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Chapter Text

It was just another day in Ninjago City. The streets were buzzing, the air was crisp, and Lord Garmadon was fighting against the ninja with his Serpentine army.

With their winning the NinjaBall Run saving Dareth's dojo financially, it seems Lord Garmadon had decided to simply burn the place to the ground himself. Anything to keep the Prophecy of the Green Ninja from coming true. His son couldn't train if his dojo was nothing but smoldering ashes. Between that and the sabotage he had done to the training equipment on the Bounty, Lloyd's training was sure to be delayed for a long while.

He'd heard the mutinous comments from some Serpentine that if he had had the foresight to sabotage the equipment, then he should have simply torched the dojo in the first place to save them from the shenanigans of the race only days ago. Those Serpentine quickly learned to keep their mouths shut the hard way. As such, if they thought simply burning the place down was so easy, they could do it themselves while he observed from the side, not doing a thing to help.

Unfortunately for them, the evening they'd gone to burn the dojo down happened to be one where the ninja had stayed late in the day to give Lloyd extra training. As such, they weren't particularly happy to see their enemy's attempt at arson and jumped out to stop them. Burning the place down was quickly becoming a more difficult task than anticipated.

And thus, it was four ninjas vs. an army of torch-wielding snakes. Unsurprisingly, giving all their experience fighting the Serpentine before, the ninja were winning.

Kai was literally in his element. "You dumb snakes think you can beat me using fire?" he asked as he spinjitzued around to knock several snakes that had gotten too close clear across the street.

"I do not believe it matters what they chose to use," said Zane as he did similar to three more who were trying to sneak up on them. "We would still defeat them either way."

"Could you guys focus!" Cole called as he bodily threw one snake to knock over several others like bowling pins. "I'd rather not explain to Dareth why we let there be burn marks on his dojo on top of the damage from last time Garmadon went after this place."

He gestured at the tarped-over hole in the wall that was still there from when a construction crew tried to tear the place down. The contractor set to fix it wouldn't be there to do so for another few days, though planks of wood and other building supplies were already piled around the hole and ready to be used when they came.

"Relax, Cole," said Jay cheerfully, smacking a burning stick out of his opponent's hands with his nunchucks. "We've got this!"

It truly seemed they did have the battle handled. Despite this, Dareth was still relocating his fake trophy collection and roped Lloyd into helping him.

"Almost got them," said Dareth as he and Lloyd hurried to pile the dojo owner's pride and joys into a wheelbarrow to carry them out.

"Why do you even have a wheelbarrow?" Lloyd asked as he lugged a particularly heavy trophy into it. "We live in a city, and you don't look like you're into gardening."

Dareth paused from where he was balancing the last five awards in his arms and shot the ninja-in-training a grin. "Easy, little buddy. I keep it here for this exact scenario."

"You have a wheelbarrow just in case Serpentine ever show up to wreck the place and stop some super important prophecy?" Lloyd asked dubiously.

"Sure I do," said Dareth, piling his load onto the top. "You don't?"

Lloyd stared back at him, unsure if he was serious or not.

Just then, a particularly loud crash from outside the dojo made them both jump. "Time to go!" Dareth declared, grabbing the wheelbarrow handle with one hand and Lloyd's arm with the other, and racing them towards the exit.

As they ran, the wheelbarrow in front of Dareth wobbled precariously. It was meant to be pushed with two hands, but the self-proclaimed Brown Ninja knew he'd kiss his chances of a hero goodbye if he didn't make sure the kid got out safely. No matter how much if physically hurt him to hear his precious trophies clank and scratch against each other.

Still, with the way the wheelbarrow wobbled too and fro, it was inevitable one of the phony awards would fall out, and lo and behold, one did.

Both Lloyd and Dareth paused and winced as a cylindrical trophy fell out of the wheelbarrow with a clatter and rolled across the floor a far corner of the dojo.

Not even waiting to hear what the other had to say, Lloyd said, "I'll get it," and pulled free from Dareth's grip to run over and grab the trophy.

"Wait, little dude!" Dareth called after him. But whether he was going to tell him to leave the trophy of just to hurry up would remain unknown, as right at that moment they heard a yell of "Heads Up!" from Jay outside.

Both looked over just in time to see one of the Serpentine's torches fly through the tarp on the wall and into the dojo. It landed on a pile of wooden planks that were set to repair the hole and the flames began spreading quickly.

"Lloyd!" Dareth called, shoving the wheelbarrow away from himself, but before he could reach him, the sight of Lloyd was completely blocked off by a wall of smoke.

He still tried to pick his way through to where he'd seen the Green Ninja last, but before he could reach him, Jay burst in through the hole and grabbed him.

"No time for your trophies!" he said urgently, pulling Dareth away. "We've gotta go!"

"Wait!" Dareth yelled, but Jay dragged him out of the building faster than he could react. Still, as he was pulled out of the now burning building, he yelled for the whole street to hear.

"Lloyd's still in there!"

The entire battle froze at those words, and everyone looked at the dojo owner in horror.

"Lloyd!" said Garmadon, turning to face the blaze with an alarmed expression.

Kai, who had frozen with his fist less than an inch away from a Serpentine's snout, shoved the snake away and immediately ran for to the building. "I've got him."

But the second he reached the hole, the flames caused the already damaged wall collapse down, blocking his way in.

"Lloyd!" the ninja all cried, and hurried to the closest door of the building to get in and reach him.

Fear of their lord's wrath had the Serpentine scrambling to help put out the fire as well, with several rushing to the nearest fire hydrant to get water and douse the flames.

Garmadon could only watch in horror as the flames steadily grew, knowing any second they could consume his young son. This wasn't supposed to happen. Lloyd wasn't supposed to be here so late. He wasn't supposed to get caught in the crossfire of this scheme. He should have been safe on the reclaimed Destiny's Bounty. Why didn't he check to see if his son was here before insisting on starting the fire? If the ninja were here, then surely he wouldn't be far behind.

Garmadon gripped the Mega Weapon in his hands so tightly it almost snapped in two, but the sight of it gave him an idea. In his annoyance at the Serpentine's comment, he hadn't used it yet today. With the correct wish, he could save his son.

But what about the next time Lloyd got caught in the crossfire of his plans. How many more times would the evil in his veins do harm to the one person he cared about in this entire world? How many times more would he be in danger before the prophecy was finally complete? Even then, he never wanted the prophecy to be completed. He never wanted to fight his son, and he hoped his son never wanted to fight him too.

If only…

Lord Garmadon raised his head as an epiphany came to him. Raising the Mega Weapon into the air, he said, "Mega Weapon! I wish my son lived in a world where we did not have to fight each other!"

The weapon glowed a brilliant gold, before a beam shot from it, blasting a second hole in the dojo's wall and causing the flames to flicker wildly as it blew past. The beam of light vanished inside the building and a second later all the windows of the dojo glowed with a pulse of golden light. A shockwave then burst out of it, putting the rest of the fire out completely.

The ninja, who had been fighting to break down the door, seized the opportunity to run towards the new hole and rescue their trapped friend.

Only for a figure to burst out of the hole before they could reach it.

The gathered ninja and Serpentine could only stare at the new figure. Not that he paid them any mind, as he hurriedly batted at his still smoking clothes to stifle the embers still clinging to them.

Once he seemed to be content he was no longer on fire, the figure looked around in confusion, giving all a chance to take in his appearance.

It was a teenage boy roughly the same age as the ninja with blond hair a little longer than Cole's and vivid green eyes that stared around at them all in bewilderment. The clothing he had been working so desperately to put out was a ninja gi that was mostly black with green accents scattered throughout it. He was no one any of them had seen before, and yet, he almost looked like…

The boy caught sight of Lord Garmadon standing a ways off with the Mega Weapon still raised into the air, having forgotten to bring his arm down in shock at the results of his wish. The two locked eyes for a moment, before the boy began looking around again more frantically, taking in the sights of the Serpentine around him, some of whom were still holding torches. The ninja who, while staring at the newcomer, were standing ready to fight should any of the snakes make a wrong move. To Dareth, who was cowering behind the ninja for protection, and then back at the smoldering building he had just jumped out of.

The boy then turned back to face Lord Garmadon with an expression like the warlord had just kicked his puppy into oncoming traffic. "Dad!" he said, his voice cracking in a heartbroken tone. "You promised!"

The entire street was dead silent as everyone absorbed what the boy had just said. At what he had just called Garmadon.

Lord Garmadon broke the silence first, finally bringing his arm back down so fast the Mega Weapon clattered to the pavement.

"Son!?"

Chapter Text

And Lloyd had been having such a good day, too.

He'd even been looking forward to it. Getting to spend the day with the people he loved most building and doing cool science stuff. Who wouldn't be thrilled about that?

But now the entire day felt soured as he stood in an all too familiar position. With his father and his army causing destruction, and his friends standing between him and some innocent civilian.

How he had gotten into this position was anyone's guess. Things had been fine a second ago. He had no idea how it had escalated this bad in the blink of an eye.

Thinking back, it really didn't make any sense…

While his father had sworn off evil in front of the whole city at the end of the Meowthra incident, he still had to face some repercussions for trying to conquer the city for so long and all the damage he had caused while doing it.

That resulted in a hefty fine, hours upon hours of community service for both him and all the generals who still worked under him (it was deemed those who had been fired out of the volcano were already punished enough), and a long period of house arrest in his volcano for any time where he wasn't doing said community service.

His dad had grumbled at these rulings, but eventually said, "The jokes on them. My volcano is full of so much awesome stuff I never need to leave it anyway."

"Then why did you?" Jay once had asked as he and Lloyd used their newly repaired mechs to help tow the volcano off the Mayor's office and back to its spot in the ocean.

"Because conquering things is so much more fun," Garmadon replied with a vicious grin.

At a stern look from both Lloyd and Koko, he quickly added, "But… it was time for a new hobby anyway. I've always wanted to take up golf… or something."

Still, the volcano did have to undergo some massive changes. With Garmadon no longer trying to take the city over every other day, there was no longer any need for his rooms upon rooms of evil science labs to build him awesome weapons of mass destruction.

However, it would be a waste to just trash all the labs. Not to mention it would put all of his scientist henchmen out of work, and with their work history, it was unlikely they'd find a job anywhere else.

And thus, Garmadon (with encouragement from Lloyd) decided to keep the labs, but change the direction they were going in. He basically told the scientist that, with his permission, they could do and build whatever the heck they want so long as it wasn't primarily made with evil in mind. They would then showcase it to him, and he would decide if they were going to sell it or not (no longer plundering their victims meant they needed another way to make money). However, the things produced still tended to be shark-themed due to Garmadon's bias towards them, and his tendency to give extra rewards to projects he particularly liked.

For the most part, the scientists were thrilled at this change. Most of them only worked for Garmadon in the first place because he gave them scientific freedom they couldn't find elsewhere (even if it was destructive and aquatic themed). To have even more freedom to chase their passion projects was a dream come true.

There were, however, some that were unhappy with the change. They had joined Garmadon specifically to do evil and were not thrilled with this new direction he was going in. Needless to say, those particular scientists were quickly fired.

Regular fired, that is. Being blasted out of a volcano was no longer a termination option, no matter how 'fun' it was.

So what is a kid to do when his dad runs a massive science facility in a volcano that specializes in building mechs?

Visit it of course!

It was quickly becoming a staple of Lloyd's after school activities for him to fly over to his father's volcano to spend time with him before or after that day's ninja training.

His mother had been skeptical at first and insisted on accompanying him whenever he went. She still hadn't fully forgiven her ex-husband for all that he had done in the past and wanted to make sure Lloyd was safe. Not that Garmadon minded. On the contrary, he was thrilled to see her and used the times they visited to reconnect with them both. After a few weeks, it became less of Koko coming to be protective and more because she wanted to see Garmadon too, and Lloyd was always thrilled to see them start to rekindle their old flame.

Still, today had been a little different from his usual visit. Today had been the first time he'd finally gotten his father to relent and allow his friends to come with him.

"I just don't see why they need to be here," Garmadon had grumbled over the phone the day before when Lloyd had asked for the umpteenth time. "I thought you liked coming here for family time. Not friend time."

"My friends are my family," Lloyd had replied firmly. "They're the ones who stuck with me when the rest of the city hated my guts. It took trashing the place with a giant cat for them to even consider ditching me."

Garmadon hadn't looked impressed over the video chat, but his words gained the attention of his clearly eavesdropping friends.

"Wait, you thought we were serious about that?" Cole had asked, looking mildly offended.

At Lloyd's deer-in-the-headlights expression, they all groaned.

"Lloyd, bro, we never actually hated you," said Kai, leaning over to give him a one-armed hug. He had always been the team hugger, especially whenever someone looked upset.

"Yeah," Nya agreed with her twin. "I mean, we were mad, but not that mad."

Cole nodded in agreement as he leaned onto Zane's shoulder.

"Was my sarcasm not clear enough," Zane chirped. "I would never actually delete data about a friend."

Jay looked almost ready to cry. "Oh man, it's my fault you thought that, isn't it?" he said. "I was the one who said we hated you. I didn't mean it, I swear. I was just angry."

Lloyd gave them a hesitant look. "You guys really didn't hate me?"

He was given a massive Kai Hug™ in response and all the rest vehemently vocalized their assurances.

A loud cough over his phone had reminded him his father was still on the line, and he quickly turned his attention back to him.

Garmadon had the same grimace on his face he had whenever he had to put up with a visit from Master Wu but still said, "Oh, alright. They can come visit with you."

His friends cheered.

"But I still don't like it," Garmadon added sourly.

"Oh come on, Dad," Lloyd replied. "When do you ever turn down a chance to show off.

Garmadon had looked thoughtful at that, and replied, "Never."

The last thing Lloyd had seen before his father had hung up was his face shifting into a scheming look. He quickly warned his friends to avoid the shark tanks when they visited just in case his father tried dropping them in one to scare them.

It was worrying that Nya had actually looked excited at that prospect.

He had been right about the shark tank. Only Nya ended up getting wet, but being the Water Ninja, the sharks were no match for her, and the fierce carnivores quickly bowed to their new queen.

"I like this one," Garmadon said when Nya finally climbed out of the tank and was set upon by a worried Kai. "She's got moxie."

"So cool," Jay whispered next to him, staring at Nya with stars in his eyes.

Nya flashed them a grin over Kai's shoulder. "Thanks," she said, before turning back to her brother. "I'm fine, Kai. You saw me."

"Hey, I'm your big brother, it's my job to worry," Kai replied.

"By ten minutes," Nya said, sticking out her tongue at him.

"I hypothesize the main root of Kai's anxiety is due to his fear of water," Zane spouted in his cheerful robotic tone.

Kai grimaced. "Please tell me you didn't just say that," he said, knowing what company they were in.

On cue, Garmadon immediately burst into raucous laughter. "You-you're afraid of water?" he asked almost gleefully. "Man, I wish I'd known that when we were enemies. I lead an army of shark people, it would have been too perfect."

Kai glowered at him. "Can I set him on fire?" he whispered softly to Lloyd. "Just a little bit?"

Lloyd's lips twitched in amusement, but he shook his head.

Despite this, Kai continued to scowl like he was trying to set the ex-warlord on fire using only his mind. The rest of the group watched on in amusement.

"I mean, come on man, your name even means ocean, how can you be scared of it?" Garmadon continued.

That startled Kai from his glaring. "Wait, what? No, my name means fire."

"Nuh-uh, totally means ocean. I know because that's one of the names Koko had wanted to name Luh-Loyd if he was born a girl," Garmadon replied smugly.

"You're full of it!" Kai snapped. "My name is not a girl's name!"

Cole quickly stepped between them to keep the peace. "Okay, before this starts something that'll last for hours, why don't we ask the all-knowing nindroid what the answer is," he said with a slightly sarcastic lit to his voice as if this answer should have been obvious from the beginning.

Sharing one last scowl at each other, both Kai and Garmadon turned to Zane for his input.

The nindroid's blue eyes flashed the way they always did when he was searching for answers off of the internet, and his expression brightened when he found the answer.

"The name Kai is a unisex name with a vast variety of different meanings across multiple cultures," said Zane brightly. "It does, in fact, mean fire in one culture, and ocean in another. Other stand-out meanings of this name include victory, happy, warrior, king of kings, rejoice, keeper of keys, and loveable."

Kai blinked in surprise. "My name is cooler than I thought it was. And it was pretty cool already."

Garmadon grumbled under his breath at no longer being able to tease him for it.

"What does my name mean?" Jay asked eagerly, and they spent the next chunk of time quizzing Zane on the meaning of all their names.

Fun fact, the name Lloyd means gray. He could already tell it was going to become an inside joke that he should change his signature color (fat chance, he loved green).

The rest of the tour had been similarly pleasant. Jay and Nya had loved the science and mech labs, and after some weedling, Lloyd managed to get Garmadon to agree to let them experiment there if they wanted to. Both jumped on the opportunity, the volcano's equipment was way better than what they had.

They all had to admit the observation platform to overlook the constantly flowing lava was awesome and gave a fantastic view of the city.

The less said about the trip to the army barracks the better. Let's just say some of the few remaining soldiers who had remained guards at the facility were still holding a grudge for always losing to the ninja.

All in all, it had been a pleasant trip and no one had been set on fire (yet). Garmadon did try to push the ninja's buttons somewhat, but not in an evil way. More in a teasing way where he wasn't too sure what to make of them yet and was pushing boundaries. But for the most part, everyone was getting along.

It culminated in the cafeteria where they were all going to have lunch before splitting of so Nya and Jay could start working in the lab while the rest of them tried out Garmadon's futuristic holographic training deck (because what's the use of having a building full of scientists if they don't build you all the cool sci-fi stuff).

After that, the last thing Lloyd remembers was getting up to get to change into his gi to go to the holodeck. The second he stepped out of the locker room and into the hallway the world seemed to be enveloped with golden light, blazing flames, and black smoke.

It was all Lloyd could do to avoid being set on fire.

The flames quickly died down, and through the smoke, he could see an opening where the air was clear and took off for it.

Only to be confronted with the previously mentioned scene of his friends once again squaring off against his dad's reign of terror.

And Lloyd felt his heartbreak at the sight.

Was it all for nothing? Did all those days of spending time together with him and his mother, all those hours of learning how to throw and catch, how to shave, how to tie a tie and defuse a bomb… had they all been so meaningless that his father could go back to his evil ways so easily? So quickly?

Lloyd had no idea how he'd gotten to the middle of the city from the volcano, and at the moment he didn't care. All he cared about was this.

"Dad!" he said, shameful that his voice was breaking like it was when he confronted him. "You promised!"

You promised you wouldn't be evil anymore.

And you broke it.

Chapter Text

The expression on his father's face after Lloyd accused him of breaking his promise was hard to describe. Shocked was the most obvious emotion, disbelief was also very clear, and there was also horror and bewilderment. It reminded him a lot of how his father had reacted when he nearly lost his arm after the mess with the fired generals.

Why was he so surprised though? Did he seriously not think Lloyd wouldn't find out he was doing evil again? If he was trying to keep it secret, why destroy things so close to where Lloyd was? How did Lloyd get here anyway? Did he get knocked out? Were his friends here to rescue him?

Focus! He could ask questions later. At that moment he needed to focus on the matter at hand. Defeat his evil father now, freak out later.

Speaking of which, why was everyone staring at him? Even his friends were staring at him wide-eyed from out of their ninja hoods, and he could tell their mouths were gaping open beneath them. Squinting in the dim evening light (wasn't it around noon a second ago), he also had to wonder if their uniforms had always looked like that.

Oddly enough, he didn't see Nya anywhere. It was unlike her to miss out on any of the action. She lived for this kind of stuff.

What was going on?

Finally, his father broke the stunned silence. "Son!?" he asked in shock, almost dropping the heavy golden staff he was holding.

Lloyd eyed the gleaming staff dubiously. Something about the intricate golden item set him on edge. He'd never known something could radiate the feeling of power before now, but that staff sure looked and felt a lot like what Lloyd had pictured in his head when Master Wu had told him and his team about the Ultimate, Ultimate Weapon.

"What? Did you find a new toy to conquer the city with?" he asked, his voice taking on more of a bite at the lack of answers. "You promised, Dad," he repeated again.

His father gave no response and was now looking back and forth at Lloyd and the staff repeatedly as if trying to make sense of some impossible riddle.

Someone else took the opportunity to speak up instead. "Lloyd? Is that really you?" Kai asked, finally stepping forward from where he, Jay, Zane, and Cole had been watching in shock. His voice sounded slightly off, but Lloyd chalked it up to smoke inhalation. The building behind them had been on fire not too long ago. Thankfully, the flames seemed to have gone out now.

However, at the question, a bolt of icy fear shot through the Green Ninja. Suddenly his lack of understanding and the others' confused looks took a far more sinister edge. Had he been kidnapped or something? Drugged so he couldn't realize time was passing? If so, why? How long had he been gone? Why had he…

Focus! Evil father! Army of… snakes? (That was new. Since when did his father give up the ocean aesthetic? And didn't the Serpentine still hate him?) Save the day and then question the weirdness.

Speaking of questions, he still needed to answer Kai's.

"Yeah, it's me," he said, wondering if his apparent abduction had somehow altered his appearance. He didn't feel any different…

But with the way his friends all were looking at him like he was some kind of alien creature, he had to force down the urge to abandon the fight to find a mirror. He hadn't suddenly sprouted four arms like his dad, had he?

Focus!

Jay looked like he was about to say something, but his father recovered his voice first.

"I don't understand," his Da-Garmadon (if he was going to be evil again he should stop calling him Dad, he'd lost that right) said, still staring at his new staff in bewilderment. "This is not what I wanted. This is not what I wished for."

A lot of things still didn't make sense, but if Lord "What's-My-Name!" Garmadon was given some sort of magic wish-granting device, then the resulting confusion was probably to be expected. No way he could resist using such a thing at the first opportunity.

And if that didn't get Lloyd's blood boiling!

Eyes flashing furiously, the Green Ninja started stalking towards him in a way that had both Cole and Zane rushing forwards just to hold him back. "Are you kidding me?! You get some magic wish-granting thing, and the first thing you do is go right back to being evil! You promised, Dad! You promised you'd stop being evil!" he snapped for a third time, struggling against the Earth and Ice Ninja's grips.

If anything, Lord Garmadon (and everyone else for that matter) looked even more bewildered at his words. "What are you talking about?" he asked. "I never promised such a thing!"

Lloyd let out a growl of frustration. Was he serious right now? "It was on live television, Dad!" he said bitingly. "I heard you! Mom heard you! The whole city heard you!"

But Lord Garmadon continued to be contrary. "That is impossible," he said firmly. But another glance at his golden staff seemed to give him some sort of idea. "Unless…" he added slowly, "the Mega Weapon somehow pulled you through time…"

What even? Lloyd was beginning to give up hope of ever understanding anything at this point. At least everyone else seemed to be catching on to what his father was inferring from the way his friends all stiffened around him, and the Serpentine's faces flashed with some kind of understanding.

Nodding in conclusion to his apparent epiphany, his father looked up to meet Lloyd's eyes once again. "Listen, Lloyd," he said in what he must have thought was a gentle tone. "I know things seem confusing right now, but…"

But whatever else he said was drowned out by a sudden roaring in Lloyd's ears as he froze and had an epiphany of his own.

Lloyd!

Not Luh-Loyd! Lloyd!

The four-armed man in front of him had just said his name correctly.

Something his father would never do!

Suddenly, all the inconsistencies he'd noticed flashed through his mind. The strange weapon, the snakes, the odd looks, the lack of memory of his promise. More began popping up as he looked at him too. Subtle differences in appearance, the new armor, the bone helmet instead of his 'Helm of Darkness' (or whatever he called it). A lot of things still didn't make sense, but one thing was now crystal clear.

"You're not my father!" Lloyd gasped, making everyone stare at him once again.

In that instant, Lloyd was overcome by a mixture of utter relief and piercing fear. Relief because his dad had kept his word! He wasn't evil, and the joy of that realization was overwhelming! He hadn't realized he'd been so scared of such a thing happening until faced with the possibility of it coming true.

And fear because if this man wasn't his father, then who was he and what could he possibly want?

The imposter wearing Lord Garmadon's face pinched his brow. "Lloyd, I am your father," he said still in his somewhat calming tone. "Listen to me, the Mega Weapon must have-"

"No," Lloyd insisted, shaking his head vehemently. "You're not! You're not my dad! Dad never-"

But before Lloyd could say what his father would never do, a gust of wind blew over them as an impressive red mech flew down from the sky, followed by a massive four-headed dragon and a flying ship that looked similar to his uncle's Destiny's Bounty. Not far behind them, the sound of police sirens filled the air, signaling that the cop cars they belonged to would be arriving not long after

The Garmadon Imposter narrowed his eyes at the sight of the approaching cavalry and bellowed, "Retreat!"

Instantly, he and the remaining snakes vanished into the darkness of the evening shadows, leaving only the destruction they'd caused as any evidence of being there in the first place.

With their enemies gone, Cole and Zane finally let go of Lloyd.

But were they really Cole and Zane? When he turned to face them, he saw that they, along with 'Jay' and 'Kai', had removed their hoods, revealing faces that looked eerily similar to his friends but still clearly different enough to not actually be them.

Cole's hair was shorter and swept to the side, and come to think of it, he couldn't remember the last time he'd seen the Earth Ninja wear sleeves like this one was. Jay's hair was less curly, his freckles were absent from his face, and there was a nick in his eyebrow that hadn't been there before. Kai's hair was still spiky as ever, but his signature scar was on the wrong side of his face, and he was glowering with a look of suspicion Lloyd had never seen before. Zane looked almost the same, but his eyes lacked their vivid blue glow and his expression felt more earnest than the nindroid Lloyd knew usually gave.

And from the way they were eyeing him up and down, he got the feeling they were studying him just as much as he was studying them.

In the end, the Jay look-alike summed it up best for all of them. "WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON!?"

Chapter Text

Movie Ninjago

When the cloud of smoke and ash filled the hallway, General #1 reasoned that he did not get paid enough for this. Sure, being the top general to guard the volcano was a cushy job, especially since being blasted out of the top was no longer something to fear if he messed up.

But when you work in a volcano and things start smoking like this, it usually meant something really bad had happened, and you should run before you find yourself up to your knees in lava.

It didn't help that General #1 had a smoke allergy. Already his eyes were watering and growing puffy, making it very hard for him to see.

But just as quickly as the smoke came, it dissipated, leaving the shark-costumed man coughing and scrubbing his eyes.

Remembering who he'd seen in the hallway before the smoke appeared, he squinted through his itchy eyes to find his boss's son and get them both out of here before whatever caused the smoke happened again.

Only to find the hallway absent of the teenager. General #1's heart sank at the sight. He'd heard the kid cry out in alarm when the smoke showed up, and he hoped it didn't mean something bad happened to him. The boss would have his head if it did.

"Uh, Green Ninja!" he called, still coughing slightly. "We should get you to your father!"

Still no sign of the teen. Instead, a very short green blur raced past him with a shout of, "Not a chance!" and chucking something heavy and gold at the general's head as it went.

General #1 blinked at that in surprise. While green, that blur had been far too small and dressed too brightly to be his boss's kid.

In fact, no one that short even should be on the island. Take your kids to work day wasn't until next week.

Now General #1 was a very superstitious man, and short green people with gold showing up when other people vanished could only mean one thing, and it was not good.

He hurried back to the cafeteria and poked his head in just enough to see his boss still entertaining the other visiting ninja. "Hey, uh, boss!" he called, getting ready to bolt the second he delivered this news. His employer had never been one to mind the saying 'don't shoot the messenger.'

Lord Garmadon, who it seemed had been in the middle of spinning a tale about his glory days, looked over at him in annoyance. "Yes, what is it, General #1?"

The general quaked in his costume, and said rapidly, "Yoursonjustgotkidnappedbyaleprechaun! Alsodon'tfireme, Iquit! Bye!"

With that, the now former General #1 took off down the hallway to get out of the volcano as fast as possible. He knew if there was one thing that could make Garmadon go back on his new 'no firing people out of a volcano' rule, this would be it. With any luck, he could get enough of a headstart to escape before his former employer could process the message.

Meanwhile, back in the cafeteria, Lord Garmadon and the Ninja Force all stared after him with their mouths dropped.

"WHAT THE HECK!"

Lloyd was no stranger to being kidnapped. Already in his short life, it had happened more times than he cared to count.

It looked like this was another time to add to the pile.

Still, for a kidnapping, it wasn't a very good one. He easily escaped the weird guy in the shark costume and made a break for it. Apparently, he was once again being kidnapped for his dad, as if that was anything new.

At least he was out of that fire. The heat and smoke had scared him far more than he'd like to admit. It reminded him far too much of the time he'd been trapped in a-

Lloyd skidded to a halt and stared in horror at the sight before him.

Before him was a massive observation deck, giving him a view of Ninjago City in the distance, and revealing to him that he was standing inside of a massive-

"Volcano!" Lloyd said in a breathless hiss.

Unbidden, memories he'd tried so hard to bury started flashing through his eyes. Of the cage! The smoke! The heat! The hope his father and friends would save him, only for it to be snatched away by the fall! The horrid dread of the rock slowly sinking into the lava with no way to get out!

And this time, Kai wasn't here to rescue him…

Lloyd couldn't help it. His eyes watered and he began quaking in fear. In response to his distress, his powers went haywire, and a dome of green energy burst out of him, spreading quickly throughout the area.

Anything the energy touched began to malfunction. Lightbulbs shattered, machines began whirring uncontrollably, the entire facility began blaring alarms as all the equipment suddenly had more energy than they could cope with.

Lloyd didn't hang around to see the results. Once again he was running through the halls, more light bulbs shattering as he streaked past. He didn't know where he was going, or if it was the wrong way entirely. All he knew was that he had to get away! Away from the lava! Away from the smoke! Away from the heat! Just AWAY! Anything was better than that!

He eventually found himself shooting down a staircase. Down, down, down, he lost track of how many floors, until a blue glow from one of the levels caught his eye.

Blue! Blue was safe. It was cool and clear, the complete opposite of the burning orange and black of a volcano.

Without a second thought, Lloyd wrenched the door open and shot through it.

Only to stop dead and stare up in amazement.

The door had lead to what appeared to be a massive tunnel. There were several massive oddly-shaped structures scattered throughout the tunnel, but Lloyd's attention wasn't on them.

It was on the walls, which were made of domed crystal clear glass allowing the little ninja to see through them and revealed the tunnel was set at the bottom of the ocean.

Looking out, he could see fish of all colors swim by in schools, colorful reefs sway in the currents, and more sharks than he'd thought was normal swim lazily by.

It was better than any aquarium he'd ever been to and so beautiful he almost forgot his fear.

Almost.

A loud cracking sound had him turning around in time to see a wave of quickly cooling lava slowly roll down the embankment just outside the glass.

Right, he was still in a glass tunnel underneath an active volcano.

His fear climbing again, Lloyd began backing away from the entrance of the tunnel, getting ready to run the second it looked like the glass would break under the heat of the lava.

To his surprise, the glass didn't even seem to react to the new layer of molten rock beside it, but Lloyd feared it wouldn't last.

Just as panic began to overwhelm him again, his back bumped into something big and incredibly soft.

Something big and incredibly soft that was moving.

Lloyd jumped away and wheeled around to face it.

And found himself looking up…

And up…

And up!

Until Lloyd was practically leaning over backward to see the face of the BIGGEST CAT HE HAD EVER SEEN IN HIS LIFE!

Not even the Great Devourer had been this big!

The cat stared back at him with huge green eyes, and slowly it lowered its massive head to see him better.

Fearing he was about to be eaten, Lloyd squeezed his eyes shut and braced himself.

Only the teeth never came. Instead, he felt his entire body be practically lifted into the air as a moist sandpaper tongue licked him.

He opened his eyes just in time for the cat to lick him again, wiping away any remaining tears. The sound of a deep rumbling purr beginning to emanate from the beast.

Seeing he was still scared out of his wits, and nowhere near calming down, the cat gently leaned over, picked Lloyd up by his hood like he was the tiniest kitten imaginable, and carried him through the tunnel to one of the structures, revealing it to be a giant cat bed.

Once there, the cat settled down comfortably in it, gently placed Lloyd down between her front paws, and licked his hair once again before settling down to just purr.

As the monster cat's eyes slid closed, Lloyd slowly moved to try and sneak out of the bed and escape. But before he had even taken a step, the cat's big green eyes slid open once more and gave him a look that made it clear if he tried to run the cat would easily catch him and bring him right back, so he had better stay put.

Well, at least she seemed to have no intention of eating him.

If anyone had told Lloyd this is what he'd be doing this morning, he'd have laughed and called them crazy. As it was, after training all day, the fire, and racing through the volcano, getting fussed over by a massive kitty wasn't so bad. The constant hum of the cat's purrs was soothing enough that as the adrenaline in his system wore off and the day's events caught up to him, Lloyd soon found himself drifting off to sleep.

He'd find his way home later when things started making sense again.

Meanwhile, the ninja and Garmadon were searching frantically for their vanished leader, a task made all the more difficult by the fact that everything seemed to be malfunctioning all at the same time.

"Is that general sure he didn't see a gremlin instead of a leprechaun?" Jay asked as he and Nya helped the scientists get everything back online before the facilities fail-safes failed and they all got doused in lava. "That would make more sense than anything else at the moment."

"Less talking, more fixing!" was Nya's only reply as she and two other scientists worked frantically not far away.

Finally, the alarms stopped blaring, the lights turned back on, and things seemed to return to normal.

Except for the fact that Lloyd had failed to appear throughout all of the mayhem. Something he would never do if he could help it. He was too good a leader to not step in and help when there's any kind of trouble.

"Where could he be?" Kai asked aloud as both he and Garmadon stalked back and forth like a pair of caged tigers, waiting for the science nerds to give them all some answers.

"We took a look outside the locker room where he was last seen," Cole said from where he was leaning against the wall, though his posture was far more tense than usual. "Nothing was there but the smell of smoke and a lot of broken light bulbs."

"I did find this," said Zane, holding up a dented gold trophy with the name 'Dareth' inscribed on the side. "I am unsure what it means, however. My databanks of Garmadon's employees tell me there is no one with this name working here."

At that moment, Jay perked up at his workstation. "Hey, I've got the security feeds! They're a little fuzzy from the energy fluctuations, but they can still give us an idea of what happened."

"Well, what are you waiting for, show it already!" Garmadon snapped.

Jay jumped and Nya glared at the former warlord for his tone. They still quickly pulled the feed onto a large monitor.

On screen, they watched a slightly grainy image of Lloyd stepping out of the locker room not far from Ex-General #1. Then, in a burst of light and smoke and the screen cut to static. When the picture came back Lloyd was gone and a very short figure in green was seen throwing the trophy at the general and before leaving the frame completely.

Needless to say, they were now more confused than ever, but one thing was clear. Lloyd was gone, and it was likely the short green thing was responsible.

Garmadon had only one thing to say to that.

"Koko is so going to kill me."

Chapter Text

Show Ninjago

After a lot of yelling, freaking out, and accusations flying all around, everyone finally settled on the deck of the 'Bounty' to figure out what was going on.

As they did, the operator of the red mech had hopped out to join the discussion and claimed herself to be Nya, though, like the others, her appearance was off. Her hair was much too short for Nya's usual ponytail, and the beauty mark on her cheek was missing as well. She also seemed to have a preference for wearing red as opposed to cyan like the Water Ninja Lloyd knew.

On the other hand, this 'Master Wu', or 'Sensei Wu' as he preferred to be called, looked pretty much identical to Lloyd's uncle, with the only real difference being their voices and that this one had a bamboo staff instead of a staff-sized flute.

In the end, it was the four-headed dragon (and if they weren't one of the coolest things Lloyd had ever seen, he'd eat his own mech) that gave them an idea of what was going on. The four heads had been eyeing Lloyd suspiciously from the moment they had spotted him, and after giving the green ninja a speculative sniff, they had taken off into the air and vanished through some kind of portal before reappearing again out of a second one.

Thankfully, 'Sensei Wu' understood what they were trying to say. "I see," he said stroking his beard. "It seems this Lloyd," he gestured towards Lloyd with his staff, "is not the one we know."

'Jay' raised his nicked eyebrow. "Uh, no offense, Sensei Wu, but we all knew that already. It's really obvious this guy's not a yay tall brat with a bad haircut," he said, holding his hand out to demonstrate a child's height, earning a stern look from his sensei. 'Jay' didn't even flinch.

Another thing to add to the pile of oddities. This Jay seemed at least somewhat more confident than his. The Jay he knew would be a lot more anxious at the idea of talking back to Master Wu.

"Indeed," 'Sensei Wu' said dryly. "However, that is not what I meant."

"Then what are you saying?" asked 'Zane', his voice lacking the automated lit that Lloyd was so accustomed to.

"Yeah, I'd like to know that too," Lloyd added. "I'm the only me there is, as far as I know, and that," he waved his hand in 'Jay's' direction, "didn't describe me in the slightest."

"You do have better hair," 'Jay' joked, earning an elbow in the ribs from 'Kai' to shut him up. Definitely more confident than his Jay.

"What I mean is," 'Sensei Wu' said, sounding somewhat terse at their antics. "This is not our Lloyd. He is from another realm, one likely similar to ours, but also, as you can see, quite different."

"Another realm?" Lloyd asked, raising his eyebrows. It sounded so far fetched, but it would also explain all the inconsistencies he was noticing.

"You mean like the Underworld?" asked 'Cole'.

"Yes," 'Sensei Wu' (though, if this was really his uncle and friends' otherworldly counterparts, he could probably drop the quotations). "My father believed there to be sixteen different realms, all connected to each other, though it is entirely possible there are more. It seems whatever wish my brother made on the Mega Weapon has somehow switched my nephew with his counterpart in one such world."

Kai frowned thoughtfully. "If I heard him right, I think Garmadon wished Lloyd was in a world where they didn't have to fight each other."

They all turned to look at Lloyd, waiting for his input. Lloyd swallowed a lump in his throat and replied, "Yeah, Dad and I used to fight all the time, but a few months ago I finally convinced him to stop."

That got him some weird looks. "Convinced him to stop?" Nya asked.

"Don't you mean you defeated him?" Cole added.

Lloyd laughed, though the sound was slightly hollow. "Oh, we did defeat him. Multiple times. My team and I used to beat back him and his army more times than I can count, but he'd always run off and try again another day. Talking him into stopping has worked way better than trashing his army in the long run."

Everyone else still looked dubious.

"You just talked to him, and suddenly he just gave up?" Kai asked skeptically.

Lloyd winced and rubbed the arm he'd nearly lost during that mess. "Okay, there was a whole lot more to it than just talking to each other, but it worked out in the end. The bottom line is he's not attacking Ninjago anymore, so everybody wins."

The ninja around him looked unconvinced, but Wu stroked his beard, his expression contemplative. "I did not think such a thing was possible given the circumstances," he said.

Lloyd could only shrug. "So did I for a long time," he admitted. "But my Uncle Wu told us the only way we'd ever beat Dad for good was to win the battle without fighting."

Something about those words seemed to cause a shift in the air. Almost at once, some of the tension surrounding them all dissipated, and the ninja even let out a few snickers of amusement.

Even Sensei Wu's expression seemed more at peace. "The best way to defeat an enemy is to make them your friend," he with an air that this was something he had quoted multiple times.

Lloyd, not fully understanding what caused the shift in the atmosphere, but was grateful for it, nodded fervently. "Yeah, exactly."

Sensei Wu gave a soft chuckle of his own, then fixed Lloyd with a stern look. "My nephew, will he be safe in your world?"

Lloyd nodded again. "Where I was before I got here was one of the safest places I know. Plus my friends and Dad are there. They'll help him out."

The ninja master studied him for honesty. Upon finding it, he turned away. "There is still much to discuss, but I feel it would be best done over dinner. We have all had a trying day."

Zane perked up at those words and started making his way into the Bounty. "I believe it's my turn to cook tonight."

The rest of the ninja began filing away slowly to go about their business before dinner, leaving Lloyd to stand awkwardly off to the side, wondering what he was supposed to do until then.

Seeing this, Jay sidled up to him with a friendly grin. "So, is the Zane in your world the greatest cook ever? 'Cause I'm pretty sure ours has that title in the bag."

Lloyd shot him a grateful grin and replied, "To be honest, I don't know. I'm… not sure if my Zane even eats."

Jay blinked at him in surprise, but then nodded in understanding. "Nindroid, right. Zane won't let me mess around too much with his mechanics, but I'd guess the eating thing is optional. But, like, who wouldn't want to eat if they could?"

Lloyd nodded in reply, and that was all it took for Jay to start talking again. "Well, let me tell you, you're in for an experience. Zane's cooking is great! Just don't try to eat anything Cole makes. The guy can't even boil water."

"I heard that!" Cole shouted from somewhere in the Bounty, sounding very offended.

"Good!" Jay called back with no remorse, before turning back to Lloyd. "Anyway, as I was saying…"

In the time it took to cook dinner, Lloyd found he could add another dimensional difference to the pile. While his own friend was prone to fits of nervous babbling, this Jay really, really loved to talk!

Not that he minded. All the things Jay was saying were pretty interesting, but as the smell of good food began wafting through the ship, Lloyd was beginning to feel overwhelmed with information overload.

Thankfully, Cole came to his rescue.

"Okay, Motormouth," he said, taking Lloyd by the shoulders and physically steering him away from Jay before the Lightning Ninja could regale him with the story of how Cole used to be terrified of dragons, and his hilarious first attempts at flying one. "Maybe don't scare away our only lead for getting Lloyd back."

"Who's scaring him away?" Jay replied. "I'm just being friendly. Better than Sir Glares-a-Lot over there," he added, pointing over at Kai.

Lloyd had noticed that this Kai had still been sending him suspicious looks throughout the wait. It had honestly surprised him to see someone who looked like one of the friendliest guys he knew act so cold.

"Well, one of us has to be ready in case this is all just some trap," Kai replied bluntly.

Lloyd's expression fell, and both Jay and Cole let out groans of annoyance.

Thankfully, at that moment Nya walked out to call them to dinner. She had changed out of the armor for her mech, but to Lloyd's surprise, was still dressed as vividly in red as her brother's ninja gi.

She also noticed him staring. "Something… wrong?" she asked in an unsure tone, causing both Kai and Jay to shoot him suspicious looks.

Guess Jay's crush on Nya is universal. Nice to see some things never change.

Lloyd quickly shook his head. "No, nothing," he said politely. "I'm just surprised. You and Kai seem to be much more into the matching twin thing than the ones I know."

