"Look out!" 

   A shot fired. 

   Lloyd whipped round to see Harumi running across the deck towards him, a raised pistol in her hands. A sailor fell to the ground. His eyes widened. 

   "What in Ninjago do you think you are doing?!" Lloyd yelled, as Harumi reached his side. 

  She ignored his question as she stared down at the sailor. "Oh the First Spinjtzu Master! Did I kill him?!" She shrieked. 

  "No, you only shot his back, but that's besides the point! What do you think you're doing here?!" He yelled grabbing her arm and swinging her behind him as he fired his pistol at a charging sailor. 

    "We want to help -" 

 "Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait! Back up... we?!" Lloyd interrupted her, his eyebrows shooting up. 

  "Yes, we." Harumi emphasised, gesturing to certain places where the other girls were. 

  Lloyd groaned in frustration and disbelief. 

    "You have got to be joking! Ugh! I'll deal with you lot later. Stay by my side and don't you dare leave or you're in bigger trouble than you are already." Lloyd growled. 

    Harumi gladly obliged as a bullet sailed past her ear, missing her by two inches at the least. 

  "One order... One order! And you failed to obey it! " Lloyd hissed, annoyed. 

   Harumi ignored what he said. But when he suddenly grabbed her hand and pulled her behind him, she couldn't help blushing a little, although it was short lived, for he immediately let go again.  

   Jay, holding a pistol in each hand, shot anyone that came near him, unless of course it was one of his crew. 

   "Need some help?" A voice asked behind him. 

  He spun round, startled, and whacked the person in the head, knocking them down. 

  "What?! I thought Lloyd ordered you to your cabins?" Jay shrieked, dropping to his knees to check if she was all right.

  Nya groaned, holding her head in her hand. 

  "Remind me never to sneak up on you again... any of you." Nya muttered.

  "You think this is a good time to be funny?" Jay raised his eyebrows, grabbing her shoulder and pulling her to her feet. 

  "Nope, just noting a very good advice. Sneaking up on a highly trained Commander will get you a whack in the head." Nya said, as calmly as she could, "Why must we stand? My head's still spinning." 

  "Stay seated, and we're dead." Jay grunted as he spun her round, dipped her and shot at a sailor behind her.  "Don't leave my side or Lloyd will kill me." Jay sighed. 

   "Do I have a choice?" Nya squealed as she ran around Jay to escape the slashes of an oncoming sword. 

 Jay sighed. This was going to be an interesting afternoon. 

   The sound of blasting cannons filled the sky. The trading ship's sails had caught on fire, and there was a gaping hole in the side, high enough so that the water couldn't get in. 

    "I'm not coming to your rescue if Lloyd lashes out on you." Kai snapped, "Cole! Take the pink haired girl! I've already got a lot on my plate to handle at the moment without having to worry over two girls." 

    "I'll have you know I can take care of myself!" Skylor scowled at him. 

  "Do I honestly look as if I care right now?" Kai scowled back. 

     "You and Lloyd could pass for literal brothers. You both scowl, snap -" Skylor started listing. 

  "Will you shut up and compare us later? There are more serious things to deal with!" Kai commanded, before turning to Nelson who was nearby. "Nelson! Stay close to the Captain and -"  

   "Put down your weapons and surrender or I won't hesitate to shoot your Captain!" 

  Everyone turned to the Quarter Deck. 

     Lloyd stood with the ship's captain on his knees in front of him with a pistol pointed at him. Harumi looked on with wide eyes. 

   "I thought you said you don't kill!" She squealed. 

  Lloyd sighed and rolled his eyes. "We use the killing card when needed... like in battles. There are no battles without blood." He explained gruffly, moving his pistol so that it was now pointed directly at the captain. "I will repeat, put down your weapons and surrender or else!" He threateningly jerked the captain closer to the pistol. 

    All the sailors and traders slowly lowered their weapons, putting their hands up in the air. 

