Briston Maroney
••• Virginia •••

this is my one hope, my torn apart love note

when you had asked me and what i had

oh, i want it bad

•••••

we hit 100,000 words!! 🎉🎉

Literally what am I doing with my life that's 100,000 words in three months oh my god

"About time," Ronin grunted as Cole and I approached the awaiting Destiny's Bounty. "What did you do, have a barbie movie marathon?"

"No, but that does sound enticing," I hummed, beginning the climb up the rope ladder to board the ship. Ronin scoffed, following up after Cole. Once we were safely on board and the rope ladder had been pulled up, Nya steered the Bounty into the sky.
I hoped that this trip wouldn't end with me falling over the side.
I'd rather not make that a habit.

The Bounty rumbled through the air, making my hair flutter. The sky was incredibly blue.
I almost felt jealous that the weather was so merry. At least storm clouds would reflect our situation - having a perfect day just felt cheap without Lloyd.
"Something bothering you?" Ronin asked as he leant against the rail. I sighed, turning around and planting my elbows on the guard, staring out at the scenery as we ascended.
"What isn't, these days?" I grumbled, dropping my head onto my arm. "I just want to fast forward life until we get Lloyd back. I have no idea how long it'll be until we even get to see him again. And I can't help but worry if his body is being taken care of. Is he sleeping? Eating? Is he-"

"I think you need to stop worrying about it," the mercenary declared, pulling an apple out of his pouch and taking a large bite. "There's no use wasting energy worrying over things you can't control. Just ride the waves, sweetheart."
"It's not the simple," I mumbled, my hands tightening over my arms as I stared at the forest below us. "Every waking moment, I'm thinking about him. I can't just stop."
"It can be, and it is," Ronin corrected. "If you let it. Tell me, what would you do if he broke up with you? Would you still act like this? Like a total simp?"
I snorted. "I am not a simp."
"Ah, but that's something only a simp would say," Ronin mentioned, pointing a finger at me with raised eyebrows. My amused smile fell as I glanced back out.

"I don't know what I'd do," I hummed, my thumb rubbing circles on my arm. It wasn't a thought I'd particularly like to entertain. "I think I'd probably just. Stop wanting to exist."
Ronin scoffed.
"I'm serious," I straightened, turning my frown to him. "This prophecy needs me near him. It controls my body so I can get closer to him all the time. To do that if we broke up would be agony."
Ronin paused, brown eyes hovering on me questioningly. "You're in a prophecy?"
My gaze flickered to the sky. "Yeah."
"Huh," he hummed, tossing his apple core over the side of the Bounty. "It's you. Well, this is just one of the many."
I glanced over at him. "Pardon me?"

"You're excused," he announced before pushing off from the railing. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some ninja to taunt-"
"Nono!" I snagged his sleeve and forced him around to face me. "What did you mean by 'one of the many'? Y- you're talking about Lloyd's prophecies, right? Not me-"
"Sweetheart, if you're that little peach girlie in 'em, then you're in at least twenty," Ronin elaborated with a tilt of his head. "Sorry t' break it to ya."
My hand dropped. I felt weightless.
"T- twenty?" I breathed in shock. I thought having one was bad, but twenty?!
"Ah, maybe not twenty," Ronin corrected with a shrug. "But certainly more than one. I was curious one night, broke into the Domu library and read over them. Makes sense that it's you."

My gaze slowly drifted to the ground in crisis mode. I couldn't feel my limbs.
"But hey, if it makes you feel any better, I don't think you'll be dumped," Ronin said as he clapped my shoulder heartily before beginning to walk off towards the ninja who were practising (and failing) Airjitzu. "Considering one of them claims that you have an all-powerful child with him or something."
"WHAT?!" I shrieked.

"Ha-ha, welcome to parenthood, dweeb."

I slumped against the railing, face slack. I'm in more prophecies? Wait, more important - we have a kid?
I'd never thought about having a kid before, considering that I still am one. I didn't even think I wanted one but now that the idea had been introduced to my frazzled brain, I couldn't help but ponder the thought of Lloyd being a dad.
What kind of father would he be? I could see him being strict, like a Sensei. But I could also see him being a total dork with the little guy.
Would it be a girl? Boy? No- doesn't matter. Either way, he'd totally swoon over them and-

Oh no, I thought to myself as maternal instincts plowed through me like a whole ass battering ram. Now I really want a kid.

No, it doesn't matter right now. It doesn't matter right now.
All you should be focusing on is getting Lloyd back and then passing your final year of high school. Get into college and graduate.
Worry about the future when it comes. If you have a kid, then fuck it! You have a kid. Congratulations, future Y/n, you are now a parent. Hope you don't accidentally kill the baby, or anything.

