Chapter 8: Paroxysm

Garmadon sincerely hoped he wasn't going insane.

He could've sworn, that for a split second while talking with Kruncha he heard his son screaming for him. He heard it, felt it, and it had shaken his rigid exterior deeply with cracks and lacerations in his foundation.

Despite this, the skeletons behind him marched solemnly in formation, their bones rattling beneath their armor. The hallways were otherwise painfully silent, making Garmadon wish to hear that blessed sound once more, just one last time.

If there was one thing the dark lord was sure about, was that no one could've survived that eruption. It would've taken a miracle for Lloyd to have survived. Everyone that stood on the Bounty that fateful day knew that Lloyd did not come back.

Garmadon clenched all four of his fists as he turned a corner. But then what did I just hear?

He let a breath be slowly released from his tightened jaw. It was so real, and it sounded like he was in trouble…

If it weren't for the hundreds of skeletons trailing behind him, Garmadon would've turned around and sprinted back to the office in a heartbeat. He knew that it was hopeless, but it just sounded so real and so alive that he wanted to be sure his son's heart was actually beating.

It wasn't though. His heart stopped beating a long time ago, and would never beat again.

Shaking his head, he led his forces to where he first entered the underworld: a single laceration that curved across the rock wall, mirroring the groove on the tree on the opposite side. Many years ago, it was a recently banished dark lord that made that cut, and staring at the stone once again made his eyes feel hot and slightly wet.

Admittedly, he would've stayed there staring at the laceration for a long time if it weren't for a lone skeleton speaking up.

"Uh, boss, shouldn't we go?"

Garmadon started and shook himself out of his stupor, and nodded quietly. He raised one of his hands and gently rested it in the middle of the groove. Taking a deep breath, he muttered quietly, "Dic me iterum ad portam flectere voluntates meas."

The walls of the fortress began to shake violently, and Garmadon stood with a bored expression on his face as the laceration expanded to reveal the spinning vortex. Krazi still slept in the chair, but Garmadon wasn't in the mood to wake him up.

As annoyed as he was with his brother and the ninja, he knew his son would want him to help. He wasn't about to turn his back on his son any time soon, no matter the pain or irritation it caused him to have to put up with the skeletons a second time.

Seriously, why on earth had he trusted these idiots?

One of the generals next to him whispered excitedly. "I can't wait to clobber some snakes."

Garmadon snorted, but privately agreed.

0o0o0

If someone had asked Wu what he was feeling, sitting in that chair throwing boomerangs at oncoming snakes, he wouldn't have hesitated to say vengeful.

Wu knew most would be surprised by his answer, but he couldn't be more honest than that. After the serpentine, both directly and indirectly, took away his student and nephew, some revenge was long overdue to pay for their premature deaths. And based on how the remainder of his pupils were fighting with the most force in a long time, he wasn't the only one.

Zane managed to come up with an escape plan from their cage (when they were inevitably caught) using a spare oil can that he kept around and coating their gis, making them slippery enough to come out. Thankfully, the serpentine were too busy watching the rest of their kind fighting to pay too much attention, and within minutes the battle was underway.

It was rather odd to Wu that Pythor was not present to witness such an occasion. They had saw him when the group first snuck in, but Skales had took over the operation soon after. He didn't think much of it, however. There were more pressing matters to attend to: they were severely outnumbered. Five to who-knows how many isn't a very good match, and Wu could feel the apprehension radiating from his students as they fought.

A large group of constrictai began to storm on Nya's mech, pulling Wu from his thoughts. He quickly threw one of her boomerangs as Nya made the mech charge head-on with no hesitation. The boomerang curved around the group before striking the snake farthest to the left. It howled in pain and fell backwards while clutching its head, and the rest of his comrades toppled over as the domino affect left them in disarray.

It was quite satisfying.

A flash of green pricked the corner of his vision. Turning, Wu grimaced as a crowd of venomari and fangpyre charged towards Cole and Jay. Nya noticed as well, for she looked down at him with worry written across her face.

She had a right to worry, of course, but Wu knew that the two of them could handle it. Cole had been down in the training room of the ship from the moment he decided they to go, to the moment the five had started to leave. And Jay had an expression of fierce determination and seriousness mar his usually cheerful exterior when they had begun trekking away from the Bounty. Their determination alone would allow them to take on any oncoming snakes easily.

Zane on the other hand flew across the chamber in a sea of white. His spinjitzu soared and knocked dozens of snakes to the ground as if they were nothing but flies buzzing aimlessly around his head.

Seeing his students fight so fiercely and without any sort of hesitation made Wu both incredibly proud, yet saddened all at once.

A low cacophony of hisses jarred him back to reality, only to stare straight ahead in horror at what reality brought.

A sea of serpentine began to wash forward, stretching out all the way towards the back of the chamber. Skales had brought reinforcements. And there were too many for them. Despite his heart wanting to fight to the end, Wu's mind knew they would drown if they were to stay.

Nya seemed to sense Wu's distress, and glanced downwards to meet his gaze. Frowning, she turned towards the snakes and back to her mentor, as if to ask the question plaguing his mind for him.

Wu sighed, then nodded. "Retreat," he whispered. He knew his students wouldn't agree, but it was for the best. They would understand with time. At least, he hoped.

He took a breath to shout the order, but Cole's voice cut him off.

