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ramspatula · 27 days ago

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Zinnias | Lloyd Garmadon x fem!reader | Part 8

The Dark Island was where we needed to be but I couldn’t quite keep my focus on that…

Previous Part, Master list, Next Part

The sound of banging and random chatter wasn’t unfamiliar on board this ship after the past few days, however, it was a little concerning when you had feel asleep alone and naked on said ship the night before.

I wasn’t naked now and I definitely wasn’t alone. One of Lloyd’s hoodies had been somehow put on me in my sleep an despite lacking a bra, my underwear had seemingly found their way back on too… I could probably do with a bath or a shower- wait…

Did Lloyd somehow wash me in my sleep?!

Maybe he was magical as well as the chosen one. I knew one thing for sure, I fell in love with the right guy.

Wait…

Fell in love?! What happened last night?!

With that thought in mind, I stood and searched through the draws for any sort of bottom half clothing and- bingo! Drawstring joggers! God I look like an idiot. If the walk of shame was a person, it would look like me right now. I wish I could be bothered to put my bra back on.

I sighed as I reached the kitchen area and began to search for anything remotely caffeinated. I was tired of tea. And- we just had tea. I think I’ll have tea then.

“I hear the kettle!” I heard a familiar whiny voice call from down the hallway. “She’s up!” He continued and I glared at Kai when he entered the kitchen. “How was it?” He asked with that stupid smirk and I gave him a fake grin.

“I’m a lot more worn out than Pearl ever is after a night with you.” I said and his face dropped.

“Low blow.” He pointed at me and I grinned. “Seriously, how was it?” Kai asked and I smiled.

“Didn’t you feel the mini earthquake?” I asked and Kai’s face dropped.

“Damn that’s what that was. Lloyd not the only one with skills I see-“ Kai said and my face dropped.

“I was joking-“ I said just as Cole walked in.

“There’s our star girl! We felt that little earthquake last night!” Cole said and I held my head in now embarrassment.

“Did you see the little light show as well? Put me to shame.” Jay said as he walked in and I stared at him in disbelief.

“Once again, I was joking.” I said and Kai grinned.

“But we’re not.” Kai said.

“Good to know.” I said and poured the boiling water into my mug. “Where is my walking natural disaster anyway?” I asked and Cole laughed.

“That was good, I found that funny- he’s holding the thruster up whilst Nya wires some stuff together- Anyway! How was it?” Cole asked, trying to skip past the fact he was the only one to laugh at the natural disaster thing.

“I’m not answering that.” I told them and they all groaned in sync.

“C,mon Y-!”

I watched as the whole kitchen suddenly glitched and all the left out mugs on the kitchen table suddenly fell onto the floor.

“Sorry.” Kai apologised and I sent him a tight smile.

“Pearl told you my name didn’t she?” I said and he nodded.

“It’s okay.” I told him. “Just don’t repeat it please. Reduces the likelihood of this happening.” I said and Kai nodded. “Moving on!” I called and sat down on one of the chairs at the table. “You’re here to dig for information from me, so dig.” I said and they all looked at each other in shock.

“How did you-“ Cole went to question and I rolled my eyes.

“For ninja you’re not really that slick.” I said and they all looked at me with different looks of protest before Cole pushed past them and sat opposite me.

“Where are you from?” He asked and I smiled.

“Jamanikai.” I said and he nodded.

“Respectable place.” Kai added and Cole nodded.

“What do your parents do?” He asked and I smiled.

“My Dad is an accountant and my Mother works for a company in resources.” I said and Cole nodded.

“Respectable jobs.” Jay added and they all nodded.

“What do they think of Lloyd?” Cole asked and I squirmed uncomfortably.

“I don’t know.” I admitted and they all gave each other shrugs and awkward looks.

“What do they think of you being in a relationship… specifically with Lloyd?” Cole asked and I shrugged.

“I don’t know…” I admitted again and they gave each other even more awkward looks.

“Do they know?!” Cole asked and I shook my head. “Why not?!” He questioned and I shrugged.

“I don’t really talk to them.” I told them and they all shared odd looks but Cole looked understanding when he finally looked at me.

“Do you know what they would think of Lloyd and Lord Garmadon?” Cole asked and the reminder of my parents being conservative and very pro military sprung to mind.

“I do… They’re not exactly supportive or understanding but that’s really with anything!” I tried to justify and Kai frowned.

“But doesn’t that bother you? You’re serious about Lloyd right?” Kai asked and I shot up in my chair.

“Of course.” I said, confidently. That was one thing I knew for definite. “My parents are just there? Not even! I don’t live with them- I haven’t seen them in years! I haven’t even spoke to my mother for 2-3 months?” I said and their eyes widened. “They’re busy people and I don’t care enough about them to even think what they’d say about Lloyd! He’s my boyfriend! I want to be with him! I lo-like him! So much! I’m here! I could’ve gone back to them but I’m not. I’m here for him.” I declared and Cole nodded in respect?

“Well that settles it. Welcome to the team, Peach.” Cole said and leant over with his arm stretched out. I took his hand and he shook it lightly. “That’s all we wanted to hear.” He said and I smiled.

“I’m serious.” I told him and he nodded.

“I know you are… you’re good for him.” Cole told me and I smiled.

“Thank you. That means a lot to me.” I said and Cole smiled.

“Well Lloyd means an awful lot to us as well and we’ve never seen him as happy as he is with you.” Kai added and I nodded.

“Did you find what you were digging for?” I asked and they all seemed to share a similar look before turning back to me with grins and nodding.

“If you have time to lean-“ I heard a an old, wise voice call out and the ninja all groaned. “-you have time to clean.” Wu said as he walked in the room. “We leave today, I suggest you don’t make us any more behind than you already have.” Wu told them and I laughed as they all left the room with disgruntled looks.

🪺. *. ⋆

After what felt like a stupidly long argument between Nya and Jay on what button to press- the thrusters were firing and I watched on- gladly -whilst Lloyd hoisted up the anchor back onto the bounty. He had his gi halfway off and grease smeared on his chest and I think I’m still on a high from last night. Anyway- we were in the air again! Lloyd was wrapping the anchor back around its hook and I waited patiently for him to make his way back inside. I still hadn’t seen him since last night and I felt giddy anytime I caught a single glimpse of him. So when I saw the green clad figure heading my way again, I smiled and waited for him to find his way back to me inside.

Fate was cruel though.

It was so obvious that that sea monster thing would appear now out of the ocean to stop our take off. In fact, its first tentacle nearly crushed Lloyd as it wrapped its way around the ship. I wasn’t ashamed to admit the scream I let out when I caught sight of its massive eyes staring right down at me.

Suddenly, this whole ninja life thing just became really unappealing.

Kai, thankfully, pulled me back into the inners of the bounty and I tried to regain my breath as the rest of the ninja ran out to… help?

“It’s chained! It won’t let us go!” Zane yelled and I raised my eyebrows.

“Oh yeah well, who’s going to unchain it?” Kai yelled back as Zane looked back over the side-

Oh no. He doesn’t mean- he won’t- he did.

I covered my mouth as Zane leapt over the side of the bounty. My dismay was matched by the ninja too and most of all- Dr Julien who cried out for his son. I went to move further out onto the deck until I remembered the monster was still in fact grasping the ship and trying to bring us down. Luckily for me, my boyfriend was very aware of this fact and held me back before a sharp tug from the monster’s tentacles sent me onto my ass.

“Why would Zane-?!” I went to question and Lloyd shook his head.

“I don’t know.” He told me and I held onto his arm a little tighter.

“Lloyd, I’m scared.” I admitted and he nodded.

“I know, I know baby. Just hold on.” He told me before kissing the side of my head. “Trust Zane.” Lloyd said and I frowned.

“The guy who just jumped ship?!” I asked and he smiled.

“You shouldn’t be making me laugh right now.” Lloyd told me and I looked at him, perplexed.

“I’m not trying to.” I told him and he smiled.

“Makes you even cuter.” Lloyd said and I rolled mr eyes.

“There is a monster trying to drag us into the ocean right now and you’re flirting with me?” I asked and he winked.

“Sure am.” Lloyd told me and I scoffed.

“You’re lucky I lo-like you so much.” I told him and he frowned at me for a moment before smiling.

“I like you a lot too, Peaches.” Lloyd said and I rolled my eyes.

“Can you two focus please?!” Kai yelled at us and for once, I agreed.

With Zane apparently overboard, I had little clue of what was happening or what to do…. But luckily I wasn’t here to come up with solutions and Zane seemed to figure one out by himself.

The solution in question: releasing the monster in the hopes it would let us go.

Zane definitely had more hope than me in that solution and he was right to because if he didn’t, the monster wouldn’t have let the ship go…

If Dr Julien hadn’t beat me to it, I might’ve hugged Zane for his efforts when he clambered back on board.

Now back to the more pressing issue.

We were heading- no flying -to the Dark Island so Lloyd could face his father in a prophesied final battle… What the hell was I doing here?!

🪺. *. ⋆

It had been hours since the monster was freed and the ninja were now free to make their way to the Dark Island with no other pit stops or instances. However, that also meant the final battle was drawing closer and closer. It was safe to say that no one was more aware of this than Lloyd. That being said, no one was more distracted than Lloyd. With all his internal conflicts about facing his father and dealing with the weight of having to win the final battle, there was one internal conflict weighing on his mind more than perhaps those more pressing ones.

He loved (Y/n).

It wasn’t some sort of teenage crush love. It wasn’t just some kind of puppy love. It was a pure devotion and passion for her. He breathed her air, he felt her touch even when she wasn’t there, whenever he closed his eyes he pictured her. Lloyd had never felt so endeared and deeply for someone as he did for her. He loved (Y/n). He could repeat it over and over again in his head. Seeing her cry made his heart stop. The thought of her in pain, any kind of pain, was something worse than torture. Her touch didn’t just invoke a lust he had known before but a deep desire just to admire and feel her presence as deeply as he could. He had done nothing since he met her except try to preserve every memory they made together.

From their first meeting to their first message to their first kiss to their first time. To the very moment she sounded like she was going to say she loved him. Lloyd thought of no one and nothing else other than her. He didn’t look into her eyes to see his reflection but instead his future. This was something stronger than a bond or a connection. This wasn’t just some spark. Lloyd loved (Y/n). It was as if he had never known anything else. He loved her.

“You seem rather content for someone about to fight the biggest prophesied battle to exist.” The familiar voice of Kai met his ears and Lloyd watched as Kai leant on the railing of the bounty next to him.

“Yeah, well… I’m not really thinking about that right now.” Lloyd said and Kai frowned.

“Really? What are you thinking about then?” Kai asked and Lloyd smiled. The ocean was a lot further down now when he looked over the side of the Bounty but it still brought a strange sense of compare. “Because I’m not the green ninja and it’s all I can think about.” Kai added and Lloyd smiled.

“I’m going to tell (Y/n) I love her.” Lloyd said, completely forgetting about her cover name when confessing this truth.

“I-what?!” Kai sputtered and Lloyd’s smile widened.

“I love her.” Lloyd repeated and Kai nodded, a bit frantically.

“Yeah, no. I got that. I mean…” Kai sighed deeply, dramatically, before staring straight back at him. “You met her- what? Two months ago? How can you be sure you love her?” Kai asked and Lloyd met his eyes, they were wide and disapproving of what Lloyd was telling him.

“I’ve never been more sure of something.” Lloyd admitted and Kai took a deep breath.

“C’mon, Lloyd.” Kai shook his head. “2 months is not even a good amount of time to get to know someone, let alone love them?” Kai told him and Lloyd smiled.

“It’s different.” Lloyd said and Kai rubbed his temples.

“How so?” Kai asked and Lloyd leaned off the railing to meet Kai’s eyes with a more confident look.

“It just is.” Lloyd told him. “I’m not exactly human… I don’t know what my Dad has passed onto me but it makes me behave differently, feel differently, think differently. I can control some elements like the red eyes but this… this is so much more.” Lloyd said and Kai looked out to the ocean desperately.

“No. It’s not.” Kai said and Lloyd shook his head.

“I’m not asking for your approval.” Lloyd told him, sharply. “No matter what she says back to me, it’s just… it’s just something I need to tell her before the final battle.” Lloyd said and Kai frowned, deeply. “Kai, if anything goes wrong-“

“It won’t. Don’t say that.” Kai told him, more desperate than before.

“If anything goes wrong… I need her to know. Even if there’s a chance of anything happening not in our favour, I can’t go into this with (Y/n) thinking I don’t love her.” Lloyd said and Kai closed his eyes.

“Please don’t say you’re doing this just because you want to ease both your conscious.” Kai told him and Lloyd grinned before grasping his shoulder.

“I wish that thought had even cross my mind… I just love her.” Lloyd told Kai again who held his own head in his hand.

“If that’s what you want.” Kai said. “Don’t think I’m helping you out or giving you any tips on how to make it really romantic though!” Kai said, sternly and Lloyd chucked.

“I wouldn’t dare.” He said finally before walking off.

🪺. *. ⋆

Once the ship was in the air again, it only took us a matter of hours to get to the island and I slept for almost all of them… I was still exhausted. Actually, I’m pretty sure Nya slept as well and Cole and Wu and- so I’m pretty sure nearly all of us slept. When I fell asleep, Lloyd was still out on the deck doing- whatever he was doing. Yet when I woke up, Lloyd’s head was resting on my stomach whilst the rest of his body dangled hopelessly at the end of the bed. I frowned at his awkward position before sitting up causing him to stir awake and force himself to sit up.

“Do you want to come and lay actually on the bed?” I asked and Lloyd paused for a moment before looking at me from the right end of the bed where he sat.

“Yes.” He told me and climbed his way up to the pillow. His eyes closed again immediately and I smiled before brushing a piece of hair away from his face. Lloyd always looked so troubled when he slept. He always managed to sleep with the deepest frown and I found myself trying to smooth out the crease in his eyebrows each time.

However, it wouldn’t be Lloyd if he didn’t suddenly reach out and grab me when I tried to get up and out the bed. I giggled a little when he buried his nose into my hair.

“C’mon sweetheart, I haven’t gotten up in hours. I want to get some food.” I told him only to feel him let out a deep sigh through his nose. “Lloyd…” I said his name in the hopes he would reply. “C’mon we’re probably going to land soon.” I told him and he moved his head a little to the side.

“Landed hours ago.” He groaned and I frowned.

“How long?!” I questioned and he held me a little tighter.

“Stay.” He told me again and I smiled.

While I did stay, for a few moments. My rumbling stomach interrupted the peaceful moment and that’s when I decided I was getting up now, no matter what Lloyd said. Which was just a bunch of groaning and protesting as I stood up and got my shoes back on. A new neatly pile a fresh cleaned and dried clothes were set on my chair and I sighed in relief as my- not Nya’s or Lloyd’s- trousers were on the chair. The ones I was wearing on the day we left. They were comfortable and I didn’t have to fight with a drawstring to keep them from falling down. That being said, I didn’t choose to wear my own top but Lloyd’s because his undershirts were surprisingly flattering on me.

“Looks better on you than me.” Lloyd told me and I gave him an amused look. He was propped up on his elbow and apparently just watching me get changed.

“Go back to sleep, Greenie.” I told him throwing the top I was previously wearing at him. Like the loveable weirdo he was, he caught the top and laid on it in order to fall back asleep. Lloyd really had some infatuation with how I smelt. He really really liked it and I didn’t know why but I wasn’t going to deny it?

“I don’t want to go out there.” Lloyd said and I smiled as I sat down in front of the mirror with a brush, a hair tie and a dream.

“It’s okay, sleepy. We 6 dwarfs don’t need you just yet.” I told him and he chortled.

“That is not what I meant.” Lloyd said, amused and sounding more awake. I gave him a look which said tell me more and he sat up again. “I mean… I- when I go out there, that means that it’s all real and all about to happen. I’m the green ninja and I have to be ready at any time to fight the final battle but in here, with you, I’m just Lloyd.” Lloyd told me and I felt my heart tighten at the confession. I let go of the hair tie with a snap and pulled the hair to make sure it was in place before making my way over to him again.

“You’re always Lloyd, whether you wear the gi or not. I don’t see it as separate anymore. To me, you are always Lloyd and while you may have to act different as Greenie you’re still Lloyd. And I’ll still feel for you all the same. And I’ll still have the same amount of confidence in you. Do you have that confidence in yourself?” I asked and he grabbed my hand, I let him intertwine our fingers as he spoke.

“Isn’t your confidence enough?” Lloyd asked and I smiled before kissing his forehead.

“Do you think it’s time to speak to your Sensei about this?” I asked and he sighed.

“Probably. I just want to be with you right now.” Lloyd said and I couldn’t help the way I cheesed at the line.

“Well maybe you could follow me into the kitchen and we could have some food together, like we did at my dorm?” I asked and he smiled.

“I’d love that.” Lloyd said with a small smile before bringing me into a kiss. Which was a dangerous ploy to just try and drag me back into bed.

I want it known on the record that I fought the green ninja and won.

Because here I am, in the kitchen making food whilst he was sitting at the table waiting expectantly for food. He was still a little groggy but I could forgive him for that considering I don’t think he slept well without me in the same bed recently. My cheffing skills didn’t stretch far in this kitchen so noodles with two sauce flavour packets was our first meal of the day. One of our bowls was considerably more full than the other. That bowl being Lloyd’s. He had the metabolism of 5 hungry bears in one person and he ate quicker than me too. Who had starved this poor boy like this?

“Do you think there’s a lot we don’t know about each other?” Lloyd asked and I frowned.

“I don’t know, after everything that’s happened recently I’m not even sure there’s much more to know? Thats the fun of it, isn’t it? Learning things about each other just by being with each other.” I told him and he frowned.

“Yeah? What have you learned about me that I haven’t told you?” Lloyd asked and I smiled.

“You’re a huge nerd.” I said and he almost choked in outrage.

“Excuse me?!” He questioned and I chuckled.

“Lloyd. You’ve got Star Wars posters and Lego sets all over your room. You have practically a whole comic book store in your room of just Starfare.” I told him and he took a moment.

“Okay, so you think I’m a nerd.” Lloyd said, a little unimpressed and I giggled.

“A hot one.” I told him and that seemed to ease him a little.

“Okay I can live with that.” Lloyd told me and I smiled before taking another bite.

“What’s something you learnt about me that I haven’t told you?” I asked and he thought for a moment.

“You’re an over thinker.” Lloyd said and that made me pause.

“Hold on, I call you a nerd playfully and that’s what you come out with for me?!” I questioned and he laughed.

“It’s not a bad thing, sweetheart.” Lloyd told me and I gave him a disbelieving look. “Makes you cuter.” He added and I deadpanned.

“What do I overthink about?” I asked and he chuckled.

“What don’t you overthink about?” He asked and- fair point.

“I would say this relationship but I am starting to think that was you trying to casually call me annoying and get away with it.” I said and he deadpanned.

“That is not what I meant.” He clarified and I shrugged.

“Yeah but that could be you just trying to cover it up-“ I said and he shook his head with a sigh.

“Ovethinker.” He told me and I shrugged.

“Does it bother you?” I asked and he shook his head.

“I’ve been told I don’t think enough so actually I think you’re making up for the thoughts I don’t think.” Lloyd said and I shook my head.

“You’re pretty smart.” I told him and he frowned.

“I’m not.” He told me and I nodded.

“You are!” I repeated and he sent me a disbelieving look. “I don’t know about academically but I’ve seen what you’re like in training and other things. You’re a pretty quick thinker.” I told him and he shook his head with an amused grin.

“Did I not just tell you I’ve been told I don’t think enough?” Lloyd asked and I rolled my eyes.

“Okay, okay.” I backed off. “Now I know you were at a boarding school for bad boys- and no the irony is not lost on me but I don’t actually know what education you’ve had.” I told him and he nodded.

“Okay, that’s something,” he said and I shook my head in amusement. “Well, they did teach maths, English, science, all the core subjects but they added a few subjects to those “core subjects” like… evil schematics, larceny, criminal behaviour.” Lloyd told me and I gasped.

“You’re kidding.” I said and he shook his head. “Really?!” I exclaimed and he nodded again. “My school offered sociology as an extra.” I told him and he laughed.

“If I’m honest, I haven’t actually done any academic work since I was 13.” Lloyd said and I gasped before pausing.

“Wait- is that 5 years ago or 1?” I asked and he deadpanned.

“2.” Lloyd said and I smiled before pausing.

“Did I miss your birthday?!” I questioned and he went quiet. “Lloyd!” I exclaimed and he took a deep breath.

“I haven’t celebrated my birthday- ever. I just don’t like it, the others know that so we just pretend it doesn’t exist.” Lloyd said and I started to tear up.

“You told me it was in May.” I said, my voice wavering.

“It’s okay, sweetheart. I knew you’d want to do something so I hoped you’d just forget or see my birth certificate when it was too late.” Lloyd said and I couldn’t stop my eyes from watering.

“So when actually is it?” I asked and he sighed.

“It’s already gone past-“

“Lloyd.” I said and he offered me a small smile.

“December 19th.” He told me and I gasped.

“What date is it now?” I asked and he laughed.

“The 21st.” He told me and I shook my head.

“It’s almost Christmas!” I exclaimed and he laughed. “Your birthday was 2 days ago?! I got you nothing!” I exclaimed again and he made a so-so motion with his head.

“Actually I’d say you gave me a great present if you remember…” He alluded and I gasped.

“I would’ve done a lot more if I knew!” I said and he chuckled.

“I’ll let you know next time.” He told me and I shook my head.

“Not funny.” I told him.

“Let’s talk about something else.” He said, taking his last bite.

“I hope you know when we get back I’m getting you a cake and everything.” I said and Lloyd gave me a blank look.

“Don’t do that.” He told me and I smiled.

“Oh and when I go shopping I’m even going to get you a present.” I told him and he rolled his eyes.

“Y/n, don’t.” He told me and I smiled even harder.

“Too bad, was going to make you take it off me with your teeth.” I said and his eyes shot back up to me.

“Maybe we can celebrate my birthday.” Lloyd said and I smiled.

I fought the green ninja twice today, and won both times.

“Mines (Y/b/d) in case you’ve forgotten that.” I said and Lloyd crossed his arms.

“I remember.” He told me and I smiled. “I already ordered your presents so they should be delivered by the time we get back.” Lloyd said and my eyes widened.

“For Christmas, right?” I asked and he stared at me for a moment.

“Those ones too.” Lloyd said and I held my head.

“Lloyd you’re killing me here.” I said and he chuckled.

“You were the one who missed my birthday- I’m kidding! I’m joking! All my fault. Don’t feel bad-! Sweetheart… Y/n?” Lloyd asked and I kept my head firmly placed down on the table. “Are you crying?”

“No.” I warbled and he chuckled.

“I can hear your irregular breathing.” Lloyd said and I looked up at him with my watery eyes. “You’re also really sensitive.” He told me and I shook my head.

“Not usually!” I exclaimed and he got up to kneel beside me. “This is not like when we had food at my dorm.” I told him and he chuckled.

“No, it’s not… I did offer to stay in bed.” Lloyd told me and I rolled my eyes before leaning on his shoulder. What a morning/afternoon/night… what time was it even?

🪺. *. ⋆

Time worked weirdly on the Dark Island. It was like night was day and day was night. It just felt off. Like being on the opposite side of the scales. Like I was once light and now I am heavy. Like I was living in the light and now I’m living in the dark- oh wait. That made sense actually.

I don’t think this is what Master Wu was having me mediate for…

“Focus, young one.” Wu told me and I sighed. He really sensed my distraction that clearly? “You may not be training to become a ninja yet but you do need to gain some control over this power.” Wu told me and I let my posture drop and my back hunch again. “Clear your mind and focus.” He added and I shook my head.

“I don’t know how to!” I exclaimed. “Every time I try I end up thinking about Lloyd or my situation or I end up monologging in my head.” I told Wu who sighed and sat down across from me.

“Perhaps I need to take another approach.” Wu told me and I sat up a little straighter. “What helps you to focus on other things… like school work?” Wu asked and I thought for a moment.

“Music? I don’t know… I’ve never been able to focus on one thing at a time.” I told him and Wu hummed in thought.

“Maybe that’s where we’re going wrong.” Wu told me and I frowned. “Your glitches are not one single thing. They are multiple forms coming together to disrupt the physical form of what is already there.” Wu said and I listened to his words intently. “Perhaps these glitches are merely a manifestation of your own mental perception.” He continued and I thought for a moment.

Nothing had ever been stable for me. I had faced hardship after hardship… not like the ninja but my hardships were that either way. I had never known stability and glitches were a literal sign of instability and that something was amiss.

“So, my glitches are representations of my own instability?” I asked and Wu stroked his beard.

“Theoretically, it is possible.” He agreed and I nodded.

“If they are only triggered by something potentially threatening, could that mean I manifest these glitches when I see something I associate with fear or danger?” I asked and Wu nodded.

“If that is so, it would mean you associate your own name with those horrible emotions.” Wu told me and I looked away, maybe in shame, maybe in confusion.

“I want to accept these powers as a part of me.” I told Wu. “My name… when I used that name freely. I was hurt. I associate it with betrayal and those who gave it to me, called me it before regarding me as less than. I associate it with those low feelings because others do. I almost see it as another side of me. A side I’m only just beginning to know again… thanks to, Lloyd.” I said and Wu smiled.

“Well then it may be of use to us.” Wu said and I smiled. “I will not use that name.” He clarified and I bowed my head in gratitude. “But this does give me some insight… if the glitches are triggered by emotion then perhaps you can use it to your advantage. You may be able to channel these emotions in order to summon the glitches to your will.” Wu told me and I grinned.

“You really think I can learn to control them?” I asked and he smiled.

“I can only hope… and I believe you are more than what you have reduced yourself to.” Wu said and I took a deep breath.

“Then I will try.” I told him and he smiled before bowing his head.

Would being around the ninja help me to learn more about myself?

#lloyd garmadon x reader #ninjago lloyd #lloyd garmadon #green ninja #cole brookstone #earth ninja #jay walker #kai smith #ninjago #ninjago cole #nya smith #ninjago zane #ninjago kai #ninjago jay #ninjago misako #ninjago garmadon #ninjago nya

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ceoofmorro · 2 years ago

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headcanons again !!

- • debut (taylor swift) — zane.

• fearless — zane, skylor.

• speak now — skylor, cole, jay, lloyd.

• red — kai (obviously).

• 1989 — skylor.

• reputation — harumi, morro, skylor.

• lover — jay, pixal, nya.

• folklore — lloyd, skylor, nya, morro, harumi.

• evermore — lloyd, morro, cole, skylor.

• midnights — cole, kai, skylor, lloyd.

- MY POINT IS THAT SKYLOR IS A TAYLOR SWIFT ADDICT.

- now for the songs.