He then quickly hurried past her into the galley, failing to see the others staring after him in confusion, and for Kai to silently mouth 'Twin thing?' to Nya.

Taking a seat near Sensei Wu and Zane in front of a dinner that really did look delicious, Lloyd waited for the rest of them to file in.

Kai didn't even wait for them to fill up their plates before he went straight to business. "So how are we going to get our Lloyd back?" he asked.

"Yeah," Lloyd agreed as he slowly dished himself up. "No offense, but I'd like to get home sooner rather than later. Everyone over there is probably really freaking out."

"The best way to do it would probably be on the Ultra Dragon, wouldn't it?" Cole asked between bites. "The only way to travel between worlds is on a dragon."

"There are other ways," Sensei Wu said as he sipped his tea. "But none readily in reach. The only method available to us as we are now is with the Ultra Dragon."

Nice to see Master Wu was needlessly cryptic no matter what world you were in.

"Wait, what about that Traveler's Tea you used to get Garmadon out of the Underworld?" asked Nya, clicking her chopsticks together thoughtfully.

"Wait, what?" Lloyd asked incredulously dropping his own chopsticks but was ignored.

"Sadly, no," said Sensei Wu. "For Traveler's Tea to work, we must have a specific destination in mind. However, we have no idea which realm our guest comes from. Without knowing the correct realm you could potentially end up anywhere, and with no means to return. For all we know, there could be multiple Ninjagos out there as well."

"But how's the Ultra Dragon supposed to know which realm to go to if we ourselves don't even know?" asked Zane.

"They won't," Sensei Wu replied.

"So it's a guess," Lloyd said. "Just keep going to different worlds until we find mine?"

"Precisely," said Sensei Wu. "As it is, that is our best option."

"It may be the best option, but it's still not a great one," said Kai pessimistically. "We can't just let him," he jerked his chopsticks at Lloyd, "fly off on our dragon to who knows where on the possibility they might send Ultra back with Lloyd."

Lloyd tried not to be offended and shoved a chopstick full of food into his mouth to avoid saying something he'd regret.

"So we all go," said Cole with a shrug. "When traveling to unknown worlds, it'd be better to have safety in numbers."

"But if we all go, who's going to stop Garmadon?" asked Jay.

"Plus, while I do believe Ultra Dragon has the strength to carry us all, we would not all be able to fit safely on their back at the speed in which they would need to create a portal," added Zane.

They lapsed into silence.

Pessimism aside, Kai was right. It wasn't that great of a plan, but they needed to make it work.

And Lloyd was good at making difficult situations work.

After thinking for a moment, he spoke up. "What if we built a carriage?" he suggested. "Something we could attach to the, uh, Ultra Dragon to pull that could fit everyone inside."

The ninja all looked thoughtful at that.

"Yeah," said Jay, his face lighting up as he thought about it. "Yeah, that could work. If we build it with enough suspension that it can follow behind Ultra rather than drag beneath them, we could have a dimension-jumping road trip."

"And what about Garmadon?" asked Kai, still not fully onboard with the plan. "I doubt he'll just stand back and leave Ninjago alone while we're off who knows where."

Lloyd grinned at that. "Leave that to me," he said.

Chapter Text

Movie Ninjago

Koko hummed cheerfully to herself as she let herself into her apartment after a long day of work. As she'd expected, the place was empty. Lloyd was probably still at his father's volcano with his friends.

She smiled to herself as she put down her purse and began moving through her apartment, remembering how excited Lloyd had been about taking his friends to his new favorite hang out. It was such a nice change from before.

She was well aware of how her son used to feel so bitter about his father's evil deeds, and how poorly they reflected on both him and her as a result. For a while it looked like the two having any form of relationship was impossible (not that she'd known they did have a relationship as archenemies), and she was so happy that her ex was stepping up to make up for the lost time.

And maybe Garm wouldn't remain her ex for much longer…

Koko shook her head and dismissed the thought. It still felt too soon to try for that sort of relationship again, even if she was remembering all over again why she'd fallen for Garm in the first place.

Speaking of which.

Koko pulled out her phone and sent Garmadon a text asking if Lloyd was planning to stay at his place for dinner. If he was, she felt she'd much rather join them at the volcano instead of eating dinner alone. It always felt nice to spend time together as a family.

Her phone buzzed a moment later, and she quickly picked it up to see his response.

Only to pale and drop her phone to the floor when she saw the message.

That text couldn't possibly have said what she thinks it did.

Taking a moment to compose herself, Koko reached down to pick the phone up again and stared incredulously at the message. Sure enough, there were the same words, clear as day.

'Hey, Koks! It's totally not my fault, but you should probably come to the volcano ASAP. Lloyd has apparently been kidnapped by a leprechaun.'

The message was so ludicrous she almost didn't want to believe it, but the whole thing was typed up with correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation, so she knew it was serious. Garmadon never texted so correctly except for when he was forced to give her news that would make her mad.

Her phone buzzed again and she looked at it quickly, still hoping first text was just some kind of weird prank.

'Maybe bring Wu too >:P'

Koko's heart dropped. Definitely serious then. There was no way he'd invite Wu to his volcano otherwise, and especially not without taking the time to call him a butt.

Hitting Wu's number on speed dial, Koko grabbed her purse and was back out the door in record time, her feet carrying her in the direction of the harbor as fast as she could go.

Heaven help whoever tried to get between her and her baby.

After what was probably the most restful nap Lloyd had had in ages, he awoke to the sound of arguing.

Sitting up and looking around, it took Lloyd a moment to remember what had happened and where he was. Not that he even knew where he was, aside from next to a giant cat at the bottom of the ocean and far too close to a volcano for comfort.

Just thinking about the burning mountain had Lloyd looking up to see the continuous flow of lava from above that could still be seen even through the glass and sea.

The sight of it made his stomach turn, and he huddled closer to the cat in fright.

Only to then notice his new furry friend was no longer purring but was batting her paw at something, and letting out a warning, "Mrrrow!"

"Ouch! Stop it, Meowthra!" he heard someone call from where the cat was reaching.

The cat, Meowthra apparently, just hissed in response and didn't let whoever-it-was come any closer.

"Are we sure the leprechaun is even there?" another voice asked nervously.

"The judging by the trail of broken light bulbs, it would seem so," a third voice replied robotically.

"Guys! He's totally there, I can see green!" said a girls voice. "Let me get a better loo-Yikes!"

Meowthra swiped her paw again, and whoever had nearly climbed over the edge of the cat bed fell back to the floor with a thump.

"Bad Kitty!" a fifth voice scolded. "Don't hit my sister!"

"Darn demon cat! Why is she even doing this?" asked a sixth voice gruffly. "Usually she's only this overprotective of my son."

Meowthra hissed again in response.

"Yeah, you heard me, you dumb cat!" the sixth voice taunted. "Now back off and let us take him back to the volcano to torture-er-interrogate the munchkin so we can find out where he is!"

Another swipe, this time with claws.

The sixth voice cursed but apparently was able to dodge. "You stupid-! I thought my kid was your favorite! Why are you taking the leprechaun's side!"

Lloyd still had no idea what was happening, but apparently, there were people trying to capture him (again), and the only thing standing between him and being taken back inside that burning deathtrap was the giant cat.

And he'd much rather stay with Meowthra.

The sixth voice was still yelling at his fluffy protector, and the others were trying to calm him down when a seventh voice joined the fray, and she did not sound happy.

"GARM!"

Voice number six cut off mid-sentence with a frightened squeak and immediately changed to a far more pleasant (if scared out of his wits) tone. "Koko! Wow, you sure got here fast."

But Koko was not having it. "Where is our son, Garm?" she demanded.

"Well, you see, that's what we're trying to figure out," number six, Garm, said. "But this STUPID CAT," he yelled pointedly, probably to Meowthra, "isn't letting us close to the one person who might know where he is."

"The leprechaun?" Koko asked skeptically.

"Look, they're short, green, had gold, and poofed our kid away in a puff of smoke. If you know something else that can do that, I'm all ears," Garm said defensively. "We'll get answers out of them one way or another."

Lloyd tensed at how sinisterly the man had said that last bit, and couldn't help but let out a loud wet sniffle.

Apparently, they all heard him and went silent.

"Oh man," said the voice who had a sister. "It's just a kid."

"That explains Meowthra," said the first voice in a deadpan. "She loves kids."

"Wait, Koko, what are you-" Garm called in surprise, but Koko hushed him and from the sound of things began climbing the cat bed.

Meowthra raised her paw to bat this intruder away as well, but Koko began cooing reassurances and sweet nothings at her. The cat studied the intruder for a long moment, before slowly lowering her paw and letting Koko proceed.

Still fearful, Lloyd huddled as close to the cat as he could and pulled his ninja hood up over his face in hopes of the mask of the Green Ninja giving him some courage (or at least hiding just how scared he was).

Finally, a head poked over the edge of the bed and looked down at him. She wasn't anyone Lloyd had seen before. She was a pretty woman with long red hair held up in a pair of chopsticks and dressed like she had just come from an office job. She looked down at him, and her eyes immediately softened. She sat down on the edge of the bed and didn't try coming any closer.

"Hi there," she said in the same tone he'd heard Zane use when approaching a baby squirrel that had fallen from its nest. "My name is Koko. What's yours?"

Lloyd didn't reply, but Koko looked like she'd expected that.

"It's okay," she continued. "I know my ex-husband sounds all mean and grumpy, but don't worry, he's really a giant doofus."

"Hey!" squawked Garm from below, but was immediately hushed by voices one through five.

"He's just worried," Koko continued as if she hadn't heard him. "We all are. My son is missing, and when he disappeared it seems you showed up. We just want to know what happened. Do you know?"

Lloyd slowly shook his head. "N-no," he said slowly. "I d-don't. I-I was h-helping Dareth, and then there was a-a fire, and then suddenly I was here, and-and…"

"Shhhhh," Koko said soothingly, offering out her hand to him. "It's okay. We'll help you get home, don't worry."

Lloyd tensed. "Do I hafta go back to the v-volcano?" he asked.

Koko's eyes widened a bit, but then she shook her head. "Oh no, of course not, sweetie. This tunnel can take us straight back to the mainland. We don't have to go back there if you don't want to."

The lady seemed really nice, but Lloyd knew from his time at Darkely's that some of the people who acted the nicest turned out to be the worst. Still, Meowthra had been pretty set on protecting him, and she had let Koko come up over everyone else. Maybe she was actually nice, not fake nice.

Whatever the case, he couldn't just stay in this cat bed forever. He was the Green Ninja, he was supposed to be braver than this, and if the lady tried anything, he'd just use his powers to get away.

With that in mind, Lloyd slowly made his way over and took Koko's hand, allowing her to pull him up over the edge of the cat bed.

Once he was up on the side, he looked down to get his first looks at voices one through six.

A wave of familiarity flew over him as he recognized the color-coded ninja below him, and his eyes zeroed in on one in particular.

Koko let out a surprised gasp as he suddenly bolted down from the side of the bed, and raced over to the ninja dressed in red, his hood slipping off as he ran full speed.

Kai!

Kai had saved him from the volcano last time!

Kai had supported him when they found out his destiny, despite his own wishes otherwise!

Kai had vowed to protect him no matter what!

Kai who was like the big brother Lloyd had always wanted, even when he'd been such a brat to him at first.

If anyone could make this awful day better, it was him.

The Master of Fire let out an "Oomph!" as Lloyd collided with him and wrapped his arms around his waist as far as they would go. It was then that all the emotions he'd been trying to keep in check since that torch had been thrown into Dareth's dojo finally let themselves out and he started sobbing.

Immediately warm arms wrapped around him in a hug, and Kai began speaking softly to calm him down, telling him it would be alright.

Kai, meanwhile, shot the others a flabbergasted look as he worked on calming the distraught child in his arms down. He wasn't hallucinating, right? This kid really looked just like-

"Lloyd?" Koko gasped as she hurried over, staring at the little blond in Kai's arms in shock.

"What!?" shouted Garmadon, Zane, Cole, and Jay in unison.

"He looks just like Lloyd," Koko said, still goggling at the child. "Just like he did when he was seven."

"Exactly?" the usually unflappable Cole asked, staring at the kid in shock.

Nya, who like Kai, had known Lloyd the longest, replied, "Well, mostly. Lloyd had a better haircut, and he didn't dress, you know, like a ninja until we started training at the end of middle school."

Jay let out a gargled sound of confusion, and Zane's face twitched. "Error," he said, "this does not compute. Requesting a logical explanation."

"Oh, I'll give you an explanation," Garmadon said, seething. "Dang it! I specifically told those science nerds, no CLONES! But did they listen to me? Nooooo. Just wait until I find out who did this! They are so getting- GAH!"

He was cut off from his rant when he turned around, only to almost run smack dab into Master Wu, who had apparently arrived while they were all distracted.

"Hello, students, Koko, Garmadon," he said in greeting, but Garmadon was sure he was hiding an amused smirk under his beard.

Regaining his composure, Garmadon sneered down at him and said, "Hello, brother. Nice of you to finally show up. Help your little ninja nerds calm Little Luh-Loyd down while I go fire some geeks."

As Garmadon started to stalk off, Jay spoke up, stopping him in his tracks. "Wait, if this kid is a clone, then where's the real Lloyd?"

They all exchanged glances at that. They were back to square one, and their only hope for any sort of answer was still crying into the Fire Ninja's shoulder.

Garmadon didn't know much about kids, having missed out on raising his own (much to his regret), but if TV taught him anything, there was one surefire way to get a kid to open up.

"Ice Ninja," he said sharply, making Zane snap to attention. "You're coming with me. This situation requires ice cream."

Chapter Text

Show Ninjago

The next day saw the Bounty flying through the sky towards the Sea of Sand. Apparently, the best place for them to get the materials they'll need to make Ultra Dragon's carriage was at the scrapyard Jay's family owned.

It was decided they would start building that first, as they would be unable to confront their Garmadon problem until he resurfaced again with his next evil scheme.

As they flew, Lloyd took the opportunity to get a better look at the mech Nya had been flying the night before while the rest watched with varying degrees of interest.

He could always appreciate a good mech, and this was definitely a good one. While it was far smaller than those he and his team used, what it lacked in size and firepower it clearly made up for in speed and versatility.

"It's like a smaller version of Kai's Fire Mech!" he said appreciatively as he circled the machine under Nya's watchful eye.

Nya blinked in surprise at that assessment. "Smaller?" she said.

"Yeah," Lloyd replied. "The Fire Mech is like, twenty stories high? Maybe thirty?"

"And you let Kai drive it?" Nya asked incredulously.

"Hey," said Kai in offense, before his face shifted to a smirk. "Well, now I know what I want for Christmas."

"In your dreams," Nya scoffed.

She then turned to look at this strange teenaged Lloyd they'd found themselves with last night. "So, you know your mechs, huh?" she asked conversationally. If they were going on a cross-dimension journey with this guy, it would probably be better to get to know him first.

"Sure do," Lloyd said, his face lighting up in the way only talking about one's favorite subject did. "It's my team and I's go-to method for fighting evil."

"Really?" asked Jay, looking excited at the idea.

"Well, yeah," Lloyd said. "I mean, it was just the six of us ninja against a literal army of soldiers under my father's command. We needed the edge to take them down, otherwise, we'd have been overwhelmed a long time ago."

"Makes sense, I guess," said Cole slowly.

"Sounds awesome!" said Jay, the gleam in his eyes making it clear he was already planning out building his own mech.

Zane, on the other hand, looked contemplative. There was something off about what Lloyd had said. "Six ninja?" he asked.

They all turned to look at the nindroid, and he elaborated. "You said there were six ninja in your team including you. Nya is a ninja in your world?"

Lloyd blinked in surprise at the question. "Uh, yeah, she's the Water Ninja. Second in command of the Secret Ninja Force."

Everyone stared at him.

Lloyd glanced over at a gaping Nya, and his confusion seemed to grow. "Are you… not a ninja here?" he asked slowly as if he couldn't imagine such a thing.

"No, I'm Samurai X," she said, looking just as disbelieving at the possibility of her being a ninja.

Lloyd just stared at them all for a long minute, before shaking himself and saying, "Weird."

"You're telling me," Nya replied. "Water Ninja? Second in command? Really?"

"Yup," Lloyd said. "She can move and control water and keeps everyone else in check. We'd be lost without her."

Nya let out a laugh at the idea. "Well, that's not me," she said. "I don't want to be part of your boy's club anyway. Forget elemental powers, give me a mech to fight with any day."

"You can do both," Lloyd muttered quietly, moving away from the Samurai X mech to stare over the side of the Bounty. "Man, this world is weird."

The rest of the ninja kept quiet on their opinion that it was his world that was the weird one, though Nya was frowning thoughtfully at his words.

Curious, and hoping to gain some understanding, Cole spoke up. "What are we like over there?" he asked. "You didn't seem to notice you were in the wrong world at first, so is it really that different?"

Lloyd snorted softly. "I really should have figured it out at the lack of sharks. That should have been a dead give away that wasn't Dad. I can't believe I didn't realize until he said my name."

The rest exchanged another confused glance behind his back. Sharks?

"What do you mean about your name?" asked Zane. "It is your name, after all. Why wouldn't he call you by it?"

Lloyd laughed. "My Dad never calls me by my name. He always calls me-" Lloyd broke off and glanced at them, before getting embarrassed and looking away again. "He always calls me by a… pet name I guess you could call it."

Cue another perplexed look from the locals. Lord Garmadon? The great prophesied evil? Giving someone, even Lloyd, a pet name? What sort of name would it even be?

Lloyd didn't notice their looks and turned back to look at them, though his expression was a million miles away. "As for my friends, well…"

Before he could say anything, Sensei Wu called out, "We're about to arrive. Prepare to land."

The ninja all hurried to get ready for the landing, and soon the ship came to a rest just outside a large scrapyard.

Jay walked to look over the opposite side of the Bounty. "Home sweet home," he said.

Lloyd joined him and looked at the piles upon piles of junk with wide green eyes. "You live here?" he asked.

"Yeah," said Jay, preparing himself for the standard teasing that came when people realized he been raised in a junkyard.

Which was why it was so surprising when instead, Lloyd said, "This is awesome! We'll be able to make anything we need and then some with all this!"

The Master of Lightning could only watch startled as the ninja in green hopped down from the Bounty and eagerly headed towards the piles of junk. "And he says our world is weird," he stated rhetorically.

The rest of them quickly joined Lloyd on the ground and Cole pulled him to a halt. "Hold on there, tiger," he said. "We should probably explain things to Mr. and Mrs. Walker before we start."

"Especially since last time our Lloyd was here, things weren't… the best," Kai added.

At this Lloyd's confused look, Jay waved his hand and said, "Incident with Fangpyres. Don't worry, it's water under the bridge, and my folks don't hold grudges. Still, I should talk to them if we're going to be here until the carriage is made."

Lloyd still looked confused, but nodded and stood back as the rest of them headed into Jay's trailer home, leaving him on his own surrounded by piles and piles of scrap.

"Mom! Dad! I'm home!" Jay called as they entered.

"Jay!" called Edna Walker in delight, hurrying over to give her son a big hug.

"Welcome home, son," said her husband Ed as he came over to join them. "To what do we owe the visit?"

"Long story. Remember Lloyd, that kid with the Fangpyers a couple of months ago," Jay said.

"Sure do," said Edna cheerfully. "Wasn't that an exciting day."

"So much mischief from one little kid," added Ed. "But when we saw him at the NinjaBall Run he seemed much better behaved."

"He even came over after the race to apologize," said Edna brightly. "It was such a turn around from before, I almost didn't recognize him."

"He's really not such a bad kid when you get to know him," said Kai fondly.

"We've been training him to be a Ninja for a while now," Cole explained. "But last night we had a bit of an issue."

"Long story short, Lloyd's been sent to another dimension, and we need to build something that will allow the Ultra Dragon to take us to him," Nya said.

"Oh, that poor dear," Edna gasped. "He could be anywhere."

"Not anywhere, per se," said Zane reassuringly. "We have some idea where he may be, and some help to get him back."

"Do you now?" asked Ed, looking intrigued.

"Yeah, so, when Lloyd got sent to another dimension, he got switched with another version of him from there," Jay said. "The other Lloyd's going to help us get him back, and we'll help him get home in the process."

"Well, that's wonderful, Jay," said Edna, pinching her son's cheek fondly. "You kids are welcome to use anything in the yard to help you out. Where is this 'Other Lloyd'? Is he here with you?"

"He's right outside," said Cole as they all turned to head back out the door. "We figured we'd explain things before we got… star… ted…"

The Master of Earth trailed off as he and the others took in the sight of the scrapyard as they exited the building.

The area looked vastly different from when they'd gone inside. Entire piles of scrap had been cleared away, and in their place was a vast variety of half-completed vaguely dragon-shaped mechs and vehicles scattered throughout the yard.

"We weren't even in there five minutes?" Nya said with a gasp. "How could someone build all this in that little time?"

As if in response to her question, Lloyd suddenly came around the corner with his arms laden with even more spare parts, which he then added to one of the few remaining piles of junk.

Then, before their disbelieving eyes, Lloyd spun into a vivid green tornado that gathered up the pieces and spat them back out into a perfectly constructed cyan motorcycle with a dragon theme to its shape.

The spinjitzu tornado didn't stop there, and blew all around the park, picking up more pieces and adding them to the other semi-completed projects.

Ed and Edna both whistled to show their appreciation.

"Woah!" said Cole.

"Did you guys know he could do that?" asked Kai. "Because I sure didn't."

"Okay, I take it back," said Nya eagerly. "I want to be a ninja. Teach me spinjitzu."

"I do not believe this is part of spinjitzu," said Zane.

"He's like a mini Tornado of Creation," said Jay gaping.

Lloyd finally stopped spinning and waved them over. "Sorry. I thought I'd get started. This place is great!" he said, waving in the direction of a half-built carriage that was already shaping up to be just what they would need for the Ultra Dragon. "And I got some other ideas too, so I kinda, well…" he gestured to the rest of the projects scattered around.

"How…?" Cole tried to ask, not even sure how to phrase the question.

Lloyd looked sheepish. "I'm a Master Builder," he said, rubbing his right arm. "Building stuff from things I find around is just… what I do, you know? Places like this are perfect for me."

"Is this some kind of Green Ninja superpower?" asked Nya, her own face going somewhat green with envy.

Lloyd gave her a funny look at that. "No," he replied. "Master Building is a learned skill. It takes training and practice, but anyone can do it. I just use spinjitzu to speed things up."

Jay and Nya both exchanged glances, knowing they were thinking the exact same thing. "Teach us your skills, oh wise one!" Jay said eagerly.

"We will be your best students," Nya agreed.

Sensei Wu gave a huff that sounded like a mix of amusement and annoyance. "It would be nice if you were as eager in your ninja training as you are with learning this new skill," he said to Jay.

Jay looked sheepish. "But Senseiiiii," he whined gesturing to the mostly-done mechs scattered throughout the yard, "He just made all this in under five minutes. Five Minutes!"

"And he didn't even use any tools to do it," added Nya, examining a car not far from her. "You didn't even weld them, how do they stay in one piece?"

"You can weld them, but that means their pieces can't be taken apart and reused for something else later," said Lloyd, bemused at their enthusiasm. "The secret to Master Building is getting all the pieces to interlock together so that they hold their shape and functionality, but also maneuverable enough to make changes on the fly."

To demonstrate this, he walked over to a jeep that's shape reminded the ninja of Rocky the Earth Dragon before he and the others combined to form Ultra. Before their very eyes, Lloyd took the pieces apart and reassembled them in the shape of a dragon-themed airplane without discarding or adding any extra pieces.

Jay and Nya were both vibrating with excitement at this point, eager to start learning. Zane hovered nearby, looking very interested in learning too.

"Are… Are these for us?" Kai asked, unable to keep his own eagerness out of his voice as he examined the plethora of mechs.

"When they're done, yeah, definitely," Lloyd said. "So far, though, the only thing finished is the bike," he added, pointing over to the cyan motorcycle they'd seen him construct.

Immediately, all the boys began glaring at each other in a silent challenge over who would get the bike, none more fiercely than Jay, who saw the color scheme as just calling for him.

But to all of their surprise, Lloyd instead walked past all of them and handed the keys to Nya.

"Me?" she asked.

Lloyd shrugged. "Things aren't right in the world unless Nya is on a motorcycle," he said, pulling out his phone to show her a picture.

Nya stared at the image of a girl who resembled herself with longer hair grinning proudly as she leaned against another impressive motorcycle with a painting of a red-haired warrior woman on the side.

The boys all leaned over to see the picture too, and Jay let out his own appreciative whistle, though it was unclear if it was for the bike or the girl (knowing him, probably both).

Putting the phone away, Lloyd made his way over to the carriage, and said, "So let's start Master Building 101, shall we."

Jay and Nya cheered, and they, Zane, and the Walkers all crowded around to learn this new skill while the others settled back to watch them work.

"Guess this won't take as long as we thought it would," said Cole as he watched the more mechanically inclined members of their team get to work.

Kai nodded next to him. Despite his continued skepticism of this new Lloyd, he could definitely be grateful for anything to speed this misadventure along.

'Don't worry, Lloyd.' he thought to himself. 'We're coming soon.'

Chapter Text

Movie Ninjago

To say Lloyd wasn't happy to find that it had not, in fact, been Kai he'd been hugging and crying on was a massive understatement.

But whatever unhappiness he felt quickly melted into confusion as he finally took a good look at all the people around him, and realized it actually was Kai he was still clinging too… just not his Kai. Just like the others around them weren't his Uncle Wu, Jay, Cole, or Nya.

None of them had red eyes or seemed evil, so he didn't think his father had cloned his friends again. Plus, if they were then the nice Koko lady hanging around them would make no sense.

Strangely enough, they all seemed to think he was the clone, no matter how much he insisted otherwise.

At least they had gotten him away from the volcano. As Koko had assured him, the big glass tunnel had opened up into the forest outside the city with a large facility nearby that they had all made themselves comfortable in. It was slightly dusty but well maintained enough to suit their needs.

"What's this place for, anyway?" the Kai look-alike asked as he carried Lloyd in to sit down in what appeared to be the facility's break room. He hadn't let Lloyd out of his sight since the Green Ninja had had a breakdown on his shoulder, and just reminded Lloyd so much of his own Kai that he couldn't help but like the guy already. He was basically acting like his Kai if the Master of Fire had skipped his grumpy suspicious phase and gone straight to being a big brother and protector to Lloyd.

"The tunnel used to serve a dual purpose of allowing some of Garmadon's troops to sneak attack the city from a different point, and allow supplies to be snuck into the volcano without being stopped at the harbor," Other Wu explained. "And this facility was used for any repairs and storage of anything that couldn't make it back to the volcano."

"Garm didn't use the tunnel that often because he preferred to rise dramatically from the ocean instead of sneak attacks. Now, though, the tunnel has been converted to a home for Meowthra to stay in, and the rest of the facilities around here have been put out of use due to Garm's house arrest," Koko added as she opened a window to let some of the dust waft out.

"Why put Meowthra down there?" asked Other Cole from where he was leaning on Other Jay's shoulder.

"She likes to watch the fish," Koko said. "And Lloyd likes watching her watch the fish. Plus, it was the only space Garm had that was big enough to fit her."

That was another weird thing Lloyd had noticed. These strange double people were constantly talking about him, but not him. Just like there was an Other Kai and the others, there was apparently an Other Lloyd who was missing.

It was all a confusing mess, and Lloyd really wished things would start making sense again.

Just then, Other Jay perked up and cocked his head as though he was listening to something. "Is that an ice cream truck I hear?" he asked.

Everyone else listened, and sure enough, a cheerful melody that could only belong to an ice cream truck could be heard drawing ever nearer.

The sound was soon explained when the doors to the facility opened and Other Zane walked in, the ice cream truck melody spilling from his mouth as he cheerfully carried a large tub of rocky road ice cream.

These double people were weird.

Speaking of weird, Lloyd could only stare at the figure who followed after Other Zane with an irritated expression on his face.

It was his father! But not as he'd ever seen his father before. Sure, he still had the pitch black skin, gleaming red eyes, and the four arms, but gone was the armor and helmet he'd always seen his dad wearing. Instead, he was actually dressed in casual clothing and his gray hair combed to the side with a pair of aviator sunglasses perched on top of his head.

Really, really weird!

"Is it even legal for you to be here right now?" asked Other Cole. "You know, house arrest?"

"When there's no cops around, anything's legal. Now, could someone shut him up? He's been playing that song for the last ten minutes," Not Garmadon groused, shooting a glare at Other Zane.

"He does stuff like that," Other Nya (Who was a ninja here and apparently controlled water, so weird!) said with a shrug. "It makes him happy, so what are you gonna do."

"I am the ice cream man," Other Zane said brightly, finally stopping the music.

"Sure you are, buddy," said Other Cole, who left his perch on Other Jay, and began leaning on Other Zane's shoulder instead.

"Okay, enough of that!" said Not Garmadon, taking the ice cream from the nindroid and holding it and a spoon out to Lloyd.

"Look, kid," he said, offering the frozen treat enticingly. "We need answers, and we're hoping you've got'em. So, as long as you tell the truth, you can have as much of this ice cream as you want."

Lloyd sniffled but eyed the ice cream tub with interest. "As much as I want?" he asked to make sure.

"Until you puke, if you really want to," Not Garmadon said bluntly, causing Koko and Other Nya to make faces of disgust. "But only if you're honest. Frosty the Robo Ninja over there will be able to tell if you lie," he added, jerking one of his extra hands at Other Zane.

Other Jay raised a non-nicked eyebrow and asked, "You can do that, Zane?"

Other Zane looked thoughtful for a moment but then brightened. "I can monitor his heart rate like a polygraph," he said. "With taking what the sugar's effects on his heart into account, of course."

"You don't have to if you don't want to," offered Other Kai comfortingly. "You've clearly had a bad day, and if you don't want to talk about it, we'll understand. We can figure something else out."

Not Garmadon and some of the Other Ninja looked like they wanted to protest, but a stern look from both Koko and Other Wu shut them up.

Lloyd considered it for a moment, before reaching his arms out for the ice cream. "I'll tell you," he said, not really having anything to hide. "Gimme."

Not Garmadon smirked and handed the tub over. Other Kai moved them over to the break room's table and sat himself down in one of the chairs with Lloyd still held in his lap.

Lloyd didn't waste any time prying the lid off and shoving the spoon into the soft, slightly melted ice cream, and putting the biggest bite he could into his mouth.

Pure sugary goodness!

Other Zane, however, was looking at the ice cream tub with a slight frown on his usually cheerful face. "Strange," he said. "I thought I had maintained the proper temperature to keep the ice cream solid. It should not be that soft."

"Don't worry about it," said Other Nya dismissively. "Mistakes happen, and hard ice cream is the worst. You have to wait way too long for it to melt enough to eat it."

"Go' 'at 'ight," Lloyd agreed with his mouth full of another bite of ice cream.

Taking a third bite, he could see the weirdo version of his dad getting impatient, so he swallowed and said, "So what do you want to know?"

"Do you know where my son, Lloyd, is?" Koko asked instantly.

Lloyd felt a lump form in his throat that was not from the ice cream. Was it fair that Other Lloyd had a nice mom when he didn't?

"I don't know," he said honestly. "I never saw anyone but the shark guy at the volcano."

He felt a little bad when Koko and the doubles all slumped in disappointment. He wished he could help more, but he hadn't seen any other Lloyds around.

He glanced down at the ice cream and shoved another bite in his mouth. "Anything else?"

"Who created you would be great," Not Garmadon said. "When I find out who it was, their head will roll."

At several suspicious looks, he quickly raised all four of his hands defensively and said, "Not literally, sheesh!"

"I wasn't created, by anyone," Lloyd said, already tired of the insistence that he was. "I'm not a clone."

"Okay, you're not a clone," said Other Kai, though Lloyd could tell he was unconvinced. "Where are your parents then? We'll help you get back to them."

This line of questioning was going to wreck the ice cream for him. He quickly ate another bite, refusing to let anything ruin ice cream.

"My Dad looks a lot like you," he said, pointing his now empty spoon at Not Garmadon. "Last time I saw him, he was trying to burn down the dojo I was training in, and I got caught in the fire. Next thing I know, I'm in the volcano."

Not Garmadon gave him a startled look, which quickly turned to outrage when he heard about the fire. "What the heck?" he asked. "What kind of person puts a kid in danger like that?"

The Other Ninja all gave him dubious looks, and Other Cole said bluntly, "Two words, man. Dangling Bus."

Not Garmadon waved his hand dismissively. "Aw, those kids were never in any danger. I wasn't going to let the bus actually fall, it was just hanging there to look cool. It was only when Luh-Loyd tried saving them that they fell."

Lloyd paused with the ice cream halfway to his mouth. Did Not Garmadon really just say Luh-Loyd?

The Other Ninja looked unconvinced but turned their attention back to Lloyd.

"What about your mother?" asked Other Wu.

Lloyd gave a shrug, and his face turned slightly bitter as he scraped at the top of the ice cream. "I dunno," he said. "She abandoned me at Darkley's Boarding School for Bad Boys when I was really little. I haven't seen or heard from her in years."

Koko let out a soft "Oh," when she heard that and clasped her hands over her heart, and none of the others looked happy to hear that either.

"So you go to this boarding school then?" asked Other Nya.

"Not anymore," Lloyd admitted. "They kicked me out because I wasn't bad enough…"

Little by little, Lloyd told them all an abridged version of his life's story. He kept some things quiet, like his powers and the Prophecy of the Green Ninja. Not because he was hiding them, but because the Others never asked about it and he'd rather not talk about either if he could help it.

By the time the tub of ice cream was finished, all of the ninja and adults looked upset, though not at their little guest.

Koko was the first to make a move. She came over and pulled Lloyd from Kai's lap and into a big hug. She then turned to Garmadon and declared bluntly, "Garm! We're adopting him!"

No one disagreed, and Garmadon didn't even feel the need to point out that they weren't currently married.

Little Lloyd just goggled at her in amazement.

"We still don't know where Lloyd is, though," said Jay as he tugged on his scarf nervously. "All we know now is this kid is probably not a clone."

"We do?" asked Kai with a surprised blink.

"He was honest with his entire story," said Zane. "And it is far too detailed to be implanted memories. Unless you have created technology to do so?" he concluded, looking at Garmadon in askance.

"Nah," Garmadon said with a wave of his hand. "I mean we tried to make that stuff back in the evil ol' days, but the science nerds could never crack the code to do it, and to be honest, conquering things the old fashioned way was a lot more fun."

"So we have our Lloyd missing, another younger Lloyd here who is not a clone and has an entire tragic backstory," said Nya. "There has to be some way to put this together, but what is it?"

"Patience, students," said Master Wu. "The answers will come in time."

At that moment, the door to the facility burst open and a harried-looking scientist came running in out of breath. "LORD GARMADON! I'VE GOT THE ANSWERS YOU SEEK!" he said with a manic gleam in his eye, waving a tablet in the air wildly before hunching over to wheeze air back onto his lungs. It looked as though he had run there all the way from the volcano.

"Well, that was fast," remarked Cole dryly.

"Oh no," groaned Garmadon, pinching his forehead at the sight of the scientist.

"Who's he, Garm?" asked Koko, still cradling Little Lloyd in her arms.

"This is Gary," said Garmadon in a tone that said he'd rather not be in the same room as the man. "He's one of my scientists. Total kook, though. We mostly just keep him on because he's really good at hacking and programming computers, and the best at redesigning junk to be shark-shaped and still work."

Dr. Gary let out an offended sounding wheeze but still hadn't regained his breath enough to actually speak.

"What's he study?" asked Jay.

"Some crackpot junk about the string theory, doppelgängers, and alternate realities," said Garmadon with a dismissive shrug. It was clear he didn't believe any of it.

The rest of the room was silent for a moment as they absorbed that information before everyone simultaneously turned to look at Lloyd.

"THAT'S IT!" all but Garmadon cried.

The former warlord jumped at the shouting and stared at them flummoxed. "Wait, really?" he asked.

"It's the only thing that fits," said Koko.

"Precisely," said Dr. Gary, finally able to stand up. He grinned madly at Garmadon in the smug way one only could have when they were about to say 'I told you so'.

"You all said I was crazy!" the scientist said. "Said my research was a waste of time! Well, who's crazy now?"

"You," muttered Garmadon, still not ready to admit when he was wrong.

"HA!" Dr. Gary said, holding up his tablet. "We'll see about that! Now I have proof! Look at this!"

On the tablet, he played a video similar to the one they'd seen earlier of Lloyd's disappearance. Only this video was in infrared and did not cut out when the smoke appeared. The gathered ninja all watched in awe as a hot swirling vortex appeared on the screen right beneath Lloyd's feet, sucking their leader in and then spitting out a much smaller figure that could only be Little Lloyd.

None of them could deny what had happened after seeing that evidence, though Garmadon still looked like he wanted to.

"Why didn't this camera get screwy like the others?" asked Jay.

Dr. Gary preened. "It's one of my personal ones," he said proudly. "Made to detect dimensional anomalies. I have them hidden all throughout the volcano and in Ninjago City."

"Because that's not creepy at all," said Nya, taking some of the wind out of his sails.

Dr. Gary coughed awkwardly. "Yes, well, I have them calibrated to withstand energy fluctuations like the ones the volcano experienced in the aftermath of this. I hypothesize they are a side effect of such dimensional traveling."

Lloyd opened his mouth to correct them that the energy had come from his powers, but thought better of it. The last thing he wanted was to be used as some kind of battery.

Garmadon took the tablet and played the video again, scowling as he watched his son vanish from the frame.

"Great, you've told us where my son went," he said, grumpily. "Now, do you happen to know how to get him back?"

Dr. Gary looked like a cat about to snag a canary. "Well… I do have several theories as to potentially open holes to reach alternate realities, but as you all thought I was a, oh, what did you call me, a 'kook', I've never been able to fully commit to working on any of them," he said in a woe-is-me tone of voice. "If only I had space and equipment to build such a device, as well as a raise and my own espresso machine."

Garmadon was practically grinding his teeth together at each word out of his mouth, but shutting this kook down wouldn't get his son back. "Done," he said reluctantly and waved to the abandoned facility around him. "You can use this place to build your portal-whatever and bring my son back."

Dr. Gary let out a whoop and began doing a ridiculous victory dance.

Only to be stopped when Garmadon grabbed him by his shirt collar and hefted him up to look him dead in the eye.

"Let me be clear," said Garmadon in a low, dangerous tone. "You will get my son back to me, not mess around to prove your precious theories or whatever. Failure to do so will have… unpleasant consequences."

Dr. Gary gulped but tried to rally some bravado. "I-I thought you didn't fire people from the volcano anymore."

"Oh no," said Garmadon almost conversationally. "Tempting as that is, you'd survive if I did that."

He then set Dr. Gary down and brushed him off before stepping back, leaving the scientist quaking in his lab coat.

"Now," Garmadon continued, all business. "I need a list of all the supplies and equipment you'll need, and an estimate of how much manpower I'll need to divert over here. This project will be taking priority over all others, and I expect this list done as soon as possible."

Dr. Gary jumped and rushed from the room. "Y-yes, sir!" he called behind him as he ran. "Right away, sir!"

"That was mean, Garm," said Koko after he was gone.

Garmadon shrugged unapologetically. "Gotta do what you gotta do," he said. "If I gave these nerds too much freedom they'll spend their entire time messing around testing every random thing that comes to their mind instead of doing something productive."

Koko just shook her head and looked down at Lloyd. "We're going to have a busy day tomorrow," she said kindly. "Would you like to go to bed, or stay up a bit longer?"

"But I'm not tired," Lloyd protested.

Cole snorted. "Considering how much sugar he just ate, he'll crash in less than an hour," he said to the others in a deadpan.

"By my calculation, it will happen in 25 minutes and 16 seconds," added Zane helpfully.

Lloyd tried to glare over at the two ninja, but it came out more like a pout. He was starting to think he liked the Cole and Zane he was used to better than these ones.

He then looked at Koko, before glancing back over at Kai. "Can I sleep with Kai tonight?" he asked.

Koko looked disappointed at the request, but turned to the Fire Ninja and asked, "Is that alright with you, Kai?"

Kai blinked in surprise and exchanged a glance with his sister before replying, "I don't think our parents will have a problem with it, but… why?"

While Lloyd was slightly distracted by the mention of parents (he was sure his Kai and Nya were orphans), he still looked at the Fire Ninja like he was dumb. "Because you're Kai."

Kai felt very pleased with that response and was grinning from ear to ear.

"I suppose that confirms we have counterparts in his world as well," said Master Wu thoughtfully.

"Or at least Kai does," muttered Jay.

Nya laughed. "Two Kais, that sounds like a nightmare. Two of me on the other hand…"

At that moment, Lloyd found himself letting out a large yawn.

Giving a laugh, Kai walked over and took Lloyd from Koko's arms. "Come on, little buddy. Let's get you to bed."

As Lloyd drifted off on Kai's shoulder, his thoughts turned to his own world, and couldn't help but wonder if the ninja and his father over there were working as hard to get him back as these ones were for the Other Lloyd.

He hoped so.

Chapter Text

Show Ninjago

Between Jay and Nya's engineering skills and Lloyd's Master Building, the carriage was coming along at record speed.

It probably would have come along even faster, but between the three of them, they kept coming up with creative additions to give it.

"No, build it like this. That way you can use it as a blunt weapon if you need to."

"Why are you adding ejector seats?"

"Why not add ejector seats?"

"Should we put missiles here?"

"Of course! We should put missiles everywhere."

"Why are you putting that there?"

"Because it's Cole's seat, hehe."

"Oh… help me do the same to Kai's."

"How is that possibly going to work?"

"Master Builder secret. It'll work. Trust me."

"Whose bright idea was it to put a flame thrower here?"

"... Mine… It's a dragon head, okay."

"What's with all the dragons anyway?"

"It's my signature. All Master Builders have a signature theme or vehicle. This is mine."

"Cool, but do we really need twenty cup holders?"

In short, the three were quickly shaping up to be fast friends. Nothing brought people together like a shared interest.

While he had come over to learn about Master Building too, Zane was mostly content to stand back and let the three work, only stepping in when they tried to do something really outlandish and out of hand.

Jay's parents had also wandered off after Lloyd's initial lesson, making cheerful comments about the ingenuity of young people. They occasionally brought out tea and snacks or chatted with Sensei Wu as the day wore on.

Cole and Kai, meanwhile, were getting bored.

"How much longer is this gonna take?" Kai asked impatiently after a couple of hours. "We really need to get Lloyd back as soon as we can."

