switched over to his monitor, where the computer was displaying a map of the newly merged realms. Zane typed in some more code, allowing the computer to generate labels of each new continent from what was stored in the database.

“I haven’t updated the database in a while, so it probably won’t show anywhere we’ve been after the First Realm. I can try to connect to the computers at the monastery and copy the data,” Nya suggested, turning back to her monitor to establish connection with the other database back home. Not even a few seconds of buffering before an error came up. She tried again, same thing.

“Huh. I hope the other computers aren’t damaged,” she muttered.

“I should be able to copy the data from my mind drive, if the connection isn’t working,” Zane said, to which Nya nodded whilst trying her best not to let her paranoia get the best of her. It was just a connection issue, it wasn’t like the computers just ceased to exist, it’s not a big deal. She took a deep breath and focused instead on the map the computer had generated.

It was pretty much the exact same thing as the map King Crag-Nor had given her, but with detailed satellite imagery instead of old paper. All of the new continents were evenly spaced out from each other, as if some higher power had simply plucked them from wherever they were before and placed them in a meticulous pattern. Basically, the First Spinjitzu Master, or some other godlike being she didn’t know about, felt like doing a puzzle one afternoon.

The only exception to this puzzle theory was Imperium. Unlike the other continents, which were shaped around Ninjago to almost represent petals of a rose, Imperium was angled differently, and its westernmost tip of land had replaced a piece of Ninjago. It almost resembled a dagger, or a spear, digging into the back of the Light Dragon, or the Eastern Continent. Of course, neither of these names were actually used for said continent until the Dark Islands grew in size to become the Dark Dragon, or the Western Continent. Before, its twin was simply referred to as Ninjago.

It felt so out of place to see the two continents connected by land when none of the others were. It was almost as if whoever was putting together the puzzle accidentally dropped a piece in the wrong spot. Or perhaps it was intentional.

Once Zane finished uploading data to the computers, the two watched as a few new labels popped up on the map. There were still a few continents left unnamed, including Imperium.

“I’ll label Imperium manually,” Zane said, as if he was reading her thoughts. He put in some new codes, labeling the continent as well as its two major landmarks, Imperium city and the Land of Lost Things. Nya’s eyes lingered for a moment longer on the map, before she turned back to her monitor and tried again to establish connection with the monastery. She’d get it eventually. She always did

Chapter Text

Lloyd woke up with an abrupt start, breathing quickly. He sat up, clenching the necklace that was still cradled in his fist, bringing his knees to his chest and hugging them tightly. It took a full three minutes before his breathing slowed, and his oni power calmed from its flare.

Carefully, he unclenched the necklace from his death grip, watching as it’s pure white aura became even more visible to him than before. If this was truly a vision, and he truly had spoken with the First Master, then he was somehow bestowed upon a protective charm. One that used to be his grandfather’s, allowing him to become passive with other oni and dragons.

He didn’t know why, but a weight was lifted off of his shoulders with this new information.

He lifted the necklace over his head and let it fall limply onto his neck. The tooth charm felt warm on his chest, even through his clothes, and a feeling of content spread throughout his body. He stood up slowly so as to not dizzy himself, and strode cautiously into the kitchen. He didn’t want to trigger another one of his memories.

That was a thing that had become quite frequent. Certain places would remind him of certain things he had once forgotten, and it wasn’t exactly pleasant to go through the process of remembering them again. Don’t get him wrong, he would be overjoyed to get all of his memories back, but it left him with a headache and a half. He’d rather not have his brain fog come back again, it’d send his entire day off balance.

He had finally managed to produce a schedule out of his husk of a mind, one that made wasting away in the monastery all the more easier. He wasn’t sure what he was waiting for, but it was something, and he needed to pass the time as fast as possible.

His mornings went something like this: wake up, eat eggs for breakfast (the chickens on the mountains produced way more than they should each day), water the plants that weren’t invasive, and then meditate for much longer than necessary. Sometimes he’d throw in some training, as the training course fortunately survived The Merge, but most days he would rather focus on connecting with his powers, rather than using them to destroy training dummies.

He had made the long trek down the mountain to the nearest village twice already. He had managed to scrounge up some change in the monastery and take it with him, mainly to buy food. That was where he learned about The Merge, or the event that stripped him of most of his memories.

All the realms had merged, to put it simply, into the same world. Why, no one seemed to know. It had only been a couple of days since it happened, so the villagers were about as clueless as Lloyd was. He felt extremely giddy about the idea of the realms being merged, but he wasn’t so sure why. A past memory, perhaps, maybe someone in another realm, or another realm itself, that he had good memories from. But his gut told him to stay at the monastery, so he complied.

Other than meditating, the majority of his day consisted of reading everything in the library. He would spend hours on end surrounded by piles of books and scrolls, not searching for information but simply trying to retain the knowledge that had fizzed out from his brain not long ago. For him, it was easier to simply relearn what he forgot instead of going through the ache-inducing process of remembering. And, with the appearance and disappearance of seemingly random things throughout the monastery, it was possible he could stumble across something that gave him more insight to The Merge. So far, however, nothing seemed entirely new to him, and neither did anything hint at the event.

Lloyd sighed and stood up from a table covered in scrolls, shaking the tiredness out of his body. It was still light out by a good measure, so he slipped through the monastery and out the sliding doors to be greeted with said light.

The sun was slowly falling to the horizon, ombres of orange, pink, and blue were splayed out in the sky. There were no clouds in sight, though Lloyd would’ve probably preferred if there were, as a finishing touch to the painting. He collapsed on the steps in one smooth motion and sat contentedly staring up at the sky, searching for the moon in all the colorful hues. If he remembered correctly, the moon would still be in the waxing gibbous phase, though perhaps it was a bit too early for it to be above the horizon. He would probably end up sitting there until it appeared. He had come to love the moon, he could confidently say that the moon was by far the only thing he would spend hours on end observing without getting bored for a single second. He felt connected to it, almost as if it spoke to him as his powers did. Unintelligible, but understandable nonetheless.

He turned his attention to the courtyard of the monastery, smiling softly at the flourishing brush. Flowers peeked their heads out from the leaves of bushes, vines, and weeds, waving in the wind as if they were dancing gleefully. A part of him wished he could join them, letting the breeze rush past him, not having to worry about trivial things. He wouldn’t have to be scared of anything, he would be simply stripped to the basics.

Lloyd breathed a long sigh. Even with all the time he had to process the most recent events of his life, a part of him still felt in denial that anything he was living now was true. It happened so sudden, so aggressively, and ripped a giant tear into the reality he had known. It made him nauseous knowing that no matter how long he waited here, at the monastery, there would still be the horrible chance that he would never see his family again. Where were they now? Flung to the corners of the Merged Realms, possibly in danger, maybe even dead. Maybe they were all dead. Maybe he was dreaming, and he would wake up tomorrow morning and everything would be normal.

But he knew that wasn’t true, and he knew that would never happen, no matter how hard he tried to will it into existence.

He sighed again, trying his best to block out that train of thought before his oni power flared up again. It had been surprisingly lax the past couple of weeks, and while it was peculiar, Lloyd simply enjoyed the calm that came with not having to stutter on the verge of losing control of his own mind when even a simple mishap or mistake took place. It was peaceful, knowing he could now give himself room to feel those emotions again. Anger, sadness.

Lloyd’s head fell softly against the railing, his eyelids fluttering shut. He finally allowed himself to relax, listening to the regular buzz of nature, finding the secrets within, and promising to keep them for all eternity.

Chapter Text

Nya perked up from her sleep, lifting her head off the desk and surveying her situation. Great. She had fallen asleep.

In front of her was the computer, still displaying the error message she had come to hate more than anything else. But it also worried her, because she knew the only way the connection to the computers at the monastery might fail would be because the computers were damaged. If the computers were damaged, what else would be? Was the monastery even there, or had it just popped out of existence? Maybe thrown across the world into some unknown land.

Whatever the case was, it made her all the more eager to trek to the Mountains of Impossible Height, to see for herself what truly happened. Maybe then her anxiety would be eased. If the monastery was there, of course. If it wasn’t, she’d probably throw herself off the mountain.

She turned her head to where she remembered Zane being. He was still there, but unconscious, plugged back into the charger. She chuckled slightly at the sight, knowing Zane had likely stayed up for hours scouring and obsessing over theories on how The Merge even happened. To be honest, she was surprised Jay hadn’t been obsessing with him.

She stood up and stretched, abandoning her computers and Zane to go find the others. She was eager to find the embarrassing positions they ended up passing out in. Those three always had the weirdest sleeping habits. Especially Kai and Jay, who would sweat so much in their sleep that they woke up in a literal puddle. It grossed her out to say the least.

Cole had the habit of falling into the deepest possible sleep ever. Not that Nya was any better, when she had to set fifteen different alarms just to get up in time for training. But nothing could wake Cole, once he fell asleep he was dead. It would get concerning sometimes, if he was extra tired, because he would sleep long and hard enough to be considered medically in a coma. Nya was sure he had some wild dreams.

