This is a tale of a different day.

For the past few hours, Unikitty had been aboard a small ship sailing on its maiden voyage, although this time she did not have to worry about getting sea sick because the ship was not traversing against heavy tides like Metal Beard’s, nor did it soar past entire LEGO realms at a speed that likely defied the laws of physics like Benny’s custom-built spaceship. The ship she was sailing in was blissfully cruising through the galaxy itself, where any realm she had ever seen in her life was but a small piece in a much larger set.

Her mind quite literally drifted off into space as she stared through the viewport in front of her, reflecting on the past events six months ago up to now. At this current moment in time, she was curled up in the ship’s co-pilot seat next to the pilot; she vaguely remembered her name being Sweet Mayhem in the brief flickers of memory following their short meeting and then before she knew it, she was here.

There was something about the stars that caught her attention, how they twinkled like diamonds on a colourful cosmic canvas of purple, blue and the occasional planet or shooting star. The view helped her remember the late night sky of Cloud Cuckoo Land being encrusted with them as the sun lowered beneath the clouds of Middle Zealand. And on some nights they were partnered with fireworks in dances of light and colour, captivating her imagination for countless hours. With that one memory she felt herself returning home, drawn to it as if hypnotised as she fell through time like a moth to a flame but instead of being burnt, the light of starlight fires faded into the world of darkness where her mind drifted downwards like a feather into the endless obscurity.

When there was finally a spark of light that welcomed in more memories, it all came back to her harder than any crashing wave of the seas of Middle Zealand, or as oppressive as Lord Business’ dreaded rules that lurked around every corner of Bricksburg or the security camera that littered every street. At last her mind had taken her back six months, when everything changed.

When Lord Business unleashed the Kragle, life had been torn apart, realm by realm, piece by piece, brick by brick... or at least, for a few minutes until Emmet thwarted Lord Business' evil plans! Better yet, a lot of what was lost could actually be recovered again using the broken bits and pieces left behind from the carnage. Within minutes, master builders and normal folks alike began rebuilding homes and not before long everything was back to normal! Although Taco Tuesday became a day of commemoration, everyone more or less moved on, almost as if nothing seemed lost. Almost…

Cloud Cuckoo Land was a realm made out of love and happiness (as cheesy as that sounds) and served as the fundamental meeting point for master builders across many LEGO realms but for Princess Unikitty, it was her home above all things. When remembering Cloud Cuckoo Land, Unikitty would often remember its beautiful colours, its questionably fun rules (or lack of them), all the happy smiles and most importantly that there were no frowny faces! Not once! But now all she can think about was how it all came to an end when THEY arrived. The Master Builders using Unikitty's kingdom as a rendezvous was not actually her idea! Although being one of them, the thought of her home being used for secret meetings about serious things seemed to be a contradiction of what Cloud Cuckoo Land stood for. When she initially showed hesitation and felt traces of the opposite of happiness stirring within her, they bombarded her with frowny faces until she eventually agreed to help.

This had marked the beginning of the end for her life as she knew it because not long afterwards, the 'Special' arrived with the legendary piece of resistance... and with an army of Lord Business' robots right behind him. The rest she didn't want to remember, the fires, the screaming, the moment she witnessed what was left breaking apart in the ocean and being condemned to be forever lost to time. All that was left for Unikitty was the lingering image of once colourful and familiar pieces laying eroding away at the bottom of the sea floor with their colours washed out or covered with solid seaweed. Being sea sick later on that day was just the cherry on top.

With that image stained in her current thoughts, Unikitty’s mind desperately dove back into the unfamiliar blackness to drown it out and replace it with something else, something positive! She darted ahead in her memories to rekindle the silver linings. She remembered Emmet, how he comforted her, built her the double decker couch (as lame as it was) and invited her to open up about her pain. Of all the people she met, Emmet was definitely the most memorable for how sweet and simple his way of thinking was and even remembering him allowed her the smallest of smiles. In hindsight, Unikitty believed that she understood Emmet better than most because he never let anything truly dampen his spirits and she even felt a twinge of guilt as she remembered coming up with the plan to destroy the Octan Tower and NOT telling Emmet he was going to die. Then again, that wasn’t just her fault.