The three builders looked up from where they were adding automated landing gear to the underside of the carriage, before exchanging glances and shrugging.

"Not too long actually," Jay said, staring in wonder at the sight of the almost completed carriage. He had been so in the zone he hadn't even realized they were almost done.

"Wow," Nya said, feeling the same way. "Normally something like this would take me a week to make."

"The wonders of Master Building and teamwork," said Lloyd with a pleased grin.

"Speaking of teamwork," Sensei Wu said from where he'd been sipping tea. "The six of you should work on yours. If you are planning to confront my brother, much less travel through other worlds, you will need to be able to rely on each other."

No one missed the pointed glance he sent Kai's way when he said that. The Master of Fire just huffed but didn't disagree.

"So how do you want us to do this?" asked Zane. "Sparring or teamwork building?"

"Sparring in smaller groups to start," said Master Wu. "It would be best to know what each other is capable of before attempting to work as a unit."

"Ninja team battles," said Kai thoughtfully, a smirk growing across his face. "I like it."

"I'm up for it," said Lloyd as he moved away from the carriage and into a more open area.

"No holding back either," said Cole to the green-clad ninja as he moved to follow him. "We need to see what you're really capable of."

That gave the others pause before anticipation started setting in. They had thought they'd need to wait a good few more years to see the full might of the Legendary Green Ninja in action, but if this Lloyd had already grown into his powers…

"Fine by me," said Lloyd. "But only if you do the same."

Kai grinned viciously. "Count on it."

"Lloyd's on my team!" Jay called eagerly before turning to his girlfriend. "You coming, Nya?"

"And miss out on showing you boys what a samurai can do? No way!" said Nya, running to grab her armor and sword.

"I guess that makes the three of us against the three of you," said Zane, gesturing to himself, Cole and Kai.

Once Nya was back, the six of them spread out into a wide circle, each eyeing each other in anticipation.

"Begin!" called Master Wu.

Lloyd immediately went on the defensive as Kai came rushing at him swinging his sword. From the corner of his eye, he saw Cole and Jay square off on his left, and Nya go after Zane on his right.

He dodged another sword strike before flipping over to a discarded hubcap lying in the sand. Using it as a makeshift shield to block the third strike, he then kicked his foot upwards and into Kai's ribs.

Kai let out a grunt but continued his assault, his blade flashing in the desert sun, but Lloyd blocked every blow and attacked with or around the hub every chance he could while ready to dodge the second he saw a hint of fire.

In his peripheral vision, Lloyd noticed Nya had lost her sword against Zane and was now struggling without a weapon.

Thinking quickly, instead of blocking Kai's next strike, Lloyd turned the hubcap so that the sword went through one of the decorative spaces. Surprised at this turn of events, the red ninja was unprepared when the hubcap span sharply and wrenched the sword out of his hands and into the Green Ninja's.

"Nya! Catch!" Lloyd said, tossing the stolen sword over to her.

Though surprised, Nya caught the blade and immediately began fighting Zane with renewed vigor.

Her brother, meanwhile, was furious about being disarmed, and Lloyd had to leap to safety to avoid his fiery spinjitzu tornado.

His jump landed him close enough to Jay and Cole's fight that with a quick word had the two switching opponents, with Jay combating Kai's tornado with his own, and Lloyd using his hubcap to block a blow from Cole's scythe.

With Cole's superior strength, the hubcap shield wasn't as effective as it had been against Kai, but Lloyd had planned for that. Subtly, he led Cole over to a large pile of tires until he was in just the right position.

Before Cole could decipher the smirk he gave him, Lloyd flung the hubcap at the pile of tires, using his own spinjitzu to give the throw an extra boost of strength, and then jumped clear.

The Master of Earth quickly found himself trapped under a pile of black rubber, with one falling so perfectly that it landed around his shoulders and pinned his arms to his sides.

Lloyd grinned at the scowl on his face, before turning to see Jay manage to overpower Kai in their spinjitzu battle. The two of them hurried to Nya's side, and even though she already had Zane on the ropes, between the three of them the battle was over in minutes.

"And finish," said Sensei Wu once Zane was no longer able to fight.

Kai groaned from where he'd landed after Jay had knocked him flat. "Have you been doing extra training?" he asked the Master of Lightning as he sat up and rubbed his head. "I swear you couldn't hit that hard last time we sparred."

Jay preened. "No more than you," he said. "I guess I'm just that good."

"You have improved significantly as well, Nya," said Zane, being a good sport.

Nya beamed. "Thanks."

"That's nice and all, but could someone get me out of here?" asked a still trapped Cole.

While the others hurried over to help, Sensei Wu studied Lloyd thoughtfully. "I am curious, young ninja," he said. "After saying you would all go 'all out' you did not once use your elemental powers."

Lloyd, not fully realizing the ninja master was addressing him, turned to the other ninja with a small frown. "He's right. Why didn't you guys hit me with your elements?" he asked.

"Samurai, remember, not an Elemental Master," said Nya with a shrug.

"As for us, we haven't been able to use our elements fully since Lord Garmadon stole our Golden Weapons of Spinjitzu," said Zane.

"We can use our powers for spinjitzu, but not much else," added Cole.

"You got your powers from magic weapons?" Lloyd asked, feeling a wave of nostalgia hit him.

"Yeah, we did. What's your excuse?" asked Kai, grumpy at being beat. "Why didn't you use your powers?"

Lloyd gave them all a very confused look. "I… don't have any."

That gave them all pause, and they stared at him in incomprehension.

"But you're the Green Ninja!" Jay exclaimed.

Lloyd's confusion only grew. "Yeah? So? Green's symbolic, not an element. You guys and my team all get to be the Fire Ninja, Earth Ninja, Ice Ninja… you get the idea. Me, I wear green, therefore I am the green ninja. There's nothing really special about me," he said, though it was clear from the expression on his face he wished he did have some kind of special power.

The rest could only stare at him. So much of their training recently had been to hone the skills of the Green Ninja. The keeper of a legendary power far greater than their own. To hear in another world it was the exact opposite was mind-boggling.

"No element at all?" Cole asked just to be clear.

Lloyd shrugged helplessly. "Not even the element of surprise. That's the Fuchsia Ninja."

"SURPRISE!"

At that exact moment, a ninja in a vivid pink gi burst out of the pile of tires next to Cole. Before any of them could react, he then vanished as though he'd never been there in the first place.

Everyone had to take a moment to internalize what they had just seen.

Lloyd coughed awkwardly. "I, uh, I guess this world has one of him too."

"Who even was that?!" Jay scrambled to say, and all Lloyd could do was give another shrug.

"No idea," Lloyd replied. "He just pops out randomly and yells 'Surprise!' It's weird. He's weird."

"Back on track," said Kai, shaking head and getting back to the matter at hand. "You're serious? You really don't have any powers at all?"

Lloyd shook his head with a sigh. "Master Wu always told me that my special skill was my ability to connect with people and forge bonds. Like how I'm the one who brought my friends together as a team so that we're stronger as a unit. I like it, it's useful, and it's how I reconnected with my dad, but it's nothing really powerful or special."

It finally sunk in for them that he was serious.

"I would have to disagree in that regard," said Sensei Wu kindly, though he too still looked surprised at this turn of events. "While it may not be as flashy as an elemental ability, it is undoubtedly a valuable skill to have, and one you will need if your plan for Lord Garmadon is to succeed."

At that moment, Edna stuck her head out of the trailer and called, "Kids! You've got a call over on your ship. Seems Lord Garmadon is attacking over in the city again."

The ninja and sole samurai exchanged glances at that.

"I guess we're about to find out," said Lloyd, and he hurried on ahead towards the Bounty.

The others trailed after him warily.

"A powerless Green Ninja," said Jay, still unable to fathom the concept. "We're sooooo Hooped!"

Chapter Text

Movie Ninjago

Lloyd couldn't help but giggle to himself as he sat waiting. He had to time this just right for the maximum effect.

It was always disorienting to wake up in an unfamiliar place. Especially since he had been kidnapped so often in the past, but the lack of cage and restraints was comforting as he slowly reoriented himself.

Kai (he had decided to drop calling him Other) was a big help when he had woken up gasping and looking around frantically, not fully seeing the Fire Ninja's bedroom for what it was, only that it was not the ninja's cramped apartment or the Bounty. He had rubbed Lloyd's back and spoke soothingly to him until he had calmed down, gave him his phone to play with, and even offered to get started on a pancake breakfast just for him.

Needless to say, if he already hadn't the night before, Lloyd definitely liked him now. Not as much as his own Kai, but he was a pretty close second.

Anyway, while pancakes were nice, there was really only one way to fully bounce back from a bad morning, and Lloyd was all set to do just that.

Finally determining he'd waited long enough, Lloyd reached out to flick a switch in the circuit breaker.

Immediately a shriek filled the apartment as Nya's morning shower suddenly turned ice cold.

Stifling his laughter with his hands, Lloyd quickly scrambled away. Stuck in another dimension or not, this was going to be a fun day.

Nya, dripping wet and furious, was standing before her brother in nothing but a towel and glowering at the little squirt hiding behind him.

Turning her own element against her! Jay had been right the day before. He was a gremlin.

Said gremlin was looking up at the twins, the picture of wide-eyed innocence. "I just thought it was the light switch," he said. "I didn't mean to do it."

"Oh yeah right!" Nya scoffed as she tried to pull water from her still wet and soapy hair to splash on top of his head.

Before she could manage it, Kai, who had been pulled away from cooking for this, quickly blocked her. "Lay off, Nya. He said it was an accident. He's just a kid who's lost and scared. Have a heart, okay."

Nya didn't think the kid looked particularly lost or scared as he stuck his tongue out at her from behind her twin's back.

Seeing she was not backing down, Kai sighed and said, "Look, I'll turn the hot water back on, and you finish your shower. You'll feel better after breakfast. Dad should be finishing it up soon anyway."

He then turned and headed for the circuit breaker, leaving Nya and Lloyd alone in the hallway.

Nya glared down at the munchkin, and he glared back with as much defiance as he could muster. She did not recall the Lloyd she knew being this much trouble at that age.

Well, two could play this game.

"My vengeance will be swift and merciless," said Nya, making an 'I've got my eye on you' gesture. "Count on it."

"Bring it on!" Lloyd said, puffing out his chest.

Nya then left to finish her shower, and Lloyd made his way into the kitchen and dining area of the apartment, joining the siblings' mother at the table as their father finished the pancakes.

Maya, their mother, looked up from a newspaper she was reading by an open window and greeted him warmly, and Ray called over how much longer breakfast will be. They had both proven to be perfectly friendly people, who welcomed him to their home with open arms, if not a good few questions about his identity. They had accepted the strange explanation none the less.

He didn't have the heart to tell the siblings or their parents that in his world, the two adults had been missing since Nya was three, and Kai had had to grow up far too quickly to care for her in their absence. Their presence here really went a long way to explaining why this Kai was far more open and trusting than his own.

Nya and Kai came in not too long after, and Lloyd knew from the moment Nya walked in she'd already thought of her revenge plan.

"You know," she said conversationally to him over the pancakes moments later. "You really need some new clothes."

Lloyd glanced down at his Green Ninja gi. The gi had always been several sizes too big with the intention of him growing into it, but he could see what Nya was getting at. His clothes were a mess, being streaked with soot and still smelling of smoke from the day before.

Ray rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Do we still have any of the kids' old clothes he could use?" he asked his wife.

"None of Kai's," said Maya. "He ruined all his clothes at that age. Too much adventure for them to handle."

Kai looked sheepish at that.

Lloyd could see where this was going, and could only watch as Nya smirked and said in a falsely helpful tone, "I know where you keep some of my old stuff. I'm sure I could find something that would fit him."

Lloyd stared at her, horrified.

"That's very nice of you, Nya," said Maya, not realizing what she was doing. "You go get some, and I'll put his clothes in the wash."

Lloyd watched as Nya finished her pancakes and flounced away, his mind racing as he tried to think of a way out of this. While his Nya wasn't the girliest girl out there, and he would bet the same held true for this one, he had no doubt she was going to find him the most feminine thing she ever owned, and force him to wear it whether he liked it or not.

When Nya came back carrying a pink shirt with glittery butterflies and bright yellow shorts, saying she was sorry, but they were the only thing she could find in his size, he was ready.

Pretending to graciously accept the clothes, Lloyd started to walk towards the bathroom with them in his arms, only to conveniently trip on the rolled up, too-long legs of his gi. He made a great show of flailing his arms to get his balance before falling flat on the floor.

The clothes, however, went flying straight out the open window.

The family and Lloyd crowded around the window, and to Lloyd's delight, the shirt and shorts had landed smack dab in the middle of a mud puddle, making them even messier than the ones he was wearing now.

And they were the only ones Nya had available, so she couldn't try again.

Seeing she couldn't go back on her bluff, Nya glowered at him over being outmaneuvered. Lloyd only smirked back.

Kai, meanwhile, had some idea of what just happened and sighed. "Maybe Koko will have some old clothes you can borrow," he said.

Today was going to be exhausting, the Fire Ninja just knew it.

Koko, unsurprisingly, was delighted to see them at her doorstep, and upon hearing why, ushered them in without a second thought.

While Kai and Nya made themselves comfortable in a way that made it clear they'd been there several times before, Lloyd awkwardly wandered the apartment and studied his surroundings.

The apartment was small, but cozy with an inviting lived-in feel to it. The walls had several pictures on them, mostly of either Lloyd (wow, was weird to see himself as a teenager) or Koko at various ages, with some of friends or tapestries of calligraphy scattered about.

There were also other objects scattered around that made the place feel like a home. Sticky notes with reminders and messages were stuck to the fridge, a backpack hung over a coat rack full of school books, a well-fed fish swam in a bowl on the counter, and shelves of food (most of which Lloyd liked) were sitting in the kitchen cabinets. All signs of a small, but happy home.

Lloyd couldn't help the burn of jealousy in his gut at the sight of it.

He always tried not to think about his mother. Not that he had many memories of her since she had left him at Darkley's at such a young age. The occasions he did try to remember her, he could see glasses, a green handkerchief, and a sad smile. He'd always told himself the only reason he was trying to remember was so he could avoid her if he ever saw her again.

Not that he ever thought he would. She'd long made it perfectly clear she wanted nothing to do with him. All his years at that school he'd gotten no visits, no calls, not even a postcard.

His father, at least, had a reason he couldn't come for him. Being trapped in the Underworld made it hard to come and visit. Still, his father had done his best to connect with him despite that, sending his shadow out to talk to him, and skeletons delivering gifts on his birthdays. He'd even told him he was proud of him when the Green Ninja thing was discovered. He never doubted his father loved him, even after discovering his destiny.

His mother, though… Not so much.

It wasn't fair! Why did Other Lloyd get both a father and mother that loved him? Even if they were apparently divorced they both clearly still wanted him. What made his counterpart so different that he was wanted by Koko when he wasn't wanted by his own mother?

Was something wrong with him? Something different that caused his mother to leave him that the Other Lloyd didn't have?

Would Koko still want to adopt like she claimed him when she discovered it too?

Lloyd was pulled from his negative thoughts when Koko returned with a dusty box in her hands. "Found it," she said brightly. "We should be able to find something in here."

"Why do parents keep old clothes anyway?" Lloyd asked as she beckoned him over to look. "You and Ray and Maya all had them, and they really don't fit anymore."

Koko gave him a fond smile. "Sentiment, mostly," she admitted. "Part of being a parent is wondering how your child grew up so fast. It helps to have things to remind you of when they were small. Some parents also keep them in hopes of passing them down to their grandkids someday."

Lloyd made a face at the idea of ever having kids. He'd have to kiss a girl for that to happen. Yuck!

To distract himself from that gross thought, he turned his attention to the box of old clothes. Much to his disappointment, he didn't see anything that looked like his own skeleton hoodie with matching cape. However, despite the lack of bone print, most of the clothes were the sort of things he would wear. He quickly grabbed some jeans and a green hoodie with a dragon on it and headed to the bathroom to change.

He came back out to see Koko sitting by the box with a sad expression on her face and holding a small birdhouse in her hands.

It wasn't a particularly nice birdhouse. The kind of cheap arts and crafts project schools would have made for Mother's Day presents and the like. It seemed to be made of a mishmash of various objects that didn't look like they should fit together and was sloppily painted in bright colors. In the eyes of anyone else it would look like garbage, and yet Koko was holding it like it was precious.

If there were any doubts Lloyd had over whether or not Koko loved Other Lloyd, they were definitely gone now.

Lloyd wasn't the only one to notice Koko's morose expression, as Kai came over to wrap his arms around the woman and Nya stood next to her in clear support. None of them had noticed Lloyd's return.

"We'll get him back, Koko," Kai said resolutely. "Count on it."

Koko didn't look any less worried. "Little Lloyd said there was a fire," she said. "What if he…"

"It'll take more than a little fire to take Lloyd down," said Nya confidently. "Our suits are mostly fireproof, and he rescues people from fires all the time. He knows what to do."

"Any trouble he finds himself in, he'll Master Build a way out of it," agreed Kai. "Just like he Master Built that birdhouse."

Koko didn't look fully convinced, but she graced the two with a small smile, and gently put the birdhouse back in the box.

While Lloyd did feel bad for her, the jealousy inside him burned.

It took another minute or two for them to notice he'd come back, but when they did, Koko immediately brightened, and said, "Everything fit alright?"

Lloyd didn't respond, only holding out his arms to show that yes, the clothes fit properly.

Koko's smile grew. "That's great!" she said, her voice fond. "You look just like our Lloyd did at your age."

The words didn't really make him feel better. "Except he had better hair," Lloyd muttered sarcastically, remembering something he'd heard Nya say the day before.

Nya looked utterly unapologetic.

At that moment, both she and Kai's phones buzzed. "We should head back to Garmadon's facility," said Kai. "Looks like Dr. Gary wants to ask questions and do some scan-thing to help him figure out the portal he's building. You coming, Koko?"

"Sure," said Koko. "I'll just run Lloyd's clothes through the laundry and meet you there. Keep me informed of what's going on."

"You got it," said Kai as he herded Lloyd out the door and Nya followed behind. A few minutes later they were all loaded onto Nya's bike and shooting down the street to the facility.

Once they were gone, Koko released another sigh and regretfully packed the box back into storage, hoping to everything they wouldn't end up being the only mementos she had to remember her son by.

She had to stay strong. Breaking down with worry wouldn't get her Lloyd back, and it won't help Little Lloyd feel welcome either. She was Lady IronDragon. She would endure this. She would see her son again.

Koko removed the armored shoulder pads of Little Lloyd's gi, placed it in the wash, and then moved to wash the breakfast dishes while she waited for it to finish.

The second she turned on the tap she shrieked as water began spraying her directly in the face.

Blindly, she scrambled to turn the water off and searched for the cause.

Her sink had two separate nozzles on it. One standard tap, and one that could extend on a hose and shoot water more powerfully than the other. To use the second nozzle you had to squeeze a trigger on the side, and as she looked, she saw the trigger was currently being held down by a rubber band and the nozzle pointed right at her.

Koko could only stare at the rigged sink as it dawned on her what happened.

Then she burst out giggling.

The great Lady IronDragon, blindsided by a simple prank.

She would need to thank Little Lloyd when she saw him later. She had really needed that laugh.

Chapter Text

Show Ninjago

The city was in chaos.

Not that that was anything new, the city seemed to be in chaos a lot recently.

Still, Serpentine were attacking the TV station, and that was not a good thing.

But that still begged one question.

"Why attack the TV station?" asked Cole as the Bounty flew as fast as it could to their destination. They were watching live footage of the attack on the monitor so they knew what they would be in for. "It doesn't really make any sense."

"Got that right," said Kai. "Can't really do anything to sabotage us from there."

"I'm not sure if Garmadon even has a TV," said Jay. "Living underground with snakes and skeletons doesn't really give the best reception."

Lloyd had been studying the video feed with a critical eye. "He wants to talk," he said with certainty.

Everyone else turned to look at him. "How do you know?" asked Zane.

"My dad used to do this too whenever he had some leverage that he thought could let him make demands," Lloyd explained. "He'd attack some public place that would get a lot of attention, and only that place, making as big a stink as he could to get us to come running. The TV station was a favorite because it has a built-in way of getting as much attention as possible."

The others examined the footage and the reports of what was happening.

"Yup, that's definitely what he's doing now," said Nya.

"On the bright side, it means he probably won't hurt anyone," Lloyd added. "He wants as much attention as possible, and you need people running and screaming in order to do that."

Sensei Wu looked at him with interest. "You seem remarkably insightful of my brother's schemes," he said.

"You can only fight a guy so many times before you get inside his head," Lloyd muttered ruefully.

"Let's just hope this is one thing your dad has in common with Garmadon," said Cole.

Lloyd nodded, and he and Cole both turned to the rest of the ninja and said in unison, "Be careful. This could still be a trap."

The second they realized there was an echo, they both turned and stared at each other in surprise.

"Did you two plan that?" Kai couldn't help but ask.

"Uh, no," said Lloyd.

Cole raised an eyebrow but shrugged it off. "Great minds think alike, I guess."

"Well, that counts you out, Dirt Clod," Jay teased.

"Very funny," said Cole with a mock glare, before turning serious. "Look, if Garmadon wants to talk, we know it'll be with Lloyd. Since that's what we were going for anyway, I say we go along with it, but when things start going south, be ready to fight back. Also, Nya, we need you to be our eyes in the sky for any backstabbing."

The rest of them nodded in acknowledgment, and something finally clicked in Lloyd's head.

Kids don't lead ninja teams.

It hadn't occurred to him before now (though it really should have) but with the ninja here describing his counterpart as a small child, it was highly unlikely that he was the leader of this team. And while Nya was next in charge in his world, she vehemently was not a ninja in this one, making her being the leader here unlikely as well.

It never came to mind to question who was in charge if that were the case. Though, as far as leaders go, he figured Cole was a good choice. While this one seemed more energetic and open than the one he was used to, if he had the same sturdy dependability of his Cole then he would make a strong leader in his own right. His Cole had simply never been interested in such a thing, and there had never been a situation where they needed him to step up.

It was something to consider for the future, but now he needed to focus on the mission. If this didn't work, getting him and the other Lloyd switched back would become a whole lot harder.

Hopefully, his alter-dad would see it that way too.

It quickly became clear that Lloyd had been right about Garmadon wanting to talk. That, or this was a very poorly disguised trap.

Upon arriving at the station, the Serpentine, who had been making a ruckus outside the building, immediately turned to run inside. But they didn't run as fast as the ninja knew the snakes could go. Instead, they were very deliberately attempting to lead them all in different directions.

At Cole's behest, none of them went off alone, instead splitting into groups of two and three. Lloyd found himself with Zane, running through the upper levels of the studio chasing a Serpentine carrying something that sounded like a very fake baby in his arms.

It couldn't have been more obvious if they tried.

Finally, the Serpentine ducked into a room at the end of the hall, and the two ninja pulled to a stop in front of it.

"This is it," said Zane. "I sense Garmadon is close by."

"I wouldn't bet against it," Lloyd agreed. He then glanced over at the nindriod. "Listen, when I talk to Garmadon, I… might say things you won't like."

Zane studied him, his expression betraying nothing. "How so?" he asked evenly.

"If it comes down to it, I'm going to threaten him," said Lloyd, rubbing his right arm unconsciously. "But it's a threat you probably won't like either. Just know I have no intention of going through with it, but you'll need to play along."

Zane remained stoic but nodded. Lloyd didn't fail to note that the nod was simply of acknowledgment, not agreement.

Man, did this Zane have a better poker face than his own.

Swallowing down any indecision, Lloyd shoved the door open and the two stepped inside.

It was nice to see both this Garmadon and his father shared a similar flair for the dramatics.

It looked like the room's regular use was as a set for some fantasy show. The walls were made to look like the great hall of a grand castle, complete with an ornate throne at the end of it.

And guess who was lounging in said throne, the Mega Weapon held lazily in his hand.

"Lord Garmadon," said Lloyd in a greeting that was just on the edge of polite.

Zane, meanwhile, dodged an attempted sneak attack from the Serpentine they'd followed to get here, and a scuffle started in the background.

Lord Garmadon studied Lloyd up and down, his face cold and stern before it melted into disappointment.

"You are still adamant I am not the father you know?" he asked. "I had hoped spending time with the ninja would have cleared your head… Unless they led you astray intentionally."

He sent a suspicious glare at Zane, who was in the process of pinning the Serpentine to the wall with his shurikens. The dark lord then tightened his grip on his Mega Weapon threateningly.

Lloyd stepped forward deliberately, both to block his view of Zane, and to seem less threatening.

"We did clear things up, but not in the way you seem to think," he said, holding up his hands to show he had no intention of fighting.

"Oh?" said Garmadon, his glowing red eyes resting on the Green Ninja once again.

Lloyd took a deep breath to steady himself. "My name is Lloyd Garmadon," he said. "I'm sixteen, and my whole life I've lived in Ninjago City with my mother where I'm a student at Ninjago High."

He saw Garmadon's eyes widen at the inconsistency between his life and his counterpart's, but he continued regardless. "For the last few years, I've been the leader of the Secret Ninja Force, a team created by my Uncle Wu to stop my father, Lord Garmadon, from conquering the city, and then all of Ninjago. We finally stopped him for good and made peace a few months ago. I was actually visiting him when I suddenly found myself here in this world."

Lord Garmadon stared at him as comprehension slowly dawned on him. "A world where we didn't have to fight each other…" he said, looking at his weapon with new understanding. "You were brought here from another realm."

"And your son, this world's Lloyd Garmadon, is likely back in mine," Lloyd concluded with a nod. He then stood tall as he made his demand. "That is why we need you to agree to a ceasefire effective immediately."

That got Garmadon's attention focused solely on him. "And why would I ever agree to that?" he asked.

"Because I'm the only way you'll ever see your son again," Lloyd said bluntly.

If looks could kill, Lloyd would be a stain on the ground right now.

"Is that a threat," demanded Garmadon, looking like he wanted to use the Mega Weapon on him now.

Lloyd quickly shook his head. "No, it's the simple truth," he said firmly. "I'm the only one in this Ninjago that knows which world your son is in, but the ninja and I can't, in good conscience, leave this world undefended long enough to go get him. Not with your constant threat on the horizon."

Garmadon's glare didn't lessen. "And were I to simply use the Mega Weapon to bring my son back to me?" he asked.

Lloyd eyed the weapon warily. "You could try, but would that really be him?" he asked. "We've established he's not the only Lloyd Garmadon out there, and from what I've heard about your Mega Weapon, it hasn't really worked out for you so far, has it?"

Garmadon bristled but couldn't deny it.

"Also, we do not trust you," said Zane, who, it seems, couldn't help but throw in his two cents as well as he walked to stand beside Lloyd, having finished his fight.

"And if I refuse?" asked Garmadon testily. "If I were to lie, and conquer this world while you were away fetching my son?"

At that, Lloyd looked him dead in the eye. "I've always wanted a little brother," he said casually.

Garmadon froze, and Zane's head whipped around to stare at him in shock.

Lloyd shot the Ice Ninja a look that he hoped conveyed that this was where he needed to play along.

"If you don't do this," Lloyd said slowly, his face impassive. "Then I'll be forced to assume he'll be safer staying in my world. A world conquered by evil is no place for a child to grow up. He would already have a family who'd want him there, and my father, unlike you, has sworn off evil. Our world is safe, and he'd be happy there. And yes, that is a threat."

Zane stared at him for a long moment. "It does sound like the perfect place to train him without interruptions," he conceded slowly, though only Lloyd could tell he wasn't being sincere. "The other ninja and I would not need to worry for his safety as we took Ninjago back."

"You'd steal my son from me!" Garmadon shouted.

"Do you even care?!" Lloyd snapped back, glaring at him. "You're evil! What's one kid when you have the opportunity to conquer all of Ninjago!"

Lord Garmadon was seething! "I admit to my own faults," he said in a bitingly dangerous tone. "The evil that runs through my veins may be strong, but do not ever accuse me of not caring for my son!"

Lloyd blinked at the comment, but he couldn't help but feel something inside him soften into a bittersweet sentiment at those words. At least the Lloyd here hadn't had to grow up thinking his father didn't love him.

"I'm glad to hear that," he said with such honesty that it took both Garmadon and Zane aback. "Will you agree to the ceasefire so that we can get him?"

Garmadon looked like he was literally at war with himself over the prospect, before saying, "Very well, a truce. I will not attack Ninjago while you and the ninja fetch my son so that he can return and fulfill his destiny." He then waved his hand in clear dismissal.

Zane's expression brightened, and he turned to walk away, but Lloyd hesitated, confused.

"What… destiny?" he asked slowly.

Zane stopped short, and Garmadon looked a lot like Lloyd's dad's sharks did when they smelled blood in the water.

"The ninja didn't tell you of the Prophecy of the Green Ninja?" he asked, a slow smirk spreading across the evil lord's face.

Lloyd's bewildered look was answer enough.

Zane sighed and turned back to face them both. "It was not our intention to keep it from you," he said honestly. "We had assumed such a thing was the same in both our worlds. It wasn't until training earlier we realized we were wrong."

"One ninja will rise above the others and becomes the Green Ninja, the ninja destined to defeat the Dark Lord," Lord Garmadon quoted with a sneer. "I was there when destiny itself confirmed my son was the Green Ninja. The one chosen to defeat me."

Lloyd stared at them. "You expect him to fight you?" he demanded. "He's just a kid! I didn't even start fighting until I was twice his age!"

"It is not a choice any of us made willingly," Garmadon replied, clear regret in his voice. "But it is what destiny has demanded."

"Destiny can kiss my cat's litter box!" Lloyd said, looking like he might be considering keeping his counterpart after all. "You can't let a kid grow up with that hanging over his head!"

"We don't like it either, but what choice do we have?" asked Zane helplessly. "Garmadon has tried repeatedly to stop Lloyd from achieving this, but all he has done thus far is make Lloyd stronger. We want to protect him and would rather it be any of us instead, but no matter what any of us do it always comes back to this being his fate."

Lloyd glared at the floor, his mind racing, trying to find a solution for all this. His own life sucked enough, he couldn't let another version of him go through something potentially worse. Especially not a little kid!

Finally, he said, "I'll do it."

Zane and Garmadon stared at him in shock. Unsure if they'd heard him correctly.

"What?" asked Zane.

"I said, I'll do it," Lloyd said, turning to face Garmadon with a determined glare. "If 'destiny' wants Lloyd Garmadon to fight you so bad, then I'll fight you in his place. There's more than one 'Green Ninja'."

Garmadon stared at him, before shaking his head in laughing. "Even from another world, you are my son. No doubts about that," he said fondly, remembering previous times his own son had stood defiantly before him with the same expression on his face. "Very well, Green Ninja. Go and return my son to me."

Lloyd nodded resolutely and turned on his heel to march out the door, Zane trailing behind, still boggled by what he'd just witnessed.

As Lloyd reached the door, he paused.

"You know, there was a prophecy in my world that got completed recently," he said slowly. "It wasn't about me, but one thing we all learned from it was that there are parts of prophecies that can apply to anyone."

Lloyd turned to look over at his alternate father and continued, "The Green Ninja's identity may be set in stone, but I didn't hear your name in it."

Garmadon was staring at him once again. "If I am not the lord in the prophecy, then who?" he asked. "If it could truly apply to anyone, how could it not apply to me?"

Lloyd shrugged. "There will always be more dark lords, and as for making sure it's not you, well… maybe changing your title could help. Can't be you if you're not a dark lord. Count Garmadon has a more threatening ring to it anyway."

With that, he left the room with Zane, leaving Garmadon laughing behind them.

In the Cloud Kingdom, a scribe stared at the scroll before him, unable to decide if he should be fascinated or horrified.

Both. Both were good.

He quickly rolled up the scroll and stashed it away where it would not be easily seen by others, and prayed for the best.

"Nothing will come of it," he told himself. "Centuries of prophecy and planning can't be derailed by the words of one teenage boy."

… Or at least, he hoped not.

Chapter Text

Movie Ninjago

Lloyd was fairly certain that Nya had purposefully driven so fast he left his stomach back at Koko's, but Kai assured him that was just how she usually drove. Something he highly doubted, since he normally loved fast rides.

Still, he didn't miss the smirk she sent him when he hugged the ground once they reached their destination.

Well played.

What followed reminded Lloyd of the times he had been dragged to the doctors for a checkup. He got poked and prodded by several scientists to make sure the dimensional travel didn't do something bad to him. He'd also been scanned by everything one could possibly be scanned by, asked to do some basic exercises, and just examined like a bug in a jar for hours on end. The only slight enjoyment he got was when the scientist's scans seemed to catch on to his powers, and they mistakenly thought it was left over energy from the portal. It was too funny to correct them.

Dr. Gary was leading all of the proceedings, though he didn't look like he was enjoying himself any more than Lloyd was since Garmadon was also there breathing down his neck the entire time.

"I'm not letting some geeks get the bright idea to dissect the kid," the four-armed man explained when asked by Zane. The Ice Ninja and the others had arrived to watch the proceedings as well.

"If he's still alive, it is vivisection, not dissection," Zane corrected automatically, gaining disturbed looks from all those around.

"Whatever," Garmadon grumbled.

Needless to say, by the end of it, Lloyd was very annoyed, restless and cranky. Fortunately for him, he knew the best way to work off steam.

Pranks.

He wasn't stupid. He knew better than to try and pull pranks on anyone in the lab. That was just asking to be blown to Kingdom Come.

Fortunately for him, Master Wu had parked that world's version of the Destiny's Bounty outside the facility, and all the ninja were milling around it while they waited to hear the results of the tests. All of them were perfect targets.

The first thing he did was simple but effective. He switched around all the salt and sugar in the Bounty. If this world's Wu was obsessed with tea even half as much as his uncle, then he wouldn't have to wait long to see the results.

Next, he considered getting back at Nya for the wild ride that morning, but he soon dismissed the thought. Unfortunately, she knew he'd want to get her back and would be on her guard. Unless the opportunity arose, he was unlikely to catch her in a prank anytime soon.

So he switched his sights to Jay. It was time to break out the classics.

After gathering what he needed, he wandered over to where Jay was sitting and playing with a Rubix cube.

"Hi, Jay," he said brightly.

The Lightning Ninja looked up in surprise. "Oh, hey Little Lloyd. I didn't see you there. Did you want something?"

"Nah," said Lloyd with a nonchalant shake of his head. "Cole just asked me to give you this."

He then tossed Jay a can of nuts, making him nearly drop his Rubix cube to catch it.

Jay looked at the can, then sent Lloyd a strange look. "He asked you to give me this?" he asked.

Worried he'd already been found out, Lloyd forced himself to keep an innocent expression on his face. "Yep," he replied. "He said you might be hungry."

Jay stared at him a moment longer before a smile broke on his face. "That's great!" he said. "If he's talking to you that much, it must mean he likes you. Normally it takes Cole forever to warm up and say more than one answers to anyone. And that's just if they ask him something first."

Lloyd tensed. Come to think of it, he hadn't heard the Earth Ninja say a single word to him since he'd gotten there. The only times he'd even heard him speak was when he was making a smart remark to someone else. He still hadn't said a word to him the entire morning Lloyd had been there. Now the little Green Ninja was wondering if he should take that personally. Thank goodness Jay still bought it.

The Lightning Ninja then set the can beside him and turned back to his Rubix cube. "Tell Cole I'll eat it in a minute. I'm almost done with this."

Lloyd nodded, not that Jay noticed with his focus on the cube, and scurried away to hide behind a corner and watch.

Soon enough, Jay slotted the correct colors to each side of the cube and put it down to pick up the can.

The results were beautiful.

Jay shrieked his head off when he opened the can and a stream of fake snakes shot out of it on springs.

It was all Lloyd could do to stifle his giggles as he watched the 'brave ninja' gasp and clutch his chest as he tried to recover from the scare. He'd never seen anyone get that worked up over spring snakes.

A scream that loud was sure to attract attention, and sure enough, Cole came hurrying over to see Jay still gathering his wits.

Cole took one look around, saw the empty can and the snakes scattered on the floor, and seemed to realize what happened. He sat down next to Jay and rubbed his back until he caught his breath.

"You okay?" he asked when Jay felt up to speaking.

"Yeah," said Jay, now playing with his Rubix cube with a lot more vigor. "I'm guessing you didn't actually want me to have that can."

Cole frowned and shook his head.

"Figured," said Jay, still twisting the cube in his hand.

Lloyd then beat a hasty retreat in case they decided to come after him.

Part of him wondered why Jay had started playing with his cube again instead of ranting and swearing revenge like the Jay he knew would have done. He discarded the thought quickly, though and focused on the task at hand.

He had other people to prank.

By the time lunch rolled around, he had his next few tricks all lined up.

Everyone decided to eat in the Bounty. Mostly because Koko had shown up, and had dragged Garmadon out of the facility to give the poor scientists some breathing room.

When they were all seated in the Bounty's galley, his first prank came to fruition.

Lloyd was treated to the sight of Master Wu taking a sip of tea, only to promptly spit it out in disgust. Even better, Nya happened to be sitting at the table across from him and got a face full of salty tea.

Double prank impact! Awesome!

Garmadon sure seemed to think so, as he began laughing his head off at his seat at the table, banging it with three of his fists.

Lloyd couldn't help but feel slightly proud. Even if it wasn't his actual father, getting this sort of approval was all he'd ever wanted.

Everyone else either glared at him or tried to help Master Wu and Nya clean up the mess.

Jay reached for the box of napkins, only to fall back with another shriek as more snakes sprung out as soon as he opened it.

It was just as good as the first time he'd gotten him with the same prank. It was really looking like Jay would be an easy target.

Jay seemed to recover quicker this time and grabbed the napkins to give to Nya.

Kai grabbed a handful as well, but when he sat on a chair to help Master Wu, a loud farting sound filled the air. The Fire Ninja turned as red as his uniform.

Whoopie cushions. Classic.

Garmadon was in hysterics at this point, and everyone but Lloyd was glaring at him now.

It was looking like they suspected him of the pranks rather than Lloyd, but no one was ready to say it yet.

No one but Koko, that is, "Did you do this, Garm?" she asked, disapproval clear in her voice, though she looked amused as well.

Zane, who had been helping a jittery Jay with the remainder of the spilled tea, added his two cents, "You have ruined a perfectly good Jay. Look at him, he has anxiety."

Many of the ninja groaned at that, and Cole sent the nindroid a dry look. "Zane, what have we said about memes."

Garmadon managed to lift his head, and replied breathlessly, "No, but man do I wish I did! That was perfect!" He then collapsed in another fit of laughter, and most of the group still looked unconvinced.

All but Nya and Cole, who were both now sending suspicious glances at Lloyd. Koko was also looking over at him with a knowing look, though surprisingly she didn't seem angry. He gave his best innocent look back at all of them.

The chaos eventually died down, and lunch continued, though Master Wu would continuously give longing sighs while staring at his teapot. He had yet to find the sugar.

At least it was calm until Garmadon asked, "Hey, Lil'Loyd, pass me that bowl of chips."

Everyone at the table stopped and turned to look at the former warlord.

"Lil'Loyd?" Kai asked with a raised eyebrow.

Garmadon shrugged. "It's still L-L-O-Y-D, but it's different enough to keep him straight from Luh-Loyd. Besides," he said while gesturing towards Lloyd, "he's a shrimp."

Lloyd looked at Garmadon with a betrayed expression.

"I believe I hear three Ls in that name," said Zane.

Garmadon scowled at him. "Then you need to get your hearing checked 'cause nobody asked you," he said defensively.

"Well, I think that's adorable," said Nya, rubbing salt in the wound. She then raised her hand in the air. "All in favor of making that his official nickname?"

She was already getting back at him for the salty tea in her face. He was going to need to step up his game.

Despite Lloyd's protests, everyone else raised their hand in the air and said, "Aye."

It was official. That nickname was here to stay, and Lloyd was not happy about it.

Time to pull his next trick.

Using a muted cell phone he'd stolen from a scientist who was particularly sadistic about poking him with needles (he'd give it back later), he checked the proper app was downloaded and dialed a number from a list Kai had given him last night, hit play on a recording, and waited.

Zane perked up as his cell phone began ringing, and with a brief frown at the unfamiliar number, answered it.

Immediately the ear-splitting screech of dial-up began blasting out of the phone's speakers, making many of those at the table wince at the sound.

Surprisingly, Zane didn't even flinch at the terrible noise.

And then, to Lloyd's surprise, he started speaking into the phone as if holding a conversation.

"Hello… I'm fine, my friends are fine too… In a few hours, we're waiting for test results… Pizza would be nice…"

Was… was he pranking him back? Was this some kind of reverse prank?

Maybe not, as everyone around him was watching this like it was normal.

Finally, the dial-up noise ran out, and Zane said, "I love you, bye," and hung up.

Lloyd could only stare dumbly at them. "What?" he asked in a lost tone.

"Anything up with your mom, bro?" asked Kai casually as he continued eating the last of his lunch.

Zane shrugged. "Oh, the usual things mothers ask regular teenagers. How am I doing, how are all of you, when will I be home, what do I want for dinner… she seemed less interested in my replies today, but she can do that when she's stressed."

He said it all like getting calls like that were a common everyday occurrence. And from the looks on everyone's faces, this was an everyday occurrence.

Either they were all working together to reverse prank him, or this Zane's mom really did sound like dial-up.

He wasn't sure which was more unlikely.

He spent so much time pondering it, that the rest of lunch went by in relative peace.

At least until Jay got up to get something from the fridge, and upon opening the door he was once again assaulted by snakes and screamed.

Definitely, an easy target, that one.

There was still one person he hadn't pranked yet today.

Cole.

Who still hadn't spoken a word to Lloyd, and actually seemed to be actively ignoring his presence.

Lloyd was intent to get him one way or another, and since the Earth Ninja seemed determined not to look at him, that just made his job all the easier. He'd give him something he couldn't ignore.

And so, Lloyd sat in wait in a bush. He'd seen Cole leave to go into the forest surrounding the facility for something a few minutes ago, and he was set to come back any second now.

Target in sight!

The unsuspecting Earth Ninja was walking casually down the path, completely oblivious to Lloyd's presence.

Lloyd grinned and readied the water balloon in his hand. Let's see Cole ignore this.

But just as he hefted his arm back to throw, Cole turned and stared him dead in the eye.

Lloyd froze like a deer caught in the headlights, his arm still raised with the balloon in his hand.

Busted!

Cole didn't move, only continued to stare Lloyd down with a piercing look, slowly raising one eyebrow as if daring him to follow through.