— SKYLOR; picture to burn, TEARDROPS ON MY GUITAR, FIFTEEN, hey stephan, THE WAY I LOVED YOU, speak now, DEAR JOHN, mean, the story of us, BETTER THAN REVENGE, HAUNTED, if this was a movie, state of grace, ALL TO WELL,

the last time, SAD BEAUTIFUL TRAGIC, THE LUCKY ONE, girl at home, STYLE, WILDEST DREAMS, this love, CLEAN, wonderland, NEW ROMANTICS, YOU’RE IN LOVE, delicate, so it goes .., GORGEOUS, GETAWAY CAR, call it what you want, DON’T BALME ME, cruel summer, MISS AMERICANA & THE HEARTBREAK PRINCE,

cornelia street, DEATH BY A THOUSAND CUTS, SOON YOU’LL GET BETTER, FALSE GOD, afterglow, ITS NICE TO HAVE A FRIEND, THE 1, the last great american dynasty, EXILE, ILLICT AFFAIRS, AUGUST, mad woman, willow, ‘tis the damn season, NO BODY, NO CRIME , HAPPINESS, COWBOY LIKE ME, coney island, LONG STORY SHORT, closure,

RIGHT WHERE YOU LEFT ME, mr. perfectly fine, BETTER MAN, babe, i bet you think about me, THE VERY FIRST TIME, lavender haze, YOU’RE ON YOUR OWN, KID , BEJEWELED, vigilante shit, HITS DIFFERENT.

— LLOYD; TIM MCGRAW, should’ve said no, love story, YOU’RE NOT SORRY, NEVER GROW UP, ENCHANTED, mean, HAUNTED, last kiss, LONG LIVE, THE STORY OF US, if this was a movie, i knew you were trouble,

all too well, I ALMOST DO, WE ARE NEVER GETTING BACK TOGETHER, sad beautiful tragic, THE LAST TIME, THE LUCKY ONE, the moment i knew,

come back... be here, ALL YOU HAD TO DO WAS STAY, shake it off, BAD BLOOD, i wish you would, wildest dreams, CLEAN, wonderland, NEW ROMANTICS, endgame,

THIS IS WHY WE CAN’T HAVE NICE THINGS, ME!, it’s nice to have a friend, I FORGOT YOU EXISTED, THE ARCHER, you need to calm down, cornelia street, DAYLIGHT, CARDIGAN, seven, MIRRORBALL, peace, epiphany, MY TEARS RICOCHET,

betty, HOAX, willow, DOROTHEA, IVY, marjorie, evermore, CLOSURE, ITS TIME TO GO, forever winter, NOTHING NEW, i bet you think about me, anti-hero, YOU’RE ON YOUR OWN, KID , snow on the beach, BIGGER THAN THE WHOLE SKY, WOULD’VE, COULD’VE, SHOULD’VE.

— NYA; you belong with me, LOVE STORY, forever & always, YOU’RE NOT SORRY, ENCHANTED, SUPERMAN, red, state of grace, STAY STAY STAY, treacherous, EVERYTHING HAS CHANGED, WILDEST DREAMS, i know places,

YOU’RE IN LOVE, WONDERLAND, king of my heart, getaway car, DRESS, new year’s day, CALL IT WHAT YOU WANT, cruel summer, paper rings, I THINK HE KNOWS, THE MAN, false god, LOVER, cornelia street, DAYLIGHT,

seven, INVISIBLE STRING, MAD WOMAN, haox, WILLOW, gold rush, evermore, it’s time to go, LONG STORY SHORT, the very first night,

snow on the beach, SWEET NOTHING, LABYRINTH, karma, THE GREAT WAR, PARIS, glitch, ALL OF THE GIRLS YOU LOVED BEFORE.

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nin-jay-go · 1 year ago

Text

oops i forgot to update this. ok gimme a bit

so jay, ostracized from the rest of the ninja because of what happened with lloyd, and is just kinda wandering... yea he's not doing so hot rn :(

and smth i didn't mention yet is that the hungrier jay is, the harder it is for him to not twist wishes. it's genuinely difficult for him. and he's kinda drowning in self-hatred about it, and is trying his damn best to not hunt down random civilians to wheedle wishes out of them

meanwhile, the ninja back on the bounty try to figure out what to do with jay. wu informs them that there is one solution, but everyone immediately says no. sealing jay in a lamp would be the worst end. only if there is no other choice, they decide.

the ninja had been doing this like,,, wish cycle. where before jay could start starving and twisting a wish, they would make a small, inconsequential wish, to keep jay satisfied. but they all know that it won't last forever, and they're running out of wishes. and not like they can ask their allies to do it for them, because that's kind of a dick move. so they're stuck

eventually, they find jay again. they coax him back home. they tell him about their plan. their BACKUP plan, they remind him.

he agrees. it's safer this way.

someone argues that it doesn't have to be for a long while - just for a bit, to give the others time to figure it out. but lloyd points out something that no one else thought of.

jay wouldn't be able to handle being on his own for that long.

they don't know what it's like being in that lamp. it could kill the last part of jay that remains, leaving nothing but a djinn behind. time might work differently in there. no one knows. and no one wants to find out, to use jay as a guinea pig.

after a week of no wishes, jay is starving. he's not talking to anyone, in fear of accidentally forcing a wish. he distracts himself with a game, but it's not working. then... the bounty doorbell rings. the mailman.

jay sees blue as his djinn instincts cloud his mind. he goes outside to see the mailman, who's tired and weary after a long trek through the fucking sky. wouldn't it be better, jay purrs, if the mailman wished for the route to be easier, for the bounty to be on the ground, or if he didn't need to be the one to deliver mail to them in the first place? what if his bike had wings, or he had wings, or something of that nature. if the ninja didn't exist at all, then there would be no need to deliver to them in the first place! all he has to do is wish-

and he's interrupted by lloyd, who calms him down. the mailman leaves, and jay has to grapple with the fact that he just almost did that. he almost erased the ninja from existence because he thought it would be funny.

jay looks down at lloyd, who is once again 8 years old, he did this to him, and tells him that it's lamp time. lloyd's eyes widen, then he nods and fetches the lamp.

now here's where the au kinda... diverges. there's two endings right now that my friend and i thought of. ending 1 is that jay gets lamped, the others talk to him through it, keep him company, all that. they're gonna figure out a cure. (i don't know if they do i hadn't gotten that far lol)

but ending 2 is lloyd making another wish. "i wish jay wasn't a djinn," he says, prolonging this cycle once again. jay is no longer a djinn, but now lloyd is. their wishes are effectively reset back to 3, but they can't keep passing the djinn torch back and forth between the ninja. that's just unfair. (i also don't know where to go from here but this is the angsty option lmao)

but yea that's the update on djinn jay au :] sorry for not updating this dkjfugkjdfgjh

au where nya doesn't get hit by the tiger widow venom at the end of skybound, and instead it just hits nadakhan. jay makes his wish - i wish nadakhan wasn't a djinn - but it goes wrong. nadakhan isn't a djinn anymore.

jay is.

recounting my ramblings from 2am in my friend's dms

and then some additions when we both woke up

#aus.png #jay.error #djaynn au

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lunarifie · 2 years ago

Text

Rewatching Ninjago

(With no context other than the episode)

Skybound 7-8

Okay by why is Dareth out of everyone helping Nya, Cole, and Lloyd save Jay

Are Kevin and Dan self inserts-

Lloyd: who are they? Retrieval experts?

Dareth: better! Screenwriters.

I also saw these two random dudes in the jail and they were given lines and everything istg these are self inserts 💀

Also theyre voices sound abnormally normal

Everyone else in the show has a sort of distinctive or exaggerated voice

Not to mention how normal their outfits are. something I would actually wear in real life.

These are just some guys

The plan to recreate the sky pirates airship to blend in is actually a good idea

Lloyd: Ar! Yee.. matey, we be be, becoming pirates!

Dan and kevin:…

Kevin: okaaay thinking on the fly, the green one wont do dialects.

Dan: the mute pirate!

The dialect teacher: (teaching Cole and Nya)

Lloyd: (following their movement and swaying but not saying anything with a smile on his face)

I bet Lloyd loved pirates when he was little

This must be so fun for him :)

The airjitzu master after nadakhan stole him and his temple: This is me and my pupils home! You cant take it!

Nadakhan: And get rid of those peaky ghosts as well 🙄 theyre so last season

HDNSIFNSNR

The way Nya and Cole are hoping Jays okay 🥺

COLE FOUND JAY!!! WHAT I DONT REMEMBER THIS HAPPENING?!?!?!?

Jay sounds so pained :(

God I really wish Ninjago had like, a cartoon style like she-ra or spiderverse. Coles helping Jay stand and Jays voice actor is doing such a good job in sounding in pain but this would hurt so much more if we could SEE it.

They apologized to each other 🥹

Clancy (looking away): now here are the rules you need to follow new crewmates!-

Lloyd: (trying his fucking best as the mute pirate to mime to Nya that her mustache is falling)

Nya: 🤨

Lloyd: your mustache…

Clancy: hey! I thought you were mute

Lloyd: its a fucking miracle!

Huh, okay. So not only can the ninja not summon their dragons if they’re fearful, but they cant if they’re too drained or exhausted.

That makes a lot of sense actually

I love when powers come hand in hand with like health and stuff

They all got captured 😐

I hate that Nyas alone with Nadakhan

Jay: Thanks for trying to save me but maybe it would’ve been better if you guys never came…

Damn.

God Nadakhans so creepy…

Cole: Nya! Dont do it! Itll make Nadakhan all powerful-

Nadakhan: The black one goes first.

ik Coles the black ninja but the poc Cole headcanon has made me double take and go “🤨” to a few lines

DID NYA JUST FLIP DOGSHANKS HFJNSJF Holy shit

If I had a nickel for everytime an ancient item could collect elemental masters powers, id have two nickels, which isnt a lot but its weird it happened twice right?

STOP. MAKING. WISHES.

Lloyd: We have to be wiser for what we wish for!

Jay: NO. NOT WISER. QUIETER. NO. MORE. WISHES.

Coles getting his wishes twisted

Lloyds trying to think this through

And Nyas just wasting wishes💀

Like girl its not that hard to just NOT say ‘wish’

LLOYDS OLD?!?!?! 😭bfjdjfnfjsnt

Its so funny that the youngest became the oldest

Thats also scary though

Imagine the kid you swore to take care of turned 90 in a second

Lloyd: i see beyond the now..! Youll need your wish when its said from the heart

Love when age and wisdom gives you future vision

Jay: SAID FROM THE HEART?!?!? HEARTS DONT TALK!!!!

FUSION DRAGON!!!

How does that even work though

An electric and water dragon should be killing both Nya AND jay.

Wait so Cole and Lloyd used all their wishes. How is nadakhan gonna trap them in his sword now?

CLANCY NO DONT WISH THEM AWAY

Clancyyy :(

Nya riding the dragon while Jays sitting behind her is giving me movie Nya and her motorcycle vibes

so its just Nya and Jay now

And the whole police force I guess.

But what were they ever good for.

Oooooo a safe house

Wonder where it is.

Zanes dad’s lighthouse!!!

WAIT WAIT WAIT IK WHOS IN THERE

Jay: No no, let me row the boat, you saved me last time, let me do this for you :)

Awww thats sweet

Jay: Either way, a gentlemen NEVER lets a lady row.

Aaaand you ruined it.

Flintlockes getting reaaal suspicious of Nadakhan…

MUTINY! MUTINY! MUTINY!

that was kinda pathetic…

Jay: (venting his heart out about how this is all his fault)

Nya: Jay-

Jay: (continues venting)

Nya: JAY. Shut up. 😀

Jay: I know I know, you dont wanna hear it-

Nya: No- JAY. we’re not alone.

ECHOECHOECHOECHO

Jay: (cowering behind Nya)

Nya: I thought you were supposed to be protecting me?!?

Jay: I thought you were over that!

ECHO!!!!

Does anyone have any fic recs where Jay and Nya take echo with them????? Bc ik they leave with echo but we never see him again.

Clancy deserves better :(

Its actually kinda sweet how Jay wants to protect Nya

Little robot: (steals echos chess piece)

The seagulls: (trying to alert echo of what little robot just did)

Echo (looks back): Wait… How did you..?

Little robot: 🤷

Echos so cute 😭

I love Jay and Nya 🥺 theyre so sweet and it makes me genuinely like their relationship when they aren’t fighting

Nya fixed up Echo!!!

Nya: Its nothing… its just, both of you seem so convinced you have a future with me.

Nya: what voice do I have in all this? All my life , my identities been defined by someone else. First I was Kais sister, then I was your horrible girlfriend!

Nya: Even when I wanted to be Samurai X sensei told me no…

Nya: I just want the choice to be who I wanna be.

I feel so bad for her.

See THIS is why shes my favorite. I literally love her sm.

Her character is just so dynamic and well written

I really hope the ninjago writers dont tear down her characterization and make her bland in newer seasons

Fuck theyre here.

Nya: Lights, camera, ACTION! (flash-bombs nadakhans crew)

Dogshank: OW! You pulled my hair?!??! WHAT KIND OF WARRIOR PULLS HAIR???

Nya: One that is woefully undersized!!!

Jfjdjdbfhsjdnsjrn

Fuck this being about Jay. This is Nyas season.

Jay: Whatever you do! Dont pull that lever!

Doubloon: ? (looks at the lever) 😈 (pulls lever)

Jay (falls through escape trap door): Thanks! :D

GO ECHO GO

Aw echo :(

Nya: (pouring her heart out and confessing she’s always loved him and wants to protect him and for him to go through the travelers portal)

Jay: (goes for a kiss)

Nya: (fucking shoves him in the portal)

Nya. Girl. Ik this was like, an act of love. But if you marry the djinn, hes gonna be all powerful.

Like, its great that you believe Jay can save you later and stop the wedding. But you could have just left. If Jay got captured he’d still be able to make the ‘i wish you were never a djinn’ wish.

Nadakhans so creepy. I hate him and hope he dies.

#ninjago #lego ninjago #Rwatching Ninjago #skybound

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rosiehunterwolf · 3 years ago

Text

For the Romping and the Roaring- Part 1

Here is my submission for Day 1 of @serpentfever's Inhuman Event!

Link to read on ffn.net

This is part 1 of the story, and the rest of the parts will be posted, one each day, for the rest of the event. Because of the length of this, full story is under the cut. I've provided a little preview of the story below:

Preview

Perhaps the most strange looking thing about the scene, though, was the small boy perched on the badger’s back. Small black horns pertruded from a head of fluffy blond hair, and long, pointed, velvety black ears wiggled eagerly. Short, splayed fingers gripped the badger’s shoulders, and his small, webbed wings proved quite the contrast from Zane’s feathered ones. Perhaps the most noticeable of all, however, was the long black tail that waved behind him, curved fins flaring out at the end of it. And the delighted trills coming from his mouth were definitely anything but human.

Well, maybe it was strange-looking to anyone else. But for Kai, it was just an ordinary day.

Prompts Used: Panic, Hiding

Word Count: 10,082

Rating: T

Trigger Warnings: Imprisonment, Dehumanization, Mentions of Murder

Part 1

“Wake up, sleepyhead!”

Kai groaned, blinking awake. His sister grinned down at him, her arms dangling in his face from where she was hanging, her spotted tail wrapped tightly around one of the structural beams.

“Go away,” he mumbled, tossing a pillow in her face. “It’s too early.”

“It’s ten am.”

“So? It’s not like there’s anything to do around here, I might as well get my beauty rest.”

“Goodness knows you need it, with that dreaded mane of yours.”

He tossed another pillow at her face, which turned out to be a mistake, because now he was out of pillows.

“Why do you always have so much energy? Don’t you ever sleep?”

She shrugged. “I like to sleep in the afternoons. I guess it’s a leopard thing? They’re nocturnal, you know.”

“I know, Nya. I’ve had a half-leopard as a sister for sixteen years, don’t you think I would know that by now?”

“Debatable.”

“I’ll ignore that comment if you let me sleep for a little more.”

“Have you forgotten what day it is?” Nya chirped, beginning to swing back and forth. “Today Dr. Borg is letting us take Lloyd into the city!”

Kai sat bolt upright. “That’s today?”

“Yes, fish-brain! You should see him, he’s so excited.”

Kai scrambled out of bed, startling Nya and making her fall into the bed with a yelp. He shook his head, letting his mane cascade around his face and down his back. Huffing as half of it fell into his eyes, he wrestled it into a ponytail- part of it, anyway- and walked over to the door, Nya bounding after him. The other four beds in the room were already empty.

Opening the door revealed the same thing it always did. Another room- this one much larger than the last one, but a closed-off room nonetheless- stretched around them. There were a few other doors that led to bathrooms, a room with skylights (made with reinforced glass, of course, so no one could break it, even if they had superstrength) so they could soak in the natural light from time to time, and just some rooms with various activities- paints, notebooks, computers, puzzles, TVs, and all the books and video games they could ever want, or if they just needed some alone time away from the others for a bit.

But none of that changed the fact that the door on the far side of the room was always firmly locked.

In the kitchen, Zane was whipping up a bowl of pancake batter. Tawny-colored wings unfurled from his back, stretching freely now that he didn’t have to hide them. The feathered tufts behind his ears twitched as a loud shriek sounded out from the other side of the room.

Kai turned, a purr rumbling in his throat as he caught sight of the large badger lumbering across the room. A small yellow labrador raced after him, barking excitedly.

Kai’s tail thrashed fondly. Well, maybe it was strange-looking to anyone else. But to him, it was just an ordinary day.

Almost.

“Lloyd, you’re here already!” Kai called, hurrying over. The small boy brightened- even more so than he already was- at the sight of him, and leapt into his arms. Kai stroked him gently, and Lloyd purred softly, his long tail thwacking against his leg.

The badger blinked at him, shaking his head, and, in a flash of light, he was gone, a young man sitting on the floor in his place. His curly black hair, with a white stripe down the middle, nearly hid the small black ears poking out. Round glasses framed his dark eyes as he grinned up at Kai, his fangs glinting. The lab jumped into his lap, and the man scratched behind his ears. With a flash, the lab turned back into a teenager, his auburn curls falling into his freckled face.

“Augh, Jay! Get off of me, you lump!” He shoved his friend off of his lap, sending him tumbling.

“Hey, Cole, you could’ve asked nicely,” Jay whimpered, even though his golden tail was wagging, and his ears were perked.

“Yeah, well next time, don’t transform back when you’re in my lap! Having a small dog sitting on me is one thing, a lanky teenager is another.”

“Stop acting like you’re so superior! You’re only four years older than me, barely out of teenagehood yourself!”

“I’m not acting like I’m superior! I’m just telling you not to sit on top of me!”

“Whatever,” Jay grumbled.

“Hey, guys,” Kai snorted.

“Mornin’ Kai,” Jay grinned. “Have a nice lie-in?”

Cole groaned, shaking his head, and Kai shot Jay a glare.

“You shut up with your damn puns, puppy boy.”

“Jeez, apparently someone’s had his pride hurt.”

“I swear, one more lion pun-”

“Fine, fine! I know when my witty quips aren’t wanted.”

Jay,” Cole sighed, “they’re never wanted. Anyways, you ready for today, Kai?”

“You bet! They brought Lloyd in early, today, huh?”

“Dr. Borg wants us to get him ready and make sure he’s behaving well before we leave.”

Kai raised an eyebrow. “And romping around giving him badger rides and riling him up is a good way to do that?”

“Aw, come on, Kai, he’ll be fine. Besides,” his voice lowered as he went on, “he deserves to have a little fun while he’s here.”

Kai instinctively tightened his grip on Lloyd. None of them knew what happened to Lloyd when their caretakers took him away at night, apart from the fact that Dr. Borg insisted he was perfectly safe, but, at the very least, he was alone, and sometimes, Kai, with his heightened sense of hearing, could hear him whimpering through the walls. Lloyd hated being alone, and Kai didn’t understand why he couldn’t just stay with them all the time.

But, like most things, Dr. Borg just kept them in the dark about it.

Not that he was being ungrateful- Dr. Borg had kept them alive.

Issac Borg, son of Cyrus Borg, had taken over his father’s company when he had died, and, as head scientist at Borg Tower, had made it his mission to help the few living hybrids left- Kai and his friends. Dr. Borg had told them stories of how the human world rejected anything that was different from them- that they feared those with different blood such as Kai and his friends, saw them as “monsters,” and would seek them out and kill them if they ever found out their secret.

But Dr. Borg didn’t think the same way as the rest of the world. He wanted to protect them, to let them thrive and grow strong. So, he took them in and helped keep them hidden. He had given them work to do, too, not normal work, but things that only they could do. Dr. Borg told them how the world wanted everyone to be the same, and to hide what made them unique, but he said that they should be able to play to their strengths. Their trainers helped them learn how to fight, and to use their unique skills to an advantage. At this point, Kai had a repertoire of fighting skills he was eager to bring to fruition, but it seemed like the time never came to use them.

They did get to use their skills in other ways, though. Jay often went out in the streets in his dog form, his quick and cunning nature allowing him to be a natural pickpocket, with the ultimate disguise. Zane’s flight abilities allowed him to scope out Ninjago City, and keep Borg posted on the government’s actions. Nya’s agility skills let her slip around nearly undetected, which kept them out of a lot of fights. Kai’s hearing allowed him to eavesdrop for information, and Cole’s strength and digging skills could break through a lot of walls and barriers.

Except for the ones of their room.

For as much as he loved Borg- he was the closest thing to a father that any of them had- he couldn’t help but feel a bit like a prisoner, trapped up in here. He just wished Borg would trust them more.

Kai was eighteen now. He was old enough to keep himself and the younger ones out of trouble.

Which Borg is depending on me to do today, he reminded himself. The others had gotten the hang of how to behave outside of the tower by now, but Lloyd was still so young and often needed reminding. And it was no secret the little oni, dragon, and human tribrid was especially clingy with Kai. It was his job to keep him under control and on his best behavior.

I can do this. I will prove to Borg how trustworthy I am.

“Pancakes are ready!”

His thoughts were interrupted as Zane chirped at them from the kitchen. Lloyd’s warm, comfortable weight vanished from his arms as he leaped to the ground and scurried towards the kitchen island on all fours, climbing up the barstool to perch on top. He clicked and chirred brightly at Zane, his red eyes glinting hungrily, and the falcon hybrid bit back a grin at his expression.

“Use your words, Lloyd.”

Lloyd’s expression dimmed slightly, and Kai frowned. Lloyd’s reluctance to use human words was probably what worried him the most about integrating him into society. But Zane had been practicing with him ever since he could crawl, and if anyone could get him to speak, it was Zane.

“Can I have pancakes? Please?”

“Yes, Lloyd, you may.”

Zane slid two chocolate chip pancakes onto his plate. The sweet scent of the pastry drifted over to them, and Kai felt his mouth water. Jay, Cole, Kai, and Nya bounded over to the island as well as Zane served them the food. Jay jumped up and dashed towards the cupboard, grabbing out a container of rainbow-colored sprinkles.

Lloyd’s eyes practically glowed as he grappled for them. Jay laughed, and sprinkled a handful onto his pancakes. Lloyd chirred delightedly and hurriedly began to devour his breakfast.

“Jay, don’t give him more sugar. He’s going to be impossible when we go into the city.”

“You’re the one watching him, not me,” Jay chirped.

Kai put his head in his hands, sighing.

“It’s okay,” Zane assured him. “A little milk can go a long way to calm him down. Here Lloyd,” he pushed a sippy cup of milk towards him, “drink some of this.”

Lloyd worked on the milk as the rest of them ate, and, by the time they were all finished, he was looking a lot less feral. Zane was a lifesaver.

Nya glanced at the clock. “It’s almost time to go. We should start getting ready.”

They walked over to the closet where they kept all their gear. The large, loose sweaters allowed them a place to tuck in their tails, and, for Zane, his wings as well. As Kai helped his friend to adjust his coat to properly hide all the feathers, Nya pulled the sleeves of hers longer down her arms, hiding the light rosette spotting there. She had been able to pass it off as a tattoo before, but they really didn’t want to take any chances, especially not with Lloyd along this time.

Cole began to help Lloyd with his jacket, but the young boy swatted his hands away. “I can do it.”

“You sure, bud? It can be tricky-”

“I do it. I do the buttons.” His ears twitched as he ran his fingers over the smooth objects.

While Lloyd worked on the jacket, the rest of them shoved hats over their heads, Kai, with some difficulty, getting his over his mane, but when they turned back to Lloyd, now sporting his lopsided-buttoned jacket, there was evidently a large issue, and it wasn’t Lloyd’s button job.

“What are we going to do about his tail,” Jay asked. “The rest of us have the self control to hold ours under our coats for the time period, but he’s four, he’s not gonna be able to do that.”

“And it’s so long,” Nya pointed out. “I remember having a lot more trouble with my tail than any of you guys did, and Lloyd’s less than half my size!”

“Didn’t we used to tie it up when you were younger?” Kai asked.

“What?” “Here,” Kai pulled a scarf out of the closet. “C’mere, Lloyd.”

The child bounded over to him, and Kai picked up his tail in his hands, examining it. “Hmm. Flexible enough.” Folding it back on itself a few times, Kai used the scarf to tie it up firmly, and then pulled the coat down over it. “That should hold for quite a while.”

Lloyd bared his teeth at him, and Kai winced. “Sorry, I know it’s not the most comfortable thing, bud, but we got to do it, okay?”

Lloyd started to grab for his tail, but his small arms couldn’t reach it. Kai stopped him, nonetheless. “Hey, bud, don’t. I’m not kidding, okay?”

Lloyd huffed dramatically, before pacing towards the door.

“Aren’t you forgetting something?”

Lloyd glanced back, his eyes narrowing as he caught sight of the small hat Kai was holding in his hands. He squwaked loudly, trying to scramble past him, but Kai swooped him up in his grip. Lloyd hissed and struggled, although his body was trembling with the familiar vibrations Kai recognized as playfulness. This was a game to him.

“Lloyd,” Kai growled through gritted teeth, tightening his grip on the squirming bundle, “Just put on the hat. It’s not the end of the world.”

“No!”

Well, that was one word he knew quite clearly.

Kai jammed the hat onto his head, but Lloyd quickly shook it off and jumped away, scrambling under the couch to hide, his red eyes glowing eerily in the darkness, his pupils narrowed into thin slits.

“Lloyd,” Kai said, letting an authoritative tone slip into his voice- which wasn’t something to be messed with, when you were part lion. “This is not an option. Either you wear the hat and behave, or we don’t go out at all.”

Lloyd’s eyes blinked, and after only a second, he was scurrying back out and reluctantly letting Kai pull the hat onto his head.

And not a moment too soon- Kai’s ears twitched as he caught the sound of movement behind the big, blocked door. His head whipped towards it, and the others quickly picked up on him, revving their gazes towards the door, too. After a few moments, they began to hear it, too. Jay cocked his head anxiously, Zane adjusted his coat, Cole pushed his glasses further up his nose, and Nya narrowed her eyes, grabbing Lloyd’s hand.

The door slowly swung open- Kai had to resist the urge to dash out- and revealed four of their caretakers- Liam, Noah, Rahn, and Kelsey. Kai let out his breath, slowly.

“Are you ready to leave, children?” One of them, Liam, asked. His gaze flitted between each of them, scanning them carefully. He stopped on Lloyd, his eyes narrowing, but if he had a problem, he didn’t voice it. “You look wonderfully human. A job well done, and not an easy one, I’m sure.”

“Yes, but appearances are only the beginning,” Kelsey pointed out. “You must make sure you are all on your best behavior, especially the muta- Lloyd. You all have learned a lot from your human behavior lessons, have you not?”

They nodded, and Kai added, “Is Dr. Borg not going to see us off today?”

“He’s a very busy person, Kai,” Rahn reminded him. “You children are lucky that he makes as much time for you as he does.”

Kai dipped his head, falling silent.

“Don’t worry, he’ll probably check in with you when you’re back,” Noah assured. “For now, we can escort you. Are you ready?”