I dropped my forehead onto the railing with a loud bonk and dryly cried from stress.
These prophecies were too much trouble than they're worth.

"You alright there, Y/n?" Nya asked as she approached, sweaty and with a water bottle in her grasp. I grunted from where my head was still plastered to the rail, staring at nothing with wide eyes.
"Just having an existential crisis," I hummed in a strained voice. "What else is new, right?"
Nya chuckled. "Let's continue your crisis inside. Misako's found the next clue."
I straightened, thoroughly thrown back into the here and now.
"She has?" I asked with a hopeful expression. Nya nodded before pulling me to my feet. The others were already filing inside, having learnt their new flight-based fighting form.
"Yep. Set up a debrief and everything."

I followed Nya inside the ship, nervous but excited. This was another step towards getting Lloyd back! She led me to a room I hadn't seen before, where a projector was set up. Once we all had piled in, the light was switched off and the projector, on.
"Now that both Morro and you have Airjitzu, it's time to turn our attention to the second clue," Misako began. Her voice was strained with exhaustion but she powered on. It looked like she had been crying again. Sympathy curled in my stomach as I turned my attention to what was being projected on the wall. I wanted to give her a hug. It looked like she needed one.

"The sword in the cloud."

The projector clicked to another inked image of a sword. It resembled the original one in the prophecy, but wasn't close enough to be considered the same.
Zane spoke.
"Me senses tell me it could be many a swords," he said with a prominent pirate's accent. I slowly turned my head to his oblivious face, sending him a wide-eyed look. Jay caught my gaze and I instantly grew suspicious of the wildly amused look on his face. Garmadon coughed into his fist, a grin curling on his lips. My gaze narrowed. The plot thickens.
"Thar be the Fire Sword, the Sword of Destiny, the Golden Cutlas."

Kai turned his head to Jay with a perplexed look.
"I thought you said you fixed his voice?"
"We did," Jay snorted, a wide grin on his face. "And then we made it better!"
"We?" I chimed in with a whisper. "You mean you and-"
"Garmadad, yeah," Jay snickered. "Where do you think Lloyd gets his love for pranks from?"
"Speaking of," Kai grinned, dropping his arm on top of my shoulder. "Been subject to any yet?"
I chuckled nervously.
"Not yet."
Kai whistled lowly, straightening with an entertained smirk. "He must be planning something pretty big, then."
Please tell me that the big prank is the entirety of this ghost situation. Of course, nobody did, because that was incredibly naive and wishful thinking.

"Pay attention," Cole hissed. We quietened, sending each other amused glances out of the sides of our eyes at being told off.
"... and to add to your colourful account, there are many more swords," Misako announced as I turned my full attention back to the presentation. "But it wasn't until Morro and his allies commandeered Nya's old samurai mech that it all became clear."
Misako clicked to an ink image; an exact replica from the prophecy. All fooling around had immediately ceased, replaced with a serious atmosphere so swiftly that it gave me whiplash.

"It's the Sword of Sanctuary, protected in the Cloud Kingdom."

Cloud Kingdom? I'd never heard of such a place. Ronin shared my confusion, speaking up from he was leaning against the back wall with crossed arms.
"Cloud Kingdom?" he said with a disbelieving tone. "I know every square inch of Ninjago, there ain't no place called the Cloud Kingdom."
"You're right," chimed Garmadon. Everybody turned to face him and my confusion grew - Ronin's right? But Misako just said- the Cloud Kingdom- sword-
Ugh. I give up.
"It isn't in Ninjago," Garmadon continued. "It's in a parallel realm that can only be reached through the Blind Man's Eye."
"Wh- whoa- sorry, can we back up a little?" I spluttered, sending the group a wide-eyed look. "What do you mean by parallel realm? Are you telling me those actually exist?"

"Yes," Wu replied. "There are sixteen realms that we know of. Ours, the Cloud Kingdom and the departed realm are a few."
"Lloyd's grandfather came from another realm," Misako piped up.
"Whoa," I breathed, dragging a hand down my slack face. "Information overload." Brain buffering. Please sign out and press restart.
"The Blind's Man Eye is the powerful storm cyclone above the clouds, right?" Nya asked, bringing the conversation back. "But its altitude is far too high for the Bounty to reach!"
Misako nodded, agreeing with Nya. Is 'yes, but' the only way these guys communicate? Just tell us the whole damn plan!

Misako continued, providing a solution. The but, if one could say without snickering like an immature child. Luckily, I am a immature child. Even luckier, nobody noticed the little giggle I made at my own mental joke.
"Unless we ascend the tallest mountain in Ninjago," she said, clicking to a new slide. "The Wailing Alps."
"When the Blind Man's Eye passes its peak, you five ninja will jump into the eye of the storm using Airjitzu to cross over into Cloud Kingdom," Wu spoke up, turning his serious gaze to the ninja. "There, you must take possession of the Sword of Sanctuary."

