Thank you for 3k+ reads!! :)

PHEW, this is a long chapter. Now your probably wondering, "what's her excuse this time?", well, today my excuse is 1) procrastination, 2) finals, 3) writer block(?), and 4) I started a new book :3 More details on that later.

I'm planning on finishing this book before January, so let's see if I stick to that plan or just completely ignore it.

Lloyd POV

I stare at my sister in disbelief.  I have no words.  For a second, I almost forget the throbbing sensation running through my body.  Almost. Katelyn's smile fades the longer she looks at me.  Guilt takes over her and she rushes over to me.  She helps to me sit up, since I'm still in a daze, lifting her tail up behind me to use it as a back support for me. She grabs my shoulders firmly. "Oh my- Lloyd, I'm so sorry!" She cries. Tears form in her eyes.

I look at her and immediately start to support myself when sitting up. I'm not badly injured, I'm mostly just sore. Now that I think about it, I probably looked dead back there, but I was too dazed to know what was going on! I tell her I'm fine, embarrassed I couldn't defend myself, and release myself from her grip. She's never going to let this go... I internally groan.

She gives me a look of uncertainty. The longer I actually look at her, the more questions explode into my head. "Wait- how did you get here?" I ask in utter disbelief.

She smiles. "Mr Finch found an old boat in the maze caves that the first settlers of the Dark Island used to travel around the ocean! It was incredible! They were huge! And they moved so fast, we got here in no time!"

"Wait, we?" I ask her. "He's here with you?"

"Yeah! He's hiding away though. We can go back and grab him after we defeat that shadowy low life sone of a-". Before she can say anything else, we hear a yelp next to us. We look at the source. It's Cole.

"As sweet as this reunion is," he says, out of breath and struggling to fight several stone warriors. "We could really use your help!" I jump up from the ground, ignoring the fresh bruises all over my body, and I summon energy into my hands and shoot it at the warrior, who nearly got a successful hit on Cole. A small explosion is heard and he's knocked back several feet away from us.

"Nice of you to return to the party dragon boy," he jokes. I scoff, smiling at his humor during such an intense time.

"What, the man with super strength can't defend himself against an army of warriors by himself?" I say.

"Says the one who just got mauled by a group of Jays." He says, using his element to deal with a handful of the warriors.

"I'll have you know, I'll be seeing that in my nightmares for the rest of my life." I use fire on a warrior. He stumbles back from the intense flames and falls on the ground. "I mean, how would you feel if you experienced an army of Jays beating the crap out of you."  I say.  I send a roundhouse kick to a warrior coming at me from the side.

"The fact that you let Jay of all people beat the crap out of you is just sad." He says.

I scoff. "Whatever."

After we all deal with the enemies around us, Cole, Katelyn and I are able to breathe for a split second. But, it doesn't last long, as more warriors break away from their other battles and charge towards us.

"Ugh, this is never ending!" My sister says, tying back her brown hair into a low ponytail to keep the hair out of her face. She summons dark energy into her hands and looks intensely at the stone warriors charging for her.  She shoots the dark energy at the warriors, the blast causing a wave of explosions to knock several other warriors down who weren't even in range.

I'm really starting to wish I had trained with her. Her power is almost exactly like mine, just reversed. It would have been really fun to see what we are both capable of since our powers are generally revolving around the same element.

"At least you got here after it started! I'm exhausted! I haven't fought like this in a long time." Cole says.

Suddenly, Ash and Haru charge into the area, Haru, now in the form of a large grizzly, has Ash riding on his back. They trample over several warriors and assassins as they skid to a stop besides us. They had seen Katelyn from afar and came to see her.

"Katie!" Ash calls out on top of Haru. She slides off his back and gives Katelyn a big hug. I look up at Haru. "This is new," I say, gesturing to him.

He laughs. "New and improved, baby!" He says, sending his huge paw to swipe at a group of warriors. They make contact with it, and get knocked several yards away from us. If I hadn't known Haru for most of my life, I would've been very intimidated. I wonder if he can turn into more than just land animals, maybe he can do aquatic creatures as well. If we live through this battle, I'll be sure to bring it up.

I look up at the tower once more, remembering my mission. "I need to get up there!" I call to the others. In the distance, I see my mom. She hits an assassin over the head with a cylinder of scrolls, causing it to turn to mist. Well, that's one way to get the job done.

I try to think of a way we can get up there quickly. "Katie," I say, grabbing her attention. "I need you."

Without explanation, she already knows what I'm asking her. She nods. I turn to Haru. "Haru, can you turn into an animal with wings? Preferably a big one? Katie and I will be flying up there and we'll need backup just in case." He nods.

