𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝔸𝕣𝕥 𝕠𝕗 𝕊𝕡𝕚𝕟𝕛𝕚𝕥𝕫𝕦 ~ L. Garmadon

11: All Hell Breaks Loose

TW: Panic attack, negative self-talk, mentions of child abuse. The TW starts immediately and I will signify when it is done with bolded letters. Of course, there'll be a TW Recap at the end.

"Chen has--Kai village--Everyone--" Nya's voice, filled with static, played from the communicator. "Attacked first--nothing--stop them! Hurry! Too late!"

Lyra was still on the side of the road. It'd been around 30 minutes, and she still couldn't get up. She was just waiting for the Anacondrai warrior to attack her and end her misery. Her hoodie was stained blue because, after 15 or so minutes of panicking in silence, the tears fell. They were still falling, actually.

Useless piece of--

Pathetic--

Weak--

She couldn't even form full sentences in her mind. It was cycling over and over, repeating the same things. Her sight had blurred again.

Can't even summon a dragon.

She heard the communicator buzz, then fall silent. Lyra was tempted to rip the watch off and throw it as far away as she could. She just wanted it to be over.

Lyra took a shaky breath, knowing her time in Ninjago was almost spent. Soon, her father would find her. Soon, she'd be viciously murdered. Soon, her life would be over just when it'd actually started. 

The past week was the happiest she'd ever been, despite learning her father was evil and plotting to kill her. Lyra met new friends. She met Lloyd. She finally felt like she belonged somewhere, only for her father to rip all the good things in her life away. He ruined her existence once again, tainting her very soul with his selfish desires.

Lyra thought back to her father's acts. He really had been abusive. Not physically--well, sometimes physically--but verbally. Emotionally. Chen had told her again and again of how worthless she was, how much her life didn't matter, how weak her Element was.

He lied about all of that. Lloyd had shown Lyra who she really was. The ninja Lyra once thought was vile and evil turned out to be the sweetest boy in existence, going as far as to show her a glimpse of what her life could be like, should she choose to live with him and his family.

Because that's what the ninja were: a family. A real family. 

Lyra had no idea what a real family was supposed to be like. Hell, the only family member she had that acted like actual family was her sister, and even that was a stretch because Skylor was more than a sister. She was Lyra's best friend. Someone she knew she could trust. 

Yes, they were emotionally distant with each other, but that was expected. They'd each gone through separate traumas that were equally painful and important. Lyra wasn't sure about Skylor's mental state, but she knew she herself was broken. Since the start of the Tournament, she'd been on the brink of losing it, of just exploding from the stress. Her conflicting emotions--how her instincts seemed to go directly against each other when it came to what was right and wrong--had taken a huge toll on her. She'd been just barely holding on for the sake of her friends.

And now Lyra wasn't holding on at all. She'd fallen off the cliff. After years of trying to haul herself back to safety, trying to tell herself everything would work out and that no, her father didn't hate her even though he obviously did, she didn't even care when she felt her hand slip. She didn't even scream as she fell to her inevitable death.

The only issue she had with it is that others were falling with her. Skylor had fallen when Chen kidnapped her. Lyra recognized that her sister was about to hit the ground and smash her body against the pointed rocks. She recognized that Sky's fate was because of her father. Lloyd, meanwhile, was above Lyra, trying to yank her back onto solid ground.