Nya was pretty sure Zane was on some set timer or something. He woke up at the same exact time every day without the need for an alarm. Now that she thought about it, that was probably the correct assumption. Pixal was the same way, though she usually preferred charging in the base under the monastery when she was working on a project, which was the majority of the time.

And then there was Lloyd, who probably had the most atrocious sleep schedule Nya had ever seen. He never went to bed at a specific time, but it was normally late. Then he would wake up at the most random times in the morning. Some days he’d be up before everyone else, raiding the fridge or claiming first dibs on the video games. Other days he would wake up practically at noon, and Master Wu would let him, because he was such a suck-up to his uncle. Though recently he hadn’t been doing that much, getting up late, and Nya immediately knew it was probably some futile attempt at setting a better example, since he was technically a master now too. Nya couldn’t help but find it absolutely adorable.

She missed him. She was worried about him. He was basically her little brother now. She remembered times when he was still young, when he would sit off to the side as she worked on and repaired her friends’ vehicles. Before she was a ninja, and before he was capable of anything more than spinjitzu and an energy blast to the face. He would observe her, but likely didn’t learn anything, as he was still an utter idiot when it came to anything complicated without an instruction manual. But he would sit there, sometimes they would talk. He would talk a lot about how much he hated Pythor, or complain about the training drills that his uncle had made him do that day. Even after the whole incident with the Tomorrow’s Tea, it was still a regular thing to see him sitting on the edge of a desk or a table as Nya hammered away at the armor plating on a mech.

Even till recently, he had always found time to do that. When Pixal joined the cause, all three of them would hole up in whatever base they were using at the moment, chatting about their least favorite villains or how annoying the other boys were. When it was just them, during Garmadon’s reign over Ninjago City, after those same annoying boys had gotten themselves stuck in the First Realm, Lloyd only had Nya and Pixal. Atleast, until others had joined them to form the Resistance. Those three had gone through a lot, but they had each other. And now Nya was missing both of them.

Now that she thought about it, Zane hadn’t really mentioned anything about Pixal. Knowing him, he was probably panicking internally about not knowing where she was, but refused to say anything for fear that he would become the center of everyone’s effort. He was like that, never putting himself or his needs first. For First Master’s sake, he had sacrificed himself for the ninja like, half a million times! The nindroid was stuck in his selfless ways, it would have to take coaxing from everyone to get him to admit that he was worried about Pixal.

Knowing Pixal, however, she was fine. She had a strange knack for always disappearing and reappearing completely fine after everyone thought she had just, like, died or something. Nya believed in her, she would find her way back soon enough. It would likely be in some incredible Pixal-ex-machina-type way like it normally was, where she would pull up to the scene already completing half the work they needed to defeat the bad guy of the season. She was just awesome like that.

Nya pulled herself from her thoughts, feeling a bit more reassured than she did yesterday. All she had to do was wake everyone up, they would regroup, and then set off for the monastery. They’d do a quick damage check, and then search for clues as to where in the realm Lloyd was.

Easy-peasy.

Nya snuck down the hall, passing the obviously raided mini kitchen, and stopped at the room at the end. The door was slightly ajar, so she nudged it open to reveal the office room she had turned into sort of a guest bedroom. One of the cots that were stacked on the far side of the wall had been set up, Jay limply draped over it. Three of his four limbs were hanging over the edge, his fingers brushing the floor.

Kai had taken the mattress that originally leaned against the wall, he too was splayed out like a starfish. A dead one, perhaps. He lacked a pillow, and so did Jay, but it was pretty clear who the culprit of stealing them was. Cole had taken the couch, resting on his back, legs crossed, hands behind his head. He had one pillow under his back, and two more to support his head. Nya swore he was grinning in his sleep.

Nya rolled her eyes at the chaotic conditions of her friends’ sleep hygiene, as they were still clothed and looked like they had simply passed out after their impromptu dinner. She approached the couch, a grin spreading across her face as she determined her best course of action.

She grabbed the two pillows under Cole, causing his head to fall back against the arm of the couch, crushing his fingers under his skull in the process. That was enough for his eyes to shoot open, but before he could sound his annoyance, Nya had already thrown both pillows full-force at Kai. They slammed into him, waking him up immediately, and as he gained his bearings he glared at his sister, shouting a few profanities that would’ve not been allowed had this actually been on the show and not in a fanfiction.

Nya simply ignored him, rounding the couch towards Jay. She knelt down beside the cot, pressed a soft kiss to his forehead, and nudged his shoulder gently. He woke up, smiling as soon as he saw her. Kai groaned in the background at how gross the two were being.

Cole felt the need to defend the couple, “Hey, I don’t see you complaining when we do that,” he said jokingly. Kai flushed hard, screaming denial as he threw the pillows at Cole. Nya wasn’t sure how what Cole said was defending her from Kai being a jerk, but at least her brother’s attention wasn’t on her anymore.

“Both of you lovebirds shut up. We’re getting ready to leave soon. Meet me back at the computers,” she said, giving Jay one final kiss before she got up to leave the room.

“Alright. Planning a course of action,” Nya spoke once everyone was gathered around the control-center's worth of computers. On the biggest screen the map was open, showing GPS-type directions straight back to the monastery.

“You guys have a really bad track record of destroying every vehicle you guys own. Thankfully, I was able to salvage a few of them and store them here. From there it should be smooth sailing to the monastery, where hopefully someone we're looking for will be. Any questions?” She was met with shaking heads, “Alright. Let's go.”

The boys all immediately sprinted towards the vehicles on the far side of the monastery, leaving Nya to sigh annoyedly.

Kai whistled as he hopped into his racer, “Wow, haven't seen this baby in a while!”

“That's because you crashed it like, two years ago. You're lucky it even exists now, thanks to me,” Nya retorted, climbing into the seat behind her brother. He shot her a confused look.

“What? You guys never let me have cars or mechs. The old Samurai X mech over there is out of commission, I don't have time to get it up and running again. And funnily enough, even after I became a ninja I was still the one flying the Bounty all the time. Don't complain about having to drive your little sister home when it's practically your fault anyway,” Nya shot back. Kai pursed his lips awkwardly, but was smart enough not to say anything.

Zane, still back at the computers, knew to ignore what Nya was saying. He knew she didn’t mean him, he was a good boy. He didn’t destroy his vehicles very easily, he took good care of them and that was one of the reasons Nya and him were such close friends.

Zane typed in the finishing touches to his map, letting them download into his mind drive through the cord plugged into his skull. After a few seconds, he unplugged it and let it drop carelessly onto the ground. He shut the computer screens off and turned to the side to press a button, one that caused the giant doors leading out of the cave to open. He hopped into his snowmobile-esque vehicle and followed the others as they immediately moved to race out the door.

The monastery and Lloyd, here they come.

Chapter Text

The drive to their home mountain range was unusually silent, which seemed to be becoming a recurring theme. It was a touch difficult to navigate the shifted terrain, but Zane had connected a display of his new and improved GPS map to everyone’s vehicles.

The sun was still high in the sky, casting little shadow onto the ground. They maneuvered through desert, forest, and eventually familiar mountains, and so the ride became easier as their tranquil part of Ninjago had not been touched by whatever higher power that had decided to play around with their world.

Evergreen trees now only appeared in smatterings, the forests at the base of the mountains more commonly covered with cherry, peach, and ginkgo trees. The cherry trees especially were blooming in the most beautiful colors, different shades of pink shifting against the wind, petals and leaves falling to cover the forest floor. The occasional stalk of bamboo grew tall between trees, growing in numbers for a second and then disappearing again as they inched closer to the monastery. Even the glass and metal that shielded the ninja into their vehicles couldn’t block out the sweet smell of spring.

Finally, the monastery came into view. It didn’t look much different from what they remembered until they got closer to it, spotting the overgrown vines and weird markings that covered the outer walls.

“Let’s take the back entrance into the underground base. I need to check to make sure the computers are okay,” Nya said into the little microphone beside her. Her voice was relayed to speakers in everyone else’s vehicles, it was their way of communicating when their masks weren’t on.

The others sounded their approval back to her, and they began to round the base of the mountain to where the giant garage-like door would be, shrouded in forestation.

Lloyd’s eyes fluttered open, then shut tight again with the shock of the light on his face. He slowly sat up, noting the curtains pushed to either side of the window next to his bed, letting all the morning light in. He stayed there for a moment, watching the dust particles catch the light and float through the sunbeams, while he tried his best to will himself awake.

He lurched off the bed to stand up, the necklace waving around in the air before falling back to his chest with a very light thud. Lloyd reached into his closet, grabbing his new gi and swiftly putting it on. Over the past one anda half-ish weeks, Lloyd had been working on making a new gi. He had all the tools, and on his first trip down to the village, he had bought some bright green fabric, almost exactly the same color as his current gi, and it took out a good chunk of his money. He didn’t care much, though, as he had a new project to take up.

All the ninja knew how to make their own gis. At first, the majority of Lloyd’s skill came from having to repair the rips and tears in his own gi. Eventually Master Wu had made it a thing to teach the ninja how to make their own gis, as he was “tired of having to spend so much money to get theirs replaced five times a year.”