"Whoawhoawhoa, Sensei, you're throwing around some big words here," interjected Jay, grabbing our attention. "But I think you got one wrong; it's cynclondo, not Airjitzu!"
The others groaned at Jay. I missed the joke. Cole rolled his eyes before turning his head to Wu.
"So this Sword of Sanctuary that we're after, what makes it so special?" he asked.
"It's special because reflected within its blade, you can foresee your opponents next move," Wu explained. "To have the sword is to have the very future on your side."
"Whoever gets it will have a huge advantage," continued Misako.
"So it is imperative that the sword does not fall into Morro's hands," finished Garmadon.

Misako turned off the projector with a heavy sigh.
"Lights please."
Nya flicked the switch, turning the lights on. I blinked at the sudden change, squinting.
"This about more than finding the next clue to the Spinjitzu Master's tomb," Misako said, voice more weary. Garmadon wrapped a soothing arm around his wife. "This is about saving our son. You cannot fail."
"Then let's gear up," Kai ordered, a determined smirk on his face. "We have one big mountain to climb."
"And uh, what can I do?" I stepped forth before everyone could disappear, an encouraging smile on my face. Garmadon and Wu shared an apprehensive glance.
"You can stay on board and help us look for the next clue," Misako offered. My smile slipped and disappointment clutched hard at me.
"O- oh," I nodded awkwardly, swallowing. "Yeah... sounds good."

Zane placed a hand on my shoulder as the others began to file out of the room, spirits high. It was quickly just us.
"You are helping out," he reminded, picking up on my downcast expression. I frowned.
"What happened to your accent?"
Zane smiled teasingly. It was the most emotion I'd seen on his face, ever.
"Jay did not permanently alter my voice box but he does enjoy the accent. So I keep it on for him," he informed. "I must do my part to keep spirits up. But Y/n, you must know that you are helping."

I smiled tightly, fake.
"I've been doing nothing but get in the way for the past few days," I said, unconvinced by his attempt.
"That is not true," Zane shook his head. "You helped lift Cole back up when he was feeling his lowest. That feat alone deserves respect, considering the peculiar circumstance."
My gaze dropped to the side. "Thanks, Zane..."
"You will find your opportunity to prove your worth," he reassured. My brow furrowed and I glanced up at him, curious. What did he mean by that?
"Something your father would be proud of," he hinted, raising a brow. My jaw dropped in shock.
"How did you-!"

But he was already gone.

"Y/n."

I jumped at Misako's call. She lifted my bag, which had been dropped in the bridge earlier.
"Let's get you settled in."
She lead me down the hallway, deeper into the bowels of the ship. We passed the room which Nya and I had slept in during the getaway, suitcases already sat on that bed.
"I hope you don't mind that you're bunked alone," Misako murmured. "Nya's sleeping in the same room as the boys this time. You'll be taking Lloyd's old room."
My heart leapt. Lloyd's old room? Didn't he sleep in the same room as his team?
"Before he became part of the team, he used to live in this room," Misako continued. "A little bit after he became the Green Ninja, he insisted to move in with his the others. We just mainly use his room for storage, now."

She stopped outside a closed door.
"Here it is," she said. "I'm going to check on how the others are getting along. They're leaving in ten."
I nodded, watching her wander back down the hallway. Turning my gaze back to the door, I slowly pushed it open.
It was plain. Really plain. The walls were bare is posters and there was nothing really to discern this room as 'Lloyd's.' No action figures, no comics, no nothing. An old Ninjitzu book lay on the empty bookshelf. A packet of crayola crayons sat atop it.

A bed was pushed against the wall, the duvet an old, faded green. An empty dresser was on the other side. A few crates of dry food was stacked in the corner.
The only thing that told me this room was Lloyd's was the vast amount of crayon drawings that wrapped around the lower half of the walls.
Dropping my bag on to the bed, I crouched down to inspect the doodles. All of them revolved around the green ninja doing sweet ninja moves, surrounded by dazzling lightning bolts and explosions. The word green ninja popped up quite a number of times. The r's were all the wrong way.

Smiling curtly in joy, I followed the wall of drawings, shuffling along and gauging the sketches before I hit a blank spot. I paused in confusion to spot a large area with no doodles. In the middle of the empty space was a little figure in peach.
My heart stopped. What did Ronin say about a peach figure in the prophecies? Was that me?
But how did Lloyd know about them? Unless... he didn't? And just drew it without knowing?
I moved onto the next wall. This one had the peach figure appearing more and more. With the green ninja, sometimes without.
I brushed a sketch of the two standing side-by-side gently with a finger. How long had he been subconsciously waiting for me?

