Chapter Text
“...you’ve gotta get dirty to ever get clean, I’m a bona fide pirate, best of the worst, kicking and screaming, scorch the fucking earth..”
Nya’s music matches the screeching and hammering of the mech workshop perfectly, at times even fading entirely into the background - just the way she likes it. The noise is just enough to drown out her thoughts: her anger at the boys for lying to everyone, anxiety over the escaped Kryptarium prisoners, none of it matters and she can focus on the blueprints.
She glances over at Pixal, typing away at the new schematics on the screen. “How are we looking, Pix?” she asks, pausing her welding and wiping her brow.
“The schematics are coming together quite nicely, Nya. I’ve almost finished optimizing the engine and coffeemaker systems on this one.”
Nya doesn’t question why Pix would put a coffeemaker into a battle mech. She nods and turns around to where Jay is working on the circuitry. “How about you, Jay?”
He doesn’t answer, just keeps focusing on his teeny tiny motherboards and delicate bits of silicone and metal. Briefly she debates sending a dribble of water down his back to get his attention, and the only thing that saves him is knowing how expensive those little shits were. She doesn’t want him to jump and scatter them everywhere. She turns to the last corner of the lab, where Lloyd is cutting sheets of metal into shape. “How about you, green bean?”
He doesn’t respond either, but this time Nya figures it’s because the metal saw is loud as fuck and he’s on the other side of the lab, so she walks over and waits until he notices her out of the corner of his eye. Sure enough, it takes only a moment for him to turn the saw off and remove his safety gear. “Hey, Nya. What’s up?”
“Just a check in. How are you doing with the pieces?”
He puffs his cheeks out in a sigh and takes his gloves off, slapping them down on the table. Now that his visor is off, Nya can see how red his face is - and when he gestures to the wall, she can see that the stack of completed pieces is smaller than she thought it would be. “Not great, Nya, and I don’t know why.”
Her brow creases and she steps closer, examining her little brother more thoroughly. “Lloyd, your face is really red. Are you feeling alright?” She reaches out to try and feel his forehead for a fever.
He leans back and - there. A slight twinge of discomfort. “I’m not sick, just a little stiff, that’s all. Quit babying me, I’m not eight anymore,” he grumbles.
She relents and drops her hand, but only to put both of them on her hips. “Lloyd, you may not be eight, but I am still your big sister and it is my First-given right to fuss over you no matter how old you get. Now tell me everything.” When he doesn’t answer she raises both eyebrows challengingly and for a moment she is violently yeeted back to a conversation she and Kai had when her period first started that went almost exactly like this.
Lloyd’s sigh of defeat breaks her from her memories. “I told you, I just feel a little stiff, that’s all. I’m fine, Nya.”
His face is still red. And now that she’s looking, she can see the way he’s standing is a little bit off - like he’s in pain. She’s reaching out to examine him before she registers what she’s doing. “Stiff? Where?”
“Everywhere,” he replies with an edge of grumble still in his voice, though he submits to her examination without a fight.
“Be more specific. Everywhere where?” she demands, delicately turning his arm over in her grasp. There isn’t any obvious bruising, but - there. She frowns slightly and squeezes his elbow gently, stopping at his immediate hiss of pain.
“I mean everywhere,” he snaps, taking his elbow back. “All my joints are a little bit stiff, that’s all.”
“Lloyd, your elbow is swollen. Are all of your joints like that?”
“I haven’t noticed--”
“You’re gonna notice now. Get the fuck over here,” she orders.
Sure enough, everywhere she looks she sees a swollen and red and painful-looking joint. Elbows, shoulders, knees, even along his back and neck. “This isn’t just a little bit of stiffness, Lloyd. This has gotta hurt.”
For a moment he doesn’t say anything. “Is that why I kinda just feel gross?”
“If you’re otherwise healthy and fed and shit, then yeah, full-body pain will lead to a general gross feeling. Go to the fucking doctor, green bean. No, don’t make that face at me,” she corrects when he grimaces and opens his mouth to object. “I don’t give a singular flying fuck if you’ve never gone before and you’re perfectly fine, this is a new problem and it’s a big one and this is not a fucking negotiation. You’re going. Actually, let me go schedule you one right now.”
“I recommend Bone Health Now in Ninjago City based on internet reviews, price, and rating on Ninjago Doctors dot net,” Pixal chimes in from the computer without pausing what she’s doing with the schematics.
“Thanks, Pix. Do you have the number for me?” Nya asks, making directly for her phone.
“Wait, don’t I get a say in this?” Lloyd complains, following her.
“No.”
“You are welcome to do your own research, Lloyd, but if you think you can do a better job than me you are badly mistaken. 645-908-0908, Nya, but the office is closed currently.”
She locks her phone and flips it around to point it at Lloyd threateningly. “You’re safe for now, but I swear on the First I’ll schedule you an appointment tomorrow--”
“Tomorrow is Saturday!” Jay calls.