Lloyd figured it was time for a change, and he sometimes found himself bored when he wasn’t meditating or sifting through mountains of scrolls, so eventually he took on the project. Today was finally the day he would get to wear it for the first time.

The top half of the gi was a lot more lightweight than his last one, it was reminiscent of some of the older gis he had worn, including the one he had worn on Chen’s island and that other island he couldn’t remember the name of, the one with the Keepers and that dragon he would never admit had grown on him.

The top itself was buttoned with clasps down his front diagonally, the golden dragon he had gotten so good at stitching into the fabric curled up on the side of the clasps with more open fabric. The top was tucked loosely into his pants, also green and more baggy than his past gis. The way his pants fit him had always been a complaint of his, they were way too tight and felt gross against his skin. With the leftover fabric he had created a sort of belt, with more golden engravings of dragons and whatnot, and wrapped it around his waist.

His mask wasn’t a hood like his last one was. From personal preference, he realized having the hood may have been easier, but it obstructed his view slightly, and it got really hot after a while. He preferred the bandana-like mask that covered just his nose and mouth. If he fastened it around his neck the right way, it wouldn’t slip off on accident. He had gotten indulgent with the golden engraving, so even the mask had a little flair to it.

Lloyd finished knotting the belt on the side of his hip and pulled it tight, tugging on it once to check it, before letting the ends fall to hit the side of his leg. The leftover fabric on the belt wasn’t long, only reaching about mid-thigh, so it didn’t get in the way if he had to fight. He brushed invisible dust off his gi and reached for his nightstand to grab an elastic hair tie. His hair had always grown ridiculously fast, like needing a haircut every two months kind of fast, but without someone like Nya or Cole to cut it for him, and not having had a haircut for over two and a half months, he just accepted the increasing length of his hair.

He wrapped the tie around his hair thrice, pulling on the ends of his low ponytail to secure the elastic. Small pieces of hair at the front of his face weren’t long enough to fit into the ponytail, so they fell back to the sides of his face. Lloyd messed with them for a moment, not too bothered by the feeling of hair in his face, before he started out his bedroom door.

He went about his normal morning routine, sitting for a second to eat the quick breakfast he had prepared himself. When he first discovered the monastery still had electricity, he almost got on his knees right there to pray to whatever being had given him this blessing. Okay, maybe that was overdramatic. But it was still hope when the air outside carried no sound but human silence. Other than the village, Lloyd hadn’t seen any people at all, especially ones he recognized. At this moment, the plants and those stupid chickens were his only friends.

Lloyd pulled himself out of his thoughts, staring down at his mostly empty plate, and sighed. He quickly finished what he could, and went to go grab the spray bottle. He traipsed throughout the monastery, watering the little plants that had made their way into his home and decided in an instant that air conditioning was a luxury they couldn’t resist. As he passed, every once and a while he would conjure some of his green energy to attach to the withering leaves of a plant whom’s presence he had grown to appreciate. He didn’t want his favorite leafy friends to die, of course.

The bright green particles would leap from his fingertips and claim a spot on a dry leaf. Immediately, the cells within that part of the plant would be replenished of water and nutrients. In very little time, the leaves would heal back to their natural green complexion. Lloyd was almost concerned at how he didn’t know about this healing power before. Maybe some good things have come out of the Merge…

Of course, Lloyd still didn’t know the extent of this perk. He theorized that it could be used on animals and humans too, but he hadn’t had the opportunity to test that theory. He wasn’t even sure if he could use it on himself, and he would never try to hurt anyone else, even the tiniest bit, to see if it would work. He couldn’t imagine trying to hurt something innocent.

Finally, Lloyd had finished his rounds. He made his way out to the courtyard, sliding the screen door carefully as the fully-risen sun shined blindingly in the sky. If only spring would do what it was supposed to do and rain, then he wouldn’t have to water the plants out here.

The plants in the courtyard were different. He could sense that they were very snippy, they didn’t appreciate his efforts as much. They got in the way of his training and always complained about having to grow between rocks, as if they didn’t decide to grow there in the first place. Sometimes Lloyd would have to give them a dose of his green energy just so they would be content enough to shut up. It was like a nonstop stream of inaudible whispering in the background, he could block it out but it was an inconvenience either way.

He finally finished watering the last of the plants, setting the spray bottle down on the steps before sitting next to it. The steps had become one of his favorite spots in the monastery, where he could just sit and meditate without having the rocks of the courtyard ground digging into his legs. He would always prefer the nearby mountaintops, but making those treks took quite a bit of time out of his day that he kept subconsciously telling himself he didn’t have.

It was funny, he still couldn’t shake that feeling that he was waiting for something no matter how hard he tried and how comfortable he got with leaving the monastery for more than a few hours. It was only now beginning to get a little boring.

Lloyd felt as though he had always been a bit of an adventurer, always wanting to go on new missions and falling into a slight depressive state whenever there were periods of time when nothing was going on. He knew his friends, the other ninja, felt the same. They were so used to being out and seeing so many new things in a rush that once they finally were able to take a break, they were antsy to get back out there again. So the fact that there was something in his brain telling him not to give into his natural traveling spirit truly concerned him.

Lloyd breathed in heavily, letting his worry and anxiety melt away in a practice that had become extremely common to him. He always remembered his uncle constantly reminding him that meditation was one of, if not the most important way to train. Being able to become in-tune with your power, to truly wield it instead of control it, to become it in all ways, was leagues more important than hitting training dummies over and over again.

At the time, Lloyd didn’t quite agree. He liked being able to take his anger out on something that didn’t move and wasn’t alive, but now that he was on his own and still dealing with the aftereffects of the Merge, meditation had become his saving grace. He let his head rest against the wooden railing of the stairs next to him, breathing in the sweet spring winds.

The moment he closed his eyes, however, he began to feel a faint rumbling beneath him. It spiked quickly, jolting him from his tranquility and forcing him to stand up. He barely had enough time to process how in the realm an earthquake was happening in a mountain range that only occasionally had a generous vibration in the rocks below, before the ground quite literally opened up beneath him.

He felt gravity shift at least five times as his body was thrown recklessly through strange colors and lights. He could make out the occasional image of a landscape, landscapes he had never seen before, and ones he had.

His stomach began to churn as he tumbled through this epileptic-inducing tunnel, before he felt his vision begin to darken.

And FSM, for the millionth time, his stupid self passed out.

Chapter Text

The group of ninja in their vehicles finally made it around the mountain, their wheels crawling up to what should have been the entrance to their secret base, yet nothing but vines covered the rocks.

"Wh-what!? Where's the door?" Jay exclaimed, having been the first one to spot the anomaly.

"It's supposed to be right here," Nya muttered, utterly confused, "Zane, could you double-check we're on the right side of the mountain?"

"Of course," Zane paused for a moment to do a quick scan, "We are on the correct side, but my sensors show no evidence of the underground base anywhere within the mountain, much less an entrance."

"Are we sure this is even the right mountain?" Kai asked half-jokingly. Nya kicked his seat.

"Look up, idiot. The monastery is right there," Nya retorted.

"Sooo… what happened to it?" Cole asked, tilting his head to the side, even though no one could see him from where they sat in their vehicles.

"I- I don't know," Nya took a deep breath, "but if the base is gone, that means all the mechs and vehicles inside are gone. The new Bounty Pixal and I were working on is gone. And the computers are gone, which means a good chunk of data we've collected since the Oni came to Ninjago is gone."

They all sat there, in silence, processing the words Nya had just spoken. Nya herself was hunched over, her forehead resting on the back of Kai's seat, while she took more deep breaths to try to calm herself and tell herself that everything was okay.

"If it helps the situation at all, I know both Pixal and I have backups of almost everything recorded within the computers. I made sure the most important things were safe. And wherever Pixal is, she'll have the rest," Zane spoke up, quieting again after mentioning the missing nindroid.

"Wherever she is, I'm 100% positive she's alright. She has the sickest plot armor I've ever seen," Jay reassured Zane, and thankfully the nindroid got the joke, because Nya could see his grin perk up from across her.

"Well, we still need to check the monastery. Let's circle back around and park our cars at the bottom of the steps," Cole suggested. Sounds of approval came from the group, and they turned back around.

At the speed at which they were going, it only took a good thirty seconds before they reached the steps. Having climbed the damned things more times than they could count, no one was ready to complain about the trip, because it would be a breeze. Plus, they needed to exercise their ninja muscles, or whatever.

They hopped out of their vehicles simultaneously, their spirits low enough but their anticipation high enough that a conversation was out of the question. They silently began to climb the steps, hoping that somehow, someone they knew would be at the top.

They could see the singular tree that stood on a ledge just below the summit, waving in the strong winds that whipped against the mountain. The monastery loomed just behind it, its walls wrapped in vines.

"Whooh, almost there," Kai said breathlessly, "just, just gimme a moment first," he hunched over, bracing himself with his hands resting on his knees. Nya rolled her eyes as Cole and Jay joined him in "catching their breath."

