Chapter Text
Okay, so something about a pill, Garmadon and Wu reminiscing childhood memories which he didn’t know they had time for but apparently they did, and now they were supposed to get the two of them close enough to do…something. He didn’t know, okay? Everything was happening way too fast and the technicalities were all but lost on him.
Anyway, he’d sure as hell do what was necessary, that was the important thing.
The beginnings of a smile tugged at his lips, the excitement twisting about inside him overshadowing the panic in his nerves.
They had a plan, and whenever they had a plan things found a way of working themselves out in the end. Sometimes even when they didn’t have a plan. Everything would be okay, he was sure, and that was a comfort to his usually chaotic soul.
Things could always go wrong and someone could get hurt, yes, but that person was usually him and no one needed to ever know about that. He was confident, he had been doing a damn good job at protecting these guys from most, if not all, serious injuries. For the first time in a long time, he was feeling good about himself.
Sure, the situation was dire, but if he could just keep up his winning streak, everyone would come out unscathed–err, everyone that mattered anyway–and he would be happy that he had done his job right.
Shit, he was feeling pretty giddy right now.
He didn’t know why, this almost never happened to him after all, but he was…hopeful, as foreign as the feeling was. A bastard was going down and he was on a roll protecting the others and, strange as it was, he felt…lighter…lighter than he had ever felt before. Like maybe…maybe things would be okay, maybe he could breathe easy and maybe...maybe he could find it in him to rest a while after today.
And damn if that was something he had never thought before this moment.
They were on their way, running towards the monster that had caused so much destruction he was beginning to get a headache at the thought of the clean up that would have to take place after this.
But then an unpleasant thought reminded him of something. If one of those nindroids showed up they could screw them all over. Sure, they had the armor, and that was resistant towards the Overlord, but he wasn’t so sure about the evil nindroid’s attacks, the armor didn’t make them invincible.
He glanced quickly around, just in time to see one of those evil nindroid things aiming some kind of spear directly at Zane.
Panic rippled through him and he moved as fast as he could. He grabbed Zane’s arm, pulled him behind him, stooped down, snatched up a fallen shuriken from the ground, and threw it, hitting the robotic minion right in the chest.
He still managed to throw it, but it only hit him, not Zane, so the fear that had shot up at the idea of his friend injured immediately died away. Besides, it only just nicked him, the blade of it biting into his arm before burying itself in the ground.
“Thank you.” Zane gave him a nod, but, ever the observant one, his eye caught sight of the tear in his gi. “You were hit.”
“Huh?” He looked down at it, fingers grazing the rip, his expression carefully controlled to give nothing but exactly what he wanted away, and he looked back up at him. “Close one, but he missed, now come on we’ve gotta catch up.”
Zane easily accepted the lie, but instead of his heart sinking like it usually would at the trust given undeserved, it lightened.
He had just taken away the furrow to his brother-in-all-but-blood’s brow, concern fading from his eyes in an instant, how could he feel guilty for such an accomplishment? Besides, he had just taken a hit for him, this day was really shaping up to be one of his better ones.
They dashed forward, catching up to the others and Kai wasted no time in tackling Lloyd to the ground before an arrow could hit him in the back.
It hit him, and his heart soared.
He pulled it from where it was buried in his shoulder before anyone had the chance to see where it landed, and he grinned, both at his fast reflexes and the little victory he had won.
“Gotta watch yer back there, kid.” He ruffled his hair and Lloyd gave him an incredulous look as he helped him to stand.
“Yeah–thanks, but why are you so happy?”
He smirked, bumping his shoulder into his as he passed him, the pain pulsing in response like a proclamation of a job well done as his smile grew. “I’ll tell you when you’re older. Now let’s go!”
Lloyd frowned, the pout on his features revealing the truth of his age that his outward appearance didn’t show as he grumbled and they all continued running.
“You really are weirdly happy, why?” Cole glanced his way as they ran through a golden string, the Overlord growling in the distance at his power’s failings.
But he wasn’t failing, and he was beginning to think that maybe fate did know what it was thinking when it called him the protector if this ecstatic feeling inside his chest was anything to go by.
“Come on, Cole, we’re about to kick this guy’s ass and give him a taste of his own medicine. You’re telling me we have nothing to be happy about?”
His eyebrow quirked upwards as the beginnings of a smile pulled at his lips. “You sure are positive today.”
“Yeah! Why aren’t you more concerned about the fact that we could die?!” He didn’t have to look over at Jay to know he was wearing that horror-stricken expression that made it seem like the world was coming to an end.
He couldn’t help but snort at that, allowing himself a genuinely fond look in the blue ninja’s direction. “Don’t worry, Jay.” There was a promise in his words, an oath. He would protect every one of them if it was the last thing he did, even Jay.
He didn’t know if they could hear the raw honesty of his words, though he felt they should, considering how rare it was for him to speak it, but then again how could they know the weight of what he was saying? It wasn’t like he broadcasted his true role here.
And Jay worrying about dying? Yeah, that meant they really didn’t know, because that would never happen while he was here. He wouldn’t let it. If he did, well…he might as well throw himself in a grave right now. If his only purpose proved wasted, then he had no reason to keep breathing.
