Prompt: One Not Two (Blixemi's Original Warrior Song)

Warning: tiny bit of swearing. Says the h word twice.
Lyrics from One Not Two by Blixemi.
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"If I could rewind and change my mind and do it all again."

Everyone cried for days. Or was it weeks? It was hard to tell. The whole ninja team was broken. Misako came to stay with them, sharing their burden as her pulled together the pieces of her heart once more to aid the family she's adopted.

Zane took on the responsibility, making sure everyone ate, slept, and had a shoulder to cry on when needed. Pixal gave herself the personal task of making sure Zane was abiding by his own words. Nya threw herself into work, pushing herself so hard she'd pass out, her temper was short and she'd go on angry fits before collapsing and sobbing uncontrollably. Jay was strained as well, his words often sharp and he'd go on long, long, rambles. Cole was unusually quiet, the team would find him huddled in random places with a large plate of cake as he ate it numbly. Kai did a lot of training to work off his anger but he set most of his grief into playing the big brother. Lloyd was the worst. At first he just cried, it seemed to go on forever. Then he'd push himself to go out of his isolation. But he wasn't the same. A broken record repeating the words "I'm fine." numbly as he lived life with a shattered heart.

"With all the answers ahead of me and knew how it would all end."

Garmadon watched it all. An ache filling his black heart as he stared at the crumbling family around him. What could he do? What should he do? He barely remembered a thing and his newfound spontaneous kindness was very hard to grapple with. He had tried to help out an old lady because he thought it would be a good start but it ended in a fist fight- which he lost.

"What are you still doing here." The gentle voice spoke. But it held a protective edge. Garmadon raised his head to see sharp, glaring, eyes.

"I'm feeding the chicken." Garmadon said lamely, tossing some bread crumbs half-heartedly.

"It's not good for chickens to have bread." She took the loaf from him and pinned it under her arm. "Now why are you really here?"

Garmadon paused. Why was he here? He bit his lip as he focused on that throbbing in his chest, he rubbed it with his thumb. When would it go away? "My brother is dead." He said bluntly. "I'm here to mourn."

Misako scowled, an odd expression to see on a usually positive woman's face. "You're not here to mourn. You claim to have good in your heart and yet all your doing is sitting here. You're here for answers. You're thick head can't figure out who you are now so all you're doing is sulking. If you want answers then you'll have to go find them!"

Garmadon stared at her for a moment. "I can see why I loved you."

He grunted when he got hit in the head with a bread loaf. "The answers will be here." Misako told him as she turned away. "You just need to listen more to the past."

"Could I make the right choice like before I knew?"

Garmadon pondered her words as he strolled around the monastery. The monks were more used to his presence but they certainly didn't act like it. As soon as they saw him they dived for whatever they could hide behind. Garmadon pretending not to notice the one hanging from the light fixture. It was very hard to do, especially when the chandelier broke and the monk was sent crashing to the ground. Garmadon found his way to the oldest part of the building, he neared some thin sliding doors, he pushed them open revealing an empty room.

"That our destinies were tied to each other it was me or you."

Well, mostly empty.

On the ground there were two pictures. One was of the entire ninja team, smiling wildly into the camera. The other was a hand sketched drawing of a child holding a baby boy. Garmadon's brow furrowed. In the bottom right corner was a scribbled signature. He couldn't quite make out the name though.

"One not two."

Garmadon picked up the picture, examine it until suddenly the back fell out. He jumped in surprise and placed down the frame. Hand moving to the picture that had fallen with the back. He picked it up. Writing was written on the back of the drawing.

To my darling boys,

Please know that I will always love you.
If I could change my mind, I wouldn't.
I love you both.
Take care of each other.

Love, Mom.

Garmadon wasn't sure what this heavy feeling was, before he knew it something salty and wet was dripping into the paper and soaking the sketch. But as the tears made little circles onto the sketch the air seemed to change around him. Garmadon blinked and looked up.

There stood a faded figure. He squinted at it before gasping when slowly the features were formed on the transparent person.

Wu.

"Storm it was you and I side by side since our mother had died back then."

He spoke softly. A hand a wafting through the air before the scenery around Garmadon rippled. Foggy surrounding flashed him into the past. His eyes widened as he stared at a pale, frail, women in a bed. A man with braided hair bending over her. In her arms was a baby.

"We had no one else, just ourselves, no one was left in our defence."

The scenes changed, showing two older boys staring at the fleeting shape of the man as he stepped into a vortex.

"We had each other, there was no better brother. You were my best friend until it was my end."

His voice trailed off as the world briefly flashed to something that had already been in Garmadon's memories, but it disappeared before he could register the scene, suddenly the world seemed to speed up.