Without a second thought, a glowing white light engulfs his form and he shrinks. The light disappears and in place of what once was a grizzly bear, is a large red eagle. "Let's go!" He says, taking flight into the air. I look at Katelyn and nod. At the same time, we both take off. Cole and Ash run to alert my mom and uncle so they can meet us up there.

As we're getting closer to the top, I can hear a low growling noise that only gets louder and louder the closer we get to it. My body starts to tingle with nerves. Thoughts of the battle the other day flood into my head, the memories still fresh and untouched. I can remember the pain I had received in both my body and my heart that day. I bite my lip.

This is it. It all ends here. Tonight, we end this.

My thoughts are interrupted as a loud and raspy laugh sounds off from the roof. The blood in my veins freeze at the sound of it. For a moment, I forget to flap my wings, and I start descending from the air. Once I've realized what's going on, I inhale sharply out of fear and catch myself on a metal ledge on side of the tower before I can fall any further. I scramble to pull myself up and I sit there, back against the windows, breathing heavily.

Haru and Katelyn had seen the whole thing, and they soared down to join me on the ledge, concern showing clear on their faces. "Lloyd! Are you okay?" Katelyn asks me as she lands on the ledge and kneels down next to me, placing a hand on my shoulder.

A chill runs down my spine. "S-sorry, I-". My brain scrambles for words to describe how I'm feeling. Actually, I know how I'm feeling, but my body isn't allowing me to vocalize it. I try to slow my heartbeat down by taking in deep breaths.

"Hey, hey, it's okay. Take your time." Haru says. Only I can tell from his eyes he doesn't really mean for me to take my time. Time is of the essence. In fact, we don't have time. I need to- no, we need to end this war as soon as possible, and I'm slowing us down.

I take a deep breath. "I can't stop thinking about her." I admit. They all know what I mean. Everyone knows at this point. I'm so scared. I'm scared to loose another one, another person I love. We aren't invincible, we all know someone is going to get hurt, maybe even worse. The whole idea makes me want to throw up.

At this point, it's becoming incredibly hard for me not to show my shaking. In fact, I'm pretty sure my attempt has already failed. They can see my shaking, not just from the cold, but because of all the pressure and anxiety of this mission. Katelyn sighs sadly. She grips my shoulder. "I know how hard this is, how hard it was to see her go, and to try and get over it in such a small amount of time, but believe me, nothing is going to change unless we try to make a stand. People will only get more hurt if we don't do anything about it." She says, looking straight into my eyes. I look at her.

"She's right," Haru says. "I was one of the people who watched her... pass... right in front of me." He says sadly.  "But, because of your efforts no one else got hurt!"

"No one else but my own father..." I say, pinching the bridge of my nose.  I feel like a mess.  Who am I kidding, I am a mess. I should be up there fighting, yet I'm sitting here like a coward!  Anger floods through me at myself.

"You should listen to your teammates, nephew." I hear a calming voice say.  Surprise floods through me when hearing the word 'nephew', and I look up to see no one else but Master Wu.  But, not the Master Wu I've grown to know, the one I'm seeing in front of me is flying.  I stare in shock as he flaps his large, white dragon wings, his white tail swaying back and forth below him.

"Y-you have a dragonkin form!" I point out in realization.  Of course!  He's the son of the First Spinjitzu Master after all!

He smiles.  "Your father and I preferred to keep our true forms hidden from the people of Ninjago.  And, I've never truly needed to use this form unless I absolutely had to.".  He lands on the ledge in front of us.

"Where's our mom?" Katelyn asks, noticing she's not with him.

"Your mother is busy with her own battle.  And Haru, I suggest you join the others.  They will need your help." He advises. 

Haru nods. "Good luck," He says to us.  He extends his wings and takes off, nose diving into the battle below us.  Master Wu looks back at us, suddenly very serious. 

"Lloyd," he starts.  "All battles must come to an end eventually.  But a war, a war could go on for a very long time.  Like your sister said, eventually, someone has to make a stand.  And when that stand is made, it could change the tide of the war all together.  Tonight, we must change the tide and bring your father back to the light, and rid the realm of the Overlord's darkness.  If there's anyone who can do it, I know it's you."

"Plus, your not alone! You have us!" Katelyn adds.

I avert my eyes from theirs, deep in thought.  I take a deep breath, and force myself to my feet.  I'm still scared, none of that has changed, but I know Master Wu is right.  If we're going to do this, it has to be now.  And it has to be us.

I look at my uncle.  "Let's do this." I say.  He nods, and takes the lead from me, flying into the air and up to the top of the tower.  Katelyn and I follow not too far behind.  

And now, the thing I've been dreading about since the first attack, has come to face me once again.  As we fly above the top of the building and land on the roof, I see him.  He has his back turned to us, but make no mistakes, that's him alright.  And he knows we're here.  He still looks the same as before. 