He smiled, but he did have a reason to keep breathing, and he felt damn good about it.
The events that occurred next had his head spinning. The Overlord started attacking civilians, they were trying to figure out what to do about that, then the snakes showed up but they weren’t trying to fight them, they were actually helping and getting the civilians safely down into the sewer.
He was lost but shook off how confused he was feeling to focus on the task at hand: defeating this bastard.
Wu and Garmadon seemed to think they were close enough, and while he was hesitant, he still trusted that whatever weird childhood ritual they were about to perform would work.
He watched, holding his breath and, judging by the sudden silence all around them, the others were doing the same as Garmadon jumped down, bouncing on the golden rope and Wu jumped too, Garmadon coming up under him to push him higher as he tossed him the weird pill and Wu did a little spin, which he wasn’t sure was entirely necessary, and then hit it with his staff, the pill flying through the air, about to land in the Overlord’s mouth and then–
Then Pythor jumped in front and swallowed the pill himself.
His heart plummeted.
Shit…did they have another?
Panic set in, even if he would have liked to enjoy Pythor’s resulting scream, he was busy looking frantically towards their sickly pale sensei.
Didn’t they have a backup plan? Fucking shit, tell him they had a backup plan.
“That was it? That was all you’ve got?” A voice that never failed to piss him off mocked them, and he hated that he was kind of right. Was that really all they had?
No…no, it couldn’t be…right? Shit, everything was going so well–no. No, no, no, this was just a minor setback, everything would be fine, they would figure something out and–and if they didn’t–if they didn’t…well, he would make sure to protect them, until his last breath, he would not watch any of them get hurt. That much he did know, that much…that much was who he was.
As if reading his thoughts, one of those damned golden strings shot out and wrapped around him, squeezing so hard his bones creaked. But when he saw the golden strings immediately follow up by snatching up Jay and Wu, his panic died away in favor of familiar rage.
Like hell he would go down without a fight.
He struggled, desperation and frustration building with each futile squirm that resulted in a tighter hold, his arm stinging and his shoulder burning. He wouldn’t let it end like this–he couldn’t.
The others were snatched up too and he–shit, he couldn’t move, he couldn’t help them.
Cole was shouting something about the armor not working and he didn’t know why either but he had more important things to worry about and–
“Support me, friends…For one last time.” Zane’s voice was quiet and difficult to hear over all the cursing and struggling but he still picked up on it, and for some reason it made his stomach drop and his heart constrict. He couldn’t explain it but it felt like…like something very bad was about to happen.
He couldn’t do anything though, he could only watch as Zane used them to make his way over to the asshole who started all this and he didn’t know how or why but he knew he had to get out of this and get out of this now.
He struggled, rage and panic and frustration all mixing together as he shook wildly to escape his bounds. His panic only rose as Zane arrived right in front of the monster, grasping him and telling him to let them go but he needed to let go, it was hurting him for fuck’s sake–shit, he needed to get over there.
The Overlord called him doomed. And shit, yeah, he was right about one of them being doomed but it wasn’t Zane, it was never Zane. It was him. It always had been. He was the doomed one, no one else. No one else.
He wanted to scream it, to shout it. To say “no, you’ve got the wrong one, it’s me, it’s me, it’s me”.
But his voice wasn’t working and nothing was working and the dark purple asshole was saying something about how Zane couldn’t survive and then he was falling as the golden string lost its ability to hold him and then he was looking up, willing him to just let go.
He wanted to scream at him, but his throat was too tight, too tight, too tight.
“He’s not letting go!” Lloyd sounded too damn young to be here, to see this–whatever this was.
“His heart–it’s reaching critical mass!” Jay was too fucking frantic to make any fucking sense.
“If his heart overloads, he’ll blow! He’ll never survive!” Cole was too scared to be anything but brutally-fucking-honest.
And everything inside him boiled over as his voice finally started working and he could finally move.
He ran past them, shouting up to him in too much desperation and panic and rage and fucking shit. “Let go of him, Zane!” He couldn’t hope to cover up how he was begging and he cursed, fury flaring. “What is he doing?!”
Wu answered the question, even if he hadn’t meant him to, “He’s protecting us.”
He froze. That was like a punch to the gut and he found himself stumbling, eyes blown wide as his heart shuttered to a stop.
Zane spoke, something about ninja never quitting but he could barely comprehend it, he couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe, couldn’t–couldn't do anything.
Jay shouted and Wu said they had to leave and some far away part of him knew he was right but that part was far overcome by the crushing reality of just what was happening here.
“Zane–” The choked whisper of a plea went unheard as Wu pulled his unmoving form backwards along with Jay's.
The others climbed into the sewer, and Jay’s being beside him was perhaps the only thing that made him get a move on as he pulled him down into it too. He sure as hell wouldn’t let anyone else–anyone else… shit.
He couldn’t help but stare at his brother as ice shot from his hands. Nausea coiled inside him and he didn’t know if he could keep from throwing up, all he knew was that he couldn’t watch, he couldn’t see…he just…couldn’t.
The cover closed and his eyes followed suit as he turned away, his heart crumbling in his chest as his stomach constricted and his throat closed up.