Then she remembered the others, Wildstyle, Batman, Benny, Metal Beard and Vitruvius and then the thrilling adventure of going into the Octan Tower, followed by holding a 'bizniz' meeting with a bunch of robots! That was fun! But then she would remember seeing Vitruvius literally lose his head to Lord Business and then finding herself seconds away from dying... that was not fun. In fact, she was only alive thanks to Emmet who bravely sacrificed himself and in that moment, she had to deal with the traumatic realisation that she had lost two friends in a matter of minutes. The rest was history, Emmet somehow came back to life and returned, saved the world and she had even gotten a chance to repay him… by giving into her inner rage to do so, something she felt ashamed of.

Unikitty finally remembered the feeling of indescribable joy that came after defeating Lord Business! Whilst she always did her best to stay positive, this was a type of positivity she had never felt before or since and for a split second, she had almost convinced herself that it was worth what she had lost and then just like that, every broken piece of repressed negativity came crawling back...

When Bricksburg was finally rebuilt, Unikitty had been battling her inner grief for her long lost home against the hope of its recovery. She distinctly remembered being sat on an apartment rooftop, a sunset disappearing and casting a beautiful purple sky, mixed with a gentle breeze as she saw the final building being rebuilt… and then destroyed again because ironically, it was an abandoned apartment due to be destroyed that day. When the Master Builders declared the work done, there was a beautiful firework display that filled Brixburg with colours that acted as a beacon that called her home.

A call so strong that she then eagerly made her way down to the city level, dashing through the crowd of cheering civilians in the roads and pavements until finally finding a group of Master Builders in the local park that was swarmed with even more celebrating civvies. She distinctly remembered the group consisting of the Swamp Creature, Texas Cowboy, the Pirate Captain and Green Lantern - though he was only there to ask where Superman was so he could hang out with his ‘best friend’, he was gone within a second.

Unikitty approached them in the usual way she greeted anyone.

“Helloooo!” She greeted enthusiastically, catching the gathering’s attention.

“Aaaaaah Princess Unikitty!” The Swamp Creature responded, with a voice that resembled a hiss more than anything, trapping his voice in a permanently angry tone. “To what do we owe the pleasure?”

“I’ve come to ask you, my fellow Master Builders, a question!” She responded in a playful manner, almost bursting at the seams with excitement.

“Then ask away!” Swamp Creature responded, again sounding angry.

“Sooooooo… now that Bricksburg is fixed, when will we fix my home? Cloud Cuckoo Land?” Unikitty’s question came out of her mouth before she could even process the words to utter it. These kinds of situations where her happiness depended on others caused her great anxiety. How would they respond? How soon can it be done? Questions in her head that got sidelined by the excitement of finally recovering her old home. She even imagined the group laughing with merry joy as one of them would say:

“Of course! We could never forget Cloud Cuckoo Land! We shall begin right away!”

In the real world there was laughter, but it was the laughter of a condescending nature and suddenly the three master builders seemed taller, looking down at her like an enthusiastic child looking at an insect before crushing it.

“We’re master builders, not ‘wonder builders!'” One of the members remarked, the words so venomous that Unikitty didn’t even process who said it specifically. Either that or she just couldn’t remember now.

“Pretty sure there are shelters for cats here anyways! I’m sure Sherry Scratchen-Post is always looking for new cats!” Another voice joined, resulting in an explosion of laughter that felt more like a devastating eruption of a volcano.

