11Hello all! Thanks so much to the people following this; I've spent a little time laying out the groundwork, and now that I'm not ripping directly off the show things will get good. ;) The fifth chapter of Fight or Flight will be uploaded next, and then we'll be right back here!
Is this it? Grimfax thought as his hands were cuffed. After all their newfound hope, was it going to end like this again? Except worse, locked for eternity in an icy cell.
Suddenly a loud SMASH ripped through the air, and the shockwave following soon after swept Grimfax and his guards off their feet. As he scrambled back up, Grimfax suddenly realized that his chains of ice were gone, and his hands, his HANDS! They were warm, and soft, and he caressed a palm in disbelief. Was this real?
"This way!" An unfamiliar voice rang through the miraculously ice-free palace halls, along with the drumming of feet. A group of strangers rounded the corner at full speed, all dressed in unique colors, the same as the green stranger Vex had been so obsessed with. A massive yeti followed close behind, and Grimfax was ready to call an alarm to save them when they all skidded to a halt in front of him. The yeti stopped obediently in the back, and none of them paid it any mind.
"Lloyd?" A woman dressed in gray and blue asked breathlessly. Grimfax could only assume she was talking about the green stranger, so he pointed toward the throne room, and the motley crowd was off again.
The Emperor. Just now, it occurred to Grimfax what the melting ice meant. He waved a summons to the guards, glad to see their eyes clear and hypnosis-free, and ran for the throne room.
He arrived in time to find Vex immobilized up to his neck in ice, and Kataru also free and embracing someone who must have been his sister. Grimfax had heard the formling's sad tale in the cold loneliness of the dungeons, and was gratified to see them reunited.
Nearby were the strangers, all clustered around in a group, cheering. Grimfax approached cautiously. Had Lloyd, the one in green, told the truth? Had the Emperor once been a good man?
Was he now?
As Grimfax approached the huddle broke, and standing in the center was the man who'd entered this very room alongside Vex all those years ago. Grimfax held his breath.
"Lloyd!" The former Emperor looked distraught, grabbing the green ninja by the shoulders. "What have I done?" He cried.
"Hey, hey, it's okay Zane," Lloyd said, grabbing his hands and holding them, "it's over. You're free. It's okay."
"No!" The Emp-no, Zane, shook his head. "No, it's not okay!" He pulled his hands from Lloyd's grasp. "I'm a monster! I was built to protect, not destroy!"
"No!" One of the strangers, dressed in red, took Zane's shoulder. "Don't you ever talk like that, Zane! You're not a monster." He shouted, shaking him.
"You don't understand!" Zane was trembling, ready to bolt, "you don't know what I've done!" He began to pace. "I need to go somewhere far away, a-a prison-"
"HEY!" The stranger dressed all in blue stalked up to his face and began yelling. "We've already lost you twice, tin head! Don't you DARE leave us again!"
"I-I need to think," Zane gasped, shaking, and he ran.
"Zane!" Lloyd began to follow, but the stranger in red caught his arm.
"Let me talk to him," the red stranger said, "I'll make sure he comes back." Grimfax could see the exchange on their faces, the fear, before Lloyd slumped and nodded glumly, allowing the red stranger to take up the chase.
It was then they turned to see Grimfax standing a little ways off, surrounded by palace guards. Every one of the strangers stopped, glancing at one another with worry on their faces.
"Did he just see all that?" The one in black asked.
"Totally," answered the woman in gray. The yeti and stranger in blue both grunted their agreement. Lloyd was the one to immediately step forward, bowing as the group of odd people lined up behind him, and bowed as well. Grimfax found himself impressed by their coordination.
"Friend," Lloyd said, coming out of the bow, "we haven't properly introduced ourselves. I am Lloyd, a ninja, and this," he swept his arm out, "is my team."
"Welcome, travellers," Grimfax answered. "I am the Emperor in this palace," he noted the exchange of guilty glances on the faces of the strangers, "please follow me, I wish to speak with you in private." When he turned to lead the way he was pleased to find his own guard had already fallen into line in response to the stranger's-the ninja's-display.