  "Zane, Cole! Get some rope and tie them up! Get the silver-haired and pink haired girls to collect the weapons, we'll take them too. The rest of you can go down to the hold, we have some other business to take care of." Lloyd fired orders. 

              ⚔⚔⚔⚔⚓⚔⚔⚔⚔  

      Garmadon stood leaning against the railing of the balcony that opened out to the sea. 

   It has been 17 years since his son was taken. His birthday was two days away. A month after he was born... he was gone. 

   Garmadon sighed. At this time, he always, year after year, had memories of the night came rushing at him at full force. Not that it didn't any other time of the year, but with his son's birthday coming up... memories flooded his thoughts. 

   Crash!

  The sound of a baby crying. 

    "Your majesty! It's coming from the nursery!" 

  Soldiers and guards, most of them running in the same direction... towards the royal nursery. 

    Pushing past, he barged into the room. 

  The balcony doors swinging on it's hinges, the curtain billowing in the wind. The cradle... empty. 

    Running onto the balcony, he could see a figure clad in black running off with a bundle in his arms... Lloyd. 

   "Guards! After him!" He roared. 

   Guards swarmed the gardens, chasing after the man. 

  He was about to leave and join them when he was stopped by his general. 

   "Your majesty, perhaps it would be best if you stay, her majesty is in the throne room." The general said. 

   "But... My son -" 

  "Your wife needs you, hopefully we'll get our hands on the kidnapper." The general bowed before hurrying off. 

   He looked around the nursery, seeing the empty cradle, a tear rolled down his cheek. 

   "Your majesty." A voice came from behind him. 

     Garmadon opened his eyes and turned around. 

   "Duchess Mistake, how may I help you?" He asked, as the duchess came and joined him. 

   Mistake ignored the question, instead she asked him a question. "Is everything all right?" 

     "I beg your pardon?" Garmadon was taken aback. 

   "I asked if everything is all right? I understand it's your son's birthday in two days." Mistake kept her eyes on the ocean. 

    Garmadon sighed, "Yes, it is."

  "And?" Mistake pressed on. 

    "It's all my fault! Maybe if I had gone with the guards, Lloyd might be here. If I had just grabbed my dagger and threw it at the kidnapper when I saw them running off, Lloyd would would be here. I had my dagger in reach! Why didn't I -" 

    "All these ifs! Tell me, if you had thrown your dagger, don't you think you might have accidentally hit Prince Lloyd? And if you had gone with the guards, what would that have done? If what your brother and her majesty, your wife, has told me is correct, most of the royal guards who were on duty at the time had gone to chase the kidnapper down." Mistake interrupted. 

  Silence filled the air for a few seconds before Garmadon sighed. "You're right, I could have hit Lloyd." He said. 

   "Then what is the point of blaming yourself for his disappearance? If you didn't plan for his kidnapping, then why take the blame? And you certainly didn't have the other boys kidnapped. You men really do take the blame for everything." Mistake said, a small smile playing on her lips. 

   "You spoke to the other men?" Garmadon asked, though it  was more of a statement. 

   "Yes. They all said the same thing. 'It's all my fault!'. Your wife doesn't blame you, she never has and never will." Mistake said the last part gently. 

   "For someone who's old, you certainly know a lot of things -" Garmadon started. 

  "Old?! King Garmadon you do not talk to a lady about her age! Surely you parents taught you that! Humph!  I may be old, your majesty, but the older you are, the wiser." Mistake retorted, turning to glare at him. He shrank back slightly. 

   Mistake glanced through the doorway then back at Garmadon. 

  "I believe, someone's here to join you. I will take my leave, but remember what I said, your majesty." Mistake turned and walked away. 

   Garmadon turned and saw his wife standing in the doorway. 

  "Misako," Garmadon greeted, plastering on a smile. 

