Chapter Text
Lloyd…
Lloyd..!
“LLOYD!”
His eyes shot open, he tried to move his hands only to find them chained up behind him. “Lloyd, you’re awake!” He turned to see Nya. Beyond her were the other Ninja, all chained up according to their respective powers and knocked out.
Kai’s hands were chained to the ground, along with a gag tied in his mouth— presumably to be sure he couldn’t breathe fire either.
Jay's wrists were bound to the wall along with a hoop of whatever metal they were chained in wrapped around his waist.
Zane’s hands were bound up, attached to a chain from the roof. His feet were completely covered by thick boots made of metal.
Cole’s had the same thick boots of metal as Zane along with connected metal gloves that nearly went to his shoulders.
“W-… what happened..?” He asked, completely dazed while scanning the small stone dungeon they were locked in.
Nya's chains rattled as she moved. Her legs were chained to the floor and her arms were tied behind her back. “We were fighting those weird smoke bomb guys when they suddenly filled the room with a weird smoke and everyone blacked out. I managed to get away from the smoke for a bit, but it caught up quickly.”
Lloyd thought for a moment, and once his cautiousness fully settled, he gasped in realization. “Oh, yeah! So… where exactly are we?” He asked, tugging on his chains for a moment. His hands were covered by metal gloves and his feet were chained to the floor. “And what are these things made of!?” He groaned.
“I’m not sure where we are, I haven’t seen anyone outside of this cage. And as for the chains? I’m pretty sure it’s some modified form of Venge Stone… it’s- err… a lot tougher!” She said, struggling to pull her hands out of the metal gloves.
Lloyd knew Nya was still talking, but his panic had his mind ringing, unable to focus on a single thing. He could feel his heart pumping blood through his body—Every nerve in his body gaining awareness.
“We should wake the others up.” Nya’s voice was finally audible over the whirlwind in his mind.
Lloyd stuttered his attention over to her “Wha- huh..? Oh, Right, yeah. We should get them up. Uhm… I’ll get Kai I guess.”
Lloyd awkwardly shuffled to Kai why Nya went to Jay. The cage was small, so this couldn’t be too hard. “Kai!” He silently shouted, trying not to be too loud in case someone else was nearby. “Kai, get up!” He said a little louder.
This was gonna be harder than he thought. Lloyd sighed, getting as close to Kai as he physically could. “KAI!!” He shouted at a normal pitch.
Kai’s eyes shot open and he jumped to his feet, having no restraints on his legs. His muffled shout could just barely be heard through the gag in his mouth. Kai flinched once he realized he could talk. “Hmhmmhmmn!!” He shouted, his lips trying to form words without success.
Lloyd bit his lip to hold back a laugh. Nya on the other hand, showed no mercy—laughing like it was the last time she’d ever laugh at her brother. Kai’s eyebrows flattened, giving Nya the ‘seriously?’ Look.
Once Nya calmed down, they summed up what they knew to Kai and sent I’m to work on waking the others.
Nya turned back to Jay and smirked. “This’ll be a piece of cake.” She said. After clearing her throat, she went as close to Jay as she could get and yelled. “Jay, I’m dating Cole again!”
Jay's eyes shot open. “WHAT!?” His expression was both shocked and angry.
Lloyd laughed at the remark. “Wait, what is this place?” Jay asked, eyes scanning the dark cellar. “And what is Kai doing?” He asked. Kai in question was busy kicking Cole’s side in an attempt to wake him up.
“Uhm, both are long stories. We’ll explain when everyone else is up.” Lloyd sighed.
Just as Lloyd finished talking, Kai gave Cole one last stern kick to the rib—making Cole’s eyes shoot open. “GAH! Heyyy…” he groaned, giving Kai a disappointed look. Just like the others, he scanned the room. “Uhm…” he looked at everyone else’s Chains before looking down at his own. “Seriously?” He raised an eyebrow at his knee-high metal foot binds and metal cuffs that went entirely up his arms.
Kai could be heard laughing at Cole through the gag.
