Chapter Text
Lloyd's head was pounding. He could feel his mind begging him to take a rest. He had pulled another all nighter and was starting to regret it. This affecting his performance in training greatly. He had been unable to concentrate to the ninja's lectures and instructions. Unable to keep himself from snapping and answering back. Stumbling and failing greatly at almost every move he had encountered.
In all honesty, Lloyd felt like shit.
And the ninja had clearly noticed. They had been asking if Lloyd was okay every time he fell down, picking him up and taking care of his wounds. They have been less rough with him lately and Lloyd was unable to tell why, or even see through the ninja's actions.
He knew they didn't care about him. Why would they? After all he's done? After setting the whole serpentine after them after some villagers refused to give him candy. After trying to constantly sabotaging their plans and sabotaging ninjago. Why would they forgive him and take him in?
If it weren't for his uncle, Master Wu, then they wouldn't of ever even thought about forgiving him and taking him in. Train him, feed him and protect him. These were all just things they did for their master. Even then, he was going to be a brat and try to sabotage their relationships with each other. And they still tolerated him.
Then kai saved him from a volcano and figured out that he was the green ninja. They were forced to even train him. They thought him the basics of ninja training, then taught him the ways of spinjitzu. They only did it to become the teachers of the great green ninja. They only did it for fate. They couldn't possibly like him after all he's done. And Lloyd couldn't blame them.
They were only nice to him because he was the green ninja.
So why did they voluntarily hang out with him during his breaks when they had the chance to leave him alone?
Lloyd was honestly baffled with their behaviour. He was unable to detect the reasoning of their behaviour. Why would they want to hang out with him when they can just leave him again?
If Lloyd were them then he'd leave him.
Lloyd didn't deserve their forgiveness -- if he even had that. He didn't deserve their kindness, forget forgiveness. He could never understand why people would ever forgive him after all he's done. Because despite pythor being the one to lead all of the serpentine to the awakening of the devourer, he was the one to set him free. He was the one to find the clans and set them free to ninjago.
If he had just stayed at darkleys then none of this would've happened.
That was it, wasn't it?
So why is FSM's name would anyone forgive him?
Lloyd sighed to himself, "No wonder mother abandoned me at darkleys..."
"Whatcha say, Lloyd?" Cole asked, suddenly snapping Lloyd out of his trance of lost thought. He had forgotten the black ninja was there. Cole had been the one that volunteered to hang out with him at break today. "You've been acting weird today. Is it your ankle? Is it still hurting?
Lloyd shook his head -- causing his head to burn ever more.
"No. It's fine." He lied. It was not fine. He felt like his ankle was getting ripped apart at that moment. He was unsure of whether it was still bleeding or not. Lloyd couldn't tell from the pain. It didn't matter anyways, he wasn't going to say anything either way. "What are we doing after this?"
"Oh. We're going swimming." Cole got another fork full of chow mein and stuffed it into his mouth. Chewing for a few more seconds before swallowing it and carrying on. "You have to know how to swim incase we get in a situation where we are surrounded by water. Master Wu said we need to get used to every atmosphere as much as we can so that when we're in unusual places, we have the mind and training to learn to get used to them."
"Not following. It doesn't make sense." Lloyd chewed on his noodles.
"What I meant is, when we're getting you used to different atmospheres. You may find one unusual to you. We make you learn from that experience. You learn your way of adapting, your flaws in that atmosphere and your strengths in that atmosphere." Cole elaborated.
"Oh," Lloyd nodded. Understanding this time. "That makes sense." He then thought to himself again. Was Cole speaking from experience? He couldn't really tell. He was unable to read anything from the ninjas. Had they ever had to fight in atmospheres near water? "Hey? Did you ever have to fight in an atmosphere near water? What's it like?"
"No, not really." Cole sighed. Lloyd was honestly disappointed. He was wanting to hear epic fighting stories. Ash probably would have had one. Cole went on. "We're most likely to encounter one though. I'm new at this too. I only started training to be a ninja a few months ago. Same with jay, kai and zane."
Lloyd was suprised at that. By the way they fought and trained, Lloyd thought that they would have been ninjas for ages. He did not expect a few months.
"When did you all become ninjas?"
