Hidden Away || Ninjago AU

Chapter 17

"Now, you, explain."

Lloyd looked up at the ceiling, furiously blinking his eyes as if he were trying to fight back tears.

"Hey, are you crying?!" Morro asked in shock.

"We have an hour," Lloyd said turning towards Morro and Skylor. Morro and Skylor stared at Lloyd, surprised as tears flowed out of his eyes.

"My uncle will be here in one hour," Lloyd said, his voice shaking. "He just got off his boat that he docked at the harbor by an abandoned warehouse. So we have one hour before he gets here."

Skylor stood up to get some tissues while Morro continued to stare.

"If that's all," Morro finally said, "Then why are you crying?"

"I'm not, Morro. I'm searching for my uncle." I'm not in the mood to deal with him, yet.

Skylor handed Lloyd the tissues she brought and resumed her position on her chair. Lloyd took the tissues and dried his eyes. Then he stared at the tissue.

"Something must be wrong with me," Lloyd said, "Well, It wasn't blood I cried this time but I guess should be happy."

"Wait, don't tell me you used clairvoyance," Skylor asked. Lloyd turned away.

"What is wrong with you?!" Skylor asked folding her arms, "Just two hours ago you woke up with barely even a memory of your life, and now you're using one of your abilities? Do you realize how much strain those abilities put on your body? Not to mention, you've been switching personalities here and there so you could regain your memories and find out what's going on with you. Are you trying to kill yourself?!"

"Look, I may not like you," Morro said, "But I agree with what Skylor said."

"I had no choice, okay?" Lloyd defended, "When my uncle gets here, I'm going to have to deal with his scolding. I don't want that. Plus it's not like I could just call him. Uncle Wu doesn't like keeping his phone on when he travels."

"So you'd have rather died than be scolded?"

"Fine, I'm sorry. I was being stupid."

Skylor calmed a bit, "Just don't do that again. A lot of people will have my head if you end up dying."

"Sure thing."

It was silent for a moment as none of the three had any idea what to say. Morro was deep in thought for a while but then realized Lloyd still owed them an explanation.

"You said you had an hour," Morro said, breaking the silence, "Well, I'm giving you thirty minutes. Explain. Everything."

Lloyd took a deep breath. "Okay, when Kai found me out, I had a problem on my hands. What made the problem worse was when he revealed my presence to the school. I wanted to put an end to the problem by doing what I did late last year."

"You wanted to remove yourself from the memories of everyone," Morro concluded.

"That's right. But something went wrong with the dark matter I used. I think I let my emotions get the best of me and I used more power than I originally planned. I blacked out although I remember some of what I did while I was out."

"Doesn't 'black out' mean you were unconscious? How could anyone remember anything after they fall unconscious?" Skylor asked.

"I think a personality came up when I blacked out. That's how I remember some things. But this personality felt much different from the others. I think it's new."

"What did this new personality do?" Morro asked, intrigued.

"It tried to clean up after my mess, but I can't remember everything that happened."

"Well, it didn't do a very good job," Morro aid, his arms folded. "Ninjago is in serious turmoil."

"I agree," an anonymous voice said.

All three teens turned their attention to the window where the sound of the voice came from.

"Uncle Wu!"

"Sensei Wu!"

"I take it you weren't expecting me till later?" Wu said.

"It hasn't even been five minutes. I guess even the clairvoyance doesn't work well," Lloyd groaned, muttering to himself.

"Lloyd, it seems you've reached a new development," Wu spoke with seriousness in his voice. "It would be wise if you refrained from using your powers for a month or two."

"A new development?!" Morro and Skylor exclaimed.

"A month?" Lloyd said absentmindedly.

"Yes, and yes," Wu answered, making his way into the room. "It seems you still haven't thrown away these foldable chairs."

"That's beside the point, Sensei," Morro told Wu, "We have a serious issue on our hands."

"He's fully aware, Morro," Skylor scolded. "He already told Lloyd he should stop using his powers for a while."

"That doesn't fix anything," Morro argued. "It just prevents him from causing another accident."

Morro and Skylor argued over it for a few minutes before Sensei Wu hit both their heads with his bamboo staff. Then he pointed towards Lloyd.

"My nephew is not the cause of this rather, it is his father. The more you two argue this the more Lloyd takes the responsibility as his own. What's more, we cannot allow his emotions to get overwhelming or the things his father has done to him will cause more than what we have to deal with now."

All three turned to Lloyd who didn't seem to be listening. He had his hands massaging the side of his forehead and his mind deep in thought.

"Lloyd?"

I can't take this, Lloyd repeatedly thought to himself, I can't take this, I can't take this, I can't take this! Gah! None of this would have happened if I didn't try to erase myself again. How could I have acted so desperate and do something so stupid?

Lloyd buried his face in his palms and sighed. He continued to think to himself thoughts which made him feel more frustrated with himself. Lloyd was being pulled deeper into his mind with each thought his frustration cooked up. He didn't notice the calls from Skylor nor her persistently tapping his shoulder.

"Sensei," Skylor pleaded, "What's going on?"

"This is simply what I just spoke of," Sensei Wu said. "Although he seems to be in a stable condition."

"Well, I'm not waiting for him to enter an unstable condition," Morro stated. "I'm snapping him out of this."