To Defeat Your Enemy

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loyd had nightmares all night, the sadness turned into guilt, and that into anger at Aki. All these feelings swirled around inside, the pressure building. Sometimes they would leak out. He knew soon he might explode and release these emotions. And the monster always lurked, the monster made out of fear of losing another friend.

Kai's death had affected everyone, it had become the shadow that smothered the light, constantly hanging over the remaining ninja. Aki wondered what his original had been like for his death to cause so much grief.

He could see the effects his original's death had on the ninja. The few memories he had from his original self, while hazy and barely there, were a stark contrast to the ninja he had to put up with.

Nya, who had lost her brother, became closer to Jay with fear and grief. Zane became distant, Cole became hard and emotionless. Jay made jokes about everything. And Lloyd and the old man felt horrible guilt. The Green Ninja would barely eat, he only trained and slept. He barely took care of himself. Aki had a feeling if it weren't for Lloyd, the ninja would have given up by now.

It was a disaster. Not that Aki cared- the ninja were pathetic for letting one loss get to them like this.

"Aki," one of the ninja- Cole- said, spitting out his name like a curse, "we're moving."

"What?" The clone asked, "why?"

"We got our ship back. Come on."

Aki bit back a protest, deciding instead to just go with it. It would only be more annoying if he complained.

"Aki. Lloyd is ready for training." Nya stepped past him, refusing to look him in the eyes.

"Ugh. Why can't he just figure it out on his own?"

Nya just glared at him.

"Fine, I'm going. Jeez."

"To master fire you have to trust it," Aki said, standing on the deck of Garmadon's- the ninja's ship.

"You're not the Master of Fire." Lloyd muttered, looking down.

Aki raised an eyebrow at the insult. "You think I want to train you, you little brat? Once you can control your fire I'm out of here."

"Garmadon's been spotted at the museum!"

"Garmadon?" Aki turned to the doorway. This could be his chance to escape. He completed his mission- Garmadon had to help him escape the ninja now, right?

"Aki is coming with us. I don't trust him alone with Lloyd." Cole walked towards Aki with his scythe drawn. The clone did his best to keep himself from grinning. Finally, he was getting out of

here!

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Nya glared at Aki as if she was trying to set him on fire.

"We don't have much of a choice."

"I can't really do anything anyway," he replied, holding up the arm with the bracelet on it. Despite his best efforts, he couldn't seem to get it off. Garmadon would probably be able to help with that once he escaped.

"We'll be careful, Nya," Jay said, getting up from the bench.

"Fine, just don't let him out of your sight." Nya pulled Lloyd away from Aki. "Come on, Lloyd."

-X-

Aki snuck along the edge of the balcony of the museum, uncomfortably aware of the ninja surrounding him. It was frustrating- he could barely breathe without all three of them glaring back at him. His red eyes cast a faint glow on the ground in front of him, just enough to see by.