How old was he when he drew them? Ten? He said that he became the green ninja when he was twelve. Had he really been waiting, at the very least, for six years?
If I didn't move to Jamanakai when I was seven, would the prophecy had started earlier? I froze.
Would I have hated Lloyd if I stayed in the city? Following everybody else's examples? I couldn't spend a day without thinking of him that the idea of hating Lloyd Garmadon was so entirely foreign to me. I didn't want to imagine a world in which that was the case.

Maybe Ronin is right. Maybe I am a simp for Lloyd.

Well, that isn't the worst thing to be in life.

Speaking of, Ronin knocked on the door. I turned away from the messy doodles.
"They're about to launch. You coming?"
I nodded, shoving aside any floating inhibitions about being caught quietly gushing over Lloyd's doodles. Ronin didn't seem to care, anyway, setting off back down the ship before I could even join him.
I took one last look at the doodles before getting to my feet and following Ronin down to the hangar of the ship, where five mechs for the five ninja were hoisted and waiting for use. When I got there, the ninja were already inside their respective snow mechs. Cole looked a little apprehensive.

"Without your mechs, you'll never be able to survive the extreme conditions on your own," Garmadon explained as the ninja got themselves ready. I glanced out the window before instinctively shivering at the sight of the large mountain.
It was intimidating, for one. Stretching so high into the sky, I couldn't see the top. Even if I could, the thick clouds rolling around the peak concealed sight of it, anyway. It was totally blanketed in snow, even in the middle of summer.
"I've also installed headsets into our hoods for easy communication," Nya piped up from her mech. "Try it out."

Jay cleared his throat, the first to talk. To absolutely no one's surprise.
"Tell me, Zane," he said with a curled grin as he leant over the front of his Mech. "How tall is this mountain?"
Zane answered, much to the lightning ninja's amusement.
"The precise elevation of the Wailin' Alps be well over three leagues and twenty-eight fathoms."
"I don't even know what that means!" Jay laughed loudly. "Zane's so much cooler!"
I struggled to keep my amused smile in check. It was hard when Jay's laughter was so infectious.

"Remember," Ronin said seriously, taking me by surprise by his deadly tone. "Once you get to the peak, you'll only have one shot to shoot the Blind Man's Eye. Don't miss."
Jay's laughter immediately died as the severity of the situation settled in. His face turned grim, matching the rest of the team.
"I don't know guys," Cole said with a sigh, looking uncomfortable in his mech. "You had time to practise Airjitzu. Maybe I should sit this one out."
"Don't even think about it," Kai snapped. "You may be a ghost, but you're still part of the team."
"And if it weren't for you getting the first clue, we wouldn't even be here," Jay chimed in.
"We all need you," I inputted. "Lloyd needs you."
"So what're gonna do, Cole?" Nya asked. "Are you in or out?"

Cole frowned, staring down at the controls. He glanced up at me and I hoped that he was remembering what I told him that morning.
A determined expression settled over Cole's face. I felt a smile grow over my lips as he grabbed the mech's handles with a firm grip. He pointed to Ronin.
"Open the hangar doors."
Misako guided me to the wall to hold onto something. Garmadon and Wu did the same.
"Opening hanger doors," Ronin announced as he switched a lever. The floor of the hull fell open. An alarm blared. A cool blast of air rushed into the hangar, making me shiver at the ferocious frigidness.

Jay whooped with excitement, his earlier attitude returning tenfold.
"Is anybody else getting a tingling feeling?" he giggled.
"Yeah," said Kai as he stared at the mountain we were flying over with a dubious look. "Frostbite."
"Drop 'em!" ordered Ronin. Garmadon hit a button, releasing the mechs into the air and dropping them from the ship.
They shouted a battle cry, jumping into the mission with attitudes unparalleled. Their confidence made my hope skyrocket.

"Let's get to the bridge," Garmadon suggested as he ushered us up the stairs after Ronin closed the hangar doors. "We should be able to track their ascent."
The bridge was nice and warm thanks to the heater already thrumming with effort. Despite it, my teeth still chattered as I stared at the large screen displaying all the information we needed - elevation, heart rates, location, audio. The other side of the screen held information about the mountain itself, as well as the cyclone.
"How long do we have, Y/n?" Misako asked, peering out the window as the ninja began their long climb.
"The Blind Man's Eye will be passing the peak in four hours," I informed over my shoulder, approaching the window and staring out at the ascending mechs. I frowned in concern. "Do you think they'll make it?"

"I have no doubt," Garmadon said, green eyes steeled.