At that moment, it felt like the world clamped down on her with a weight so strong it had knocked all of her senses clean from her mind. As she turned away from the group to hide her reaction, she found herself staring at the cold floor, feeling the opposite of happiness take root within her, with everyone becoming a blur, every cheer became white noise that grew louder and louder as it became conjoined with the increasing pounding of her aching heart. She even remembered it was raining but as Unikitty thought more about it, it was likely just the tears forming in her eyes and dropping on the floor.

It was only when she felt a hand touch her shoulder that she realised she had been trembling and hyperventilating violently and it took her a second to look up and even longer to process who she was looking at. Despite him being the most recognisable person in her life, Emmet was looking right into her eyes with an evident expression of concern that did not belong on his usually chirpy face and yet, he was still like a ray of sunshine beaming through the blackest of clouds. He was speaking to her but she only heard more noise, he was likely saying her name but her ears were incapable of hearing as if blocked by invisible wax. It was as if Lord Business himself had fired a shot of the Kragle into her ears as one last twist of the blade in the alrighty egregious amount of damage he had done to her, robbing her of receiving the help from the one person that truly cared for her.

The memory becomes blurry, the tear-filled vision didn’t help, but she remembered running away for a reason that was even more obscure, allowing herself to be swallowed up into the encroaching mass of shapes and sounds until she eventually found herself on the outskirts of Bricksburg’s border, looking back at the city as she stood before a portal to Middle Zealand.

She went through it and had never been seen since.

Time passed and she found herself hiding in the wilderness of Middle Zealand, hiding from everyone around her ESPECIALLY the Master Builders who occasionally visited. Never again did she want to have any dealings with them, for whilst they were pioneers in creative construction to many they were harbingers of devastating destruction to her. By helping them, she had unintentionally given the inch that allowed them to take the mile. In her months of solitude, she found that apart from her home, the only thing she found herself missing was Emmet whom she found herself relating to him more than ever. Just like her, Emmet did not ask for any of what he went through but unlike her, he had a happily ever after.

At this point, she didn’t want to remember any further memories as she knew the opposite of happiness beckoned her to a place she did not want to go, like a false lighthouse in a stormy tide.

“Have you finally calmed down yet?” Almost as if on queue, the pilot’s annoyed voice had cut through Unikitty’s melancholic memories like a scythe and dragged her back into the present. The voice was feminine but was amplified with a some kind of modulator to make it sound deeper and imposing. As the past dawned and her attention returned to the present, she felt that her mind had become sharpened like a spear, ready to pierce through her choppy memory and take in her situation.

The pilot wore a clear white space suit, with parts of the suit being finished with two colours. Purplish pink straps on the crest of the suit that connected the upper and lower torso and kneepads and then finally, two blue straps on each of the upper forearms and then one blue line travelling around the outlines of both shoulder pads. In addition to the clean colours, the suit had what appeared to be wings that extended from the back, with each wing starting with a white frame that wrapped around a blue crystal-like substance.

For Unikitty, the most noteworthy detail was the helmet, it was white like the rest of the armour but had two sharp points coming out on either side, traversing backwards which made them look like elf ears. There was one more point that was dark pink on the top of the helmet which was likely a stylistic choice. Lastly, the helmet was adorned with a visor that was tinted with blackish blue chrome that completely obscured the identity of the wearer. In fact, the ship’s design seemed to be based off this helmet too with its similar colouring and shape. All in all, the figure that was sitting next to her looked like something that came out of Benny’s realm but much cleaner, modern, feminine and slightly intimidating.

“I’m just saying, we have got a long way to go and I REALLY do not want to have another overly dramatic fight.” said Sweet Mayhem as she sat in the seat as still as a statue whilst her hands occasionally turned the ship’s steering wheel. “Especially since I just got the paintwork redone in here.” she continued, this time actually turning to face Unikitty who saw her own reflection in the reflective visor.