Yelps and purrs responded him, and Noah shot them a sharp glance. Kai felt his ears droop shamefully as he responded, in sync with the others, “Yes, sir.”

“Then let’s go.” Noah beckoned for Cole to follow him, who was closely followed by Jay, then Zane. Kai and Nya went last, Lloyd bounding between them. His eyes were both bright and wary.

Rahn cleared his throat as they passed, and Nya bent down to Lloyd, whispering, “Two feet, bud.”

Lloyd grumbled, but obliged, taking his hands off the ground and standing up on just his feet instead. His steps were a little wobbly, so Nya and Kai each grabbed a hand. That made him look a little less grumpy about the situation, at least.

The caretakers led them down the floors of Borg Tower, and for the first time in weeks, Kai saw people, more than just doctors and scientists and caretakers, at least. Employers at Borg, but these ones weren’t the higher up, didn’t know their secret. Wary glances were shot at them, but it was probably just because they were wondering what a bunch of kids were doing in Borg Tower, not because they were secretly a bunch of weird monster mutants that had to hide everything about them because no one trusted them and people wanted to hurt them, and they just wanted to be normal kids-

The point was, it was nice to be looked at like a kid, for once.

And then, there were windows, and then-

They were outside.

The little skylight in their room couldn’t bring justice to this. Sunlight streamed around them, bright and cheery and welcoming, and the crisp autumn air tickled his cheeks. There were people everywhere, not Borg employees, but just regular people, talking and laughing with each other. No one was staring at him, conversing in hushed whispers, or telling him off for smiling too much and showing off his fangs. There weren’t any trainers scolding him, or doctors whisking him off to yet another appointment, and most of all, there weren’t any walls.

Kai felt like he wanted to cry. It wasn’t his first time out, Dr. Borg let them out every so often, but…

It had been way too long.

Although he knew that, however bad it was for him, it was worse for Lloyd. While they got to go out every month or so, Lloyd only rarely got cleared to come with them, and he had only been allowed to at all about a year ago. Dr. Borg said it was because he was too young, although Kai swore that he could remember him and the others going out more often when they had been Lloyd’s age, with adult supervision, of course.

Sure enough, Lloyd’s eyes were as wide as saucers as he gazed around, taking everything in in that quiet, attentive way of his.

“Excited, Lloydster?” Kai asked him. “Wanna go to the mall?”

Borg had given them a fairly sizable chunk of money- after all, being the owner of the city’s largest science organization didn’t exactly leave him with empty pockets- to spend as they pleased (as long as it wasn’t anything too outrageous, and their bags and pockets were to be searched before they reentered the tower,) so they went shopping at the mall. Lloyd obviously wasn’t so enthralled with Macy’s, Barnes & Noble, or Hot Topic, so the ninja took turns with Lloyd while the others went shopping. When Kai was with him, he spent a lot of time going up and down the escalator. Kai was worried the behavior might be unusual among humans and draw attention to them, and although they got a few odd looks, after a little while a little girl named Raina started running up and down the escalator with him. Kai had frantically apologized to her mother, but she just laughed, telling him “kids will be kids!” Kai had allowed himself to give her a tentative smile, and had been reluctant when he had to leave with Lloyd. The woman, Jessica, had given Kai her number if Lloyd ever wanted to get together.

Kai didn’t have the heart to tell her it could never happen.

After they finished shopping, the group stopped for lunch in the food court, then headed to the park and chatted while Lloyd ran around.

The afternoon was peaceful and cool, and it was all too soon when he got the call telling them it was time to go back.

“Hey Lloyd, time to go, bud.”

The look that flitted across Lloyd’s face made his heart break. “Can we… can we come back tomorrow?”

“I don’t think so, bud. I’m sorry.”

“Oh.”

“We can watch a movie when we get home, bubs. You wanna do that?” There was a shake in Nya’s voice as she spoke, and he knew she hated this as much as he did.

“Can we watch… the one with dinosaurs?”

“We can watch whatever you want, bubs.”

The walk back to Borg Tower was grim and quiet. The silence was only broken when Lloyd pointed at the fountain in the town square, as they were walking past.

“Look!” he called, leaning over the side to peer in. “There’s so many shiny things in there!”

“People throw their coins in fountains,” Zane told him.

“Why? I use my coins to buy a lollipop,” Lloyd giggled.

Kai crouched down next to him. “They say that if you throw a coin in the fountain, you can make a wish.”

Lloyd’s eyes were wide. “A wish? Like what?”

“I don’t know. Anything you want, I guess.”

Nya crouched down on the other side of him, slipping a penny from out of her purse. “You want to make a wish, bean?”

“Yeah.” Lloyd took the coin and closed his eyes. He was silent for a moment, before tossing it in. They watched it sink, down, down, down, until it hit the bottom.

On the way home, Jay spoke up. “What did you wish for, bud?”

Lloyd was quiet for a moment.

“If I tell you, it won’t come true.”

---

After their caretakers looked through their bags, they brought the group up to the room. The walk was a quiet one. The unasked question in all of their minds hung on the air- they wanted to ask if Lloyd could stay the night, just this once. The boy had been eerily quiet since the fountain, not even protesting when he had been searched, and Nya was holding him gently in her arms now. He wasn’t asleep, but his eyes stared off into the distance, his mind obviously elsewhere.

Dr. Borg himself met them at their door. “My children! How was your day out? Were you on your best behaviour?”

“You already know,” Nya muttered.

Borg frowned. “What was that, dear?”

“Nothing.”

Kai cocked his head at her, and she gave a tiny shake of her head, her glare telling him, not now.

He stared her right back, the message clear. We’ll talk later.

“It was good, Dr. Borg, but we were just wondering- would it be okay if Lloyd stayed the night with us? He’s pretty tired, and it would just be for one night-”

“Zane, I’m sorry, but Lloyd has a very important doctor’s appointment tonight-”

Out of the corner of his eye, Kai caught Lloyd stiffen, gripping tighter to Nya’s shoulder. A low growl sounded in her throat, and she brought her hands up protectively around him.

“Another doctor, Borg?” Kai snapped. “That’s the third one this week. Is there something wrong with him? Something you’re not telling us?”

“Of course not! Kai, calm yourself. What reason do I have to hide Lloyd’s medical records from you? Nothing is wrong, we just want to do some more testing. As you know, we give you all frequent checkups so that our doctors may learn more about you and your bodies. Lloyd is even more unique than any of you, so unfortunately, that just means more appointments.”

“He’s not a test subject,” Nya growled, “He’s family.”

“I never said he was! He is just as much family to me as he is to you!” Borg’s voice softened. “Nya, I know you are protective, but I am doing this for Lloyd. Knowing his body better will help us to help him better in the future, if he is to ever get sick or something.”

Nya wilted. “I know. I’m sorry.”

“It’s alright. I know you mean well. Now, c’mon, Lloyd, it’s time to go.”

Lloyd wailed as Borg’s assistant tried to pull him away from Nya, and he clung to her as firmly as his fingers would allow, which, for someone of his genetics, was pretty tight. Eventually, Kai had to step in.

“Lloyd, please. Let go. We’re just trying to help you.”

Lloyd released Nya’s shoulder slowly, but his eyes were round and hurt as he gazed at Kai. He tried not to flinch. Lloyd didn’t understand that this was for his own good.

Kai didn’t really understand it, either.

The group filed into their room- the door locking with a sharp click behind them- and the others wandered off to do their own things. Jay flipped through the TV channels, not settling on anything for more than ten seconds, and Cole and Zane worked on a puzzle, although their progress was slow, and their heart didn’t seem to really be into it.

Kai, however, made no time for pointless hobbies, and headed over to Nya.

“We need to talk.”

“I agree. But not in here.” She pointed towards the bedroom door. “Let’s go somewhere more private.”

He followed her in, closing the door behind him, before heading to sit next to her on her bed. “What’s so important that the others can’t hear?”

“It’s not that they can’t hear it. It’s just… I don’t know if they’ll want to. I don’t know how everyone’s going to take it, and I think it’s best to not tell everyone all at once.”

“What?! Nya, you’re killing me, just tell me what’s going on!”

“Someone was following me.”

Kai froze. “What?”

“If I’m right, someone was following all of us.”

“You mean in the city today? Like, a stalker or someone?”

“More like a Borg employee.”

“...What?”

“They’re spying on us, Kai, don’t you see? Dr. Borg sent some of our caretakers out to monitor us today. It’s their own fault, really. If they hadn’t trained me to use my detection skills to their full potential, I never would’ve noticed them.”

“But why? What have we done to break Dr. Borg’s trust? We’ve done this before and never got caught, why would today be any different?

Nya narrowed her eyes at him. “Don’t be dense, Kai. He’s been doing it since day one. We’ve just never noticed before.”

Kai was beginning to feel very uncomfortable with the turn this conversation was taking. “How do you know that? Do you have proof?”

“Proof!” Nya stood up suddenly, her eyes blazing so fiercely that Kai flinched back. “What about any given day over the last sixteen years of my life, or the eighteen of yours! We’re prisoners here, Kai. One day a month outside of the tower doesn’t change that, especially when we’re being monitored even then.”

“Nya, don’t get like this again. Dr. Borg saved our lives-”

“From what? He tells us that people want to kill us, but do we have any reason to believe that’s true? What if he’s lying? How do you know he’s not just using us?”

“Dr. Borg is the closest thing I have to family! I trust him. With people like that, you just know.”

Nya’s ears pinned back, her voice wavering. “What happened to this family? True family is always there for you. Jay, Cole, Zane, Lloyd… me… we’ve all done more for you than that old fool ever has.”

Kai flinched, immediately regretting his words. “Wait, Nya, I didn’t mean- of course you’re my family, I’m sorry-” he snatched for her wrist as she began to walk away, but she easily dodged. She turned to look at him, her eyes sad.

“I know you are. You don’t want to hurt anyone- you’re just doing what you think is right, and I get that. But come talk to me again when you’re ready to reconsider.”

---

The next day, Kai had fighting training with one of his trainers. She seemed to be working him especially hard, but he only worked harder, and when he stopped for a rest, it took a moment to calm the adrenaline rippling through his veins. He had always been much stronger than the average human, but… usually it wasn’t so hard to control.

Dr. Borg showed up later in the lesson to pull him aside. “Kai. Your trainer tells me you are doing well. This pleases me. You are growing stronger.”

“I’m trying my best, sir.”

“Good. I expect nothing less. You’re eighteen now, Kai. Officially into adulthood. Soon, you will enter into a noble line of work I have to offer you. Now is no time to hold back. In fact- and keep this between you and me, if you will- I think you have the greatest potential of all your peers. What beast is greater than the lion? They don’t call it the king of the jungle for no reason. Your strength will be unmatched.”

Kai felt like he was supposed to be pleased by that, but something about the words just felt wrong.

“Sir,” he interrupted, feeling the sudden need to ask something, “What… why do I need to learn to fight like this? Who will I be fighting?” “If all goes well, no one. But this is necessary to defend yourself. Like I have told you since you were a cub, the rest of the world wants to hunt you down. You deserve a way to fight for your life and honor- and for the… weaker members of your team, don’t you?”

Kai nodded. “Of course. I was just wondering… is that all it’s for? Self-defence? Nothing more?”

Borg narrowed his eyes, but nodded slowly. “You will only have to do what must be done.”

“…Alright. Thank you, sir.” “And Kai?”

“Yes?” “If Nya’s been putting ideas in your head again, don’t listen to her. I know she means well, but she’s going through that natural ‘teenage rebellion’ stage right now, and isn’t thinking straight. Just take my word for it, alright?”

“O-okay. Have a good evening, sir.”

“Train hard!”

As Kai trodded back to the room that evening, he couldn’t stop thinking about what Borg had said. His words had been so vague. And he had been so quick to accuse Nya! Did he mean what he said, or was Nya right?

Did Borg want to use him for something more?

He still didn’t know what to believe, but one thing he knew was that he didn’t like the way that his sister had immediately been blamed. She had always been the most reluctant to listen to Borg, the most upset about their situation, but he wasn’t going to let Borg do anything to her, if that’s where this was heading.

His thoughts were interrupted as the floor suddenly heaved beneath him, and Kai was knocked to his feet. He barely bit back a scream, his breath coming in shallow pants.

What was it? An earthquake? He had never felt an earthquake before. Oh gosh. Should he be doing something? Was he going to die?!

But as quickly as it happened, it was over, and Kai got to his feet, breathless. After he was sure the floor wasn’t going to collapse beneath him, he set off towards the room in a dead sprint.

“Guys,” he gasped, “Did you feel that?”

Jay glanced up from his phone. “Like, that weird tremor thing, you mean?”

“Tremor? It was way worse than a tremor, the ground, like, bounced beneath me!” He gave a demonstration of this with his hands, but the others just blinked at him, unimpressed. “What?”

Cole shrugged. “I dunno, maybe you were just closer to the source or something. It didn’t seem that bad to us.”

“Do earthquakes even have sources?”

“First of all,” Zane said, “they do, and second, Ninjago City doesn’t get earthquakes. The geographic location makes it literally impossible.”

“But you can’t tell me that was nothing.” His voice wavered, and he caught Nya frown.

“You serious about this, bro?”

“I dunno, it’s just…” he put his head in his hands. “I don’t know what happened. It frickin’ scared me.”

Nya rested a hand on his shoulder, at his side now. “Hey, everything’s okay now. You’re safe here.”

“I know.”

“Do you want me to call Borg? I’m sure he can tell us what’s going on.”

“Thanks.”

Nya dialed, and they waited for Borg to answer. He didn’t pick up until the last ring, which was unusual for him. When his voice did come through, it was harried and distracted.

“What is it, Nya?”

“Dr. Borg, Kai was just coming back from training and he felt this weird… earthquake-type-tremor thing. We were just worried. Is everything alright?”

“Oh? Ah, yes, don’t worry, you’re perfectly safe-'' there was some muffled yelling in the background, and the phone went quiet for a minute. “There’s nothing to worry about, we’ve got it under control-”

“But what was it?”

“We’re… uh, still investigating. Maybe some sort of malfunction in the machinery, or radiation leak or something.”

“Radiation?”

“I assure you dear, it’s fine, we’ve got a whole crew on top of it. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m kind of in the middle of something-”

“What about Lloyd?” Kai asked, leaning over to speak into the phone. “Is he okay?”

“Lloyd… Lloyd’s fine.”

“Can we see him?”

“No,” Borg said quickly. “...he’s seeing people right now. Will be for a while, probably, so don’t even ask.”

By this time, the others had joined them at the phone too, and they all looked at each other at that. “Seeing people?” Nya asked. “What kind of people?”

“Just… double-checking his safety. For… the radiation.”

“Was he close to it?” Nya gasped. “I thought you said he was safe!”

“He is! It’s just a precaution-”

“Then when can we see him?”

“Nya, I told you, not now!” Another muffled shout interrupted him. “I have a lot bigger fish to fry right now, this conversation will have to continue later.” And, with that, he abruptly hung up.

“What was that,” Nya spat.

“If that was your attempt to make me feel better, it failed miserably.”

“I didn’t know he was going to be like that, did I? Ugh, Borg always is so vague, but this- this is a whole new level!”

“We need to find out more,” Zane said. “Borg isn’t giving us clear answers. We need another way to find out information.”

“Luckily for us,” Cole added, “It seems that in all the commotion, they never sent a caretaker down to lock the door after Kai returned.”

The others froze, staring at each other. Slowly, they turned their gazes to the door.

Cole was right. It was still open.

Kai immediately felt his heart begin to race. He didn’t know how to react. This had never happened before.

Zane was the first to snap out of the shock and into action. “Borg is a careful man. It won’t be long before he realizes we have free reign of the place. If we’re going to do something, we need to act quickly.”

“I say we escape,” Nya hissed. “This might never happen again. Kai’s the only one who knows this, but I saw Borg employees following us yesterday. He’s always watching. This could be our only chance to get out of here!”

There were a few uneasy looks at that. “Nya,” Zane warned, “Borg may be secretive, but he’s not a bad person. He’s protecting us.”

“Yeah, and what about the police?” Jay whimpered, his tail between his legs. “Borg told us they would kill us just for being different.”

Nya’s tail lashed. “You all are hopeless! The old fool’s got you all wrapped around his little finger! Can’t you see we’re prisoners here? I’d rather take my chances with the police.”

“Nya,” Cole said firmly, squeezing Jay’s hand, “You’re making Jay nervous.”

“I’m sorry, Jay, but it’s the truth. You’re seventeen now, it’s about time you start hearing it.”

Jay’s ears quivered. “It’s okay, Cole, she’s right.”

Cole grunted. “If we’re doing this, I won’t let no police lay a finger on you.”

“So you’ll do it?”

“I dunno. I’ve never really felt comfortable with Borg. But we’re also safe here. I want to protect you guys. I don’t know if freedom is worth the risk.”

“Well, we don’t have time to think about it. Zane’s right- if we have to act, we act now. I’m going- come or don’t.”

“Nya, come back,” Cole growled. “We’re a family. Whatever we do, we do together. I don’t want us splitting up.”

“Then do the right thing and come with me.”

The tension crackled between the two for a moment, until Cole ducked his head. “Nya-”

“Kai, you’ll come with me, won’t you?”

Four pairs of eyes turned towards him. Kai’s tail twitched, and he tried desperately to still it.

“I… I don’t know what I want to do, Nya. But I’m not leaving without Lloyd.”

Guilt flashed in her eyes. “I… I didn’t mean… of course I would never leave without him, I just didn’t even think… we can go get him, right?”

“Do you know where he is?”

Nya’s tail drooped. “Then what do we do?”

“Zane’s right- what we need is more information. Running away isn’t the answer.”

“Kai- can you just think about it-”

“I’ve been thinking about it,” he roared. “I’ve spent eighteen long years locked away in this room- don’t you think I want to leave, too? But this is about more than just me- this is about us. I have a family to protect, Nya, and this is the best way to keep them safe.”

Nya cringed back from him- something any sane person would do when a lion- or a half lion- was yelling in your face. He didn’t like to use it on his family often, but when he did, it was the quickest way to silence a room. Everyone knew you didn’t mess with a lion’s roar.

“So what are you going to do instead?” Jay asked quietly, after a moment.

“I’m going to go find Borg and listen in on what he’s doing.” Turning to his sister, he added, “Nya? Will you come with me? Your stealth will be useful.”

“You still want me?”

“Don’t be like that, Nya- I’m just doing what’s best for us. You get that, don’t you?”

“I guess.”

“So you’re not coming?”

“No, I’ll come. I’m just still upset with you, that’s all.”

Kai sighed as she whisked out the door past him. “You guys keep a lookout, alright? I’ll have my phone on silent so we don’t get caught, but I’ll be able to feel it vibrate, so shoot me a text if something happens, alright?”

“Good luck,” Zane nodded.

“Hurry back!” Jay called as Kai slipped into the hallway.

He bounded a little ways to catch up with Nya. They walked in silence for a little while until they made it back to Kai’s training room, where he had felt the tremor.

“Smell anything?” Nya asked.

“Jay’s the best tracker, but I think I can pick up Borg’s scent coming from that way.” He pointed a finger down the right hallway.

“Think?” “I don’t know. There’s a lot of foot traffic coming from that way as well.”

“Surely that’s a good sign. If there was some sort of catastrophe, a lot of people would have gone to help.”

“Yeah, but it’s strange. It mostly smells like caretakers and trainers. I would’ve thought Borg would’ve wanted more mechanics and doctors if there was a malfunction.”

“Unless he was trying to keep this a secret.”

Kai shot her a look, and she ducked his gaze. “Sorry.”

Kai shook his head, turning back towards the trail, letting Nya slink down the hallways ahead of him, checking that the coast was clear before he followed. He pointed her in the directions that the scent led, until, at last, it led to a door.

“Borg’s office?” Nya questioned. “His scent will be here all the time. Are you sure that he’s here now, or is it just leftover residue?”

Kai opened his mouth to respond, but froze when he caught the sound of footsteps. “Hide!” he hissed to Nya, and the two of them dove into an empty lab room and pulled the door shut, just as two pairs of footsteps rounded the corner. They came to a halt outside the office door, and Kai held his breath.

“What do you mean you can’t control him, that’s your job!” Borg’s voice, sharp and angry. The rooms in this part of the building were soundproofed, but Kai’s hearing could still detect their voices when he pushed his ear to the door. Nya hovered beside him anxiously, watching his face for signs.

“Sir, we’re doing everything we can, but we’ve never worked with a specimen like this before.”

“Borg,” he whispered to Nya, “and a researcher.”

“Tell me you at least have him contained?”

“He’s chained and isolated right now, sir. And under guard.”

“Did you tell him that we’d punish the others if he stepped out of line?”

“Yes, sir. He’s young, and seems to have some literacy issues, so we’re not sure if he got the entire message, but we believe we got the basic point across.”

“Good,” Borg sighed. “Hopefully that will be enough to stop him from trying anything like this again.”

“Sir, surely you’re not just going to let him stay. People could’ve died today!”

“Do you think I don’t know that?” Borg snapped. “Seven of my best researchers have been hospitalized, and now the damn police are on our back and I could get sued. I could lose millions, you know that? And to make things worse, the kids called me and are trying to see him. They suspect something’s wrong.”

Kai’s blood was roaring in his ears. Was he hearing this right?

Nya put a hand on his shoulder. “What’s wrong? What did they say?”

He shook his head, gesturing at her to be quiet. “They think Lloyd was the one responsible for the accident. People were hurt. Borg might get sued.”

“Would it really be such a bad thing to let him see them, sir? He obviously is very on edge about the testing and sampling. Seeing the others might put him at ease.”

“They’re already suspicious, and I can’t help but feel I’m losing my grip on them. They’re teenagers, I knew they’d rebel at some point, but… I don’t want to risk him telling them anything. Now that he has power over us, I’m not sure what good the threats will do.”

“Then what are we going to do?”

Borg sighed, slow and tired. “I had hoped it would never come to this, but… I think we bit off more than we could chew with this one. And he’s only four, it will only get worse as he ages. I don’t think we will ever be able to put a handle on him. I had hope, after such great success with the others, but… it just didn’t work out. Breeding oni and dragon and trying to contain it was always going to be a bad idea.”

“Are you sure, sir? There’s no going back if you decide to go through with it.”

“I’ve thought about it for a while now, and today’s accident has only solidified my suspicions. We will still be fine. The others have amazing amounts of strength, speed, stealth, and heightened senses. We can be well-equipped without him.”

“Alright. We will begin making preparations first thing, sir.”

“Make sure you keep the body so we can continue to study it. I want him euthanized first thing in the morning. The longer we wait, the more of a window we give him to act up again.”

No. No, no, no, no, no. Kai squeezed his eyes shut, slumping against the door as the door to Borg’s office was clicked shut. This couldn’t be happening, it was just some sort of sick dream, Borg would never do this-

“Kai, Kai please, answer me!”

He opened his eyes to see Nya shaking him gently.

“You were right,” he croaked, “we have to go.”

“Kai, what’s wrong, what did you hear, you’re scaring me.”

Kai stumbled to his feet, and Nya grabbed his arm as he trembled. There was no time to sit around and mope. Lloyd’s life was on the line.

“Nya, we have to go-” he reached for the doorknob and began to twist it.

“Wait, are you sure they’re gone, we can’t get caught-”

“I’m sure, we have to hurry-”

Nya skidded in front of him. “Kai, tell me what’s going on. I need to know what happend. I can help!”

“There’s no time, Nya,” he gasped, half in tears by this point. “I’ll tell you later. I’m going after Lloyd. You go and get the others. Meet me near that little diner at the edge of the city. The one we went to for your birthday last year, you know the one? We’re leaving. Now.”

“Wait, you mean you changed your mind?”

“No. I told you that I was going to do whatever it took to keep you guys safe. Before, that meant staying here. Now, it means leaving. It is the circumstance that has changed, not me.”

Nya gazed at him, tears glazing her eyes. “I wish you would tell me more.”

“I still need time to process. I’m sorry.”

“I get it. Just stay safe, okay?” She kissed him softly on the cheek, and then, she was gone.

Kai didn’t waste any time, and set right off on the researcher’s trail. Eventually, it led him to a small, closed off wing, where she had then taken a right, but Kai was more interested in the room on the left.

Two guards, armed with guns, stood attentive at it. Kai shifted into a lion, and, trying to remember stalking lessons from Nya, crept along the hallway. If they spotted him before he was within pouncing distance, he was done for. They wouldn’t hesitate with the guns, he was sure.

Luckily, Nya was an amazing teacher, and as one guard fell to the ground with a smack, the other one turned sharply, raising his gun, but Kai was already pouncing, knocking him out.

Shifting back into himself, he grabbed the keys from the guard’s pocket, and unlocked the door.

Inside, the lights were dim. Kai wished he had Nya’s night vision right about now.

When his eyes finally adjusted, Kai choked back a gasp. Lloyd was lying on the floor, chains bolted around his wrists, ankles, and tail. Metal clamps pulled back his wings, and a muzzle had been tied over his mouth.

“Oh my gosh, Lloyd-” Kai dropped to his side, trying not to look at the boy’s face. Blinking back tears- emotion was something they didn’t have time for right now- Kai ripped through the chains and pulled off the muzzle and clamps. Lloyd whimpered, looking up at him with watery red eyes, and reached for him, cooing softly. Kai scooped the boy into his arms, accidentally pulling back his shirt as he did so, and revealing a long, raw, red scar along his side. Kai quickly pulled the shirt back down, looking away, and planted a kiss on his forehead. Bolting to his feet, he took off down the hall, towards the back door.

After only a minute of running, an alarm began to flash, and Kai swore under his breath, praying that the others were already out.

After what felt like far too long, he spotted the door. As he sprinted for it, he heard someone yell out behind him, but it was too late. He was already out the door.

He didn’t stop though. He wasn’t stupid enough to think they would give up chase so easily. Heading down some of the back alleys, he ran in a crisscross of crazy patterns, taking a way which was five times longer and more complicated than necessary, but he wasn’t risking the chance of being caught, or worse, leading the Borg employees back to Nya and the others.

When he began to feel a little safer, he stopped for a rest behind a dumpster. Setting Lloyd down, he checked his phone and saw he had twenty-seven missed calls from Borg.

Shoot, he can probably track this. Cursing under his breath, he tossed the phone in the dumpster. He didn’t like being phoneless, but it was a thousand times better than the alternative.

Lloyd’s stomach growled loudly, and Kai glanced down at him. The boy looked smaller than ever, his red eyes wide and scared. Kai crouched down, pulling his trembling form close, and the two just sat there for a moment, silent. Kai breathed in Lloyd’s comforting scent.

I almost lost this. Forever.

Kai wiped at his eyes. But he hadn’t. And they weren’t safe yet. They had to keep moving, and get as far away from that phone as possible.

But first, he had to find the poor kid something to eat. He looked half-dead on his feet, and Kai felt a surge of anger as he realized that Borg probably hadn’t been feeding him well.

Jumping into the dumpster, Kai scrounged around until he was able to find half of a cheeseburger and a stale bag of pretzels. Not the most sanitary, but it would have to do.

“Here, bud, you want these?” He handed the food to Lloyd, and either the boy was really, really hungry, or his animal instincts were just kicking in, because he scarfed down the food without any reservation about the fact that Kai had literally dumpster dove for it.