“--on Monday as soon as they open. Thank you for the first social contribution in five fucking hours, Jay!”
“If I wanted to contribute socially I wouldn’t have volunteered to work on the circuitry!”
She considers this for a moment. “Fair enough. Still, fuck you.”
Lloyd looks on, arms half out at his sides. “I can’t tell if I’m mad that you’re all making this decision so easily without me, right in front of me, or glad you all care so much.”
“Yes,” the other three chorus.
____________
“--with the escape of notable Kryptarium inmates, many Ninjagans are asking - where were the ninja? And with Garmadon on the loose, where is --”
Lloyd tugs his hood a little further over his eyes and scrunches down, glaring at the TV in the corner of the waiting room. Kai nudges his shoulder, not looking up from his phone. “Hey, did you know that there’s a dance group styling themselves after us?”
Lloyd shifts again, glancing at the other two patients in the room. Kai wasn’t loud, but he still can’t help the anxiety from spiking. “Would you quiet down? In case you haven’t noticed, we’re not exactly in the public’s favor right now,” he hisses.
Kai shrugs, still scrolling. “We’ve been on their shit list before, green bean. I figure the doctor’s office is one of the safer places we can talk, yknow?”
He knows he’s probably right. Still has ants crawling under his skin, though. He’s saved from his thoughts by the tech opening the door and calling his name.
____________
The tech is nice enough, though Lloyd kinda wishes he’d spend less time trying to chat and just get everything over with already. Luckily he finishes fast and excuses himself with, “Well, I’ll let Dr. Andies know and she’ll be right in, Lloyd!”
“Alright, thank you.”
Doctor’s visits are so weird, he thinks to himself when the doctor walks in with the sheet of his symptoms the tech had just written down. “Alright Mr. Garmadon, what brings you in today?” Like she didn’t have the answer to that question in her hand.
“Big joints, doc,” Kai answers when Lloyd takes just a moment too long to recover.
Dr. - what had the nurse called her? Dr. Anders? - blinks at Kai.
“Swollen joints, doctor,” Lloyd corrects. She nods and makes a note on her clipboard. “And just Lloyd is fine.”
“Which joints, Lloyd?”
“Uhhh…best we can tell, all of them.”
“Okay. Any other symptoms? Accompanying pain or stiffness? Skin irritation? Cold and flu symptoms?”
“I don’t feel sick, and my skin feels alright. I’m sore all over though, and I know this isn’t a training or fighting kind of sore because it’s not going away.”
She nods as he talks, making notes as they go along. “And how long have you noticed these symptoms - your swollen joints and pain and stiffness?”
“Nya first brought it up last week, yeah? And then we got the first appointment we could with you,” Kai answers.
“So that’s when other people noticed, Lloyd. What about you,” she presses, looking directly at him.
He takes a moment to seriously think. “I hadn’t noticed anything until after Nya said it, but that’s because I wasn’t thinking about pain or stiffness, but once she said something I realized I’d been feeling awful for a few days before that.”
“So about two weeks, we’ll say.”
“Yeah,” he nods. “Sounds about right.”
“And you say it’s not going away. Can I ask what you’ve been doing to try and treat it? Home remedies?”
“Ice, hot baths, massages, aromatherapy, acupuncture, Uncle Wu’s weird teas, bed rest, exercise, wrapping them, elevating them, laying in every position possible--”
“Any over the counter painkillers or anti inflammatories?”
Kai and Lloyd share a look.
“No, we hadn’t thought about that…” Lloyd answers slowly.
“Okay. So because this has been a persistent problem for a few weeks now, it’s not responding to home remedies, and the joint inflammation is throughout your whole body, I want to do a full-body X-ray to check in on your skeletal system and make sure there aren’t any other abnormalities. No tumors, no weird cartilage things, no bone outcroppings. We have an in-house X-ray machine, so if you want to just wait here I can get that set up.”
“Yes please,” Lloyd answers, relieved.
“Alright, I’ll have Andrew come back in to get you when they’re ready for you. Have a nice day, Lloyd.”
With that, she stands and clicks her pen shut, professionally shutting the door behind her with little more than a whisper.
“Am I the only one who thinks it’s a little weird that doctors say ‘Have a nice day’ when they know you came in because you’re not having a nice day?” Kai muses. “Like I get they’re being polite and all, but--”
“Kai, shut up,” Lloyd replies tiredly, sinking back into his chair. He tips his head back against the wall and lets his eyes slide shut. For a few moments, there’s silence save for muffled ambient noise reverberating through the walls and the floor - electrical humming, a deeper thrum of the HVAC system kicking in, footsteps and distant voices in the hall, Kai—
Kai clears his throat and Lloyd can feel him shift to look at him fully. “So I know we’ve been avoiding the - yknow, the Harumi thing—”
“Fucking - ahhh,” Lloyd hisses as his new fangs catch and tear at his lip. His hand involuntarily flies to his mouth and his fingers come away with purple liquid.
