Chapter Text
Arin had always known that Earth wasn’t the only planet with sentient species. Nobody ever believed him, of course, but he knew it – without a shadow of a doubt. His parents, eager to foster a home where his curiosity could thrive, got him hundreds of books on the universe, deep space, and planets. When he got a little older, they started showing him all those old space movies – Star Trek, Star Wars, and even the Alien movies. As he grew up, Arin’s faith that humans weren’t the only ones in the Universe continued to grow with him.
At the ripe age of 20, Arin knew that he was right. But the aliens of intergalactic space were not kind.
His parents learned that the hard way.
When Arin was sixteen, his parents were selected as part of the first ever rocket mission into intergalactic space – the Talaria Mission. They, along with six other participants, were equipped with food to last them hundreds of years, space suits, and a two way radio to talk back with Control. Exactly a month after the launch, Talaria went radio silent. The ship and the people on board were never found.
Four years later, Arin graduated from the Space Force Academy. He was going to find his parents, no matter the cost.
“Aw, what the hell !” Arin yelled, ducking under a photon blast. Someone off to his left screamed, and he mentally marked another death in the list of his crew members. That left three more members of his unit, and they were falling fast. Soon, it would be just him.
The raid was a surprise attack, like most raids were. It didn’t help that the raiders picked a time where the ship was in night time protocol – the crew was asleep. Well, except for Arin, who had been monitoring the autopilot to ensure that nothing went awry. That was the only reason any of them had woken up at all – Arin had managed to hit the alarm.
Not that it really helped.
There was another scream, and another crossed out member on Arin’s mental list. That left him and Martin – scratch that, it was just him.
The aliens that had attacked them didn’t seem all that invulnerable. They were tall, but skinny, with very little clear armor. Some of them walked on two legs, others on tentacles, but they all shared the same webbed hands. They talked in a burbling language that sounded a lot like the rivers back home, but Arin’s communicator couldn’t translate what they said. Arin assumed they were some sort of water-related aliens, but couldn’t figure out how they were breathing oxygen. They relied on photon blasters and electric spears as weapons. If Arin could get past them, he had a feeling there wasn’t much the aliens could do to hurt him.
One alien was approaching him, so he put his idea to the test. He ducked under the poking spear, snatching it out of the alien’s hands. Arin aimed a hard punch to the face. It was way more effective than he thought it would be. It seemed like the dude was made entirely out of some type of cartilage, because his face caved under Arin’s fist. “What the fuck !!!” Arin shrieked, shaking his hand to try and get rid of the blue blood and chunks of the alien’s face that were clinging to it. He scrambled away from the body, trying to put space between him and the other aliens.
The alien’s friends were talking to each other in a panic, dancing around Arin and his new weapon. Every once in a while, Arin would jab the spear out to buy himself some time as he desperately tried to make a plan. Clearly these aliens weren’t as strong as Arin first thought, but it was really hard to get close enough to hit one, between the blasters and spears.
Speaking of blasters, a stream of light went flying past his arm, burning his cotton shirt and searing the skin underneath. Arin screamed through his teeth, dropping the spear and going to his knees. Dizziness was taking over his brain, along with a faint fog that he always got from pain. No, no, no, he thought, trying to push himself to his feet.
One of the aliens bravely pushed forward and struck him in the chest with the electric end of his spear. Arin’s body seized up and his brain promptly shut off.
Lloyd wasn’t really sure how the Merlopians managed to separate him from his parade. Oni were usually overprotective of their young, and while Lloyd was on the older side now, he was still – by Oni standards – a baby. Anyway, the point is that it was actually kind of impressive that this rogue group of Merlopians managed to snag him away from Primerak, his home planet. It was impressive that they tried to snatch him at all, considering Primerak was the first of the deathworlds, which makes Oni one of the first ever deathworlders.
Anyway, Lloyd really wasn’t all that worried. His dad was definitely out looking for him, and Lord Garmadon definitely got Wu and his bunch of aliens looking for him, too. So Lloyd was just biding his time. Usually, he was meditating or sitting in the darkness. He refused to sleep, so meditation is the best form of rest he can get, and the darkness is refreshing to his magic.
He was in the middle of said meditation when the metal door of the prison bay screeched open. Lloyd opened one eye and watched the Merlopians carefully. They were walking directly towards his cage, dragging a limp figure between them. Once Lloyd got a good look at it, he sprung to his feet in surprise.
That was a human .
The Merlopians finally reached the door of his cage. The first one dropped his side of the human and opened the door. “Back up,” the Merlopian hissed, jabbing his electric spear at Lloyd.
“Relax.” Lloyd said, rolling his eyes. He backed to the corner of the cage, and the Merlopian waved his friend in. The human was dropped unceremoniously on the floor. Lloyd winced as its head bounced off the stones.
“Don’t eat it,” one of the Merlopians said. They laughed as they shut the door to Lloyd’s cage and left the prison bay.