He turns to us, grinning at us with a sinister smile.  He's tall, really tall, with coal black skin, jet-black hair, dragon-like legs, four arms with sharp claws, large black dragon wings and a spiky tail, sharp horns on his head, and glowing, pupil-less, purple eyes.  He still wears the rags of my dad's old garments.  The pants my dad once wore are like ripped shorts on the Overlord's new body, and his chest is mostly exposed.  Despite all that, though, he still has the face of my father.  I gulp, my fear returning.

"Well, well, well," he says in a creepy voice, almost like the Overlord and Dad's combined.  "Look who's still alive and has decided to return to his death."  He says mockingly towards me.  I glare at him.  My fear becomes replaced with anger just at the sight of him. All the pain he caused us, all the horrible things he's done to the people of this city, all the villages he had conquered on the Dark Island, causing my people to go into hiding, it angered me. No, it didn't just anger me, it infuriated me.

I hate him.

I want him to burn alive. I want all the pain he's caused others to come spiraling back at him a hundred times over, causing him eternal suffering in the departed realm for all the wrongdoings he has done. It's harsh, very harsh, yes, but the thought is not out of character for me. I've thought this way before. Several times in fact. It's a side of me only Katelyn has occasionally seen, and Kai only saw it the other day when we had woken up the day after Splenda's death.

I usually hide that side of me, not wanting people to know how I truly think. Because after all, that would spark up questions or long talks about how I shouldn't think that, and I really can't handle that kind of lecture right now. I can't handle that kind of lecture any time. I don't need people telling me how to feel or what my opinions on someone should be. Because at the end of the day, it's your thoughts. Your opinions. No one else's.

My thoughts are interrupted as I see him avert his amused gaze from mine and he looks at Katelyn and Master Wu.  "Oh, and who are these two?" He asks sarcastically. "Oh wait, I know exactly who they are.  Looks like almost the whole family has decided to come back to me and receive an early retirement."

I shake my head furiously.  "I'm giving you one last chance to let him go you bastard!". He knows fully well who I'm referring to. But, despite my obvious intentions, he only laughs.

"When will your stupid mentors learn that children are no help in war." He mocks us.  "It seems that I may have to teach you all a lesson that seems to be too complicated for you simple-minded mortals to process." He says, suddenly shifting his expression from amused and mocking to serious. He opens his arms and extends his claws out, aiming his palms to the sky and summons dark matter into all four of his claws.  He gets into a fighting stance with his wings partly opened and his clawed feet planted on the ground, ready to charge at us. 

We all prepare ourselves to dodge.  We've all experienced this kind of attack countless times before. It's best to avoid your attacker at first and play defense when they decide to take the offensive. When he does charge, we all scatter into different directions to get away from him.  I take to flying in the air with Katelyn while Master Wu sticks to the ground. The Overlord growls in frustration and skids to a stop near the edge of the tower.

He spins on his heel and fully extends his wings into the air. After he's used his large wings to push himself above us, he aims another blast at me and Katelyn. Luckily, we are able to dodge it, and it flies past us and hits the ground. I double back around him and line up a shot of my own. I release the surges of energy from my hand and send the blast towards him.

He catches my actions in the corner of his eye, and he whips around to deflect my blast. While he's distracted with my blast, Katelyn sends one at him from behind and successfully hits him in the back. He lets out a shriek of pain as the after affecting flames from her blast burns his skin. I gasp.

"Katie! Be careful! That's still our father!" I warn her. She catches my message and gasps, realizing the affect the injury could have on our father. It's obvious that our dad's body is the host of the possession, so any damage we do to his body now will most likely linger onto his unpossessed body later, and he may not even be able to sustain the injuries since he's being powered by the Overlord himself. But, that all depends on if we give him injuries in general.

The Overlord hears my message, and laughs. "Caring for him will get you nowhere, green ninja." He says. Suddenly, Master Wu comes darting towards the Overlord from the ground and gets a successful hit on him with his claw, causing the skin on his arm to be pierced deep enough for blood to instantly begin flowing out from the freshly opened wound. The Overlord winces in pain and glares at all of us, an audible growl heard escaping from his throat.

But then, he smiles.

And he laughs.

"You all... are so foolish." He says. Not even a moment later, while we all hover in the air, the burn mark on his back and the wound on his arm begins to heal themselves. The skin on his arm starts stitching itself together, the skin growing and weaving into each other, and it doesn't stop until the wound has completely closed, not even a scar is left over. His burnt back also heals itself, the wrinkled and charred skin slowly smoothing itself out until it's returned back to normal. He looks at us with a sinister grin, chuckling to himself. "It's sad, really. You actually used to be a challenge when we last faced." He says to me.