  "I know you, Garmadon, something is on your mind." Misako said softly, joining her husband at the railings. She placed her head on his arm, slipping her hand into his. 

    "It's... Lloyd's birthday soon and I-I... I just..." Garmadon's voice trailed off. 

   "It's not your fault, and you know it." Misako said firmly, tightening her grasp on his hand a bit more. 

  They stood looking out to the sea in silence before Garmadon spoke up once more.

   "I promise I'll find him, all of them. And I won't stop until I do."

                  ⚔⚔⚔⚔⚓⚔⚔⚔⚔  

       "What do we do with these?" Pixal asked, her arms full with rifles and swords. Seliel stood beside her, struggling to with her load. 

   "Put them in the crates and chests back on the Bounty. Make sure you put them in the right way, or Lloyd is going to lose it." Zane instructed, gesturing over to the ship, still keeping his eyes on the sailors, tied up. 

  "Lose it?" Seliel asked, slightly confused. 

  Zane pinched the bridge if his nose. "He will lose his sanity if you do not store the weapons correctly." He turned and gave them a hard look. 

    Pixal and Seliel nodded vigorously. They started to leave when Seliel stopped and turned back. 

   "One question," She started. Cole and Zane, sighing heavily and rolling their eyes, turned to look at them. "How are we supposed to transfer from one ship onto the other with are arms full of weapons?" 

     Cole and Zane exchanged a glance before Cole made his way to join them. 

  "Give them to me, then I'll hand them over to you." Cole suggested. They both nodded. 

   While handing her load, Seliel accidentally dropped a couple of pistols and bent down to grab them at the same time Cole did, making their heads collide. 

    "Ouch!"  

  Zane sighed, "Hurry up! We haven't got all afternoon!" He barked out. 

   Below in the hold, Lloyd had chosen to ignore the three girls that had followed him down. 

  "So, what are we taking?" Skylor asked, fingering the lid of crate. 

     "Anything worth taking and valuable." Kai answered, as he and Jay joined them. 

   "Morro, take that barrel. You three girls deal with the food stores over there, if you want to make yourselves useful." As he said this, Lloyd turned and glared at them before turning back to give out orders. 

   "I pity you girls right now." 

  Nya turned to see Kai hoisting sacks of gunpowder over his shoulder. 

    "And why is that?" Skylor snarked, crossing her arms. 

    Kai looked at her then at Lloyd and back again. "We'll see how you can handle one of Lloyd's explosions." He smirked before disappearing up the ladder. 

   "Explosions?" Harumi questioned.

   "You'll find out soon enough." Griffin grinned, holding a crate in his hands. 

  "Good idea to use masks and hats, that way the sailors won't recognise you. Although, Lloyd threatens them not to tell anyone on account of their lives. Whose idea was it to use masks?" Morro asked as he pushed past them, staggering slightly under the weight of a barrel. 

   "It was Harumi's. She found the masks in a crate while we were grabbing some weapons. She thought it would be a good idea to hide our identity from the sailors and traders." Skylor said. 

    "I thought I told you to deal with the food stores!" Lloyd roared from behind them. 

   "Coming!" Nya squeaked out, dashing off with Harumi and Skylor at her heals.  

   "I want those barrels of apples! And grab the crate of meat while you're at it. And take those 

   "Perhaps you're a bit too hard on them, Captain." Nelson whispered. 

     "They need a bit of hardening up. Some telling off and yelling won't do them any harm... besides damaging their eardrums." Lloyd scowled at the girls before disappearing up the ladder. 

           ⚓⚓⚓⚓⚓⚓⚓⚓⚓⚓⚓⚓⚓⚓⚓⚓⚓⚓⚓

    There's Chapter 8 for you! (Word count: 2163 )

   So, the next two chapters will be a turning point (you'll see what I mean). Please, do tell me if I have made any mistakes or spelling errors... :) 

   Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed reading this and I'll see you all in the next chapter!! 

   Claire xxx ⚓