Not even a few seconds later, Nya could feel a soft rumble beneath her feet. She stepped back in surprise as it grew at an exponential rate, almost making her fall over.

"What's going on!?" Jay shouted as the sound of the earth shaking under them became deafening.

Nya's head shot up as a loud crackling sound burst through the sky. The others followed suit, almost forgetting about the quaking beneath them as their hearts dropped at what they saw.

A large crack seemed to form in the sky, as if there were invisible walls around them breaking down. The crack opened in a jagged motion, and within bursts of rapidly shifting colors resembling a glitch in a videogame. For a split second, a landscape came into view, barely long enough to catch what it was, but it resembled a desolate landscape, much like the Land of Madness.

As quickly as it came about, the crack closed, and the quaking stopped. The ninja were frozen where they stood, gazing up at the sky, their expressions close to mortified.

"Wasn't that similar to the-the cracks in the sky during the Merge?" Jay spoke up first, his voice wavering slightly as the shock wore off.

"Yeah… but that already happened, the realms already merged. So why was there another crack?" Cole questioned.

"It could possibly be some sort of aftershock. Earthquakes normally will have aftershocks, maybe this is just an aftershock of the Merge. A Mergequake, if you will," Zane theorized.

"That's plausible. Let's hope it doesn't happen again," Nya sighed. She turned back towards the monastery, the others following close behind.

Finally, the ninja reached the giant, heavy double doors that led into the monastery courtyard. Nya pushed them open with ease, pausing to take in the state of their home.

Plants of all kinds were overgrown and thriving around the edges of the courtyard, but the middle, where the training course was underneath the rock, there was no greenery, as if the plants had purposely avoided that spot.

Nya took a slow step inside the courtyard, feeling like more of an intruder than anything with how different her home looked. These plants were almost like the new residents, and everything that had happened here was just a memory.

Silently, all of the ninja reached the sliding screen doors, Cole eyeing a discarded spray bottle on the steps before entering last.

Inside wasn't much different. Many plants had overtaken the walls and furniture, growing through the cracks in the wood. The group began to separate, searching for any sign that a person was or had been there.

Zane slid into the kitchen, immediately catching traces of a heat source through one of his sensors. He walked up to the stove, and hovered his hand just above it. Just a slight bit warmer than it should've been, if it hadn't been used since before the Merge. Someone had used this not long ago.

"Guys! I found something!" Zane called to the other ninja, who raced to the kitchen. Kai nearly tripped over Jay, said blue ninja kicked him in the shin for that.

"What? What is it?" Cole questioned excitedly, running up to Zane's side.

"The stove. My sensors are picking up an irregular heat signature from it," Zane explained.

"Okay, now say it in English," Kai responded, rolling his eyes mockingly.

Zane sighed, "Someone has used this recently. It's still warm."

Kai slapped his hand down on the stovetop, let it sit there for a second, then nodded his head, "Huh, you're right."

"Didn't we just have a talk about how he's never wrong?" Jay retorted, causing Kai to swat his hand at Jay's face.

"Is there anything else that might hint at someone being here?" Nya asked over Zane's shoulder, then leaning back to scan the rest of the kitchen.

"Oh yeah, look at the sink, the water's dripping," Cole pointed out. Zane's jaw almost dropped in shock. He wasn't aware that Cole was observant.

"That's such a Lloyd thing to do. You think he's here?" Kai rolled his eyes, turning the water off all the way.

"I hope so," Nya replied, leaving the kitchen first to continue searching.

"LLOOOOOOOOYD! I'M GONNA FIND YOUUUUUUUUU!!" Kai shouted as he pushed past Nya to run down the hall. Nya secretly flipped him off behind his back.

Kai made his way down the hallway that led to all of the bedrooms and Wu's old man cave library thing. He opened each door one by one, pausing for a moment when he realized there weren't any plants growing in the bedrooms like there were in the rest of the monastery. In fact, the rooms looked exactly as they had left them, not a speck of dust in sight.

Finally, Kai reached Lloyd's room. He called out to his younger brother, opening the door, and sighing disappointedly when he wasn't in there. He slammed the door shut, his frustration and, though he would never admit it, worry, grew. He marched down to the end of the hallway where two wooden double doors stood, and pushed them open.

If Master Wu had ever decided to renovate his library, this is what is should've looked like. Minus the ridiculous amount of plants.

It honestly looked kinda magical, though Kai wasn't one for aesthetics unless it was his hair. Intricate runes, similar to the ones that now plagued the monastery walls, were carved into the wooden beams between each shelf and on the ceiling. The windows appeared bigger for some reason, and the vines were surprisingly absent on the glass. That didn't stop the invasive plants from growing everywhere else, hanging from the ceiling like green and brown leafy snakes.

The scrolls that made up the majority of the reading material in the library were sorted and put away neatly like always, except for a few that sat out on the desk. This was odd, since the only times Master Wu would ever leave scrolls out would be if he were deadly focused on researching something. Which was pretty often, now that he thought about it. At least recently. And his master would never let anyone know what he was researching. Which sucked, but whatever.

Kai didn't waste another second inside the boring old man library, instead opting to make sure his video games were okay. He took a deep breath, silently reassuring himself that Lloyd was probably just not home right now, and Master Wu wasn't either, and Pixal was probably off doing her own weird Samurai X thing. They'd be back before he knew it.

Kai turned and left out the doors, making a beeline for the living room. The first thing he noticed was the shurikens stuck in the dartboard, an obviously failed attempt at activating the elevator to the now non-existent secret underground base. The second thing he noticed was Jay and Cole basically crying it out in each other's arms, a discarded controller on the table turned on but the TV was still black.

"Uuuuum… Are you guys ok?" Kai questioned cautiously, walking up to the two distressed ninjas.

"NO! The TV won't work!" Jay exclaimed, grabbing Kai's hands in his like a person begging for his life, "What am I going to do without video games!?"

"Are you serious! Let me try!" Kai threw Jay's hands off of him, reaching for the remote to turn on the TV. After a couple of presses of the "On" button, he went up to the flat screen and pressed the power-on button on the side of it. After a few more presses of that, he searched around behind the TV for any unplugged wires. Nothing. He grabbed the controller and restarted the console, but the TV still didn't turn on.

"NO! It's not working!" Kai cried, collapsing on the couch with his head in his hands dramatically.

"I told you! We're doomed!" Jay shook Kai's shoulders, while Cole curled up on the other side of the couch, gazing at the TV longingly.

Just then, Nya walked in, "Will you guys stop being so dramatic? It's literally a TV. There's like, millions of TVs. You guys can wait a few days to get a new one, oh my FSM."

"Sis, you don't understand. I have managed, what? A week or two without video games so far? And I need to play video games. Or else I'll probably set everything on fire in a burning rage." Kai shot a single lighter-sized flame out of his finger, grinning as Jay's eyes widened and he scootched back.

"You're forgetting that I can drench you in water whenever I feel like it. You're not setting anything on fire. And you can live without video games. I'll send for a new TV as soon as possible, figure out something else to do until then," Nya stated in a no-nonsense tone, one she used often when she would have to mother her older brother.

Kai sighed in disappointment, his head falling back onto the couch.

Nya turned back, returning to the kitchen where Zane was, scanning for any more traces of human activity in the past few days.

"Find anything?" Nya asked, knowing the answer would likely be no. Zane shook his head, confirming it for her.

"Don't worry. We'll find them. Lloyd, Master Wu, Pixal," Nya reassured him. She grinned inside when Zane perked up at Pixal's name, nodding in agreement.

Chapter Text

From a bystander's perspective, seeing a man fall out of a rip in the sky would be quite odd. Fortunately, there were no bystanders in the desert.

Lloyd yelped as he crashed into a cliff edge, again as he hit another one, before he finally landed with a loud thud on the rough, dry ground. Sparks of pain shot up from multiple different places in his body, but instead of getting up to check the damage, he squeezed his eyes shut tight, curling up as much as he could without hurting himself more, and wishing with all his might that the pain would go away.

After a few moments of that, he finally took a deep breath out, only to revert back to his previous state when a horrible stabbing pain resulted from the contraction of his lungs. He definitely broke a rib or two.

After a few more moments of that, he finally got used to the pain, his ridiculous pain tolerance kicking in enough for him to drag himself up into a sitting position, and survey the damage like he wanted to.

His right hand was useless, the broken bone was not too obvious but the pain… a little too obvious. Good thing he was a lefty. His right leg was also definitely broken, blood trickling out from some deep scrapes. Lloyd rested his good hand on his ribcage, feeling for anything… yep, at least two ribs fractured. There was probably a lot of bruising as well, but Lloyd didn't think he could handle any more movement.

He managed to push himself back against a large rock, breathing a sigh of relief as the pain was much more manageable. He tilted his head back, observing the sky as he gathered his thoughts. It was very cloudy, said clouds orange-y in color, yet the sun was nowhere close to setting. It was pretty windy though, it may have just been sand discoloration. Lloyd rubbed his eyes with his left hand subconciously.