As Lloyd finished the food, licking the wrapper, he spoke for the first time since Kai had found him chained up that evening.

“Am I in trouble?” His voice wavered, tears pricking his eyes. “Did I do a bad thing?”

“Honey, no, it’s not your fault,” Kai whispered, pulling him close. “You didn’t mean to do it. Your powers are too strong for your own good. But you’ll learn to control them eventually, I promise.”

“People are hurt,” he whispered. “I’m the reason we had to go.”

“You just opened my eyes to what Borg was doing to you. To his true intentions. Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”

Lloyd looked at him. “He told me he would kill you.”

Kai bit his lip, and Lloyd broke down crying in his lap. Kai curled his arms protectively around him.

“I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry I let you go through that all these years and didn’t notice something was wrong.”

Lloyd buried his face in Kai’s shirt. “I just want to be normal.”

---

Lloyd fell asleep soon after that, and Kai carried him towards the meeting place. The walk was long, about two hours, but with every moment that passed, Kai was more and more grateful that he had picked somewhere far away. He was exhausted, and if Borg’s associates found him now, he was in no position to fight back.

It felt like heaven when he finally spotted the little diner in the distance, with its gleaming lights offering a cheery glow to the foreboding dusk. Reluctantly shaking Lloyd awake, he took off his hat and coat and helped Lloyd put them on to carefully mask his monster features. Since Kai hadn’t had time to grab extra, he fluffed up his hair extra (something he hadn’t ever thought he’d do, it was fluffy enough as-is) to cover his ears, and tucked his tail into his pants.

The little bell on the diner door rang cheerily as they pushed their way in. At this time of night, the diner was empty, as expected- but there was one booth in the corner where four people were sitting, eating what looked to be pancakes and bacon. They looked up sharply as the bell rung, and Nya stood up abruptly, meeting his eye.

“Kai,” she cried, running over to him as tears sprung in her eyes. “Oh my goodness, oh my spots, oh my goodness.” She threw her arms around his neck, crying into his shoulder as he squeezed her just as tightly back. “You’re alive, thank the stars you’re alive, I thought I had lost you for good.”

“I’m just as relieved to see you guys,” Kai breathed, walking over to the booth. Although it was only intended to seat four, his friends squished over to make room for him, and he scooped Lloyd onto his lap.

“Kai, what took you so long, you had me worried out of my mind,” Nya muttered, stopping to take a breath and sip from her coffee. “Don’t ever scare me like that again.”

“Sorry, we got a little held up. We got caught escaping, and were followed. I spent a good hour, at least, trying to throw them. I wasn’t going to risk leading them anywhere.”

“You could’ve at least texted me, letting me know you were alright. Why didn’t you answer any of my calls?”

“I ditched my phone. Speaking of which, you guys probably should too. I wouldn’t be surprised if Borg had a way to track these things.”

“Get rid of our phones?” Jay whimpered. “How are we going to communicate if there’s an emergency?”

“Would you rather us get caught?” Kai snapped. “We can just buy some of those burner phones from the store.”

“Kai, I think you owe us an explanation,” Cole growled. “We’re tired, hungry, scared, and don’t know why we’re here. Nya told us you overheard Borg saying something, but wouldn’t tell her what he said, and just said to run. Are you going to give us any more than that?”

“I’m sorry, but I was just so scared, and there was no time…” He took a shaky breath, drawing an arm around Lloyd and pulling him closer. In a whisper, he admitted, “Borg was going to kill Lloyd.”

The table lapsed into a stunned silence. Even Nya, who had always been heavily critical and suspicious of Borg, looked shocked and horrified.

“When?” Zane asked faintly.

“Tomorrow morning.”

Cole paled about ten shades, Jay looked like he was going to faint, and Zane just stared as if he didn’t believe what he was hearing.

“One more day,” Nya whispered. “One more day and we would’ve lost him.”

“Don’t remind me,” Kai told her, his breath hitching as he tried to focus on the weight on his lap- warm, gentle, and alive. He was here. He had saved him.

“I don’t understand,” Jay whined. “Why would he do such a thing? I mean, I know we all had our suspicions, but… kill him? Really? What changed?”

“Remember all those ‘doctor’s visits?’ Apparently they’re some sort of testing, or sampling, or something. Show them the scar, Lloyd.”

The boy looked up at him hesitantly, before slowly pulling up his jacket and shirt to reveal the long scar Kai had seen earlier. Four sharp intakes of breath sounded as it came into view.

“Oh, Lloyd, honey,” Nya whispered.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s what they were doing at our doctor’s appointments, too, but for some reason they are really obsessed with Lloyd. Something about his lineage, I guess… but it was too much for him. He…”

Kai glanced at Lloyd, who was nibbling at the bacon Cole had slipped him. He didn’t seem too invested in the conversation, but he still kept his voice low.

“That tremor we felt? Apparently, Lloyd caused it. People were injured, and… the police came to investigate… Borg was furious. He decided Lloyd had caused more trouble than he was worth. Lloyd was chained and muzzled when I found him, and I… I couldn’t… I wouldn’t deny it any longer. Borg doesn’t care about us. He never has. He’s just using us.”

Silence gripped the table as his friends stared at him. Jay wiped at his eyes, which were bright and wet.

“What do we do now, Kai?” Nya asked, her voice barely audible.

“What do we do? We survive. You got some money, I hope?”

“We’ve been stashing it. Any time Borg gave us money on an outing that we didn’t use, we kept it. We brought everything we could find. And a few valuable items as well. We can sell them if we need to. Hopefully this will last us a while, if we stick to the necessities.”

“Good. Because we’re going to need every penny we can get. I have no idea how long we’ll have to be out here.”

“As long as Borg is hunting us, nowhere is safe,” Cole warned. “He’s got amasses of people at his disposal. I don’t know where we’re going to go that he can’t reach.”

“I know a place.”

---

“Are w-we al-almost there, K-k-kai,” Nya hissed, her teeth chattering. “I’m freezing.”

“We’re here.”

Jay stopped beside him. “An old warehouse?” “Hey, I remember this place,” Cole said, stepping up beside him. Lloyd was fast asleep in his arms- he had been out cold before they had even left the diner, and when Kai had tried to carry him, Cole had told him off, saying he had already done more than his fair share for the night, and that he ought to give someone else a turn before he keeled over from exhaustion. Kai was grateful for the gesture, although they still had needed to walk another hour to get to his destination.

“When we were younger, Cole and I used to take a bus down here sometimes on our days out to play around in this abandoned warehouse.” Jay raised his eyebrow, and Cole laughed. “When you’re a twelve year old boy, those kinds of things sound a lot cooler than they actually are. Still, I’m grateful you thought of it now. Who would’ve thought, when everyone else failed us, it’s the old warehouse that held through.”

“It’s nothing special,” Kai said as they tramped inside, “but it’s sheltered, it’s sturdy, and, most important of all, it’s unsuspecting. I doubt Borg would ever think to look here.”

“It’s perfect, Kai,” Nya sniffed, “Thank you.”

“I don’t know why you’re thanking me,” Kai sighed, lowering himself onto the ground and wincing at the ache in his back. “I was the one who kept trying to convince you that the child-murdering psychopath actually cared about us.”

“It’s not your fault, Kai. Borg tricked all of us. If it weren’t for your jump into action, we’d have lost our baby brother.”

“I just can’t stop thinking,” he whimpered, squeezing Nya’s hand tighter, and watching Lloyd from where Cole cradled him across the room, stroking him gently, “what would have happened if I hadn’t gotten there in time, or if I had decided to stay back in our room.”

“You can’t spend time dwelling on the past, Kai. You didn’t do those things, and everything worked out- well, as best as we could ask for, at least. You have to have more faith in yourself. We’re scared and confused, and we’re looking to you. I know that’s not fair, that you’re struggling just as much as any of us, but it’s the way things are. We need someone strong, like you, to keep us going.”

“I want to protect you guys, and keep you safe, more than anything else in the world. But I’m lost. I don’t know what to do, and I can’t do this alone.”

“Oh, Kai. No one would ever ask you to do anything alone. Whatever happens next, we’re all right here.”

#ninjago #NinjagoInhumanAuWeek #For the Romping and the Roaring #R&R #Part 1 #rosie writes #ugghhh guys i pounded this out in like four days and i am exhausted #i should've started writing for the event earlier #the amount of writing ive done in the last two weeks is insane #i'm lowkey gonna have burnout after this lol #my fic

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lloydskywalkers · 4 years ago

Text

the idiots’ guide to not despising your cousin

Determined to make the best out of the worst hand, Lloyd drags his newly-living pseudo-cousin on the road trip from hell in a desperate attempt to bond. Or get rid of each other for good, they’re not sure yet.

(This requires...a tiny bit of background, part one being that a while back i received a request for “more lloyd and sharks”. Except i misread it as “morro lloyd and sharks” which was like, odd, but i went with it and somehow ended up with 12K words of...this fic, that’s definitely 90% crack. Which brings me to part two, which is that this takes place in an entirely hypothetical au where Morro made it through the rift in s7, or somehow he’s alive the details aren’t important shh)

In his defense, Morro never would have been caught dead in this situation if he hadn’t traumatized his sort-of-cousin by possessing him two years earlier.

…alright, that’s not really a defense, but it’s the only explanation he has.

“I’m just saying,” Lloyd is…saying, as he jabs his pointer finger at him. “I could’ve been a whole foot taller if you hadn’t starved me. You stunted my growth, listening to me for five minutes is the least you can do.”

“I did not stunt your growth, you were already going to be a shrimp anyways,” Morro counters, rubbing his right eye as he tries to focus on his book instead.

Lloyd’s eyes narrow. “A whole week. And all you let me eat was half a slice of bread and vodka shots.”

“Would you — shh, it was not vodka!” Morro hisses, his eyes darting wildly around for Wu. His shoulders slump in relief as he confirms that he and Lloyd are still the only ones in the room, and he turns back, glaring at Lloyd. “I told you, it was juice.”

Lloyd glares right back. “I could still taste, you know. I’m not that naïve.”

“Could’ve fooled me,” Morro quips.

Lloyd’s green eyes flash a little too much on the neon side, and Morro backs down. “Alright, alright!” He shakes his head. “I’ll listen to whatever kiddie drama you want.”

“It’s not drama,” Lloyd huffs, flopping down on the couch across from him. “It’s a proposal.”

Morro sneers. “Oh, a fancy word.”

Again, Lloyd sneers right back. “Yeah, do you need a dictionary for it?"

In retrospect, it’s probably a good thing Morro possessed Lloyd at that particular point in his life. If he’d had to deal with this Lloyd, and all his newly-found confidence and sass, he’d have dropped him off a cliff much sooner.

“Listen here, you little punk—”

“Oh, now you want me to listen to you,” Lloyd interrupts. “Spoken like a true raging hypocrite.”

“FSM, what do you want?” Morro finally cracks, tossing his book on the couch beside him. It’s clear he’s not going to be getting anymore reading done until Lloyd leaves.

Lloyd beams, looking infuriatingly pleased with himself. “Again, I have a proposal,” he says. “For you.”

Morro already hates this. “No.”

Lloyd continues as if Morro hadn’t spoken. “You should go with me to the coast this weekend.”

“No.”

“The southern coast, so the one like eight hours away.”

“No, what the—” Morro stares at him incredulously. “Why in the world would I ever want to do that?”

Lloyd simply shrugs, as if he hasn’t just suggested the idea from hell. “Because.”

Morro’s going to kill him, tentatively-redeemed status be damned.

“Why, Lloyd.”

Lloyd gets a look in his eyes, the kind that makes Morro shift. “Consider,” he says. “A tornado.”

Morro, unfortunately, does consider that. “There is...merit, to the idea,” he admits, even if doing so pains him.

“Okay, okay,” Lloyd continues, like an enthusiastic salesman with a quota to meet. “Now, consider this: sharks. In the tornado.”

Morro loses any and all faith he’s ever had in Lloyd, which is impressive considering there was nothing there to begin with. “What.”

“Sharks, in the tornado. Like a sharknado.”

Something flickers in the back of Morro’s brain, snatches of a conversation he’d heard from the living room one evening, along with a lot of screeching laughter and pained groans.

“Are you trying to reenact an entirely fictional and entirely garbage movie,” Morro says flatly, mentally crediting Cole for that particular phrasing.

Lloyd’s lip juts out. “No.”

“That’s exactly what it is, isn’t it,” Morro rolls his eyes. “No. Find someone else to be stupid with you. Kai should be down, he always is.”

Lloyd narrows his eyes, but he doesn’t take the bait. “Will you just — at least hear my final point,” he pleads.

Morro stares into the vast abyss of the ceiling panels, and already regrets answering. “What.”

“The look on the others’ faces.”

Morro pauses again, desperately trying to stop himself — but it’s too late. The looks have been imagined.

Lloyd grins, sharp teeth poking out at the edge of his lip. “Now — the look on Uncle Wu’a face.”

Oh, curse everything. Morro’s coming dangerously close to being made a fool by an idiot shrimp who calls himself his cousin. He quickly backtracks.

“Noted, but that doesn’t explain why you’re asking me.”

“Because you’ve got the wind power for the tornado, duh.” Lloyd makes a face. “Also because the others will probably say something like it’s too dangerous, or a high risk, or some other nonsense like that.”

Morro highly doubts that Jay, or even Kai, of all people, would turn down the opportunity for such potent idiocy, but he does believe they’d tie Lloyd to a pole to keep him from rushing a shark.

“So you’re asking me, out of everyone else in this realm, to drive eight hours — eight — with you to some coast in the middle of nowhere — which includes water, by the way, so that’s already a strike — just so you can recreate some awful B-movie scene?”

“Yup,” Lloyd says. “And maybe drop the whole thing on my dad’s head, if we can find him.”

“Right,” Morro sighs. “Just being clear.”

He drops his head back, staring at the ceiling again. It’s the idea from hell, for certain. Morro would hate himself every minute of it, if he were to agree.

But the idea of hitting the road — of escaping the monastery — does sound tempting.

It has, admittedly, been rather boring at the monastery. Morro’s interactions with the ninja, while not as aggressive as they’d been originally, tend to be strained at best. On the better days, Morro finds the most entertainment in listening to the increasingly creative ways Kai threatens to end his existence with, should he either step out of line, or within a set boundary around Lloyd. Both of which Morro threatens to break by going along with Lloyd’s plan.

Actually, Morro muses, that’s more of a reason to go than to not. Kai’s head might potentially explode if he were to wake up and discover Morro had taken off across country with Lloyd, and Morro would get the added bonus of seeing him chew Lloyd out for being the one to suggest it. So there are definitely pros.

None of them, of course, override the fact that he’d be spending eight hours, in a car, with Lloyd and Lloyd alone. Both ways.

“Eight hours is a long time,” Morro finally says.

Lloyd’s expression drops, before his eyebrows crease stubbornly. “It’s eight hours you wouldn’t spend being hounded by Uncle Wu to train with us.”

Morro cringes. Lloyd has clearly prepared his arguments for this one with devastating accuracy. But still, eight hours. With Lloyd—

“If you do this, I’ll stop tying all your shirtsleeves together when they’re in the laundry,” Lloyd adds.

“That was you?!” Morro exclaims, indignantly. “Nya told me the dryer did that on its own!”

“Yeah, sorry about that,” Lloyd shrugs. “You probably…shouldn’t take Nya’s word on a whole lot of stuff any time soon.”

“Now you tell me,” Morro mutters, sinking further into the couch and bemoaning the universe on the whole.

Lloyd scoots forward on his own couch, his eyes wide and pleading. “Please?” he says. “It’s just this once. Then I’ll leave you alone, I promise.”

Morro meets his eyes shrewdly, chewing on his cheek. He’ll regret it, for certain. Probably hate himself and the universe on the whole the entire weekend. But…he does, rather drastically, owe Lloyd. And he is trying to — ugh — make things right with him.

(As if that’s something that can be done.)

And at least there’s the promise of Lloyd leaving him alone.

Morro lets out a long, weary groan, pressing the heels of his hands into his eyes. “Fine,” he grumbles. “But you’re paying for gas.”

Lloyd gives a whoop of victory, before desperately trying to stifle his excitement. “You pay for stuff?” he cackles instead. “Lamest villain ever.”

“Get out,” Morro snarls, hurling his book at him. Lloyd dodges with ease. “Before I change my mind and murder you.”

***********

Lloyd secures a vehicle with a speed and easiness that almost makes Morro doubt which one of them is the reformed criminal. Then he remembers that, technically, they’re both reformed criminals, even if Morro’s ‘reformed’ status is still under hot debate (by himself included).

As it also turns out, Lloyd happens to have a not-so-reformed criminal friend as well, who Morro unfortunately recognizes when he hands the keys over to them.

Ronin abruptly cuts off in his lecture to Lloyd about engine safety as he spots him, his face paling. Morro pauses mid-step, mentally wishing he’d just made Lloyd carry the six packages of Oreos out to the car himself. Lloyd simply smiles, like the oblivious airhead Morro wishes he truly was.

He’s not, though, because the look in his eyes says he’s having the time of his life with this.

“Oh yeah, I forgot to mention,” Lloyd tells Ronin easily. “Morro’s the other person I was talking about.”

Ronin stares between the two of them, and looks as if he’s lost about five years of his life. “How hard do they hit your head in practice, kid.”

“Not hard enough, apparently,” Morro mutters. Ronin pins him with a glare, and despite his better judgement, Morro shuts up.

“It’s all good,” Lloyd assures him. “I know what I’m doing.”

“For some reason, I got trouble believin’ you, kid.”

“Well, you shouldn’t,” Lloyd huffs, snatching the keys from him. “I’m the Green Ninja. Also, if you tell the others about this I’ll start busting your Thursday night runs.”

Ronin’s expression sours. “Alright, alright, if you wanna go on a suicide road trip, go on a suicide road trip. Just keep me outta it.”

“Gladly,” Morro grouses, shouldering his way between them so he can dump the cursed cookies in the van already.

Ronin watches him through narrowed eyes, and makes a threatening gesture. “If you even try and come back alone…”

“He won’t,” Lloyd says, before Morro can reply. “Promise. I have it all under control.”

“That’s what you all say every time,” Ronin grumbles.

Ronin finally leaves them in peace, muttering something about ‘leaving his Thursday nights alone' before taking off. This leaves Lloyd and Morro and the incredibly hideous minivan, alone. They look at each other. There’s a moment of silence, before they both scramble wildly for the driver’s seat. Morro beats Lloyd out by a half-second, grabbing the steering wheel and shoving him back with a smug smirk. Lloyd glares at him.

“I’m driving,” he demands.

“As if you’re old enough to have your license,” Morro scoffs.

Lloyd narrows his eyes into slits. “At least I was born when cars actually existed.”

“Ooh, I’m old, how will I ever recover,” Morro mocks. “I got here first, I’m driving. Suck it up.”

Lloyd’s face screws up, and for a half-second Morro gleefully thinks he’s about to pout like a child.

To his disappointment, Lloyd blows his breath out, stands up straighter, and plays dirty.

“You take control of the car, you take control of my body, ” he shakes his head, crossing his arms. “I guess that’s just how it is with you, huh."

Morro’s hands grind where he clutches the steering wheel, and he resists the urge to smash his head against it. “Have you ever heard of abusing your power.”

“Have you ever heard of abusing me.”

“Oh for FSM’s — you can drive, fine!”

***********

They’re roughly an hour out from the monastery, when something strikes Morro as odd.

“By the way,” he says. “How did you convince the idiot quartet to let you go?”

“Don’t call them that,” Lloyd says sternly, glaring at him. “And, uh, I didn’t.”

Morro blinks. Then Lloyd’s meaning sinks in, and he lets out a long, pained exhale. “You do realize,” he says. “That they’re going to have multiple heart attacks, then hunt me down and murder me as prime suspect, right.”

“Oh, don’t worry,” Lloyd assures him, cheerfully. “I left them a note.”

***********

Kai stares at the slightly-crumpled scrap of paper in his hands and wishes, not for the first time, that Garmadon or Wu or Misako had put in just a little more time in raising Lloyd, so he could blame them for this and not his own example.

Alas, Kai is only able to bury himself in so much denial.

“What’s that?” Cole asks, striding into the kitchen behind him. Kai hands him the note, wordlessly. Cole frowns as he takes it, trying in vain to flatten the edges.

“‘Hey guys, heading out with Morro for a couple days, going to’— something something…sharks?” Cole blinks at the note. “Geez, might need to look into Lloyd’s writing education agai— wait, he’s heading out with who for a couple what.”

“Read the rest,” Kai says, his eyes glazing over as he stares across the kitchen.

“Okay, uh… ‘—taking the van’— we have a van? — ‘shouldn’t go too far, don’t worry.’” Cole’s eyebrows shoot up as he reads on. “‘Also my phone’s dead and I forgot the charger. Sorry.’ He wrote this while he was still here, he could’ve grabbed it!” he exclaims.

“I’m going to slaughter him,” Kai states.

“Uh…which one?”

“Whichever one doesn’t run fast enough.”

***********

As it turns out, Lloyd’s plan consists of a little more than just driving six hours to some random beach in the middle of nowhere. This is unsurprising, as Morro’s been expecting Lloyd to spring nonsense on him at any given moment.

Having lived in his head for a brief stint, Morro also finds it unsurprising that Lloyd’s plan isn’t actually a plan.

“So the tornado thing is easy, obviously, unless your powers suck,” he’s saying. Morro shoots him a look he hopes conveys the depths of his annoyance from where he’s at the wheel. Lloyd switched with him back at the last gas station, having grown fed up with Morro’s lack of skill in reading maps.

It’s not Morro’s fault his reading comprehension rests around that of a nine year-old’s. Like Lloyd’s any better.

“Gonna take that as a ‘maybe’,” Lloyd mutters to himself, squinting back at the map under the above-head car light. “It’s the shark part that’s going to be a little more tricky.”

“I hear they like blood,” Morro says. “I can always skewer you a little, then toss you in. That should do it.”

“Har har,” Lloyd replies, drenched in sarcasm. “That’s obviously not the route we’re taking. Besides, it’d be mean to lure the sharks out and not actually have anything they can eat. I’d probably end up poisoning them or something, with my mutant Oni blood.”

Morro stares at him long enough to nearly run them off the road. He jerks the car back on track just in time, shaking his head and despairing.

“I was thinking, since there’s already an elemental master of nature, maybe there’s like, an elemental master of animals?” Lloyd continues. “Then we could ask them to help us out.”

“Oh, I’m sure some random master would love to help us out,” Morro drawls. “An undead criminal who tried to unleash hell on the country and the son of Lord Garmadon.”

“Speak for yourself,” Lloyd huffs. “People actually like me.”

“Shocker.”

Lloyd ignores him. “Plus, you’re not even undead anymore,” he mutters under his breath. “You’re just regular boring alive, now.”

Morro opens his mouth, because he’s got a lot to say about that, then realizes he doesn’t quite have the words for it, aside from hanging his mouth open like an indignant fish. He shuts it, and Lloyd plows on.

“Do you think we should look for the master of like, fish or something, instead?” he questions, frowning. “I mean, I don’t even know if there is a master of animals, but if there is, sharks are technically fish, and fish are…well, I guess they’re animals too, but what if there’s like, a distinction, and all the hypothetical master of animals can summon are mammals, and we drive out of the way for nothing?”

“I will pay you,” Morro says, pinching the bridge of his nose tightly. “I will pay you so much to shut up.”

“It’s too much of a risk,” Lloyd decides, ignoring him. “Plan B it is, then.”

Morro doesn’t want to ask. That would be inviting Lloyd to run his mouth again, and Morro doesn’t hate himself that much.

But he does, regretfully, want to know how he’ll be meeting his fate.

“What’s plan B?”

“So there’s this park,” Lloyd says. “For performing animals.”

***********

Morro and Lloyd are still arguing by the time they pull into the motel parking lot for the night. That had been a different argument altogether, but as they’d had to sneak out around midnight to get on the road successfully, neither had really wanted to keep driving through the early morning hours.

“—no, no, I cannot make this clearer, no,” Morro growls. “I am not breaking into some — some stupid amusement park, just to steal their dancing sharks or whatever.”

“Oh come on, it’s stealing! That’s like, your favorite pastime,” Lloyd shoots back. “A shark is nothing compared to body-snatching.”

“That’s not going to work on me again,” Morro seethes.

“Oh yeah?” Lloyd taunts. “Why not? Did your morality meter run out?”

“My what—”

“I can never dye my hair black because of you,” Lloyd continues, eyes narrowed. “I will never know the teenage joys of horrifying your family by dyeing your entire head jet black, because of you.”

“It didn’t look that bad,” Morro defends.

“I’m talking about the trauma!” Lloyd snaps.

Morro pauses. “Your trauma, or theirs?”

Lloyd opens his mouth, then frowns. “Min—their— both, both traumas!”

While Morro wants to scoff back that having to endure the sight of Kai’s hair is equally traumatic for him, he also recognizes that Lloyd has a point. Which is inconvenient, because Lloyd’s beginning to use that point against him a little too well lately, but considering Lloyd also still wakes up screaming in the night because Morro’s given him chronic nightmares, he decides not to push back against that point.

Because he’s a nice person, like that.

He does, however, attempt to push for sense.

“Stealing a shark from a theme park is still theft,” he argues under his breath, as they make their way toward the motel check-in. “Isn’t that something you’re against?”

“Theft, yes,” Lloyd replies. “Freeing wrongfully imprisoned sharks from slavery, less so.”

“Oh, so stealing is an act of philanthropy when it’s you.”

“Wow, look at you, breaking out the big words.” Lloyd’s teeth grind together.

“Yeah, you need a dictionary?” Morro sneers back his words from earlier.

Lloyd looks as if he’d like to throttle him, but fortunately for Morro — or unfortunately, as he’d like to see him try — the receptionist at the check-in desk is staring at them with wide eyes now.

To be fair, Morro imagines they make quite a contrasting pair: Lloyd with his light hair in his green hoodie and green high top sneakers, and Morro with his black hair in his black shirt and black jacket and black jeans and black high top sneakers.

At least Lloyd’s basketball shorts are like, a grey color. For contrast, not that Morro cares.

He does care that they’re both wearing high top sneakers, but that’s only because it’s annoying.

Lloyd finally straightens, transforming instantaneously into a bright, innocent-eyed ray of infuriating sunshine. “Hi!” he greets. “Can we get a room for two, please?”

“Oh,” the lady blinks, clearly blinded by the intensity of Lloyd’s beaming smile. “Of course, sweetheart, one moment.”

Morro fights back the urge to inform the receptionist that Lloyd is actually a half-demon monster who could and would drag her on an eight-hour road trip from hell, with the sole purpose of stealing sharks.

He resists, though. Since he’s a nice person, like that.

The receptionist hands them the keys with ease, but it’s only as Lloyd struggles to get the room door open that the reality of their situation hits Morro.

Lloyd finally swings the door open, and Morro stares in horror at the small room. “Wait, we’re sharing a room?”

“Uh, yeah?” Lloyd shrugs. “Unless you’ve got the money for two, ‘cause I definitely don’t.”

Morro’s jaw creaks. Lloyd knows full well he has about three cents to his name. “Tell me there’s two beds.”

Lloyd scoffs loudly. “Please. I’m not completely insane.”

