2nd Times The Charm, Right?

2nd times the charm, right?

*set after the robots attacked Lloyd and the others at the Tournament of Sources

Aaren could not get back to sleep, no matter how much she tossed and turned on her bed roll, sleep seemed to elude her. That wasn't necessarily a new thing, even before the merge and getting her visions, her sleep had never been the best, but after being rudely awakened by a robot assassin attacking her and Lloyd, she figured that might be the main cause for tonight's insomnia.

The backyard seemed to glow under the moonlight, with spots of shadows landing on the pond and other spots due to the trees and buildings around them. As she scanned the grounds, passing over the pond, the training equipment, and even the trees, Aaren could not spot her brother. Wondering where he could have gone, she stepped farther from the door, only to hear the slight shuffle of tile above her. Smiling slightly, she turned to face the awning before allowing the wind to help her up.

After what felt like eternity, Aaren heard the blankets rustle next to her. Lloyd she thought, internally sighing as the slight footsteps of her twin faded away. Slowly, as not to disturb the others, she got up and dodged the others laying around and followed the sound of her brother to the back porch of their housing. She paused slightly as she passed Cole, who shifted, grumbling slightly about cake. She smiled every so slightly at how some things never change. Though last time they were in a tournament, their room arrangements were not nearly as close together, what with all of them having their own element themed rooms. Plus they were missing the Julians last time, this time they have all the nindroids, but they were missing Kai, Jay, and James.

Getting sidetracked, Aaren refocused as she slid the door shut and took a look around to try and spot Lloyd.

Once she was on the roof, it was easy to spot Lloyd. His back was towards her, though she could see he was balancing on the ridge of the roof as he looked towards the moon. Approaching quietly, she positioned herself next to her twins left, and found him hugging his knees to his chest. Aaren didn't say anything at first, just joined him at looking at the moon, though if she caught the slight reflection of a tear sliding down his cheek, she didn't say anything. Granted, one of the for better or worse things about being twins, especially prophesied twin saviors, is that Aaren had a good feeling why Lloyd was up there.

After a while, Lloyd finally broke the silence, his voice cracking slightly. "Do you think we are actually cut out to be masters? To lead the team through the tournament? Are we really at the same level as Master Wu...as.."

"Dad?" supplied Aaren quietly. She still didn't look directly at her brother, for she feared if she did, one of them would end up letting the tears come tumbling out. "That was the reason you pushed so hard to say you weren't ready to be the Master to help the others through the Tournament...why I....felt not ready either."

Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Lloyd nodding slowly, wiping his eyes as subtly as he could. "It's just....the last time we were in a situation like this...in a tournament...dad was there to help. And at the end of it...we still failed and...and he...we...we lost him. I...how do you live up to him being an amazing teacher and helping us through that tournament? How...how do we know if things are going to end up being the same this time around...or maybe worse...I...I don't want to disappoint the others."

Lloyd slowly curled in on himself as he finished his rant, and he feared facing his sister. He didn't want to see the disappointment on her face. Instead, all he heard was the sounds of shuffling on the roof tiles, before feeling a warm arm wrap around him. Not being able to bring himself to lift his head from his knees, he felt Aaren's chest take a deep breath.

"It's ok to be scared...It's ok to miss dad.. I still miss him too, and trust me...when we heard that this was essentially another Tournament of Elements, my brain immediately went back to the last one we participated in..." Aaren slowly breathed out as she shifted slightly so Lloyd's head ended up on her shoulder. "I was like, How is this going to be different from the last time? This go around, we are down a couple more team members and both our masters? How am I gonna live up to being a proper Master like Uncle and dad?"

Shaking slightly, she continued to look at the moon as Lloyd slowly turned his head to see his sister's face, tears slowly leaking down the side as she continued to breathly say, "In the mists of my doubts though, I saw your doubts too, and then I remembered something dad told us. That we have to try our best, to learn from our mistakes and the lessons of the past so that we can do better in the future.....Trust me, it's hard being here... without dad or even uncle. But we as much as I hate to say it, we are ready. We have been given great examples of how to be Masters, but we also have to learn from their mistakes too....The two of us need to work together to help and encourage the team. We need to try and figure out what Ras has planned before the tournament ends... Yesterday is gone, tomorrow has yet to come, we need to worry about today. We need to figure out how Ras got those robots into here, and we need to figure out how to make sure everyone stays in the tournament as long as possible....What do you think...up for the challenge to make Dad and Uncle proud...to make yourself proud?"

Lloyd sniffled slightly too as Aaren slowly turned towards him, her violet eyes meeting his emerald green. He nodded his head slightly, whispering, "Yeah, I want to make them proud. I miss dad and I wish he was here...I know he hasn't been here for a while, but...being in this setting just got to me a bit more that I thought...plus I..I don't want to not let you guys all down...I just...the pressure gets to me sometimes you know? I...I don't understand how you can have everything together nearly all the time...at least you got it better than me...."

"Lloyd," sighed Aaren, "I..I don't have it together as much as you think, I just...I have just learned how to hide it better...but you can't compare yourself to anyone...especially not me. None of us are the same person, we haven't been through the same things, our childhoods before all this ninja stuff were different...All we need to do right now is focus on the tournament, help eachother if one of us is struggling. Think on the lessons dad and uncle taught us, and help our family. Ok?"

Blinking, Lloyd thought for a moment, and for a second, Aaren thought he was going to rebut her. "Ok, lets do this," stated Lloyd with some confidence. A slight flare of power in his eyes echoed his statement.

Feeling a little bit better, now that the real issue that had been boiling under the surface, Aaren could feel at least some tension come out of the duo. Braving a slight smile as the two started to climb back down, Aaren commented "Come on, we should probably try and get a little bit of sleep before the tournament starts. Besides, I know it might seem a bit daunting, but second times the charm, right?"