He turned his gaze towards the landscape, noting his desert-like surroundings. It wasn't the normal sand-dune desert he was used to, more like a rocky wasteland with little vegetation. The very ground was so dry it was covered with cracks, and for a second Lloyd wondered what would happen if the ground just collapsed beneath him. He shook those thoughts away, still a little annoyed at that literally just happening to him a few minutes ago.

He looked to the opposite side, to the giant hill he had fallen down. On one side of the hill, the land curved upwards, like a ramp, but on the other side was a steep dropoff with loads of cliff edges, including the ones that had broken Lloyd's bones. Lloyd grimaced. Of all the places that weird hole in the ground could send him to, it had to be a hill that he would stumble off of and almost get himself killed.

He breathed out, the pain still sharp but slightly less than before, as he let his eyes close. The exhaustion from just being injured always hit him hard. He felt that he was safe enough where he was to take a quick rest.

Lloyd woke up abruptly to the feeling of pecking at his right arm, the broken one. He turned his head to see a bird, a crow of some sort, nipping at his arm as if it were free food. He shooed it away with his good hand, and the bird flew away frustratedly.

Lloyd adjusted his sitting position, eyeing the sun in the sky to tell how long he had been out. Okay, an hour or two, not terrible. Not long enough for him to end up in a life-threatening situation. If he hadn't woken up when he did, he'd be eaten alive by scavenger birds. What a nice thought.

Speaking of, what was he supposed to do now? He had no supplies on him, it didn't seem like there was civilization nearby, and he had two unusable limbs. He very likely would die if a miracle didn't happen, regardless of whether or not he was alive.

An idea came into his mind. Then he internally berated himself for not thinking of it sooner. His healing powers, duh! If they could work on plants, they could work on him!

He lifted his left hand up, conjuring his green energy in his palm, before placing it where he felt the fractured ribs. It was a weak stream of energy, likely because he had just been thrown out of the sky, but it was enough for the pain to begin dissipating majorly. He huffed in disbelief, grinning like a madman.

Once his ribs felt mostly back to normal, and he could breath without knives stabbing into his back, he moved on to his right arm. He watched as the green particles spread out, coating his arm, and feeling the pain disappear. After the arm was finished, he moved on to his leg and continued the same procedure.

He sighed in relief as the pain was mostly gone, minus some bruises and scratches, and a weird tingling sensation leftover from the energy, feeling as though those areas had fallen asleep for a moment. He shook them back awake, flexing the palm of his right hand.

After a few seconds of checking to make sure every limb was safe and accounted for, he made to stand up. He held on to the rock, his head still slightly dizzy. Eventually he got used to it, taking a few small steps to make sure his leg truly was in working order. Ohh, if he had known he could do this before!

He slowly made his way over to the far side of the hill, climbing up the ramp part with caution. When he made it to the top, there was a singular tree sitting contently with its view of the land. Lloyd sat down on the ground and leaned against the trunk of the tree, the wood extremely dry and the leaves even drier.

He gazed out on the horizon, a leaf falling into his lap. He picked it up, and it crumbled almost as soon as he touched it. He gazed back up to the horizon, the brain fog of whatever had just taken place a an hour or so before finally clearing, as he recognized where he actually was.

Holy Grandfather, he was in the First Realm.

Chapter Text

Lloyd felt bad about cutting down that tiny tree, so he didn't. He didn't think it was fair, the tree that had such a nice view and was hanging onto his life by a thread didn't deserve to be used as firewood. He remembered back to what Zane had said when he was describing the First Realm to him.

The temperatures didn't seem to change much.

Hopefully it was still that way even though the realm had merged with all the others. He could survive a little chill, but if it got cold like it did in Ninjago at night, he was done for. He probably still wouldn't cut that tree down though, even if it were out of desperation.

He sat curled up in his little makeshift alcove at the bottom of the hill. He had moved the rocks so that he was surrounded by them, blocking out the wind that only made things colder. He had put his mask on to protect his face from the chilly temperature, his hands retreating into his sleeves to keep them warm. He had taken his belt off and folded it into a square, like a little mini pillow. It wasn't comfortable by any means, but it would've helped if the hole in the ground had waited a few minutes so he could prepare for this weather. Sue him.

He fell asleep pretty quickly, waking up a couple times in the night because he had a dream about falling. Oh FSM, that was going to haunt him for a while.

In the morning it was much warmer, the sun beaming gently against his face, unlike the aggressive burning heat that the sun liked to laser Ninjago with. Also unlike Ninjago, it was eerily silent. At the moment Lloyd wished more than ever that whatever fever dream he was having needed to end as soon as possible.

But he knew it wasn't a freaking fever dream, blah blah blah. Somehow he had to figure out how to get back to the monastery from here, without a map or a vehicle, and a still-healing leg. Some divine being was laughing at him at that moment, he was sure of it.

Still, he had to do something. And a healing leg needed exercise too, so a nice little stroll was about as good an option as he had. He surprisingly wasn't very hungry, but damn was his throat dry, he needed to find water as soon as possible.

He set off not long after he woke up, waving goodbye to the tree, though he would never admit that to anyone. He had chosen a random direction after spinning in a circle, and decided to go East, following the still-rising sun. The wind pushed him forward, smelling not of spring but of slight staleness, as if there were no springs to bring to the First Realm. Or land, or whatever.

Slightly bored after a while on his walk, he decided now would be the best time to do some non-violent-flashback remembering. Normally, wracking his brain for the details that had escaped him after the Merge was the bringer of flashbacks that left him dizzy or passed out, but he figured if he took it slow and retreated back to good memories whenever anything got too overwhelming, he could turn it into a healthy habit.

He began a little monologue, starting when he first met the ninja, going over and working out details he had missed, mentally facepalming when he thought back to how obvious it was that Pythor was manipulating him (he was still salty over that.) He again mentally facepalmed when he remembered that time when he crashed the snake party to save his friends and quite literally tumbled all the way down the stairs flat onto his face. That stupid gi never fit him, he wasn't sure why his uncle couldn't just make altercations to it. Even after his body was aged up by that damned tea, it was still loose on his teenage frame.

He still had the gi, somewhere, probably on the floor in the back of his closet, but he didn't remember ever getting rid of it or damaging it beyond repair. Plus, though he would never have told his uncle this, it was actually ugly. It was so basic and pathetic. Lloyd was too beautiful to be put in some horribly designed pieces of fabric. Said fabric felt extremely polyester, by the way, but he would've been drop-kicked to the Departed Realm if he ever said that out loud.

It quite honestly sucked how much Lloyd was still re-remembering—even though he wasn't 100% sure why he even lost the majority of his memories in the first place—because it was so insufferable to have to go back and ponder why something was what it was in the first place. It felt like he was trying to write fanfiction on a show he hadn't watched in a year but he was too far into the story to quit now. Why hadn't he kept a journal or something, what was wrong with him??

To be honest, a journal would've probably helped him unload all the trauma he was too scared to talk about with anyone. But that was a topic for never, so he brushed that thought away.

A harsh noise ripped him out of his thoughts, startling him enough for his right leg to almost give out and send him flying backwards. Bodily coordination where?

The noise was animalistic, some type of low growl or something. It didn't exactly sound threatening, however, more like pained? It certainly didn't take long for Lloyd to put the sound to the creature, however.

A dragon, definitely. Which would make sense, seeming as he was in the First…whatever. Now he just had to find out where it was coming from.

He surveyed his surroundings, immediately spotting a small dropoff to the left. He crept up slowly, reaching the point where the land began to ramp down before he spotted the tail of a grey dragon peeking out behind the giant rocky half-cliff. He clutched the necklace to his chest.

"Umm… hey there?" Lloyd tested, grimacing at how scratchy his voice sounded. The dragon's head popped up from behind the rest of its body, the creature immediately growling at his presence. Lloyd squeezed the necklace a little tighter, reaching his other hand out as he took a few more steps closer. When the growling didn't cease, his heart began to pound, confused as to why the necklace refused to work.

He stopped, partly out of growing fear, and also for the fact that he had spotted the bleeding rips and tears in the dragon's wing. The wing had been pulled close to the dragon's body, but had flared up with the other one as the dragon tried to make itself look bigger and more threatening, trying to disregard how small it actually was.

The dragon's pupils dialated slightly, and its head cocked in curiosity, but it didn't break eye-contact with Lloyd. He backed away slowly, sighing, and dropped down on the ground, leaning up against a rock. He wasn't just going to leave the dragon flightless, and since the necklace wasn't working, he'd have to gain the creature's trust first.

The dragon hadn't attacked him at all, and while it was a similar coloration to say, a wind dragon, it didn't have nearly the same build as one. Lloyd wasn't quite sure what it was, but he hoped finding out wouldn't mean breaking another limb in the process.

Lloyd continued to study the dragon, said dragon finally turned away from Lloyd and rested his head on the ground, wings curled up against his body again, his tail twitching a few times before going contentedly still.

Chapter Text

After sitting in silence while the dragon slept for the next hour or so, Lloyd had finally gotten up in search of water. He made sure to remember his surroundings so he wouldn't lose the dragon, but the need for water was overpowering all his other senses.