“I’ll explain when we get out of here.” Lloyd turned to Zane “Looks like he was completely shut down, we won’t be able to wake him up until we’re out as well.”
Jay gave Lloyd a skeptical look. “How exactly are we supposed to get out of here? It’s all Venge Stone!”
Lloyd thought for a moment, staring down at his bonded hand. Suddenly an idea came to his head, but the thought of it made him visibly cringe.
“You got something?” Jay asked
Lloyd turned to her “y- yeah… but I-…” he paused to think once again. “No… no, no. I’m not gonna do that.” Lloyd hissed at himself.
Cole raised an eyebrow. “What is it?”
Lloyd looked back down at his hands, clenching them into fists. “It’s the only way…” he muttered to himself. Lloyd’s eyes hopped from one person to another.
“I’m gonna try something…” he sighed and straightened his back with a crack “but if anything bad starts happening… just knock me out or something…”
“Lloyd..?” Nya’s tone went stern “If what your doing is gonna hurt you-“
“It shouldn’t hurt me if I do it right,” Lloyd argued. “Now let me focus.”
Nya pulled away from Lloyd and sighed. Everyone else in the room backed away from him. Lloyd’s head faced his hands as he shut his eyes. In just a few seconds, Lloyd’s binds began to glow and crack—and in only a few seconds, the binds practically disintegrated in his palms. Revealing a corrupt purple flame in their place.
“L- Lloyd..?” Nya asked cautiously, staring at a frozen Lloyd.
Suddenly, Lloyd’s eyes shot open. His eyes were entirely black with only a small dot of purple glowing in place of his pupil. Nya gasped and backed into Jay's arms.
Lloyd groaned and punched the chains wrapped around his feet, causing them to snap off instantly. He stood up and walked over to Kai.
Kai flinched back as Lloyd wrapped two of his now-clawed fingers around the gag in Kai’s mouth, ripping it off in one swift move. Then just as quickly punched off his metal gloves. Lloyd turned and went to Nya next. Leaving Kai speechless.
Nya looked up at Lloyd “Are you ok..?” She asked as he punched off the chains on her feet. Lloyd looked into her eyes and sighed
“The longer I do this, the harder it gets to control. I have to hurry…” he said while snapping off her. His canines began to protrude from his mouth, and his voice became more demonic with each word.
Lloyd ripped the hoop of metal off of Jay's waist and snapped his hand binds off. But just as Lloyd was walking over to Cole, he fell to his knees. “Lloyd!” Kai shouted, kneeling at his brother’s side. “You should stop this, seriously.” The now twisted face of Lloyd turned up to Kai.
Kai backed away from Lloyd slightly, who now had Golden scales growing out of his arms and neck. Two small golden horns protruded from his forehead. His mouth began to elongate over his cheeks. “No… let me do this.” He growled as he got back to his feet.
Now in front of a VERY concerned Cole, Lloyd punched Cole’s arms until the thick cuffs snapped off. He did the same with the binds on Cole’s legs.
Lastly was Zane. Lloyd weakly crawled to Zane and used his newfound claws to cut the chain that held Zane’s hands up like a pair of scissors.
Just before Lloyd could punch Zane’s foot binds off, he fell to his knees again. “Alright, that’s it.” Kai said and angrily stomped to Lloyd’s side “Lloyd, Please stop. You’re hurting yourself!” Kai shouted.
Lloyd growled, the purple flames in his hands growing stronger. “I- it’s the last one…” he said in his now demonic and twisted voice as he reached a final punch at Zane’s Binds.
There was no time for victory as Lloyd began twisting on the ground, rolling onto his back as the scales grew further up his arms and neck. He yelped in pain, hugging himself. He just wanted it to all be ov-
SMACK!
Cole’s lava arms died down after he punched Lloyd. The flames on Lloyd’s arms extinguished and his body began reverting to normal.
Cole cracked his knuckles and turned to the others, who all looked at him in shock.
“Whaat? He told us to knock him out if anything bad happened!”