The more he stared, the more nervous Lloyd became. Suddenly he was very aware this Cole looked strong enough to snap him like a twig. How this Cole seemed a lot less friendly than the gruff but goofy one he was used to. How this Cole looked angry.

Lloyd took a step back, then two, then he dropped his water balloon and ran.

Or at least, he tried to. Before he could go far, he felt a strong grip on the back of his hoodie stop him in his tracks.

He was so busted!

Before he could protest, Cole lifted him up, hefted him over his shoulder, and began to walk away. There was little Lloyd could do aside from hanging helplessly like a sack of potatoes.

Maybe he should have just pranked Nya again after all.

Chapter Text

Show Ninjago

With Garmadon's blessing to travel, it wasn't long before they'd gathered supplies and the carriage was ready to fly.

There was just one final problem before they left.

The Ultra Dragon was not having it.

The four-headed dragon had been antsy since the moment this world's Lloyd had vanished, and even now they were being fussy about letting any of the ninja near them. One head always was welcoming to at least one of the ninja, but if they tried to get all four of them to agree on anything, it was chaos.

"It makes sense, I guess," Nya said after another failed attempt to attach the carriage to the dragon. "Ultra is Lloyd's dragon. They like us alright, but they really only follow his orders."

Cole made his way forward, starting with the head he knew best. Kai, Jay, and Zane had all tried their hand at it before him, and Lloyd hadn't been allowed to. Not that the Green Ninja hadn't wanted to give it a shot, but no one had missed the suspicious looks the Ultra Dragon had been giving their dimensional visitor. They didn't want to risk him getting his head bit off.

"Come on, Rocky," said Cole as he rubbed the earth dragon head fondly. "Tell the others to help us. We want Lloyd back just as much as you do."

The head named Rocky cooed happily under Cole's hand, but the ice head, Shard, snapped when Cole tried to get close.

Cole stepped back dejected at the lack of success. He and the Masters of Fire, Lightning, and Ice all huddled up to find a solution while Nya and Lloyd watched off to the side.

"Maybe if all four of us calm each head at once?" Kai suggested, scratching his head.

"Can't," said Jay. "We need at least five sets of hands to attach the harness to them. Lloyd, Nya and Sensei Wu can't do that by themselves."

Outside their huddle, Nya's eyes widened as she saw something, and she tried to cut in. "Guys?"

"Maybe we can wait until they're asleep and put it on them," suggested Zane.

"Guys!"

"Nah, that won't work," said Kai. "Flame would get cranky when he wakes up, and probably burn the carriage."

"Guys!"

Cole scratched his chin thoughtfully. "Well, what if we…"

"GUYS!"

That got their attention, and they all looked over at Nya. The Samurai gave them an annoyed look and silently pointed.

They followed her gaze and saw Lloyd was now approaching the dragon.

"Lloyd! What are you-!" Jay started to shout, but Cole clapped his hand over his mouth to cut him off.

"Quiet!" the Master of Earth hissed. "You could startle Ultra!"

They all watched in tense silence as Lloyd continued to get closer.

All four heads of the dragon saw him coming, and let out a warning growl.

Lloyd froze at the sound, took a deep breath, and began speaking in a hushed tone, occasionally clicking his tongue and cooing sweet nothings at the dragon.

The Ultra Dragon still eyed him suspiciously but allowed Lloyd to get closer…

And closer…

And closer…

Until Lloyd reached out and began scratching two heads just so.

Immediately both heads let out the dragon equivalent of a purr, and the other two, feeling jealous, began clamoring for attention.

The four ninja and one samurai stared as the once hostile dragon was now begging for chin scratches and belly rubs.

"Okay? One of these days this kid will stop surprising us," said Kai.

"Is this another Master Builder thing?" asked Cole.

"I don't see how," said Zane.

"It's not Master Building," Lloyd called to them from where he was obliging the Ultra Dragon. "It's just… They really reminded me of my cat when I first got her. I thought I could maybe coax them into trusting me like I did for her."

"Uhh, I think there's a pretty big difference between the Ultra Dragon and a cat," said Jay. "Emphasis on BIG!"

Lloyd snorted and looked very amused. "You have no idea."

Cole glanced over at the others. "You feel like we're missing something?" he asked.

"With this guy, all the time," replied Kai.

"Okay, boys, let's get this dragon hitched up," said Nya, moving to the carriage straps. The boys moved quickly to follow her.

Soon, everyone and everything was loaded up except for Sensei Wu.

"You're not coming, sensei?" asked Cole from the window of the carriage as they prepared for flight.

"I'm afraid not," said Sensei Wu. "Even with my brother's vow, I feel it may be pertinent for someone to stay behind and watch over Ninjago in your absence."

"Do you want me to stay and help you?" Nya offered, though she looked slightly disappointed to do it.

"Thank you, but no. This task is by far the more dangerous one. It would be better if you had all the help you could get," Sensei Wu replied.

"We'll be back before you know it, Sensei," said Kai confidently.

"And we'll have Lloyd too," added Jay.

"Thank you," said Sensei Wu, stepping back so that the Ultra Dragon had room to take off. "And good luck."

Lloyd, who had been deemed Ultra's new favorite, cracked the reigns, and the dragon took off into the air, pulling its carriage behind it.

Flying in the carriage was a little more turbulent than they had expected. Especially as Ultra picked up speed to open the portal.

When the dragon and carriage burst out of the other side, they found themselves looking down at a colorful world with a glistening green city off in the distance. Below them, heading into the city, was a cheerful yellow road, where, if they looked more closely, four figures were gleefully skipping down it and seemed to be singing, though they were too far away to make out the words.

Needless to say…

"This is not my home," said Lloyd, glancing around in interest. "I have no idea where we are."

"We're not in Ninjago anymore, Lloyd," said Nya. "That's for sure."

At that moment, Ultra had to swerve to avoid hitting a swarm of flying monkeys.

"Definitely not any Ninjago," said Cole. "Let's try somewhere else."

Ultra Dragon sped up and they shot through another portal.

They came out high above a castle by a lake and a forest with a large stadium set up nearby. A dark-haired boy on a broomstick being chased by another dragon nearly flew right into their carriage but managed to avoid them just in time. The dragon chasing him, a particularly bad-tempered and spiky fire dragon, was not so lucky, and all four of Ultra's heads had to blast it off course so it wouldn't knock them out of the sky.

The boy on the broomstick stared at them through a pair of round glasses. "Bloody he-," he started to say, but the spiky dragon set its sights back on him, and the boy turned his broom to race back to the stadium.

"I'm guessing this isn't your Ninjago either?" said Kai.

"Nope," said Lloyd, staring down at the scene in fascination.

"Do you think we should help him?" asked Jay, watching the boy still being chased by the dragon.

At that moment, the boy seemed to scoop something gold off the ground, and raucous cheers erupted from the stands. Immediately several people came out and began restraining the angry dragon from doing any more harm.

"It appears they have it handled," said Zane, and they vanished through another portal.

Only to come out in SPACE, yet they could all breathe for some reason.

In front of them was a large space station the size and shape of a moon with several smaller spaceships flying around it, attacking it.

Jay lit up at the sight. "Oh is this Star Wars? Lloyd, I always thought you had so much in common with-"

"NOPE!" said Lloyd, and Ultra was immediately shooting through another portal, all while Lloyd rubbed his right arm and continued to chant, "Nope! Nope! Nope! Nope! Nope!"

Only to come out in a city that was clearly not Ninjago City being attacked by aliens flying down from a portal in the sky.

"This is going to be harder than we thought," said Cole as they watched a big angry green man leap up from the ground to take out what looked like a massive floating alien whale.

"Yeah," agreed Lloyd. "Looks like it."

They stopped to help a bit with the alien invasion, but the local heroes seemed to have it mostly well in hand, and soon they were through another portal once again.

Several portals later, the poor Ultra Dragon was exhausted from both opening rifts and pulling them along, so in the next world, they decided to stop for the night in a jungle on a volcanic island. Sadly, it was not one Lloyd recognized from his Ninjago either (his father made a habit on keeping an eye on all of the world's volcanoes, active or otherwise, in case his somehow needed replacing… that or if one of them just looked cooler).

The second they touched down, the Ultra Dragon demanded to be detached from the carriage and given food, and upon eating it, Rocky the Earth Head used his breath to cover the entire dragon in a stone shelter, and they were immediately dead to the world from exhaustion.

With the dragon taken care of, the rest unloaded the camping supplies and started setting up camp.

"I believe it is safe to guess there may be more than sixteen realms, unlike what the First Spinjitzu Master had thought," said Zane as they worked.

"Well, he did die a loooong time ago," said Jay. "Some more might have popped up after all that time."

"Or maybe he only counted the ones connected to our realm," suggested Nya.

"Whatever it is, we need to be ready for anything," said Kai. "We're not stopping until we find our Lloyd."

"I'd like getting home soon too," Lloyd agreed, pretending not to notice Kai had never called him by his own name, and only ever referred to his counterpart. "You guys are nice, but I miss my own friends… and my family… and my cat."

Jay grinned at him. "Hey, who says it has to be either/or? Once we know which world you're in, we can visit you on Ultra anytime."

Lloyd flashed him his own smile. That… that would be nice actually. If there was one thing spending his youth being hated had taught him, it was to value every real friend he got. He could already tell he would miss these guys once they parted ways.

"Besides," said Zane. "How would you keep your vow to defeat our Garmadon if we lost all contact?"

That had everyone but Zane and Lloyd freeze in place, in some cases in mid-step.

"Wait, what?" asked Kai, dropping the pile of firewood he'd been gathering.

Lloyd and Zane exchanged a look, realizing they'd forgotten to mention that part after they left the station.

They finished making camp while Zane and Lloyd recounted their entire conversation with Lord Garmadon, and what Lloyd had vowed to do to protect his counterpart. By the time everything was set up and Zane was cooking their dinner over the fire (while simultaneously politely discouraging Cole from 'helping'), the entire story was complete.

"You'd really do that for him?" asked Kai from his side of the campfire. "You've never even met him."

"No," said Lloyd, rubbing his arm as he stared into the campfire. "But I know my own life. I know what it's like to grow up being the son of the most hated guy in Ninjago. I know how hard is to fight your father for the good of everyone. Trust me, it sucks. I can't let another kid go through what I did. That's why I'll do it."

"But…" said Cole, looking like he didn't want to say it. "You don't have any powers."

Lloyd shrugged. "It doesn't matter. I'll still find a way."

It might have been a trick of the light, but Lloyd almost thought he saw a hint of respect in Kai's face when he said that. "Ninja never quit," the Fire Ninja said with an amused tone.

Lloyd nodded to him in agreement, before his face broke into a grin. "Besides. If I do this, it won't just be me you get to go against him. I might not have powers, and yours may be on hold, but my friends all still have theirs. We'll show your Garmadon why the Ninja Force is the Ultimate, Ultimate Weapon."

"Ultimate, Ultimate Weapon?" Nya had to ask.

"It makes sense in context," said Lloyd.

"So about the versions of us in your world," said Cole as Zane served them their food. "You never got to tell us about them."

Lloyd's expression turned to something that could only be described as homesick, but he obliged. To start, he looked over at Cole, and said, "My Cole is the epitome of cool."

Cole perked up at those words and grinned. "Oh really, tell me more."

Lloyd's expression turned amused at his enthusiasm. "Well," he continued. "I'm pretty sure nothing can phase him. I mean he once saw Dad doing the Dance of Doom on top of a giant shark in the middle of downtown while wearing his volcano pajamas. Everyone was staring and freaking out, but Cole didn't even blink."

Wasn't that a mental image they'd never thought they'd see.

"He can be really sarcastic too, that is, when or if he speaks to you at all. The way he talks and acts you'd think he just doesn't care," Lloyd added, looking wistful. "But he listens and remembers everything, and is just this constant pillar of support."

Cole was unsure how he was supposed to reply to that.

Instead of waiting for an answer, Lloyd turned to Jay, who looked the most eager to hear about his counterpart. "Jay is probably the smartest guy I know," he said, making this Jay preen. "But he has anxiety really bad. It doesn't help that he says whatever he thinks, and when he gets super freaked out he really puts his foot in his mouth. Still, he's honest to a fault, and even though so much stuff scares the heck out of him, he's still there fighting alongside us and helps wherever he can. I think that makes him pretty brave."

"Sounds pretty close to our Zap Trap, here," said Cole, elbowing Jay playfully.

"Excuse you, I do not have anxiety," Jay protested.

Lloyd looked amused at their antics, before turning to Nya. " My Nya is awesome," he said as though this were a fact of life. "She's a massive adrenaline junkie, and if it'll give her a thrill, she's all for it," he added, with an amused expression like he was remembering some of her thrill-seeking escapades. "She's the kind of person who can do anything once she sets her mind to it, and she can be a real show off sometimes. She's also crazy smart too. Like I said before, we'd all be lost without her, and it's why she's the second in command of the team."

Nya looked flattered for her own counterpart, though she still didn't quite know how to feel about the idea of being a ninja herself. She had long resigned herself that being Samurai X was her calling.

Lloyd then turned to Kai, who was trying not to show how interested he was. "Kai is probably the friendliest guy I know," he began, startling all of them with his words.

"This guy? Friendly?" Jay asked incredulously, earning a glare from Kai.

"Remembering how he acted when we first met, it is not a word I would use to describe him," Zane agreed, making Kai glower at them both.

Lloyd just laughed. "Nope, my Kai is super friendly."

He leaned in like he was about to share a big secret with the rest of them. "He's a hugger," he said with a mock whisper and a grin.

The rest of the ninja laughed at the mere idea of their prickly hothead doing such a thing.

"He tries to be cool, but really he's kind of a dork," Lloyd continued as they snickered. "And he's always trying to make a friend or cheer people up. He can also be pretty stubborn and protective. I once saw him drop kick my dad in the face just 'cause he shoved Nya during a fight."

"Now that sounds more like me," said Kai.

Lloyd spared him a grin, but then his face grew slightly melancholy as he said his last bit. "He's pretty much the big brother I never had."

There was a moment of awkward silence. They had all seen how Lloyd and Kai's interactions had been strained since the switch.

Finally, Lloyd shook himself and turned to the last ninja. "Zane is… really perky," he said, trying to find the proper words to describe his friend. "It was pretty obvious from the start that he's a robot and he kinda tries too hard to be normal, but that never mattered to us."

"It was the opposite for us," Jay piped up. "We had no idea he was a robot until we found his blueprints in a tree."

"Not even I was aware of the fact," Zane admitted. "I am curious to hear how I would be if I had known from the beginning."

Lloyd could only shrug. "Zane is Zane," he said. "He's cheerful, blunt, funny when he's not trying to be and kinda cringy when he is. He's willing to help anyone out, no matter what. We can always count on him for answers and to give us the hard truth when we need to hear it."

He then gave a small smirk. "Never question the all-knowing nindroid with internet access."

The others laughed at that.

As they did, Lloyd couldn't help his own curiosity and asked, "About my own counterpart, what's, uh, what's he like?"

The ninja exchanged glances and their expressions turned to ones of mock seriousness.

"He was such a brat," said Jay bluntly.

Lloyd, taken aback by those words, shrunk slightly. "Oh?"

"We all honestly thought he was just like his dad at first," said Cole.

"The way he was behaving back then certainly didn't help," added Zane.

"Oh," said Lloyd, shrinking further in his seat.

"But then we took him in and started getting to know him," said Nya with a fond smile. "And we learned all about what he'd been through, and why he was acting like he did."

"He thought we were going to dump him just like everyone else in his life had," said Cole. "It took us a while to prove him wrong."

Lloyd perked up slightly at that.

"Along the way, we found out he's actually a really great kid, and he really brought us together as a team," said Kai fondly. "He's pretty smart, funny, and tries his best at everything he does."

Lloyd grinned in response.

"Even if he complains about it the whole time," said Jay with a laugh. "He's still a kid after all."

"You complain just as much as he does, Jay," said Cole. "What's your excuse."

At Jay's squawk of protest, they all laughed again and finished the last of their food.

But as Lloyd carried his dishes to the bucket they were going to use to clean them, he paused when he saw the water ripple.

And then it rippled again…

And again…

The next time it rippled, there was an accompanying shake of the earth, like a small quake.

Lloyd's eyes widened in recognition, and he dropped the plates. "Something's coming!" he called to the others. "Something big!"

The ninja and samurai were immediately on their guard. "How big?" asked Cole, grabbing his scythe, feeling the vibrations getting closer.

Lloyd didn't need to answer. Jay did it for him with a cry of fright.

They all followed his gaze to see two large glowing eyes staring out at them from the darkness. A low growl accompanying them menacingly.

Then, to the ninja's horror, out of the shadows stepped a massive Tyrannosaurus-Rex.

And it looked hungry!

Chapter Text

Movie Ninjago

Whatever Lloyd had been expecting Cole to do, taking them back down into Meowthra's tunnel was not it.

Yet, here they were, on the edge of Meowthra's bed as the cat purred nearby, her large body blocking any view of the volcano above them as fish swam all around outside the glass.

(Art by walmart_ninja)

With a surprisingly gentle ease, Cole plopped Lloyd on the plush side of the bed.

Lloyd opened his mouth to complain about the treatment, but Cole beat him to the punch, speaking to him for the first time since Lloyd had arrived.

"Want to talk about it?" he asked in a voice devoid of his usual sarcasm.

Lloyd stared at him.

Cole said nothing more and simply sat down beside him, a clear invitation to start talking.

"Are you mad at me?" Lloyd couldn't help but ask. He'd thought the Earth Ninja was angry with him only a moment ago, but now… Angry people didn't offer to talk about your problems with you.

"Annoyed," said Cole shortly. "I can get over it if I know why."

Lloyd bit his lip and tried to figure out how to start.

After a long moment of silence, Cole spoke again, "Did we do something wrong?" he asked.

Lloyd immediately shook his head. "No, you guys have been great," he said. "Well, except the Lil'Loyd bit. That's dumb."

Cole raised his eyebrow at him, nonverbally asking 'Then why are you acting out?'

Lloyd looked down at his feet as he thought of how to respond. "Everyone leaves me eventually," he admitted slowly. "My mom left, Darkley's kicked me out, so did the Serpentine, the ninja didn't even like me at first, and my father… People only ever want me around to give them something, and then after they get it they leave me behind…"

"And it doesn't hurt as much if you can see it coming," said Cole in understanding. "Do I need to punch myself in the face?"

It took Lloyd a moment to decipher that question, but then couldn't help but giggle at it. "No!" he said. "They used to not like me before. Not that I blame them, I was being a jerk. But now they have to like me."

"Why?" asked Cole.

Lloyd paused. He was then reminded that this ninja team still had no clue about his powers or that dumb prophecy. For once since those stupid Golden Weapons started glowing around him he was free of the expectations of what he was supposed to be. Of who he was supposed to be. Expectations he knew he fell short of.

It was nice.

"I don't want to talk about it," was all he said.

Cole shrugged. "Fair enough," he said. "Don't keep it too bottled up. Last time our Lloyd-"

He broke off as he saw Lloyd's face fall at the mention of his counterpart.

How could he forget? Even without the Green Ninja Prophecy, there were still other expectations he was falling short of.

He was brought out of that melancholy thought when Cole ruffled his hair, his expression saying he was welcome to say what was on his mind.

This time, Lloyd took it without hesitation.

"I'm not him, you know?" Lloyd said, the rant that had been building inside him all day finally coming out. "I kept hearing about it from the scientists, and mentions of it from you guys. I even looked some stuff up online this morning at Kai's place. All I could find was stuff about how great the Green Ninja is, how he's such a hero. How he saved the city from both Meowthra and Not-Dad in one swoop. Koko and Not-Dad both love him a lot. They never left him, and Not-Dad even loves him enough to stop being evil. He has everything I've ever wanted and…"

He trailed off and furiously scrubbed his eyes to avoid letting out tears. "It's not fair!" he finished, feeling pathetic.

Cole pulled him closer to his side and Lloyd huddled next to him, still fighting the tears.

"You looked up the words 'Green Ninja', didn't you," said Cole slowly. "Not Lloyd Garmadon."

Lloyd frowned, pulling back to stare up into Cole's face in confusion. "What's the difference?" he asked.

Cole didn't reply right away, and instead pulled out his phone, and typed Lloyd's name into a search engine. He then scrolled past all the more recent posts, and handed it over to Lloyd saying, "We used to have secret identities."

Lloyd took the phone and scanned the contents. Then blinked, his eyes widening as he read through all the posts again.

There was so. Much. HATE!

There were all sorts of articles, videos and just every possible thing on the internet doing their very best to drag his name through the mud. People proclaiming they hated him. People who, apparently hadn't even met him personally, cursed the very day he was born.

Cole reached over and tapped on a music video called, 'Boo Lloyd!' On it, a squad of cheerleaders jumped around to music and chanted about how much they despised him. It had millions of views, just as many likes, and as Cole pointed out the date it was posted, Lloyd felt his stomach drop.

It was his birthday.

"Lloyd's life isn't as perfect as you seem to think it is," said Cole in a tired tone. He was glaring at the phone like he wanted to punch the posts in the face, much like he'd offered to do to his counterpart.

"What…?" Lloyd tried to ask. This didn't match at all with what he'd seen online that morning. "What did he do?"

"Didn't need to do anything. He's the son of the evil warlord that used to trash the city and hurt people on a regular basis," said Cole. "Every single person in this city hated Garmadon back in those days, but he lives in a constantly erupting volcanic island, surrounded by shark-infested waters, and had a literal army at his beck and call. They couldn't exactly go to him to air their grievances. Lloyd made an easier target, so they took it all out on him instead."

Lloyd stared back at the phone, the wheels turning in his head. In his mind, it still didn't outweigh the good.

"He still gets both his parents," he said bitterly. "I wouldn't care if everyone hated me. I was raised in Darkley's, all the kids and teachers there hated me, and I could handle it."

Cole raised an eyebrow at that. "Did they all hate you and no one else, or did you all hate each other equally?" he asked.

That gave Lloyd pause. That was true, everyone there had hated everyone else almost equally. There was really no one that was despised above all else. And, come to think of it, they had tried awfully hard to get him back onto their side but were convinced to turn good pretty quickly. Would they have done that if they had truly hated him like these people seemed to?

"As for his parents, well," said Cole with a frown. "Koko has been on his side from day one. She left Garmadon for his sake, and we all know there were days she considered taking Lloyd back to him because of how the city treated him. But Garmadon… For sixteen years, Lloyd was convinced Garmadon didn't give a hoot about him."

Lloyd gaped at Cole as he described the total inversion of what his family life was like.

"No way," he said in denial. His father's love was one of the only constants in his life, surely this Garmadon was the same.

But Cole shook his head. "Secret identities meant Lloyd could ask him while they fought if there was anything Garmadon wanted in the city. The jerk said the only things he wanted were a guitar and a sushi restaurant. When asked about his son, he went on a whole rant about how useless he was."

Lloyd shrank into his hoodie at that. "Oh." Then he frowned. "But he seems to care so much now?"

Cole snorted. "It took a total disaster, a long dangerous journey, and a big emotional moment for Lloyd and him to stop fighting each other and bond. Well, that, and Lloyd nearly lost his entire arm, and then had to save his father from getting eaten by Meowthra."

Lloyd blinked at hearing that and glanced up at the giant cat still watching over them.

She looked back at him and licked her lips.

"For the record," Cole added. "You don't need to worry about anyone here leaving you behind. We already want you around, dumb tricks and all. Koko especially. I heard her talking to Wu about how to get adoption papers for a kid from another dimension. "

Lloyd turned to gape at him instead, before huddling against the Earth Ninja once again. He still wasn't totally convinced of that truth, but… he wanted to believe it for at least a little while longer.

Cole rubbed his back and let him gather himself again before saying more. "However, one thing you're going to have to do is lay off the pranks on Jay. They're not good for him."

Lloyd pulled back to stare at him puzzled. "Why?" he asked. Sure, Jay seemed to overreact to little pranks all the time, but he didn't see anything wrong with that. It just made pranking him more fun.

Cole let out a weary sigh. It looked like he was going to have to talk some more. He'd already spoken more on this cat bed today than he had the entire week.

Still, he looked down at Lloyd and said, "What do you know about anxiety…"

Chapter Text

Jurassic Park

"Uh, Ultra! Wisp!" Jay called to the pile of rocks where their dragon lay slumbering. "We could use a little help!"

All they heard from the rocks was rumbling draconic snores.

"We really wore them out today," said Nya.

"Great!" said Kai sarcastically as he and the others eyed their unwanted visitor. "And we have company over, too."

The T-Rex hadn't come much closer to them other than to stand at the edge of the firelight, sniffing the air. It turned to look over at the rockpile as well, clearly smelling the Ultra Dragon. It probably thought the big, slumbering dragon would make a more filling meal than some tiny humans and a nindroid. But it would soon become clear to the beast that there was no way to reach the Ultra Dragon under their rock shelter and would turn its attention back to them.

It didn't take a genius to see they were at a massive disadvantage against the giant lizard. All of the ninja's weapons would be next to useless against it, and while Nya's Samurai X mech was stowed in the back of the carriage, the dinosaur was sure to snap up one of them before she had a chance to reach it.

Any way you looked at it, fighting would surely lead to the T-Rex having a ninja dinner.

Before it had the chance to go for them, Kai pulled out a smoke bomb from his gi's pocket and held it out for Cole to see. The Master of Earth nodded at the sight, and told the others, "Get ready to run. Make for those trees on the left. It'll be harder for it to fit through and follow us."

The rest of the team nodded, and the ninja pulled their hoods over their head.

"Now!" Cole ordered.

Kai threw the smoke bomb into the fire, making the explosion it caused to be strong enough to engulf the entire clearing.

The T-Rex let out a deafening roar as it lost sight of them in the smoke, and they all made a break for the trees, bursting through the branches and running as fast as their legs could carry them.

Behind them, they could hear the crashing of trees as the dinosaur chased after them, its feet making the ground tremble with each step.

It was gaining on them.

Ninja might be on the menu tonight after all.

Finally, salvation came in the form of a massive ivy-covered wall. It was too high for the T-Rex to step over and looked sturdy enough that it couldn't bash its way through. Best of all, there was a hole at the bottom just big enough for them to squeeze through.

Not a single teen hesitated and dove through the hole like mice being chased by a cat.

Once safely on the other side, they took a moment to catch their breath and make sure they all made it through. On the other side of the wall, they could all hear the T-Rex roar at the loss of its prey.

"Well," said Jay breathlessly. "Scratch being chased and nearly eaten by a dinosaur off my bucket list."

"Why do I actually believe you'd have something like that on there," said Kai dryly from where he was still bent over and wheezing.

"I like to live dangerously," Jay snarked back.

Nya, meanwhile, was taking in their surroundings. "Guys, look at all this."

The boys, having gathered their breath and looked around as well.

They were standing in the front of a large building that looked like the visitor's center of a theme park crossed with a museum. Only, from the decrepit state of everything, no one had actually been there for a very long while. Given what had led them to getting there, that was really no surprise.

"Welcome to Jurassic Park," Zane read aloud from an overgrown sign by the door.

"So this place is, what, a zoo for dinosaurs?" asked Cole incredulously.

"More like this place was a zoo for dinosaurs," said Nya. "No one's been here in ages."

"Gee, I wonder why," said Kai sarcastically, eyeing the wall they'd come through. They could still hear the T-Rex's footsteps on the other side as it lumbered away.

"Something tells me the idea of it was a lot cooler than the reality," Lloyd agreed.

"So what do we do?" asked Jay. "We can't go back to the carriage with that waiting for us outside, and until Ultra wakes up, we have no way off this death trap of a world."

Both Lloyd and Cole once again began to speak in unison. "We should-" but they broke off when they saw the other was talking.

Lloyd sent the Earth Ninja a sheepish glance and waved for him to continue.

Cole raised an eyebrow at the exchange but continued. "We should hole up in there for the night," he said, pointing at the abandoned building before them. "When morning comes, Ultra should be more up for defending us, and with them standing guard we can pack our stuff and get out of here."

"Sounds good to me," said Kai, "But what if there's more of those things running around?"

"That's why it's better to take shelter in there," Lloyd explained, it having been his own plan as well. "I doubt anything that big could fit in there, and we should be able to take on anything more our size."

Jay gulped at that. "More our size?"

Lloyd wordlessly pointed over to a faded mural on the wall showing off a variety of dinosaurs that had no doubt been featured in the park. Several of which had sharp teeth and were much smaller than the one that had just chased them.

"Oh great," grumbled Jay.

"We should barricade ourselves in, just in case," said Nya eyeing the mural warily.

"But not too well, or we might trap ourselves in," added Zane logically.

The rest of them grimaced at the thought.

Still, they carefully picked their way through the abandoned building, looking for a safe room to rest in for the night.

They eventually decided on settling in what used to be the kitchen. There were no easily breakable windows, two doors so they could escape if out of one if anything showed up at the other. They, of course, locked both doors and blocked them with furniture so that nothing could get in unexpectedly.

With that set, they settled down for an uncomfortable night, setting watches of two at a time so they wouldn't be caught unprepared.

The first watch for Zane and Cole went by quietly, and a few hours later, they woke Lloyd and Jay up for the second one.

As Lloyd had learned by now, Jay could not stand long moments of silence, so the two spent their watch a ways away from the others and spoke in hushed tones, only pausing for brief moments if either thought they heard the slightest sound.

"You know," said Jay about an hour into their shift. "I just can't get over how cool this place could be. I mean, I know it failed horribly for obvious reasons, but man, a zoo with actual dinosaurs. What a concept."

Lloyd let out a chuckle but nodded in agreement. "At least until it inevitably went terribly, terribly wrong."

"Well, that's a given," agreed Jay. "But the most mind-blowing thing about it is this," he held up a half-destroyed pamphlet he'd found on the ground. "It's a little hard to make out, but from what I can see people made these dinosaurs using science!"

Lloyd perked up with interest. "They made those things?"

"Sure did," said Jay squinting at the pamphlet. "Cooked them up in a lab somewhere."

"No way," said Lloyd. "How?"

Jay searched the pamphlet. "Apparently, they used blood from fossilized mosquitoes and cloning. How cool is that."

Lloyd was about to agree, but a thought occurred to him and he grimaced. "Whatever you do, don't mention this to my dad when we get to my world. The last thing we need is for him to get the bright idea to have his scientist clone a megalodon or any of those other ancient nightmare sharks."

Jay blinked. "Your dad has scientists? Why do you think he'd make a megalodon specifically?"

Lloyd shrugged. "He's always had an obsession with sharks. Mom says it's because it was my first word as a baby or something, but whatever the case he always attacked the city in something shark-themed. And he needed scientist so build the shark-themed stuff, so, yeah, he has scientists."

"Huh," said Jay thoughtfully, looking at the pamphlet again. He then slowly placed it down on one of the kitchen's counters. "Good point. Maybe we won't mention it in our world either. Don't want anyone to get the bright idea to recreate a grundle or something." He then paled slightly in the dim light. "Or worse, the Great Devourer."

Lloyd blinked at him. "The… Great Devourer?" he asked.

"I mean I know your dad at least isn't dumb enough to bring that thing back, but he's not the only villain in Ninjago, and some of them can be pretty stupid," Jay said, missing the intention of the question.

So Lloyd tried again. "What's the Great Devourer?"

Jay stopped and stared at him. "You don't know-!" he started to exclaim, but Lloyd clapped a hand over his mouth to keep him from waking the others.

"Shhhh," Lloyd hissed, glancing over to make sure no one had woken up. Thankfully, none had.

Pushing the hand away, Jay tried again in a quieter tone. "You don't know about the Great Devourer?"

Lloyd shook his head. Unless that was another name for Jay's version of Meowthra, he had no idea what he could be talking about.

"Really? The Great Devourer," Jay said as if saying the name enough times would jog his memory. "Giant snake. Gets bigger anytime it eats. Turns people it bites into villains. It bit your dad and poisoned him with evil."

"Wait! What-?" Lloyd started to say, and it was Jay's turn to clap a hand over his mouth to muffle the sound.

Cole rolled over in his sleep, but none of them awakened.

As he pulled back his hand, Jay asked, "Is it not the same in your world?"

"I-" Lloyd said, trying to think back to the conversation from when his team had his father trapped in a cage. "He said he got his four arms because he got bitten by a snake that had been bitten by a spider. I just thought either the spider or the snake was radioactive or something. After that, my dad turned evil because everyone treated him like a monster for how he looked."

"So he chose to be evil?" asked Jay.

"Yeah," admitted Lloyd. "And then he chose to stop."

Jay winced. "I guess that's the difference between your Garmadon and ours. Yours had a choice, but with that nasty snake venom in him, ours doesn't, and there's no cure for it either."

"It's one difference, at least," said Lloyd, his mind still whirling from the new information. "But does he really have no choice, or does he just think he doesn't."

Jay opened his mouth to respond, but they both froze as a sound pierced the night air.

It was a high screeching call that set both ninja sitting rigidly in their spots.

Then, it got worse. There was another screeching sound. And another, and another, all of them seemed to answer the first.

Whatever it was, there was a pack of them.

And they were getting closer.

"Up and at'em, Ninja!" Jay called, startling the other ninja awake. "We've got company!"

The others grumbled at being awoken but were soon silenced when they heard the screeches too.

Zane cocked his head as he listened hard to the sounds. "From what I can hear, I sense there are roughly five of them. Maybe six."

"Great, one for each of us," said Kai as he readied his sword.

"What are they?" asked Nya.

"I get the feeling we're going to find out soon enough," said Cole.

The ninja all stood at the ready, eyeing the two doors into the kitchen and watching for any movement through the circular windows set into them.

There was a long moment of silence. No more calls could be heard, and all of the ninja barely dared to breathe they were listening so closely.

They all jumped when there was a sudden thump outside one of the doors. Through the window, they could see a scaly head and one yellow eye stare in at them. The head then turned and they could see a flash of sharp teeth as it made a loud coughing sound.

"It's calling the others," said Cole in realization.

"What is that thing?" Nya demanded.

"Its skeletal structure resembles that of a velociraptor," said Zane. "But the ones that once lived in Ninjago were not that big."

"I get the feeling they super-sized them for the park attractions," said Lloyd.

Though the small window, they could see the shadows of two more raptors as they joined their friend. There was a clicking sound as one of them attempted to open the door, but finding it locked, began bashing itself against it instead. The other two soon joined its efforts, and to the ninja's horror, the door and their barricade was not looking like they would hold.

"Out the other door! Now!" said Cole, and the ninja all turned and ran for the second door.

Nya reached it first, only to jump back and scream as the face of another velociraptor looked in at her. They had forgotten that Zane had heard six of them, and with three at the first door, the rest had circled around to the other. The second door was more solid, but it was clear there would be no escape that way.

"We're trapped!" shouted Jay.

Kai turned to face the first door, his sword glinting in the dim light. "Then we'll fight our way out."

"I do not think that is wise," said Zane. "From what I've read about velociraptors, they were skilled pack hunters, and far faster than anything we've faced. Even with our weapons, they have the advantage."

"Well, what else are we supposed to do?" demanded Kai.

Jay shook his fist at the ceiling. "Cruel science! Why have you betrayed me!"

At Jay's antics, Lloyd glanced over at him and noticed just what he was shaking his fist at.

"The vents!" he said, gaining the rest's attention. Lloyd jumped on top of the counter and pried the grate off one and said, "We'll escape through the vents!"

Without hesitation, the ninja hurried through the opening and began climbing through the tunnels. Lloyd went in last and pulled the grate back into place just as the raptors broke through the door and into the room.

Lloyd jerked back as one leaped at the grate, screeching at him, but was not able to break through fast enough before Lloyd scrambled away.

The vents were rickety with disuse, and there were sections where parts had fallen away, but the ninjas were able to use them to get as far away from the kitchen as they could.

Even so, they could still hear the velociraptors following the sounds they made as they thunked through the metal tunnels.

Finally, they could no longer hear them and came out of the vents on a large plastic catwalk that was overlooking what looked like a science lab.

"This must be where the scientists cloned dinosaurs," said Jay in wonder as he stared down at the wrecked lab.

"Yeah, well, I'm starting to wish they hadn't," said Cole as he pulled himself out of the vent after Jay.

"You're only starting to wish that," said Nya as she came out after him. "I was wishing it the moment we saw that T-Rex."

The rest climbed out and looked around. The lab below them was an utter mess. Exposed cables littered the metallic floor, their insolation having been worn away by time. Various equipment lay broken among them as if someone or something had knocked them all off the tables. Nothing in the room was untouched by damage or time.

Jay let out a whistle at the sight. "Man, with that many cables lying around, their electric bill must have been through the roof. Add metal flooring to that and yikes!"

"What do we do now?" asked Zane, focusing more on the task at hand. "If we stay here, we will inevitably run into those velociraptors again."

"But if we leave, we might run into the T-Rex," said Kai. "And we have no idea if Ultra even realizes we're gone yet."

"Plus, the raptors could still chase us out," added Jay.

Cole looked stressed, and Lloyd couldn't blame him. The part of his brain that was always in leader mode was working frantically to come up with a plan to get them to safety, but so far he was coming up with nothing.

But before either of them could find a solution, a screech below told them the raptors had found them again.

One burst through a large glass window in the lab, followed by five more soon after, and they swarmed beneath the ninja's feet, looking up at them hungrily.

"There's no ladder," said Nya after checking around.

"Then they can't get up here!" said Jay joyfully. "We're safe!"

"Please tell me you didn't say that," said Cole with a groan.

Sure enough, one of the raptors below let out one of its coughing calls from a corner of the room. It then bit down into a frayed wire, its razor-sharp teeth snapping it through.

Immediately, the entire catwalk swayed violently, making them realize that wire was one of the supports holding it up.

"I take it back," said Jay in a panicked tone.

"They're intelligent!" gasped Zane, realizing how smart they would have to be to figure that out.

"Yeah, well, they also want to eat us," said Kai bitterly. "So I wouldn't be too impressed."

"We need to get out of here," said Cole. He then turned to Nya. "Could your Samurai X mech fly us out?"

"It would never reach us in time," said Nya.

Below them, the raptors bit through another wire, and the entire catwalk slightly dipped to one side.

Lloyd stared down at them. Trying to find some solution. There was nothing on the catwalk for him to build with, and he couldn't use the walkway itself without dropping his new friends into the lab. If he jumped down to try and build something, he'd doubtlessly be set upon by raptors before he could even put two things together.

There must be something they could use to get out of this.

Then, his eyes widened as he once again saw what was covering the floor of the lab.

Cables. The entire metal-plated floor was covered in rubberless-cables and knocked-over metal machines.

Exposed cables and metal that could doubtlessly conduct a lot of electricity.

"Jay!" he said, turning to his new friend just as another wire was cut, and the whole walk shuddered.

"What!" Jay said as he started holding onto the railing for dear life.

"You can take all those raptors out at once!" Lloyd called from where he also had the railing in a death grip. "The floor is metal and covered in exposed wires! You can lightning blast them all at the same time!"

All the rest stared at him like he was crazy.

"We told you we don't have our powers anymore!" Jay shouted back. "Without the Golden Weapons-"

"My team thought their powers came from weapons too, but we were wrong!" Lloyd said. "The power was inside us all along. We just needed to focus to let it out!"

"You think we haven't tried that!" Jay cried, the others all voicing their agreement with him.

But Lloyd was undeterred. "You can do this Jay!" he said firmly, giving Jay a grin. "I believe in you! Just look within, find what's already inside and let it out!"

Despite himself, Jay found himself closing his eyes and trying to do what Lloyd said.

But then, the catwalk shook violently again. The section that Nya was standing on gave way and she fell with a shriek.

"Nya!" shouted Kai as he dove for her, barely managing to catch her wrist, and Zane and Cole both needed to grab him so that he didn't go over as well.

Nya clung to her brother's hand for dear life and shrieked again as some of the waiting raptors jumped and snapped at her ankles, trying to pull her down to them.

"Nya!" Jay cried in alarm. He had to do something! He had to help her! If he didn't…

He reached down deep, and something inside him snapped.

Everyone turned to stare as the light of faint sparks began flashing around Jay's form. Jay himself stared down at his hands at the weak lightning bolts emanating from them.

"You can do this, Jay," Lloyd said again. "Focus on lightning and say, 'I've got the power!'"

At any other moment, Jay would have scoffed at how cheesy that line was, but right now he was desperate!

Focusing on his powers as best he could, he felt them building up more and more, his entire body now crackling with electricity.

With a shout of, "I've Got the Power!" he leaped over the side of the catwalk and unleashed all of his element into the cables at once.

The entire room lit up like a Christmas tree, and the velociraptors screeched as they were all simultaneously shocked by who knows how many volts.

"Yes! Lightning, baby!" Lloyd cheered as the others pulled Nya back up and they all watched the show in awe.

Then, the lightning faded, and the once vicious lizards collapsed to the floor.

Seeing it was safe, the others jumped down as well and stared around in amazement.

"Are… are they dead?" asked Nya.

Cole carefully nudged one with his foot. It let out a rattling groan but didn't move.

"They're not dead," said Zane. "Just unconscious."

"They also won't be running anywhere anytime soon," said Kai, examining the electrical burns on their taloned feet. "Not fast, at least."

Everyone let out a huge sigh of relief.

"Let's get out of here," said Cole, and they all hurried to comply, racing for the exit as fast as their legs could carry them.

Unfortunately, something was waiting for them the moment they stepped outside.

Staring at them in the bleak light of dawn was the Tyrannosaurus-Rex from before.

"Oh yeah," said Kai. "Almost forgot about him."

Jay jumped to the front of the group, his hands once again crackling with lightning. "Back foul beast!" he cried, looking like a superhero.

The effect was immediately ruined when he turned back to look at his friends and say, "I've always wanted to say that."

The T-Rex was wary of the lightning, but it still let out a roar so loud they all stumbled backward.

But before they could see if Jay could successfully lightning blast a T-Rex, an answering roar split the air.

This one, though, was familiar.

Bursting out of the trees, the Ultra Dragon shot in their direction with another roar, their fire head blasting at the dinosaur the second they got close and catching it in the leg.

The T-Rex let out a roar of pain and fell on its side.

"ULTRA!" cheered the ninja and Nya, and they ran over to greet their dragon in glee.

Lloyd, however, looked at the downed T-Rex. The burn on its leg looked awful. The raptors inside would recover from their minor burns easily enough, but the Rex would not be so lucky. Without help, infection would set in, and it could lose that leg completely.

"Uh, Lloyd, what are you doing?" asked Nya when she looked back and saw the Green Ninja slowly approaching the T-Rex in a similar fashion to how he'd approached Ultra the day before.