“Did…did your blood change color?” Kai asks breathlessly.
Lloyd stares at, yes, his purple goddamned blood on his fingertip and feels…empty. Drained. He deflates and meets Kai’s worried gaze. “I didn’t ask for any of this,” he says carefully, cognizant of his fangs. “But I at least expected my family to be honest with me.”
“I’m sorry, Lloyd,” his brother whispers.
“Lloyd?” The sound of the door and the new voice snaps both of their attention to the door, where Andrew the tech is standing, clipboard in hand. “The X-Ray is ready, if you’ll follow me.”
“Yes, thank you.”
____________
Being the son of the self-proclaimed Dark Lord of Ninjago, sworn to tear down the First Spinjitsu Master’s work and remake the realm in his own image, Lloyd hasn’t been to many doctors before. Being the nephew of one of the oldest and strictest devotees of herbal tea remedies, Lloyd REALLY hasn’t been to many doctors before. And he’s never had an X-Ray done, either.
But they shouldn’t be looking at the scans like that, should they?
“Everything okay?” he asks, trying to crane his neck over Kai’s shoulder.
“I am unable to give medical advice or any sort of medical opinion,” Andrew answers, smiling a touch manically. “I’ll go get Dr. Andies.”
Fuck.
She bustles in a few moments later - do doctors normally move that fast? - and sucks her teeth while looking at his bones.
“Talk to me doc, what is it,” Lloyd breaks in warily. It’s fine. It’s fine. Everything is—
“So!” she responds too-brightly, meeting his furrowed brow with the same manic smile Andrew gave before he left. Then she almost shakes herself and her professional mask slips back on, smile returning to something less worrying. “You said these symptoms began roughly two weeks ago, yes? Lloyd, do you know if you have any family history of bone spurs or related conditions?”
“Not that I’m aware of? Mom hasn’t said anything, and I don’t know if…” Lloyd trails off as a horrible, sinking feeling washes over him.
“Lloyd?”
“Kai, two weeks ago was the Oni infestation,” he answers through his racing thoughts. “When I got these,” as he raises his lip to show his new fangs more clearly.
“Fuck,” Kai swears. “You don’t think this is more of your Oni blood?”
“Explain, please?” Dr. Andies breaks in, leaning forward. Lloyd sinks back into his seat as Kai gives her the rundown of his heritage and how the Oni magic fucked with his anatomy during the siege. When he’s done, Dr. Andies leans back thoughtfully in her seat. “And you said you also noticed his blood is a different color?”
“Yeah, purple.”
She hums thoughtfully and turns to pick up his sheets again. “Well, I don’t know anything about Oni magic or Oni anatomy, so I can’t and won’t speak to that. What I CAN say, however, is that you, Lloyd,” — the mention of his name snaps Lloyd back into the room and out of his own thoughts, “— have new bone growth in several key areas. Here,” she starts, pointing to two smallish ovals on his head, “are two that, if this change is in fact Oni-related, could grow into horns. Here…”
Lloyd can’t help it. He really tries to focus on Dr. Andies as she goes through his entire body, pointing out tiny nubs on his spine, near his shoulder blades; his hands; knees; he can only truly focus when she ends on his feet. “This, in particular, is worrying. See this?” she asks, pointing to a vague whitish blur behind his heels. “That looks like the beginning of an extension of your…basically your heel bones. It’s difficult to tell right now, given the lack of previous x-rays to compare with, but I believe this may signal the start of a shift to a more digitigrade lower skeletal system.”
She sets the scans down and turns to face both of them head on, face drawn. “Like I said. I can’t say one way or another whether this is caused by Oni magic or Oni blood. All I can tell you is what I see. If you’d like to look further into the cause of this, and maybe to see what changes might come in future, I recommend a full panel of bloodwork, as well as bone marrow draws. I would also recommend you come in regularly for x-rays so we can monitor and track the bone growth.
“But. You came in for pain and inflammation, and that I can offer immediate solutions for. Like I said before, start with over the counter pain relief. Look for ones containing ibuprofen, naproxen sodium, or aspirin specifically for pain relief. With this situation in your lower half, I recommend orthopedic shoes - and you may want to look into mobility aides as well. Canes or crutches specifically, to help take some of your body weight and pressure off those swollen and painful areas.”
Lloyd watches as Kai takes the small stack of pamphlets and recommendations from Dr. Andies and says their thank yous. And then they’re in the street again, in the most subtle, street-ready car Pix could stand to roll out of her garage.
“Do you want to drive, or do you want me to?” Kai asks gently.
It takes a moment for Lloyd to answer, gaze locked on the glossy pages on the dash. “I didn’t ask for any of this, Kai.”
Bone growths. Pain and swelling. Mobility aides.
“I know, green bean.”
Dimly he registers a flare of pain as his brother pulls him into a hug, but he doesn’t fight it.
Lloyd is so, so tired.