She looked terrible, her eyelids drooped, her eyes slightly red and looked like they were so heavy and tired that they pressed downward causing very noticeable eyelids and lastly, a small frown where her usual smile used to be. She looked like the very definition of the opposite of happiness. But this did not shock Unikitty because this was not the first time she had seen herself like this. In fact, she had seen this face before on the same exact surface and when she realised this, it was as if Sweet Mayhem’s dark visor engulfed her like she was falling into deep pitch black water.

She doesn’t remember how she got there, but Unikitty had made it to the top of the clouds of Middle Zealand during a cold rainstorm, the timing was terrible but she felt like she could heal better if she was away from everyone and be close to where her beloved home once was. She couldn’t tell how long she was there before everything went crazy but the next thing she really remembered was the spaceship landing nearby and Sweet Mayhem flying in the sky, her wings making her look like a bright blue firefly as the wings emitted a trail of light. She landed mere inches from her and invited her to a place called the ‘Sistar System’ without giving any context as to how she found her or even why she was invited at all.

It turned out that the invitation was more ‘rhetorical’ because when Unikitty politely stated she had not been interested and wanted to stay with what was left of her home, her answer was not accepted. This was made evident when Sweet Mayhem pointed what looked like a space blaster at her and yes… it also had the same colour palette as Sweet Mayhem herself and her ship. The rest of this memory was filled with a lot of negative thoughts and the colour red as she lost control to her inner rage. Then blackness, not because she skipped the memory this time, something had knocked her out.

For the past few hours, Unikitty had been aboard a small ship sailing on its maiden voyage, although this time she did not have to worry about getting sea sick, she instead worried that she was a prisoner. The ship she was sailing in was blissfully cruising through the galaxy itself, where any realm she had ever seen in her life was but a small piece in a much larger set, the Sistar System.

“I’ll take your silence as a no then.” Sweet Mayhem noted as she continued to stare at Unikitty for a painfully long time before finally returning to focusing on the viewport. “Just stop with the shaking and twitches or at least, give me a heads up.”

Unikitty decided to also look back out the stars just so she didn’t have uphold any social expectations, she was physically, emotionally and mentally bereft of any desire to resist or even speak but neither did she want to think anymore about the past, nor the present and definitely what was in store for her in the future. She was thankfully granted a small mercy, sleep.

When she awoke, she found herself curled up in a cat basket with a soft blanket thoughtfully left covering her up. As she allowed her body and mind to arise, she realised she was not sure what surprised her more, the fact she went from being in a ship to a cat basket, the fact that she had slept peacefully for the first time in six months or the colossal room that she found herself in. The room was bizarre, it was lit with bright blue light from the bottom, masking the room’s true colour like a chameleon when threatened by a predator. She observed the room's shape being dome-like with a row of rectangular windows, horizontally stretching the room’s circumference to reveal the outer space she was all too familiar with. Just beneath the windows were adjoining small platforms underneath that allowed exotic plants of crystalline blue and purple to grow upwards, sparkling like precious gems. There were more plants around the edges of the room’s floor of similar colours and texture and there were even some growing downwards from another platform just above the windows, the colours were fascinating as the vines were silver white but with blue and purple flowers that somehow resembled confetti that had been frozen in time.

The blue light did allow some colours to pass through, she could see gold patterns snake across parts of the wall and it only then occurred to her to follow the light’s source and upon doing so, discovered that the floor right in front of her was one straight drop into a deep blue abyss. Suddenly the blue dissipated and gave way to natural light, allowing colours of cream, deep purples and pale pinks to manifest across the walls and floor. It was as if the room itself woke up from its own deep sleep and acknowledged her presence, as she looked around to take in the shift in light of colour she heard a voice beckon from above.

“Presenting her majesty, Queen Watevra Wa’Nabi!” A male voice began, coming off as posh-sounding but the words felt grounded down through years of repetition into something that sounded scripted and very fed up. It was only a beat later that Unikitty got the chance to see who was presenting to her and it was not all what she expected. An ice cream cone descended from above, standing on a circular platform that hovered in the air like a mini UFO, as bizarre as that sounds. The ice cream’s body was cone with arms but had an upside down triangular opening on the chest to reveal a light blue jacket collar, within it a white shirt collar and within that, a brownish yellow-tie. The ice-cream’s head was pink with a face that rivalled hers with it’s baggy eyes and frowny face and the literally cherry on top was exactly that but with white cream and sprinkles.