"If someone doesn't wrap its injury it will die," he called back, carefully approaching the injured leg. The T-Rex eyed him warily, but the pain from its burn kept it from moving.

"So?" said Kai. "Are you forgetting that thing tried to eat us?"

"It's just hungry," said Lloyd. "It's an animal doing what animals do. You can't fault it for that."

"I'm pretty sure I can fault it plenty. Get away from that thing!" Cole ordered, but Lloyd ignored him.

Upon reaching the leg, Lloyd pulled out some gauze and burn salve from a pocket in his gi. Being best friends with a pyromaniac meant he was always prepared for such things.

Carefully, and ready to jump back if the T-Rex tried to move, he spread the salve onto the burn. He could tell when the medicine's relief registered to the Rex, as it let out a low groan and its tension lessened.

It stayed still until Lloyd managed to fully wrap the gauze around the injury, then it slowly got to its feet.

Lloyd was already backpedaling away from the lizard but he wasn't quick enough, and soon the T-Rex's jaw was right in his face.

"Lloyd!" shouted the others, fearful of what was about to happen.

But to everyone's surprise, the T-Rex didn't try to bite him. Instead, its large pink tongue poked out, and it licked Lloyd right off his feet.

As Lloyd fell flat on his back, the dinosaur turned away and limped off into the forest.

"Well, that just happened," said Jay when he finally registered what he'd just seen.

Cole shook himself, and said, "Come on. Let's get out of here before something else tries to eat us."

The others all let out murmurs of agreement. They quickly hurried back to their campsite, packed their stuff, and were off through a portal in record time.

Chapter Text

Movie Ninjago

The test results from the scientist wouldn't be ready until the next day as it turned out, meaning the Ninja Force had been milling around the facility all day for nothing.

It had been an exhausting day. More so than usual, and Jay, unable to get up the energy to go home, called his parents to let them know he was staying over and crashed in his bunk on the Bounty. The last thing he heard before drifting off was the rest of the team, sans Cole (who was off who knows where), deciding to do the same as him.

However, when he awoke the next morning, he was surprised to see Lil'Loyd curled up next to him on the bed.

Odd, since Lloyd had mostly been sticking to Kai like glue whenever he spent time with any of them. If he was going to be curled up next to anyone, Jay would have sworn it would be him.

At least his presence reassured Jay that the kid didn't actually hate him as he'd worried about yesterday. Getting hit with pranks so many times, one had to wonder… Unless this was another prank, but from the way the kid was out like a light, he doubted it.

Jay slowly tried to climb out of bed without waking his guest.

He failed.

Lil'Loyd stirred, and opened his eyes blearily before they landed on Jay.

There was a moment where the two stared at each other, both wondering why the other was there.

Then, the sleep cleared and Lil'Loyd all but shouted, "I'mreallysorry,Ididn'tkno-"

Impulsively, Jay's hand shot forward to try and quiet the kid down, so he wouldn't wake the others in the cabin, but belatedly he noticed the cabin was already empty, and they were the last ones up.

Seeing there was no need to be quiet, Jay pulled his hand back, and said, "Uh, what was that again? Could you say it a little slower?"

Lil'Loyd nervously picked at the zipper of his hoodie. "I'm really sorry for yesterday," he said more clearly this time. "Cole told me about your anxiety stuff last night and… My Jay doesn't have anxiety. I didn't know. Sorry."

"Oh, lucky guy," said Jay, still surprised at all this. "What's he like?"

Lloyd, thankfully, looked a little less nervous. "He's funny. He talks way too much, and he's fun to prank because he'll freak out loudly for, like, ten minutes and then either get over it or prank me back. He has good taste in comics, too."

"Huh," said Jay in interest.

They fell into an awkward silence, neither really knew what to say to the other.

Finally, Lloyd said again, "I'm really sorry."

Jay waved it away. "Nah, you didn't know. Now if you knew, and still did it, then you'd be a massive jerk, but you didn't and you're sorry, so… it's cool."

Lloyd raised an eyebrow, unsure if he should still feel bad or not. "Okaaay?" he said, though it came out more like a question.

Jay chuckled a little, the awkwardness was still palpable. "Honestly, looking back they were pretty good pranks, but back in the moment… yikes. Still, I can laugh about them someday."

Lloyd gave him a weak grin at that. His face then grew curious. "If you get so scared all the time, isn't it hard to be a ninja?"

Jay grimaced, thinking back to his first few days as an active member of the Ninja Force. "At the start, yeah, it was pretty hard. The others all learned how to talk people down from anxiety attacks really well thanks to me. But after a while, I got better at managing it. It helps that when doing ninja stuff, I can expect the bad things to happen, and it actually helps… somehow. But during everyday stuff when I'm not expecting it, well, you saw yesterday."

"Huh," said Lloyd. "So being a ninja is actually good for you?"

"As good as constantly putting myself in mortal peril for the sake of others can be," said Jay pessimistically.

Lloyd had to laugh at the blunt way he'd said that. "Come on, it's not all bad," he said.

Jay didn't look like he fully agreed, but he did relent to say, "Well, I do get to spend a lot of time with Nya."

Lloyd made a face at that. "You and her are dating in my world," he said. "It's so gross."

Jay didn't even notice his disgust, and his eyes lit up at the first few words. "Yes!" he cheered with a fist pump.

"Blargh," said Lloyd, sticking out his tongue. "Nya's cool, but kissing is gross."

Jay did notice his disgust that time and laughed. "Don't worry about it," he said. "Kissing is something you grow into."

Lloyd looked thoroughly unconvinced, making Jay laugh harder.

At that moment, both heard tranquil flute music waft through the halls of the ship. Looking over at the open doorway, they saw Master Wu walk past, playing his flute as he went.

Upon seeing them, he paused in his playing, and said, "Good morning, students. Breakfast is ready. Please, be our guests and join us."

He then started walking again, but the song on his flute had switched to a cheerful rendition of 'Be Our Guest.'

"Huh," said Lloyd as he watched him go. "My uncle just has a plain ol' bamboo staff."

"I don't know if I should be jealous of that or not," said Jay. "On one hand, he plays that thing all the time. On the other hand, his song choices can be a big help in deciphering his metaphors."

They arrived at the galley to see that the rest of the ninja were already there and serving themselves up. Koko was there too, looking like she had helped make the breakfast in the first place. Garmadon, however, was not present.

When asked where he was, Koko rolled her eyes and said, "Oh, Dr. Gary asked for approval to run some more tests. Garm went to make sure they're all relevant and not just to satisfy the doctor's curiosity. He's really cracking down on getting Lloyd back as soon as possible."

Everyone winced in sympathy at that. They were all fully aware of how stubborn and demanding the former warlord could be. There was a reason so many generals had been fired both figuratively and literally.

"On the bright side," added Koko, "the tests from yesterday show that Lil'Loyd is perfectly healthy."

"Oh, good to know going through a portal didn't scramble his insides," said Jay, giving Lloyd a friendly grin, and received a smile in return.

After Lloyd finished dishing himself up, Cole caught his eye across the table. The Earth Ninja gave him a quick wink, before turning to the rest and saying in a joking manner, "Seems Lil'Loyd here thinks that our Lloyd is the perfect man."

There was a moment of silence as everyone else stared at Cole, then turned to stare at Lloyd, processing what he'd just said.

Then, as one they burst out laughing at the idea.

"That statement is highly inaccurate," said Zane gleefully.

"That is one of the silliest things I've ever heard," said Jay between guffaws.

"Says you," said Koko, though her tone was teasing. "I think my son is just the sweetest."

If anything, that set the ninja off even more.

Just as Lloyd was starting to wonder if he should be offended, Kai reached over and pulled him off his chair and into a one-armed hug. "Bro, kid," he said between laughs. "Don't get us wrong, We love our Lloyd, but he is absolutely nowhere near perfect. He's a total dork."

"Right?" said Nya, her face turning more nostalgic. "Kai and I have known him for years. The guy's sixteen and still refuses to eat bread crust. And don't get me started on his sweet tooth."

"Doesn't help he's afraid of the dentist," added Kai fondly, releasing Lloyd from the hug so he could sit back down for his breakfast.

"I've had to get very good at hiding my personal sweets," Koko admitted, looking amused. "I'm afraid I raised a candy thief."

"He's worse than me in scary movies," said Jay with a grin. "And heaven forbid we see a tear-jerking animal movie. He cries his eyes out the entire time, and not just at the sad parts."

"He is also rather reckless, especially when stressed," added Zane. "It was not necessary for him to use every missile in his mech to defeat Garmadon during his second-to-last attack, and yet he did so anyway. The resulting damage was quite severe."

"I tried to teach him how to play the flute once," said Master Wu. He then shuddered with a pained expression on his face. "Never again."

"He still has daddy issues a mile wide," said Cole with a smirk.

"Aw, those are getting better," said Kai. "But, yeah, those are bad. He used to have this mental block where he couldn't catch or throw or do a ton of other stuff because he was convinced that those were things a dad was supposed to teach you. And trust me, we tried to teach him, but no bueno."

Lloyd froze in mid-bite at that. "Ho' c'n 'e be a ninja 'f 'e can' caff or drow?" he asked with his mouth full. He then swallowed, and added, "How did he stop the bad guys when they threw things at him?"

"With extreme difficulty," said Nya cheerfully.

"He got really good at learning how to dodge," added Jay.

"Of course, we must all not forget his biggest blunder, no matter how well things turned out in the end," said Zane.

"Meowthra," said everyone aside from Lloyd in unison.

"Huh?" asked Lloyd. Attempts to eat Garmadon aside, how was that sweet kitty a blunder?

"Meowthra is the great and terrible Ultimate Weapon," said Master Wu sagely. "She was never meant to be summoned, but in a moment of weakness, Lloyd called her to our world."

"And she trashed the city way worse than Garmadon ever did when she first got here," said Nya.

"Along with all our mechs, so we had no way to fight her," added Zane.

"It wasn't his intention to do that," said Koko, coming to her son's defense. "Garm was looking like he would win, and Lloyd only meant it to be a bluff. But Garm called him on it, and Lloyd didn't know it was a beacon for a monster when he fired it."

"To be fair, it did look more like a laser cannon," said Jay.

"But if he hadn't done that, then we'd have never convinced Garmadon to give up," said Cole.

"Eh, I bet we could have done it eventually," said Nya. "But it sure would have taken a lot longer."

"Yeah," Kai agreed, turning to look over at Lloyd again. "Like I said before. We love Lloyd. He's a dork and he's not perfect, but he's our imperfect dork."

"Here, here!" everyone agreed.

Lloyd smiled into his breakfast. It was nice to know his counterpart wasn't this paragon of virtue that the internet had made him out to be. And if the others still liked the guy anyway, then maybe Cole had been right about them liking him too, pranks and all.

Breakfast continued on with them telling Lloyd silly childhood stories of his counterpart. The more he heard, the less he resented the guy and actually looked forward to meeting him. They had more in common than he'd thought.

Finally, the meal ended, and Lloyd got ready for when Master Wu would start morning training.

Only, it never came. Master Wu made no mention of training aside from reminding them to read a book, and left on his way. None of the other ninja said anything about training starting either.

Lloyd sat puzzled at this.

How was he supposed to be the Green Ninja if he didn't train?

Chapter Text

?

Once the Ultra Dragon exited the portal into the next world, Kai rounded on the others and said, "I think I speak for everyone when I ask: What the heck just happened?"

"Your powers are back, Jay?" asked Nya. "How?"

Jay glanced down at his hands, and immediately a spark of lightning lit up in his palm. "I don't know," he said. "But I like it."

Kai frowned at the bolts and attempted to do the same with his fire. However, only weak embers appeared in his hand. "I thought we lost our powers when Garmadon stole the Golden Weapons," he said with a frown. "How could Jay just get them back out of the blue."

Zane tried the same with similar results. Frost barely coated his hand, and it melted almost as soon as it formed. "Perhaps it has something to do with our true potentials," he theorized. "Or maybe, unknown to us, Garmadon's first wish on the Mega Weapon was to weaken us. With us being out of his reach, it would be possible for Jay's power to come back. In theory, at least."

"Then why haven't the rest of ours come back?" asked Cole.

"Maybe they will," said Lloyd with a shrug. "Now that you know they can come back."

The words of the Green Ninja had Cole rounding on him angrily. "Another thing," he said in a furious tone. "What were you thinking going up to that thing!"

Lloyd was taken aback by this sudden turn. "I couldn't just let it die!" he protested defensively.

"And what if it ate you instead of thanking you?" demanded Cole, throwing his hands into the air in frustration. "What then?"

"Not only would you be dino-chow, but we'd be out a way of finding Lloyd," agreed Kai with a glare. "Did you think about that?"

"All I saw was something that needed help," snapped Lloyd with a scowl. "I wasn't going to turn my back on an injured creature just because you guys think it's a monster."

Jay let out a soft gasp and a look of understanding flashed across his face. He quickly jumped between Lloyd and the rest of them, and said, "Look, all's well that ends well, and besides, we already knew Lloyd was some kind of beast tamer. Look how he got Ultra on his side so fast. He knew what he was doing, right?"

Jay glanced over at Lloyd, who gave him a so-so gesture, but stubbornly refused to back down.

Thankfully, Nya came to their rescue. "Look," she said. "We're all tired and didn't get a lot of sleep last night. Let's just turn in and discuss this when we've got enough shut-eye to think things through."

"That sounds good," said Zane with a nod.

Cole gave a frustrated huff and Kai looked far from happy, but both backed off and let Lloyd land the Ultra Dragon.

Looking out the window of the carriage, Jay remarked, "Hey, isn't this the city that the aliens were attacking before."

Zane looked as well and shrugged. "It does appear similar, but I do see some differences as well. Besides, they would not have been able to repair the damage so quickly."

"Maybe there are two versions of this city like there are two versions of Ninjago," said Lloyd as he directed Ultra to land in an area full of dilapidated warehouses. Landing inside one that was missing a roof, he continued, "Either way, we should be able to get a few hours of sleep here, if nothing else."

The others muttered in agreement and set about adjusting their chairs inside the carriage into beds and pulling out futons and sleeping bags. After the last fiasco, none of them were all too eager to sleep outside of it.

Lloyd only stayed awake long enough to step out and loosen the Ultra Dragon in its harness so it could sleep comfortably, before climbing back inside and drifting off himself.

Meanwhile, in a building that used to be a firehouse, but had since been converted to a different business, a red-headed secretary looked up from filing her nails to answer the phone.

"Hello, Ghostbusta's," she said into the line. "They go boo, we'll get 'em for you."

"Hello, Ms.," said a nervous man on the line. "I, uh, I'm calling to report a supernatural sighting."

"That's what we're here for," said the woman, reaching grabbing a pen to take notes. "Tell me what ya saw."

"Well, Ms.," said the man, sounding unsure if he would be believed. "I own the warehouses by the docks. I was there this morning, and I saw a-a dragon fly down from the sky. It's still in the warehouses somewhere."

The woman raised her eyebrow. "A dragon?" she asked.

"Yes! As clear as day," the man insisted. "It had four heads and looked like it was pulling some kind of spaceship behind it. I don't know what it wants or where it came from, but I want it off my property. I know it's not your usual fare, but I'll of course pay for services."

"I see," said the woman with a shrug. He was right. Dragons weren't their usual cup of tea, but if the customer was paying them for it, they'd take care of it. The boys would find the whole thing interesting if anything else.

The woman wrote down all the information the man could give her and hung up the phone. She then turned to look inwards to the rest of the firehouse and bellowed, "WE'VE GOT ONE!"

Due to their previous exhaustion, the ninja were all effectively dead to the world.

Which is why Nya was far from pleased to hear voices outside pull her from her slumber. She rolled over and tried to ignore them, but they still filtered in no matter how hard she tried.

"Whoa! Look at the size of this thing?" said a voice that sounded both cheerful and fascinated.

"It's a dragon, Ray," said another with a sarcastic lit to his voice. "If it wasn't big I'd be wondering why we were called here."

"Technically, it falls more in line with a mythical hydra than a dragon," said a third voice logically.

"Uh, guys, maybe less arguing over what it is, and more worrying about how it's growling at us," said a fourth voice that was sounding more like you'd expect of someone seeing a dragon for the first time.

It was only then that Nya noticed that Ultra was indeed growling at the source of the voices, and the fact started to pull her from her attempts at continued slumber.

"This will be so fascinating to study," said the first voice.

"Indeed," agreed the third.

"Whatever," said the second voice. "Let's bag it and tag it and send the owner of this dump a bill already."

"I'm all for that," said the fourth.

That jolted Nya awake, and she shot upright wondering if she had heard correctly.

Outside the window of the carriage, she saw four men in jumpsuits point strange weapons at the Ultra Dragon, and one was counting down until they fired.

"They're trying to steal Ultra!" she shouted, startling the others awake.

But Nya paid them no mind as she launched herself at the back of the carriage and into the section that stored her mech. Within seconds she was in the pilot seat and Samurai X shot from the back, having just enough time to whip around the carriage and hold up a shield to block the blasts from the strangers' weapons.

Behind her, the Ultra Dragon reared up in anger, their fire and lightning heads blowing warning bursts into the air, while the other two's growling intensified.

Thankfully, the strangers stopped firing as soon as they saw Nya block them.

"Uh, correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't the guys in armor supposed to fight the dragons, not protect them," said the owner of the second voice (still sounding sarcastic, even when he was surprised), a man with brown hair and a widow's peak.

"That's what the fairy tales say," replied the fourth, a dark-skinned man with curly hair and a mustache.

"Nya!" shouted Kai as he and the others ran out of the carriage to assist her.

Seeing the men still pointing their weapons at Nya and the Ultra Dragon, Jay scowled. "Don't point those at my girlfriend!" he yelled, sending a blast of lightning in their direction.

It was supposed to be a warning shot. Everyone could see Jay was aiming at the ground partway between them and the strangers. However, Jay failed to take into account just how much metallic machinery was attached to the men, and the bolt was attracted to it like a magnet.

The strangers jumped to the side in alarm, but the bolt still managed to hit a small black box attached to one man's hip.

The box immediately began smoking and sparking, and the man was quick to toss it away from him and he and the other men dove for cover, as the thing was looking like it would explode.

And explode it did.

Nya used her mech to shield her brother and her friends. But in doing so she got the perfect view of the explosion through her helmet and goggles.

The box blew up like a firework. Streaks of green lights began shooting out of it. Strangely, the sounds of wailing or manic laughter were heard as they shot off in all directions.

Nya had to blink as the green streaks began shooting through the walls like they weren't even there, and vanished through them with no damage left behind.

What had been in that box?

When the fireworks finally stopped, the four men poked their heads in again and the man with the widow's peak said, "Ray… weren't you supposed to empty the trap in the containment unit before we came on this job."

Another, slightly rounder brown-haired man winced. "I was," he admitted sheepishly. "But… Janine said there was a dragon."

The other three men just sighed as if they had been expecting this.

As usual, Jay was the first to speak up. "What the heck was that?"

"That was the release of several class four paranormal entities on this establishment," said the last man, another brown-haired man who was tall and wore glasses. "Ones we previously gathered from a condemned criminal psychiatric ward."

"Huh?" asked most of the teenagers in confusion.

Fortunately, Zane was there to translate. "I believe he just said that the explosion released several insane ghosts to haunt this place."

"Precisely," said the man with glasses.

"Oh," said the other teens.

Kai then snorted. "Yeah right," he said. "There's no such thing as ghosts."

"Just like there was no such thing as Serpentine?" asked Jay pointedly. "You always think there's no such thing as something, and then we have to fight it."

"They did look pretty ghostly to me," added Nya, thinking back to what she had seen.

Kai grumbled but made no reply.

Before anyone could say anything more, there was a loud cracking sound. The ninja all looked down to see the ground beneath them had become destabilized from the explosion, and was now crumbling away.

"Get to the carriage!" Lloyd and Cole both yelled.

They all scrambled to comply. The ninja barely managed to climb inside in time. The Ultra Dragon took off out of the collapsing warehouse, but with the straps connecting it to the carriage still loose, it wobbled dangerously in the air and had to land again not far away. Nya flew alongside them in her mech to make sure they didn't fall out of the sky.

Below them, they could see the men once again ducking for cover, but seemed unharmed by the collapse

Once they'd landed, they were quick to fix the straps, but not as quick to leave.

"What do you mean you think we should stay and help?" asked Kai in frustration, wanting to leave right away.

"That man said those ghosts we released were of disturbed criminals," said Zane. "I do not wish for such things to be unleashed on this city's populace."

"Hey, we didn't release them, Jay did," said Kai.

"They were pointing blasters at Nya," Jay protested. "And it wasn't supposed to hit them like that."

"I appreciate the try, Jay," said Nya as she hopped out of her mech. "But I do agree with Zane. I saw those things when they got out. They were freaky, and not something I'd want out on the street."

"So let those guys catch them again," said Kai. "They clearly did it before."

"And who could get hurt in the time it takes for them to do it?" asked Lloyd.

Kai let out a sound of frustration, but couldn't argue that point.

Cole heaved a sigh. "They're right," he said reluctantly, ignoring the look of betrayal Kai shot him. "Our Lloyd's not in danger where he is, but the people here might be if we don't do something."

"Uh, how are we supposed to fight back against ghosts?" asked Jay. "I get the feeling it'll take more than spinjitzu to do it."

"What about Vengestone?" suggested Nya. "If it's strong enough to block elemental powers, it might do the same for ghosts."

Considering they had no idea if that were true or not, they decided to give it a try.

"Why do we even have Vengestone weapons packed away in here?" asked Cole as Lloyd, Jay, and Nya pulled out the weapons they'd packed.

"Oh, you know, in case we ended up in a backwards world where the good guys are the bad guys and vice-versa," said Jay, who, having powers, was the only one to carry a regular weapon. "One time fighting our evil clones was enough."

Lloyd looked lost, but from the faces of everyone else, they agreed.

Once they were armed, they hid the Ultra Dragon and their carriage away and split into groups of three to find and herd the ghosts back to the men they'd seen earlier. Hopefully, they would have another box to trap them in again.

"Everybody ready?" Cole asked. He was grouped with Jay and Kai.

"Ready," agreed Lloyd, Zane, and Nya in her mech.

"We meet back here in three hours. If the Vengestone doesn't work, either Jay or Nya will shoot up a beacon and we'll get out of here," said Cole.

"Don't get scared," Jay teased them as they parted ways.

Nya laughed and shot back, "Scared? As if. I ain't afraid of no ghosts!"

Chapter Text

Movie Ninjago

Lunch was starting to draw near, and Lloyd found himself in an odd position.

Ever since they'd defeated the Great Devourer there was one constant in Lloyd's life, and that was training.

All day, every day.

Starting at 5 a.m. Lloyd's entire day was a meticulously planned out series of exercises, including endurance training, balance exercises, sparring, and spinjitzu practice. In a day he did everything from chasing roosters to going on high-speed hikes, to ballet classes with Cole. The only free time he was allotted (when he didn't attempt to sneak off and get some regardless or they were called away for an emergency) was a half-hour before his 9:30 bedtime where he was allowed to watch TV and read comics with Jay.

It was exhausting, but for all he complained, he knew his schedule was that crazy because his friends wanted him to be able to protect himself no matter what destiny threw at him.

He never thought he'd have to ask for training.

So it was a puzzling case to find himself not being required to train or hear any mention of it from the other ninja. The closest he'd heard about them discussing any form of training was when the ninja collectively decided to group together to do school work in the break room of the facility in order to leech off their wifi.

It blew his mind that these guys still went to school.

"Why are you doing school stuff on computers anyway?" he asked, climbing up a sofa to lean over Kai's shoulder and see the boring looking math problems he was working on. It was also weird to see them all in casual clothing. He almost never saw his ninja out of their gis.

"When Dr. Gary said it would take a while to get our Lloyd back, we decided to take time off school to keep people from finding out he's missing and panic," said Kai, shifting over so Lloyd could sit next to him on the break room sofa.

"Why would they panic?" asked Lloyd, sliding down into the empty space.

"You looked him up. He's popular," said Cole bluntly where he was focusing on history.

"He's also our leader," said Jay from where his hands were flying across the keyboard at a rapid pace. "Garmadon may have been our main villain, but that doesn't mean there aren't any others."

"And if they know we're down a member, some creeps might sneak out of the woodwork thinking we're vulnerable," added Nya, who was typing just as fast, and not letting Lloyd anywhere near her for fear one of his pranks would undo her work.

"So why do any work at all?" asked Lloyd. "If I were ditching school, I'd be doing everything I could not to study."

Zane, who was literally plugged into his own laptop and thinking his work into existence, responded, "I am afraid that is not an option for us."

"Why not?" asked Lloyd.

"Perks of living in a city that gets attacked so often," said Kai with a dry tone. "The school system could barely function with Garmadon attacks either closing the place for repairs, or panicked parents pulling their kids out afterward." He then trailed off as he came to a particularly hard problem that took more concentration.

"So, to keep them from having to fail everyone for missing so many days, the school system worked out this online program for every school in the city," said Nya, picking up the story. "Basically, if for whatever reason you can't come to school physically, you can keep up with your classwork on the computer instead."

"It was a lifesaver for us back when we had secret identities," said Jay. "Ditching school all the time to fight Garmadom meant we would have flunked out otherwise."

Cole snorted. "Maybe for you, smart guy," he grumbled. "The rest of us just got more stress to deal with."

"I can tutor if you need it," Zane offered, but Cole shrugged indifferently. Turning back to Lloyd, the Ice Ninja added, "It's still helpful now when our ninja duties pull us away from class. The school board has been very understanding about everything."

Lloyd frowned. "But if you're trying to keep other-me being gone a secret, won't they notice he's not doing his school stuff?"

Zane's face fell and the screen of his laptop glitched. "I have been taking it upon myself to fulfill Lloyd's assignments as well as my own, provided I make some adjustments that are more in line with his work. No one will find out this way, and I will be sure to tutor him once he gets back."

"Let us know if you need any help with that, bro," said Kai. "It's not fair if you've got to do all this junk on top of your own."

Zane perked up slightly. "Your offer is unnecessary but appreciated."

"Glad someone's feeling appreciated," came a dry grumble, and they all looked up to see a frazzled looking Dr. Gary stumble in, grab the pitcher of coffee out of the machine, drink the entire thing in one long gulp, before stumbling back out.

They all collectively winced.

"Poor dude," said Nya. "I hope Koko and Master Wu are keeping Garmadon from pushing him too hard."

"From the looks of that guy, they might need to try harder," said Jay.

Seeing an opportunity to ask what had been truly bugging him, Lloyd asked, "Speaking of Master Wu, when you guys, you know, do your ninja training?"

"Or scheduled group training for today will take place an hour after lunch," said Zane.

"Except for how crazy things have been the last few days, we usually train together for a couple of hours once a day," Kai explained.

"That's it?" asked Lloyd in surprise. Even when they weren't training him, the ninja usually trained longer than that for their own skills.

"We're also expected to train on our own time individually," said Cole. "Some of us do so more than others," he added with a pointed look at Jay.

Jay shrunk into the orange scarf he was wearing. "I mean to train more, I just get… distracted."

Cole rolled his eyes.

That still wasn't as much training as the ninja he was used to would do, but given what he was seeing of their schoolwork, it could be they just didn't have the time.

Still, if he was going to be the Green Ninja, he should take whatever training he could get.

"Can I join you?" he asked, making all of them stop their schoolwork to stare at him.

"Uh, you sure little bro?" asked Kai, looking skeptical and a little worried.

"Why not?" asked Lloyd, looking confused.

"Our level of training is pretty dangerous," said Jay. "We don't want you to get hurt."

"How dangerous?" the little blond asked.

"We throw our elements at each other," said Cole bluntly.

Lloyd grinned. That didn't sound too different than what he usually did. "I can take it," he replied confidently.

Nya snorted in amusement. "I don't doubt it, you're Lloyd," she said as if having no doubt he had this in common with his counterpart, who was a darn good martial artist. "But you're a little kid. Master Wu made sure not to recruit us all until we were fourteen for health reasons."

That gave Lloyd pause. "Health reasons?" he asked.

"Training that is too strenuous is often debilitating for children before they reach skeletal maturity," said Zane matter-of-factly. "Injuries caused by such training can damage your growth plates and do irreparable damage to your muscle tissue."

"Huh?" asked Lloyd.

"Train too much too young and you mess up your muscles and you'll be short forever," translated Nya.

Lloyd sent them all an alarmed look. There was such a thing as too much training? From how his friends had been going on about it, there was never enough training.

Carefully, he pulled a copy of his training schedule out of his hoodie pocket. He'd written down as much of it as he could remember to continue doing it, but… "Is this too much training, or not enough?" he asked, handing it over to Kai.

Kai reluctantly put his laptop down and took the paper. Upon reading it through, he fell off the couch in with a yelp of shock.

"Jeeze, kid," he said when he climbed back up. "What are you doing, training for the Olympics?"

"No, I'm training to be the Green Ninja," said Lloyd.

Kai could only stare blankly at him, before glancing back at the schedule and wincing. "Yikes!" he muttered.

At his reaction, the others all crowded around to see the schedule and made their own exclamations of surprise at it.

"This has to be too much training for one kid to handle," said Cole, frowning at the paper.

"Is this even accurate?" Jay asked. "You didn't just add more to it to be a workaholic, did you?"

"No," Lloyd insisted, surprised by their reactions. "This is what I do every day."

Cue another round of surprised exclamations and concerned looks.

"By my calculations, this amount of training should be within the necessary safety parameters for a child his age," said Zane, his eyes gleaming as the calculations flashed through them. "But only just barely. Even going a little overboard may have painful results."

"Jeeze," said Nya with a grimace. "What kind of world do you come from, kid? We all didn't start training until we were twice your age, and nowhere near this intensely."

Lloyd pinched his mouth shut as he thought of an answer. He hadn't meant for his powers to go unknown for so long, but he still didn't want to talk about them just yet. "My dad…" he said hesitantly. "Everyone thinks my dad being evil will… put me in danger sooner or later. They want to make sure I'm ready to fight."

The teenagers around him all winced in pity. They all knew better than anyone how true that prediction could become.

"Well, it looks to me like they're training you to be a little one-man army," said Kai. "I think this is more than a little overboard, no matter what Zane's calculations say."

"Oh," said Lloyd, slumping down.

Seeing his morose look, Kai crouched down to look him in the eye and said, "Look, if you really want to train, we'll work out something for you that's less intense, and you can train with us later if you're careful. But you have to promise us you won't try to keep doing this crazy schedule on your own, okay? We don't want you to get hurt."

Lloyd perked up at that. "Okay," he agreed, feeling it was a happy medium. He got to continue his training, and have more time to have fun. A win-win if he ever saw one.

Seeing him satisfied, Kai handed Lloyd his phone to play games on until lunch and picked up his laptop to continue studying.

Lloyd spent the rest of the morning playing happily on the phone, completely oblivious to the concerned glances shot his way by the teenagers.

For the teens, however, there was one question running through all of their minds.

What kind of world did this kid come from?

Chapter Text

 Ghostbusters World

"Are ghosts a common occurrence in your world?" asked Zane as his group picked their way through more decrepit warehouses.

"No, or at least, not like what Nya saw earlier. Well, that I know of, that is," said Lloyd. He then seemed to grow amused. "Closest I've ever seen personally was when I played a prank on Kai."

Nya and Zane shared a look and grinned. It was nice to see this Lloyd have things in common with their own.

"Oh really? Do tell?" Nya asked, leaning forward in her mech in interest.

Lloyd shrugged though his smile was fond. "It wasn't anything too big. I just snuck up behind him wearing a bedsheet and made him jump." He then let out a chuckle. "We were laughing about it when Nya kind of stole the prank."

Zane blinked in confusion. "How does one steal a prank?" he asked.

"By jumping out of nowhere waving a sword and screaming 'NINJA!' at us," said Lloyd, still amused at the old memory. "She had Kai and I running around screaming while she did sword tricks behind us. I think he and I ended up crashing into each other trying to get away."

Zane and Nya laughed at the mental image.

They lapsed into silence after that. Keeping their ears open and their eyes peeled for any sign of the ghostly presence that had been unleashed.

Finally, Nya couldn't contain a question that had been bugging her for so long. "How did she know she was the Master of Water?" she asked.

Lloyd turned to look up at her in surprise. "My Nya?" he asked. "To be honest, she didn't. At first, we all thought our call signs were just cool code names that corresponded with our mechs. She built and drives a giant water-strider mech that's best for underwater fighting, so it made sense at the time."

"What sort of mech do you and my counterpart drive?" asked Zane curiously.

"Yours has an ice tank," said Lloyd. "So ninja. I drive a green dragon mech I built myself. We all had a hand in making our own mechs."

"Nice," said Zane appreciatively.

"So how did she find out?" asked Nya, getting back to the original question. "How did she learn about her elemental powers?"

"Master Wu told us one day after fighting my father," Lloyd replied. "He said we were too reliant on our mechs, and told us we all had powers inside us. Well, not me, I'm just green."

He looked disappointed for a moment before continuing. "We didn't really believe him at first until we found some weapons we thought were the Ultimate, Ultimate Weapon," he said. "But then my dad stole the weapons, and we found ourselves in a tough spot. That's when we realized the power was inside them all along, that they were the Ultimate, Ultimate Weapon, and we used it to get out."

Zane nodded slowly. "That does seem similar to the position we find ourselves in now," he said. "In a tough spot without our friend, and without powers due to Garmadon stealing the Golden Weapons. Perhaps that has something to do with why Jay's have come back."

"How did they find their powers?" Nya asked. "How did they use them?"

Lloyd looked a little flustered and rubbed his right arm. "To be honest, I figured it out first and, uh, gave them a pep talk. We were all kind of desperate at the time, so I guess they figured it was all or nothing. Then, once the floodgates opened, they could do whatever they set their minds to. Nya could pull water out of the air, Zane could freeze things and make ice walls, Kai was basically a human flamethrower, Cole could shake the earth with a punch, and Jay could blast an entire fleet of enemy planes with lightning."

"It is impressive you were able to encourage your friends to perform such feats," said Zane.

Lloyd looked even more flustered. "It was nothing."

"Why didn't Wu tell you that you had those powers in the first place?" asked Nya.

"In all honesty, he might have," Lloyd admitted. "But if he did, he probably said it in some super complicated metaphor and we missed it. By the time we figured it out, he'd had to tell us it, like, three times before I got it."

Nya let out a soft laugh at that. "Yeah, that sounds like Wu."

Privately, Nya was pondering Lloyd's words more than she really wanted too. Ever since he had mentioned she was a ninja in his world, she had been both considering and denying the possibility.

She was proud of herself for finding her own way to fight. For not needing an element or spinjitzu to take on battles like her brothers did, just her own ingenuity and mechanical skill. On the other hand, she had always felt the divide between her and the boys. Ninja and samurai. Different, but they can work on the same team, but not in the same way. One fought with mystic weapons and elemental powers, the other fought with giant mechs and overwhelming firepower.

She had thought that divide was crystal clear until this strange new Lloyd had pulled the rug out from her feet with tales of a Water Ninja Nya, and four simple words muttered into the wind.

"You can do both."

They could do both, couldn't they? They'd not had the time and funds to do so with chasing after Skulkin, Serpentine and Garmadon all over Ninjago, but given enough time, her four ninja brothers could easily build themselves their own mechs to fight evil in. Heck, thanks to this Lloyd, they already had a handful of ready-made mechs waiting for them at Jay's parent's place that only needed a few more adjustments to be battle-ready.

And if the ninja all were suddenly fighting in mechs… then where would that leave her?

It was probably that thought more than anything that had Nya desperately searching her brain to recall if Sensei Wu had ever made a mention of her being an Elemental Master as well, cryptically or otherwise. He had considered her for the Green Ninja position before they'd known it was Lloyd, but the Golden Weapons had remained lifeless when she approached. Was it because of the Golden Weapons he hadn't told her since there was no Golden Water Weapon? Even without a Golden Weapon, with what they were up against, wouldn't they need all hands on deck, or did Wu simply think she could do better work as a samurai than as a ninja?

Or maybe it was simply the case that that Nya was special, but she… wasn't.

It was with those thoughts whirling in her head that Nya failed to notice a soft sinister chuckle sneaking up on her until it was too late.

Nya yelped as she was suddenly flung from her mech and landed on top of her friends, sending them all sprawling to the ground.

They looked up to see a wild-eyed transparent man in a straightjacket sneer down at them, before laughing madly and disappearing inside her Samurai X mech.

Nya felt physically ill as her beloved mech, the machine she'd spent countless hours of blood sweat and tears working to perfection, suddenly turned from bright red and gold to a sickening green and black. Everything about it seemed to warp into a more sinister version of the machine, leaving it almost unrecognizable in her eyes.

Zane recovered first and jumped up to throw a pair of Vengestone shuriken at the now possessed mech.

The possessed mech raised its arm and blocked them with the shield Nya still had out from before. The movement was clumsy, the ghost clearly didn't know how to pilot it, but from the way he was now flexing the mech's arm up and down, he would learn quickly.

Nya and the others braced themselves. It would be tricky, and there would be more than a few dents in her mech once they were done, but if they worked together, they could take it down.

Probably.

The ghost chuckled inside the mech again and spoke to them through the speakers in an echoing voice. "Thanks for the shiny toy, little girl," he said in a gleefully high-pitched voice. "Let's see those Ghostbusters shove us into that little box now!"

Nya opened her mouth to snap back a retort, but Lloyd spoke before she could. "Wait? Us?" he asked.

A dim green glow began building around them, and they looked around to see they were now surrounded by even more crazed-looking ghosts in straight jackets and prison jumpsuits, all of whom were grinning madly at them with makeshift weapons in their hands.

Even if the Vengestone weapons worked on them, it was still a lot more ghosts than the three of them could handle on their own, and the ghostly convicts knew it.

They were in serious trouble.

Jay felt as if the tension radiating off both Kai and Cole could be cut with a knife.

No, wait, a knife wasn't sharp enough. It would take Kai's Vengestone sword to make a dent in it.

With Kai, it was easy to tell what his problem was. He took his vow to protect their Lloyd very seriously, and not being able to know he was safe for so long was probably torture to the red ninja. Sure, the new Lloyd said his world was safe and his friends would help him, but everyone knew Kai wouldn't be convinced of it until he saw their young charge again with his own two eyes. Any delay in doing so was only going to make the hothead even more frustrated.

Cole's frustration, however, was not as clear cut. Instead of one discernible source to his ire, it was more of a combination of different things fueling him. Like Kai, he was frustrated at losing Lloyd and their delays on getting him back. On top of that, there was the usual stress from being the leader, and having that position threatened by New Lloyd, however unintentionally, wasn't helping. None of them had missed how the blond often stepped up to lead. To his credit, he quickly backed down and deferred to Cole when he realized he was doing it, but it was noticeable nonetheless. Add to that the lack of sleep and the scare they'd all felt when New Lloyd was too close to a T-Rex's teeth for comfort, and you had yourself a Cole that was wound up so tight he was as stiff as the rocks in his element.

So you can imagine it was a fun trip through the warehouses for Jay.

He found himself trailing after his two irate teammates as they grumbled under their breaths about the sucky situation, stupid ghosts, and dumb blondes.

It was to the latter comment Jay spoke up. "Could you cut the guy a break," he said. "It's not his fault we're here."

Kai turned to scowl at him in response. "No, it's yours. Thanks for blowing up the ghost box, Jay."

"For the last time, they were pointing blasters at Nya," Jay protested. "If you had your fire, you'd totally have fried them too, and way worse than what I did."

Kai's scowl deepened. He stopped to put down his sword and tried to call fire to his palm again.

Still nothing but embers. Guess that's another thing that's probably frustrating the both of them.

"It's not a matter of fault," said Cole, not even bothering to try for his element. "It's that now I'm not sure I can trust him not to do something dangerous. What if he does it again, and this time whatever monster he tries to help bites him? What then? I told him not to go near that thing, and he did it anyway."

"Look," said Jay. "I get why he helped the T-Rex, and there's a little more to it than just him ignoring your orders."

"So what is it?" asked Cole, still looking peeved.

"During our watch that night, Lloyd told me some more stuff about his world," Jay started.

"Oh right," grumbled Kai. "I forgot, you two are practically best friends now."

Jay shot him a glare but knew the next thing he said would get their attention. "His Garmadon wasn't bitten by the Great Devourer."

That made both of them stop and stare at him.

"Lloyd hadn't even heard of that thing when I mentioned it," Jay continued. "In his world, Garmadon was bitten by some spider-snake thing instead, and it didn't turn him evil, just gave him the looks and four arms of our Garmadon. What made that Garmadon go evil was how people treated him because of those looks. Like a monster."

Kai and Cole exchanged glances.

"Suddenly the whole 'talking him out of it' thing makes a lot more sense," said Kai.

"So you're saying, because of his dad he has more sympathy for things other people are afraid of?" asked Cole.

"Something like that," said Jay with a shrug. "I don't know if he even realized it. He just didn't want the Rex to die."

Cole let out a frustrated sigh but seemed a little less irritated with the wayward blond. "He still could have just said that and waited for us to tie it down or something," he mumbled absently.

Jay opened his mouth to reply, but before he could the warehouse around them suddenly seemed to come alive!

Random objects and bits of debris scattered around suddenly started floating in the air and pelting themselves at the three ninja.

All three of them dodged as best they could, and Jay used his powers to blast as much out of the air as possible. Still, there seemed to be no end to the projectiles, and any that missed them just swung back around to take another shot.

Through the hail of debris, Kai noticed one solitary object that seemed unaffected by the invisible force pulling everything else at them. It was a small stone statue that looked just heavy enough that it would make a good projectile, yet it remained unmoved.

On a whim, Kai darted over and sliced the statue in two with his sword.

With an unearthly shriek, a ghost burst out of the remains of the statue, nursing a cut on her side and glaring at the three of them with hate-filled eyes.

"I guess Vengestone does work on them," said Kai as he readied his blade for another strike. "Good to know."

"You'll pay for that!" the ghost hissed, and she dove at them with her hands outstretched like talons, ready to claw their eyes out.

The ninja were prepared, but before she could even reach them, she was suddenly caught in a tether that seemed to be a mix of glowing orange light and blue lightning. She shrieked and struggled against the tether, but another added to her bindings and she found herself being reeled in like a fish.

Kai, Jay, and Cole followed the light to see the four men from before. Two of them were using their blasters to reel in the ghost while the other two were placing a box like the one that exploded underneath her.

Once the box was positioned just right, it opened with a flash of light and the ghost was sucked inside.

With the ghost gone, the men turned their attention to the ninja.

