Chapter Text
The smell of bacon and eggs greeted Lloyd as he entered the kitchen. He sat down at the table, and Zane handed him a plate.
“Sorry, it’s a little cold,” he said with a frown, “we were going to wake you up but…”
Lloyd shrugged. “It’s alright, don’t worry about it…”
He poked at the bacon with his fork, unease gnawing at his gut. He’d never had a problem eating meat before. He ate meat all the time. But the overwhelming smell of grease and burnt flesh coming from his plate was nauseating, headache inducing even. Suppressing a gag, he pushed his plate away.
Cole looked over at him in concern. “What’s wrong, you feeling sick?”
Lloyd’s cheeks flushed. “No, just, uh…” he stuttered, “I’m just not… uh…”
“You don’t appear to have any sort of high temperature,” Zane said, placing a hand on Lloyd’s forehead, “though your face is very red… is there something wrong with your food?”
Lloyd gently pushed Zane away. “No, it’s fine, but… do we have any vegetables?”
Zane blinked and raised an eyebrow. Everyone at the table gave him similar bewildered looks. “Vegetables?” Zane asked.
“Yeah, I’ve been really craving some all morning,” Lloyd replied, getting up from his seat, “we probably have some carrots leftover from thursday right?”
“Yes, but…”
Lloyd opened the fridge. He snatched up the bag of baby carrots and started shoveling them into his mouth. Zane stared at him, mouth agape.
“Lloyd, are you sure you’re… feeling alright?” he asked as he watched Lloyd toss the empty bag aside and move on to the lettuce.
Lloyd swallowed a mouthful of lettuce and shrugged. “I dunno, I feel fine, why?”
“Because you hate vegetables!” Jay said, “did you fall out of bed and bonk your head or something?”
Lloyd finished off the head of lettuce and stuck his head back in the fridge. He sniffed for more vegetables, growling when there were none to be found. He was still hungry.
Kai placed a hand on his shoulder. “Lloyd, what’s going on-”
He snarled at him, his teeth suddenly much longer and sharper. Kai jumped and drew back in alarm. “Woah, dude!” he yelped.
Lloyd slapped a hand over his mouth. How had that slipped out? His eyes darted between Kai, who was still slowly backing away from him, and the shocked faces of his friends. He shuddered.
“I… I have to go…” he mumbled, and ran out of the kitchen, ignoring the shouts behind him.
-
He didn’t stop running until he was outside the monastery, standing on a patch of grass overlooking the cliff. Lloyd sighed, and sat down to catch his breath. He shouldn’t have trusted those oni in his dream. He shouldn’t have let his oni side take over. Now he was turning into a monster.
...a monster with an unending hunger for vegetables, which to be fair, wasn’t the worst possible scenario. It was almost kinda funny. Okay, the snarling was bad, but he could deal with that.
Speaking of hunger, the grass he was sitting on smelled pretty tasty too…
Before he could stop himself, he was down on all fours ravenously munching on the grass. He probably looked so ridiculous. He didn’t care though, all that he could think of was how sweet and delicious the grass was.
“...guys, I found him.”
Lloyd froze like a deer in headlights. He hesitantly turned to see Nya standing behind him, and almost felt like dying from embarrassment.
“Um… this isn’t what it looks like,” he said weakly.
Nya raised an eyebrow. “Really? Because it kinda looks like you're on all fours eating grass like a goat.”
Lloyd looked down at his hands. “Okay, yeah, it is what it looks like…”
He stood up and brushed himself off, as the rest of the ninja gathered around him. Cole laid a comforting hand on his back. “Hey, no matter what’s going on right now, we’re here for you y'know?”
Kai nodded and patted Lloyd on the head. “Yeah, and sorry about what happened back there, I didn’t mean to scare you bud.”
Lloyd leaned into his touch and smiled. “Thanks guys… but you shouldn’t apologize, you were right to be afraid…” he murmured.
“Aw, don’t say that!” Jay said, “we’d never be afraid of you, even if you have turned into a werebunny!”
Lloyd squinted at him. “A… what?”
“Y’know, a werebunny, like a werewolf but a bunny,” Jay explained, “that’s what happened right? You got bitten by one and now you're turning! Oh no, tomorrow’s a full moon too-”
“I’m not turning into a bunny!” Lloyd shouted, “I’m turning into an oni!”
“Since when do oni’s eat vegetables?” Nya asked, “seems weird, given their whole destroy everything thing you think they’d eat meat.”
“Herbivores can be quite destructive, even more so than carnivores actually,” Zane said.
Lloyd groaned and put his head in his hands. “I don’t wanna turn into a giant bunny… wait, why aren’t you guys more freaked out? I just told you I’m turning into an oni!”
“Why aren’t YOU more freaked out?” Jay shot back, “I thought your oni side taking over was like your greatest fear.”
“It was, but… I had a dream last night that I turned into a full oni, but I wasn’t destroying anything, or hurting anyone,” Lloyd said, his body relaxing as he remembered, “it was… peaceful.”
“Have you talked to Wu about this yet?” Cole asked.
