Chapter Text
Lloyd has had a crazy life over the past few years.
It started when he took care of his mini-self and nursed him back to health. But once Dragon left, things got really weird.
For example, the giant cat attacking the city.
Which, technically, had been his fault. He was so caught up in the moment, so angry, that he’d foolishly used the stupid weapon against his father. But it turned out mostly okay in the end. His friends discovered their powers (and he found his, but a year later) and he made peace with his father. The city had an era of peace for a while. He was able to finish high school, actually finish and get his high school diploma.
Then, without warning, the world was divided.
Literally.
Giant walls were built between regions. No one could cross through; families were torn apart, entire cities isolated, like his. It was something to do with this weird new president guy called President Business. Weird name, but okay. The walls stayed up for a while until the Master Builders found a way to navigate them. After that, they had connection to the other regions again, even if it was in secret.
Lloyd, of course, was not about to sit by while chaos unfolded. As soon as the first Master Builder found him, he was on board. He trained for a brief time, but then President Business started noticing. Lloyd was forced to leave Ninjago City, leave his family, in order to complete his training.
The others all wanted to join, too, but this time, Lloyd forced them to stay behind and protect their beloved city. He was counting on them to endure while the Master Builders found a way to stop the President. He spent years separated from them and was only able to keep in contact through a rare letter sent their way from a helpful citizen.
It was the worst few years of his life.
But, eventually, the crisis ended thanks to a nondescript construction worker. Lloyd could safely return to his family.
He, Jay, and Nya went to university for engineering. His life became normal.
And he greatly missed his younger counterpart.
But he had to finish university before he could visit. He had to make himself and his mother proud. He could do this. He could have a semi-normal life, if “normal” included being one of Ninjago City’s six protectors and a Master Builder.
They made it work.
Spring break of his first year had just started. Lloyd had just returned home. He was hanging out with his siblings in their warehouse—much the same even after all this time, it was home. They were sparring and enjoying the first stress-free day with no university classes.
Until Lloyd felt a shift in the air. He managed to exchange a surprised look with Kai. Then with a flash of golden light, he was gone.
***
Lloyd was going to kill someone.
These faces around him, so unfamiliar, gawked at him when he shot to his feet from where he’d landed on the cold ground. It had taken him a moment to reorient himself from the sudden change in atmosphere, but when he did, he bared his teeth in a very un-human snarl.
Six purple-clad figures stared at him. They all held golden weapons covered in purple crystals. One of them, the girl with white hair, made Lloyd’s blood boil.
Harumi looked different here. But it was definitely her.
However. Lloyd wasn’t worried about her at the moment.
He was going to kill someone, because why to FSM was his counterpart being choked?
He didn’t understand how he got here. He didn’t know what was going on. He could figure that out later. In the moment, he needed to stop that masked and winged guy from strangling his counterpart to death.
Lloyd recovered from his shock before those around him. He barreled into the winged guy and sent them both to the ground.
The sudden attack had everyone else scrambling for their composure and they closed in on Lloyd. But the Green Ninja was pissed. His element flared around his hands—there was some kind of resistance, though, something was preventing him from using it fully—and the five people on their feet backed away in surprise.
Well, “people” was generous when two of them were human-sized snakes.
Lloyd pushed himself up and planted himself between the armed guys and his coughing counterpart who had yet to stand up.
“Looks like I crashed a party,” he mused.
“Who are you?” The hooded snake hissed.
“Pretty sure it’s obvious,” Lloyd shot back. He backed up and crouched next to little Dragon—who wasn’t so little now, Lloyd realized—and put a gentle hand on the younger’s shoulder. Dragon was still trying to recover, coughing and violently shaking. “Mind telling me where the exit is? I’d hate to rain on the parade more than I have already.”
His confidence, or his arrival, must have thrown them off. They all hesitated. Even Harumi—or, well, Harumi’s counterpart, he supposed—looked more caught off-guard than he’d ever seen her.
“Right,” he sighed. “You’re no help. Hey, how about—”
“Green?”
The tired, weak voice drew his attention to the Ninja on the ground. Dragon sent him an utterly confused look as he struggled to sit up.
Lloyd smiled tightly. “Hey, buddy. Long time no see.”
Dragon shook his head. He rubbed his eyes. Then he squinted at Lloyd again.
“…I’m hallucinating,” he decided, voice somewhat slurred.
Lloyd laughed, but it was cut off when a weapon flashed in the corner of his vision.
Without thinking, Lloyd’s element shot from his hand and struck the owner of the weapon square in the chest. The other snake, the white one, went flying.
And then the battle was back on.
Lloyd hefted Dragon to his feet. The kid swayed, his face suddenly pale. Lloyd didn’t stop to question the sickly appearance of his counterpart; he looped the kid’s arm over his shoulders and started running.
The bad guys were right behind them. Lloyd grit his teeth and tried to go faster, but Dragon was practically a dead weight in his arms. Something had happened to him, something that made him incredibly weak, and while Lloyd was furious about the fact, he couldn’t do anything about it at the moment except drag the kid with him.
Where he was going, he had no idea. This place with stone walls and purple crystals had no labels and no windows. He was just running from the people behind him.
He turned a corner and almost got impaled by a jagged crystal spear.
Lloyd stumbled back. Dragon let out a small whimper beside him at the sudden change, but Lloyd couldn’t acknowledge it. He ducked to avoid the next attack from the stone-crystal…thing. It looked like a humanoid lion made of some weird stone.
He tried to blast it away with his powers, but they refused to respond.
Lloyd went pale. What? Why were his powers not working?
He didn’t have time to question it—the stone warrior approached, this time focusing on Dragon, the helpless of the two. Lloyd yanked his younger counterpart out of the way.
His gaze landed on a path of sunny floor behind the warrior.
There! He dragged Dragon along with him and made a beeline for the sun. A brief set of stairs led upwards, then the path sloped down, until suddenly the floor was giving out from under him and the exit opened up with giant stalagmites covering the edge of the ground.
Lloyd yelped as he felt Dragon get wrenched from his grip. He scrambled for a handhold but was unsuccessful and went tumbling over the edge, onto another ledge just below. Wind whipped his hair and tried to push him off.
Dragon landed next to him with a grunt of pain.
“Hey, buddy!” Lloyd scrambled over to him and pulled him off the ground for a second time. “Lloyd!”
Their eyes met, and for a moment, everything was still.
Then the younger of the two collapsed.
Lloyd gasped and hooked his arms under the kid. To his surprise, though, Dragon was still conscious—and tears were streaming down his face.
“Dragon?” Lloyd pressed, ever so gently.
The younger just shook his head and shakily wrapped his arms around Lloyd. He readily returned the favor, tightly embracing his shivering counterpart.
“It’s not too late, Lloyd!” Green was very aware of the violent flinch from Dragon that accompanied Harumi’s voice. “You can still join us, join me! Your life will be spared!”
Dragon flinched again, this time not as harshly. He didn’t move otherwise and kept his face pressed against Lloyd’s shoulder.
Lloyd glared at the white-haired enemy. “Go find someone else to annoy, Harumi,” he snapped.
Her glare turned towards him, venomous.
Lloyd glanced behind him and paled. He hadn’t realized that the structure he was in was actually flying high above a beautiful emerald forest. This was not an easy escape, but, well…he had his powers. He could feel them ready to respond to his command, unlike in the cave when they hadn’t responded. He’d be fine. He could protect himself and Dragon.
“Send me an invite next time you wanna party,” Lloyd called loudly. “I’ll make sure to bring a gift.”
Then he bundled Dragon up in his arms, took a step back, and fell.