"Sharp work, kids," said the man with a widow's peak. "But leave this to the professionals."

"Professionals?" asked Jay.

"Yup," said the man who Jay was pretty sure was named Ray. "We're the Ghostbusters. I'm Ray ('Knew it,' thought Jay), and these are my coworkers Egon (glasses), Peter (widow's peak), and Winston (mustache). We'll take care of the ghosts."

"We would like to know why you and your friends were squatting on private property with a dragon of all things?" added Winston, eyeing them warily.

The three ninja exchanged glances, before Cole said, "It's… a long story…"

If someone told Nya last week she would be running from a veritable army of ghosts using her own mech against her, she would have laughed at them for being crazy.

If someone had told her the same thing last night, she would have probably been glad for it, thinking it would at least be safer than the killer dinosaurs.

Nya was starting to miss the dinosaurs.

The Vengestone weapons did leave an impact on the ghosts, but not enough to take them out, and only seemed to make them mad.

Still, Lloyd and Zane had been able to use their weapons to get away (Nya cursed that she had attached hers to her mech instead of carrying it with her), and the three of them ran for their lives.

Far from being put out, the ghosts seemed to think this was great fun. All of them whooped and taunted their fleeing prey as they popped unexpectedly out of anywhere, and threw every possible thing they could at them.

They seemed especially fond of throwing kitchen sinks. There was a joke in here somewhere, but Nya was too busy running to see it.

Finally, it seemed they couldn't run anymore. The ghosts, probably on purpose, had chased them to the edge of a long wooden pier that jutted far out into the river below.

Despite this, they were all desperately searching for a way out. Zane glanced over the edge of the pier to see if it was safe to jump but silently shook his head at Lloyd and Nya. Too high. If they jumped from here they'd be injured or worse.

To add insult to injury, the ghost driving the Samurai X mech flew it over to drop it directly in front of the three, its landing shaking the whole pier.

"End of the line," the ghost in her mech taunted. He appeared in the driver's seat and gave them a nasty grin. "It's been so long since we've been able to have some fun with such fresh meat. What'll it be kids? The fall?"

He stomped the mech's foot, making the pier shake again, and the wood beneath them make a terrifying splintering sound.

"The hail?" he asked, indicating his army for spectral friends, who jeered at the three and each had various sharp objects they were just waiting to pelt them with.

"Or, my personal favorite, the blade?" he concluded, brandishing Nya's own Vengestone sword against her.

"None of the above," said Zane with a confidence Nya knew he didn't really feel. "Ninja never quit!"

The ghosts laughed uproariously at that. With no safe way off the pier, too many of them to fight, and no sign of the rest of their team arriving in time, the outlook for the three teenagers was bleak, and they all knew it.

Seething at the position they were in, Nya took the opportunity from their distraction to snag a bucket of water that had likely been left by some fisherman and chucked it at the ghost in her mech.

The ghost actually stopped laughing and stared at the oncoming water fearfully, then vanished inside of her mech.

The bucket bounced harmlessly off the metal armor. Nya really hadn't been expecting it to do much. She had just wanted the jerk inside it to shut up.

But then, to her and the boys' surprise, the water in the bucket went flying in an arch over the mech's helmet and caught an unsuspecting ghost in the face.

The ghost barely had enough time to scream before it vanished without a trace.

Nya, Lloyd, and Zane could only stare at the spot where it once floated in surprise.

Of course. They figure out the way to beat ghosts just when they're surrounded by gallons of it that they're too high up to use. One quick glance around confirmed there were no more buckets in sight.

The pilot of her mech appeared again, this time all humor was gone from his crazed face. "You shouldn't have done that, little girl," he said in a dark tone.

The rest of the ghosts let out similar snarls as they started closing in.

Zane and Lloyd immediately jumped in front of Nya to shield her as best they could, but Nya knew it would do no good, and their weapons were knocked out of their hands and clattered to the ground.

Wordlessly, Nya stared down at the river uselessly out of reach below them and wished she was like the counterpart Lloyd had described…

… Unless… maybe she was…

Heard something she didn't think could be true… check.

Lost a weapon that gave her strength… check.

Trapped in a desperate situation where it was do or die… check.

All that was left was…

"Believe in myself, right?" Nya said softly to Lloyd. "Say I've got the power and just do it?"

Lloyd turned to look at her in surprise before his expression melted into a confident grin. "You've got this," he said back, sounding like he believed every word.

Next to him, Zane gave a nod to show his support. "I believe in you too, Nya," he said.

Resolve found, Nya turned back to look down at the water, focused…

And PULLED!

It was like something inside her she'd never known existed suddenly broke free and sang for the first time.

In the back of her mind, she heard Zane and Lloyd gasp behind her and the ghosts chatter with worry, but she was too busy to care.

Before her eyes, ribbons of water shot up from the river and began twisting their way around the pier, seeking out the ghosts and vanishing them with a touch. The ghosts tried to flee but the water ribbons twirled through the air and chased them down.

Nya almost couldn't believe she was really doing it.

"Water Ninja!" shouted Lloyd beside her. "Go, Nya!"

"You did it!" cheered Zane in wonderment, sounding just as surprised as she was. "Incredible!"

Soon, all that was left was the ghost still inside her mech.

Unfortunately, it seemed water didn't get rid of a ghost if it was hiding inside something. The ghost didn't show his face again, but they could all tell from the stance of the mech that he was not happy about this.

Pulling up a small globe of water, Nya prepared herself, and Lloyd and Zane both reclaimed and readied their weapons.

Now, the odds were a lot more even.

They could do this.

"NYA!"

"ZANE!"

"LLOYD!"

And then, the odds tipped even more, but this time in their favor.

Behind the mech, they saw the other half of their team come running along the pier to reach them, followed by the four men from that morning.

"GHOSTBUSTERS!" snarled the ghost in the mech, and he immediately rounded on the approaching group and prepared its shoulder missiles to fire.

But the Ghostbusters were quicker to the draw and blasted their strange weapons at the mech.

Unprepared, the ghost didn't put up the shield in time and was dragged out of the mech kicking and screaming by the blasters' tether.

With a deafening screech, he somehow burst free of the lines and tried to escape, but Nya threw her water globe at him before he could.

With one final scream, he vanished without a trace.

The Ghostbusters' jaws practically hit the pier in shock.

The newly arrived ninja were shocked too, but it quickly turned to delight, and they crowded around in congratulations.

However, it was then whatever strength Nya had summoned to do such a feat left her, and Lloyd and Zane had to hurry to catch her between them.

"So, am I in the boys club now?" she asked weakly, flashing them all a grin.

The boys laughed at that.

"You were already a part of it," said Jay as he and Kai reached over to take her from the other two. "You just got upgraded to VIP is all."

Their task complete and their way clear, the six teenagers (with Zane piloting the mech in Nya's place) bid the still shell shocked Ghostbusters a farewell, went back to where they hid the Ultra Dragon. Soon enough they were once again on their way through a portal.

Even when the Ghostbusters managed to collect themselves, they still had a hard time fathoming what they had just witnessed.

"I don't believe it," said Ray, staring out at the Hudson River in wonder. "Ghosts can be destabilized by water?"

"Fascinating," said Egon, no doubt planning his next hundred experiments.

Peter, however, had a different opinion. "Okay, no one can ever know this, otherwise we'll be run out of business by kids with super soakers."

The answer to that was simultaneous.

"Agreed."

Chapter Text

Movie Ninjago

Finally, it was time for training.

Lloyd hadn't realized how much he'd actually miss it after a day and a half without it. He was happy to be free of a full day of it, but having at least a little bit of it could be fun.

Speaking of fun.

"Did you really have to beat all of my high scores into the ground?" Kai groaned as they got dressed for training.

"Not my fault you suck at those games," said Lloyd, sticking out his tongue. He'd had fun beating every score Kai had in every game on his phone.

From the look on Kai's face, Lloyd knew he would not rest until he beat all those high scores. Then Lloyd would just have to crush them all again.

With that happy thought, he put on his gi. Not the Green Ninja gi, however. Koko had returned the uniform to him after it had been washed, but Master Wu had somehow dug up an old black gi that would actually fit Lloyd and offered it to him as well. The idea of wearing training clothes where he won't trip over the pants legs was far too tempting for Lloyd to ignore, so he wore that one instead.

Once dressed, he trailed after the rest of the ninja as they headed for a large clearing near the Bounty and the facility where Master Wu had said they would train.

When they arrived, Master Wu was once again playing on his flute, only this time, the song was 'I'll Make a Man Out of You'.

"Get the feeling Wu's been leaning more towards more kid-friendly songs lately?" Jay whispered to the rest of them.

They all muttered words of agreement. It had seemed to be the trend.

Upon seeing them, Master Wu stopped playing and spun the flute in his hands. "Alright, students," he said. "Let's get down to business."

Said students all snorted in unison, and wondered if that had been intentional. Either way, Master Wu got them started on their warm-up stretches without much fuss.

Just as they were finishing stretches up, Garmadon walked by. "Hey, have you dorks seen any of those lazy science nerds? I heard some of them were taking a break out-"

He paused in mid-step at the sight of Lloyd and squinted to study him up and down.

"Wait," he said slowly. "Is that my old training gi?"

Lloyd gasped and glanced down at the gi he was wearing.

"Indeed," confirmed Wu.

Garmadon side-eyed him skeptically. "You've kept it this long?" he asked.

"Yes," said Master Wu. "I have kept many mementos of our past, Brother."

Garmadon scoffed. "Yeah, that's not creepy at all," he said. Seeing there were no lazy scientists around, he quickly made his leave.

But on his way out, he paused long enough to ruffle Lloyd's hair and give him a smirk. "Looking sharp, kid," he said. "You use that to kick a lot of butts, okay?"

Lloyd smirked back. "No mercy," he replied.

Garmadon's grin only widened and he left humming a tune under his breath.

"Huh, I think you made his day," said Cole.

"Maybe he'll go a little easier of whoever was slacking off," said Jay.

At that moment, there was a yelp of fright, and someone in a lab coat raced past them screaming their head off with Garmadon hot on their heels. "GET BACK HERE YOU LAZY SACK OF-!"

Lloyd didn't get to hear whatever he said next as Kai clapped his hands over his ears, and glared in the direction they'd run. He didn't let go until the shouting had faded to unintelligible noise.

"Never mind," said Jay with a wince.

Master Wu gave a pointed cough, making them all snap back to attention.

"Seeing as we have a new student joining us," said Master Wu. "I believe it would be best to start off with a hand to hand spar between Lil'Loyd and each one of you, with increasing difficulty each time, so that we may see what level his skill is on."

Lloyd grinned. He had no doubts whoever he went up against would try to go after him with kid gloves. He couldn't wait to see the looks on their faces when he showed them what he could do.

Kai looked like he wanted to volunteer, but Lloyd hoped he wouldn't. After quietly questioning Lloyd about the legitimacy of this training schedule since that morning, he would no doubt not underestimate Lloyd as much as he wanted to be, and it wouldn't be as fun to pull one over on him.

Thankfully, Nya stepped up instead. "I'll do it," she said, shooting Lloyd a smirk to say this was more payback for his pranks yesterday.

Joke's on her. Guess Lloyd would be getting payback for the Lil'Loyd nickname instead.

Still…

"I won't get in trouble for fighting a girl, will I?" he asked as they stepped into position.

Nya snorted. "What century do you think we're living in?" she asked rhetorically.

Lloyd shrugged back. "Just making sure."

Nya smirked, and was on him the second Wu shouted, "Begin!"

She found herself on the ground just as fast.

"Did you know you fight like my Kai," Lloyd asked conversationally as he not-so-subtly leaned over to look down on her. "He always starts with a punch like that. Makes it easy to flip him."

Nya scowled back at him, but on Master Wu's instructions, she climbed back up off the ground and Jay took her place.

Jay was a lot more hesitant to attack him after that first display and instead danced around Lloyd to try and take him by surprise.

It didn't work, and he was soon on the ground as well.

Now the teenagers were getting frustrated.

Lloyd shot them a cheeky grin. "What can I say, your counterparts do good training."

Zane was up next. His moves were far more calculated, but to Lloyd's own frustration, he was still holding back to avoid hurting him. The fact that the nindroid could extend his arms was enough to take Lloyd off guard, but he was able to counter that with his own surprising strength as leverage.

Not expecting a seven-year-old to be strong enough to lift the heavy nindroid off his feet, Zane soon found himself on the ground as well.

As Zane moved to join Nya and Jay, Lloyd grinned when Cole came up next. He could tell by the Earth Ninja's stance that this time he was taking him seriously.

This time, the fight lasted longer, and it was a lot harder to get the upper hand.

Being taken seriously, while satisfying, was also a disadvantage for Lloyd, especially coupled with the fact that Cole also had the advantages of strength and size on his side, and since this fight was just hand to hand, Lloyd couldn't gain the advantage with the versatility of his powers.

Still, he wasn't about to give up. He wanted a complete victory.

Finally, Lloyd managed to win once again by using his strength to throw Cole when he wasn't expecting it. He'd had to tap into his powers to do it, but they didn't have to know that.

Cole sat up from where he'd been thrown, and looked at Lloyd suspiciously, making the boy freeze. He hadn't just given himself away, had he? He thought he was being subtle.

Glancing around to see if anyone else was suspicious, he saw Master Wu staring at him with the same expression his uncle gave him when he'd been caught doing something he shouldn't. He was so busted, wasn't he?

"Aw man," groaned Nya as she and the others moved over to help Cole back to his feet. "I thought for sure you'd win, Cole. This kid is making us look bad."

"We're being beaten by a kindergartner," groaned Jay.

"I'm not a kindergartner," Lloyd said tauntingly, hoping to distract them from the use of his powers. "I'm just better than you."

The glare he received from all of them was so worth it.

The only one left to fight him was Kai, and he looked ready to give it his all.

"One moment," Master Wu called before the final spar could start. "For this match, you are free to use your elemental abilities."

That made both of them start in surprise. Kai for obvious reasons, "Sensei, you want me to use fire against a kid?" he asked, looking slightly alarmed.

Master Wu nodded his head. "From the way he has beaten your teammates already, I get the feeling he can take it," he said with another knowing look sent Lloyd's way.

Yup, he was so busted.

Though reluctant, Kai agreed, and they soon got into their ready positions.

Despite knowing he couldn't hide it anymore, Lloyd still decided to wait to use his powers when they'd work best as a surprise. Better to not give up any advantage he had so easily.

Also… he really wanted them to see he was more than just his powers. It had been nice to just be seen as Lloyd while it lasted.

With that thought in his head, Lloyd got ready, and Master Wu called for them to begin.

Knowing distance fighting would give Kai the upper hand, Lloyd immediately darted forwards to get in close before he could be blasted.

He wasn't quite fast enough, and already he could see Kai raising his hands to use his flames. Lloyd braced himself to dodge, but the jet of fire never came.

Kai's hands were wreathed in a small flame but didn't seem to be growing any bigger, or doing quite what Kai wanted.

The Fire Ninja only had time to stare at the pitiful flames in shock, and utter a surprised, "What the-?" before Lloyd burst into his spinjitzu tornado and took him down.

From the sidelines, the other ninja groaned.

Lloyd stopped spinning, and turned back to Kai, fully ready to complain about going easy on him, but stopped when he saw the look on Kai's face.

"What's wrong?" he asked. He hadn't hit him too hard, had he?

Kai gave no response, only sitting and staring at his hands with a pensive look.

"Fire," he said, summoning his flames, but they only appeared in a short burst.

"Fire!" he said, trying harder this time, and they fizzled out just as quickly.

"Come on," he said, sounding frustrated and a little scared now. "Fire! Fire! Fuego! FIRE!"

But each attempt was no bigger than the last. The flames he was able to conjure were larger than the ones the Kai from Lloyd's world could currently summon, but they were clearly far weaker than the Fire Ninja of this world wanted.

Cradling what he'd managed to summon in his hands, Kai slowly stood up and gave his team an alarmed look. "Guys!" he said, sounding slightly panicked. "Something's wrong! I can't call my flames like I usually can."

The Secret Ninja Force looked at him in concern.

"No way? Are you sick?" asked Jay backing away from him rapidly. "Are you contagious?"

"I'm not sick, Jay," snapped Kai, the small flames he'd managed to summon beginning to dance erratically. "Take this seriously!"

"I am ta- Watch out!" Jay cried as Kai's irritation set the grass around him aflame.

Kai jumped back from the now burning grass in surprise. "Uh," he said. "I think my control is shot too."

"I've got it," said Nya waving her hands to summon some water.

Or, she was trying to.

Nya stared at her hand as if it betrayed her. Pinching her face in concentration, she finally was able to summon a small globe of water that she had to carefully guide to the burning grass so that it wouldn't go out of control. From the look on her face, this was clearly taking far more effort than she was used to.

"IT IS CONTAGIOUS!" screamed Jay.

While he looked ready to panic, Zane and Cole both tried to use their powers, only to be met with similar results to the siblings. Zane could still coat his hand in ice, and Cole's stomps still moved rocks, but to nowhere near the scale, they were used to.

"Jay," said Zane, cutting off the Lightning Ninja's building panic. "To be fully conclusive of this experiment, we would need you to test your powers as well."

Jay took a deep to try and steady himself and reluctantly nodded. He rubbed against his orange scarf in an attempt to build up static electricity and then waved his hands with as much force as possible to use his powers.

Cole and Zane both had to leap to the side to avoid the bolt of lightning that burst from the Lightning Ninja's hands, and it slammed into a tree behind them with enough force to knock it down.

Jay stared at the damage with a strange mix of relief and concern. "It's usually bigger than that," he said softly, but he did seem pleased his power loss was not as extreme as his teammates.

"What's going on?" asked Lloyd in confusion.

Master Wu let out a sigh. "I was afraid this would happen," he admitted.

Hearing that, the ninja all rounded on him, desperate for answers. "What's happening, Master?" asked Cole.

"And no metaphors, please," added Jay.

Master Wu let out another sigh. "Very well students. After the battle with Meowthra, do you remember Lloyd's explanation to what he believed the power of Green was?"

Lloyd was even more confused than before, but the teenagers all frowned as they thought hard about it.

"He said something about how Green was the color of life," said Nya thoughtfully. "That it connects all things."

"Such as connecting him to us through our team, and his ties to his family," said Zane.

"Power of love and friendship, or something like that," added Kai. "We're stronger together."

"Nothing cool like what we can do, but it's what made him a great leader," said Jay.

"And helped him talk down Garmadon," said Cole, moving to lean against Zane.

Lloyd stared at the five of them.

"This is all true," said Master Wu. "But I'm afraid you have missed the more literal effects of such a power."

They all stared at him with lost expressions.

Master Wu rolled his eyes. "This is why I keep telling you to read my book," he muttered, before addressing them fully.

"You say that Lloyd's Green power connects and strengthens your bonds as a team," he said. "This is true. However, what you have not realized until now is that his connections to you have also strengthened your control over your elements as well."

"WHAT!?" shouted all of them so loudly Master Wu's hat blew off his head.

"Are you saying this whole time Lloyd's been… I don't know, boosting our powers for us?" Nya asked in shock.

"We're stronger together," repeated Kai, but with a new revelation as to what his words had meant. "We're so strong because he loves us."

"Therefore our strength with our elemental powers has been equal to how much he cares about us?" asked Zane as he processed what Wu had implied.

"And without him around, our powers got a massive downgrade," concluded Cole.

"Yes," said Master Wu, replacing his hat. "His love and care for you five runs deep within him, and his faith in you is unwavering. In his eyes, you can all do anything you set your minds to, and because of that belief, you can."

Lloyd watched as they absorbed this new information. His counterpart had powers too, but they seemed vastly different from his own. And this whole time, no one but Master Wu had known about it, and they still valued their Lloyd despite not realizing that.

Lucky guy.

"Why didn't you tell us this before?" asked Kai, drawing Lloyd's attention back to the conversation. "Lloyd made peace with it, but we all know he was bummed he didn't get a cool power like us."

Master Wu shrugged. "I thought he had figured it out on his own. I did say he was connected to all of you."

"We didn't know you meant it LITERALLY!" Jay burst out.

Their sensei heaved another sigh. "I shouldn't have to die just so all of you will listen to me."

That gave Lloyd a jolt. "Wait! Die!?" he asked worriedly.

"Okay, don't worry, that part's not literal," said Kai reassuringly.

"So there's no way we'll be able to do all the cool stuff we did before until we get him back?" asked Nya.

"To that level, no," said Master Wu. "However, with hard work, training, and the discovery of your True Potential, you will be able to fight nearly as strongly as before."

"True Potential?" asked Zane. "What is that?"

"Oh!" said Lloyd, drawing all their attention to himself for the first time since Kai's discovery. "I know this one. Your True Potential is when you find something that's been holding you back mentally and spiritually, and overcome it. The ninja in my world all had to get through that while they were fighting against the Serpentine."

"Precisely," said Master Wu, and blew a few notes of 'True Colors' onto his flute. "Once you have achieved this, you will be able to reach more power than you have now. Unfortunately, the only members of this team who have succeeded in finding this thus far are Lloyd and Jay."

"ME!" squeaked Jay in surprise, flinching as everyone turned to stare at him.

"That explains the tree," muttered Cole.

Master Wu let out a chuckle at that. "Jay Walker," he said fondly. "Do you not remember how things were when you first joined the Ninja Force. You were afraid of everything."

Jay winced at the reminder, but Nya caught on to what their teacher was saying. "But then you got brave," she said in realization, turning to him. "Remember? Garmadon's forces had us pinned and you decided that even though you were scared, you weren't going to let it hold you back. You saved us that day. It was one of the coolest things I'd ever seen."

The rest of their team nodded and voiced their agreement.

Jay flushed brightly at the praise.

"Then Lloyd must have achieved his full potential when he forgave his father," said Kai thoughtfully.

"Can't get more of a mental block than that mess," agreed Cole.

"That would explain why we have never noticed the fluctuation in our power output with him gaining that so soon after we first found our elemental abilities," said Zane.

Jay, however, glanced back at the tree he leveled, and said, "But wait, Master Wu, my powers are weaker too. Not as much as the others, but if I have this 'True Potential' shouldn't I still be going strong?"

Master Wu shook his head. "No," he said. "Even with your True Potential, as you are now, you are only an Ultimate Weapon. It is only with Lloyd's confidence in all of you that you become the Ultimate, Ultimate Weapon."

Jay stared at him starry-eyed. "Woah, so ninja."

"What about the rest of us? What level are we at?" asked Kai curiously, once again trying to summon his weak flames

"You four are at the level of... Omelette Weapon" replied Master Wu with an amused look in his eyes.

"WHAT!" shouted the other four once again.

Master Wu chuckled at their response. Then he straightened up and said, "It seems we have far more training to do than anticipated. Let us begin."

"Yes, Master," his students replied, and training began anew.

But even with the training, they all were distracted by the revelation they had just had and what it truly meant for their team.

And how much their leader truly cared for them.

Chapter Text

New York City (Again!)

Once through the portal, they found themselves in yet another version of the same city as before.

Taking more precautions this time, they were all finally able to catch up on the sleep they were missing without being attacked.

That didn't mean they weren't found, however, leading to the strange position they found themselves in now.

It wasn't often that they ran into other ninja.

The six teenagers eyed the group that found them warily and were regarded with equal suspicion by their four visitors.

"Just so we're clear," said a giant talking turtle with swords and a blue ninja mask leading a group of three other turtles in color-coded masks. "None of you have any affiliation with the Kraang?"

"Don't even know what that is," replied Cole, and the others voiced their agreement.

"How about the Foot Clan?" asked the turtle wearing purple.

"Ew, no," said Jay in disgust. "Who'd willingly name themselves the Foot?"

It was Jay's reaction more than their words that seemed to satisfy the turtles.

"And you guys wouldn't happen to be some offshoot of the Serpentine, would you?" Kai asked suspiciously.

The turtle in the red mask scowled at them. "Do we look like freakin' snakes to you?" he asked.

"Just making sure," said Zane holding up his hands in a pacifying gesture.

"We're just passing through," Lloyd said, trying to ease the tension. "We'll be gone before you know it."

It was at that moment that Jay's stomach growled loudly, reminding them that in their chaotic morning they'd forgotten to eat breakfast and it was now time for lunch. On cue, the others' stomachs started grumbling as well.

The turtle in the orange mask gave them a sympathetic look. "You dudes want to get a pizza?" he offered in a friendly tone, despite the annoyed glares of the other turtles.

Cole looked like he was about to decline, but then his stomach made itself known too. "We'd love to," he said.

As it turned out, for a bunch of giant turtles that lived in the sewers, they really knew all the best pizza places in town.

Let it not be said they don't learn from their mistakes.

Now knowing they couldn't just keep blasting from world to world until Ultra was too tired to continue, they decided on a more structured plan of action. They would travel through only a certain number of worlds a day with breaks every few worlds when it looked safe to do so. That way, they wouldn't be trapped in a dangerous world with a dragon too tired to help them again.

So after getting their pizza lunch, they were once again on their way, though having little luck finding the correct world to be Lloyd's Ninjago.

However, when they passed into what would be their last world of the day, they were met with a problem.

"Uh, guys, I don't see any ground," said Kai nervously, staring out the carriage window at an endless view of the ocean.

"Should we go somewhere else?" asked Nya, giving her brother a sympathetic look.

"I don't know, this could be my world," said Lloyd. "My Ninjago City is by the sea. But without any landmarks, I can't tell you for sure."

Cole gave him a searching look. "So, we can't leave, we can't land, and if we make Ultra travel much farther they'll be exhausted. Got any bright ideas how to solve this?" he asked, though his tone was no longer as confrontational as that morning.

Lloyd, Jay, and Nya exchanged grins, and Lloyd directed the Ultra Dragon down to hover just over the water.

"Prepare to be amazed," Jay said.

Then he and Lloyd both jumped into their spinjitzu tornados and began whirling around the carriage, disassembling it and reassembling it in a flash. Nya was doing the same, though at a much slower pace due to not knowing spinjitzu yet.

Before the other three knew it, they were no longer sitting in a carriage, but standing on the deck of a boat just big enough for them and the Ultra Dragon to all fit on.

When they were done, Lloyd, Jay, and Nya exchanged high fives. "Have I mentioned I love Master Building," said Nya with a grin.

Once free of the harness, the Ultra Dragon circled around and landed on the boat with a sigh of contentment. The others struggled to keep their balance from the rocking the landing caused.

"Sleeping out on the ocean all night," said Kai, not looking happy at all. "Swell."

"I don't see any swells?" said Zane. "Though that would be a cause for concern."

Kai's dour expression worsened. "I did not need that idea in my head," he said.

Nya sent him another sympathetic glance. "I'll go get the life jackets," she said, heading into the small cabin at one end of the ship. "We all need to wear them. No exceptions."

"But-" Jay started to protest.

"No exceptions!" Nya repeated sharply, and he shut up.

"I wonder if we could fish for our dinner," said Cole staring out at the ocean thoughtfully. "Our supplies are getting lower than we thought they'd be."

"We underestimated how much Ultra would need to eat to make up the energy from portal travel," agreed Zane. "Gathering food from this location could help us extend our supplies at least another day."

Lloyd lit up at the suggestion. "I love fishing! Dad taught me how to do it last week," he said eagerly, heading for the cabin as well. "I'll go make some rods."

Kai, meanwhile, stared out at the waves and began looking green in the face.

In the end, it was Lloyd, Cole, and Zane who were on fishing duty. Kai was refusing to get close to the edge for any reason, and Jay and Nya were checking below deck to make sure the transition from carriage to boat had gone completely smoothly. The last thing they wanted was to wake up underwater

Strangely, Kai had looked even more green when he heard that. "Uh, I'm gonna… go lie down inside," he said, heading for the cabin.

"What is up with that?" asked Cole aloud as the Red Ninja practically fled from their sight.

Zane shrugged, but Lloyd hesitantly said, "Well, if he's anything like my Kai, he might be afraid of the water."

That caused the other two to look at him. "Afraid of water?" asked Zane. "I had not known Kai had that phobia."

Lloyd shrugged and rubbed his arm. "Like I said, it's my Kai who's like that. I have no idea if he's like that too."

"Sure looks like he might be," said Cole. "We can ask him later."

The other two nodded, baited their lines, and tossed them out into the sea, each taking a seat on the edge of the boat as they waited for a bite.

There were a few moments of awkward silence, none of them really knowing what to say to each other.

Finally, Cole asked a question that had been bugging him. "Why do you do that, by the way?"

Zane and Lloyd both looked at him oddly.

"Your arm," Cole said, gesturing to Lloyd's right arm. "Why do you rub it all the time?"

Zane nodded thoughtfully. "I have also noticed that habit," he admitted.

Lloyd looked startled at their words, and as he opened his mouth to answer he caught himself reaching up to do the very action they were asking about. He stared down and glanced between his left hand and his right arm in surprise.

"I-I didn't even realize I was doing it," he said, looking puzzled.

"You seem to do it most at times of stress," said Zane recalling the times he'd observed the habit. "Or when you are thinking about your home."

"Huh," said Lloyd, still looking confused.

"Is it hurt?" asked Cole, his expression turning stern. "Because if it is, we need to know that sooner rather than later."

"No, I'm not hurt," said Lloyd slowly. "Well, there are some bruises from everything that happened this morning and last night, but none on that arm."

"Perhaps it is an old injury," said Zane. "Such reactions can be caused by residual pain from one."

They could both tell the moment the answer occurred to Lloyd. "Oh," he said, understanding dawning on him. "Yeah that… that might be it. The old injury part, not… there's no residual pain."

Cole exchanged a glance with his nindroid friend, and said, "So what happened to it?"

Lloyd grimaced and looked like he was physically stopping himself from rubbing the same arm again. "Well, to tell that story, I first need to tell you about what used to happen when you worked for my dad and then got fired."

Cole raised an eyebrow at that. "Uh, I'm getting the feeling I'm missing something about the way you say 'fired'."

Lloyd let out a humorless chuckle. "Probably. My dad lives and works in an active volcano," he said bluntly. "When people got fired from there, they mean it literally. He'd shoot them right out of the top."

Cole stared at him as if he didn't know whether to be horrified or find the whole thing hilarious.

"And they'd survive?" asked Zane, apparently taking the horrified approach.

"With some injuries and burns, yes," said Lloyd with a nod. "We could always tell when Dad was in a bad mood because you could see them as they flew by. The air was full of flying fish people"

Hilarity won over, and Cole nearly fell off of the boat laughing at the mental image. Zane was looking at him like he was crazy

"Fortunately for my dad's remaining staff, when Dad turned good, that policy was the first to go," said Lloyd. "If I remember right, his current General #1 at the time stole Cole's stone mallet and smashed the activation button to bits. There was a whole party in the volcano after that happened. Dad was pouting about it for weeks."

Cole started laughing even harder, and Zane looked like he was getting a headache.

"I believe we are getting off track," said the nindroid in a strained voice. "What does your father's… former termination policy have to do with you injuring your arm."

Lloyd sighed. "When my team and I stopped my father there were a lot of things that led up to it," he said. "To save the day we thought we would need to find something called the Ultimate, Ultimate Weapon."

"Yes, you told me and Nya about this," said Zane. "They thought they were weapons that did not sound dissimilar to the Golden Weapons," he explained for Cole's benefit.

"Well, to find them we had to take my father prisoner and go on this really dangerous journey through the jungle," Lloyd said. "And… it just so happened to be the same jungle that all my father's former generals landed in after he 'fired' them. And trust me, they were not happy about it."

Well, that didn't sound good.

"What did they do?" asked Cole, his humor fading quickly.

"They grabbed me, threw me in a cage with my dad, and planned to fire us both into a volcano so that they could get their revenge," said Lloyd dryly. "Luckily, they didn't get my team, and my friends were able to rescue us."

The blasé way he described his close call with a fiery death was very worrying.

"Were you injured while you were captured?" asked Zane, exchanging a concerned look with Cole.

Lloyd shook his head. "No, it got hurt during our escape. Basically, we were taking a helicopter to make sure they couldn't follow us, and one of the generals tackled me off the roof before we could take off."

Zane and Cole could only hold their fishing rods limply in their hands as they gaped at Lloyd.

"And, that is where you got your injury?" asked Zane weakly.

"Yeah," said Lloyd, holding out his right arm to examine it. "I nearly lost it forever. The fall knocked it completely out of its socket, and the whole time it hurt like crazy. I thought for sure it was a goner."

Cole stared at the same arm and let out a horrified, "Huuuhhh?"

"Lucky for me my dad was able to fix it up," said Lloyd nonchalantly, apparently not noticing the looks he was being given. "I'm okay now though, but it aches sometimes. Especially when it's about to rain."

Lloyd finally noticed how quiet his fishing buddies were being, and turned to look at them. "Are you guys okay?" he asked in concern, seeing the looks on their faces.

"I get the sense we should be asking you that," said Zane.

"You nearly lost an arm?" said Cole. "How are you so calm about it!?"

Lloyd shrugged. "I've had… well, not worse, but more painful things that lasted longer."

Mental alarm bells were officially ringing for the Earth and Ice Ninja. Despite not being the same person or the right age, a part of both of them still identified this green-wearing blond as the little kid they'd sworn to protect. Hearing the rather horrific things he'd been through, well…

Lloyd found himself trapped in a hug between both Cole and Zane.

"Are you sure you want to go back to your Ninjago?" asked Cole. "Maybe it would be better if after we pick up Lloyd you come back and live with us."

"I find that to be a logical solution," agreed Zane.

Lloyd let out a laugh at their reactions. "Something tells me I won't be any more safe in you guys' Ninjago either," he said. "A lot of my injuries were par for the course for being the leader of a ninja team. Unless I give up being a ninja entirely, I'd probably still get hurt. Besides, things in my world have gotten a lot better in recent months."

Reluctantly, both Cole and Zane released him but did not look fully convinced.

"Seriously, though, I'm fine," Lloyd insisted. "But thanks for the hug."

Zane nodded absently, then he noticed something. "Cole, where is your fishing rod?" he asked, noticing it absent from his brother's hand.

Cole glanced down to see his hands empty. Realizing he must have dropped it at some point in the story, he looked out into the water to see the rod bobbing along the surface as a fish sped it away from the boat at a rapid speed.

"Hey! I caught one," he said.

"It also looks like you have lost one," said Zane as the rod grew farther away.

"Not for long," said Cole brightly, and he dove off the side of the boat and took off swimming after his escaping catch.

Lloyd couldn't help but laugh at his antics. "It is so weird to see a Cole that is so energetic," he admitted. "If that happened to mine, he would have just shrugged it off and gotten another rod."

"Different dimensions, different people," said Zane.

Still chuckling, Lloyd nodded. "But not too different," he admitted. "Where it counts, you're all still the same."

"Oh?" asked Zane.

"Yeah," said Lloyd, but he didn't elaborate.

There was a beat of silence as they both watched as Cole swam circles around the boat to catch his fish. His bright orange life jacket was easy to spot against the blue of the sea.

After a moment, Zane asked again, "Are you certain you are okay?"

Lloyd was quick to nod and reply, "Yeah, I'll be fine. The bruises from the ghosts should fade soon."

"I didn't just mean physically, Lloyd," said Zane quietly.

Lloyd's face fell a bit. "For the most part," he admitted. "I miss my family and everyone else, and I'm worried if something's gone wrong while I'm not there." He then flashed Zane a quick smile. "Hanging out with you guys helps with that," he admitted. "I know I'm headed home as fast as we can go. It's just that lingering 'what if' that gets me."

"We'll get there as soon as we can," Zane assured him. "And you are welcome to talk to me if anything is bothering you. On this team, we look out for each other."

Lloyd chuckled again. "Thanks, Zane," he said. His expression then turned even more amused. "You know, it's funny," he added.

"What's funny?" asked the nindroid.

"The fact that you kinda act more like Cole than Cole," said Lloyd with a snicker.

Zane chuckled as well. "Well, considering you previously described him as 'the epitome of cool', I suppose there are worse people to be compared to. I look forward to meeting them all," he said. "Though I suppose that means that our Cole is not the cool one on the team."

Lloyd laughed again at that. "Let's not tell him that," he replied. "It might hurt his feelings."

On cue, Cole burst out of the sea and lugged himself back onto the boat with a massive fish held triumphantly in his hand. "Dinner is served!" he said, presenting them with a large tuna.

Seeing the size of the fish and the entrance Cole had made, Zane admitted, "Well, maybe he's a little cool."

Cole blinked at them in confusion, and Lloyd nearly fell off the boat laughing.

Their fish dinner was served with much fanfare (especially after it was decided that Zane would cook it with Cole being too tired from swimming after it to do so), and they all retired in the cabin on full stomachs.

But one of them just couldn't sleep. While he wasn't prone to seasickness, the motion of the boat on the waves served as a constant reminder to Kai of just where they were, and the only thing standing between him and the dark depths was a hastily assembled vessel that was better suited for flight.

Kai couldn't recall trying to sleep in a place that made him feel less safe.

After a particularly rough patch of waves jostled him far too much for his liking, Kai grabbed a blanket and reluctantly left his futon in the cabin.

He decided sleeping with the Ultra Dragon would be better than inside this death trap. At least then if they were to start sinking, he could at least be ready to escape as soon as possible.

With that plan in mind, Kai crossed the deck and curled up next to Flame the Fire Dragon's head, and prepared for a rough night of sleep.

Just as he was about to close his eyes and drift off, a dark spot on the horizon caught his eye.

Suddenly wide awake and hoping it was land he was seeing, Kai got back to his feet and squinted at the shape.

To his disappointment, the shape didn't appear to be an island. Instead, it looked more like another boat out in the distance.

With a disappointed sigh, Kai settled back down and watched the boat on the horizon as he waited for sleep to claim him.

However, as he watched he realized the shape was too big and more inline with a ship than a boat. He also noticed that it was getting closer, and would probably pass them at some point.

He briefly wondered what the crew's reaction would be to seeing a small boat in the middle of the sea with an entire dragon curled up on the deck. The conjurings of his imagination brought a chuckle to his lips, and he decided to stay up to see their faces when they passed.

But as the ship got closer, the moon, which until that point had been trapped behind a cloud, finally broke free and illuminated the vessel for Kai to see in greater detail.

The sight of it had the Master of Fire surge to his feet as he recognized the flag the ship was flying above its tattered black sails, and his heart sank at the sight.

It was a pirate ship.

Chapter Text

Movie Ninjago

After training, the Secret Ninja Force went their separate ways. They had a lot to ponder on with the revelations about their leader that had been made during their training, and wondering what it could be that was holding them back from this mythical 'True Potential'.

As such, none of them were really up for spending time with Lloyd, which left the seven-year-old bored.

So when Koko came in to find him taping honey-coated plastic wrap on a doorframe, he froze and stared back at her like a deer in the headlights.

Koko raised an eyebrow as she took in the sight before her. The tiny boy who was an alternate version of her son was standing precariously on a chair straining to reach high enough to tape his next prank into place.

"You know, I found the surprise you left on my sink yesterday," she said conversationally, making Lloyd sweat even more.

The last thing he was expecting was for her to smile warmly at him and say, "Thank you. That morning had been stressful for me, and I was in desperate need of a laugh."

Lloyd was so surprised at that response that he slipped and fell off the chair.

He was also not expecting Koko to practically fly across the room to catch him before he knocked his head against the floor.

"Whoa, careful there," she said as she set him back on his feet.

Lloyd could only stare up at her, surprise still evident on his face. "You're-you're not mad about that?" he asked. It was very rare he didn't get some retaliation for his pranks. He couldn't even remember if anyone had ever responded to them positively before.

Koko smiled and shook her head. "No, really, sweetie," she said. "I was laughing in my kitchen for about five minutes after I found it."

Lloyd felt something warm spread through his chest. Hearing someone else had enjoyed his pranks was… nice.

"So," Koko continued, glancing up at the plastic now hanging limply on one side of the doorway. "I'm guessing you're looking for something to do?"

Lloyd glanced up at his latest trick and nodded silently.

"Well," she said. "I have some errands to run in the city. Would you want to come with me to do them? Get out for a bit and have some fun? We could even make a quick stop at the comic store if you like."

Lloyd immediately brightened and nodded at her with more enthusiasm this time.

"Great," said Koko. "Then let's get you out of that gi and go." She straightened up and offered him her hand to hold.

Lloyd reached out to take it but hesitated. "Wait, what about…?" he gestured up at plastic wrap and honey.

Koko glanced over at it, and to Lloyd's utter surprise, she reached up and carefully finished taping the plastic wrap in place so that whoever next came through that door would get a face full of honey.

She glanced down and gave Lloyd a conspiratorial wink, before leading him out the other door.

He'd already known she was nice, but Lloyd decided right then and there that Koko was awesome!

Unfortunately, most other people weren't thrilled with the idea of Koko taking him on an outing.

"DON'T LEAVE US WITH HIM!" one of the more dramatic scientists wailed begging on her knees.

"Please, Mz. IronDragon," pleaded Dr. Gary more softly, though he was constantly glancing over his shoulder with extreme paranoia. "You're the only one who can keep him in line. He's been a complete-"

"Slave driver," finished Koko with a sympathetic look. "I know how he can be, I married him. Don't worry about it. I've already arranged it with Wu."

The scientists looked far from convinced. "Uh, beg your pardon, ma'am," said Dr. Gary, still looking like he expected Garmadon to appear at any moment. "But Lord Garmadon's brother is the last person he would be willing to listen to."

"Oh, I know," said Koko. "That's why Wu's going to challenge him to a spar or a game that Garm has no chance at winning. Knowing how stubborn he is, it'll keep him busy for a few hours until he gets something he considers a victory. He won't even realize I'm gone."

The scientists looked extremely relieved to look forward to working at least a few hours without their boss breathing down their necks, and quickly disbursed.

The Ninja Force, however, were still unconvinced.

"I thought we were keeping this whole mess a secret," said Jay.

"We are," said Koko. "But that doesn't mean we need to keep Lil'Loyd locked up in here the entire time. He's not a prisoner."

"But what if you get seen?" asked Nya. "What'll people think when they see the Green Ninja's mom walking around with a little kid that looks just like him?"

"Then I'll tell them that my son is away on secret ninja business, and this is a child I'm looking to adopt," said Koko sternly.

The teenagers exchanged glances. "They're not going to buy that," said Cole.

"Well, that's too bad, because it's the truth," said Koko, who was already gathering her and Lloyd's coats so they could leave.

"And what if someone tries to give you trouble?" asked Kai.

Koko raised an eyebrow at that. Then delicately reached over to take a large knife from a nearby wall display, spun it expertly in her hand, and then stowed it inside her purse.

Enough said.

