The Second Master of Wind

Gearing Up

Aeria's POV

As the city of Ninjago came into sight from where I was standing on the deck, I leaned on the rail edge looking at the ground as we flew over it.

I was thinking about what I had told the ninja, about finding a new angle.

What could I have meant by that...? I wondered to myself before noticing that the wind was breezing through my hair, but it felt...emptier than it did before so I held my hand up to try and summon some of my powers, only to come up empty as well.

I let my hand drop and dangle over the rail when Lloyd came over to me and leaned on the rail with his arms crossed. I looked away from him as I felt my face start to heat up, but I couldn't tell if it was because I was happy or angry to see him.

"Listen, I uh..." Lloyd started to say, but he trailed off before he took a deep breath and started again, "I know that what we did was wrong and unforgivable, but we really did want to protect you from the truth."

"As I told you before, I don't need protecting..." I muttered, "I just don't understand why you guys didn't tell me about my brother when you knew how much it hurt for me to not know what happened to him."

"And I promise, when this is all over, I will tell you everything I know about your brother." Lloyd put a hand on my arm that was dangling over the edge.

"Assuming we make it to the end of this battle..."

"We will. I know you don't really believe this yet, but you're not alone and you never will be again."

I turn to look Lloyd in the eyes and see that he's being genuine and any remaining hate I had for him and his team seemed to slowly evaporate from me and was replaced with a new feeling that was new to me since when Darkstorm was a part of me, all I felt all the time was anger and hatred for everyone and everything around me.

"I guess you'll be wanting these back then." Lloyd broke the moment when he pulled out my puzzle box and the paper iris I made. I took the box, but closed his hand around the iris to show that he could keep it and gave him a small smile.

"Hey, I've been meaning to ask, why give me an iris?" Lloyd questioned and I was considering not telling him about the dream, but decided to try trusting him again.

"The first night I stayed here, I..." I struggled to decide how I was going to phrase my explanation before just starting from the beginning, "After I got these powers, I started having the same nightmare every single night; running from this darkness in a lifeless forest, but the first night I stayed here, something... changed... it was like the darkness lifted and, just for a few moments, life started to come back, starting with the iris... Then, it came back, twice as powerful and almost overtook me... I still have no idea why."

"I think I do." I looked at him confused until he explained, "I came in to check on you, but you were already asleep and it looked like you were having a nightmare and when I held your hand, I think I got pulled into your dream or something, because I saw you running from that darkness and I let go afterwards."

The space between me and Lloyd was starting to close as he brought me into a hug and I returned the hug before we heard some giggling behind us. When we turned around, we saw Nya and Lloyd's mom behind us as well as the rest of the team.

"And yet you keep trying to argue she's not your girlfriend." Jay snickered a bit.

"You know what, I'm over it. Even though we should really be focusing on where we're going to start our search for Pythor." Lloyd sighed tiredly.

"I've been thinking about what I told you guys before I passed out," I started gaining their attention and motioning to go inside around the table with the map on it, "Another way that Pythor and Darkstorm would be able to take out Ninjago is if they headed for the old abandoned mine shaft that is near the mountain at the edge of Ninjago." I pointed to the mountain in question on the map.

"You mean Mount Fragment?" Misako questioned.

"Yep, that's the one."

"Why's it called Mount Fragment?" Lloyd asked, confused.

"Wasn't that place shut down for almost tunneling right through the center of the mountain?" Cole asked nervously.

"Correct." Zane verified straightforwardly as Xia pulled up the schematic for the mineshaft on the main computer.

"Any further digging would have resulted in the collapse of the mountain, therefore it was shut down as a safety precaution." Xia added on to her brother's explanation as the picture started to show a small animation of the digging furthering and the mountain crumbling.

"If Darkstorm can manage to take out the supports that are keeping the mountain from collapsing in on itself, break the mountain itself apart from within the tunnel, and blow the pieces of the mountain, they would rain down on Ninjago like a hailstorm but worse."

"So they wouldn't be hitting the city from above or below, but right behind it..." Nya figured out and grimaced silently.

"Tons of people would be forced to leave the city..." Jay continued the thought.

"Then we must stop them from accomplishing that plan." Wu told the ninja before looking at me, "Are you willing to work with the ninja in order to stop them?"

I hesitated to answer that question, looking at each of the ninja before looking at my hand, clenching it, and answered with determination.

"Yes."

Time Skip to Mount Fragment

"We're here." Cole pointed out before he and the team started to gear up for the mission ahead.

"Here," Nya tossed something to me, my violet gi, "You might need that." She smiled at me before grabbing her spear.

I looked down at the uniform before pulling it on over my clothes and retrieving my bow from the weapons rack. I was securing a quiver of arrows onto my back when Xia and Nya came up to me with a commlink in Nya's hand and a pendant with a purple and gold stone hanging on a silver chain in Xia's hand.

"Keep this commlink with you to keep in touch with the rest of the team." Nya told me as she gave it to me and I secured it into my ear.

"Once you get Darkstorm back inside of you, put this pendant on to keep her and her powers at bay." I pocketed the pendant when a thought came to mind,

"Why can't we just destroy Darkstorm or her powers at least?"

"I'm afraid it doesn't work that way," Wu began as he appeared behind us surprising us, "You cannot have one without the other, much how in life you will always have obstacles, but it depends on what you do to overcome them that matters the most, not whether those obstacles are there or not."

I was left speechless as his words echoed in my mind until Jay broke the silence with,

"Now is really not the time for your riddles and needlessly confusing metaphors!"

"Let's go already, we don't have a lot of time from the look of it." Cole pointed off into the distance where more storm clouds were circling above the peak of the mountain and streaks of purple were seen in the clouds.

We all grabbed and strapped on parachute packs before standing on the edge of the Bounty's railing all together, looking to each other and I whispered,

"Here we go..." and we all jumped.

1289 Words