Morro would beg to differ, because he’s got them sharing a room, but he’s true to his word, at least. While the room is about the size of a glorified closet, there are two single beds, neatly arranged side by side. In silent agreement, the first thing Lloyd and Morro do, after tossing their bags down, is shove the beds as far as they can from each other against the opposite wall. The bedside table relocates nicely as a barrier in the no-man’s zone between the two. Morro would prefer, say, a five-feet thick vengestone wall between the two of them, but sure, the bedside table thing works.

They make camp on their respective beds after that, Morro skimming idly through his book while Lloyd flips through the little leaflet on the bedside table. He frowns, swinging his legs at the edge of his bed.

“D’you think we should just order dinner in?” he says.

Morro ignores him, continuing to thumb through his book. He hasn’t been particularly hungry since they finished an entire package of Oreos somewhere around the second hour in.

Not one to be discouraged, Lloyd continues anyways, mumbling to himself. “It’s a little late, but it looks like there are some pizza places that’ll deliver here…”

Morro frowns. “Pizza’s that cheese bread stuff, right?”

Lloyd goes silent. He stares at Morro, his expression frozen. “What.”

Morro shifts, uncomfortable at the stare Lloyd has on him. “What?”

“You’ve…never had pizza?” Lloyd finally gets out, as if the very idea is horrifying.

“No?” Morro offers. “You know I don’t eat dinner with you all. I certainly don’t eat your disgusting greasy junk food, either.”

“Disgusting — you’ve never had pizza,” Lloyd repeats, scandalized. “That’s what’s disgusting here. We’ve gotta fix this. Not even you deserve to go your life without pizza.”

“I’m touched,” Morro drones.

“Shut up, and pick out a topping.” Morro yelps as Lloyd suddenly materializes on the bed next to him, shoving the leaflet in his face. “So the standard go-to is cheese, ‘cause you can’t go wrong with that, but pepperoni’s pretty across the board, too. Kai and Nya like little peppers on theirs, so if you like spicy stuff that’s the way to go, but Cole swears by bacon bits, and Jay likes both. Zane likes the vegetable kind, but that’s just ‘cause he’s weird, so there’s that and pineapple, if you’re a mutant—”

“I’ll take the pineapple,” Morro blurts, in a desperate attempt to cut Lloyd’s babbling off.

Lloyd wrinkles his nose. “You’re not gonna like it,” he threatens. “But I’ll get us one of those split pizzas, so we can do like, two slices of pineapple, then the rest can be cheese and pepperoni, I guess, if that sounds good?”

“I literally could not care less.”

“Taking that as a yes!” Lloyd says, cheerfully. “You’re gonna love it.”

“Wonderful,” Morro grimaces. “Now get—” he shoves Lloyd, sending him sprawling to the floor with a yelp. “Back over on your side.”

It takes an unfortunately quick time for the pizza to be delivered, so Morro doesn’t have the chance to pretend he’s fallen asleep before Lloyd’s invading his space again, shoving the pizza in his face.

“Try it,” he demands. “One piece, and I’ll leave you alone.”

“That better be a promise,” Morro grouses, but he takes the slice he’s being offered, holding it gingerly between two fingers. He makes a face. “This is what you’ve been going on about? I can see the grease dripping off it.”

Lloyd rolls his eyes to the ceiling. “Just try it, geez. What are you, chicken?”

“What are you, five?” Morro retorts. He relents though, ever-so-carefully taking the tiniest of bites.

He pauses. Lloyd watches him expectantly. “And?”

Morro knows exactly what Lloyd wants to hear, and he’d eat rocks before he’d let him have it. Unfortunately, his tastebuds are arguing a different case.

Morro doesn’t reply, but he takes another bite, this one considerably larger. FSM be cursed, it’s good.

“Haha!” Lloyd crows, rocking back where he sits cross-legged on the floor. “You love it! I knew it.”

“I do not,” Morro argues. The mouthful of pizza he has doesn’t exactly sell his point.

“Do too,” Lloyd grins, taking his own slice.

Morro hesitates, then goes for another slice, giving in. “The pineapple stuff is pretty good,” he admits, reaching for the fruit-laden pizza. Lloyd chokes, his triumphant smile evaporating as his eyes go wide in horror.

“No. No, you can’t. I know you’re deranged, but you can’t be that far gone—”

“It’s good,” Morro shrugs, taking another bite.

Lloyd gags, looking as if he’d like to cry. He settles for a sigh of despair instead, reaching for one of the slices of cheese. The edges of the crust are a bit blackened, but Lloyd doesn’t seem to mind.

“When I was a kid,” he says, as he catches a trailing string of cheese with his fingers. “Burnt pizza was my favorite thing ever. It was super easy to get, if you hung out behind the restaurants. They’d always throw them out in boxes and stuff, so it wasn’t as gross to swipe outta the trash.”

Lloyd’s eyebrows furrow, and his expression drops. “Uh, I mean, sorry. The guys get weird when I talk about that stuff, ‘cause it’s…weird, I guess.”

Morro eyes him. Far be it from him to reassure Lloyd, but — “I don’t think it’s that weird,” he says. “I’d snag stuff from the trash all the time when I was on the streets.”

“Really?” Lloyd’s expression brightens. “That was how I always ate when I was hanging in cities! Smaller towns not so much, since you could swipe stuff from food stands easier there.”

Morro nods in agreement. “The bigger cities are a lot better for scavenging, but smaller villages are where it’s at for stealing. People let you get away easier there.”

“Yeah, exactly!” Lloyd exclaims. He shakes his head, muttering to himself. “I knew it wasn’t that weird. The guys just like to overreact all the time.”

“Tell me about it,” Morro snorts. “Wu’d always act like I’d kicked him in the shins when I brought that sort of stuff up.”

“Sounds like him,” Lloyd giggles, before lapsing back into silence as they both finish the pizza.

If Morro didn’t know any better, he’d call it comfortable.

***********

Sleeping, however, is not comfortable.

Morro stares up at the ceiling, his eyes wide open. Across the room, Lloyd does the same from his own bed.

“Go to sleep,” Morro finally says. “You’re creeping me out.”

“You go to sleep first,” Lloyd responds, after a minute.

Morro grits his teeth. “No, you.”

“What, so you can murder me?” Lloyd hisses.

“I’m more worried about you murdering me!” Morro hisses back.

“You’re the ex-criminal. Maybe I don’t wanna wake up to the Preeminent at my throat.”

“Well maybe I don’t want to wake up with the Serpentine at my neck.”

“Oh, shut up, you hypocritical jerk—”

“You’re the one with a blabber mouth, you stuck-up wannabe-martyr—”

***********

In the end, neither of them wake up with slit throats. Neither of them wake up with marker all over their face, or tied up in their own sheets, or halfway out the window, either. It is, quite possibly, a miracle.

***********

“Well, Lloyd charged a pizza to my credit card, so we know they’re alive, at least,” Cole sighs.

“He took your credit card?” Nya frowns. “I thought Morro was the one who— you know what, never mind, Lloyd makes perfect sense.”

“He redacted the location, too,” Cole taps wearily at his phone. “Wow, we really did raise a child criminal.”

Kai moans into his hands where he’s slumped over at the table, hunkering in the pits of anxiety-induced despair.

“Y’know, it’s not too late to chase them down,” Jay remarks. “Could be fun, we could all join in on whatever awful road trip they’re having.”

“Sensei Wu said we need to let them go,” Cole mutters. “So they can ‘work things out’. That, or he wants to collect on their life insurance early.”

Jay makes a face. “And we’re listening to him…why?”

“Lloyd disabled location services on his phone,” Zane says, dully. “And since the van was procured from Ronin—”

“We have no idea where they are,” Nya growls. “I’m going to slaughter him.”

“Morro, Lloyd, or Ronin?” Jay asks.

Nya exchanges looks with Kai. “Whichever one doesn’t hide well enough.”

***********

“So if we’re looking at this logically, I think our best bet is to just sneak in the park as tourists, so we blend in with everyone. It’s a pretty busy time of the year, so we should go unnoticed—”

“Next exit.”

“—and then we’ll be able to — huh?”

“Next exit. On the left.”

“The left? I thought it was the right. Are you sure you aren’t reading the map upside down again?”

The vein near Morro’s forehead throbs. “I’m not, now get in the — get in the left lane, Lloyd, or we’ll miss it!”

“I swear, if you make me U-turn in the middle of the highway again…” Lloyd grits out, but he sends them careening across the freeway, darting into the left lane just in time to make their turn. Morro clutches the armrest with white knuckles, desperately trying not to cover his eyes with his hands like he has every other time Lloyd’s driven.

“You drive like a maniac,” Morro finally gets out, as Lloyd pushes the car well over the local speed limit. “Whoever let you have a license should be jailed.”

“Wimp,” Lloyd mocks. “I don’t wanna hear it, with how you and your whack-job ghost pals would drive around.”

“That was different,” Morro grinds his teeth. “We had reliable vehicles and I was too dead to care. This is a bucket of bolts, and I’m unfortunately alive enough to not want to die in a fiery inferno because you crashed us head-on into a semi truck.”

“Seriously?” Lloyd rolls his eyes. “You sound like Uncle Wu.”

Morro turns to stare at him so fast his neck practically cracks. He continues to stare at Lloyd, his mouth half-open, too viscerally horrified to form a response.

He finally manages a croaked, “Take that back.”

“Nope.” Lloyd is grinning.

“Take it back, I sound nothing like him—”

Lloyd says nothing, still grinning. Dying in a fiery inferno is sounding better by the minute, if it means dragging Lloyd down with him.

“So anyways, as I was saying,” Lloyd continues, as they pull into view of the park. “I think we should slip in the park dressed like tourists—”

“Mm-hm.”

“—with tickets that I can buy on Cole’s credit card—”

“Classy.”

“—which’ll give our location away, ‘cause there’s no hiding that, but we should be clear out of here by the time he checks anyways—”

“Nobody cares.”

“—alright, alright, so we’re in as tourists, then we just…grab a shark and, uh, borrow one of their big moving trucks, I guess.”

Morro stares at him. “Borrow. The park’s semi truck they use to move sharks.”

Lloyd winces. “Well, we can’t fit the shark in here.”

They both give the minivan a once-over, and cringe in unison.

“So let me get this straight,” Morro rubs his temple as Lloyd pulls them into the parking lot, pocketing their tickets with the slightest expression of guilt and a whispered ‘Forgive me Cole’. “Your plan is to just…walk into the park, pretending we’re totally normal people, then somehow stuff a shark in a truck and — and what? Bust through the front gates?”

“I was more thinking we could swipe park uniforms while we’re in there, and sneak out like Star Wars,” Lloyd says, gesturing enthusiastically with his hands.

Morro buries his face in his hands. “I despise everything you are.”

“It’s a solid plan!” Lloyd defends, kicking the car door open. “It’s better than anything you have.”

“Planning for something this stupid would burn my brain cells to a crisp,” Morro grumbles, sliding out of the van. He eyes the vehicle, something occurring to him. “By the way. If we’re busting out of here in a park truck, what does that mean for this thing?”

Lloyd pauses, as if that thought hadn’t occurred to him. “Uh…” he sweats. “I’m, uh. I’m sure Ronin’s done something bad enough that he deserves us leaving it here.”

“We’re going to come out of this with so many people after our heads,” Morro exhales.

***********

Morro lets Lloyd snag them clothes from a nearby gift shop, which is probably the worst mistake he’s made in his life. Whether Lloyd is still aiming for a bit of revenge or his fashion sense really is just that appalling, the outfits he picks out for them almost succeed at burning Morro’s eyes out on the spot.

“What is this,” is all he manages to get out, staring blankly at the bright yellow, button-up shirt he’s holding in his hands. It wouldn’t be so bad, if it didn’t have ugly orange flowers and pineapples printed all over it as well.

“It’s what you get for liking pineapple on your pizza,” Lloyd quips, as he pulls a garishly orange t-shirt over his head. His shirt has “I Went to Oceanworld and All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt” printed on it in bright pink script, which is at least better than the ugly flowers Morro gets. On the other hand, Lloyd’s stuck with a pair of truly hideous, neon blue running shorts, while Morro at least gets navy cargo ones, so there’s that tiny victory.

“Also, these were the best options they had,” Lloyd winces, having caught a glimpse of himself in a shop window as they head toward the park entrance, a crowd of people already starting to form around them. “Here, put these on.”

Morro stares at the purple sunglasses Lloyd’s handed him. “Absolutely not.”

“This too,” Lloyd ignores him, shoving a neon green baseball cap on him. “See, I’m letting you have the green one, ‘cause—”

“If you even finish that sentence, I’ll drown you in the first fish tank we see,” Morro grits out, shoving the sunglasses on. Lloyd just gives him a sunny smile, tugging a vivid pink baseball cap over his hair. He, at least, looks like he fits in here, with his idiot smile and the way he almost starts bouncing as they mingle in the crowds. Morro, on the other hand, feels much as if he sticks out like a sore, sweaty thumb.

“You know, I might actually take you up on that drowning thing,” Lloyd mutters as they drift further into the park, tugging at the collar of his t-shirt. “If only so I end up in the water. It’s so hot.”

“Makes me miss your grandfather’s tomb,” Morro mutters beneath his breath. Lloyd spears him with a glare out of the corners of his eyes. “What?” Morro defends. “It was at least cold there.”

“I remember. I almost died ‘cause of it,” Lloyd growls, his eyes flashing in warning.

“Pretty sure you were more likely to die of starvation by that point,” Morro remarks easily. “But you were already a twig to begin with, so—”

He cuts off with a strangled shout of pain as Lloyd shoves him face-first into a sign, his nose crunching against the metal. Morro pulls away angrily, only to come face to face with a truly hellish, grinning shark on the sign, pointing its deformed fin to the right. Just below the awful shark is a small, printed square that points ahead, reading Park Maintenance: Transportation.

“Just so you know, I’m going to roundhouse-kick your teeth out for that later,” Morro tells Lloyd calmly. “But I think I’ve found our stop.”

Lloyd’s expression switches from Oni hell spawn of doom to enthusiastic devil child in a heartbeat. “Oh, seriously? That was fast.”

“Aw,” Morro sneers. “Did you want to stop by the kiddie park before we left?”

Lloyd’s eyes narrow, but he doesn’t spare Morro a second glance. “Nah, but I wanted a picture of you in that shirt to immortalize. Kai’ll get a kick out of it.”

Morro pales rapidly. “No. No, Kai does not hear a word of this. This stays between you and me forever and then we die. Kai. Never. Knows.”

“I’ll keep it quiet if you give me your credit card.”

“Ha! You know this entire family’s broke.”

Breaking into park maintenance is laughably easy — or it would have been, if they weren’t dressed in the ugliest, most obvious colors possible. They make it through three different doors on the excuse that they’re “poor, lost cousins whose uncle left them to die”, but after that they have to start knocking people out. Morro debates arguing for murder, because witnesses and all, but covering their stolen uniforms in blood before they even have the chance to wear them is probably a bad move.

At least the uniforms are a decent combo of white and sky blue, instead of a criminal offense on the eyes.

“Just like Star Wars!” Lloyd exclaims happily, as they sprint for the truck.

It takes every bit of Morro’s willpower not to lock him in the nearby fish tank. He doesn’t, though, because Lloyd somehow manages to locate the one shark actually scheduled for transport, which means all they have to do is subtly distract a few more employees and steal the truck before the furious horde of security guards on their tail catch up and send them both to the Departed Realm in style.

“I said subtly distract them!” Lloyd cries, as Morro neatly finishes chopping his hand into the last employee’s neck, sending him into blissful unconsciousness. “Not that!”

“Do not take the moral high ground with me now,” Morro snaps at him. “I saw what you did to the other security guard, you absolute menace.”

“That was different, can we just— oh, good, the shark’s in the tank and everything,” Lloyd pants, flicking through the little camera view screen on the truck dashboard. “And there’s the exit gate, and there’s — oh, there’s security coming to kill us.”

“What?” Morro yelps, craning his head over. “They shouldn’t have gotten through the door that soon, we haven’t even found the keys yet!”

“Don’t need keys.” Lloyd slides down, prying the compartment beneath the steering wheel open, exposing a mass of complicated wires. “Strap the shark in and lock the back doors,” he orders, as he starts pulling at them. “I’m gonna hot wire it.”

Morro has about a thousand and two questions for why, exactly, Lloyd knows how to hot wire a car, but he immediately decides he doesn’t want to know. Well, he kind of does, because it’s possibly the only cool thing Lloyd has revealed about himself, but running for their lives from angry, underpaid park employees doesn’t seem to be the best of times.

Morro sprints around the truck, yanking the doors open fully and hoisting himself into the trailer. The shark appears to be whacked out of its mind on what Morro’s guessing is a tranquilizer, floating happily in its little tank, and Morro desperately hopes that’s not about to change with the chaotic horror that is Lloyd’s driving.

“Hang tight, fish,” Morro mutters, as he tightens the box straps. Satisfied it won’t come loose, he stumbles out of the trailer, his hands shaking with adrenaline as he slams the truck doors closed, before skidding around the asphalt for the passenger seat.

“Any day now, Lloyd,” he urges, watching the first of the guards come into view in the car mirror.

“Almost got it,” Lloyd hisses, the tip of his tongue caught between his teeth as he yanks at the wires beneath the steering wheel. “Drat, these things are so much more complicated than smaller cars—”

“Lloyd, believe it or not, I really don’t want to kill anyone today.”

“Got it!” Lloyd exclaims triumphantly, slamming the panel closed as the car hums to life. He slides back up into the driver’s seat, throwing the gearshift forward. “Buckle up, this is gonna be fun!”

“You and I have—” Morro swallows a shriek as Lloyd guns the truck forward, his head smacking back against the passenger seat. “Entirely different definitions of fun.”

“You just don’t know what fun is,” Lloyd accuses as he presses harder on the gas, angered shouts from the security guards echoing behind them.

“I know it’s not what you’re doing,” Morro shoots back, as Lloyd smashes them through several plastic barriers.

“What? How is this not fun?” Lloyd gestures with one hand, the other veering the steering wheel to the right and sending the truck careening through the park exit, narrowly missing the transport shuttle.

“Fun is me having control of this thing,” Morro grits out. “Or having control in general. You know, like how I controlled you.”

Lloyd’s head turns to him, his eyes narrowing. “You are not bringing this back up now.”

“What, it’s fun— eyes on the road, eyes on the road!”

***********

By the time they make it on the interstate, well out of the city traffic, Morro’s lost any doubts he’s ever had that Lloyd is the actual blood descendant of the First Spinjitzu Master. There’s just no other way to explain how they manage to evade the entire park’s security staff as well as the local police without trouble, other than divine intervention.

As all things do, though, even divine intervention runs out. Unfortunately, it’s at the same time that Lloyd and Morro’s adrenaline high runs out as well, leaving them both exhausted and heavy-eyed. And also considerably short-tempered, so when Lloyd fails to spot the pothole in the dark and punctures their front tire, Morro’s already dangerously close to his breaking point.

It’s never a good place to be, when he’s around Lloyd.

“I swear, it’s in here somewhere,” Lloyd says, his eyebrows furrowing as he roots through the glove compartment again. “This is an official park vehicle, they can’t not have a manual.”

Morro doesn’t comment, too busy trying to slide the tire jack in place. It’s his fifth attempt so far, and the failures aren’t exactly helping his rising temper. It wouldn’t be quite as difficult if the road they were on wasn’t in the middle of nowhere, perched at the edge of a steep ravine. But it is, and the tire jack clanks out of place as Morro misses yet again.

“Aha! Got it. It doesn’t look too difficult, actually.”

Morro grits his teeth. How no one has murdered Lloyd for his unfailing optimism yet is beyond him. Utterly beyond him. Especially when it’s his fault in the first place.

“All we really need is to get the spare out from underneath,” Lloyd muses, skimming through the manual. “Then we should be good.”

“Stop saying we,” Morro finally snaps. “We did not destroy the tire. You did.”

Lloyd blinks, then frowns. “You didn’t exactly help,” he murmurs beneath his breath, bending down near the flat tire.

Morro’s fingers clench around the tire jack, his knuckles white. He is not going to lose his temper. He’s not. He is stuck in the middle of nowhere, with a stolen truck and a flat tire, with no help in sight, with Lloyd Garmadon of all people, but he is not going to lose his temper. It’s a waste of energy.

“Look, just — no, you’re doing it wrong,” Lloyd sighs.

Never mind. Morro’s got energy to spare.

“Would it kill you to shut up? For five seconds?” he snaps, whirling on Lloyd. Lloyd flinches back in alarm, and Morro snarls. “This is your fault, would it kill you to stop making things worse for once?”

Lloyd’s face pales. “I just—”

“We wouldn’t even be here if it wasn’t for you,” Morro steamrolls over him, not even giving him the chance to speak. He’s done, he’s so done with this. He’s held it together pretty well this whole time, gone along with Lloyd’s stupid trip for a reason he doesn’t even know, but this is it. Being alive is not worth the effort, at all.

“You dragged me on this, you and your stupid, selfish obsession with pretending everything’ll work out fine, like you’re some little kid,” Morro stabs his finger viciously at Lloyd. “Well guess what? Nothing is fine, and neither of us are kids! We never got to be kids, and we’ll never get to be kids, because your horrible family screwed up and you came along and made things so much worse!”

Hurt flickers across Lloyd’s face, and his eyes look oddly shiny. Morro’s too far into his rant to care.

“It’s typical,” Morro spits. “Absolutely perfect. This is all your fault, I mean it. Everything’s your fault, every single stupid thing that’s gone wrong in my life, if it wasn’t for you—”

Lloyd punches him square in the mouth.

It’s not even the hardest hit he’s ever received, but it’s hard enough to send him staggering back a couple steps. Morro reels, so flabbergasted that he’s unable to form words for a good half-minute. He blinks back tears of pain, staring at Lloyd in indignation. “You — you hit me!”

“And I’m not sorry about it at all!” Lloyd yells, fists clenched tightly by his sides, as if gearing up for another hit. “You deserved it!”

He punctuates this by hurling the tire block at him. Morro dodges easily, his own anger flaring back to life.

“You call that a hit?” he scoffs. “Pathetic. This is why you were so easy to possess, you know—”

“Shut up, shut up, shut up!” Lloyd cuts over him, kicking a rock at him this time. “FSM, what’s your problem? I don’t even know why I try with you!”

“My problem?” Morro snaps, true and properly angry now. “My problem is that some pint-sized brat stole my whole life from me, and now he’s out here—” Morro grunts as he throws the tire jack at Lloyd. “Trying to pretend we’re cousins!”

“Oh, your whole life,” Lloyd echoes, derisively. “What is it about the green gi that makes you so entitled? You’re like — you’re uglier than some stupid runner-up in a beauty pageant about it!”

Morro’s teeth clack together like a steel trap. “A beauty pageant?!”

“Yeah!” Lloyd shouts. “You’re like a screaming toddler! Who runs onstage and attacks the winner because they didn’t get first place in a contest for a stupid outfit!”

“It’s not! Just! An outfit!” Morro roars.

“I know that!” Lloyd snaps.

“Then why didn’t you give it to me!”

“Because you don’t deserve it! You’re a jerk!”

“You don’t even want it!” Morro yells. “You get the green gi and you don’t even appreciate it! This is why we’ll never be cousins!”

“Good! I don’t want you as a cousin! I hate you!” Lloyd screeches, throwing the car manual at him. “I hate you, I hate you so much!”

“I hate you too!” Morro howls, throwing the tire wrench. It spirals wildly off-aim. “Gods, you’re the worst—”

“Drop dead, Morro!” Lloyd screams.

“Make me!” Morro screams back. “Bet you don’t have it in you, you sniveling little—”

Lloyd, clearly determined to prove that he does have it in him, neatly cuts Morro off by tackling him around the waist, sending them both flying over the edge of the hill and rolling wildly into the ravine.

The screaming that follows is a lot less angry this time, and a lot more like the terrified screeching of two year-olds on a roller coaster.

***********

“D’you think...hospitals will take..the green gi as insurance?”

“S’worth...a try. Not sure, think…my head might’ve cracked.”

“I think I heard my spine snap.”

“Pretty sure that was my knee detaching.”

Morro winces, closing his eyes briefly before opening them, staring up at the starry night sky. There’s a shifting noise near his head, before Lloyd curses, moaning in pain as it stops abruptly.

As it turns out, the ravine went a bit deeper than either of them had been prepared for. The end result is Lloyd and Morro both sprawled at the bottom of the ravine, staring into the void of space as they rethink their particular life choices up to this point. There had been a brief moment where they both attempted to shove themselves back up to continue their fight, but that dream had rapidly died as they both collapsed back into the grass, groaning in pain.

It did kill his temper rather effectively, Morro will admit. It’s difficult to keep screaming when your ribs feel like they’ve been used as a drum by a baseball bat. So they continue to lie there in silence, before Lloyd finally stirs.

“So that, uh,” Lloyd finally breathes. “That was. A lot.”

Morro winces. “Yeah. That was — I haven’t yelled like that in a while.”

“Aw, man,” Lloyd laughs humorlessly, still staring at the sky. “I don’t think I’ve yelled like that since I was like, eight.”

The crickets around them buzz loudly as they lapse into silence. At least the sky’s stopped spinning, Morro thinks.

“I think. Um. I think I probably crossed a line.”

Lloyd’s voice is so quiet, Morro almost misses it. He doesn’t miss the apologetic tone, though.

Morro’s lips press together as something in his chest twists that better not be guilt. “I..might have, as well.”

Lloyd hums. “I probably shouldn’t have compared everything you went through to a toddler.”

“Well,” Morro pauses, thinking back on it. “I mean. That crack about the beauty pageant was kinda funny.”

Lloyd gives a breathless little laugh. “Wanna know something awful?”

Morro cranes his head slightly. “Hm?”

“I actually stole that from Nya. And she was, uh, talking about Kai.”

Morro’s eyebrows shoot up. “No, you didn’t.”

“Yeah, I did,” Lloyd giggles. “It was after the whole thing with Chen — you saw that, right, in my head?”

“Uh...kind of. Sorry?”

“Nah, I don’t care as much about that one. Anyways, he was a mopey mess after it. Nya was kind of bitter. I might have been…a little bit, too. In secret.”

Morro smirks despite himself. “The Green Ninja, secretly bitter.”

“I’ll never be as bitter as you,” Lloyd retorts.

Morro’s smirk fades. “That’s fair, I guess.” He looks back at the sky, scrubbing a hand across his eyes. “Sorry I brought up possessing you again,” he mutters. “That was…probably uncalled for.”

“Yeah,” Lloyd says. “Pretty uncool that you keep doing that.”

“Yeah, well.” Morro sighs. “I’m a work in progress. But still. Sorry.”

“It’s okay. I get it, I think. Not the bringing up the possession part, but the work in progress part.”

“Oh.” Morro chews on the edge of his lip. “Then, uh, I’m also — I’m also sorry I said everything’s your fault.” He closes his eyes tightly. Curse it, the feeling twisting his chest up is most certainly guilt. “That was definitely uncalled for.”

“No,” Lloyd says, quietly. “That’s…that’s fair, too.”

Morro’s eyes blink open, and he cranes his head back to stare at him. “What? No, it’s not. Blame your grandfather, or your dad, or even Wu. Or that, um, giant snake thing, that kept popping up—”

“The Great Devourer?”