"Right," said Nya, who was looking starstruck. "No way Lady IronDragon would let that happen."

Seeing her point had been made, Koko and Lloyd were out the door and on the way to the city.

Lloyd hadn't been living in his world's Ninjago City for very long, but something about this city felt more vibrant than his own.

The color pallet of the buildings seemed to pop more, and everything was moving at a pace that felt quicker than he was used to.

It was kind of overwhelming.

This was not helped by the fact that everywhere he and Koko went, people would stop and whisper at the sight of them. The number of times he saw people sneaking pictures of him from their phones was unnerving too. Koko would put a stop to it whenever she or he noticed them ("What are you, some kind of creep? He's a child.") but they couldn't have their eyes everywhere, and some managed to slip through.

Koko sighed as they sat in a sky tram, and looked at her own phone. When Lloyd looked at it too, he saw it was full of candid photos of himself posted online and it seemed everyone in Ninjago was now wondering who he was.

"I guess I should have expected that," she admitted, putting her phone away. "It's the downside of having a famous son. Suddenly everyone wants to know everything about you."

"Should we go back?" asked Lloyd, looking disappointed. The tram pulled into a station as he said that, and if they were going to go back, now was the time

Koko smiled at him and stayed in her seat. "No, not yet," she said. "They were going to find out about you eventually, I just wish someone would come up and ask for the truth rather than make crazy theories online."

"Yeah, but that's half the fun," said a new voice.

Lloyd looked up to see a teenage girl who had just gotten on the tram approach them. She was dressed in green and was very pretty with long white hair held back with a mermaid hair clip.

Koko's expression brightened with familiarity as she saw her. "Oh, Harumi," she said. "How are you."

"Fine," said Harumi. "Though a bit curious why my phone started blowing up with a hundred new conspiracy theories in the last hour."

Koko laughed at those words. "Sweetie," she said to Lloyd. "This is Harumi. She's the mayor's daughter and a very nice girl."

Harumi leaned over to give Lloyd a friendly smile. "So what's the real story?" she asked. "Who's this little guy."

"This is a boy I'm planning to adopt soon," said Koko. "We're just having a day out so I can show him around the city."

"Oh, really?" asked Harumi brightly. "That's so kind of you. What's his name?"

"His name is-" Koko started to say, but faltered. It would be far too much of a coincidence for there to be another blond boy in green named Lloyd, especially if they wanted to keep some parts of the situation a secret.

"Montgomery," blurted out Lloyd quickly, coming to her rescue, though he looked reluctant to admit the name.

Harumi's smile widened at that, and she said, "Oh, that's a nice name. Do people call you Monty for short?"

Lloyd made a face at the nickname, but before more could be said, Koko got to her feet. "This is our stop," she said, taking Lloyd's hand again. "It was nice seeing you again, Harumi."

"It was nice to see you too," said Harumi, stepping back to let them pass. "And just so you know, I'm great with kids. Let me know if you ever would like me to babysit."

Koko gave her a friendly wave as they stepped off. "We'll keep that in mind. Bye now."

The two vanished from sight as the tram left the station, and once they were out of view, Harumi's friendly smile twisted into a smirk, and she pulled out her phone to send a mass text.

From: Quiet1

To: SoG (All)

Contact made with Lady IronDragon and can confirm the rumors. The child is definitely Lloyd Garmadon in a shrunken state. Praise our Dark Emperor for erasing the Green Ninja from existence. Perhaps now he will be raised to be a proper evil heir. Be ready to take advantage of any opportunity that may arise.

All hail our Future Dark Emperor.

The rest of the trip was a mix of running to stores and stopping to see the sights. They did stop at the comic store like Koko had promised. It turned out that despite all the differences between worlds, Doomsday Comix, and Mother Doomsday running it, was mostly the same. Still, Lloyd managed to buy some Starfarer comics that seemed unique to this world, so he considered it a trip well spent.

Their trip culminated at a rooftop ice cream parlor with both of them eating hot fudge sundaes in the fresh air before heading back to the Bounty and facility.

"You know," Koko said as Lloyd dug into his ice cream. "You can talk to me."

Lloyd paused in his eating and looked at her.

"Don't think I haven't noticed it," she said. "You barely say anything to me, and only when you have to. Did I do something wrong?"

There was that question again. The same one Cole had asked him last night. These people were being crazy nice, he didn't want them to think that.

"You keep saying you want to adopt me," he blurted out.

Koko's eyes softened in confusion. "I do," she said.

"Why?" asked Lloyd. The question had been bugging him since she had first said those words.

"Why wouldn't I?" asked Koko, looking even more confused.

"Because I'm not your Lloyd," Lloyd said, struggling to keep the words quiet. "I'm not… My own mother didn't want me, so why do you? You don't even know me!"

At the expression on Koko's face at those words, he immediately felt bad, and he tried to duck behind his sundae.

Koko reached over and cupped his chin so that he had to look at her. "That's why I want you," she said softly. "When I look at you, while there is a resemblance, I don't see my son. I see a lost little boy who hasn't had a fair shot at life. Someone who needs and deserves to be loved. You're right, though, I don't know you." She then smiled kindly. "But I want to."

It was all Lloyd could do not to start crying into his ice cream. For the first time since he got here, he truly believed her words.

But he knew he couldn't do it. Destiny said he had to be in his own Ninjago, not here. His friends, his family, needed him there. He loved them too much to abandon them.

No matter how much he was starting to want to stay.

Deep, deep down where he'd never admitted it existed, he had always wanted his mother to love him.

Before he could give Koko an answer, the ground shook and alarms started ringing.

"Attention all Ninjago Citizens. Please assume the duck and cover positions. There is a villain attack in progress. Repeat, please assume the duck and cover positions." a voice blared from loudspeakers scattered throughout the city.

Hearing this, Koko immediately pulled Lloyd from the chair and shoved the sundaes into his hands. She then kicked over the table they'd been sitting that and using it and various other tables and chairs scattered around to form a shelter for them to hide in.

"What's going on?" Lloyd asked as he crouched down beside her, still holding the ice cream.

"Villain attack," Koko said, pulling the knife from her purse and sitting ready to fight if anything came too close to their hiding spot. "When my ex-husband gave up his conquering ways, other evil-doers decided to try their hand in his place. We're about to see one of them."

"What do we do?" asked Lloyd. "Should we help?"

Koko flashed him a grin and pointed to the sky.

Lloyd looked up to see a large blue jet shoot by, causing all who saw it to cheer. On the streets below, he saw a large black mech roll by as well, followed by a white tank and a cyan spider-like mech all accompanied by more cheering.

"What we do," said Koko. "Is we sit back and watch the show."

Chapter Text

Pirates of the Caribbean

"Pirates again," Jay groaned. "Why does it have to be pirates again?"

The rest of the Ninja were equally disgruntled at having their sleep disrupted two nights in a row.

"Look on the bright side. Maybe it's Captain Soto and we're in Lloyd's Ninjago after all" said Cole, though he didn't seem too thrilled about his 'bright side'.

"Who's Captain Soto?" asked Lloyd, and Zane whispered the necessary information into his ear.

"I don't see anyone that looks like Soto on that ship," said Nya, peering at the ship in the distance through a pair of night vision binoculars. By the time Kai had rallied the others, the moon had gone back behind the clouds, making it hard to see without them.

"The guy who looks like he's in charge over there looks nothing like him too," she added, bringing the binoculars down. "And judging from Lloyd's pictures, we all at least resemble our counterparts."

"Okay, it's not Soto, and they're probably not friendly," said Kai. "Why are we still here again?"

"We won't be for long," said Cole. "Nya, get this boat away from them as fast as possible."

"You got it," said Nya, and she tossed Zane the binoculars to run inside and start up the boat's engines. A minute later, the boat jolted to life and was shooting across the waves away from the ship.

"They'll never catch us now," said Jay with a grin as the ship began getting smaller in their sights.

"From what I can see, that ship is far less advanced than the Destiny's Bounty and lacks any sort of engine or propeller to grant it speed or make it capable of flight. Not to mention, the sails seem to be in a poor state," said Zane, also examining the ship. "The likelihood they will catch up is extremely low."

"Well, that's one crisis averted," said Cole as they all sighed in relief. Kai especially, he did not want to have a fight out on the open water.

"Soooo, can we go back to bed now?" asked Jay.

"We should wait to make sure that ship is well out of sight before anyone goes back to sleep," said Lloyd. "Just in case."

There was a pause, and Lloyd realized he was leading again, and he quickly turned to Cole. "That is, if you think so," he said awkwardly.

Fortunately, Cole didn't look as annoyed about it as before, though he did shoot Lloyd a quick stink-eye. "He's right," he said. "The last thing we need is any more surprises. We can go to bed once that ship is nowhere to be seen."

"Hey guys," Nya called from inside the cabin. "It looks like we're heading into a fog bank. Should I head around?"

They all turned to look in the direction they were going, and sure enough, a massive cloud of fog was settled on the sea before them.

Lloyd opened his mouth to say something, but caught himself just in time and closed it.

Cole, having seen the action, smiled slightly before addressing the others. "I say we go through the fog," he said. "The cover it gives will help us lose that ship faster and we'll be fine if we keep going straight." Then, to everyone's surprise, he turned to Lloyd and asked, "What do you think?"

Lloyd blinked in surprise at the courtesy, and replied, "It sounds good to me, but it might delay us getting back to sleep. At least some of us need to stay awake to make sure we don't run into rocks or anything in the fog. But the cover it would give would be really helpful in avoiding a fight."

Cole nodded. "Good point," he said, and called back to Nya, "Head into the fog, but be careful."

"I'm always careful," Nya called back, and they soon entered the fog bank.

It didn't take long for Cole and Lloyd to regret their decision somewhat. Mostly because Jay and Kai kept complaining.

"Urgh, I didn't realize how creepy this would be," said Jay staring around at the near pitch-black fog surrounding them. The mist was so thick, that even with all the lights on the boat blazing, they could still barely see five feet in any direction.

Kai, who was not liking this situation at all, gave a startled jump. "I think I see something moving over there!" he said, pointing into the fog.

Zane lifted up the binoculars and switched them from night vision to infrared. "I am not picking up any heat signatures in that direction," he said.

Kai still looked ill at ease and made sure to stay by the Ultra Dragon.

Said dragon was now wide awake as well, their four heads looking out into the fog with a penetrating stare. Unnervingly, their eyes were also fixed in the direction Kai had indicated.

Seeing this, Lloyd pointed out the dragon's gaze and said, "Are you sure there's nothing there?"

Zane frowned and looked through the infrared again. Then he switched the goggles back to night vision, and nearly dropped them in surprise.

"There is something there," he said. "But it has no heat signature, and… it appears to be getting closer."

"Getting closer as in we're coming up to it, or getting closer as in it's coming to us?" asked Jay uneasily.

"The latter," said Zane in a dismal tone, peering through the binoculars once again.

Cole's face turned grim. "We're too noticeable!" he said, "Kill the lights!"

With some reluctance, the rest of them obeyed, and the entire boat was enveloped in inky blackness.

They all kept quiet, peering out into the darkness and straining their ears for any sign of what Zane and Kai had seen. And what the Ultra Dragon was still seeing, if their eyes fixed to the one point was any indication.

As anyone who liked scary stories could tell you, when you're robbed of your sense of sight in a scary situation, suddenly every noise sounds a lot more threatening. Soon, it became very clear from the slapping sounds of the waves that there was something big moving through the water towards them.

Then, all of a sudden, the fog bank cleared, and the ninja all stared up in dismay.

Right beside them, practically towering over them, was the pirate ship they'd seen before.

"Impossible!" said Zane. "There's no way that ship could have caught up to us!"

"I don't know if you noticed, Zane, but it seems pretty possible to me!" said Jay in a freaked out tone.

Zane opened his mouth to refute him, but Kai cut him off with a shout of "Cannons!"

Before they could react, the ship beside them blasted their cannons at them with a deafening 'BOOM!'

The ninja yelped as their boat pitched and rocked from the impact. The Ultra Dragon let out an angry roar and took to the sky. They began circling the ship, but several rounds of musket fire kept them from getting too close.

"Guys! We're taking on water!" shouted Nya, abandoning the steering wheel to run out to them.

"What do we do, Cole?" asked Kai.

The ship fired its cannons again, but this time Jay managed to blast the cannonball out of the air with lightning.

"We need to get out of here," Cole said, forming a plan as fast as he could. "How quickly can we turn this thing into a carriage again?"

"Pretty quickly," said Lloyd. "But if they keep firing on us, we'll lose too many parts."

Jay had to blast another cannonball sent their way. "It'll also be slower if I'm stuck keeping us from becoming swiss cheese," he called.

"Not to mention, we appear to be sinking," added Zane, staring at the waterline alongside the boat.

Cole nodded. "Okay, Nya! You get below deck, start Master Building. Also, try to keep the water out as much as you can."

Nya grimaced, knowing she needed way more practice with her newfound power to be fully successful in the second part, but quickly ran below deck nonetheless.

"Lloyd, you start Master Building up here," Cole continued. "Jay, stick to keeping those cannons off us."

Lloyd and Jay both nodded and jumped to their tasks as well.

"What about the rest of us?" asked Zane. "Should I help with the Master Building?"

"Building will have to wait. I'm guessing we'll have to deal with the unwanted company first," said Kai, pointing up at the ship.

Sure enough, several pirates were now swinging through the air on ropes with the intent to land on their boat.

"Get ready, guys!" said Cole as the first landed on board.

"NINJA GO!" shouted Cole, Zane, and Kai, bursting into their spinjitzu tornados to knock their unwanted guests overboard.

Taken by surprise, the first round of pirates fell into the water with little problems.

Unfortunately, they just kept coming, and any that got knocked overboard was quick to climb back up.

Strangely enough, despite now having their own men on the boat, the ship never stopped its cannon assault on them, and Jay was having a harder and harder time blasting them away and fighting off any pirates who got too close.

Deciding it was time to return fire, Zane stopped fighting long enough to run into the cabin and press a large red button he'd seen Lloyd install.

"Automatic missiles initiated," said a computerized voice. "Desired target?"

"Cannonballs," said Zane. As much as he wanted to aim for the ship itself, he didn't want to actually kill someone.

Immediately, missile turrets began popping up out of various parts of the boat and anytime a cannonball was shot, it retaliated to blast it out of the sky.

"Nice thinking!" called Cole as Zane ran back out to rejoin the fight.

Zane opened his mouth to thank him, but another pirate landing on the boat right in front of him caught his attention.

It was the man he and Nya had seen giving orders on the ship. He wore a large hat with a feather pulled down over his messy brown hair. He sneered at Zane through his scraggly beard and bad teeth.

"Ye be ownin' a clever ship," he said with a thick drawl as he pointed a sword at Zane. "Don' suppose it'll be too clever when it be at sittin' in Davy Jones' locker."

Zane pulled out a pair of shurikens and prepared to fight. Still, there was something he needed to ask, just to be sure. "If I were to ask you for directions to Ninjago, what would you tell me?" he asked.

The captain gave him a strange look. "There be no such place on the seven seas, boy," he said. "And I sailed 'em all."

So this wasn't Lloyd's world after all. "Then, I don't suppose you'd agree to surrender and leave us alone?" Zane asked.

The pirate captain threw back his head and laughed loudly at the suggestion, taking Zane off guard.

Then, before Zane could blink, the captain was swinging his sword at the nindroid's head.

"Zane, watch out!"

In a flash of green, Lloyd came flying out of nowhere to tackle the nindroid to the ground, getting grazed by the blade in the process.

"Lloyd!" shouted Zane at the sight of the blood. Thankfully, for all it looked bad, the cut wasn't actually deep.

Lloyd managed to flash him a pained but reassuring grin. "I've got your back," he said. "That looking out for each other thing goes both ways."

Zane shook his head at his recklessness.

The pirate captain, however, didn't stop there, and immediately came at them again for a second try.

"GET AWAY FROM THEM!" roared Kai, rushing over to stop him, holding his sword out in front of him like a spear.

But at that exact moment, one of the cannons made a lucky shot past Jay's lightning and the missiles and crashed into the boat, causing the entire vessel to shake.

The shaking caused Kai to lose his footing, and vault forward faster than any of them anticipated, his sword still pointed out in front of him as he fell…

… And drove the blade straight into the captain's chest.

Eyes wide, Kai froze in horror. He hadn't meant to kill the man.

With mouths agape, Lloyd and Zane stared up at the captain who looked down at the sword in his chest in surprise.

Then, to all of their shock, he once again threw back his head and laughed.

At that moment, the moon once again broke through the clouds, and shined down on the boat, illuminating it for all to see.

Below deck, Nya was scrambling to rebuild the carriage and push the water back out of the gaping holes in the side of the boat. Above her, she could hear the sounds of the fighting raging on, and it gave her no comfort.

Her only consolation was that as soon as she finished down here, she could get back up there and help so they could get out of here.

Suddenly, an eerie scratching sound could be heard along the hull of the boat, creeping closer to the holes in the side.

Putting down the parts she was building, Nya focused on keeping the water out and slowly made her way to peer out the hole.

For a moment, she could only see the rushing black water dyed blue with moonbeams, struggling to get through her grip and flood the place.

Then, suddenly, a horrible skeletal face thrust its head through the hole and grinned at her with rotting teeth.

Nya screamed!

Under the light of the moon, the Ninja could only stare in horror at their opponents. It was only their training and quick reflexes that kept them from being killed in their shock.

The pirate captain just continued to laugh. It was a horrible sight. Where a man once stood, there was now a skeleton. But unlike the Skulkin armies they often faced, he looked far more horrible than they ever did, with shriveled flesh still rotting off his bones and his hair clumped with what looked like dried blood.

"Ye can' kill me, boy," he sneered at Kai, who jerked his sword out of the man and hurried to defend himself from a strike. "We be cursed men the likes o' which not even yer beast can kill. So be best ye just give up and die quietly."

"Ninja never quit!" Kai snapped back. "And this just means we don't have to hold back!"

With that in mind, he shot at the captain in a blazing tornado and threw him over the side. The rest all hurried to do the same, attacking with far more ruthlessness than they had previously. Even the Ultra Dragon seemed to stop holding back and began shooting jets of their elements at the attacking ship.

Still, they just kept coming. Nothing stopped them.

"We need to prioritize getting out of here!" Cole called after he threw the same pirate overboard for the fifth time. "Jay, Lloyd, focus more on fixing the carriage."

"But I'm the only one up here with powers!" said Jay. "You need me fighting mo-!"

"JAY! WATCH OUT!" shouted Zane, seeing another pirate sneaking up behind his friend.

Jay turned, but it was clear he wouldn't react fast enough.

On instinct, Zane flung his arms out in Jay's direction. There was no thought put into it, Zane just did it.

Immediately, a beam of ice burst from his hand and collided with the skeletal pirate freezing him in place.

Zane had only a moment to stare in wonderment at his own powers return, before getting serious.

This was just what they needed to turn the tide.

Running to the side, Zane thrust his hand into the ocean and channeled his powers into it. Jagged spikes of ice erupted outwards, shooting into the ship and trapping it and the remaining crew onboard in an icy prison.

Seeing their ship taken down so easily, the skeletal pirates suddenly looked a lot less confident.

Zane turned to his teammates. "Finish rebuilding our way out," he said. "I'll handle this."

Seeing no reason to complain, Jay and Lloyd jumped into action, the latter pausing only long enough to call, "Knock 'em dead, Zane!"

Zane grinned and began freezing every pirate in his sight into popsicles, allowing Kai and Cole to easily throw them off the boat. And this time they didn't come back.

In the middle of the fight, a geyser-like burst of water came from below deck and shot several more skeletal pirates out of it, sending them sprawling at Kai's feet.

"And stay out!" they heard Nya shout below deck as the boat's appearance finally began to resemble more of a carriage.

Disposing of the last of them, they attached the carriage to the Ultra Dragon, and took off, leaving the frozen pirates to bob in the sea until they thawed.

However, their take-off wasn't the best, and the entire carriage shook more than ever before.

"Bad news, guys," said Jay as he tried to wring water out of his clothes. "We took a lot of damage. As in the I-don't-think-it's-safe-for-us-to-fly-for-very-long kind of damage."

"Not only that, the water from the holes got into our supplies," said Nya, who looked more waterlogged than the rest of them combined. "They're all ruined."

Kai's face fell dramatically at those words. "Wait, you don't mean…"

Lloyd winced and it had nothing to do with the bandage he was placing on his cut. "I'm sorry. We can't do anything without more supplies," he said.

Cole heaved a heavy sigh. "Looks like we're going back to our Ninjago."

Chapter Text

Movie Ninjago

Lloyd heard the bad guys before he saw them. The loud roar of engines echoed through the streets despite the din of the city.

From their position at the rooftop ice cream parlor, Lloyd had the perfect view to see hoards of skeletons on motorbikes and monster trucks plow through the streets attacking everything in sight.

"Skulkin," he muttered, taking a bite of his sundae as he watched more drive past.

"You have those too?" asked Koko, not looking very surprised as she took her own ice cream back from Lloyd and finished it in a few quick gulps. She'd have to have her hands free if the need to defend them came.

"Unfortunately," Lloyd muttered as he polished off his as well. He didn't have too much of a problem with Skulkin when they worked for his father, but the ones who had worked at Darkley's had been far too eager to give him detention for his 'goodness' to really endear them to him.

He watched as the large black mech, undoubtedly Cole's, rolled by after the Skulkin. "Does that mech have… speakers?" he asked when he saw the main weapon of the mech and heard the music blaring out of it.

Koko chuckled. "Yes, Cole's an adept DJ. I thought it was pretty clever of him to take his hobby and make it into something he can fight with."

Just as she said that Cole did something on his turntables that cause a massive beat drop. The resulting soundwave that burst from the speakers sent the Skulkin motorcycles flying.

"Whoa," Lloyd said. That had been cool.

Koko's smile widened at his reaction. "They all worked together to build those mechs specifically for each ninja. No one else would be able to pilot them like they do."

As Lloyd watched Cole finish off the nearby Skulkin, he noticed the Earth Ninja reach up to the side of his head, no doubt speaking into a microphone to the other Ninja. "I wish we knew what they were saying," Lloyd said, not used to being out of the loop.

Hearing this, Koko glanced around to make sure no one else was listening in on their conversation, before reaching back into her purse and pulling out an earpiece.

"It's Lloyd's," she admitted, looking slightly guilty. "My Lloyd's, that is. He lost it weeks ago in his laundry, and by the time I found it after a wash, he'd already gotten a new one. The microphone on it is broken, but you can still hear what they say to each other."

"Why didn't you give it back?" asked Lloyd curiously.

"I…" Koko said, clutching the broken earpiece to herself. "I worry," she admitted. "I had no idea that Lloyd was the Green Ninja until, well, Meowthra. With this, at least, I can hear him and know he's alright."

Lloyd could tell from the look on her face, she regretted that the earpiece couldn't grant her that comfort this time.

Shaking herself, Koko held the earpiece between them and turned it on. Immediately, the voices of the Secret Ninja Force began calling over the speakers with a slightly static quality.

"I've got all the Skulkin downtown," they heard Cole say. "Where should I go next?"

"Uh, head towards the East District," said Nya with a slight hesitation in her voice.

"But, sis, I'm already there," said Kai. "I've got it handled."

"Right," said Nya. "Forgot about that. What's everyone's position again?"

"East District kicking butt," said Kai.

"I have the south side by the harbor," said Zane. "However, there do not appear to be many Skulkin in my area. I am getting bored."

"Downtown, wondering where to go next," said Cole.

"Up in the sky, taking out helicopters," said Jay. "Oh yeah, just so you know, they've apparently stolen helicopters to attack today."

"Why are they even attacking today?" asked Kai.

"Heard one of them talking before I smashed 'em," said Nya. "Apparently they noticed we missed our scheduled patrol the last two days and thought it was a good time to strike. Anyway, I'm covering the west side of town by the waterways. There's a good few here."

"Wait," said Lloyd as he mentally went through the list they just heard. "Doesn't that leave the north open for an attack?"

"Unfortunately, yes," said Koko.

"Then who's covering the north side?" asked Zane, as if reading their minds. "From reports, that appears to be where the majority of Skulkin seem to be convening."

There was a beat of silence. Lloyd and Koko exchanged glances.

"Is anyone covering the north?" asked Cole.

"That's usually where Lloyd would go," said Kai.

"Being a person short left a hole in their defenses," muttered Koko. "That's not good."

"Maybe the bad guys didn't notice it," said Lloyd.

Koko gave him a wane smile. "We're not that lucky, sweetie."

On cue, Jay spoke up. "Guys!" he said, sounding nervous. "I can see something coming from the north. Something big! It's heading for downtown!"

Nya said some words that were too distorted by static to hear but sounded angry. "Cole, go and meet whatever it is!" she ordered, though she sounded unsure. "Jay, you back him up from the air! Zane, if things south side are as quiet as you say, maybe go help them out. Kai and I will meet there when we finish up where we are."

"Maybe?" asked Zane.

"Use your judgment!" Nya snapped, sounding stressed. "If you think it might be, I don't know, some kind of trap to lure us northward, then stay where you are. If not, go help the others."

"Very well, I will calculate the most ideal course of action," said Zane. "Loading, loading, loading…"

"Urgh, just do it," said Nya, sounding more stressed than before. Then, more quietly, they heard her mutter, "How does Lloyd deal with this every mission. It's like herding cats!"

"Uh, Sis, your microphone's still on," said Kai.

"Just beat these boneheads!" Nya snapped.

Koko winced in sympathy. "Poor girl," she said. "She normally loves these missions."

Lloyd, meanwhile, was staring northward. "Uh, Koko?" he said slowly.

Koko looked up and followed his gaze. Seeing what was coming, she let out a sigh. "Of course they have a mech," she said. "It's all about the mechs these days."

Sure enough, stomping through the city was a metallic skeleton-shaped mech that was a head taller than Cole's Earth Mech. The mech had four arms each carrying a weapon the size of a bus, and sitting on top of the head was a similarly four-armed skeleton that Lloyd recognized.

"That's Samukai!" he said.

"You know him?" asked Koko.

"Kinda. He used to be my dad's general when he was trapped in the Underworld," explained Lloyd. "But the others told me he tried to betray Dad and steal the Golden Weapons of Spinjitzu and got vaporized for it."

Koko raised an eyebrow at that. "Well, unfortunately, he's still around here," she said. "He and the rest of the Skulkin have been… ornery since Garm decided to stop sponsoring their army and switched to his shark men. When Garm stepped down from evil, they've made periodic attacks to try and finish what he started."

"Doing what, exactly?" asked Lloyd. From what he was seeing, there didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason for their attack other than to scare people.

Koko pointed over at a tall tower in the middle of the city that the mech was making a beeline towards. "That's the mayor's office, Ninjago Tower. Because of some obscure law back from the founding of Ninjago, if someone can give a big enough show of force, and then climb to the top of that tower, they can declare themself the 'ruler of Ninjago'. However, if they're stopped by any opposition, it won't count."

Lloyd stared at her. "That's a stupid law. It's just asking for trouble."

Koko let out a resigned sigh. "I know," she said. "But changing it has been extremely difficult because doing so would go against the city's 'historical significance.'" she said with quotations. "We'd probably be attacked a lot less often if they changed it, but since when do people ever do things the easy way."

Lloyd blinked as he absorbed that. "People are dumb," he said.

Koko laughed at his honesty.

Below them, they watched as Cole's mech rolled over to meet the Skulkin mech.

One on one, Cole seemed to be holding his own against the giant skeleton. They were more or less evenly matched, between Cole's soundwaves and Samukai's four arms. However, Samukai didn't come alone, and very quickly Cole was attacked from above by the helicopters Jay had mentioned.

"I'm under heavy fire here," said Cole over the comms. "Where's that back up?"

"Right here," said Jay, and Lloyd looked up to see the blue jet swoop in and began blasting at the helicopters with electricity.

Half the helicopters turned their attention to Jay and the rest kept their focus on Cole. As they did so, more of the Skulkin's monster trucks roared in and began circling the Earth Mech as well, trying to trip it up.

"Still could use some help over here," Cole called as his mech fought off three different attacks at once.

"I am on my way," said Zane. "My calculations show that it is unlikely the Skulkin are intelligent enough to have thought to divert our attention. It is far more likely their attack downtown is their main objective. I will be there soon."

"We're coming too, bro," said Kai as a tall red mech with flamethrowers came into view. "All my punching bags are headed your way, and I'm chasing them as we speak."

"Same here," said Nya, her water-strider appearing as well. "Let's take these guys down."

The five mechs converged in the around the Skulkin mech, and finally, it seemed they were making some headway in beating them.

Still, Lloyd frowned at the sight. From what he knew, Skulkin shouldn't be this much of a threat. And from the complaints he could still hear over the radio, they usually weren't. For some reason, the team was struggling more than they should be to beat them back.

And it was pretty obvious what that reason was.

It was then the Skulkin decided to again change tactics.

"They're going for the civilians!" shouted Kai in alarm as the skeletons in the helicopters and monster trucks broke off from the fight to go after the people who were watching from various hiding spots.

"Don't let them!" Nya ordered, sounding worried as well.

She and Kai's mechs immediately broke off from the fight and hurried to help the bystanders.

But hearing they were going after observers nearby had Koko tearing her gaze away from the fight just in time to see another helicopter began flying towards their roof.

"Lil'Lloyd, stay down," she said, climbing out past her barricade as five skeletons jumped from the helicopter onto the roof.

Upon seeing her, the lead Skulkin grinned. "Well, if it isn't the witch that stole our boss from us," he sneered.

"You're not still mad about that are you?" asked Koko coyly, waving her hand to signal what few patrons remained on the roof to leave, which they quickly complied.

The skeletons snarled at her.

"We had a good thing going on with Lord Garmadon," snapped the lead skeleton. "And then you came along and ruined it. He dropped us, and not even because we did something wrong! Having us around just reminded him too much of you!"

Koko shrugged and brandished her knife. "No regrets," she said.

Furious, the skeletons threw themselves at her.

Lloyd could only stare in awe as Koko practically danced out of their every strike, and used her knife to take each of them down with ease. In moments, the attacking skeletons were nothing but piles of bone on the rooftop struggling to pull themselves together.

Koko smiled at the sight. "Nice to know I haven't gotten rusty," she said as she turned back to Lloyd.

But before she could reach the barricade of tables and chairs, a strong wind swept over the rooftop and made Koko turn back around.

The helicopter was back. The remaining Skulkin on board did not look happy at what she had done to their comrades. They pointed every weapon in the helicopter at the woman and prepared to fire.

"MOM!" shouted Lloyd, bursting out of the barricade.

Koko paled at the sound of his voice and turned to try and shield him, but Lloyd had his own trick up his sleeve.

As quickly as he could, he sent a blast of energy at the helicopter, causing the entire thing to go haywire and begin spinning out of control.

Lloyd and Koko could only watch as the helicopter spun wildly in the air and crashed right into the Skulkin mech's head, destroying both in a fiery explosion.

The rest of the skeleton army was easy pickings for the Ninja Force after that, but Koko's attention was focused solely on the boy next to her.

Lloyd fidgeted in place, fully expecting the next words out of her mouth to be some exclamation about his powers and ask why he'd kept them a secret.

But instead, Koko's face lit up and she smiled at him like he'd just given her the moon.

"You called me Mom," she said as if it was the greatest thing he could have ever done.

He should have learned by now that Koko would always surprise him.

Chapter Text

Show Ninjago

This was not how any of them wanted to return home.

It felt like a defeat. They'd barely been searching for two days, and they had already been run ragged. They had planned to be on their journey much longer than they actually did.

The only consolation they had was that this wasn't giving up. Far from it. It was just a few hours to catch up on sleep, gather more supplies and do repairs, and then they'd be back through the next portal.

It was a setback, not a defeat.

Still, they landed in Ed and Edna's yard with a sour feeling in their guts. The carriage itself almost fell apart on the landing, but it managed to hold together.

Ed and Edna had come running out when they arrived, and at the sight of their tired and morose expressions, the two quickly swept them inside their trailer to have an early breakfast before shooing them off to bed with the promise that they'd start on the repairs while they slept. It was a tight squeeze, but they made do.

"Jay, your parents are angels," said Lloyd as he collapsed on the sleeping bag they'd given him.

Jay flushed and couldn't refute it, especially when the rest of the ninja all gave tired mutters of agreement. The Master of Lightning went to bed with a bright grin on his face.

A few hours later a finally rested team of ninja came out to see that Jay's parents had made good on their word, and already the carriage was partially patched up. Edna had also apparently taken the time to run a shopping trip to restock their supplies. It would only be another few hours before they were once again on their way.

Of course, that was the plan, but when did anything they do go as planned?

Jay, Nya, and Lloyd were working on the repairs when the Destiny's Bounty suddenly flew down from the sky.

"Mom, did you call Sensei and tell him we were back?" Jay called to his mother across the yard when he saw the ship.

"Yes, dear," Edna called back. "He called while you all were sleeping and asked if we'd heard from you. He said it was urgent."

"Well, that can't be good," said Cole.

"Great, bet you ten bucks it's more delays," said Kai sullenly.

"Knowing my luck, no bet," said Lloyd.

"Sounds in line like our luck, too," said Nya.

The Bounty landed softly on the sand, and their sensei was quick to depart it followed, to everyone's surprise, by Lord Garmadon.

"That is not a good sign," said Zane as they approached.

"It is good to see you have returned," said Sensei Wu with a warm smile as he approached his students.

"Though I see you are still without my son," said Lord Garmadon in a far less friendly tone.

"Sorry to disappoint you," snapped Kai, in no mood to deal with their arch enemy today. "But finding a needle in a haystack is harder than it looks."

Garmadon raised an unimpressed eyebrow. "Oh really," he said snidely.

"Your father was wrong I'm afraid, Sensei," said Zane, addressing Sensei Wu and all but ignoring Garmadon. "From what we have seen, there are far more than merely sixteen realms. Finding the correct one that Lloyd is in has been a difficult task."

"We'll get him back, though," added Cole reassuringly. "We're not giving up until we find him."

"And yet here you are milling around this junk heap," said Garmadon, still looking dour. "I'd hardly call it putting in your best effort."

"Hey!" snapped Jay. "For your information, over the last two days, we've been chased by crazy ghosts, attacked by cursed zombie pirates, and nearly eaten by dinosaurs! Excuse us for being exhausted and needing to stop for supplies!"

Garmadon looked like he had plenty to say to that, but Wu held up a hand to silence him. "While it is unfortunate you have not yet found Lloyd, your returning at this time is good. I'm afraid we'll need you here before you return to your travels."

Kai groaned at being proven right, but Lloyd only asked. "What happened?"

"Also," said Nya who had noticed something missing from their enemy. "Where's your Mega Weapon? You never go anywhere without it."

Garmadon scowled, and all the rest of the ninja noticed all four of his hands were indeed empty.

"The Serpentine," the warlord growled. "They did not take kindly to my decision for a truce. They stole the Mega Weapon, and cast me out."

"But doesn't that thing vaporize anyone who touches it aside from you?" asked Cole. "Won't that end badly for them if they try to use it?"

"They are, unfortunately, not stupid enough to attempt to use it," said Garmadon. "But they are smart enough to know if they take it from me, I can not turn it against them."

"So I'm guessing they're up to something big if you need our help," said Jay.

"I'm afraid so," said Sensei Wu. "From what we have been able to gather using Zane's falcon, they plan to burrow under Ninjago City and cause it to collapse into the ground."

The Ninja all jolted at that news.

"But that would kill millions of people!" said Lloyd, his face pale.

"Then we've gotta get there to stop them," said Cole, and they all raced for the Bounty.

As they flew through the air towards the city, Lloyd had to ask, "Why would they do this?"

"For revenge," replied Garmadon dismissively.

"Revenge for what?" asked Lloyd, still looking lost. "Sure, they don't like you, but why take it out on the city?"

"I assume there are Serpentine in your world as well, Lloyd," said Sensei Wu. "Tell us about them, so we may have a context to answer your question."

Lloyd shrugged. "They're reclusive, so I don't know much about them," he admitted. "They live in the desert way outside the city and mostly keep to themselves. They worship the sun and have a lot of their own traditions and folklore. Honestly, I probably know more about them than most because my mom's old friends with a bunch of them."

That took everyone by surprise. "Your mother?" asked Garmadon, looking bewildered. "Why would she be friends with those snakes?"

"She used to defend them against you," said Lloyd. Still seeing confused looks all around, Lloyd explained, "My mother is the Lady IronDragon. She used to be a fierce ninja back before I was born and fought to protect people from evil. At one point the Serpentine were under her protection."

Garmadon, for once, was utterly speechless at that description.

"So there wasn't a Serpentine War in your world?" asked Cole.

Lloyd frowned slightly. "They did fight in a war," he admitted. "But that was just to fight back against Dad's old skeleton army when he tried to conquer them. It's actually how my parents met. She was fighting to protect their villages, and they fell in love. After that, she was able to convince Dad to stop attacking her friends. They may look different, but they're just people who want to be left alone."

"Unfortunately, that is not the case in this world," said Sensei Wu. "Here, many years ago, there was a long and terrible war of humans against the Serpentine. In the end, humanity prevailed, and we locked all of the Serpentine in five separate tombs to keep them from rising against us. However, in recent times, they escaped and have been plotting revenge."

Lloyd frowned at that. "You were going to let them out eventually, right?" he asked, making all of them stare at him even more.

At their confusion, he frowned. "You can't have expected to leave them in there forever," he said. "Not only would they have eventually starved or suffocated, what about any children or civilian Serpentine. They're not all warriors, and you can't expect all future generations to pay for crimes they didn't commit. It's not fair!"

"It was war, child," said Garmadon. "War is not fair. We did what we had to do for the safety of Ninjago."

"Well, they're about to level a city because of that," said Lloyd. "All it looks like to me is you've added to a continued cycle."

Garmadon scowled, but Sensei Wu only sighed. "The past can not be changed," said their teacher, looking regretful. "All we can do now is work towards a better tomorrow."

"Then let's figure out how we're getting to tomorrow," said Cole, pulling a map of the city out up on the ship's computer screen.

"If the Serpentine really want to tunnel through all of Ninjago City, they'd need to take months to do it," said Zane, as he had the computer highlight the sewer systems. "But if they use the sewer systems instead, they could just knock down the walls in there. After that, they could use the damaged ground to burrow deeper and turn the city into a sinkhole. "

"We're going to the sewers, gross," said Jay with a disgusted look on his face.

"The best way they could do that would be to set bombs," said Nya. "Would they be able to get ahold of that?"

"You underestimate the Serpentine's ability to burrow through the earth," said Garmadon. "They would not need them."

"From the look of things," said Zane, studying the map of the sewer system. "The most ideal places for them to attack and level the city quickly are here, here, here, and here," he said pointing to four places on the map.

"Then that's where we'll go to stop them," said Kai.

And so the plan was set. They were to split into groups of two, each one of them protecting the section the Serpentine were most likely to attack.

Sensei Wu chose the teams, and Lloyd ended up on a team with Cole to go to the centermost point of the sewer system to lie in wait.

They had been walking through the dank tunnels for a few minutes when Cole suddenly said, "So what's bothering you?"

Startled, Lloyd looked over at him. "What?" he asked. "Nothing's bothering me."

Cole sent him a deadpan look that was just so much like Lloyd's Cole, that he almost mistook them for the same person. Well, more of the same person than they already were.

"You've been rubbing your arm since before we got in this sewer," said Cole, pointing at the offending appendage. "And since it didn't somehow get hurt last night, and the forecast is sunny all week, I think it's safe to say you've got a tell."

Lloyd looked down to see that he was indeed once again rubbing his right arm. He quickly dropped his arms back to his side and grimaced. "I'll have to watch out for that," he muttered. "A good ninja shouldn't have any tells."

"So what's on your mind?" asked Cole again. "Because it's obvious something's bothering you. Is it the Serpentine stuff?"

"That's part of it," Lloyd admitted. "Trapping them all underground forever is just needlessly cruel. I know it was a war, and the warriors probably did terrible things, but that doesn't mean you should take it out on the innocents. Not every Serpentine is a soldier."

Cole sighed. "What we learned in history class made it out like the trapping the Serpentine was some great victory for mankind," he said. "But when you put it like that, maybe you're right, maybe it was wrong. All I know is, ever since they've been free they've been nothing but trouble, and we need to stop them. Sometimes being a leader means making hard choices."

Lloyd nodded, he knew that aspect of leadership all too well. "But those choices should be aimed to benefit everybody. If innocent people suffer because of it, you know it's the wrong choice." That was a lesson he'd learned the hard way.

"I guess that's the hard thing about making hard choices," said Cole thoughtfully. "You don't always know what the wrong choice is until after the fact."

Lloyd grimaced. "Tell me about it," he said.

He then turned to Cole with a questioning look. "But if it were you making that call on the Serpentine, would you go after all of them, or just the ones causing the trouble?" asked Lloyd.

Sensing he was being tested, Cole flashed him a grin. "Just the troublemakers," he assured him. "We can agree on that."

Lloyd gave him a smile.

"So what else is bothering you?" asked Cole. "You said that was only part of it."

Lloyd looked reluctant to share more, and Cole nudged him lightly in the side. "Hey, us leaders gotta stick together. That includes talking about things."

Lloyd's frown lessened at that. "It's just… it's weird being around this world's Garmadon," he admitted. "The way he acts is really different from my dad, but then, just when I don't expect it, he does something that's just so… so Dad."

"Like what?" said Cole curiously.

"Like, he's actually getting along with Sensei Wu," Lloyd said incredulously.

Cole frowned as he thought about the strained interactions the brothers had displayed. "You call that getting along?" he asked.

"Compared to my dad and uncle, yes!" said Lloyd. "Garmadon actually agreed with him about things, and they're even working together on this mission. My dad can't go a single conversation with Uncle Wu without calling him a butt or some other insult at least once. And them working together on anything? Forget it."

"Sheesh," said Cole. "Heck of a sibling rivalry."

"You have no idea," said Lloyd in a slightly exasperated tone. "I'm pretty sure half the reason my dad does anything ever is just to spite Uncle Wu, and the other half is because it sounds like it'll be fun."

"Including becoming evil," Cole had to ask.

"Apparently it's loads of fun and I should give it a try sometime," said Lloyd in a dry tone.

Cole laughed at the deadpan expression on the blond's face.

"But then, when Jay was trying to needle Sensei Wu into letting him go with Nya instead of Zane," Lloyd continued. "Garmadon got my dad's 'I-wanna-shoot-this-nerd-out-of-a-volcano' face. And also the way he kept taunting Kai to make him mad. Those were such Dad things to do. It's weird."