It didn't take him long to find a small oasis, the most vegetation he had seen ever since he had been thrown into this new place growing around the water, green and luscious, and quite the spoiled brats. They protested as Lloyd drank his rightfully earned water, claiming he was going to take all of it and suck the lives out of them, to which Lloyd had to berate them for their language before leaving them to celebrate that he was finally gone.

When Lloyd got back, the dragon was still there, now awake, licking softly at his wounds.

"You know I could probably heal that for you, right?" Lloyd offered, not caring whether or not the dragon could understand him, but then the dragon huffed and turned his head away from Lloyd, so from then on the blonde decided that this dragon was pretty damn smart. Or a smartass.

Lloyd sat back down against his rock, watching the rising and falling breaths of the dragon, only now noticing how malnourished the beast looked. From the look of his wounds, he hadn't been downed for very long, but he could've already gone days without food. Hopefully whatever downed him wasn't planning on coming back and finishing him off, or Lloyd would definitely be thrown in as a side dish.

The dragon peeked his head up to gaze at Lloyd, without much of the previous territorial glint in his eye that kept Lloyd from approaching. Lloyd watched in confusion and a tad bit of awe as the dragon slowly unravelled his injured wing, splaying it out behind him, and making a low chirp-like sound before lowering his head back to the ground.

Huh. That was quick.

Lloyd sensed the dragon's reluctant acceptance to the healing that the ninja had mentioned earlier, slowly getting up to cautiously approach the creature's wing. The dragon made no movement to stop him, instead staring up at him curiously.

From up close, Lloyd was able to see the claw marks ripping brutally through the membrane of the wing, slicing a few blood vessels, though the wounds were relatively clean from the grooming the dragon had done earlier. Lloyd kneeled down, hesitantly reaching a hand out to the worst of the injury, feeling the energy surge to his fingertips in an instant. In fact, it was a bit too instant.

Before Lloyd could pull his hand back, a burst of electrifying energy split out from his fingers, zapping the dragon with enough force to push Lloyd back a few inches. The dragon roared in pain, lifting his head to snap at Lloyd. Thankfully the ninja was able to scramble back in time to avoid the attack. The dragon growled, his pupils turning to slits, his wings flaring, making sure Lloyd got the message before he went back to his original resting position.

Lloyd breathed heavily, lifting his hand to observe it as if that would help him figure out what the hell just happened. Why didn't that work? What happened to his powers?

He conjured the energy again, this time feeling the familiar rush of energy, a few particles dancing on his skin, but nothing like what just happened. And that fact that the dragon didn't try to just kill him? He snapped, but he didn't get up to attack, what was that all about?

He felt as though the dragon knew something he didn't.

"Well… I don't plan on trying that again. So I guess that won't work," Lloyd muttered, almost laughing when the dragon grumbled in response.

He couldn't just stay here and wait forever while the dragon healed. Obviously he didn't want to abandon the poor thing, even if he made Lloyd feel like the pathetic one, but Lloyd also needed to get back to the monastery.

"Hey, um… do-do you plan on getting up at all? There's water not far from here, that's where I went when I left earlier," Lloyd spoke up, pointing his thumb over his shoulder in the direction of the oasis. The dragon grumbled again, this time a reluctant sound as he shifted his legs under his body.

"C'mon, please? You've gotta be dehydrated, and you won't heal any faster if you're dehydrated. At least that's what my uncle always said," Lloyd bugged the dragon, scooting a bit closer to him. The dragon's head perked up to look at him, an action becoming very familiar, as his eyes seemed to be considering what Lloyd had just said. Finally, the dragon moved to stand, stretching his body out like a cat before moving to sit in front of Lloyd on his hind legs.

If Lloyd hadn't already been incredibly baffled by this dragon as soon as he met him, he was now.

"Alright…then. Follow me I guess."

Lloyd and the dragon had finally made the trek to the oasis after Lloyd had almost gotten lost twice, having to follow the whispers of the plants that lived along the water. He almost dreaded having to go back to the oasis because of those plants, but he wasn't nice enough to give them a dose of energy to shut them up like he did with the courtyard plants at the monastery.

He stepped off to the side, leaning against a small but sturdy tree, and watched as the dragon hesitantly approached the water. The creature dipped his head down to the cool liquid, drinking it. For a split second, he made eye-contact with Lloyd, the gleam in his eyes telling the ninja he was grateful.

Lloyd grinned at the dragon, before turning his attention to the clouds in the sky. Almost immediately, worry rushed back into his mind. He wasn't really sure what he was going to do.

He knew his friends were out there somewhere, and he knew they were likely worried about him too. Kai, Nya, Pixal, and the others, were out there somewhere, possibly dangerous, and he was here, in the middle of the First Land, with a dragon, after falling through a hole in the ground that spit him out into the middle of the sky halfway across the world as he knew it. Figures.

And he had no idea where he was going. He would simply pick a direction and follow it, a tactic he unfortunately used quite often. And now he had saddled himself with a reluctant companion, not that he was the reluctant one. In fact, he was more than grateful that he had someone to talk to while he figured this out, even if the dragon didn't talk back. Or maybe he did, and Lloyd just couldn't understand him. Lloyd knew dragons were extremely intelligent, so that was more than likely, but whatever dragonspeak the dragon spoke was completely unintelligible to him.

He still felt he had a sense to understand the dragon, as this one in particular was extremely expressive. His emotions were shown through his eyes and body language, and Lloyd decided that was enough to cross the communication barrier.

Lloyd was pulled out of his thoughts with a startle, realizing how close the dragon was to him. Not that he was scared, the green ninja wasn't scared of anything, obviously. It just took him by surprise. Definitely.

The dragon cocked his head at the jumpy reaction from Lloyd. He sat back on his haunches, observing the ninja expectantly. Lloyd sighed.

"Alright, we can go now," at the dragon's questioning grumble, he added, "no, I don't know where I'm going. I figure I'll just keep going East."

The dragon huffed annoyedly, but made to stand back up. Lloyd pushed himself off the tree, taking one last look at the oasis and land behind him, before he began anti-climactically strolling East. The dragon followed calmly behind him, and Lloyd breathed out softly as he realized the idea of a possibly dangerous animal behind him brought no fear. He was warming up after all.

Chapter Text

The two walked for what felt like hours, stopping very little. Eventually, the sun showed signs of setting, so Lloyd suggested to the dragon that they stop for the night. The dragon agreed eagerly, before curling up next to a large boulder and promptly falling asleep. Lloyd sighed, shaking his head before going off to look for dry wood.

Eventually, he found enough to start a warm enough fire, bringing it back to the boulders they now called their campsite and dropping his bundle on the ground in front of the dragon. He knelt down, holding his hand out and conjuring up his energy. He closed his eyes, focused only on the vibrating hum of the energy, and reinforced that vibration. He could already feel his hand growing hot from the friction, but he knew he was nowhere strong enough at the moment to do the energy fire trick that he had taught himself all those years ago to show off to Kai.

He breathed out heavily, retracting his palm, and sat fully down on the ground. He almost startled when he heard the soft rustle of the dragon getting up from his sleeping spot, stalking around behind him before sitting down next to him. The dragon made eye contact with him, nodding his head towards the sticks in front of the two.

"Uh… are you a fire dragon?" Lloyd asked awkwardly. One sharp huff from the dragon and Lloyd understood he was definitely not.

The dragon then bumped his non-injured wing into Lloyd's shoulder, nodding towards the sticks. As if he wanted him to try again.

Lloyd held his hand out once more, conjuring up his energy and almost faltering at the buzzing, powerful rush he got. His hand heated up quickly with little effort, and he was able to spark a flame between his fingers, hurriedly lighting the wood with it before he burnt himself. Once the wood was on fire, the dragon's wing left Lloyd's shoulder, and the rush left, leaving Lloyd to wring his hand, effectively putting out the green fire in his palm.

The fire grew quickly, shifting from green to a more average orange, but Lloyd was too busy being shocked at this revelation.

"What… what was that?" Lloyd breathed, turning to the dragon as if he would give him the answer. The dragon simply grumbled and stood up, strolling back to his spot before collapsing on the ground.

Lloyd lay on his side facing the fire, staring into the flames absently. He shivered slightly, and inched his way closer to the emanating heat. He shifted again, the rocks and dry ground under him only a tad bit uncomfortable. He really wished he was back in the monastery right now.

His eyes eventually left the fire, flicking to the sleeping dragon curled up a few feet away from him. It took a moment of squinting before he could truly make out the details, the light from the fire still burned into his pupils and causing intrusive floating colors that eventually faded away.

His eyes lingered on the dragon for a few moments, taking in every feature of him as he slept. This was probably the most vulnerable a dragon had ever been around him before, and he had met plenty of dragons before. The only other dragon that came to mind was the Ultra Dragon, which had technically been his dragon, that was short lived for… certain reasons he didn't feel like thinking about.

Then Firstbourne, which he had met once when he visited his grandfather, though even if that memory had already resurfaced, it was still fuzzy and fleeting.