Lloyd stayed motionless until he was sure the Merlopians were long gone. He stepped carefully over to the human, trying not to make any noise and wake it. There was a festering wound on its arm and the shirt around its chest was burned away, but the skin was only pink – looks like he got hit with a blast and a spear. So, durable then. Merlopians spears were known for causing some damage. The fact that all it did was leave a tiny burn was impressive.
Lloyd didn’t know much about humans, admittedly. They were fairly new to the intergalactic scene, and some of the meaner species chased them off pretty quick. What he does know is that, despite their apparent cowardice, humans were durable and smart. There were hundreds of languages on their world, compared to the usual one language on a planet in intergalactic space, and there were people who could speak up to ten languages. Smart and durable meant dangerous, but they weren’t as technologically advanced as the rest of space, which was why they were so scared.
Lloyd focused on the human again. He reached forward, very careful of his claws, and felt around for a pulse. It was strong, as was the human’s breathing. Lloyd tried to gauge the gender, but he could not for the life of him remember the differences between male and female.
Lloyd growled sharply in frustration, backing away. The Merlopians put the human in here either a) to keep him in line or b) for him to eat it. Both options were terrible and both options really pissed him off. Onis were supposed to be mean and dangerous, but really he’d inherited Wu’s righteous mentality and spread it through Primerak – Onis could not stand injustice.
Not like you can do much, Lloyd, he told himself. He settled down in the dark corner again, allowing himself to fall back into his meditation that was so rudely interrupted. The most he could do was wait.
“What do you mean ‘he’s gone’?” Kai screeched, trying valiantly to keep his flames from scorching the roof of Garmadon’s chieftain hall. The collected aliens leaned away from him as he sparked dangerously. “This is supposed to be the fiercest world in the discovered universe, how is he just gone ?”
“Lloyd is a curious young Oni.” Garmadon said defensively. “He travels around Primerak quite often, and does not like to be disturbed.”
Kai began pacing in a circle around the collected aliens, hooves clicking against the stones. Wu shook his head, half fond, half exasperated. When he’d collected his bunch of warriors to help look for Lloyd, he’d debated on including Kai at all. He knew, though, that if he’d left Kai out the consequences would’ve been a lot more dire than this. At least the Keltar was attempting to keep his flames at a reasonable level – that’s the most Wu could ever ask from him.
“Are we sure that it was Merlopians that took him?” Jay asked, wings fluttering nervously. “I thought the Merlopians were in a self-imposed exile after unleashing one of their Old Gods on the Intergalactic Space Force.”
“Oh don’t even get me started on that!” Nya – the resident mercenary that the ISF often called in for assistance – hissed. “I was wringing water out of my clothes for weeks .”
“You’re literally made of water–”
“It was a rogue group, we think.” Garmadon said. “The spacecraft that entered our atmosphere was unmarked and relatively small. We ignored it because of that reason, which I realize now was quite irresponsible.” Kai opened and closed his hand mockingly. Nya slapped at him and he ducked away from her to continue pacing. “But Lloyd’s magical signature disappeared from my communicator and I knew that he had been taken. He had no other means of getting off of Primerak.”
“Well, even if it’s unmarked and small, we may still be able to track it. Ships tend to give off electromagnetic waves, no matter how small they are, which affects the ones already in the atmosphere of space. Those leave behind a trail that we should be able to follow.” Nya said, pulling her communicator out of her pocket and ignoring the confused looks that Kai and Cole were throwing her. “How long has he been gone?”
“A day, two at most.”
“Great, so there should still be a signature on your radar that I can input into the tracker.” Garmadon nodded slowly, pulling out his own communicator. Unlike most other planets in the Universe, Primerak wasn’t very technologically advanced. That’s not because they can’t do it – Onis rely more on their magic and natural protections to fight, and it actually worked better than most tech (that’s why Primerak is classified as a deathworld). Usually only parade chieftains carry communicators. Garmadon handed his communicator over, pulled up to the atmosphere tracker.
Nya stood for second, comparing the two screens and inputting lines of code. Eventually, her communicator shrieked out an alert and then started beeping slowly. “Well, the bad news is they’re four days away, even if we hyperjump, at Qildaria. The good news is, they’re actually on their way back.”
Garmadon straightened. “Back here?”
“They are either stupid or crazy,” Wu said, running his claws through his beard. “Taking a young Oni and then returning to Primerak while they know he is gone is not advised.”
“They must be some type of hunter,” Cole commented, peering over Nya’s shoulder at the comm screen. “Do you think they picked up a Qildan?”
“I hope they tried to get a Calikae and it burnt their faces off,” Kai muttered hotly, crossing his arms.
“Let us hope not,” Zane said. “Otherwise, Lloyd would be stranded in space.”
“Point is,” Nya said, waving her comm. “They’re on their way back to Primerak, judging by their pathing. We need to come up with a plan.”