“Yeah, blame that.” Morro briefly squeezes his eyes shut again. Oh, this hurts to say out loud. “You’re…you’re still a kid. You’ve been a kid, even if life sucks enough to make it feel like you’re not. S’not fair to blame it all on you.”

Lloyd is silent for a moment, and Morro hopes he’s heard the apology in his words. That’s a new hope for him to have, but it’s genuine.

“Same goes for you, then.” Lloyd’s voice is still quiet, but it’s got that painful sincerity — the kind Morro’s heard before, but never directed at him. “I mean, possessing me wasn’t good, but… everyone deserves a chance to make things right. You’re a kid, too.”

“Lloyd, you know I’m technically like, forty.”

“Yeah, in ghost years. Being dead doesn’t count.”

“Like you’d know.” Morro breaths a humorless laugh. “Either way, it doesn’t change the fact that I went after a kid for getting slapped with the green gi.”

Lloyd inhales sharply. “Could you maybe go at least five minutes without bringing that up? Just this once?”

Morro blinks at the sudden frustration in Lloyd’s voice. “W-what?”

The grass rustles as Lloyd shakes his head, but he blows his breath out, the anger seeping from him. “I just — I’m sick of it. I get that you hate me, but you could at least have the decency to hate me for me,” he says, wearily. “Hate me for like, my obnoxious habit of repeating stuff, or my annoying voice.”

Morro is quiet for a moment. “Your voice isn’t that bad anymore,” he admits.

Lloyd snorts. “You don’t have to lie.”

“No, I’m serious. It doesn’t do that squeaky-toy cracking thing anymore.”

“Well that makes me feel so much better,” Lloyd huffs.

“You’re welcome,” Morro grins. They lapse into silence again, and the grin slides slowly off of Morro’s face. Oh, curse everything, why is his chest still twisting up in knots.

He finally puffs out a weary breath of defeat. “And I don’t…entirely hate you.”

Lloyd is quiet, digesting that. “Huh. Really?”

“Yeah. Hate your stupid gi, though.”

“Oh, same. You have no idea.”

“Starting to get that, I think.”

“Heh. I guess I don’t…entirely hate you, either.”

“Really.”

“Yeah.”

“Disgusting.”

***********

The tire is surprisingly easy to change, when they’re not trying to bite each other’s heads off. There’s no damage to the actual truck or trailer either, so they’re back on the road before daybreak. Lloyd fretfully checks on the shark a minimum of twenty times, but it’s fine as well, peacefully floating in its little tank. He lets Morro drive, in what may or may not be a peace offering, so Morro lets Lloyd choose the music, which is definitely a peace offering. It’s the only way he’d ever willingly listen to the amount of acoustic music Lloyd plays them.

Well…that he’d admit willingly listening to.

They don’t talk much, but it’s a surprisingly comfortable silence, and by the time they pull up to Lloyd’s beach, half finished with the horrendously cheap coffee they snagged from the gas station, Morro doesn’t feel quite as annoyed with the world on the whole.

In fact, he feels dangerously close to being at peace with it, which is obviously unacceptable, so he makes sure to stub his toe at least three times as they maneuver the now-awake and incredibly annoyed shark into the waves.

“Hey, hey, c’mon buddy,” Lloyd soothes, waist-deep in the water as he coaxes the shark toward him. “It’s okay, we’re setting you free. Don’t eat us when there’s much more tasty seafood in the ocean.”

“Maybe Oni is a delicacy for sharks,” Morro suggests, his feet firmly planted on the shore. He’s been assisting with his wind, floating the shark down gently, and that’s already more than enough. “I bet seafood pales in comparison to demon flesh.”

“You’re disgusting,” Lloyd says, but his lips quirk up. “In that case, maybe I should just drop him on my dad.”

Morro snorts, watching as Lloyd finally gets the shark to deeper water, where it swishes its tail happily, clearly overjoyed to be free from its tiny tank.

“There we go,” Lloyd smiles as it swims around him. “Much better, huh?”

Morro watches the shark swim a moment longer, wrinkling his nose as sand digs between his toes. He stifles a yawn, but the coastal winds are picking up around him, gently tugging through his hair and leaving him less tired as his element ghosts over his skin, as if whispering his name.

He’s missed wind like this. The gentler kind.

He finally turns his attention back to Lloyd, and his eyebrows furrow.

“You know this is just one shark, right?”

“Mm-hm,” Lloyd hums happily, letting the shark nose against his hand.

“That doesn’t bode well for your shark tornado plan,” Morro reminds him.

“Eh,” Lloyd shrugs. “I guess freeing a shark is as good as that. I can always get my dad back later.”

“You could dye your hair, that might do the trick.”

Lloyd gives a wry smile. “It wasn’t really about that, anyways,” he murmurs, so quietly Morro almost misses it.

Morro doesn’t know if he wants to try and guess what that’s supposed to mean, so he averts his gaze instead, looking across the quiet, empty beach. It’s removed from the busier parts of the coast, almost abandoned. Certainly not the kind of place Morro would’ve seen Lloyd picking out for a weekend trip.

“So why this beach, in particular?” he finally asks. “Seems pretty out of the way, just for this.”

Lloyd is quiet for a moment, his hands creating tiny eddies in the water around him. His face falls a fraction as he watches the shark swim off, deeper into the ocean, and he dips lower into the water.

“I came here with my dad, once,” he says, quietly. “After he was… back to normal. Without the venom, and all.”

“Oh.” Morro blinks. There’s a lot of meaning behind those words. For some reason, he’s almost frightened to try and decipher it.

Lloyd saves him from it, straightening up where he stands in the water. “So, are you gonna get in, or what?”

Morro blinks, then violently shakes his head. “No. Absolutely not. Water and I are not compatible. You know that.”

“You weren’t before,” Lloyd insists. “You are now.”

“What was that you were saying earlier?” Morro reminds him, snidely. “About traumas, and stuff?”

Lloyd’s brow furrows, in what could almost be concern. “You don’t have to,” he says, slowly. “But this is a nice place to start.”

Morro stares at the sand before him, a mere three feet from where the waves stop washing up on shore. He makes a face. It’s not like he’s scared of water. He takes showers, and he’s not afraid to sprint out in the rain if he’s left a book or something outside. But those are just — water in small doses. This sparkling blue hellhole of toxicity is different. It’s saltwater. Saltwater brings back…less than pleasant memories.

Granted, this particular body of toxic seawater doesn’t seem to be quite as deadly at the moment. Lloyd’s skin hasn’t slid off his bones yet, and he’s floating up to his neck in the stuff.

“I’ll pass,” Morro finally says, stiffly. “It’s, uh, a little too rough for me out there.”

Lloyd looks pointedly at where the gentle waves barely lap the shore. Morro grits his teeth. Drat. That makes it rather difficult not to admit that he does, probably, look like a coward. Lloyd tilts his head to the side, studying him with the eerie red eyes he gets sometimes. Morro doesn’t like the look that forms on his face.

“Why,” he says, with a gleam in his eyes. “Are you scared?”

Even though Morro’s seen that coming a mile away, he still reddens. “No.”

Lloyd raises an eyebrow. “Kinda looks like you’re scared.”

“I am not.”

Lloyd squints at him. Then, without warning, he splashes the smallest bit of seawater up toward him. Morro jumps back, with what he’ll die before he admits is a high-pitched shriek, skittering away from the tiny droplets.

Lloyd bursts into giggles, and Morro feels his cheeks blazing. “That was low, you little insect—”

“Chicken, chicken, Morro’s a chicken,” Lloyd taunts over him.

“I’ll kill you,” Morro threatens.

“Oh yeah?” Lloyd flashes his teeth at him. “How’re you gonna do that when I’m in the water?”

Morro’s hands clench into fists as he seethes. “I am not scared of the water.”

“Yes, you are.”

Morro takes a threatening step toward him, brandishing his fist. “I am not a chicken!”

“Yes you a-are,” Lloyd repeats gleefully. “Chicken, chicken—”

“Shut up—”

“Bawk, bawk—”

“I’ll break your spine—”

“Not with your chicken arms you won’t—”

“Enough with the chicken!” Morro roars, shaking Lloyd by the collar of his soaking t-shirt. “I am not scared!”

Lloyd presses his lips together, barely holding back what’s either laughter or another one of those infuriating smiles. “Okay, geez. You proved me wrong.”

Morro blinks. Lloyd looks down, and Morro follows his gaze. He blinks again.

He’s standing waist-deep in the saltwater with Lloyd, waves swirling gently around him. His flesh is not melting off. He is not dying an excruciating death. It doesn’t feel like corrosive acid. It feels like…regular water. Kind of cold, regular water, that smells a little like fish.

Morro stares at the water, letting Lloyd’s shirt go as his arms hang limply by his sides. He didn’t even notice putting a foot in.

“Hey, look,” Lloyd says, brightly. “You’re not dead."

Morro should strangle him for this. Lloyd’s tricked him into the toxic death water by annoying him, and Morro didn’t even notice. He should celebrate this new accomplishment by holding Lloyd’s head under the water until he drowns.

Oddly enough, all he can find it in himself to do is stare at the water with the tiniest of smiles. “I’m not dead,” he echoes, quietly.

Lloyd beams at him, and he doesn’t even want to strangle him for it. Morro stands waist-deep in the water, completely at ease, and feels something odd bubble up in his throat. It’s light and easy, like his chest is filling up with a balloon, and for a brief second, he meets Lloyd’s beaming smile with one of his own.

Naturally, that’s when the beach blows up.

***********

On second thought, the ocean can die.

Morro immediately changes his mind about seawater as he’s knocked beneath a large wave, swallowing a mouthful of disgusting salt liquid. Panic twists around his heart as he flails briefly, before a hand locks firmly around his arm and yanks, pulling him to the surface and dragging him forward.

“—can’t believe this, again?!” Lloyd’s yelling in his ear as Morro splutters out saltwater. “What is it now, someone whose got aunt we got fired?”

“Don’t be ridiculousss, you know your own worth,” a hissing voice laughs across the water, and Morro struggles to find his footing as Lloyd drags them both onto the beach. “Imagine my delight when I realized the Green Ninja was lounging on the beach!”

Morro finally manages to push his sopping hair from his face, and he blinks saltwater from his eyes as his vision clears. Several paces down the sand from them stands a scarlet Hypnobrai, an admittedly intimidating weapon held in its scaly hands.

“Oh, of course!” Lloyd spits. “Stupid green power, would it kill you to let me get five minutes of—”

He cuts off in a yelp as the Serpentine fires at them again, dragging Morro to the sand with him as the grenade blast streaks over their heads, exploding somewhere further down the beach.

“It’s okay,” Lloyd pants, as they scramble to their feet. “This is — it’s all good, it’s just one Serpentine. We can handle this, easy.”

Morro whips his head across the beach. “You do see the other four, right?”

“The other—” Lloyd swears. “How did they all get grenade launchers?”

“That’s what you’re worried about right now?” Morro shouts, as they narrowly avoid another three blasts. The lead Hypnobrai cackles wildly at them, waving his weapon like a war flag.

“How did you even find me?” Lloyd yells, as he and Morro sprint around the jetty for cover, stumbling over the protruding rocks. “This is the middle of nowhere!”

The Hypnobrai grins, sharp teeth flashing. “Oh, we wouldn’t have! But I recognized the name on the credit card used at the gas station. To be honest, I was actually expecting the earth ninja.”

“Are you kidding me?!” Lloyd cries. “What kind of karma—”

Morro grasps him firmly by the shoulders and yanks him down, just before another streaking blast of flame can take his head off. Morro cringes as the ensuing explosion rocks the ground beneath them, his ears ringing.

Lloyd crouches lower beside him, muttering frantically. “I’m sorry, okay, I’m sorry,” he’s saying in the vague direction of the sky. “I’ll never steal anyone’s credit card again, I promise, I’m sorry—”

“Are you — apologizing to your grandfather right now?” Morro gapes at him.

Lloyd throws his hands in the air. “This has gotta be someone's fau—alt, move!”

He yanks them to the side as another blast narrowly misses them, almost knocking them clear off their feet. Morro grits his teeth, frustration spiking.

“This would be a great time for a plan, oh ninja leader,” he snaps.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m on it,” Lloyd’s hands flash green. “Just follow my—”

He gasps, his eyes going wide at something beyond Morro’s shoulder. Morro has a split second of confusion before Lloyd shoves him to the ground, bright green energy blazing to life in a makeshift shield—

Just in time for the next blast to hit him dead on, sending him flying back into the jetty.

Lloyd gives a single, sharp cry before his head strikes the edge of a rock, abruptly going silent as he tumbles to the edge of the jetty, inches from being swept away by the water. He doesn’t move after that.

Morro’s stomach bottoms out, his blood running cold as he’s hit with a sudden rush of terror so strong he almost loses his balance.

Then the rage hits.

Morro turns on the Hypnobrai who fired the blast, his eyes flaming. The snake swallows, suddenly looking pale as he clutches at his weapon.

“Um—”

Morro roars, and the wind turns sharp and vicious, swirling around him in a vortex of fury. The Serpentine shriek in terror as they’re swept up in the gale, Morro’s wind howling as it tears the weapons from their hands. Morro barely hears them, his mind still stuck on the single scream before Lloyd had fallen silent. Anger blazes hot in his chest, and the wind grows bitterly cold, flinging water from the ocean higher and higher. Saltwater splashes against his cheeks, but Morro hardly feels it. He lets the water power his wind instead, sweeping into a furious storm.

He could easily kill them right now — happily, even. But Morro’s been an entire mess of conflicting emotions this weekend, and he’s got more pressing things to worry about, so he sends their weapons flying far out into the ocean instead. He narrows his eyes on them in fury, before hissing out, “Get. Lost.”

They don’t need any help fleeing after that, but Morro still launches them a good thirty feet away. For good measure.

He lets the wind die bit by bit, water splashing back into the ocean. Morro suddenly becomes aware of how his hands are trembling, shaking in the aftermath of adrenaline. There’s a moment of crushing silence in the absence of his howling wind, and his stomach drops.

He whips around, his eyes searching the empty beach desperately. He wasn’t — he hadn’t been thinking of Lloyd when he’d kicked the storm up, but what if—

“Lloyd,” Morro rasps, his throat closing over in fear. “Lloyd, where are you, please—”

“M’here.”

Lloyd stumbles from behind the jetty, coughing up a mouthful of saltwater as he sways dizzily, rubbing his head. “Ow, ow, ow. I’m gonna feel that for—”

Lloyd cuts off in a yelp as Morro grabs him forcefully, pulling him in and wrapping his arms around him. Lloyd goes painfully rigid, his breathing uneven for a beat before he gingerly reaches back, awkwardly patting Morro’s shoulder with his one free hand.

“Uh, M-Morro?”

He clutches him tighter. “Shut up.”

“Mo’o, yer crush’n me.”

“Shut up. You’re terrible. You’re horrible. I get why Kai’s so grumpy all the time. How does Kai not have grey hair. How.”

Lloyd makes a muffled sound of indignation as Morro refuses to let go. He probably looks ridiculous, but he can’t find it in himself to care. A host of realizations are hitting him at once, and it’s making him slightly nauseous.

For a second, Lloyd had been quiet. He’d been still and unmoving, and he could’ve been dead. Which would have been bad, apparently, for Morro, because Lloyd can’t die. Because if Lloyd dies, then Morro won’t have a pint-sized blond cousin to yell all the angsty stuff out with, and if Lloyd dies then who’s gonna drag him out of his self-induced isolating depression and make him try gross food and break the law and actually interact in the world? Morro can’t lose that. Lloyd’s the only person who’s genuinely made Morro feel like a person, he can’t go die before Morro makes at least some attempt to apologize for being horrible in general to him.

It clicks, finally, like getting hit in the face with the blunt end of a shovel. Morro is, without a doubt, terrified of the idea of losing Lloyd. Oh no. Oh, this is awful. Because if Morro’s scared of losing Lloyd, that must mean—

“Aw, you do care,” Lloyd croaks, his voice watery.

Morro, soaking wet and holding the one person he’s wanted to see dead most like an over-sized teddy bear in need of love, wants to die.

***********

“You tricked me.”

“Huh?”

Morro shakes his head, pulling the edge of his blanket up around his shoulders, shifting on the uncomfortable sidewalk that lines the parking lot. They’re both bundled up in emergency blankets they swiped from the truck, shivering in their wet clothes even as the sun climbs higher in the sky above them.

“You tricked me,” Morro repeats. “You tricked me into tolerating you long enough that I somehow got duped into liking you as a person. You irritated your way into my life.”

Lloyd breathes a laugh, before wincing and pressing his hand to his forehead again. “You should talk to Kai, I did the same thing to him.”

“You dragged him on a road trip from hell, too?” Morro wonders if he’s been too hard on Kai.

“Not exactly,” Lloyd says. “I did get him stuck in a volcano though.”

“Typical,” Morro mutters. “I don’t even have trouble believing that. You’re a menace."

“Aw, c’mon,” Lloyd grins. “Didn’t I hear you saying that you liked me as person?”

Morro bristles. “No,” he says, firmly. “That’s your concussion talking.”

Lloyd rolls his eyes. “I don’t have concuss— ow, Morro, stop!”

“Huh. Your head isn’t gushing blood, so that’s good,” Morro remarks, pulling his hand away from the back of Lloyd’s head. “That’s still gonna be a bump, though.”

“My hair hides it though, right?” Lloyd’s expression is slightly panicked. “You can’t see it, right?”

“The bump? No.” Morro gestures to Lloyd’s face. “The black eye? Yes.”

“Oh, no.” Lloyd buries his face in his hands. “That’s it, then. I’m toast.”

“Oh, you’re toast,” Morro scoffs. “Kai’s gonna wring my neck.”

Lloyd lifts his face from his hands, shaking his head. “No. I’ll tell him you saved me. That’ll buy you points.”

“Kai’s gonna love that,” Morro snorts.

“Yeah, well.” Lloyd sighs, pulling his blanket around his shoulders. “What’cha gonna do.”

Morro scoffs, pulling his own blanket tighter over his shoulders. The ocean breezes are still a bit chilly with their damp clothes, but the wind is as peaceful as it was earlier, lulling them both into a sleepy kind of haziness. Morro feels disgustingly at peace with the world again, soaking wet and sitting on a sidewalk in the middle of a half-destroyed beach with Lloyd, but he can’t muster up the energy to make himself feel otherwise. Being at peace for five minutes won’t hurt, he reasons.

“By the way, remind me to check the truck before we return it,” Lloyd suddenly says, yawning. “I think I left Kai’s apology present in there.”

Morro frowns. “His what now?”

“Apology present,” Lloyd sighs, scrubbing at his eye. “For putting him through hell.”

“Him?” Morro gapes at Lloyd. “What about me? Where’s my apology gift for getting dragged through hell?”

“Your apology gift is me not hating your guts,” Lloyd huffs, pulling his blanket fully over his hair, like an incredibly ugly veil. “And like, forgiveness and stuff.”

Morro opens his mouth, then abruptly snaps it shut as Lloyd’s words register. He stares at him, feeling a bit dizzy all of the sudden.

“You — what — forgive—?”

“You heard me,” Lloyd yawns again. He perks up, blinking. “Oh, hey, speak of the devil. There they are.”

Morro just catches the familiar hum of Bounty’s engine before the anchor crashes into the parking lot before them, splintering long cracks in the concrete. Lloyd and Morro stare up at the figures on the deck. Morro swallows.

“You’ve, uh, you’ve written up your will, right?” Lloyd gulps.

Morro shakes his head, wordlessly.

Lloyd gives a nervous laugh. “Okay, good. I haven’t either.” He watches in trepidation as a red figure begins sliding down the anchor chain toward them. “Maybe should’ve done that sooner,” he whispers to himself.

***********

Kai doesn’t murder them, but it’s a near thing. In the end, Nya comes nearer to committing homicide, followed closely by Cole.

“Why mine?” he wails, shaking Lloyd by the edges of his blanket the minute Kai hauls them both onto the Bounty. “Why couldn’t you have snatched Jay’s credit card? He’d at least deserve it!”

“I’m sorry,” Lloyd wails back. “I learned my lesson, I promise, I’ll never do it again—”

“For crying out loud,” Nya mutters, watching them both before turning narrowed eyes on Morro. “Well, I was going to murder you, but somehow Lloyd’s still alive.”

Morro’s too tired to even fight back. “He’s like a barnacle,” he says, hazily. “Like — like those parasite things. You let them get to close and you’re stuck for life, those things, you know?”

Nya presses her lips together tightly, but her eyes sparkle in amusement.

“He got you too, huh?” Jay remarks, studying one of the grenade launchers he fished out of the water. “Join the club. Ooh, nice, this has got some real firepower…”

Morro buries his face in his hands. “Just put me out of my misery.”

“Happily,” Kai snaps, his eyes slightly manic from what’s either sleep deprivation or extreme stress. Zane catches him gently, tugging him away from Morro.

“Welcome to the team, I suppose,” Zane tells him, with an easy smile.

Morro groans. He wants to—

Well. He doesn’t exactly want to die. It’s close, but he doesn’t. Not really.

It’s an odd feeling, whatever leaves him off-kilter as he steps below the deck with Lloyd. Maybe that’s just his own sleep deprivation, but still. He snags Lloyd by the elbow before he disappears into his room, and Lloyd pauses, staring curiously at him.

“What you said,” Morro begins, hesitantly. “In the parking lot, about— forgi—that thing.”

Lloyd’s eyes dart to the floor, but he sets his jaw. “That thing. I, uh, yeah. No take backs, right?”

Morro blinks wildly, his tired brain barely able to digest that. “You know you could’ve gotten rid of me out there,” he tries, desperately reaching for sense. “You missed your chance.”

Lloyd meets his eyes again, shaking his head. “Oh, Morro,” he sighs. “Don’t you know the best way to defeat your enemy is to make them your friend?”

Morro stares at him. Lloyd gives him a sharp-teethed grin. “Besides,” he continues. “What’s the point in holding a grudge, when getting you to care about me is much better revenge?”

Morro stiffens. “I don’t care about you,” he protests.

“Nuh-uh, too late now,” Lloyd’s grin widens. “Before you know it, you’ll be calling me cousin. Eating dinner with us. Calling Kai buddy.”

“I would never,” Morro hisses.

Lloyd’s grin is positively sinister. “Oh, you will,” he says. “Because you care now.”

Morro is horrified, truly horrified, to find that saying no to Lloyd’s claim would be a lie. “You’re a monster,” he whispers.

Lloyd smiles brightly. “I’ll see you in practice tomorrow!” he calls cheerfully, before slamming the door in his face.

Morro stares after him blankly, the ugly Oceanworld blanket still hanging limply from his shoulders.

“I hate him,” he finally tells the door, wearily.

Oh, curse everything. Morro can’t even convince himself the door believes him.

#lego ninjago #ninjago #lloyd garmadon #morro #this is so long i'm so sorry #i should probably start just linking these to ao3/ffn #instead of relying on the read more button #but i just!! lots of words!!#can't even write short about morro T-T #my fic

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fanfalc-616 · 3 years ago

Text

Time for Amnesia

Chapter Ten: “Don’t Make Me Repeat Myself.”

(Previous Chapter Here)

Yeah sorry for the mix up here’s the chapter I finally wrote after like 6 months-

Something pokes his face.

Blinking groggily, Kai looks around. Where the hell is he this time? What’s going on?

It takes him a few moments to realize that he’s stuck in some kind of prison cell, laying uncomfortably on the floor.

Jay pokes him again. “Are you awake yet?” He prompts.

Kai immediately gets to his feet, cursing at the stone walls lined with metal and the way the sole window is in the door, a set of bars through it for extra security.

“Yeah, we’re kinda stuck. Captured. The others probably have no idea where we are or who kidnapped us- we don’t even know who kidnapped us.” Jay gives a quiet laugh- one more out of fear than humor.

“We’re gonna die. This is it. We’re just going to get murdered here. Are we even going to find out who captured us? I mean probably, but we’ll be killed immediately after. I’d say we haunt them as ghosts, but after seeing what that did to Cole, I’d rather be in an afterlife. I think. I’ll have to ask him what being a ghost was really like- or I would, if we had the chance to see him before getting murdered!” Jay’s clearly panicking, and- hey, isn’t he supposed to be the experienced one here?!

Kai stares at him for a few moments. “We- we’re not gonna die.” His voice is shaky, but he tries to ignore that as he goes up to the barred window in the door. No, he won’t die, he refuses to die. This can’t be how it ends, with him not even knowing who he is! That’s not fair!

He wills his fire into his hands, but nothing happens. Scowling, he tries again, but for some reason, it still doesn’t work.

Ugh, come on, he did this before without even really thinking about it! Why is it so hard to do now?!

“Jay, blast this thing with lightning!” He instructs. “We can figure out where to go from there.”

Jay looks unimpressed. “It’s vengestone. You can’t use elemental powers when there’s vengestone.” He sounds tired, and Kai gives him a glare.

“Would you mind picking an emotion and sticking with it? Panic or calm or annoying or whatever? I’m not in the mood to navigate whatever the hell is going on in your head.”

He ignores the sputtering noise the ginger makes in response in favor of looking closer at the bars of the cell they’re in. There’s gotta be something he can do here…

Unfortunately, if there actually is something he can do, he can’t figure out what it is. Which is bullshit, but something tells him this is how his life usually ends up going.

With a grimace, he looks back at Jay. “Do you know who captured us? Or why?”

The other shrugs, which only serves to fuel his annoyance. “No idea,” he admits, “but they’re probably trying to keep us from stopping them from doing something evil.”

For a few moments, all he can do is stare. Seriously? This is what he’s working with here? What the fuck is wrong with this guy?

“That’s super helpful, thanks,” he grumbles sarcastically, silently lamenting his past self. Why would he hang out with these people to begin with? Sure, they said something about him needing to rescue Nya, but couldn’t he have just left afterwards? Why would he let himself get put into these situations?

“Look, we- we’re probably gonna be fine.” Jay assures. “It’s just- uh. I tend to overreact a lot. It’s gonna be okay, I just freak out easy.” He sounds uncertain of himself, and Kai resists the urge to roll his eyes.

“Like I said: pick an emotion and stick to it,” he snaps, turning away again. This entire situation is infuriating as it is, he really doesn’t need Jay pissing him off more.

Shaking his head, Kai comes to a conclusion. He doesn’t know what’s going down here, but whatever it is needs to hurry up and just happen.

Narrowing his eyes, he takes a step back, trying to dig back into those forgotten memories. He knows how to fight, doesn’t he? Why can't he remember it?!

With a huff, he comes to a decision. He’ll give this a shot and hope that his muscle memory will take care of it.

“Kai?” Jay speaks up behind him, but Kai ignores him in favor of taking a deep breath, preparing himself.

“Kai, I don’t think-“

Summoning all of the rage and frustration inside of him, Kai moves forward, kicking the door with as much strength as he can muster.

But even with all the force in his hit, the door only rattles against its hinges in response.

As a matter of fact, the only real result is the red-hot pain that’s suddenly jolting up his leg.

The high-pitched yelp that escapes him is just plain embarrassing, and as if to damage his pride more, he ends up stumbling backwards, falling flat on his ass against the stone floor.

“Ow,” he grumbles, grabbing his foot instinctively. Damn, that hurt a lot more than he thought it would- well, actually, he wasn’t expecting it to hurt at all. In the movies, the door would’ve just swung right open.

But this isn’t a movie. This is real.

The sudden understanding hits him like a bucket of ice water.