And then of course his elemental dragon, which he lost the ability to conjure a long time ago. He wasn't sure why, just try as he might, it didn't work. But he was always taught his elemental dragon was only an extension of his power, not a sentient being, to which he would've argued, but there was no point now.

So yes, this would be the most vulnerable a dragon had ever been with him. And vice versa. Not that he had any bad stigma towards dragons, technically he was part dragon himself, it was just odd. But he wasn't complaining, he liked having a travel companion. And once they got back to the monastery, he would treat the dragon's wing. And whatever happened after that, he'd get through with or without his travel buddy.

He'd find his friends first, probably.

He smiled to himself, taking note of how heavy his eyelids felt. He relaxed, letting the darkness of sleep overtake him, completely unaware that his companion was awake and watching him curiously.

Chapter Text

Lloyd awoke to the feeling of gravity shifting beneath him, and something tight wrapped around his ankle. His eyes shot open and accidentally let out a shriek as he came face to face with an unfamiliar dragon. He jerked away, then realized he was upside down. His eyes shot to his ankle, where another dragon had his leg snatched up in between its jaws.

Lloyd tried to reach up for his ankle, but the dragon in front of him blocked him with its snout, sniffing his clothing curiously. Eventually it found the necklace, took one look at it, and Lloyd watched as the dragon's pupils dilated and a small coo came from the creature. The dragon sat back on its haunches, tilting its head to the side with intrigue.

"Maaya," a heavily-accented voice rang out from behind the dragon. The dragon's head perked up in response, and it bounded away without a second thought.

Lloyd watched—with all the confusion one would have at being woken up by two unfamiliar dragons—as Faith and the Dragon Riders, of all people, approached him apprehensively.

"Uh… hey… how's it going?" Lloyd laughed nervously. How did he expect not to come across these guys, when he was literally in the First Land, where they lived?

"You are Lloyd Garmadon, grandson of the First Spinjitzu Master, am I correct?" Faith spoke, regarding him with a raised brow. The other riders around her stared at her in disbelief, triple-taking the ninja that was still in the dragon's grasp. They had never seen Lloyd before, but they had known about him from what Faith had told them when she had gone to Ninjago during the invasion of the Oni.

"Yeah- yes, that's me," he grinned awkwardly. Internally he was berating himself, he definitely appeared as a dumbass kid to them.

"Good. You look different from the last time I saw you. Older. What are you doing here?" Faith crossed her arms, and Lloyd was wishing with all his willpower that she would somehow order the dragon to let go of him, he was seriously going to black out from all the blood rushing to his head.

"To be honest, I have no idea. I just kinda fell through the sky," Lloyd shrugged, or it would've been a shrug, if he weren't upside-down.

"You… fell through the sky?" Faith repeated incredulously.

"Yep… I fell through the sky, broke some ribs, yadda yadda, found a dragon, and I've basically been walking for the past day and a half. Speaking of, where's-"

Just then, a familiar growl sounded from behind him. He turned as best as he could, and was met with his travel buddy in a threatening stance directed towards the dragon that had Lloyd in its clutches. The dragon dropped Lloyd immediately, bounding away much like the first one did.

"Thanks," Lloyd said to his draconic companion as he picked himself up off the ground, earning a low grumble in return.

"You said you had broken your ribs?" Faith asked, seemingly unfazed by this interaction.

"Oh, well, yeah, but I healed them with my powers. All good!" He grinned.

"Then why didn't you do the same for your dragon friend?" Faith accused him. A few mutters of agreement sounded behind her from the other Dragon Riders.

"Well- I mean I tried… but-"

"Relax, I'm joking. You can't take a joke? Your friends would only ever make jokes, I figured you were of the same breed," Faith deadpanned.

"Well I- what?" Lloyd held his face in his hands, thoroughly convinced he was having some sort of fever dream.

"I'll tell you the reason why when we get to Dead's End. Let's go," Faith said, ushering for the Dragon Riders to find their dragons.

"Wait, what do you mean Dead's End? I have to get home!"

"And you will eventually, but you can't travel there by foot. Plus, your dragon friend needs proper healing," Faith counteracted, and Lloyd sighed. She made a good point.

"Maaya, Timult!" Faith called out to the two dragons from earlier, who were wrestling on the ground not too far away. They ran up to her immediately, eagerly awaiting to hear what she had to say.

"You two are strong. You'll carry him," She motioned to Lloyd's dragon friend, "Grandson of the First Spinjitzu Master, you will ride with me."

"Wait, ride? I haven't ridden a dragon in practically forever- woah!" Lloyd yelped as he was picked up by his shirt and tossed onto the back of a fire dragon, obvious enough from the vibrantly red scales and large wings. The dragon seemed almost indifferent to Lloyd's presence.

Faith hopped up onto the dragon's back in front of Lloyd, sitting down in a saddle Lloyd only just seemed to notice. Faith made a motion and the dragon took off, Lloyd barely grabbing the back of the saddle to secure himself before they were in the air.

Behind him, he could see the two dragons, Maaya and Timult, carrying his dragon by the shoulders. The whole thing was a bit comical, like someone had picked up a cat under their arms.

"Dead's End is a good while away, so get comfortable," Faith shouted back to him, the sound of her voice muffled from the strong winds, "I'm glad I got to meet you."

"But, you've met me before?" Lloyd questioned, readjusting his sitting position.

"Yes, well, meeting someone while Oni are taking over the world doesn't really count," she replied, smiling a rare smile.

The fire dragon they were riding on cooed happily, and a thought came to Lloyd's mind.

"Hey… don't you normally ride Firstbourne?" Lloyd asked, inferring from what his friends had told him and what he had seen during the Oni invasion.

"Not always. Keep in mind she's as old as your grandfather would be, her weary bones aren't always ready to keep up with me," she grinned again, "we were on a hunting trip when we found you, normally Altair accompanies me on those." She patted the side of the large fire dragon, him grumbling in content.

"We'll get your dragon friend healed up, and then we'll figure out a way for you to get home. For now, I'm sure you're hoping to get to know me better," Faith said. Lloyd huffed, embarrassed, but nodded.

Chapter Text

Lloyd subconciously sighed in relief as soon as they reached Dead's End. It was much bigger than how his friends had described it, with entire houses instead of the tents that he had been told about. Apparently, with the implementation of dragons into their society as companions, they no longer had the threat of needing to pack up and leave at the first sign of danger hanging over their heads. They had protectors now.

Lloyd spotted a giant construction on the far side of the settlement, resembling some kind of fighting ring, but large in size. His mind immediately recognized it as the kill ring that his friends had been taken to when they were first captured by the residents of the area. Upon a closer look, however, Lloyd could see the cages lining the walls completely empty, gates taken off, as if they were in the process of repurposing them.

Not far from the ring, Lloyd spotted a building that seemed relatively new compared to most, a dragon stable. That much was obvious when he saw young and hyper dragons in the process of being saddled up. He could feel Altair dipping down in the air, headed for the direction of the stables, and he grabbed onto the saddle tight to steady himself.

The fire dragon dived into a stable, the ones behind him diverging off to their own. When he landed, Lloyd carefully jumped off Altair's back with Faith, hitting the ground with a soft thud. He grinned to himself as the shot of pain he subconciously expected from his leg never came, still a bit incredulous from his new-found power.

The two dragons carrying his companion, Lloyd only now realizing they were both lightning dragons, dropped said companion with little care onto the ground in front of Altair's stable, and darted off to their own when Faith shooed them away. Lloyd chuckled, walking up to the dragon picking himself off the ground.

"You ok?" he asked, a bit smugly, to which the dragon growled lowly at him, the glint in his eyes showing he wasn't too happy with Lloyd's partiality to sarcasm.

"We have plenty of empty stables for your friend to stay in while he heals. We'll have people check in on him from time to time and bandage him up. For now though, I'd like to give you a tour," Faith said, motioning for Lloyd to follow. A few Riders came out from inside a stable, helping his companion in to rest. The dragon spared a glance at Lloyd before reluctantly leaving him for the warmth and safety he was being promised.

Lloyd followed Faith along a path that took them downhill, ever closer to the heart of Dead's End.

"When we had finally made peace with the dragons, thanks to your uncle and friends, changes were quickly made to accommodate our new-found companions. The first thing we had built were the stables, but those were unfortunately destroyed when the Oni ravaged the lands. The ones you see now are not the original, but were built the exact same way. Since then we've permanently stationed ourselves here, constructing homes and buildings that no longer appealed to our previously semi-nomadic lifestyle, instead one of settlement."

They'd finally made it to the center of this new town, Lloyd noted, taking in the bustling business of people and dragons.

"Originally, our only purpose was to hunt dragons, but after… he died, and the people decided to put me in power, I made sure things would change to how I always wished they would've been. Now that we coexist with dragons, we no longer force them to supply us with work, they'll do it willingly and on their own schedule. Now us Dragon Riders have multiple professions, instead of the three main ones we were used to, hunting, making weapons, and heavy lifting. We have markets now," she present said storefronts with an outstretched arm, "with variety in every product. People can now use their craft to earn them a living.

