Chapter Text
“This was not the plan!” Lloyd shouted loudly, as he dodged a laser blast. He disarmed an Imperium guard with a well-aimed kick.
“I like mine better! Your’s was boring!” complained Wyldfyre.
“No! It was quiet!” protested Lloyd. Arin flew past him and hit a wall. Lloyd pulled him up and quickly checked him over while punching a soldier behind them.
“Like I said, bor-ing!”
“Wyldfyre!” Kai groaned. “We’ve talked about this! You can’t just decide to completely disregard the plan!”
Lloyd sighed loudly. It would have been so simple. Kai and Wyldfyre would have set a small fire outside the Imperium Energy Study Lab as a diversion, then he, Arin, and Sora would sneak in and rescue Jay. Instead, they were fighting two dozen angry, smoldering guards.
“Lloyd!” Kai shouted over the noise. “You and Sora go get Jay! We can hold them off!”
Lloyd nodded sharply, grabbed Sora by the arm, and ran into the building.
“Do you know where he might be?” he asked her. She took a left.
“I guess we’ll find out.”
As they were running down the halls, Lloyd further contemplated the situation. When they first saw Jay after The Merge, Lloyd, Nya, and Zane had been in The Administration. It had been a fleeting glance, but Nya immediately ran after him. Then soldiers grabbed Jay and flew away on some kind of hover device.
Luckily, based on descriptions of the soldiers, Sora was able to identify them as Imperiums. Then came the rescue plans. It had been about five days since then, and they could finally get Jay back after not seeing him for years.
Sora stopped running abruptly and opened a side door. Lloyd followed her in and found himself in a dark room full of small holding cells. In the cell at the far end of the room, Jay was sitting on the floor, staring at them.
Lloyd’s long, golden tail thrashed in excitement. “Jay!” he exclaimed. He ran over to Jay’s cage and clutched the bars, talking a mile a minute.
“Oh my First Master, Jay! We’ve all missed you so much! It’s been so long! I can’t believe it! Seems like I’m not the only one who grew out his hair, yours is so long now! Nya’s going to be over the moon! She couldn’t come to help rescue you ‘cause her ribs are broken. Are you okay? What did Imperium do to you? Why were you at the Administration? Do you know where the keys are for this lock? Actually, nevermind—” he broke the padlock with a contained burst of green energy and opened the cage. “Come on! Let’s get you out of here!”
But Jay didn’t move. “Who— who are you? How do you know my name?”
A cold dread pierced through Lloyd. “What? No, come on, Jay.”
Jay edged away from them.
“Jay, it’s me, Lloyd. I know the horns and tail are new, but it’s still me!”
“Stop trying to trick me!” yelled Jay. “I’ve never met you in my life!”
Sora looked at Lloyd in confused disbelief, but he wasn’t paying attention to her. He was staring at Jay in horror.
“You don’t remember me,” Lloyd whispered.
Jay shook his head, but now looked slightly unsure.
“But how? How could you forget everything?” Lloyd asked desperately.
“How am I supposed to know how I forgot something?”
“Whether you remember him or not doesn’t matter for you right now,” Sora chimed in. “Either way, we’re here to rescue you, so take it or leave it.”
Jay looked around the dank room. Then he sighed. “I guess I don’t have a choice.” Lloyd helped him up, still slightly scared.
However, he was now thinking there was something different about Jay. Obviously, there was the long hair, and the height difference now that Lloyd had grown a few inches after becoming the Conduit. But there was something else.
Wait.
“Jay, I don’t remember you, uh, looking like… uh…”
“Looking like what?” he huffed, hands on his wider-than-they-used-to-be hips.
“Like… a girl,” Lloyd finished awkwardly.
Jay blinked. “What?”
“You used to be a boy?” clarified Lloyd. Sora cocked her head in mixed realization and lingering confusion.
Jay glared at Lloyd. “Thanks for calling me out like that, dude. I’m a girl, so deal with it.”
“No no no!” he said hastily, “that’s fine, I’m just surprised.” He privately wondered what Nya would think of this.
“Can we please go now?” Jay grumbled.
“Yeah, sorry.”
The three ran back down the hall, but this time they were stopped. Dr. LaRow, Jordana, Rapton, and a ton of guards were blocking the path.
“This is where the powerful energy signature is coming from,” Jordana informed LaRow, holding a strange device.
LaRow stepped forward with a sick grin. “Perfect. Well, hello, Ana. It seems you are assisting in the theft of our infinite energy prospects.”
Sora squared herself, lifted her fists, and glared at Dr. LaRow. “It’s Sora. And I’m not stealing from you, I’m—”
“That’s correct,” she interrupted. “Because you’ve brought me something better. That.” She pointed at Lloyd, and he groaned internally. Here we go again. Another villain who needs him for their evil plan.
“You better be ready for a fight,” Lloyd warned Jay.
“We are,” LaRow responded, and another battle commenced.
The sounds of lasers ricocheting off the walls rang through the sterile rooms. Lloyd’s sword was blasted out of his hands. He redoubled his efforts, but still paid attention to the other fighters around him.
Jay seemed to be fighting with muscle memory and pure luck alone. He— or she, really had lost her memory.
She and Sora were pushed back outside by the soldiers and Lloyd was left inside fighting four guards and Rapton.
Suddenly, he was trapped in netting that seemed to have come out of nowhere. He thrashed against it, but it was made of a glowing yellow material he had never seen before, and he couldn’t get out.
Rapton loomed over him, chuckling, and pulled out some kind of gun. Then, in a flash of pain and electricity, his vision went dark.