“Empress of the Sistar Syst-” the ice cream cone was cut off, right as he did a half-courteous bow by the sudden appearance of a giant snake that adorned a golden crown on its head! It had arisen from the deep abyss that Unikitty had just stared into, coiled upright aboard its own platform, filling up the deep space below.

“Yeah, yeah! We’ve done this already like twenty minutes ago!” The snake sassed, her bright blue irises fixating on the ice cream as he turned around to face her with no evident shock or surprise on his face. He simply made a small bow of acknowledgement before his platform floated away and out of view as silently as he entered. The giant snake had many colourful bands that alternated in a specific pattern as it travelled down her body; First, the underbelly was bright yellow, the head was dark pink, then there was a band of red, then yellow, then purple, then orange and then back to dark pink until the tail’s end where after the final dark pink band there was a brighter pink tail tip that was almost hypnotic to look at, it even looked like it was faintly glowing. As she examined her colours, the giant snake turned her large head, as if reflexively acknowledging Unikitty’s presence

“Oh!” She exclaimed, her tail covering her mouth like a hand as if shocked. “Where are my manners! I completely forgot that my final guest was a royal one!” she continued, her words delivered with animated head sways occasionally. “I am Queen Watevra Wa’Nabi! Empress of the Sistar System!” she said, repeating what the Ice Cream had attempted to say with much more emphasis and passion in her delivery.

“I am Princess Unikitty'' she wanted to say back but just couldn’t, she technically wasn’t a princess anymore and she couldn’t bring herself to change the wording of her chirpy introduction that she has been so accustomed to. She was also overwhelmed by the sheer size of Wa’Nabi’s serpentine body so instead her mouth opened and the faintest of noises came out but no words.

“Now I know I am a giant snake and all but I can actually make myself into ‘Wateva’ I ‘Wan’ to be!” she then chuckled at her own pun. “I am just a snake right now since I’m helping out with a nature documentary about reptiles!” She extended her neck so that her large head could come face to face with hers. “Between you and me, I really dig it!” she spoke in a hushed tone, as if letting Unikitty in on a little secret. “Now if I’m not mistaken, you must be Princess Unikitty of Cloud Cuckoo Land! I gotta admit your kingdom sounded well worth a visit!” she continued enthusiastically. “I just wish I wasn’t so busy with boring royal duties…” she said, rolling her eyes for emphasis as she suddenly adopted a more annoyed tone.

Upon hearing that name of her home, Unikitty could feel the stabbing pain pierce her aching heart even deeper but at the same time, hearing someone else talk about it with such passion was a comfort, someone actually cared about the home she lost. The thought overwhelmed her, reflexively she looked down at the floor to process this.

“Oh! The cat basket. I know, really out of place. We DID have a chamber planned for you but then SOMEBODY got the smart idea to have your chamber just consist of a basket, litter box and scratching post! Though we kept the basket since you were fast asleep on arrival and didn’t want to wake you!”

Then she remembered, Unikitty was forced to be here and if she ‘arrived’ like Wa’Nabi just said, then that means…

“It was you!” She stammered, her old confidence meekly manifesting before dissipating in the same second.

“Me?” Wa’Nabi asked, with evident confusion on her face.

“The one who ‘invited’ me! You sent Sweet Mayhem to kidnap me!” A small twinge of anger allowed itself to come forward, causing her normally calm blue irises to spark red for an instance, jumping forward a few inches and out of the cat basket.

“Kidnapped!?” Wa’Nabi leaned back, startled at the word. “No! No! I did invite you! I really wanted to meet you! I told Mayhem to do whatever was necessary to convince you to come! She-”

“Pointed a blaster at me!” Unikitty finished for her, standing with determination to see through the lies she was surely being told.