"Well, I was just climbing a mountain and when I got to the top I saw an old man sitting up there drinking tea." Cole laughed to himself. "He gave me some advice and gave me an opportunity to become a better version of myself. I took it." Cole turned to Lloyd. "Same with jay but he was sulking over a failed invention. I don't really know about zane, all I know is that zane found him drinking tea underwater--" Lloyd smirked. "When he was testing his skills."
"What about kai?" Lloyd asked and frowned at Cole's teasing look.
"Well, Wu tress passed his blacksmith shop and insulted him and his work." Cole chuckled at Lloyd's shocked expression. "Then Samukai kidnapped Nya and Kai was forced to train to be a ninja. He beat all the tests and his last test was meeting us. We fought then Wu introduced us and we fought to get the golden weapons." He smiled. "Then two months later, a little gremlin attacked jamakai village demanding candy."
"Woah! Kai's story is so much better then all of yours." Lloyd beamed.
"Okay, rude." Cole scoffed. "I get he's your fravourite, but..."
"No, I dont like any of you. But you can't blame me for fravouriting kai's story." Lloyd rolls his eyes. "He fought against a whole army of skulls, met you guys, and fought my dad for his sister AND got insulted by Master Wu." He snickered. "You just climbed a mountain which is cool, but not cool enough. Then zane was just meditating in the sea and jay failed an invention. That's just boring."
Cole rolled his eyes. "Whatever you say, greeny." His eyes caught Lloyd's food. "Hey, you gonna eat that?"
Lloyd looked down and eyed his food. Back when he was homeless -- from escaping darkleys and the serpentine -- he had always run on a low source of food. Because no one was willing to feed the son of garmadon, he was forced to steal. But he still barely ate. But when he moved in with the ninja, he was surprised with the amount of food the ninja had. And how good zane's cooking was.
And when Zane and Nya found out how scrawny Lloyd's frame was, they forced the food down his throught. The rest of the ninja forcing the boy to eat more so he could gain more weight. Though they succeeded, Lloyd still struggled with even the average amounts of food. He had made up his mind.
"No," Lloyd pushed his food towards Cole. "Can you have it?"
Cole only scoffed.
"I swear you, kai and nya are the same. You were probably born from the same family or something. Because all of you get full after a tiney spoon of soup, I swear." Cole chewed on his food. "And somehow you guys find a way to not waste it."
"That's because they have you as a friend." Cole scoffed again.
How Cole could eat so much? Lloyd will never know. And how he could still keep up with being the most muscular guy he's ever seen? He also does not know.It was probably thanks to the speaks of being master of earth. He heard that they were naturally stronger then all elemental masters. So it wouldn't be a suprise if they had a faster metabolism aswell.
"Watcha thinking about, kid?" Cole got up. The bowls now empty.
"Just how you're able to eat so much," Lloyd shrugged. But when he looked to see Cole's face, he was met with an unreadable expression. He immediately tensed up.
But Cole put a fond smile on.
"Wow, thanks kid. I could really feel the love there." Cole strained. Rolling his eyes.
Lloyd only mumbled.
He had messed up.
"There you guys are!" Jay yelled over the scattered emerald grass when his eyes met the black and young green ninja. He was waiting with zane, who looked marvelously patient compared to the frustrated blue ninja. What Lloyd noticed was a particular ninja missing. "Where have you guys been? You're so late! We've been waiting here for ages."
"Lloyd took long to eat and we ended up in a little but of a conversation." Cole mumbled. Annoyed by his friend's impatience.
"Well, we would reccomend trying harder on keeping our schedule organized. We cannot risk Lloyd losing anymore training." Zane sighed, reaching to calm down the blue ninja.
"Yeah! Do you know how angry Master Wu will be if he realised we have been giving Lloyd extra breaks?" He asked Cole who only sighed in response.
"Yes. I know." He rested a hand on Lloyd's shoulder. "But you can't disagree, the kid needs it." Jay mumbled while zane stared worryingly at the small child.
"You have been very tired this past week." Zane creased his eyebrow, staring at zane. "Are you okay? Have you been getting enough sleep?"
"For the last time, Zane, yes!" Lloyd snarled in frustration at the repeatable question. This nindroid was too good for this world. "You've asked a million times. It's okay, I'm fine."