"We walked through hell together, we weathered every weather. The stormy wind carried along my weary withered feathers!"

Battles, enemies, mourning, all the memories zipped by so fast Garmadon could barely focus on each of them.

"Would I rewind and change my mind and leave it all behind...." Wu's spirit was sad.

"Not on your life."

"Wu-"

"We came into the world in a world split by our blood and our loyalties..."

Garmadon touched a hand to one of the gaping holes in his chest. Signs that he did not belong in this world as an image of a little boy being bitten by a snake formed before his eyes.

"We walked upon a line, you and I played by floods of fertility!"

Deeper into the past, a pregnant woman, laughing with her face concealed by her hair as the familiar man embraced her.

"Two lovers didn't know that their choices would shape us so, that neither Clan was home or we'd go through hell alone-"

Garmadon's eyes widened as the air darkened and the shadowed shapes of Oni and dragon in battle appeared before vanishing in the blink of an eye.

"If they could rewind and change their minds and do it all again-"

The couple were embracing again but suddenly they were moving backwards, time seemed to rewind as it paused in the moment the man was pulling out a ring.

"I doubt they'd go without each other either now or then."

It played once more, the woman laughing silently with joy as he slipped it on her finger.

"If we could ask about her past and why she stayed with Grey, she would pull us close nose to nose and this is what she'd say-"

"If I could rewind and change my mind and do it all again..." Garmadon spun around when a second voice joined in, the figure of a woman as she stepped out of the mist. Her hair a rich brown and fell in waves around her face, her eyes a brilliant green. "With all the answers ahead of me and knew how it would all end..."

"Would I make the right choice like before I knew..." Her smile was sad as she gently took the drawing that was still in Garmadon's hands. "That our destinies were tied to each other it was me and you."

She handed it back before retreating away. Garmadon called out, trying to follow her but she already disappeared in the fog. Her voice still calling softly. "One not two."

"One not two." Wu echoed softly.

"One not two." Her faraway voice called again.

"One not two." Wu repeated. It extended the last vowel.

Her voice sang one last time before fading. "One not two-"

Garmadon was suddenly blasted forward, images swirling around as Wu's voice called above the noise.

"I can feel my heartbeat racing, I don't know if this is my place, and yet I feel inside I must die for you to survive my brother I-"

Garmadon felt his heart launch into his throat as he stared at the memories. It was the moment when it happened. Lloyd's horrible scream was echoing in his ears as Wu continued, voice fast like he was trying to tell him everything with little time.

"I love you so more than you know. It's time to go but you won't ever be alone!"

Wu was starting to fade, the memories swirling away in the mist as Garmadon ran after him.

"If I could rewind and change my mind and do it all again, with all the answers ahead of me and knew how it would all end!" The room was coming back as Garmadon was fading back into his previous spot in Wu's meditation room. Wu smiled at his brother as he started fading away. "I know I'd make the same choice and now I know it true!"

"That our destinies were tied, I would die for you!"

Garmadon's body shook as slowly he changed, the overwhelming pain overtook him. It was gripping his heart and tearing through his body as he tilted his head to the sky and scream out his pain. His form was changing, he was shrinking, the black skin was fading into a paper tone. His oni appear made disappearing and his hair falling into grey waves around his face as he wordlessly howled out his sorrow.

"Me or you"

"one not two,"

"one not two!"

"Me or you,"

"one not two."

"One not two!"

"Me or you."

"me or you,"

"one not two..."

Garmadon raised his face to watch as Wu vanished, his voice retreating into a whisper.

"I would die for you."

*****
authors note.

Oh my gosh this song gets me every time. Blixemi is such a beautiful writer.

I know this should be sad and serious but I was listening to One Not Two as I wrote this and when it finished it launched into the next song. But the next song as so chipper and bouncy that it was super ironic or something. If anyone knows Blixemi's songs than I'll tell you it was I'm Not Fine. If you know the song then you'll kind of get why it's sort of funny.

Anyways sort of imagined it like those scenes on the movies where the person is singing and then memories were moving around the other person, y'know?

I also went into uncharted territory with Wu and Garmadon's mother. We don't even know if they even had a mother since Mr. First Spinjitzu Master could just create stuff but it matched with the song lyrics and I felt it was an interesting direction.

I never directly showed how Wu died but you can guess that it was from sacrificing himself for his brother.

Anyways, I love this song and I felt it would make a good base for a sad fanfic about Wu and Garmadon.

I hope it didn't get to confusing, I just really wanted to include all the lyrics.

I hope you liked it!

If you hadn't heard the song I very much suggest listening to it but I almost cried when I listened to it for the first time so....just a little warning for anyone who's as emotional as me.

LuckyBugBooks 🐞