“I…” Wa’Nabi began but stopped herself to look away and contemplate for a beat before sighing and looking back at Unikitty with a look of sorrow on her face. “I am sorry. I DID tell her to do what was necessary to convince you to come but honestly, we’ve never had the chance to have any visitors. This is our first time branching out to newcomers so we don’t have a clue as to how to introduce ourselves! We are terrible communicators, I won’t lie.”

“I…” Unikitty did not expect his answer, it felt unique and genuine yet utterly benign at the same time, her determination was suddenly hampered by confusion. All this complication just added onto the weight of her mind, making her head feel heavy with the burden of the grief that she already carried, the weight felt literal too as she felt the need to lower it.

“I’m so sorry Princess Unikitty.” Said Wa’Nabi, her previously enthusiastic tone now exchanged for a sympathetic one, her head came close to Unikitty so she could speak quietly and softer. “I promise you are not a prisoner here, we can take you home if you want! Just say the word and we’ll have you back in Cloud Cuckoo Land in no time!”

That was the last straw, the mentioning of her home again. It was too much, she couldn’t look at Wa’Nabi, or anything! No more! No more confusion, stress, the opposite of happiness! Any of it! She had enough! Her body started violently trembling with sour sorrow and vengeful wrath! No more does she have to needlessly be teased by fate of her misfortunes! Bitter tears poured from her eyes against Unikitty’s will and a growl began to form in her throat as she felt herself lose the battle of self-control.

“No…I…” His voice was nothing more than a squeak, even a dormouse would have a higher volume. “It…” was all she managed to say before she felt something smooth slide under her chin and slowly raise her head upwards to face Wa’Nabi’s. And then she saw it, that same expression that Emmet had back in Bricksburg and immediately she felt her frustration melt away and leave her with the overwhelming desire to do something else, something she had never truly done before in her life.

“Hey now, no need to stress! If you want to stay, you can stay or if you want to go home I won’t be-”

“It’s gone!” Unikitty cried out, finally letting her emotions out without the frustration of pride or the insecurity of judgement or ridicule. “Cloud Cuckoo Land is gone! Destroyed! I have nothing left for me back there but frowny faces and empty clouds where my beautiful home was!” She continued at a lightning pace, her words quivering or stammering here and there. “Nobody can bring it back, or even cares that it was MY HOME!” There was a pause where the last of that outburst echoed through the room as if giving an auditory representation of the last of her energy leaving her. In the end there was nothing more for her to do than to let out the tears she had repressed for so long.

“Oh Unikitty, I had no idea!” Wa’Nabi’s voice was deepened with shock and concern. “Come here.” she said, her tail now sliding behind Unikitty to gently nudge her closer to her.

“I’m sorry” said Unikitty.

“Don’t be, I can tell you needed that. How about you tell me everything that’s troubled you from the start and I’ll listen.” She offered with a disarming smile.

“You will?” Unikitty asked, as her tears were wiped away by Wa’Nabi’s tail.

“Yes, I won’t do anything else… plus, it beats boring royal duties anyways” she joked, causing Unikitty to do something she hadn’t done in six months. She giggled.

“Ok! Well, let me tell you about Cloud Cuckoo Land first, as if you could really be there…” she began, maybe this time remembering won’t be so painful with someone to listen to.

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This image was part of a series done by Lachlandingoofficial as little gift since he is a fellow Unikitty enjoyer! There's much more to come, the stories for the next part won't be as long but I wanted to have a bit of fun with this!
Also, this was a cool lil take on what if Unikitty from the Lego Movie had the Unikitty! art style and I personally think it fits!

Art byLachlandingoOfficial
Story written by me~
Unikitty (The LEGO Movie) and Wa'Nabi belong to LEGO
[Completed: 06/12/2022]