"Whatever you say, Lloyd." Zane sighed.
"That doesn't matter right now! We need to start training. Master wu will kill us if he learns we're stalling his learning." Jay hurried the group towards the massive lake.
"Calm down, sparky." Cole rolled his eyes. "C'mon green machine, get ready to dive in." Lloyd nodded and braced himself for what was about to come next but stopped himself and turned to the team.
"What's this about me getting extra breaks?" Lloyd asked. The older boys looked at eachother before staring at the younger boy and answering.
"We noticed you slacking in training. We had a conversation about it and kai and zane mentioned their worries for you." Cole explained.
Then Zane carried on. "I was worried about your mental health and if you were sleeping well. The last few months have been hard for you. When I vocalise my thoughts, Kai and Nya got incredibly worried." Lloyd frowned at Zane's words. Why was Zane lying?
"Yeah. Then Nya recommended giving you extra breaks and sitting with you to give you extra rest and closure." Jay's mind wondered off. "She's just wonderful, isn't she?"
Cole and Lloyd mumbled in annoyance at jay's love sickness. But before any of them could do anything, Zane answered first.
"Jay, I could see you're proud of Nya. But you haven't exactly won her heart have you?" Zane smiled while jay grumbled in response. A faint tint of pink, rendering his cheeks.
"Shut up, like you and Cole have got anyone." He rolled his eyes.
"We're not looking for anyone." Cole chuckled. While Zane hummed in agreement, not affected by jay's remark at all.
Lloyd stared at the three ninja bonding and saw that something didn't feel right. Every time he saw the ninja, it was always them four with Nya. Now with the hot-headed fire ninja not with them, he couldn't help but feel out of place.
"Hey. Uh. Where's Kai?" Lloyd asked steadily.
All three of the ninjas looked at him, worry forming in their faces. Jay looking a little confused, while Zane and Cole thought for a few seconds.
"Somethings up with him." Cole sighed. Zane hummed in agreement.
"When I mentioned the tasks, his face became unreadable. I sensed he felt at unease. When I asked if he were okay. He said he was fine but too busy to deal with this lesson and that we were on our own." Zane's eyebrows creased. "He left the room before I could respond."
"That's weird." Lloyd thought to himself.
"It is." Jay nodded. Then shaking his head and grinning at the rest of the team. "But it doesn't matter. We're solid in a three anyways."
"Not in this, we're not." Cole disagreed.
"I agree with Cole." Zane spoke.
"Yeah but is Kai good at this?" Jay rolled his eyes.
"Yes. He handles Lloyd better then any of us and is in fact Lloyd's fravourite out of all of us." Zane deadpanned and Lloyd's cheeks flushed red.
"He is not! I don't like any of you!"
Zane chuckled. "Kai treats Lloyd like his little brother."
"No he doesn't!"
"Whatever you say, greeny." Cole rolled his eyes, chucking fondly at the young boy's reaction. Pushing the boy slightly closer to the water. "Let's start. You swim from here ," he pointed at where they were standing. "to there." Cole's finger travelling all the way to the end of the river near some tall trees.
"Okay." Lloyd breathed. He had to a admit. It was a long swim. But nothing the green ninja can't handle right?
With a breath. He jumped in.
Lloyd swam through the flow of water on autopilot. His mind did not concentrate on the water as it should do. Instead, his mind was following where his conversation with the three ninjas had went.
"Kai treats Lloyd like his little brother."
"When I vocalise my thoughts, Kai and Nya got incredibly worried."
Why would Zane lie to him like that when they're all completely aware of how they do not like him? Does he hate him enough to want to get his hopes up, only for it to be crushed down? Did they really hate him that much?
Lloyd felt a lump in his throught. He knew that they disliked him from the start and he never felt this way before. Why does it hurt so much now if he already knew it? Had he been unknowingly blinding himself from the truth? Trying to lie to himself? Is that why it hurt so much?
Lloyd could feel the tears coming out his eyes, mixing with the salty water of the crying river. It was like his heart was exploding out of his chest. Like someone had stabbed him with a knife and played with it inside him, trying to reorganize his organs. Torturing him.
Then Lloyd opened his eyes and realized.
He was still in the water.
He was drowning.