lloyd

He shouldn't be doing this.

He shouldn't be doing a lot of things.

And yet he still typed a reply.

you: yes please i want a bagel

cream cheese spread

astra: im not making bagels im making donuts dipshit

you: oh fuck you

cream cheese donut

astra: no

Lloyd groaned along with his rumbling stomach, flopping off his unmade bed bunk. Straightening the checkered sheets slightly, he ran his fingers through his blonde hair and then hopped out of his tiny cabin on one leg whilst tugging his boots on.

"Mornin' Junior," Charlie called sleepily from the scanner room. Lloyd nodded in silent greeting and began drinking a large tumblr of hot coffee. The hot sugary liquid burned his tongue but it was an excellent wake up drink for early mornings that were becoming routine. "We're half an hour out from the Floating Ruins. You need to strap yourself into the drop bay in about fifteen minutes since it's going to get rocky."

"Are you flying?" Lloyd would have thought Skylor was.

Titanium nodded. "Skylor doesn't have enough training for the environment up here."

"Which is?"

"Lightning storms that never stop, extreme turbulence, lightning bolts five times hotter than the sun, that sort of thing."

"So you've flown in these conditions before?"

Charlie burst out laughing. "Oh, hell no. I just have a better chance of steering us to survival."

"Reassuring," Lloyd quipped just as Kai strolled in, tousled hair and hands stuck in the pockets of his red Dragons jacket. Why his 'brother' insisted on still wearing it like he was clinging to some fragile hope of the past baffled Lloyd. He'd much rather leave behind the times where he couldn't use his powers, when he didn't know the truth behind his uncle. But there were parts he clung to. So maybe Kai was doing the same, just with a jacket and not a girl.

He didn't really think about Principal Wu anymore. The guy who always had tea, who offered semi-inspiring quotes often paired with millennial cat memes, his uncle who had to bring Lloyd in for whatever prank had been pinned directly to him. That guy had been demolished and wiped clean with Emperor Wu. Heartless. His two assassins standing beside him always, Morro on his left and Harumi on his right.

Oh Gods, Harumi.

Someone he simultaneously wanted to forget forever but spend more time with because whatever they'd had was short lived and packed with time spent in each other's comforting presences. Maybe that was why Harumi had insisted on spending so much time with Lloyd before everything had literally blown up. Every spare second between classes in deserted corridors or janitor closets, weekend subtly browsing at the mall, falling asleep with the lyrical hum of her voice in his ears.

He wanted to kill her and kiss her at the same time.

Lloyd didn't want to think about her a lot. He had no one to talk to - as far as his friends were concerned, Harumi was nothing but the enemy. He didn't blame them. Nya and Kai had basically lost their parents to her, and that hurt him almost as badly as it did them. But that tiny, little string of hope and love intertwined kept him from jumping on a side.

Love was so, so stupid. Yet so powerful Llyod knew when he had to make the choice - his family or Harumi, it would be like tearing himself apart. It hurt that bad.

"Lloyd?" Titanium waved a cautious hand in front of his face. "You need to strap in. We're at the Floating Ruins."

o o o

The Floating Ruins were a) not fun, and b) not fun.

"THERE'S A BUG IN MY MOUTH," Kai screeched in terror, flailing in panic.

"CLOSE IT THEN," Astra yelled back impatiently. "Gliders out in three, two, one, now."

At his sister's call, Lloyd snapped his arms out, the rods in his glider suit straightening out with Jay and Nya's design. They had only test run these gilders once in open air, and from that experience, Lloyd knew controlling his arms would be the most important part. They would want to fold back in with wind, so he had to keep them out until the altitude locked with the light metal poles and allowed them to glide less than gracefully down to the peak of the Ruins.

Lightning flashed down in gigantic bolts around Lloyd. He swerved dangerously to avoid being fried to a crisp, nearly knocking into Kai. Lloyd's blonde hair was soon plastered to his forehead from the thunderous rain bucketing down onto them. He could feel the fabric of his glider being weighed down by the water collecting there. Hopefully they would land soon.