He keeps not thinking, he keeps just acting, but this isn’t a game. He knows nothing about what’s going on, he doesn’t know what enemies he has, and all he’s done so far is alienate the people who he needs to stay alive.

Jay pries his hands off of his foot, and Kai feels himself flinch. When had he gotten that close?

“Alright, uh, maybe don’t do that again.” The ginger suggests. “It doesn’t look too bad, but there’s probably gonna be a few bruises.”

Grimacing, Kai nods. “Okay,” he agrees, ignoring the frustration boiling in his chest.

He can’t afford to keep doing this. Like it or not, this is his situation. If he keeps this up, he’s going to get himself killed. He needs to work with the allies his past self had made- he has them for a reason.

That doesn’t make them any less annoying, though.

Jay seems surprised- probably because he didn’t snap at him. Well, actually, if he’s being honest, he probably needs to do something to fix whatever damage he had done to their relationship since he woke up.

Not romantically, though. He doesn’t even want to think about that.

Gritting his teeth, he abandons his pride- for the moment, at least. “I was being mean to you earlier. ��m sorry.” He mutters the words in a low growl, refusing to look at the other while he does.

Even though his eyes are on the floor, he can still tell how startled Jay is. Which is honestly fair- Kai hasn’t exactly been the nicest since he woke up.

“What?”

Flashing him a glare, Kai struggles to keep his temper under control. “Don’t make me repeat myself,” he snaps.

He has to get along with these people, sure- he doesn’t have a choice- but would it really hurt for them to be less annoying? Or is that just their personalities?

Jay opens his mouth to reply, but just then, there’s a weird slithering noise coming down the hall, growing closer. Silently, they exchange a glance. The ginger seems to be trying to tell him something, but for the life of him, he can’t figure out what.

Quickly pulling the two of them to their feet, Jay grabs him by the arm and pushes him against the wall by the door. Once he has, he takes a few steps back, staring out the window definitely.

It takes a moment before that clicks- if the door is opened, anything on the other side won’t be able to immediately see him. Of course, it comes with the risk of getting a bloody nose, but-

The noise stops just outside the door, and even though Kai can’t see past the bars where he is, he can at least see the ginger’s almost shocked expression.

“Hello there, ninja. Long time no see, hm?”

Taking half a step back and clenching his fists, Jay seems to be trying to swallow back his fear. “Ha, with that ugly mug, I wish it’d been longer!” He snaps.

“And you are still as unoriginal as always, it seems,” the stranger tsks, sounding amused. “But I suppose I must ask, what happened to that little fire-starting friend of yours? He was in here earlier, I know.”

Kai feels himself tense, but Jay doesn’t even glance in his direction. “Wouldn’t you like to know, weather boy?” He finishes the words off with a hesitant smirk, but then pauses. “Well, I mean, I guess technically I’m the one with the lightning powers… but I’m still not telling you anything!”

There’s another pause, and after a few moments of it, Jay huffs, narrowing his eyes. “I see that someone doesn't know their memes, huh?”

“Yes, well, some of us are actually intelligent. But that is… besides the point. I wasn’t aiming for the two of you in particular for this, but I suppose you’ll do.”

This time, Jay does glance towards Kai, a poorly-hidden terrified look on his face for the split second their eyes meet.

“So he’s just beside the door, then? Hmm. I suppose I had a bit too high of an opinion of you both to think one of you could have escaped,” the stranger chuckles again, somehow making it sound even more insulting than before. “But then again, I most likely would have caught him again anyway.”

Kai can feel his breathing catch at the words, his entire body tensing with apprehension.

Who even is this guy?!

Jay scoffs, but he’s still clearly stressed out. “Don’t flatter yourself, Pythor. We’ve beaten you before, and we’ll do it again!”

Alright, so their name is Pythor. If Kai didn’t know any better, he’d say that that kind of name would belong to a serpentine. But serpentine are just an old bedtime story, so they can’t be-

Well, it wasn’t long ago he thought the same thing about magic. So it might be possible. But it still doesn’t sound-

Wait. When Lloyd was telling him about the volcano… he mentioned serpentine, didn’t he? And- and this Pythor guy specifically!

… and this serves to show that Kai should really pay more attention to what these guys talk about.

Speaking of which, he should probably tune back in to whatever’s going on with Jay and Pythor now.

“-can’t be serious. I mean, I knew you were crazy, but this is a whole new level, even for you. Didn’t someone actually say that the definition of insanity is trying the same thing over and over and expecting different results? I don’t remember who, but my point stands! You-“

“Yes, well, I don’t recall asking for your opinion on the matter. I do, however, have other questions I would like answers to.” The words are spoken threateningly, intense enough that Kai can feel himself shudder.

Jay, however, looks unaffected- actually, he looks like he’s starting to calm down from his earlier panic. “And why would we give them to you?”

Fear still coiled in his guts, Kai forces himself to take deep breaths. This doesn’t look good, and Jay just seems to be escalating the situation. And Kai would try to do the opposite but one: he doesn’t know how. Two: he’s pretty sure Pythor wouldn’t listen. And three: he has a very intense desire to punch this guy in the face. There’s not really a reason, he’s just annoying and sounds really punchable.

“Well, blue ninja, I think you’ll find it’s because you don’t have a say in the matter. One way or another, I-“

Fuck it.

Shoving his rational thoughts to the side, Kai quickly sidesteps in front of the door. And- yeah, that’s definitely a serpentine. Still, he doesn’t let himself dwell on that. If anything, the long neck is a plus.

Because it’s that much easier to reach through the bars and grab.

Hand tight around Pythor’s throat, he yanks him into the door, forcing his head to slam against it with a very satisfying smack.

Kai lets himself smirk as he lets go, expecting the snake to collapse to the floor from the force of the hit.

Instead, he finds himself staring into infuriated magenta eyes.

Oh. Okay.

Kai may have made a mistake.

#ninjago fanfiction #time for amnesia au #fanfiction

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mcfanely · 5 years ago

Text

The Ice Emperor and the Earth Dragon AU

"For my first order, you are to never speak of this 'Zane' again."

Getting thrown into a far off realm hadn’t been a purposeful decision on Cole’s behalf, but it wasn’t one that he’d change. Following Zane into a desolate wasteland of snow and ice with a broken mech, a corrupting scroll; and nothing else, he’d rather be trapped with his brother than still be at home and wondering about his well-being. Whether he’d lost him all over again. Then a stranger disrupted the fragile routine they’d established, and Cole was still willing to protect his waylaid brother.

Chapter 01 - Of Ice and Earth, 1659 words

Cole hadn't meant to get struck by Serpentine magic.

Or maybe he had?

He'd made a split second decision, acted on sheer instinct without thinking much on the possible outcome. It was also something he'd gladly do again, even with his previous assumption that anything that got struck with the power contained in the Staff of Forbidden Spinjitzu was sent into oblivion. Destroyed, gone.

With that knowledge, and watching the purple arch of energy spewing out of the staff still held by a frozen Aspheera, the deep blue crystalline ice that held her in place and pronounced her defeat seemed to do nothing to sway her from getting the last laugh. The beam had shot forwards, and he and Zane had reacted simultaneously. Zane, he moved in front of Wu.

Cole, he'd tried to grab both of them by the arm and pull them out of harm's way. He'd barrelled past Jay, his body moving on autopilot before his mind had caught up.

He'd caught onto Zane's sleeve, balled the fabric in his hand.

Then his gaze shifted to darkness, and a cold chill quickly seeping into his skin and deeper into his bones pulled him from the dregs of what must have been unconsciousness. Even though the resounding thumping from inside his head was enough to make him want to curl up in a ball and ignore the world.

World?

Cold?

He was alive?

"Hello?" someone called.

Cole shifted slowly from where he was laid, the crisp snow below his hands giving way as he gathered himself up off the floor. It didn't help with the chill at all, but as his eyes adjusted to the bright glare of light reflecting off a snowy landscape, aches and pains and uncomfortableness faded into the background as confusion set in.

He'd been inside. He'd been in the vehicle hanger under the Monastery? Inside. Even then, outside had been spring weather with a slight chance of ancient serpentine fires.

Not… Not snow and cold. Not an overcast sky.

Cole didn't do cold weather.

He needed warmth, he needed greenery and the sun because who liked a drab and seemingly never ending snowscape that bit into his fingers, fogged his breath and made him hug his bare arms and shiver involuntarily.

What had happened?

Aspheera, the staff, Zane and an incredible show of his ice powers; the final blow.

Zane…

"Is anyone there?" Came that voice again. The tinny metal sound carrying over the snowy silence. He'd recognise that voice anywhere.

"Zane!" Cole called back, turning as fast as his feet would allow him so he could look around.

Zane was okay?

The surroundings fell back into silence, and Cole kept looking. Snow. Snow. His breath fogging in the air in front of him. Mountains. Cliffs. A mound of rocks.

A glint of titanium.

And, "... Cole?"

That was all he really needed to give him a spur of energy. To ignore the snow seeping into his gi and shoes, to put what had just taken place out of his mind even just for a second. Zane was here, and he was okay.

He charged through the snow, leaving a large drift in his wake as he made his way over to his friend and all but tackled him down with a hug and a laugh. It was only the counterweight of the nindroid that kept them both from falling backwards into the snow.

"You're okay!" Cole pulled back and let out a heavy breath of relief, keeping his hands on his friends shoulders as he looked him over. Assessing him, seeing whether what Aspheera had shot directly at him had any adverse effect.

"You damn tin-can. Self sacrificing-" Cole closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. "You'll give me a heart attack one of these days." He stammered out, a smile pulling briefly on his face. Zane was here.

Wherever here was exactly.

"Need I remind you," Zane began, and Cole's gaze drifted up to the bright eyes of his brother. It was like a constant development, that every second that passed that he was looking at the Nindroid made him realise that he was okay. Zane was alive and in one piece. This wasn't a repeat of the Overlord.

Though his silent pondering was shattered when he felt a light push to his shoulder and refocused to see a look that was an unusual mix of repose and irritation. Zane wasn't the most widely expressive person, but he did have his moments of animation. They were always a sight.

"You were clearly intent on carrying out the same action that I did." Zane gestured to the entirety of Cole's body, as if that encapsulated his whole argument. Which it did. Cole's presence was proof enough that the same thing happened to him that had happened to Zane. They'd both been victims of the spell.

He still wasn't going to let his brother get a one up that easily. "The same-? You got in the way of the blast, you could have, like, pulled Sensei Wu out of the way."

"Everything happened fairly swiftly, Cole. I acted on-"

"- instinct?" Cole finished after a second, then nodded. "Same here. I saw Aspheera- and you were distracted," He cleared his throat before reaching up and patting Zane's shoulder lightly. "I'm glad I'm here with you, anyway. Wouldn't want you to be alone," He nodded loosely in the direction of the vast quantity of snow behind him. "You know, here."

Zane's eyes shifted around as he fully took in their environment, his brows furrowing lightly. Then he started walking through the snow, and it took Cole a moment to realise that the mound of rocks he'd seen a few minutes ago was anything but. It was Lloyd's Mech, wedged in a deep trench of snow with seemingly no power running through its systems. Currently just a useless hunk of metal.

One of which Zane was making a b-line for. Cole just followed closely behind, watching as the other climbed up onto the breastplate and stared off into the distance.

Vantage point, better view. Right.

He climbed up to join him.

Their attention jointly settled on the setting sun framed by a few rocky outcrops and towering pillars of ice.

"Wherever here is. My scanner does not seem to be working."

Like that wasn't concerning.

"Maybe we're in the first realm, just a very different part of it."

"Or an entirely different realm all together." Zane said.

Like that observation didn't make their whole circumstances that bit more bleak. The shift in tone was paramount in that moment, Cole felt his shoulders drop just a little. Zane kept his attention resolutely set on the light from the sinking sun.

Clearly, neither one liked that possibility.

Then there was a spark, and Cole's attention snapped to his brother, and more specifically the panel in his chest. Zane's gi was ripped in places, dirtied in others. His body was lightly scratched and dented in the same way Cole could feel a bruise swelling up on his forehead; but the chest panel had buckled slightly inwards enough that it wasn't closed fully, and from inside he could see flashes of light.

"You're hurt." He stated plainly, and any and all attention promptly shifted over to different matters, pressing matters.

Only, Zane gently caught his wrist and pulled it down away from where he was going to open the panel, much to Cole's chagrin, "Zane,"

"I am fine." was the simple answer. It didn't do much to sway his opinion.

"You're sparking more than Jay. Let me take a look at you." Cole tugged his arm out of Zane's grip and stepped forwards, only for Zane to respond by stepping back.

"If you wish to fix something, we should start with the mech." He pointed down to what they were standing on, "We can't leave it out here to the mercy of the elements."

Without waiting for a reply, and just as quickly as he'd scaled the side of the mech to look around the area, Zane had climbed off back onto the snowy ground below, the crunch of the once fresh carpet soon being broken by the sound of a metal panel being pried loose. Cole made a move to follow, before the realisation that he'd just be getting his already soaking gi even more wet and logged with icy water.

Minor injuries he could handle, a brother who was refusing to be looked after and ignoring his advances to help, he would begrudgingly allow.

But getting too cold? In an already frozen environment? A headache or sparky and fritzed wiring could be fixed. Hypothermia? Whilst there was no clear way for them to get warm and dry off? Death sentence.

Well, maybe not so much for the Master of Ice, who was currently centralised on removing the casing from Lloyd's mech to get at its inner workings. Walking around in his own element, his own white gi damp and clinging to his body. The one advantage Zane had, the cold wouldn't be his downfall. He was a nindroid, whether he felt the cold was ambiguous, but Cole was fairly certain that after knowing him for years, Zane got cold but he never felt it.

Fixing the mech and getting it up and moving wasn't for Zane's benefit, Cole realised. It was for him. A moving mech meant travelling much faster than they could on foot, it meant keeping them both off the ground; shelter, and with power and usage, came heat from functioning machinery.

And Cole needed to find a way to get warm sooner or later, since the tips of his fingers and cheeks were already getting numb.

"Fine. Okay. We'll fix the mech first." He caved begrudgingly.

He would be lying if he didn't sense accomplishment in the light chuckle he heard from his friend, carried up to him by a wispy breeze.

Ch 01 > Ch 02

Cross-posted to AO3

#The Ice Emperor and The Earth Dragon #cole brookstone #zane julien #cole #zane #ninjago cole #ninjago zane #The Ice Emperor #The Ice Emperor and the Earth Dragon AU #ninjago seaosn 11 #Ninjago #lego ninjago #lego #Fanfiction #mcfanely aus #mcfanely writes #mcfanely draws #mcfanely

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sibillascribbles08 · 4 years ago

Note

If you could take creative control of ninjago what would you change

Christ...

WELL

Actually no idk where to start with this there’s so much anon there’S SO M U C H I guess I’ll do a run of MINIMAL changes tho (for as long as I can)

I don’t think I have to change much in the first two seasons, thankfully, since the writers actually sat down to think about what they were writing at the time but g o d did it go to hell afterwards

Season 3 - This Zane focused season is going to be ZANE FOCUSED DAMN IT. We’re focusing on his loss over his Father, having salt rubbed in the wound by having his father’s work turned into an evil army, and being faced with the fact he’s obsolete compared to it all. He keeps trying to stack up numbers to win, recalculate things, and it’s why his line at the ending ACTUALLY has impact. The thing that sets him apart from the nindroids, his ability to love, is what allows him to defeat the Overlord.

Jay, Cole and Nya love triangle is DESTROYED. Pixal, Zane and Cole is the new love triangle and later OT3

Season 4 - The explanation for the other EMs being around is far less stupid. Garmadon establishes that oh yeah all of your parents had elemental powers and even talks about a few of them because holy SHIT. Cole mentions his mom because he should have done that a g e s ago. Is this supposed to be a Kai season doesn’t feel like it. Open the season with better explanations of why the ninja split. Emphasis the fact that Kai blames himself for what happened to Zane, and continues to do so throughout the season. Add that to why he’s so desperate to save Skylor from her dad (not willing to lose someone else). We still lose Garmadon, Kai and Lloyd have a talk at the end of the season. Also ZANE IMMEDIATELY GOES TO GET PIXAL A NEW BODY WTHHH????

Season 5 - Idk this season was pretty good over all I think. A bit better lore established into the cloud kingdom, hints that they don’t actually control fate they just think they do. Explain where the FUCK NIMBUS CAME FROM?? Water can still beat up ghosts but idk feel like there should be some other factors involved, some magic. Kai and Zane figure out they can make water a LOT sooner. Also why doesn’t Kai just set the preeminent’s house armor on fire??? Should have. OH I did forget since this season is supposed to be for NYA GETTING HER WATER ELEMENT how about she actually GO WITH THE NINJA AND DO SOME SHIT SOMETIMES??? I don’t mind her training, specially Ronin helping her but like??? Wtf why not have her ENGAGE, idiots.

Season 6 - I’m the weirdo who actually likes season 6 but that doesn’t mean it’s not without its issues. I don’t mind Jay wondering about where he stands with Nya but his behavior throughout the season has to stay consistent. When he agrees with Nya he needs to let it go he needs to LET IT GO. IT LITERALLY SHOULDN’T BE BROUGHT UP AGAIN UNTIL THE LIGHTHOUSE. He also needs to linger more on his birth father (and besides he should have suspected he’s adopted since season 4 cause he knows neither of his parents had lightning powers). Zane doesn’t ignore Pixal’s warning about Nadakhan but if she’s off somewhere else idk how she gets threatened I’m sure Nadakhan could figure it out. OH and time can still reset and stuff idc but like, Jay and Nya need to talk about it and they need to GO BACK FOR ECHO. EVEN IF THEY DON’T FIND HIM THERE.

Day of the Departed - just wish it was longer tbh, but major changes: Why do the ninja not seem to care that cole is FADING OUT OF EXISTENCE and Lou should be a lot more worried about his son.

Season 7 - I mean, it’s mostly a trash fire, but I think it’d be a lot more enjoyable if they actually had good sibling dynamics going on. Acronix following his brother because he always has, but starts questioning their plans as things go. At first their relationship is much better, which is why they best Kai and Nya, but by the end that flips over. Actually have Kai and Nya having an ISSUE. Kai thinks their parents could have been traitors, Nya seemingly doesn’t care because she’s so wrapped up with her samurai x stuff being stolen. They end up fighting and don’t make up until the boiling sea. ALSO GIVE RAY AND MAYA A BETTER FUCKING EXCUSE FOR BEING GONE THEY COULD HAVE FUCKING SHANKED KRUX WHEN HIS BACK WAS TURNED GET OUT OF HERE HE HAD NO LEVERAGE.

Also Machia isn’t dead okay she’s just in the past she WILL COME BACK

Seasons 8 and 9 I’d say are pretty solid honestly? My minor changes: Garmadon isn’t Garmadon he’s a fucking fake get out of here with that shit THE REAL GARMADON WOULD NEVER. We actually learn where Mr. E came from I don’t even care if it’s just Harumi and UV talking about how they found him in a scrap heap and got him fixed just give me something. Stop treating Dareth like SHIT. Ronin and The Commissioner plan a jail break long before they’re let out in season 9. Teen Wu is a lot less... air headed. Like seriously he seems to have more logic when he’s a child it doesn’t add up. I’m not saying he has to remember everything but wth?? Oh, and Mistaké isn’t dead fuck you.

Season 10 - ............................................ delete it and start over. Literally, hate all of it, get it out of here. Four episodes for villains you built up like FUCK in the last two seasons??? All of them fucking as big as people???????? cowardly, weak, uninspired, I don’t want it I’m just going to have to redo this whole gd season. A) Oni leader is a QUEEN now and she can be up to 30 feet tall no I do not give a FUCK B) Fake ass Garmadon is revealed to be a different oni entirely he was an agent for the queen the whole time but never finished his mission C) She can still paralyze a bunch of people but man Lloyd you’re going to need more than a shiny tornado to fight her off. D) In fact you need to summon your other great grandma so the two of them can get over their divorce spat. E) Where’s the mask of vengeance bring that back into play. F) Mistaké shows back up to help. I suppose plot wise it can?? Mostly run the same but I think they’re going to have to run much farther than the city with how fast she spreads her reach. Also she’s weak for Lloyd because he’s the smol great grandson and he has to use that to his advantage to slow her down. Mistaké makes something that can unparalyze people and they get some of their allies back before the finale thank god. Faith isn’t just in a coma the whole GD time.

Season 11 - Fire half? Good. I need a much better reason why the ninja go to the never realm tho because wow did they just make everyone out of character in that last episode. The ninja have no reason to just ignore Wu and shove him out like that. Wu has no reason to NOT NOTICE LLOYD IS BREAKING INTO HIS ROOM WHEN HE WAS KICKING THE NINJAS ASSES IN THE FIRST EPISODE. Ice half?? ... h Yeah no they should have known Zane was the emperor from the start LMAO. Or at least suspected the possibility. The decades of time passing??? Deleted. Maybe give it a year. Idk why it’s just Lloyd snapping Zane out if why aren’t the other ninja involved like p l e a s e. Also kill Vex with an ice spike, thanks.

Season 12 - Over all I liked what this season had going but there... should have been more. And that ending felt so crunched together like damn... Unagami was a p cool villain at least BUT idk, despite all the focus on the plot so much of it didn’t feel tangible enough. Even if we’re going to focus more on the video game world I want to see more of what these NPCs are up to. Should have tossed in a couple of filler episodes. Also can someone just kill the Mechanic too SMH (and they should have tied Wu up in something sturdier how did he not just break out of that WHATEVER)

Suppose I’ll stop there I haven’t season season 13 yet.

Oh, the timeline itself needs some fucking work too. At least establish Wu and Garmadon’s sudden aging. At least establish how old Zane is (I’d believe he was built 40 years ago but I find it hard to believe he was active for all of it). Establish that yeah the FSM really did basically fuck off like idk 14 years ago and idk why the show acts like it was so long ago it couldn’t have been based on the other facts we know have Wu learn that his dad is a bitch ass motherfucker and he needs to ditch.

Honestly there’s more but like................. this is the simple version

#scribs speaks #ninjago #you asked I suppose #Anonymous

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blursed-ninjago-ideas · 4 years ago

Text

Part 1

So I figured it out. (Thanks to the anon that submitted some ideas. I didn’t wind up using them, but you did give me a jumping off point which got me here.)

“I don’t think I can do this.” Kai said, throwing his hands down.

“Come on, Kai! If I can use fire, you can use water.” Nya said encouragingly.

“Or maybe it’s just another amazing Nya thing!” Kai said with a smile, but Nya caught the bite in the words.

She furrowed her brows. Kai was still smiling at her. He didn’t….he didn��t mean for it to come out that way, did he?

“What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked, hoping she could force him to elaborate.

“Nothing.” Kai said, looking panicked.

Suspicious confirmed. He didn’t mean for it to come out.

“Kai…” she said slowly.

“Well I think that’s enough for today!” Kai said, giving a fake yawn “I think ‘m going take a show and call it a day!”

And he practically ran out the door.

Nya starred after him. Something else was going on.

Thinking about it, she didn’t understand what was stopping Kai anyways. Her element was tied to perseverance. Kai had never had the fear and frustration with failure holding him back like she had. By all reasoning, he should’ve been able to command her element a long time ago. He never quit on anything.

Did he?

Nya couldn’t think of a time when he quit on anything.

Something else was stopping him. It wasn’t the same as her, he had felt the right feelings to connect to her element many times. He had a completely different problem blocking him.

But what was it?

Nya kicked the bucket of water they had against the wall in frustration. She wanted to understand! She had to!

She tried to pry the answers from Kai’s lips for weeks, but he refused to tell her anything. His slip of tone was the furthest she got. She had no hints about what feelings caused it or what it meant. Which meant she knew even less about how to fix it.

Kai started to avoid her. The more she pushed to get him to use her element, the more he withdrew. She didn’t understand! She knew he could do it! He was a powerful master and had been training longer than she had, yet every time she pushed, he insisted he wasn’t capable of it. She screamed at him a few times, but all she got for it was a fight.

“Nya, you need to stop.” Lloyd finally said.

“He can do it! I don’t know why he won’t try!” she yelled, stomping her foot.

“Nya, Have you seen him in normal training? Have you noticed?”

“Noticed what? That he’s hiding something?”

“That he’s losing his fire.” Lloyd snapped.

“What?”

“He…everyday, his flames are getting smaller and smaller. He hasn’t said anything, but….I can see how much it’s worrying him.”

A horrifying thought occurred to Nya.

“You don’t think I stole it, do you?” Nya whispered, horrified at the thought.

“I don’t know.” Lloyd said honestly.

Nya cried the entire night on Jay’s shoulder.

Zane took charge in the morning.

“I don’t think you using fire is what’s effecting Kai’s element.” Zane said, soothing that worry. “If it was, this would’ve started the same night. This started when you two started to try and get him to use water.”

“I don’t know what’s going on with him.” Nya said, puffy eyes all out of tears.

“I can think of only one way to find out.” Zane said

Nya asked silently with her eyes.

“We have to get Kai to tell us. And if he won’t do so willingly…”

Zane set a box on the table and Nya gasped.

“You’re going to give him Truth Tea?”

“Kai is hiding something, and it’s bothering him enough to effect his powers. We need to know.”

“No.” Nya said firmly “I need to know. It wouldn’t be right to make him talk to all of you about it.”

“You want to talk to him alone?” Zane asked.

Nya nodded, and he nodded back. It was probably the best way to do it.

She hated to trick Kai into drinking it, but she had to know. He would know something was up if she gave it to him, so they had Cole do it. Then locked him in the bedroom with Nya.

He was mad when he realized what they’d done.

“Damn it Nya! I can’t do this!” he yelled

“Why not?”

“Because if I tell you how much I hate you it’ll make it true!”

Kai covered his mouth, wishing the words would go back in.

“You….hate me?” Nya asked.

Kai started to tear up.

“I kind of do.” He looked terrified of his own words. “I don’t want to.”

Nya’s eyes started to water.

“What do you mean? Why?”

“Because you….you’re so much better than me and I can’t keep up. I feel so….so bad about myself whenever I look at you.” Kai collapsed to the ground “I can’t be as good as you and it makes me so angry and jealous and I hate feeling like that. I hate that you make me feel like that!”

Nya covered her mouth as she choked on her own sobs.

“I….I shouldn’t feel like that. You’re my sister, you’re all I have. I love you too much to feel like that, but I can’t stop feeling like that! Sometimes I think, if I can just win at something then it’ll go away, but I can’t ever do it.”

Kai clawed at is throat and chest. Nya couldn’t tell if he was trying to stop himself from speaking or if it was just the emotions he was feeling. Either way, he looked like he was in so much agony.

“And now you….you can control two elements and I’m so proud of you and I’m so….I can’t do that. I just can’t. I’m never going to be on your level, and you keep pushing me and it hurts because I know I’m not as good as you keep saying I am. I can’t be you!”

“Why didn’t you ever say anything?” Nya asked quietly.

“Because I didn’t want it to be true.” Kai whimpered in a wet voice. “I…never let myself even think about it. I…I couldn’t. I couldn’t do that.”

He punched the floor furiously.

“THIS WAS NEVER SUPPOSED TO COME OUT!” he cried “I DIDN’T WANT ANYBODY TO EVER KNOW!”

Kai broke down into sobbing again.

“I didn’t want to know.” He whispered.