"We no longer have to shield our children from the world in hopes they'll not die on the battlefield. They can grow up in a world where they have a choice, and don't have to be in constant fear of everything. But I don't take all of the credit. Though it was my dream to see this one day, I would never have attempted to put it in motion if it weren't for your comrades ending up here," Faith turned to him, nodding her head once, showing she was set in her thinking, and Lloyd couldn't help but smile.

"You don't have to tell me, I already know. If the others were here, they'd love to hear that, of course, but… I haven't seen any of them since the Merge. If only I knew where they were…"

Faith sighed softly, "Come. Our tour isn't over yet."

It took all of Lloyd's willpower not to ask questions about their next destination. He was intrigued, he wouldn't doubt, but he figured his questions would be answered in due time.

"I'm sure you somewhat recognize this place, if your friends told you anything about their time here," Faith spoke up as they entered the ring Lloyd had observed earlier.

"They did. Every minor detail." He grinned.

"So you would know this place used to be where we would pit dragons to fight to the death, or criminals to be slaughtered by each other or captive dragons. Where we trained our children to kill dragons. Yes?"

"Uh yeah, that was… pretty much what I assumed."

"You were correct in your assumption. And while I hate this place with my whole heart, I cannot just tear it down. It wouldn't be worth the labor, when we can repurpose it for other things.

"Some of our people still—unfortunately—have the fighting spirit still in them. They decided, with myself present, to turn it into a stadium for 'harmless' fighting matches, as well as sports that the children have caused to grow in popularity over the years. They'd use it as a combat training facility otherwise, as even I would agree leaving our people untrained, even if there seems to be no threat, is not the best idea.

"But even with this change in usage, I still cannot get over the past of this place. I do not often come here, but leaving it out of the tour would only cause you to ask questions." It was then that she fell silent.

"Faith, I gotta tell you something. But you're not gonna like it all too much," Lloyd broke the silence, hesitance in his voice.

"If it concerns me I would prefer if you would spit it out," Faith raised an eyebrow.

"…You know how I said I hadn't seen anybody I recognized since the Merge? Well, technically I haven't but… promise me you won't like, have a mental breakdown when I tell you this?"

"Well now you're worrying me. Speak. Now."

"Right…uh…" Lloyd took a pause to question his life decisions. "My uncle, Wu, he's… he didn't survive the Merge. I don't know how or what happened, but he's not… I saw his soul, basically, is what I'm trying to say. One day in his library. But I just… had a sense he wasn't here anymore from the start, I mean, ever since I woke up after the Merge. I guess I never really admitted it to myself, but I think I stopped grieving a long time ago. I know he's still out there, but he's with his father now."

Lloyd fell silent, and Faith didn't speak a word. Finally, she broke the silence.

"Thank you for telling me. I think our tour is over now, I should show you where you'll be staying for the duration of your visit." Faith began to leave the stands of the ring, descending down the stairs.

"Faith wait! Please don't be angry with me, I just-" Lloyd started, but stopped as she refused to acknowledge him. He sighed, figuring it would be better to let her process what he told her. He silently followed her down the steps.

"This is where you will be staying. You know where I will be if you need anything." Faith said dismissively, leaving Lloyd to his devices. She had taken him to a small guest apartment close to the stables, fit with a kitchenette and plumbing. Lloyd was going to be totally honest here, he wasn't even sure the Dragon Riders knew what plumbing was, now he was assured they did.

He watched as she left, before finally collapsing on the bed on the far side of the room, and letting out a long sigh. He figured he might as well get some deserved rest, though there was no room for changing his mind anyways—he already felt consciousness slipping from him.

Chapter Text

Lloyd awoke with a start, gasping deeply as the memories of the early day came back to him. He sat up.

Outside the window it was night. Bright, white, flickering stars peered into the room, the moon overhead illuminating the windowsill. Lloyd stretched his legs, before standing up, and noting how dry his mouth felt. He quietly walked over to the sink on the other side of the room, grabbing a cup from the cabinet overhead and filling it with water. Any concern of where exactly this water was coming from and if it was safe or not dissipated as he felt the ice-cold in his mouth.

He set the cup down in the sink when he was done, wiping his mouth and stepping towards the door, making room for little thought other than the urge to visit the stables.

Opening the door, the moonlight shone down on his hair, making it appear snow-white. He shut the door softly behind him. Little sound came from Dead's End, except the occasional conversation or an object banging against another. Some people just don't leave work to sleep.

Normally, it would be too dark for the average person to see through the night, even with the moon's guidance, but Lloyd felt he could see just fine in some odd, abstract way. It was like the shadows greyed just slightly, so he could make out light in the dark. He followed the path he knew would take him straight to the stables. Out of paranoia he kept watch for anything moving within his vicinity. It wasn't windy tonight, so leaves swaying could only mean a life displacing them from within the darkness.

Finally, came up upon the stables, the slight shuffle of dragons shifting in their sleep, the occasional sigh from one having a vivid dream. He crept slowly and carefully past each gate, not bothering much to look within at the dragon that may inhibit a stable. He already knew which one he was looking for. He had counted how many gates down it was the last time he was here.

After a good minute or so of walking, he reached one of the stables near the end. He took a moment to realize just how many stables there actually were, to take the amount of gates he just counted and add two more stories to the building, there had to be tens of dragons residing here.

Shaking himself from his thoughts, he approached his target stable, grabbing the latch on the gate and pulling it up slowly. As he opened the gate, he noted that the latch was on either side, which meant a dragon could leave at any time. Lloyd was glad to see his companion had chosen to stay instead.

The dragon was out cold, sprawled across the floor, thoroughly enjoying his new hotel room. Lloyd smiled, stepping into the stable and sitting down on the floor, leaning against the wall. The dragon didn't seem to notice Lloyd's presence, for he didn't stir once.

Lloyd sighed, his head falling back against the brick wall, eyes flickering up to the roof of the stable. He wasn't sure why he came here. Well, he knew it was to visit his companion but… since when did he refer to the dragon as a companion? Was it because Faith did? It felt like it came out of nowhere. This was a dragon of all things, he was just helping it heal, because there was no way he could just leave a helpless creature.

But there was a nagging feeling that wasn't just the case. Maybe his time spent alone was finally catching up on him. Maybe he was attached now.

Whatever the reason for this visit, only one of the people in the stable was aware of it taking place, and Lloyd planned on keeping it that way.

He slowly got up from the ground, eyes trained on the sleeping dragon in the darkness to watch for any movement, before he opened the gate and slipped out silently. He took a breath of fresh air as he closed the gate, pausing to gaze up at the night sky. A thought came to pass.

Instead of heading back to bed, he switched gears and made towards the wide staircase near the end of the building. He climbed the stairs, breathing out a sigh as he heard a somehow un-dragon-like shuffle at the top.

As he figured, the staircase led all the way to the roof of the building. He cautiously approached said roof, and from a bystander's perspective, a snow-haired head would be peeking curiously above the top of the building.

Lloyd's assumption was correct, so he proceeded up the last few stairs and out onto the flat landing that spanned a small chunk of the stable building's roof. He crossed it with practiced ease, making no sound, then purposely making one to alert his presence to the only other living being within vicinity.

He sat down next to Faith, her giving no acknowledgement. He didn't pry any from her. They sat in silence.

Eventually, she broke that silence.

"I do not know what to think. Normally I know what to think," she admitted in a moment of vulnerability Lloyd hadn't expected, "I have always known what to think when I hear news of this kind. Give room to grieve, but do not let it inhibit your duties. That's what I was taught, that's what I did.

"My parents died a long time ago. I do not remember them. I have never felt the loss of a family member. Close friends have passed, but it has never gotten in the way of my duties. It has never clouded my judgement. I do not know, but something is different this time. I feel sad like I have before, but this time, the thought of going on as normal feels impossible.

"I am glad he is with his father now. I hope whatever caused this to happen was not traumatic to his soul. I know it was to happen eventually. But I cannot help but miss him more than I have missed anyone in my life."

She fell silent once more. Lloyd paused, taking in her words, then smiled.

"You aren't alone. I miss him too. And when I find the others and tell them, they'll also miss him. Everyone he's known will miss him. He was an incredible teacher, and the best uncle a man could ask for. But these things happen all the time. He wasn't immortal, and he wasn't young either, despite him appearing so when you first met him. It's alright to miss him. You're not alone. And knowing him, he'd be very happy to find out how you feel about him.

"Let me ask you a favor. I'll be in your debt if you do this for me."

Faith looked over to him, nodding her head slightly.

"I need you to continue on as normal, like you said. I know it feels impossible, but you have people and dragons to lead. You have a town to keep safe. You've done so much for everyone living here, it would be a shame to give up on them now. And my uncle wouldn't want that to happen, so do it for him too.

"I admire you, Faith, I really, really do. You've done a way better job at being a leader than I ever have. Please don't ever stop doing what you're doing."

Faith's gaze dropped to the ground, appearing to mull over the words.

"You have yourself a deal."