"Spiral descent," Astra's weary voice ordered through his comm. Lloyd breathed a sigh of relief as he saw everyone glide into formation. First descending in a slow spiral was Astra, followed by Kai, Kade, Cole, Skylor, and finally Lloyd himself. His glider began turning slowly, a current of wind guiding him to the strange rock formation.

The Nunchucks of Lightning were nowhere near kept in a convenient spot - on top of a mountain peak nearly as tall as the Mountain of a Million Steps. It was as if massive hands had just molded a bit of rock like clay into the shape of nunchucks. The kontei of the nunchucks was buried into the stone mound, all the way up to the kikon bu. Somehow the builder had the nunchucks sticking upwards like a straight pillar, the middle rocks carved into chains.

No one was particularly excited to be at the Floating Ruins. If Jay was here he'd certainly be in tune with his element like Cole had been at the Caves of Despair. But here, they were that much easier to kill.

"Reaper, you got about twenty Vermillion on your tail," Titanium warned. Lloyd spun around, trying to keep his balance whilst also avoiding being fried by the bolts crashing down.

Sure enough, the Nightwing's scanners were right. A straggly line of Venomari were hiking up the mountain top. Even through blistering conditions and constant downpour, Lloyd could see the familiar bright green scales.

"Who the hell are these guys?" Astra swore, nocking her normal bow. "I thought they all headed off for the Fangblades."

"Yeah, obviously not, Rea," Kai rolled his eyes, getting both of his katanas out.

"Eat ass—"

"Concentrate," Lloyd warned his sister, sabre in his hands.

Astra refocused, the purple in her eyes burning out. Like everyone else, their emotions severely affected their powers. And Astra was easily provoked. "Junior, use this cloth and get the Nunchucks. We'll call Titanium down and he'll open the back up for us to jump in. Get in, get out, yeah?"

"Isn't it like, really dangerous for him to get low in the storm?" Cole's voice wavered. "And isn't there a lightning dragon waiting somewhere?"

Astra stared at him for a beat. "Then get Lloyd up there and let's get the hell out of here. Skylor, you still have Jay's lightning, right? See what you can do with the storm, don't strain yourself."

Lloyd took the purple fabric from Astra and tied it around his waist. Cole did not look satisfied with her answer, but grunted and began climbing up the kontei stuck in the mountain. Lloyd followed less confidently than Cole. Sure, they were surrounded in a lightning storm, but Cole's thing was rocks and climbing. The larger guy swung himself from tiny crack to miniscule crevice without second thought, leaving Lloyd to struggle along in his wake.

As they neared the top, Cole had the audacity to hang from three fingers and give Lloyd a crooked smile. Lloyd ignored his friend and pushed himself onto the tiny platform that was the top of the kontei. The chain connecting the bottom to the top was interrupted by the Nunchucks of Lightning hovering in between. Blue lightning sparked off the Golden Weapon.

"This would be so much better if Jay was here." Lloyd whispered, hands shaking as he yanked the nunchucks out from the weird stasis-floaty thing. It reminded him of a Fritz Donnegan comic where the hero was trapped in a stasis chamber and had to escape and free the people of Nago.

"Okay, okay, let's go Lloyd, let's go." Cole wasted no time pulling Lloyd back down the giant kontei, scampering back to more solid ground like a monkey.

"We got it!" Lloyd cheered into his comm. No reply from the rest, but he saw in a flash of lightning that Astra raised her katana - the signal for retreat. Cole leapt down into battle, channeling a small quake through his normal scythe. Lloyd touched down with energy balls the size of golf ones. Not bad, but not exactly in fighting shape. A technique his father had recently taught him came to his mind.

Lloyd pulled back the orbs to form strange, shimmering green gloves around his hands, delivering a punch to the nearest Venomari. The cloth-wrapped nunchucks hanging from his belt threatened to fall off and bounce all the way down the bottom of the mountain. Lloyd swerved out of the way of another Venomari, using his powers to do another trick: drawing energy from his opponent. It was tricky, and it needed practice, but his friends weren't willing to be guinea pigs. So these Venomari were.

