Resolutions

Lloyd's POV

Aeria and I made our way to the deck with Nya, not saying a word to each other as we went to Aeria's next lessons with the others; Spinjitzu and Airjitzu.

"Are you two a thing yet?" Nya asked with a wide smile that almost seemed like Cheshire Cat-ish.

"What?! No!" We both exclaimed at the same time.

"Oh come on, you two are even saying the same sentences as each other."

"Just drop it OK?" Aeria's tone darkened a bit before she shook her head and continued with a lighter tone, "Sorry, I just don't know why you're making a big deal out of it. Lloyd was just... helping me through some stuff."

"Sure." Nya continued to smile as we made it to the deck and saw that Ronin was there with the others and I thought to myself,

This is not going to go well...

Aeria seemed to agree with my thoughts as she growled,

"What is he doing here?"

"He informed us that you are now aware of the prophecy and we figured out that your grudge against him is one of the burdens that it references t-" Xia answered, but was interrupted,

"I'm just here to watch." Ronin told Aeria, but she still didn't look convinced as she made her way over to the first challenge.

"Try to go through the obstacle course as fast as you can without the use of your weapon or abilities to see how well you can fight without them." Zane explained to Aeria as he pointed to the setup of obstacles, that included a couple of Jay's sparring bots scattered throughout the mini-course.

"Alright, seems easy enough." Aeria stepped up and cracked her knuckles and her neck before she pulled her hood up and readied to go at the line painted on the deck as the starting line.

"Ready? Go!" Nya shouted as she started a stopwatch and Aeria started to jump across the shifting poles, only to be sideswiped off one of the poles by one of the sparring bots that was smaller, faster, and specifically made for sneak attacks. I made my way over to Aeria as I helped her to her feet while saying,

"The first lesson to learn from that, 'Always case your surroundings before an attack'. You didn't anticipate the sparring bot and so you couldn't properly prepare to attack it."

"'Easy enough' she said." Ronin laughed from his position against the ship's edge. Aeria looked just about ready to push him over the edge of the ship when I interjected,

"This time, quickly and thoroughly watch your surroundings as you go through the course so that you can be ready for whatever comes ahead."

Aeria nodded but didn't face me as she went back to the beginning and jumped up onto the poles while quickly moving her head around to search for the sparring bot.

Just as it was about to sneak up behind her, Aeria jumped up and spun-kicked it before jumping to the next pole, slid under the spinning targets, and made her way through the larger sparring bots, making them hit each other instead of her, and was about to make her way past the last sparring bot, when she got hit from behind from one of the spinning dummies and got punched back from the bot. She hit the ground hard as the bot was coming towards her before Jay shut it down and paused the whole course.

"Are you OK?" Nya asked as she came over with a roll of bandages ready, fortunately, Aeria wasn't badly injured and just had a bruised back and cheek.

"While you did not complete the course, you did complete all the moves necessary to unlock Spinjitzu, when it is ready to be." Zane informed Aeria, but she didn't look too patient about it.

"What the heck is that supposed to mean?"

"It means that when you're ready to do it, you'll do Spinjitzu, but in the meantime, let's move on to practicing Airjitzu." Jay answered by doing jazz hands before muttering,

"Still think Cyclon-Do has a better ring to it..."

Aeria still looked confused, but we all moved to another part of the deck where the others had set up some flags at the top of the Bounty's masts for Aeria to try and reach and tape X's to launch herself from.

"For Airjitzu, you have to correctly perform the actions, leap up when you finish, and aim for the flags. Once you have grabbed all three of them, you will be done for the day." Xia explained and demonstrated the moves to unlock Airjitzu.

"Great, no pressure or anything." Aeria stepped on one of the X's on the floor and took a deep breath before she made the motions, a bit choppily and stiff, and leaped up as Airjitzu formed a small sphere around her, but it didn't hold up long as she lifted up only a couple of feet in the air before it fizzled out and she fell, landing bent down on her legs and one hand on the floor to soften her landing.