“Kai.” Nya said.

“I’m sorry!” he cried “I’m so so sorry! I’m so worthless! I can’t….why am I so jealous of everyone I love? Why can’t I just...”

Nya fell to the ground and wrapped her arms around her brother.

“Kai. It’s ok to feel jealous. Even of people you love.”

“No. It’s not. Not for me. I have to be better. I have to protect you!” Kai said tearfully.

“No. No you don’t, Kai! You’re allowed to have feelings! You don’t have to force parts of you down because they aren’t helpful. You’re allowed to be a person Kai! I’m so sorry you’ve felt this way.” Nya sobbed back, desperately begging her brother to stop feeling guilt for his own feelings.

“I don’t want to feel this way.” Kai sobbed.

“But you do.” Nya said calmly “And that’s ok.”

Nya suddenly realized something Kai had given up on. Himself.

“Kai, you’re allowed to hurt.” she pleaded.

He cried harder against her, but her shoulder wasn’t getting wet. She turned her head slightly. His tears were warping around his face instead of dropping onto her gi.

“Don’t look now, but I think you just caught up to me.” Nya said in a soft voice, pointing to his tear streams twisting in unnatural ways.

Kai smiled. He cried harder and laughed.

-Ivy

#Mod Ivy #I gave you more #there #lego ninjago #ninjago #blursed ninjago snippets

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dorizardthewizard · 5 years ago

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TLNM musings, part 2

Okay, here I ramble about problems with the movie. Ended up adding more stuff since I first wrote this :’P

Screentime and characterisation of the other ninja:

One of the biggest complaints from fans... they're all introduced individually with very different personalities, they’re told they each have a special element they control, making you feel like they should each get some moment to shine and affect the plot of the movie, but then none of that happens. Ultimately you could take out all the ninja and the story would be the same, you don't even necessarily need them for Lloyd's character since his journey of reconnecting with his father and bringing his family together can still work without them. It's so sad because if you read and watch extra material, you can tell thought went into their personalities, but we never get to see this as they're all just lumped together, mostly there to support Lloyd's development.

For someone who hasn't seen the show, it must feel a bit off seeing characters with distinguished personalities and no payoff for it; take Zane for example. Imagine not knowing anything about the characters and seeing one of them is a robot, for some reason? You wonder why he's a robot, what significance that has for the plot and why it's important for his character (I mean they missed a big opportunity to develop Zane from always trying to fit in and seem like a “normal teenager” to accepting that he's different but that that doesn't mean he's less valid), but then this really specific characteristic is never expanded on except for comedy purposes. People probably thought “oh, guess it makes more sense in the show”, but this just detaches viewers and makes them feel like they're missing something if they haven't seen the show beforehand.

Sigh, still gotta give the crew credit for fitting in a load of little subtle details about the ninja, I had to rewatch it a couple of times because there were things I didn’t notice at first, like Kai sliding down a bannister in the Temple of Fragile Foundations and falling off :’D

Group dynamic:

Another thing that bothered me is that the movie isn't that good at making you care about them as a team. They're already established as friends but I wish there were more material showing us how much they care about each other. The Kai hug scene was 10/10 but then when Chen and the other cheerleaders started picking on Lloyd, nobody said or did anything? In merchandise it said Kai is a hothead who isn't afraid to speak up or stand up to people, then show it in the movie! Him and Nya should have been on the verge of tackling that guy to the floor! Ok, I can see Lloyd asking them not to get into fights as it makes people hate him even more and he probably feels guilty if one of the ninja gets into trouble because of him. This would still have given more emotional connection between the characters but we're never shown it, except in the novelisation where Cole tries to block Lloyd from his locker so he doesn't see the insult written on it, I think. But again, we shouldn't have to read/ watch extra material for that.

Instead of moments showcasing the ninja’s friendship and close bonds, we got the opposite- everyone turned on Lloyd incredibly quickly for one mistake. Sure, it was a pretty big one and resulted in Garmadon taking over the city and their mechs being wrecked, but Lloyd was the only one doing anything about Garmadon at the time and he didn't exactly know what the consequences of using the ultimate weapon were; it's not like he knew it could potentially hurt his friends. In fact, how did the ninja know he used it anyway? That would mean they already knew about it and what it could do, yet Lloyd was not told? In which case, how can they blame him?? Damn it Wu, why couldn't you just tell Lloyd that using the weapon would unleash a cat that could destroy the city, instead of vaguely saying the weapon can be dangerous in the wrong hands. That's taking too many pages from TV Wu's book!

Honestly, it's like the ninja were just one character either shunning Lloyd or supporting him, depending on what the plot needed :/ That scene where they're talking with Garmadon while carrying him through the jungle really rubbed me the wrong way because first, no one seemed to care that Lloyd is so snippy because he's been forced to work with the man who made his life hell, and second they joke about Lloyd with that very same person and imply they don't respect Lloyd as leader, as Jay says he doesn't usually want to listen to him when he's talking? What??

Lloyd and Garmadon’s relationship:

I mentioned this in part 1, but they really didn’t execute this well- I feel like they had so much fun playing up Garmadon being the worst dad in the world that they forgot to give him redeemable qualities. It took me a second viewing to realise his relationship with Lloyd was actually pretty messed up, because they played off his despicableness as comedic and glossed over it by suddenly giving him a flashback to make it seem like he’s sorry. They wanted to go for the father-and-son-have-issues-but-reconnect story, and had Lloyd say “I wish we didn’t have to fight all the time” in his emotional ending, but that’s a line usually present in a daddy-issue story where both have a part to blame and there's issues with communication. In this, though? Lloyd did nothing wrong! It was just Garmadon being trash, and there wasn't even a particular scene of him recognising and apologising for his actions- not the bit about driving Misako away, but how he treated Lloyd after.

The message is all mucked up - hoping to find some good in neglectful parents is just gonna get you hurt, and in a story like this it would make more sense for the protagonist to realise they don't need validation from this guy, shouldn't feel like they have to keep connected with toxic relatives just because they're family, and that they should focus on the friends and family who actually love them (although, whether Lloyd's friends were even portrayed as liking him is a different story). I mean, Koko could just teach him to throw and catch! Does he have to have two parents just for that?

Tone and humour:

I think another main reason this movie didn't do as well was its more childish tone and dialogue; unlike the previous two movies, it was marketed at younger children. One of the main reasons TLM and LB were so successful is because of the self-aware jokes that could actually be enjoyed by adults too, while in this movie I may have properly laughed only a couple of times. Plus, in its effort to connect with kid's humour it just got cringy in some parts, like the Ultimate Weapon compilation. It would have been funny if it was ironic, like Amazing World of Gumball style, but it just didn't come across like that, so I can see why many jokes fell flat for older audiences.

People probably had different expectations for the overall tone as well- everyone loved the previous LEGO movies because of their constant barrage of action, witty jokes and a ton of references. This was never the selling point of Ninjago, but TLNM didn’t manage to capture the show’s dramatic style and deep lore-driven plot either.

The writers:

Okay last thing. This movie had three directors, six producers, six screenwriters and seven people working on the story. Compared to most animated movies, that's a lot, and its shows. It feels like they had a few different ideas and themes and couldn't quite patch them together, with vague messages like “looking at things from a different point of view” being thrown in as well to try and link it up. I guess at the end of the day, this is a father-son story, and that makes it very difficult to fit in a power-of-friendship plot at the same time, but still. Also, the shifting plot and ideas is really clear in the trailers, I mean half the stuff there wasn't even in the movie, it's as if the entire story was changed!

Final verdict? I think an overall theme with this movie is that the writers wanted to overhaul Ninjago to introduce it to new viewers, but also wanted to keep the fans happy so shoehorned in lots of elements from the show without giving them enough development. This just disappoints fans and alienates general audiences, which is a problem since Ninjago doesn’t have a huge following already backing it up like LEGO Batman did, and could have been the pilot for more original LEGO lines making it to the big screen. It was a technically amazing movie, with beautiful animation and visuals, an epic soundtrack and stunning voice acting, but it was also such a waste of potential.

The only other thing we can do is think about how it could have gone differently, so here's some of my ideas :'D

NOT using the deleted time travel plot. I know that after being disappointed in a movie you welcome any alternative, but giant mechs were already a big deviation from the ninja theme; flinging in time travel as well would be too much for non-show watchers. Plus, I thought we were all complaining about how time travel in Ninjago always just messes things up :'P

Also not following the show closer. We have over 10 seasons of the show, the whole point of a movie is giving a fresh take; using a giant snake or the Overlord possessing Garmadon again would just be boring.

Delete the first act? One of the best parts of the secret high school heroes trope is seeing how they juggle both lives, if you're gonna drop it after half an hour there's not much point of it being there.

Could instead just have Garmadon attacking again, the last invasion attempt being ages ago. Maybe the ninja rediscover a rich history of elemental masters protecting Ninjago when Wu decides to get a new team together to fight the new threat?

Make it about learning master building instead so they build their mechs at the end, and then gain elements in a sequel?

Or don't mention anything about elements and have every ninja individually go through an obstacle to obtain an elemental weapon, then they all lose them but don't know they're not necessary, so it's actually a surprise that the power is inside them? Everyone gets a sort of true potential moment?

Ninja having to warm up to Garmadon's son, so we have a plot of Lloyd slowly gaining their respect and becoming leader?

Higher stakes at the end, make the Shark Army more threatening and have them turn on Garmadon using Meowthra, so there's still an intense climax of the ninja fighting the army before Lloyd reaches Meowthra and gets his emotional ending?

Get rid of the live action sequence, or make it fit the message of the story more?

Feel free to add any ideas/ thoughts!

#ninjago #ninjago movie #lego ninjago movie #RIP lego cinematic universe v_v #my posts

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that-is-where-they-wait · 5 years ago

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That is Where They Wait Ch 13: This is Why Jay’s Not Group Leader

previous / next all chapters AO3 FFN [HAHA 13th CHAPTER ON HALLOWEEN, I’m a GENIUS. jk I’m just dead, sorry everyone, happy Halloween. hugs and kisses to the 5 (five) people that still give a damn about this fic] res·pite | /ˈrespət,rēˈspīt/ | noun | 1. a short period of rest or relief from something difficult or unpleasant.

The shadows created by his tiny flame cut stark figures on the walls, the floor, and both their faces. They were far too sharp to be natural, too unsettling to be ignored. Kai was getting sick of the agitation thrumming under his skin.

This room they'd found was nice and all, especially considering the door had a lock, but they couldn't stand around and wait for safety forever. The longer they stayed put, the longer they risked getting well and truly lost. And seeing how Karlof had been lost when Kai'd found him cornered by the spirit, that was definitely a risk.

Kai twisted the knob and pulled.

The door stayed put.

Frowning, he tried again. And again, tugging more harshly. Still nothing.

They'd just gotten themselves locked inside the room. Did it lock from the outside or something?!

Frustrated when persistently pulling at the door did nothing, Kai yelled and punched it as hard as he could. A moment later, hissing and rubbing his knuckles, he realized that was a mistake.

"Let Karlof try," the other man said, buckling up to attack and slamming the door with all the force he had. Both of his gauntlets hit the wood with an impressive, booming 'thud', but the door held. Kai squinted — were there even any cracks on the thing?

"Uhh … do it again," he suggested hurriedly. "Maybe if you keep at it, it'll start to crack."

And Karlof did take a few more spirited swings at the door standing in their way. No good; somehow the door was still in one piece. Not even anything other than hairline cracked. (Just how did a stinking door manage to be stronger in the face of Karlof's punches than him, anyway? Ouch, his ego.)

"Doesn't make sense! How is door not broken already?" Karlof asked, absolutely dumbfounded.

"Great question! Wish I knew." Petulantly, he threw his leg back and kicked. Unsurprisingly, it did nothing, and he was left glowering at the door as his toe throbbed briefly. The last bit of the flame in his hand winked out as he lost his focus, and he had to generate a new one. (Blast their weakened powers.)

Okay, so this was an exasperating turn of events. But hey, they could find another way out. Kai's free hand flew to his chin as he thought about it. Maybe they didn't have to break the door …

"Hey, Karlof. Maybe if you use your metal powers to rip off the hinges. You think we could get the door off that way?"

Karlof just stared at him for a second.

"Karlof don't particularly care."

Hold on, what.

"Walked all day just to get to stupid mansion, then ran around forever just to get away from ugly monster. All Karlof want right now is some rest."

"Tell me you're joking," Kai hissed. "We can rest once we get back to where we were! Unless you wanna be wandering around lost."

"Breaking down door takes energy. Karlof don't have energy right now. Plus, if we can't go out, monster can't come in," Karlof pointed out.

He had a point. Kai remembered what the others had said about the magic surrounding everything. It leeched their energy, didn't it? Karlof looked pretty wiped. He was loathe to stay away from the others any longer than necessary, and he hated how everything about this place felt, but it'd be just mean to deny the guy a chance to rest. He liked to think he wasn't that much of a jerk.

Karlof grimaced after a moment. "Also … maybe pulled leg muscle while running. Don't know for sure."

"Oh, and of course you save that for last," Kai groaned. "Okay, fine. We'll stay in here a while. You're just lucky the door's locked."

"What I wouldn't give for a working camera right now, to capture the look on your face." Cole shook his head and chuckled.

No one had counted on the passage from the clock workshop taking them right back to the room they were staying in — least of all Jay and Skylor, who had their first taste of the passages from a bewildered posse of ninja stumbling out of the wall. They'd both jumped nearly clear to the ceiling; poor Skylor had actually almost fallen off of the bed she was sitting on trying to scramble to her feet.

"Ohh, shut up! The wall just opened up out of nowhere and spit you out; what was I supposed to think?! You would've have been just as startled!"

"Whatever helps you sleep at night, zaptrap."

"It was pretty funny," Lloyd said, smile muted but genuine.

"Helpful," Jay huffed. "You wouldn't happen to have found them, would you?"

Cole shook his head and gestured at the empty space to his left. "What do you think?"

Jay sighed, expression dropping. "Thought so. … You guys mind explaining why the walls just spit you out?"

"Please," Skylor added. "If you're going to give me a heart attack, at least tell me why."

Lloyd turned to really see her, and noticed that she was fiddling with what looked to be the pieces of her crossbow. Then he did a double-take. Before he could say anything, Zane spoke up.

"Apologies for startling you, and hello, Skylor. It's good to see that you're — oh my."

"Yeah, I know." Skylor grinned ruefully, eyes obscured by…

"Those are Kai's shades," Lloyd blurted out. "How come …?"

"Ask Jay," she shrugged. "He had the idea of giving them to me in the first place."

"Hey, I couldn't dim the lamp or fireplace anymore or they'd go out, and I know Kai's always carrying a pair of sunglasses with him, so …yeah."

"They really do help, though," Skylor said. "It's easier to fix this thing" — she frowned at her broken weapon of choice — "when I can keep my eyes open."

"Good to hear it," Zane said, ever the one to keep tabs. "But hopefully you won't be needing it too soon." Skylor frowned, but didn't respond.

It was hard to figure out how he felt about this. On the one hand, heh. Of course Kai kept sunglasses on him at all times.

On the other hand, the fact that they were Kai's only pulled worse at something in Lloyd's chest. If they didn't find him fast, Skylor using his sunglasses was gonna feel more like a sick joke than anything …

He expelled the thought quickly.

Kai would be okay. He had to be.

Cole went around haphazardly patting different objects in the room until he knocked back a glass lantern on the mantelpiece shutting the passage entrance, meriting a few snickers at how silly he looked. Then he started telling Jay and Skylor how they'd discovered the passage system, but gratefully let Zane explain the uglier details. Lloyd jumped in to describe their surroundings in the open hallways and several rooms that had been explored as well, including some of the more eccentric details. Skylor, having evidently taken on the role of unofficial scribe out of sheer boredom with her current situation, reached for a notepad and started scribbling away, asking questions ever so often.

"You know what I think is going on here?" Jay said, after a beat. "We crossed dimensions walking through the forest and now we're in a horror video game. That's what happened."

"Jay."

"Listen, I'm right," Jay declared, with far more confidence than he had any right to have. "Think about it. Everything's too quirky. Too conveniently inconvenient."

"Jay, I swear to Lloyd's grandfather I will hurt you." The effect of Cole's words were mostly nullified by the fact that he was shaking his head in his hands. (And for the record, it was still weird when people swore on his grandfather.)

"Explain," Skylor said, openly giggling at the absurdity, and Zane looked as confused as he did amused.

Ahh, good ol' Zane.

Still, the fact that Jay was joking around when there were people missing rubbed him the wrong way.

"I'm serious! We just so happen to be stuck in here because the doors won't open, and they can't be busted down, and the windows are barred! Have you ever heard a more video-game thing in your life?"

"Splendid situational analysis skills right there, Jay," Cole responded drily. "A+. What do you propose we do to solve this?"

But then again … Cole had been tensed up and radiating apprehension, the entire time they were searching, to the point where it had started to make Lloyd nervous, too. He looked like he was beginning to lighten up again, as he poked at Jay's ridiculousness.

"Whoa, hey, I didn't ask for leader talk! Just saying. Not to mention, that ugly ghost clown respawns when you kill it. That's some next-level malarkey right there."

"D-don't call it that," Skylor gasped in between laughs. Evidently the pain meds had kicked in.

"And why not, huh? Are you trying to tell me it doesn't look like a clown and the Overlord had a really ugly baby?"

"Goodness," Zane remarked.

"Jay, do you ever think before you open your mouth?" Cole groaned, exasperated chuckles slipping out despite his best efforts. "Ever?"

"It's a personal point of pride to improv anything and everything I say," Jay said matter-of-factly. "Come on, you know this."

"This is why you're not group leader."

And since when was Lloyd the one to growl at any sign of fun when things were rough? He'd seen the way Jay's face had dropped when Cole announced that Kai and Karlof were still missing, and according to Zane he'd fought it before. If he was goofing off, it wasn't for lack of understanding the gravity — it was in spite of it.

So he'd bite. He'd pick back up the pieces of the child left over from when he'd been too small for the green gi, and play along. When they went back out to search, it'd be easier to keep his morale up if he let loose a little now.

They needed this.

"You know, Jay does have a point," he chimed in now. When everyone's attention turned to him, he grinned and clarified, "About the video game thing. Also the things in here are so … weird, they might as well be props. Like the clocks! What would anyone do with that many clocks?"

"And it does seem odd that there would be so many weapons on display …" Zane murmured under his breath.

"Yeah, exactly!"

Jay beamed. "Finally, someone sees it my way! I would bet my hand that this is all because of that dumb discount survivor Kai got at the shady store across from Doomsday Comix. I knew there was something weird about it. You should never trust a shady discount game."

"Hey, Kai got that game for you, because he was sick of you bellyaching about the Temple being haunted!" Cole replied. "Think an awful lot of me, doncha? Won't even take the former ghost's word that there's no ghosts in there."

"Uh, like I'd take your word for anything! Why don't you take this?" Jay threw a pillow at Cole's shoulder, much to their shock. They held their breath and waited for their reaction … and Cole worked his jaw for a second, then promptly picked up the pillow and nailed Jay in the face with it.

"Whoa, hey!" Lloyd cried. They paused and looked at him again.

"... We don't have nearly enough pillows for this."

Jay only blinked for a split second before grinning, balling up his blanket and whacking Cole with that instead.

Skylor doubled over laughing.

Absolute mayhem ruled for all of five minutes. Zane had been unwittingly dragged into the pillow/blanket fight that had evolved, and Lloyd figured if everyone else bar the one person who couldn't was doing it, he was definitely throwing himself into the ring. It only lasted up to Cole and Zane ganging up on him and wrapping him into a blanket burrito until he was screaming uncle. Even if she couldn't participate, Skylor was absolutely living for the chaos; she was practically munching on popcorn, tossing stray bedding into the fray (from a safe distance) for the rest of them to pounce on.

When they eventually settled down and sobered up, the air settling down on their shoulders again wasn't as oppressive. The soft afterglow lingering after they'd laughed some of their stress out made everyone feel a little more like they would be okay in the end, like they could go out and search again and they'd find everything they needed to — Kai, Karlof, and a way to escape this awful place and put it behind them for good.

But for right now …

"So. What's next?" Cole fluffed a pillow and set it back on the bed he'd grabbed it from.

"We should go back out and keep looking," Lloyd stated, grabbing a blanket off the floor and pointedly folding it in an apologetic-looking Zane's direction. Cole snorted — Zane might've felt a liiiiittle guilty about teaming up on Lloyd and accidentally knocking Jay down with a pillow, but he'd enjoyed every bit of that fight, and Lloyd knew it and he knew they both knew it.

"So soon?" Skylor asked. "You were gone for a while. Maybe you should take a break or something first …"

"Yeah!" Jay agreed, putting away his own blanket. "You were walking in secret passages and stuff! Aren't you tired? I know I'd be."

"If we do go out again, we should switch out who remains here with Skylor to prevent that," Zane said.

"Not 'if'," Lloyd said. "It's dangerous out there, and didn't you say Kai was injured? Karlof doesn't have any idea what he's up against if he bumps into it, either. Not to mention, we haven't even seen a trace of Shade around longer we wait, the worse our chances of finding them are. I say we keep looking a little longer."

Cole grimaced. He understood Lloyd's impatience, of course. He was worried, they all were, and nothing about their current situation looked good. And every second they spent trapped put him painfully in mind of another haunted building that had preyed on their fears and ended in nothing but trouble …

But the green ninja's insistence on searching until they found their missing was beginning to look near-obsessive. And while he hadn't said a word about being tired, his group had been on the move almost constantly since before they'd even arrived at the mansion. He'd fought for his life once already, and the building's magic was persistently weakening them. He had to be tired. Cole knew he was.

For the kid's sake, Cole hoped again that they were alright. If they weren't …

He shut the train of thought down before it could set itself off. He could do without losing his composure like that again, particularly now that he wasn't as isolated.

"Ech. I was actually thinking we have lunch or something first. It's been a while since any of us ate."

"Lunch …?"

Ohhh First Spinjitzu Master he could not be serious.

"Yes, Lloyd," he said dryly, "sometimes human beings need to eat food. You know, to survive and stuff."

"I know that!" Lloyd exclaimed. "But how do you know that it's lunch time, specifically?"

Cole paused to consider it. Usually, his appetite was the subject of a fair few jokes, but here he was using it as a surprisingly reliable indicator of when they should eat, sharpened with fatigue as it was. Because he was absolutely basing this off of his appetite.

A crinkle broke the quiet. Heads turned to see nothing else but Jay, teeth already sunk into a granola bar and blinking up at them.

"What?"

Cole sighed, rummaging through his backpack and frowning when it took a minute to find him anything worth eating. He unwrapped a sandwich as he said his next words.

"First trail mix at unholy hours of the morning, now this. If you're going to keep snacking precisely when it's not time to eat, you can't turn around and wonder why you're never hungry. I mean, not to suggest there's ever a bad time to eat, but you know what I mean."

"But I'm not hungry enough to eat a full meal!" Jay protested. "Any more than this and … I dunno. Don't feel up to it. And aren't you a fine one to talk?"

"But he has a point," Zane said, concerned. "Your appetite is usually larger than this. Does your stomach still hurt?"

"Nah," Jay said dismissively, though he polished off the bar and didn't make a move to eat anything else. "I'm just not that hungry. Besides, I'll just save it for later."

Cole opened his mouth to tell him to eat at least a little more, anyway, but the last thing he'd said made him think.

Because when he considered it …

"We're starting to run low on food, aren't we?"

"Now that you mention it, I guess we are," Lloyd said, surrendering to the fact that they were eating now and pulling out some food. He didn't immediately eat it, though. "And we can't go get more, can we?"

"I have extra food in my bag," Zane offered, looking a little meek. "... The truth is, I kept storing food and snacks in it for missions and never remembered to take them out. It might not be all that much, but perhaps it could help us last a little longer."

"Hoarder."

"Hey, it's saving our hides now, isn't it?" Lloyd elbowed Jay. "Be nice."

"But I'm afraid it won't last us forever …"

"Right. We gotta think long-run," Cole said. "We have backup food, but there's …" He took a moment to count. "Five of us. Seven including the missing two. And none of us are running on full strength. This stuff's gonna go fast. If Zane's stash runs out, we've got no way to get more from outside, plus there's no way anything in here would be edible."

"Blegh." Jay made a face. "Can you imagine what it'd be like? The mold probably has mold growing on it. No thank you."

"Thank you, Jay, you're really doing wonders for my appetite." Skylor groaned.

"You're very welcome."

"Keep it to yourself," Cole said. "Just because you're not hungry doesn't mean you have to make sure everyone else isn't."

Jay harrumphed at him but didn't say anything else.

"We need to ration, don't we?" Lloyd said.

"I don't like that," Jay said. "That implies we're staying here."

"... Not that I like the idea," Cole hated it, in fact. "But again, we might have to start thinking long-term. Hopefully, Kai and Karlof aren't far, but who knows how long it'll actually take to find them. And that's not even taking into account how we'll find a way to escape …"

"Okay, you've made your point," Jay moaned. Cole followed his gaze to Lloyd, who was eating his honey sandwich with dark eyes, and sighed, feeling another twinge of worry.

"Well, this doesn't bode well for me," Skylor commented. "I didn't think we'd get holed up this long."

"Is this about food? How much do you have?" Zane asked.

"Mm? Only about enough for a day and a half, plus snacks. And that's being generous," she admitted sheepishly. "I've only got a little more left."

"It's alright," Cole replied. "None of us were really expecting it. You can just … mooch off of Zane?"

"Well, geez." Skylor raised an eyebrow. It was pretty funny, paired with the sunglasses. "When you put it that way."

"Don't worry," Zane reassured her. "Feel free to take what you need."

"Pft. Alright," Skylor said at last. "Thanks."

"Glad we got that set straight, but what're we gonna do about water?" Lloyd brought up. "My bottle's nearly empty."

"He has a point," Zane said. "Having food is essential, but we cannot afford to dehydrate, either."

"Man, Nya'd be nice to have around for that," Cole sighed. "... But it's probably a good thing she's not here."

"It's been well over a day and we still haven't contacted her."

"Maybe longer, even," Jay sighed glumly. His eyes flickered with worry for a second. "You … don't think she'd come looking for us, do you?"

"Don't sound so hopeful, Jay," Cole warned him. "There's no way it'd end well if she did."

"It was bad enough when I ran into it," Lloyd added. "If it stumbled into her before we did …"

"Okay, okay, I get it," Jay whimpered. "Forget I said anything."

"But do we need a water master for that?" Skylor cut in. "We could try to melt ice and make do that way."

"PIXAL has the same idea. But that would be most efficiently done with a controlled heat source such as Kai's fire, and Kai isn't with us right now," Zane said. Lloyd's face darkened.

"I know, but once we find him. Because we are going to," she said pointedly.

"I suppose I could just set some ice near the fireplace and let it melt, even though it would still be slow," Zane said. "Until we find Kai, of course."

"Right," Lloyd answered before Cole or Jay could say anything. "We will." But the room felt tenser again, more quietly charged than it had before.

How much longer they could keep that conviction up remained to be seen.

#that is where they wait #tiwtw #ninjago fanfiction #ninjago fanfic #ninjago cole #cole brookstone #ninjago kai #ninjago lloyd #lloyd garmadon #ninjago zane #zane julien #ninjago karlof #ninjago skylor #skylor chen

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