Me, continuing a Ninjago AU I came up with more than four years ago? It’s more likely than you think.
The first thing he noticed when he came to was the wind funneling around his head, tugging at his hair and sending a chill with every gust. His face stung from where it bit into his cheeks.
The second thing he noticed was that he was not alone. There was some sort of voice calling out to him. It resonated around his head, forcing him to finally attempt to pry open his heavy eyes.
The third thing he noticed was the voice, or rather, girl floating in front of him. Now he knew this was not someone he’d ever seen before. He would have remembered someone like her, few Sky Folk as there were on the scattered sky islands. That, and she was..very colorful. He could pick out shades of gold and purple, among other things. But perhaps the strangest thing about her was that she was entirely metallic. Her body seemed to reflect the glow of whatever was casting a light on her from behind. Her clothing was also quite out of place. She wore a sort of one sleeved dress, far too cold for the skies around Shintaro, or wherever they were at the moment. Her attire was only marginally made better by the violet cape billowing out behind her, giving her the image of wings against the bright light. He heard her speak once again. At least, he assumed it was her, despite the fact that her mouth stayed firmly shut.
“I am waiting for you. The time has come for you to awaken.”
He listened with rapt attention, despite how his eyes fought to stay open against the wind around him and the sudden fogginess in his head. He didn’t know her, but something told him that whatever it was she needed to convey would be crucial to him very soon.
“You four are vital to a mission of great importance.”
She paused, as if giving him a second to digest the information in its fullest, before calling out to him again.
He tried in vain to take in everything around him. Her appearance, her voice, the strange, almost musical-like winds whirling around them; but her image started to blur in front of his eyes, the glow of her silhouette dimming until she seemed to disappear entirely. His eyes, heavy as lead, began to close against his will.
But he couldn’t sleep yet!
He attempted to call out to her, to ask her to wait. What did she mean by ‘a mission of great importance?’ Was there something he and the others needed to do? But his body wouldn’t respond. He stayed limp and floating, or rather, falling in that void.
He couldn’t tell how long he just listened to the wind whistling past his ears in the cold nothingness, but when he next opened his eyes, all he saw was green. The green of his eyes. The green of his ceremonial gi, a testament to his devotion to a time honored tradition, and an example of all the hard work he’d put in specifically for the day in which he would be able to congratulate his friends on their victory over all the odds.
He looked worried, scared. Zane wondered why his friend had such an expression on his usually joyful face.
It was as if a shock went through his head, and suddenly they were falling again. But this time, it wasn’t in an endless void. Zane remembered everything. From the end of the Wing Ceremony, to the fierce storm that blotted out the sun, to the terrified screams of his friends as they were tossed to and fro, quickly losing control of their Loftwings and being plucked out of the sky. He remembered Kai reaching for Lloyd as the younger was thrust from his own bird, falling faster and faster; seemingly being sucked down, down, down, until Zane thought he would disappear beneath the clouds. Never to be seen again. What would they tell his father?
But now, Zane could reach him. He didn’t know where the others were or if any of what he was seeing was even real, but he had to reach Lloyd. He could not let him fall.
He almost didn’t notice that the music-like tones were absent.
Zane stretched his arm as far as it would go, tilting his body downward. He would make it.
But then Lloyd let out a shout of alarm. Zane hadn’t noticed when the area around them had begun to brighten, but when he looked past the blonde’s shoulder, all he could see was the dark silhouette. Something monstrous, with rows of razor sharp teeth and glowing purple eyes. Its giant maw opened wide as wings spread out behind it, relishing the way its prey fell right into its grasp. And Zane could do nothing but bear witness as it seemed to swallow Lloyd whole. The boy let out a terrified scream before everything went dark.
His eyes snapped open to the worn ceiling of their shared dorm room.
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