Lloyd shook his head. “No… but I think I should, before I start eating grass again… ugh…”
-
Master Wu was deep in meditation when Lloyd crept into the room. He sat across from him, and crossed his legs. Wu didn’t acknowledge him. The room was awkwardly silent for a moment.
“...I sense something is troubling you,” Wu said.
Lloyd flinched, then cleared his throat. “Yeah… so, um… it’s kinda hard to explain…”
Wu poured a cup of tea for himself, and then one for Lloyd. “I’m listening.”
Lloyd nodded in thanks and took the cup of hot tea. Deep breath in. Master Wu is part oni too, he’ll understand. “I had a dream last night… about the oni.”
Something in Wu’s expression shifted. His grip on his cup tightened. “...what happened in this dream?”
“I turned into an oni.”
Wu gasped and narrowly avoided dropping his cup. He coughed, composing himself. “You must’ve been horribly frightened by this vision.”
Something in the way Wu was looking at him made Lloyd nervous. Like he was being interrogated. He tensed his shoulders and looked away. “Uh… actually… it wasn’t that bad.”
An uncomfortable energy settled over the room. “What?” Wu asked, a dark tone seeping into his voice.
“Yeah, I know it sounds crazy but when I was an oni, when I was with the other oni I felt…” Lloyd wrapped his arms around himself and sighed, “safe… like I belonged.”
Wu stood up abruptly. He grabbed Lloyd by the arm and pulled him to his feet. “Wait, master, what-”
Lloyd’s next words got caught in his throat. Wu was glaring at him, like he had done something seriously wrong. “Lloyd, listen to me, and listen well.”
The nervous feeling Lloyd had was crawling in his gut, making his head foggy. He tried to pull away, but Wu’s grip was strong. “Master please let me go-”
“The oni are dangerous, deceitful creatures who only crave destruction, you cannot trust anything they say.”
“Master, please stop, please let me go-”
Wu ignored his pleas. “You must suppress the darkness, or it will consume you, just like it consumed your father.”
At that, something in Lloyd snapped. He growled. His nails transformed into claws, and he swiped at Wu with his free arm. He hadn’t meant to scratch him that bad, but from the pained scream Wu made he’d obviously done some damage.
Lloyd scrambled back the second Wu let go of his arm. The smell of the blood on his claws only riled him up more, his eyes narrowing and illuminating the dark room with a neon green glow. “I told you to LET ME GO, old man.”
Wu gaped at him, gingerly touching the gash on his face. “How dare you use your claws against me nephew!” he yelled.
“I am not my father,” Lloyd snarled, “I’ll never be my father, and I do not fear the darkness anymore.”
Green scales covered his arms and legs. He grit his fangs as his horns tore through his skin, this time not bothering to grow them slowly. The pain only gave him clarity.
“You say oni are dangerous and deceitful… what are you then?” Lloyd asked with a scowl.
“Excuse me?”
Lloyd rolled his eyes. “You're more oni than me, and you know it,” he said as he approached Wu, claws bared, “maybe that’s why you lie, maybe that’s why you don’t tell anyone your secrets even when it could help them.”
“What are you talking about-”
“You lied to me!” Lloyd could feel tears pricking at the corner of his eyes, but he pushed them back, “you knew embracing my oni side wouldn’t make me dangerous, but you still made me suffer!”
Wu’s face changed from anger to sorrow. “Lloyd… I’m so sorry, but you must calm yourself-”
“SHUT UP!”
Fiery tears poured down Lloyd’s cheeks. Scales had grown over his entire body, leaving him thankfully fireproof. He cried out as his limbs cracked and popped, becoming more animalistic and quadruped, until he no longer could stand on two legs. He fell to the floor with a thud.
He looked up at Wu, terror in his eyes. “This… this isn’t like what it was like before… what’s happening to me…?”
“I… I don’t know…”
Rigged spikes formed on his wrists and ankles, and along his newly formed tail. He heard a gross tearing noise as large bat-like wings burst from his back and ripped through his shirt. Lloyd’s pained cries morphed into growls. His face pushed out into a snout, the final part of his transformation before he collapsed in exhaustion.
Before he passed out, he saw Wu standing over him. Hopefully this scared him enough to make him never want to grab Lloyd like that again.
-
“Oh youngling, you poor thing…”
Lloyd opened his eyes to see a familiar face leaning over him. A gentle paw touched his cheek. “Oni…?”
The oni smiled, and stroked his hair. “My name is Theta, actually.”
Lloyd groaned. “Theta… what happened? My head feels awful…”
“You transformed into a dragon,” Theta said quietly, “but don’t be afraid, in time you will learn how to control your shapeshifting abilities.”
“But I… I attacked master Wu…”
“Oh don’t worry about that, he deserved it,” Theta scoffed, “he won’t harm you ever again, I promise.”
A calming sensation washed over Lloyd as he was cradled in Theta’s lap. “Um… sorry for the weird question, but what pronouns do you use?” he asked.
“She her dear,” she replied, hugging Lloyd close to her chest.
Lloyd sighed in content, and snuggled into her warm fur. She hummed a lullaby for him, one his father had sung to him when he was little. He felt safe.
“Rest now child… even when you awake in the physical realm, my shadow will still protect you.”