Just as he spun into a back kick, a deafening roar broke through the thunder and lightning above hand.

"THE DRAGON IS HERE!" Cole wailed loudly. "We're all going to die, we're all going to die, oh First Master we're all going to die."

"Get on the Nightwing idiots, Titanium's here. I'll hold off the Venomari, just get the Nunchucks on board and go." Astra whisper-yelled into her comm. She spun around and slammed the hilt of her katana into a Venomari, then let off an explosive arrow downhill. Lloyd wasted no time in sprinting towards the Nightwing's open back ramp, leaping off the edge of the mountain.

He tumbled onto the ramp and scrambled up into the lower hanger, fastening the nunchucks into a case and then shoving it into a safe. The rest of the squad fell in after Lloyd, but there was still one person that hadn't boarded.

"Astra!" Lloyd yelled, the wind twisting his words into a hollow cry. "You gotta leave!"

She didn't respond though, sweeping her sword in front of the advancing crowd. Her injured arm was hanging limply at her side as she disarmed a Venomari soldier and tried to shove him off the mountain. The rest of the Venomari piled onto her without hesitation. Lloyd crossed his fingers as he waited for her to use her powers to shove them off. He knew it was the best move - he knew his father would have executed the same defense had he been here.

But there was no sign of Astra's powers. No purple. No screaming snakes. Nothing.

"Why isn't she—" Kade spluttered. "Why isn't she using her powers?"

Lloyd didn't know why. She's going to kill herself by not using them—

And then finally, Astra's head surfaced as she slashed her katana out, let off an explosive arrow and limped as fast as she could towards the Nightwing. Her boots were trailing purple dust and her expression was nothing less than anger - at herself, at the Venomari, who knew? She was knocked off kilter when another thunderous roar sliced across the top of the mountain.

Lloyd spotted the lightning dragon and tried not to let his knees knock together. It wasn't as big as the earth dragon but it certainly wasn't small either, large blue wings extending over the stone nunchucks. It swooped down, one large yellow eye cracked open to gaze at the empty stasis chamber. The Nightwing was thrown off course when the dragon barely batted an eye as it flew past towards the only human on the ground.

Employing exactly one brain cell as Lloyd jumped out of the Nightwing again, he was pretty confident that was all he needed.

Tumbling upon impact on the ground, Lloyd pulled out his saber and ran to his sister's side. She was covered in blood - not her own, hopefully, and was staring at the dragon.

"We need to kill it and get the egg," Astra told him confidentently. "Look at its eyes."

Truthfully, it was a little hard to do so when the dragon had begun zapping the mountain top clearing with lightning breath, but Lloyd managed to crane his neck from the rock they were hiding behind to see the yellow eyes once again. However, the first time, he hadn't caught the red, pulpy veins shooting through the dragon's eyes. There was blood caked in the corners of each eye and long white scares raking down the blue hide and scales.

"What's wrong with it?"

"Gone insane," she said gruffly, sheathing her katana to get her bow out, "Happened to the other dragon as well."

"O—kay, so what are we gonna do?"

"Stay here, don't get zapped, wait for me to bring it down then stab it behind the frills." Astra pointed up at the dragon, which really was a blue blur in the stormy sky. "You see it?"

Lloyd squinted further into the dark storm clouds and saw what she was talking about. The lightning dragon had thinner scales than the earth dragon, but electricity swarmed all over its body in protection. Up on its head, it had several layers of frills that protected the most vulnerable part as Astra had guessed.

"Got it," he confirmed, balancing his sabre. "How are you going to get it down here?"

In response, Astra let out a long, measured breath, holding up her bow to point at the sky. The dragon swooped down again, and Astra released. The arrow shot up into the sky, the projection aimed perfectly as the sharp warhead buried itself into one of the dragon's eyes. The creature howled, twisting as it fell towards Lloyd.

"That's how."

Lloyd didn't have time to argue with her, moving out of the dragon's falling body and up onto a rock. When its long body slammed into the ground, Lloyd was forced to wait until the lightning died down at least a little on the dragon's body. He wasn't Jay, but he could withstand more electricity than the others. Astra was keeping the dragon occupied, dancing out of the way of its lightning breath with haggard breaths.