He puts his hand up and aims a blast at me.  My eyes widen.  I don't even try to access my brain for any ideas on how to escape this situation.  In fact, my brain completely shuts off and before I know it, my body is on auto pilot.  I dive out of the way a split second before the blast is able to hit me.  As it skims past me, I can feel the wind blowing onto me from the force.  Once I'd successfully dodged, I only had no more than half a second before I looked up to see him right in front of me, claws ready to slice through my skin like paper and scissors.

I stare wide eyed at him, his expression looking like one of a psychopath's.  But before he can touch me, I see him being knocked to the side and onto the ground.  He hits the ground with a loud thud.  I snap out of my daze to see it was once again Master Wu who had given the blow. 

The Overlord glares up at us in fury.  Katelyn joins in on the surprise attack and forces him to stay on the ground with her telekinesis.  She grunts and her body trembles as she puts her full effort into keeping him in place.  But, I know she won't be able to hold him for long.  I return to reality and dive down towards them.

I use ice on him to keep him in place so Katelyn can have a break to recharge, then, once he's immobilized, I summon electricity and I electrocute him several times, not slowing down one bit.  He screams in pain. 

Sorry Dad... 

I continue to electrocute him so he won't gain enough control over his body to do anything.  With each blow I give him, my heart aches more and more with pain.

I know how much pain he must be in right now.  My Dad's been possessed and now he's paying the price.  I don't even know if the Overlord can feel that much pain, maybe all the pain is just going to my Dad.  I'm just praying to the First Spinjitzu Master that he'll be alright, for all of our sakes.  I don't know what I'd do with myself if I were to be the cause of any permanent damage... or worse...

Katelyn regains her strength and she joins me once again. While I'm electrocuting him from the air, she sticks out her hands towards him from the ground and begins using her telekinesis again to hold him in place so he doesn't try to break the ice. At last, I feel like we've gained the high ground. I feel good. For the first time in a while, I feel good. Like we finally have him where we want him, and that the war will be ended soon.

Oh, if only I wasn't so naïve.

"That's... ENOUGH!" The Overlord shouts angrily.

A deep purple light begins to glow from beneath the ice. My eyes widen. "Katie! Watch out!" I scream at her, knowing there's no amount of lightning or telekinesis that can stop what he's about to do.

Before I can try to angle my wings to catch the breeze or even flap them to gain momentum and push myself out of range, he successfully releases his powers around him in an explosion of force and electrical waves. I stare in horror as the ice explodes and the wave hit's me with complete pin-point accuracy. I get blasted out of the air and onto the roof with so much force, that the ground breaks beneath me and I find myself breaking through several more levels of the building, causing the whole tower to shake.

When my body finally stops breaking through the ground and I land, the wind gets completely knocks out of me. I had landed on my back. The force thrown at me from the blast must have broken most of my ribs in several different places, and maybe even started some internal bleeding. I would scream out of pure agony if I could, but nothing comes out when I open my mouth. My lungs are screaming for air, and I feel like I'm suffocating in water, drowning and sinking deeper and deeper into the water until I'm surrounded by nothing but darkness. So much darkness, that I can't even see the bubbles forming around me as my body is slowly descending into the endless abyss.

My back has no feeling. Panic insinuates after the realization of that runs through my already overloading brain. I start to panic. More than panic, if there is even a bigger and more meaningful word than that. I start to think I've broken my spine, and if that's the case, I start to wonder if I've paralyzed.

My head is filled with so many thoughts screaming at each other all at once, that my head feels like it's going to explode. My thought process has completely stopped working. I try to sit up but instant pain rushes through me.  I move my hands and start to claw at my chest, my entire body lurching and begging for air. Tears form my eyes from the pain and lack of oxygen, and the thought of never getting out of this endless cycle of suffocation and agony causes me only more distress.

Finally, after several more seconds of lying there, the air finally returns to my body and I take in a huge gasp of air, instantly regretting it. The pain from my ribs and the rest of my body is too much, and I can feel myself getting dizzier with every second.  Black spots start to appear in my line of vision, and all I can hear is a high pitched ringing noise.

I can't see Katelyn or Uncle Wu, I'm too far down into the building. All I can see are the several holes my body created in the building and the sky. I don't know if they're okay or not. I want to go see if they're okay, but I still can't move. Just attempting to move my neck puts me in extreme pain.

Suddenly, I start to cough violently, pain stabbing through me with every movement. My body is jerking with spasms from each cough. I cry out in pain but my voice is drowned out by more coughing, only this time, each cough ends up with a mouthful of blood.

Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, SHIT.

I don't know what's going on. I try to move my head to the side so I don't choke but it comes to no avail, and I start to choke on my own blood. The black spots grow bigger and bigger into my line of vision and the ringing becomes louder and louder until finally, the ringing stops all together, and all feeling leaves my body completely.