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Lloyd’s always had enhanced senses, and in the past, it’s been a good thing.
It kept him safe, most of the time. It helped him hear someone approaching, or smell something in his food that shouldn’t be there, or see in the dark. He just accepted it for a while and didn’t question it, until he learned that it’s because of his heritage. He got used to it and never expected it to change.
Until it did.
When Lloyd wakes up on the forest floor after his trial—which he was sure he failed, and failing was fatal, so he’s not sure how he’s still alive—he can hear so much. The trees whisper to him even though he can’t tell what they’re saying. The ground feels warmer than it was, and pulsing with life like a heartbeat. The wind in the trees is like a breath. He knows that it’s something that was there the whole time, but now he can feel it.
And it doesn’t feel good.
Dying leaves shudder as if crying out in pain. A faint breeze sounds like a plea for help. There’s an ache underlying it all, a wound that needs healing. Lloyd instinctively curls onto his side and buries his hand in the soil as his powers activate. He reaches deep into the earth and the forest calls for him.
He’s able to heal the trees, and the forest’s pain eases.
It’s still loud with life. Lloyd doesn’t exactly know how he can hear it—almost like some sixth sense was awakened when he finished the Rite of Unrooting. But he can. And it’s overwhelming.
He manages to somehow push most of it to the side as he focuses on the battle against Beatrix and the elemental monsters. He can’t afford to be distracted by the things he can sense, like the hundreds of heartbeats from the people in Imperium. He knows that some of the lives around him are his family, but he can’t discern them from everyone else. So he does his best to ignore all of it.
When they get back to the Monastery, Lloyd has nothing to focus on, and the things he can sense return.
The Monastery is far away from a big forest or a civilization, so it’s a little quieter. He can still feel the earth beneath him, warm and alive. He can sense the few plants that surround the building, and they’re all humming and whispering without a care in the world. He can—not exactly hear, but similar—everyone in the building because of their beating hearts and life-forces. It’s a weird sensation, and Lloyd’s not sure how to feel about it.
There’s celebration when they arrive. Jay’s back and he and Nya are inseparable. Arin chatters excitedly with his parents, updating them on his adventures and his new spinjitzu ability. Cole and the Finders gather together and the Earth Ninja tells them about everything that happened in Imperium. Frak, Sora, and Wyldfyre talk amongst themselves. Kai, Zane, and Pixal stick close to Lloyd and try to ask him about the Rite of Unrooting.
Lloyd skirts most of their questions about what happened. He’s not ready to process…all of that…just yet. He knows they’ll want to pester him about his doubts and self-hate, but he can’t have that right now. He does tell them about how he can “hear” life now. He’s still not sure how to describe the feeling. Zane and Pixal seem fascinated by it, and Kai jokes about how Lloyd’s powers previously were “stunted” even though they were already pretty powerful.
But as the minutes tick by, Lloyd grows agitated. There’s too much input—the noise of people talking, the brightness from the sun, the faint breeze, his own fatigue from the fight, and now with the addition of sensing all the life on the mountain. Lloyd manages to slip away and into the Monastery, to the quiet safety of his room, and reduces at least some of the overload.
It does nothing to dampen the life his new powers make him feel. It’s like energy and colors he can almost see, but not quite. Like electricity just beyond his fingers, humming with power. He just knows where all the living things are.
Lloyd closes his curtains and keeps the lights off. He can control these inputs, so he will take them out. He sits on the ground and wraps his arms around his head to block out sound. He takes a few deep breaths and tries to settle the chaos.
But it’s like the Arc Dragon told him. He can’t turn it down. Every time he thinks he reduces the feeling, it comes back just as strong, just as loud.
The Arc Dragon also said that he can rise to meet it. He really hopes that’s true, and that it can happen soon. He doesn’t even know if he’ll even be able to fall asleep with this sixth sense noise rattling around his head.
He’s still trying to quiet the noise when he realizes that one of the life-forms is coming closer.
He senses the person approach his door but pause. He sighs and lifts his head out of his arms. “You can come in,” he calls, but not loud, because his hearing is already at its limit.
“There you are.” His brother closes the door behind him and sits next to Lloyd. He can feel the older Ninja’s life like a quiet hum. “You doing okay?” He keeps his voice quiet, and for that, Lloyd is grateful.
“Everything’s just so loud,” Lloyd whispers in reply, staring at the ground in front of him. “It’s overwhelming. It’s like…I can hear everything.”
Cole hums in acknowledgement. “I think I know what you mean, actually.” Lloyd glances at him in surprise, and he nods in confirmation. “When I connected with the Earth back under Shintaro, it was like feeling everything around me.”
Lloyd manages a small smile. “Probably like that.” He briefly closes his eyes. “I can just hear everything that’s alive, and there’s so much, even here.”
“Have you tried tuning it out?” Cole asks.
Lloyd nods with a sigh. “I can’t. The Arc Dragon we met also said it’s not possible.”
“How about focusing it?” The older Ninja suggests. “Like, instead of taking in everything, just concentrate on one.”
Lloyd hums. “No, I haven’t tried that.”
Cole offers his hand, and Lloyd lets his hand fall onto his brother’s. Cole gently curls his fingers around it. Lloyd can feel the energy humming under the older Ninja’s skin. “Concentrate on just me, then.”
Lloyd nods and closes his eyes. He can feel everyone and everything up here on the mountain, but Cole’s is the clearest and the loudest because of their proximity. But, just like his element, Cole’s energy is grounded and steady, almost calm. Lloyd focuses on that, and doesn’t even realize when the background noise from the rest of the Monastery is drowned into the background.
“Lloyd?” Cole’s voice, although quiet, startles Lloyd out of the half-asleep trance he’d found himself in. He opens his eyes and meets his brother’s questioning gaze. “You okay?”
Lloyd nods just as a wide yawn forces itself from him. “Y-yeah. That definitely worked.”
Cole chuckles. “I can tell. You were falling asleep.”
The rest of the Monastery is still chatting in the back of Lloyd’s mind, but he can still focus on Cole’s energy, and it makes the rest bearable. “Yeah. Tired from the fight.”
“I feel you there,” Cole agrees as he stands and stretches. He offers his hand to Lloyd and helps the younger off the floor. “Up for going back out?”
Lloyd nods, though apprehensive. But he discovers that even outside and closer to the noise, as long as he focuses on the person closest to him, it’s bearable. This time, it ends up being Kai, since Cole wandered inside to find Jay. Kai’s energy is much wilder than Cole’s but a controlled chaos and all too familiar. Lloyd latches onto the feeling and pushes the rest into the background.
The sensory overload he’d experienced earlier is much more manageable and not as overwhelming. It’s still really loud—Lloyd knows he’ll need another break in a bit—but he doesn’t feel the desperate need to leave.
The team spends a while outside and enjoys everyone’s company—after all, this is the first time since the Merge that they’d all been together. Lloyd watches Kai train Wyldfyre on her precision as they blast old soda cans and whatever other target they can find that has no value. Wyldfyre takes great pleasure in burning up old newspapers that Kai throws up into the air.
A sudden buzz of excitement from the plants outside draws Lloyd’s attention, more from surprise than anything else—he didn’t expect the plants to be able to be excited. He realizes that there’s two new life-forms approaching the gates.
His concentration slips in the moment, and the sounds of life return full-force. It takes him a long moment to locate the closest person and focus on their energy. By the time he does, Mr. Frohicky is already opening the doors for the guests.
And when Sora’s birth parents step in, Lloyd’s glad to have something to think about other than the noise around him, because he knows immediately that they’re in for a ride.