No time to lose. Lloyd leapt from the rock and onto the dragon's back, gasping at the electricity nipping at him. He ran fast along to the neck and the protective frills, raising his saber high in the sky. Just as Astra swore in pain, he stabbed his sabre into the soft blue flesh of the dragon. The dragon attempted to rear, but Astra drove her own sword into its nose and with one final burst of blue lightning, the dragon died.

Lloyd slid off the dragon to where Astra was headed for its underbelly, a large leather sling tied around the middle of the dragon. She pulled out an egg a tad smaller than the earth dragon's one and then walked back to the Nightwing dribbling blood and purple footsteps. The Venomari attack party was nowhere to be seen, having deserted their mission once the dragon arrived. His twin threw herself into the Nightwing, holding up a single finger as they lifted off and she caught her breath.

"Don't. Ask. Any. Questions."

o o o

Lloyd retreated to his room nursing a few cuts that Kade had healed quickly, but were still sore to touch. He had a large bruise on the side of his ribcage that was hurting, however, he had more pressing matters. His phone had buzzed with a notification twenty seven minutes and fifteen seconds ago (who was he, Zane?).

A notification from a number he'd been texting with no response. He hadn't wanted one. Well, maybe he had. But he'd just been lonely. And desperate for something before all of this - before all of the death, the running, the hunting. A sliver of the old times. And it hurt him to think that she brought him comfort when she'd rained hell on Kai and Nya's family.

Groaning, Lloyd stuffed his pillow under his bed and massaged his aching side. He'd run out of painkillers in his tiny cabin aboard the plane, which was less than comfortable. If he woke up too fast in the morning, he'd bang his head on the cupboards floating over his head, sending his less than neatly stacked clothes to the floor. When Lloyd stuck out his right arm, his fingertips would crash into a large storage bench for his weapons and ninja gi. Altogether, little space to relax and heal in.

"Maybe a cream cheese bagel," he mumbled aloud drearily, "Oh wait, she made donuts."

Lloyd finally made the decision to stumble out to the kitchen - which was small, but big enough for his sister to anger-fry donuts earlier that morning. The scent of dough and sugar still lingering in the plane, since it wasn't like they could open a window casually to let it out. Astra had left the flour box out and a plate stacked high with donuts.

There was chocolate, strawberry, jam, and hazelnut in the stack, but no cream cheese. Lloyd got out another plate and slowly but surely began transferring the top donuts to the bottom of the other plate. His fingers were sticky with icing (his hands were very much clean before though) but Lloyd continued his mission until he was at the very bottom of the original donut stack.

"Oh," he said quietly, staring at the plate. In the very middle of it sat a cream cheese bagel, a bit of smeared pink icing on the top. Lloyd bit into the bagel and stared out of the tiny porthole window in the kitchen. The Nightwing shot past clouds and open sky now they had broken free of the storm, and Lloyd was glad for that since the ship no longer rocked every second.

"Everyone to the main deck please, everyone to the main deck." Skylor's voice suddenly boomed out of the speakers. Lloyd crammed the rest of his bagel into his mouth and then ran over to the main deck. Everyone there was already clustered over the command table, Kai, Skylor, Cole, and Kade all had confused expressions whilst Astra and Charlie's were pinched.

"We have news from HQ," Astra said slowly. Her hands were shaking as she pulled up reports and footage. "They got to map, but, uh..."

"Rema lost her arm. And she's losing blood. Fast."

—

A/N: oh yeah dramatics. Okay, so if you're a nitpick reader (or not, dont shoot), you might notice that the timeline between the two is kinda blurry which im sorry about but uh i dont have the energy to change that. From now on it should be more clear cause their journeys are more similar and stuff so uh yeah. Also, if you want to see lloyd and harumi's texts, check out safe and sound!

This chapter's song is 'billie jean' by michael jackson

This chapter's Q is: will rema live/die, guess in the comments

My A: author privileges :)

-dommie out