"You have to clear your mind and let the motions flow." I advised her before she stood up and closed her eyes and she did the motions again, this time more smoothly. She lifted off the ground and made it to the first flag and was about to hover over to the second one when the sphere started to fade. After leaping out of it, Aeria clung to the wooden mast and slid down from there with the first flag in hand.

"Alright, you're starting to get there, but there's something holding you back." Cole observed out loud.

"I believe because Ronin is here, your anger is making it difficult to focus on your training." Xia theorized, "Therefore you must make amends if you wish to continue with your training."

"What?! I am not apologizing to him." Aeria pointed to Ronin as she turned away looking furious.

"Is this really necessary for her to train?" Ronin came over to join the conversation.

"Yes." Xia responded simply.

"Alright then, I'm sorry. Ya happy now?" Ronin directed to Aeria as she refused to turn around to face him.

"That's all you have to say after everything you put me through?" Aeria turned back around to face him with her eyes literally starting to blaze purple.

"Yeah, and?"

"OK, let's all just calm down and not be too irrational about this." I tried to relieve the tension that was forming around them until,

"Yeah and that job almost cost me my soul getting cursed!" Ronin started to argue back.

Soon they were full-on yelling at each other and Xia was covering her ears and shut her eyes tightly and I knew that their anger must've been the cause so I shouted over both of them,

"Cut it out!" They abruptly stopped yelling, but Aeria's eye was starting to glow more dimly as a dark aura started to surround it and her fists.

Aeria must be seen that the dark aura was, also, hurting Xia as she was wincing in pain, so she took another deep breath and released her fists to calm down and the aura faded away as Xia regained her strength.

"You both have faults, but that doesn't mean that you blame each other for it, that's not what we're trying to do here." I reasoned between them as they both had their backs to each other.

"Alright," Aeria sighed through her nose before turning to face Ronin, "I'm sorry I've done nothing to try to make amends the whole time I've been here."

"Thank you Aeria. Ronin?"

"Fine, " Ronin turned to face Aeria, "I'm sorry I made you steal from people, occasionally allowing Archer use you for target practice,-"

"Wait what?!" I heard everyone exclaim as he finished saying that and I mouthed,

"Later."

"-for siccing Rex on you every time you tried to run away, and... for not being a better mentor when you were growing up. There, that's everything, am I done here?"

"Now that you finally admit it, I am." Aeria lightly smiled as Ronin scoffed and got on Rex. Right before he took off he shouted down to us,

"Now that my conscious is finally cleared from that, you can expect to not see me anytime soon."

"Woah woah woah wait, he was just helping us with Aeria cause he felt guilty about it?" Jay yelled hysterically.

"I guess so..." Nya sighed and placed a hand to her forehead.

"It's fine guys, really, I'm over it now." Aeria assured us and we all looked at her skeptically.

"Wait, so you're not still mad at him?" I questioned, confused and she just nodded.

"Are you sure?" Kai asked doubtfully.

"I was more mad at the fact that he wouldn't admit to what he did wrong. Now he did and I'm fine now, really."

"She is telling the truth, I no longer feel her anger for Ronin." Xia confirmed for us as she opened her eyes from reading Aeria's aura.

"Alright, then. Think you're up for catching the rest of those flags?"

My question was answered as Aeria jumped off the ground and Airjitzu lifted her off the ground and maneuvered her to the last two flags. She grabbed both of them with ease as she was set back down to the ground and held all three flags up in her hands, smiling genuinely.

"Now that you have retrieved all of the flags, you are done training for the day." Xia told Aeria as she took the flags from her.

"We're done already? Come on, that can't be it." Aeria whined a bit.

"Alright, you could practice some more weapon combat with us if you really want to." Cole brought out some weapons.

"Just a round or two and you guys can stop." Aeria reassured us as she picked up her half-hexagonal shape carved bow from where Xia had brought it out, strapped on the quiver of purple feathered arrows to her back, got into a fight stance while beckoning at us with one hand, and we all charged at her at once.

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