As the yeti moved to follow two of Grimfax's guards blocked its path, clearly uncertain what to do about the normally elusive monster. The stranger in black turned and noticed what was going on.
"It's okay, Crag," he said, and waved in Vex's direction, "keep an eye on him, will ya?" The yeti grinned and thumped its chest, bellowing. The black ninja gave it a salute, before following again. Grimfax found his heart shrinking in worry; if these people could command dragons, nevermind yetis, what did that mean for his kingdom?
"My Lord!" Grimfax's thoughts were broken when he turned to see the wolf formling. Her brother Kataru was struggling to hold her back with a frightened look on his face.
"Please, my Lord," she wrested her arm free from Kataru's hold, "have mercy on them." Grimfax smiled at her gently. Whatever his reservations about the strangers, he would not pick his battles recklessly; and it seemed they had already made an impression.
"I have no ill will to our guests," he said, "it is thanks to them we are free." With a sweeping gesture he turned again. Emperor Grimfax found it a surreal feeling, his guard marching in time with his step in halls that just hours before had been ice cold and bereft of hope.
He led them to the library which, to Grimfax's delight, was just as he'd left it. Gesturing for the strangers to take a seat at a long wooden table, he stood before them, his guard fanning out in a semicircle. He could see his men exchanging slight glances and eyebrow gestures with one another. They, too, could barely believe it was over, or seemed to be.
"Welcome, strangers," Grimfax bowed to what was now a group of four: Lloyd, the stranger in green; the stranger in black; in gray; and in blue. "You have freed us from decades of cold imprisonment. You have our gratitude."
The four strangers exchanged a series of uncertain glances, before Lloyd stood from his chair and bowed back. "You are generous, your majesty, but don't thank us."
"I understand," Grimfax replied. "Your friend was the one to bring about our eternal winter, the Ice Emperor," he noticed the visible flinch, "however, I believe in the individual's actions, and you have done a great thing for our people."
"Your majesty, please, forgive Zane," Lloyd pleaded. "He's a good person, I know his recent actions don't seem like it, but he's been our friend for many years-"
"You told me this in the dungeon just hours ago." Grimfax countered, "for the sake of my people I believed you then." Grabbing the back of the chair in front of him, he sat down across from the strangers. "So convince me now."
It took some creative sleuthing (one of Kai's self-proclaimed strengths,) but eventually Kai found Zane high on the roof of the palace, in sunshine apparently not seen for decades. When he caught sight of him, sitting hunched over on the edge of the roof, he clasped his hands behind his back and stood, waiting.
"I'm not going back." Zane said finally, his shoulders drawing together like he was hugging his knees.
"To the others, or to Ninjago?" Kai asked. At this Zane shrank, turning his head to hide though Kai couldn't see his face to begin with.
"Both." The answer came quietly.
Kai bit his lip, unsure how to continue. If it were up to him, he would take the frustrated, boiling anger in his chest and use it to drag Zane back by force, but now wasn't the time to press. That much was obvious; so he remained silent.
"I can't run from this, Kai!" Zane finally burst out. "I've done too much! There's no fixing this, and…" Zane's voice trembled. "I don't think it should be fixed."
"Well, I don't know what you're seeing, but the sun's awfully bright today." Kai observed, gazing nonchalantly over the mountainous vista.
"That's not what I meant!" Zane cried, burying his face in his knees. "I'm dangerous, Kai. I need to go away, so this will never happen again."
Kai was taken aback, but he stepped carefully over the shingles and sat down next to his distraught friend.
"What was so dangerous about the man who saved our lives in the Nindroid crisis?" He asked.
"That's the thing," Zane whispered, "I'm not a man, Kai, and the nindroids…" He trailed off, and Kai stared at him expectantly. The ice ninja cracked a small smile, his eyes glistening as he glanced at his brother. "You're not going away, are you."
"It took you all our adventures to figure that out?" Kai laughed, but he quickly cut himself off when Zane's mood turned sober again. They stayed silent for many minutes, until…
"When… when I was young," Zane began tentatively, hesitantly, "I went to the city with my father… and found an old VHS in a dumpster."