"Sensei! I'm not retreating anytime soon if that's what you're doing! Kai wouldn't want that!"

Yes, but Kai was also the most reckless human being to ever walk this earth.

Skales gave a cruel smile as he slithered forward, raising a hand to halt his forces. He then stretched the arm towards his right, and the army spread across the cavern and began to slowly push the group until they were against the wall. "Isssn't this cute? The ninja? Sssurendering? My oh my, I believe this is a firsst now isn't it?"

Cole growled and stepped forward, his scythe gripped tightly in both fists, ready to swing. "We didn't say anything about surrender."

Skales paused for a moment as if he was considering his words, before throwing his head back and laughing. The sight was unnerving. His whole body shook and a hint of madness sparked in his irises as he guffawed in pure delight.

"You?! You and you're pathetic little troupe that's missing a member and backed against the wall?! HA!" Skales gave a manic grin and slithered forward until he and Cole were too close for Wu's comfort. "We'll overwhelm you and your friends and see how much you enjoy joining the red ninja in his pathetic little afterlife!"

The words were a stab in the chest and Skales knew it. Though Wu knew better then to show emotion in this situation, his students did not.

Jay's hand quickly rested on his nun chucks as his gaze darkened from neutral to stormy in a matter of seconds. Surprisingly, the most talkative member of the team stayed relatively silent, but if looks could kill, Skales's corpse would've laid prone on the floor in seconds.

Cole turned scarlet the moment the words left Skales's mouth. His body shook close to the level of the earthquakes he creates. The scythe in his hands shifted so that the point was directly directly towards Skales's heart.

Zane rarely was one to shift from his normally stoic demeanor, but it was at that moment that his face turned to an expression of pure, chaotic rage. Frost curled around the points of his shurikens as his fists clenched his weapon so hard, it was surprising the metal didn't bend.

Skales chuckled. "It looksss like I hit quite the nerve there, didn't I? You all possess such a barbaric temperament, do you not?"

Wu gave a pained sigh, knowing deep inside it would be Kai that could get them out of this predicament.

Father, have mercy, Wu thought desperately. It would take a miracle to save us now.

In his longing, he was glanced upwards, and was shocked at what he saw.

There stood his brother, with an army of skeletons standing behind him.

Wu couldn't recall the last time he was so happy to see him.

0o0o0

Garmadon had never felt more satisfaction in a long time.

Standing over the fowl race that dared take his son away from him, with an army by his side, meant that he could finally exact his revenge. Finally eject the pain he felt right back at them.

He took a breath, and called out. "YOU!"

Skales started and swiveled his head backwards. Seeing who stood before him, and the army that followed, caused the snake to gulp and began to slither backwards. "Oh dear," he mumbled.

Garmadon jumped from the platform, ignoring the stares from the ninja and his brother, and strode confidently towards the panicking hypnobrai. "You, and your filthy, despicable, fowl, race, took my son away from me!" he snarled.

Skales was against the wall, cowering in fear. His pathetic expression made Garmadon smile. "You killed the one person in this life I fought for! The ONE PERSON I cared about more than life itself!"

Lloyd was giggling and holding his hands skyward, his green eyes sparkling with joy. His ecstatic cry of "Dada!" was muffled with a thumb in his mouth.

Lloyd was standing on shaky legs, his mother holding his arms to keep him steady. With a gentle push, he was hobbling towards his father with a smile on his face and arms outstretched.

With a crack of thunder, Garmadon felt a small presence crawl under the covers and curl against his chest. "Daddy, I'm scared."

He took a shuddering breath, feeling sharp pinpricks behind his irises. "You took away the life of my child, so it's only fair that I take YOUR life!" He suddenly wrapped his hand around Skales's throat and clenched tightly, excited to see the life drain from his eyes. Despite it not being the actual snake that kidnapped Lloyd, Skales would have to do.

The ninja's horrified looks meant nothing to him. All that mattered was the sound of Skales's breathing get quieter and quieter.

One of the other serpentine generals snapped back into focus, pointing his staff at the four-armed warrior. "Attack!"

The command jarred the rest of the snake from their stupor. With a fervent cry, the serpentine charged.

Garmadon sighed, let go of Skales, and drew his sword.

Perhaps another day.

A.N: I AM A DESPICABLE HUMAN BEING!

Words cannot describe how sorry I am that I kept you guys waiting so long for this chapter, and it wasn't even that good. DX Arggg.

I had some familial issues that had to be resolved, and that combined with school, the chaos that was my summer vacation, and writers block, well...those are my pathetic excuses.

I ended the chapter where it did for both thematic reasons, and, well, I just really like the last line. ;D Besides, everyone knows how the battle goes down, and I was gonna do a brief flashback scene as well to inform everyone on the biggest things that are different from how it went down in the show.

Hehe, I actually would've posted this yesterday if I wasn't struggling so much with the chapter title. I'm happy with what I got though. :)

However, I am super excited for the next chapter, and I'm looking to make a rough outline of the entire story so that writer's block won't be as big of a factor for late updates. My sophomore year is going great so far, and since I have a free period, that's fifty minutes of writing time. ;)

Translation for Garmy's incantation: I once again command this gate to bend to my will.

^ Sorry I couldn't respond to the person who asked this earlier, but yes, this is Latin. :D

I extend my deepest apologies to you all, and to those who are still here and reading this…

Review please! Thanks for reading.