Cole's chuckles subsided as they reached their destination, but he still looked amused. "He also seemed pretty insistent on making sure you went to this part of the sewer system too," he pointed out.

Lloyd looked at him in confusion. "So?" he asked. He had been wondering about that.

"So, this is supposed to be the safest place out of the ones Zane mentioned," said Cole gesturing around. "It's in the middle of the city, so it has more support than the rest. Even if you're not our Lloyd, I think he wanted you here so you'd be in the least amount of danger."

Lloyd stared at the sewers around him, and let out a snort. "And of course he wouldn't actually say it like that to my face," he said in amusement. "That's just so… Dad."

He then stopped and cocked his head to the side. "Do you hear that?" Lloyd asked Cole in a much softer tone than before, pulling on his hood.

Cole listened hard. Sure enough, there was a clear sound of scratching in the walls. With a silent nod to Lloyd, the Master of Earth pulled on his own hood, reached for the radio in it and whispered, "They're here."

However, nothing met his words but static.

Lloyd tried on his own headset and shook his head. "Being underground must be jamming the signal," he whispered. "We're on our own."

"Then let's take care of these troublemaking snakes," said Cole, and the two hurried towards where the scratching was coming from.

The sounds grew louder the closer they got. What had at first sounded like just one or two snakes scratching on a wall now sounded like over a dozen tearing through the concrete like toilet paper.

They climbed up to an area with a low ceiling and continued on towards the sound in hopes of reaching them in time.

They had only just come into sight of the snakes when the Serpentine let out a cheer as the entire sewer system seemed to rumble around them.

That was the only warning they had before the ceiling came crashing down on them.

Chapter Text

Movie Ninjago

Lloyd felt on pins and needles as Koko drove both of them back to the Bounty and facility after finally getting off that building. She hadn't asked about his powers at all, and still seemed delighted that he'd called her mom.

And calling her that left a heavy feeling of guilt in the pit of his stomach. Especially since he knew it wouldn't last. As much as he wanted her as his mother, what he'd seen with the ninja that day had all but proven it.

While Koko didn't seem inclined to ask about his powers, she would have been blind not to see his discomfort. "Is something wrong?" she asked, glancing at him briefly before turning her eyes back to the road. "Did you get hurt at all?"

Lloyd shook his head. "No," he muttered. "Nothing's hurt."

"Then what's wrong?" asked Koko kindly. "You can tell me anything."

Lloyd bit his lip. "I can't…" he said slowly, knowing this was going to disappoint her terribly. "I can't stay here."

Koko glanced at him again, her face concerned. "Why not?" she asked.

"Today with the ninja," he said, trying to find the right words to explain things. "They were having a hard time fighting those Skulkin. It shouldn't be that hard to beat up a bunch of boneheads."

Koko nodded slowly, not really understanding what that had to do with him leaving. "Yes, sweetie," she said. "With Lloyd not being here to be the Green Ninja, they were left shorthanded. But when we get him back, things should be back to normal again. Better even, he'll love having a little brother like you."

Lloyd looked down at his lap. "But then my world would be shorthanded," he said softly.

Koko's eyes widened at those words, and with a screech of tires, she pulled the car off the road and parked it. Fortunately, they were on an empty street through the jungle, but the actions still had Lloyd sitting wide-eyed.

Koko turned to look at him with an expression that was both serious and concerned. "Lloyd, answer me honestly," she said, not using the nickname for once. "In your world, do they make you fight in battles?"

Lloyd rapidly shook his head. "No, no, I don't fight. I just train," he assured her.

Koko let out a sigh of utter relief at that.

"But I will fight someday," Lloyd continued, gaining her attention again.

Cupping his hands together, Lloyd summoned a small green ball of energy, its glow illuminating the car like a tiny sun in his hands.

"Being the Green Ninja means I'm supposed to grow up to be this awesome super ninja," said Lloyd reluctantly as he stared at the power in his hands. "The strongest one ever who's supposed to save the world. My family needs me, I can't just leave them behind to stay here. I have to go back."

Hearing the misery in his voice, Koko gently reached over and cupped Lloyd's hands in hers. Seeing this, Lloyd let his power dissipate, and looked up at her sadly.

Koko waited until he was looking at her in the eyes. "What you grow up to be is your choice," she said softly. "Don't ever let anyone make it for you."

Lloyd's lip trembled. "Not even destiny?" he asked.

"Not even destiny," Koko confirmed firmly, reaching out to place her hand over his heart. "All you ever need to do is just be who you are on the inside. That's where it matters most."

Lloyd could only sit in silence at that. No one had ever said that to him before. All his life he'd had people tell him he'd either be a villain like his father, or, more recently, the prophesied hero to defeat him. Having a choice seemed like something out of a fairy tale, and one he wasn't sure he could believe.

Seeing the effect of her words, Koko pulled Lloyd into a hug, and the car sat there on the side of the road for a good long while.

When they finally reached the Bounty, they were met by Kai barreling over to them and sweeping them both in a huge hug.

"Oh man, you guys are alright!" he said in relief as he hugged them. "We were so worried when Jay said he saw you on that roof. You guys took forever getting back."

Koko laughed and hugged Kai back, before stepping out of his grip as everyone else came out to join them. "We're both alright," she said. "We just… got distracted on the way back. No harm done."

Lloyd, who was still being cuddled like a teddy bear, said, "Uh, you can let go now."

Kai only hugged him closer in response. "Nuh-uh, nope, not happening, little bro," he said.

"But-" Lloyd started to protest, but Nya cut him off.

"Just shut up and accept your Kai Hug™," she said, sounding exhausted but less stressed than she had over the radio.

"T-M?" Lloyd asked in bewilderment.

"You ever have a better hug than that?" asked Nya pointedly.

Lloyd couldn't argue with that. Both of the Kais he knew gave the best hugs. This one was just more frequent in giving them.

Seeing the agreement on his face, the rest of the gathered ninja snickered.

But when the laughter died down, Cole spoke up, "So, are we going to address the elephant in the room."

"I do not see an elephant," said Zane, looking around in confusion.

"Figure of speech, buddy," said Cole without missing a beat.

"Oh," said Zane, clearly having googled it in his head. "Addressing the obvious. I see you are referring to the fact-"

"YOU HAVE POWERS!" Jay burst out, looking like he had been about to pop before finally saying that.

Lloyd fidgeted under the weight of everyone's gazes. "Um, yes," he said.

Master Wu let out a chuckled at that, and said, "I thought as much. Come, I feel this might be best discussed over tea."

"You say that about everything, you butt," grumbled Garmadon, but they all followed Wu into the ship and had that tea nonetheless. This time without salt.

Once they were all seated, Lloyd took a deep breath and finally told them everything he hadn't before. About the prophecy, being chosen to be the Green Ninja, and all the power and expectations that entailed.

When he had finished silence reigned at the table as they all absorbed that information.

"Welp," said Kai, who was still hugging Lloyd, "that explains the crazy training schedule."

Just like that, the dam broke, and Lloyd could only watch as the variety of reactions all converged at once.

"Oh man, that is so cool!" said Garmadon, utterly pleased by everything. "Other me is so terrifyingly awesome they need a destined savior to take him down! And you," he added, pointing at Lloyd. "You are one cool kid, you know that. Took that mech down in one shot! And you weren't even aiming for it!"

Master Wu, on the other hand, seemed somewhat perplexed. "I suspected you had your own power inside you, but the power of Green is certainly different in your world," he said thoughtfully. "Much more straightforward, and probably easier to train as well."

Koko, however, was more subdued. "Like I said on the ride over," she said. "Prophecy or no prophecy. Your future is your own choice. Not even this can change that."

"It certainly explains a few anomalies since your arrival," said Zane, who looked like he had just decided to roll with it. "Such as the energy fluctuations when you arrived, and the results of some scientists scans. It is nice to finally solve that mystery."

"So basically one blast from him practically took down the whole volcano on top of that mech. Hate to admit it, but I'm impressed," said Nya, apparently not letting their rivalry get in the way of compliments. "That was an awesome shot you did, and it saved us a lot of trouble. Thanks."

"They're right, it's really awesome what you can do. I can't believe our new little bro is so cool, but why'd you keep it a secret for so long?" asked Kai, still hugging him. "You're not in danger or anything, are you? Like, there aren't any freaks trying to off you to stop this prophecy thing from happening, are there?"

"Oh man, that sounds terrifying," said Jay, running his hands on his scarf nervously. "All that expectation put on one person. What if you mess up? What if we mess up, and that makes you mess up? What if we've already messed up and your world is doomed? What if…" He looked like he would have spiraled on this tangent for a while, but Cole reached over and rubbed his back.

"Breathe," the Earth Ninja said pointedly to his friend, before turning to Lloyd. "You holding up okay?" was all he asked.

At that last question, Lloyd nodded his head. "I'm okay," he said, though a little overwhelmed by their reactions. Then, after a moment of hesitation, he offered, "So, do you want me to help you fight until my counterpart comes back?"

The Secret Ninja Force exchanged glances and laughed like he had just told a joke.

Lloyd's face pulled into a pout at that, feeling more than a little insulted at the reaction.

Seeing this, Kai squeezed him a little tighter and said, "Sorry little bro, thanks for the offer, but no can do."

"Why not?" asked Lloyd. "I help the ninja in my world."

Koko frowned. "I thought you said they didn't let you fight," she said.

Lloyd shrugged. "Well, sometimes they get captured and can't tell me 'no'," he replied. "But I can do more than fight. I can help."

"I don't know," said Jay slowly. "It sounds kinda illegal."

"Child labor laws would restrict us from allowing you to assist us," agreed Zane.

"Huh?" asked Lloyd.

"He said you can't help because you're a little kid," said Cole bluntly.

"He's right, mech fights are no place for kids," said Nya, taking charge. "Leave this stuff to the professionals."

Lloyd's pout turned to an unimpressed scowl. "Seriously?" he said snidely. "I took out the mech you guys were basically losing to. In. One. Hit. It wasn't even hard."

Nya lost some of her professionalism when she stuck her tongue out at him at that.

"How about a compromise," said Garmadon, drawing attention to him. "Lil'Loyd can be their trump card. Ya know, the ace up your sleeve. The last resort before we all die."

Lloyd's scowl lessened. "That's a good thing, right?" he asked. The dramatic way Garmadon was suggesting it made it a little unclear.

"Yes," said Master Wu, looking amused. "It means if it comes down to it, you will show my students who is the professional again."

Lloyd grinned at that and said students shot their teacher an annoyed look.

"Low blow, Master Wu," Nya muttered.

Their sensei looked utterly unapologetic.

"Until then, just focus on being a kid," said Koko to Lloyd.

"Yeah," agreed Kai (still hugging him). "Consider this like a break from destiny. Have some fun and enjoy yourself."

Lloyd thought it over and finally nodded. "Okay," he agreed, glad all of this was finally off his chest.

What the little Green Ninja didn't see, was them all exchanging a silent vow to never let it come to that. That there would never be a need for him to fight. Not as long as he was so small.

Chapter Text

Show Ninjago

Things were not going well in their attempts to save the city.

By the time Wu and Garmadon had reached their assigned spot, they found the Serpentine already hard at work tearing through the walls.

Knowing they had little time left, the two were quick to engage the snakes in a fight, but it was quickly becoming clear that there were too many of them to both fight and stop them from tearing down walls at the same time.

And if there were this many Serpentine at the other locations, then it was sure to mean that the ninja were having an equally difficult time.

Just as he was about to snap at his brother for them to evacuate this lost cause, a flash of gold caught Garmadon's eye.

Turning, he saw the treacherous Skales slithering past with a long canvas wrapped object in his hands. From the glint of gold poking out between the canvas folds, it could only be-

"The Mega Weapon!" Garmadon exclaimed, and immediately began turned to go after it, only to be stopped by his brother.

"You would abandon Ninjago for the weapon, Brother?" Wu accused, sounding disappointed but unsurprised.

"You fool," snapped Garmadon with a glare. "If I had the Mega Weapon, I could wish all the damage they've caused away, saving your precious city in the process. It would be a far better solution than fighting this hopeless battle."

Wu blinked in surprise, but couldn't refute that. "Go then," he said. "I'll hold them off here."

Garmadon sneered at him and took off after Skales as fast as he could.

However, he hadn't gone far down the tunnels after the snake when he heard a cheer erupt from the Serpentine behind him, and the deafening rumble of the ceiling collapsing above him.

The evil lord ducked his head and hunched over in preparation to be crushed under the debris.

Only, the pain never came.

Dust and a few pebbles rained down on him, but nothing bigger than a marble actually hit him.

Looking up in surprise, Garmadon was shocked to see that while the ceiling was now several inches lower than it had been before, it was still above him. It hadn't fallen through.

In the tunnels behind him, he heard the Serpentine's cries of confusion at the lack of enemies being crushed, before they began being dispatched by Wu.

Garmadon stood as best he could in the now smaller tunnel and took off after Skales once again.

It was obvious by the cracks in the earth that whatever miracle was keeping the city from collapsing would not last for long. He needed to find that weapon before it failed.

As much as he despised his prophesied destiny, getting crushed under a city was not a better alternative.

When the ceiling collapsed, Lloyd couldn't believe it. This couldn't be the end.

Sure enough, it wasn't. When he opened his eyes again, he found himself on the ground with Cole hunched over him, holding up the weight of the collapsed ceiling up like Atlas.

Seeing him staring back at him, Cole said through clenched teeth, "Get… out of… here! I… can't… hold it… for… long!"

Lloyd's eyes widened, then narrowed. "No way!" he said. "I'm not leaving you!"

"You… have to!" hissed Cole, straining under the weight. "I can't…"

"Yes, you can!" Lloyd insisted, shifting so that he was no longer under Cole, but crouched next to him in support.

"You… crazy?" Cole gasped. "You'll… die!"

"I won't!" Lloyd said, reaching for the rocks scattered around them and began building them into support columns. "Because you've got this. You're the Earth Ninja, this is your territory."

"My… territory… is… fighting… back," growled Cole.

"Then tell it who's boss!" Lloyd insisted, stacking one column until it reached the ceiling and starting on another. "Because that's you! Either way, I'm not leaving you trapped here!"

Cole shook his head, dust falling from his hair at the movement. "Those… won't… hold! Get…"

"Tell me to get out one more time, and I'm feeding you to my cat when we get home," said Lloyd, finishing his second stone column. "I'm. Not. Leaving. You just need to hold this until I can make supports. We're both getting out of here."

The blond looked over at the Master of Earth with a look of wild determination. "Focus on your powers and just hang on a little longer. I know you can do it."

Cole let out an exasperated sigh but shifted slightly to get a better grip on the ceiling. Somehow that seemed to work, and the strain on his back already felt better. Better as in he felt like he was carrying an entire pod of humpback whales rather than a pod blue ones, but still better.

Closing his eyes and focusing more on his powers instead of not letting his new friend be crushed, he slowly found it to be working. The weight, while still massive, gradually became more bearable, though for how long was anyone's guess.

Maybe he could do this.

"We cannot do this!" squeaked Jay as he stared up at the ceiling that was barely inches from his face.

They had arrived too late to stop the Serpentine from destabilizing the wall They had no idea why they hadn't been crushed when the walls were knocked down, but neither of them was complaining.

Okay, Jay was complaining a little.

"Focus on reaching the others," Zane said as he used his newly returned ice powers to try and recreate the supports that had been destroyed.

At the prospect of being frozen and zapped, the Serpentine had fled the scene after the fall failed to happen, undoubtedly off trying to find the cause. Using ice to support the weight above them was far from a permanent solution, but it would keep them from being crushed as long as they were down there.

Jay grumbled under his breath but continued fiddling with the wires of his radio in hopes of boosting the signal.

Finally, he made contact and heard a voice over it.

"... Come in! Is everyone okay? Please answer!" came a slightly panicked sounding Nya's voice.

"Nya!" Jay said, immediately brightening at the sound of her voice. "Are you okay? Oh, and Kai too."

"Jay!" said Nya, relief evident for her as well. "We're fine, but we couldn't stop them. They knocked down everything in our section! It's a miracle the ceiling stopped when it did."

"Speak for yourself," said Kai's voice in the background.

Nya let out an exasperated sigh. "Okay, a rock might have bumped Kai on the head a little, but he'll live. What about you and Zane?"

"Same thing happened on our end," said Jay looking up at the very low ceiling again. "The Serpentine had everything crashing down. But just when it looked like we would be ninja pancakes it stopped."

"That shouldn't be possible," said Nya. "With the supports in both our areas down, nothing should have been able to stop the whole city from falling. Even if the others saved their sections, there's no way their supports would be strong enough to hold the weight of the city."

Hearing this, Zane also studied the ceiling with amazement and confusion. "Stange, what could possibly be strong enough to essentially hold up the entire city?" he wondered aloud.

Just then, the ceiling rumbled and seemed to drop another inch. Zane's ice supports crunched under the weight, but mostly held up, and the Master of Ice was quick to reinforce them.

It seemed whatever was holding the city wouldn't last.

"Did you feel that?" Jay asked in a spooked tone.

"Yeah, it happened here too," said Nya. "That's really not a good sign."

Jay's expression grew worried. "You haven't heard anything from Sensei, Cole or Lloyd, have you?" he asked.

"No, you're the first I've heard from," replied Nya, sounding worried as well.

Jay exchanged a glance with Zane. "We're heading your way," said the Master of Lightning. "Zane'll keep freezing things to hold it up and we can find out how to fix this mess when we find the others."

"Sounds good," said Nya. "See you soon."

Exchanging one last glance with Zane, the two began picking their way through the ruined tunnels to meet up.

Maybe they'd even find what had supported the city along the way.

Cole had reached almost Zen levels of focus. Nearly all his attention was on keeping the ceiling up and he barely heard the clattering of Lloyd as he worked to build them an escape.

But no matter how many new support columns the Green Ninja made, Cole instinctively knew they wouldn't be enough. The only thing keeping them from being crushed under what was probably some random building was Master of Earth's superior strength.

And despite his laser focus, the strain was definitely starting to get to him if the shaking of his knees was any indication.

Cole opened his mouth to attempt to encourage Lloyd to save himself, but even in the dark tunnels, one sharp look from his green eyes was enough to shut him up.

"I've almost got enough," Lloyd said encouragingly. "We'll be out soon, just hold on a little longer."

As if in response, one of Cole's knees almost gave out on him, and if Lloyd hadn't scrambled over to brace against him, they would have been crushed when he lost his grip. As it was, the ceiling was now an inch lower than it had been, and parts of Lloyd's supports had all buckled under the strain.

"That… was… close…" Cole gasped, sweat pouring down his face from the effort.

Lloyd, now seeing he would need a lot more supports than anticipated, refused to let worry show on his face. "We're getting out of here," he said in determination. "I know there has to be a way."

He scanned the area for stronger materials to support the ceiling, only to freeze as he saw a pair of large red eyes glaring at him from the darkness.

"Who's there!" Lloyd called, moving to crouch protectively in front of Cole.

Out of the shadows slithered a large blue-green Serpentine with a cobra-like head and a long tail instead of legs. He was wearing a crown on his head, and wrapped at the end of his tail was a long canvas-covered parcel.

"Why am I not sssurprised it'sss you ninja that are ruining everything once again," snarled the snake as he glared at the two of them. "Whenever sssomething goesss wrong it'sss alwaysss becaussse of you."

"What… can I… say," said Cole, managing a cocky grin despite their situation. "We're… consistent."

The Serpentine hissed angrily, and the tip of his tail began to rattle.

"DON'T LOOK!" Cole shouted, and Lloyd slammed his eyes shut.

A Hypnobrai must be, Lloyd's mother had told him about them. Look them in the eyes and they can control you. At least now Lloyd knew what he was up against.

The snake continued to let out angry hisses at them, and Lloyd could hear him creeping closer to them.

Using the sounds of their angry guest, Lloyd reached blindly along the ground until he could grab a rock. Silently thanking his uncle for having them train blind, he threw the stone in the direction of the hissing.

The Serpentine immediately let out a cry of pain, and the rattling stopped. Knowing it was now safe to open his eyes, Lloyd glared at the snake.

"Don't come any closer," he said firmly.

The Serpentine glared hatefully at him. "You complete and utter pessst. You've been nothing but trouble for us Serpentine sssince the moment you fell into our tomb. Our passst leadersss have all been merssiful on you for your youth, but King SSSkales will not be ssso!" he proclaimed, puffing himself up to look important.

"Speaking… in… third… person… doesn't… make you… special," Cole grunted, making the snake snarl.

Lloyd, meanwhile, was quickly filing away that new information. This was the Serpentine leader, it was apparently his counterpart that had released them from the tombs, and Skales was still under the impression he was his counterpart's future self.

He could work with this.

"You don't want to do this," Lloyd said, drawing attention back onto him.

Skales looked at him balefully as he continued to creep closer. "I'm sure you'll find, child, that I very much do want to do thisss," he said. "Humansss buried usss long ago, it isss time we returned the favor."

"And then what?" Lloyd asked, making the snake stop and stare at him. "If you destroy this city, what do you think will happen?"

"Humanity will never quessstion our might again!" said Skales proudly. "We will be rulersss of thisss world with thisss wretched city wiped off the map!"

Lloyd huffed a soft laugh, taking the snake aback.

"You couldn't be more wrong about that," Lloyd said. "Ninjago may be a big city, but there are way more people outside it, and many of whom that have friends and family that live here. Not to mention anyone who survives the fall. What do you think they will do if you do this?"

Skales looked like the question had never crossed his mind, but he still puffed up in bravado. "They will fear usss," he said. "They will tell all of our deedsss and will not oppossse usss."

Lloyd laughed even more at that, but it wasn't a nice-sounding laugh. "You're wrong," he said again. "They will tell everyone what you did, but they won't be scared."

He looked up to stare directly into Skales' red eyes with his green ones. "They'll be angry."

Skales was so surprised by his words and actions he didn't even try to hypnotize him. This was not the bratty child he had encountered before.

"And when people are angry, they do things they'd otherwise regret," said Lloyd in a deadly serious tone. "You thought being trapped underground was bad, what do you think they'll do to you this time? Even if you wipe out everyone in the city, there are still way more people out there than there are Serpentine. Do you really think your armies could stand a second war?"

Skales' hands shook at the thought but showed no signs of fear otherwise.

"But there's still time," said Lloyd, his tone lightening just slightly. "You don't have to do this. You can break the cycle."

"We wanted peace, but the humansss betrayed usss. Humanity mussst-" Skales started to say.

"What happened to you was wrong," said Lloyd firmly, cutting him off and leaving him startled. "I'm glad my younger self let you out because no one should have gone through what your people did. But it doesn't have to continue. I came here from a place where humans and Serpentine are at peace with each other, and I'd like to see that happen here. I want that to happen here."

He looked at Skales imploringly. "Only you can make that future come to be, King Skales," he said respectfully. "You can continue with your plan and have your people suffer the retaliation. Or… you can do what no human has been able to, and break the cycle of hatred. The choice is yours."

Skales could only gape at him, and behind his back, Lloyd could feel Cole's eyes on him as well.

However, before Skales could respond either way, another pair of red eyes appeared in the darkness and a black figure burst out and tackled the Serpentine.

Skales let out a furious hiss at the attack, but his attacker didn't care so much about him as he did the parcel wrapped in his tail.

Snatching it away, Lord Garmadon raised it as best he could with the ceiling so low and declared, "Mega Weapon, I wish for the damage done by the Serpentine to be undone, and can not be attempted again!"

Immediately, the golden staff pulsed and a blinding light filled the remains of the sewers, blinding them all in the process.

When the light receded, Cole fell over in a dead faint now that he was no longer literally between a rock and a hard place. All of his energy was utterly spent.

Garmadon also collapsed to his knees in exhaustion from the use of his wish. All around them the walls of the sewer system had been remade and reinforced so that even a Serpentine would have a hard time busting through them.

Skales, however, had vanished from sight.

Lloyd could only sigh at that and hoped his words would have some impact on the snake so that something like this wouldn't happen a second time.

He quickly turned and ran over to Cole to make sure his friend wasn't hurt aside from his exhaustion, and mentally went over all the things they'd need to do to treat any muscle strain he might be feeling when he woke up.

"You…" he heard behind him, and the Green Ninja turned to see Garmadon slowly rising back to his feet. "You reasoned with the Serpentine?" the warlord asked.

"Yeah," said Lloyd, gently lifting Cole into a fireman's carry to begin carrying him out.

"It would have never worked," said Garmadon. "We tried that many times before and during the war, and they always betrayed us. You can never trust those snakes."

Lloyd paused and frowned at those words. "Funny," he said. "Skales said it was you guys that betrayed them."

Garmadon frowned at that but then waved his hand dismissively. "A lie to lower your guard and gain sympathy," he said. "Your bleeding heart would have been your undoing."

"Maybe," said Lloyd as he began walking away with Cole. "But I had to try. Besides, talking to him distracted him long enough for you to get your weapon back, so I'd say it worked out pretty well." He then jerked his head onwards, and added, "Now come on, Cole's gonna need an ice bath."

At the reminder of Cole's amazing feat, Garmadon paused long enough to stare at his unconscious form in wonderment, before slowly following after him. It seemed neither of them realized that the Master of Earth had truly accomplished.

The three left the sewers to rejoin their comrades, completely unaware that just below them stood an ornate door with a picture of a snake much like the one they'd just spoken to inscribed upon it. Nor did they realize the now reinforced sewer system had halted the leaking remains of Great Devourer venom from ever reaching that deep below ground and awakening the stone army within.

All they knew was that they had saved the day, and for them, that was all that mattered for now.

In the Cloud Kingdom, the troubled scribe jumped as the scroll he'd hidden away suddenly began shaking violently.

Fearing someone would hear it, he grabbed the scroll from its hiding place and after a moment of frantic thought, threw it into Nimbus' room without even looking at it. Not even the lightning monster inside was powerful enough to destroy a scroll of destiny, and the shaking would undoubtedly entertain him until destiny settled on its intended course once again.

Walking hurriedly away from the locked building, the scribe was quick to assure himself he had done the right thing. There was no need to trouble the elder scribes with such trivial matters.

Such events happened from time to time when one tried to fight fate, but they never lasted. In the end, nothing would come of this either. The future had long been predicted and set in stone, and was impossible to circumvent.

… Wasn't it?

Chapter Text

Movie Ninjago

With the reveal about Lloyd's powers finally out in the open, they ended up discussing the details of it long into the night until the Ninja Force left for their own homes.

Lloyd, Garmadon, and Koko stayed the night on the ship, though Garmadon did so under some protest at having to share a living space with Wu. Wu agreed and pointed out that his brother staying was against his house arrest anyway. It would be better for him if he went back to his volcano to avoid trouble.

Suddenly, Garmadon was all for a slumber party on the Bounty, much to Koko and Lloyd's amusement and Wu's exasperation.

The next morning, Lloyd woke up to Koko making breakfast for all of them, after which the ninja showed up again and went to the facility once again to leech off the wifi.

"We're trying to avoid being seen as much as possible so we don't have to answer any, uh, difficult questions about where Lloyd is," Kai explained when Lloyd asked.

"So what happens now?" the little ninja asked, expecting something to change with his reveal last night.

"Now," said Nya, pulling out her laptop. "We deal with the media fall out of that battle. Between you being seen with Koko, and Lloyd missing from that fight, news, and social media sites are going crazy with their own theories."

"Basically, we look at the rumor mill and decide if we should contact reputable news outlets with the truth or just let the gossip run its course," explained Cole with a shrug. "It depends on the situation."

"Plus, it's hilarious to see what crazy stuff they come up with," said Kai. He then moved to look over his sister's shoulder with an amused expression. "What are the highlights?"

"Nothing even remotely close to the truth," said Nya, equal parts delighted and exasperated.

"From what I'm seeing now, Lil'Loyd being a clone is a common one," said Jay looking it up on his phone.

"Yeah, that's sooo original," said Kai sarcastically.

"We debunked that one on the first day," said Cole with his own phone out. "I've got some crackpot saying Lloyd's run away to start his own evil empire, and Lil'Loyd is his replacement."

Nya snorted. "Like that'll ever happen. Besides, what's he need an empire for? He's got Meowthra. If he actually turned evil we'd be toast just from her."

"I find that to be very inaccurate in regards Lloyd's character," said Zane speculatively. "Unless he was under some form of possession or mind control."

Jay grimaced at that. "Oh great, new nightmares. Totally unbelievable ones, but tell that to me when I'm asleep." He then blinked in surprise at his screen. "Hey! They think I'm the one that shot down that helicopter!" he said.

Zane frowned and ran a scan. "It appears no one is aware of Lil'Loyd's powers. Despite the color of the blast, all credit to defeating the Skulkin Mech has gone to Jay."

"No fair," said Lloyd, looking miffed at not getting credit.

"That's probably for the best," said Cole. At Lloyd's disgruntled look, he added, "I thought you didn't like people knowing about your powers."

With how much he'd kept secret until the night before, Lloyd conceded his point on that.

"Looks like I'm going to need to upgrade my mech to take stuff out like how Lil'Loyd did," said Jay thoughtfully. "That might be fun to experiment with."

Lloyd meanwhile, stole Kai's phone from his pocket and joined the search. "Hey," he said. "This guy's right. He says I'm from another dimension and we got switched, but it looks like no one believes him at all."

That got a pause. These theories were seldom that accurate.

"Does it say who posted it?" asked Nya.

Lloyd squinted at the byline, and said, "Oh, never mind. It was posted by Dr. Gary. He's trying to get credit for his discovery, but people are just laughing at him."

"We should probably not tell Garmadon about that," said Jay nervously. "He would not want this leaking out, believed or not."

"Oooh," said Kai, still reading over his sister's shoulder and looking even more amused than before. "Looks like some folks think Lil'Lloyd's a secret love child of Koko and Master Wu."

"GROSS!" shouted Lloyd, recoiling from the computer.

Zane's expression shifted to a copy of the surprised Pikachu face. "Shock," he said.

"Yeah," said Cole dryly. "None of us wanted that mental image."

"How's this for a mental image," added Kai with his own grimace this time. "Lil'Loyd is Lloyd's love child instead. Mother unknown, but there's a list of suspects a mile wide."

Zane blinked at him in incomprehension, his Pikachu meme fading. "I do not understand why anyone would believe that," he said. "It is simple logic that Lloyd is far too young to have a seven-year-old son."

"He can if he's his son from the future here to warn us of the coming end of days," said Kai with a roll of his eyes.

Zane's frown grew. "That is even more illogical. Why would anyone even consider that a possibility?"

"People are dumb," Lloyd grumbled in reply, not liking having his parentage questioned.

"And can you imagine what Garmadon would do to whoever made those rumors?" asked Nya, sounding entertained despite herself. Her eyes then lit up as she found another outrageous rumor. "Lil'Loyd is an alien out to infiltrate the Ninja Force and destroy us all Invasion of the Body Snatchers style. Watch out or he will eat your brains!" she said dramatically.

They all had a laugh at that one.

"The current most popular theory is the one being circulated by the Sons of Garmadon, and originates from the user Quiet1," said Zane, his eyes glowing brightly as he searched the web. "Which is that Lil'Loyd is our Lloyd who has been de-aged as a plot to turn him evil."

The other teenagers all groaned at that, leaving Lloyd looking confused.

"Oh, not those guys again," said Kai in disdain.

"Especially her," added Nya, sounding like she wanted to punch 'her' in the face.

"Who are the Sons of Garmadon?" asked Lloyd in bewilderment. His dad didn't have other kids he wasn't aware of, did he?

The four-armed man in question had entered the room just in time to hear that, and his face pulled into his own grimace. "Oh, what have those nut jobs done now?" he asked.

Nya turned her computer so that Garmadon could see the screen with the relevant rumor, and Kai turned to Lloyd to answer his question.

"The Sons of Garmadon are his fan club," said Kai, waving in the former warlord's direction. "As in, the creepy, insane, obsessive, stalker kind of fan club. Led by some psycho girl (or at least we think she's a girl) calling herself Quiet1."

"They're always doing these crazy stunts to try and get Garmadon to turn evil again," said Jay.

"And it sucks!" said Garmadon dramatically. "Like, don't get me wrong, I get that these guys love me. What's not to love? But they're just… too much. They're always sending me these creepy requests for things like my blood or offering to send me Luh-Loyd's head on a platter. And don't get me started on their offers of virgin sacrifices to my volcano. We had to block their number after telling them heck no to all that. I'm not that dark, okay!"

"So they're not your kids," said Lloyd in relief.

Garmadon made a disgusted face. "Only in their wildest dreams," he said dryly.

"The ones that don't want to marry you, that is," said Nya, making Garmadon look even more grossed out.

"Okaaay, this conversation got disturbing real fast," the former villain said, beating a hasty retreat. "I'm off to torment some nerds into giving me results. Let me know if those creeps are planning another rally or something."

The ninja all winced as he left and slammed the door.

"Aw, poor guys," said Jay. "Hate to be in their shoes."

"It will be worse today," said Zane. "I heard Koko say she could not take more time off work."

"And he's not going to fall for Master Wu trying to distract him again," said Cole. "He's not that oblivious."

Lloyd thought for a moment and stared at the door his father's counterpart had gone through. If he were honest with himself, he was very curious about the four-armed man. They hadn't spent much time together while he'd been there, due to Garmadon's ironclad focus on getting back his own Lloyd. From what he'd seen so far, he was very different from his own dad, and yet…

"Maybe… I can distract him," said Lloyd.

The teenagers all looked over at him. "You'd do that?" asked Nya.

Lloyd nodded. His own father was his whole world, and the curiosity about another version of him was eating him alive. There was no way the man could compare to his real dad, but he still wanted to see how similar or different they could be.

The teens exchanged a glance and shrugged.

"If you think you can get his attention and pull it off, knock yourself out," said Nya.

"Just to warn you, though," said Jay. "It took our Lloyd sixteen years to get Garmadon's attention on him. Don't feel too bad if you don't manage it."

Lloyd's grin widened. "Don't worry," he said. "I know just the thing."

Garmadon was literally breathing down Dr. Gary's neck when Lloyd found him. The poor scientist was trembling as he instructed the other workers to put together a ring-shaped machine that was no doubt supposed to be the portal they were working so hard to build.

Lloyd straightened his borrowed black gi, kept a careful hold of something behind his back, and put on his best mischievous grin as he walked over to him.

"Hi, Not-Da-uh Mr. Garmadon," he said, not quite sure what to call the man.

That caught his attention, and Garmadon turned to look at him with a small frown. "Yuck, Lil'Loyd, don't ever call me 'Mr.' again, it makes me sound old," he said, sticking out his tongue in disgust. "If you don't want to call me Dad, call me Garmadon, or, hey, be like Koko and call me Uncle Garm. You're practically family already, and not the part of it I don't like."

Lloyd nodded, glad to finally have a name to call him (and keeping himself from pointing out that if Uncle Garm was anything like his father, he was old).

"The ninja are all doing homework," he said, making a face and saying the last word like it was a disease. "So could you help me with my training today?"

All around him, the scientists looked hopeful, but Garmadon didn't seem convinced. "I'd love to, kid, I really would," he said. "But I gotta stay here and make sure these lab monkeys do their job."

The scientists slumped in defeat, but Lloyd had an ace up his sleeve.

"Aw really," he said, pulling out what had been hiding behind his back the whole time. "I was gonna ask you to spot me while I do target practice with this."

Garmadon did a double-take when he saw what was in Lloyd's hands. "Hey… isn't that… Wu's teapot?" he asked slowly.

Lloyd nodded brightly. "Yup," he said. "Wanna see me blow it up, along with some of his other stuff?"

An absolutely wicked grin began spreading across Garmadon's face. "Do I?"

"Fore!" shouted Garmadon as he gleefully threw the teapot into the air of the clearing where training had been held yesterday.

Lloyd was pretty sure that was what you said for golf, not target practice, but he blasted the teapot with energy regardless.

The glowing green ball flew through the air and made a satisfying shattering sound when it collided with the ceramic pot.

Garmadon laughed at the sight and reached into the pile Lloyd had brought out to get more targets. It was full of things that were all recognizably Wu's and would be fun to throw and blast. Grabbing the four teacups that had gone with the pot in each of his hands he threw them into the air and cheered when they burst like fireworks.

What the former warlord didn't know was they were all things Wu had worn out and donated for the cause when Lloyd had explained his plan and asked. Even the teapot. As it turned out, Wu had an entire collection of them and didn't mind sacrificing one for the sake of being convincing (though Lloyd suspected the main reason he'd agreed was to reverse prank his brother due to this withheld information).

Garmadon chucked a sitting cushion into the air and laughed uproariously when it exploded into feathers.

"Oh man, I haven't had this much fun since I taught Luh-Loyd-" he broke off at the name, and immediately the mirth slid off his face. "Since I taught Luh-Loyd how to fish last week," he finished in a quieter tone.

Lloyd slowly dispersed his powers and walked over to the suddenly morose man.

Garmadon looked at him with a strangely blank expression and asked, "Hey, kid, over in your world, what am I like? I mean, obviously, I'm evil and need a whole prophecy to be beat. But… am I… a good dad?"

Lloyd, while puzzled by this question, couldn't pass up a chance to speak about his father positively.

"He's an awesome dad!" Lloyd said without hesitation. "Even when he was trapped in the Underworld, he'd send his out shadow to visit me at school. You should have heard how he threatened the skeletons that worked there if they messed with me. And when I got captured, he broke out of the Underworld to come save me. He even teamed up with Uncle Wu and the ninja to keep me safe. Even if he's evil, he's still great."

For some reason, that didn't seem to make Garmadon feel any better. "Oh," he said in a tone that lacked his usual boisterousness. "That's… that's great, kid. You really think the world of him."

Lloyd nodded, but noticing how down Garmadon looked, he decided to take a page out of Cole's book. He grabbed more cushions from the pile and sat down on one, indicating for the former villain to do the same. "Wanna talk about it?" he asked.

Garmadon remained standing. "What? Me? Nah, I'm fine. Nothing's bothering me in the slightest."

Lloyd sent him an unimpressed look.

Garmadon stared at him for a minute, before sitting down next to him with a sigh. "You look so much like Luh-Loyd right now, you know that?"

"So I've been told," said Lloyd cheekily.

Garmadon gave him a small smirk, and reached into the pile and tossed another object into the air without even looking at it. Lloyd didn't miss a beat and blasted it to bits.

"I don't know if the others told you," Garmadon said reluctantly, picking up another thing to toss. "But I… I haven't been the best father. I mean, I'm sure I'm not the worst but… yeah, father of the year I ain't."

"But you gave up evil for him," said Lloyd, blasting that thing too. "My dad… he hasn't been able to do that. I think he wants to, but he can't."

Garmadon snorted. "Yeah, I gave up evil sixteen years too late," he said bitterly, throwing up a plate for Lloyd to hit. "I could have changed earlier. I should have changed the moment Koko took Luh-Loyd and started walking away, but I… didn't."

Picking up a framed photo of Wu beating him in a fight, Garmadon let out a dry laugh. "I didn't even realize how much time had passed until I butt-dialed him. One second he's a cute little baby with no teeth, the next he's this surly teenager grouching at me for waking him up. And to hear about some version of me out there that did keep up with you despite being trapped… wherever makes me feel… I don't know, but I don't like it."

He chucked the frame extra hard into the air, and Lloyd almost missed hitting it.

"All I know is, I missed everything," said Garmadon, taking no enjoyment out of seeing the picture burn. "And one of the first things he said to me when we finally meet in person was that he wished I wasn't his father."

Lloyd blinked in shock at that. He would never even consider saying such a thing. He'd be willing to turn his father away to defend his friends, but he'd never wish him out of his life entirely.

"He took it back, of course," said Garmadon, growing awkward as he realized just how much he was unloading on a little kid he'd only met days ago. (But he looks so much like his son! The one person other than Koko he felt he could open up to.) "And saved me from being that darn cat of his' chew toy, but… yeah. That was a thing."

"He took it back, though," said Lloyd. "That means a lot, doesn't it. I bet he cares, he has to."

Garmadon gave a weak chuckle. "Yeah, I know he does," he said. "He's got too big a heart not to, and we've been doing our best to make up for lost time. But I can't do that if he's not here."

Garmadon then surged to his feet, taking Lloyd by surprise. "What are we doing?" he said, suddenly regaining some of his pep (though Lloyd couldn't help but feel it was a bit forced). "Here we are, blowing up my stupid brother's stuff, and we're being mopey about it! This should be mopey!"

Then, to Lloyd's surprise, he pulled a bomb out of nowhere and chucked it at the remaining junk, before grabbing Lloyd under one of his arms, and high tailing it away from the pile.

They ducked for cover behind the tree Jay had knocked down yesterday, and watched as the pile blew up spectacularly, leaving nothing but a crater behind.

Garmadon let out a whoop at the sight, and Lloyd couldn't help but laugh too.

When their cheering died down some, Garmadon gave a small wince. "Whoops, I forgot, that was for your training."

"That's okay," said Lloyd, still giggling slightly. "That was cool."

"It was, wasn't it," said Garmadon proudly. He then turned to look down at Lloyd thoughtfully. "Still, I should make up for it. So, kid, ever want to learn how to defuse a bomb?"

"Sure," replied Lloyd. "I never got to that course at Darkely's. I know how to make a couple kinds of bombs, but they kicked me out before I could learn to defuse them."

Garmadon's grin widened even more. "Oh, this is going to be fun."

Chapter Text

Show Ninjago

"I DID WHAT?!"

Cole sat up straight in a tub of ice cubes and stared in shock at his enemy, teacher, and teammates for what they'd just told him.

Almost immediately, every muscle in his body screamed protest at the movement, and he had to bite down a whimper as Lloyd and Zane slowly lowered him back into the ice.

"You managed to hold up the entire city on your own when the Serpentine destroyed the foundations," said Sensei Wu again, his expression making it clear he was not joking as he handed the Master of Earth a tea that would help him heal. "An incredible feat you should be proud of. Many owe you their lives on this day."

"There's no way," said Cole as he took the tea and continued to receive treatment for the punishment his muscles had gone through. "I'm strong, but even with my powers back, there's no possible way I could have held up that much!"

"Sure there is," said Kai, though his voice sounded vague with shock at what he had heard. "You did it didn't you, so it can't be impossible."

"Are you hearing yourself right now?" asked Cole. "I couldn't lift nearly that much before, there's no way I could do it now."

"If there's one thing I learned from my friend's powers, it's that things are only impossible if you think they are," said Lloyd with a grin. "You didn't know you were doing the impossible, so you just did it."

Jay snickered. "Wow, fortune cookie logic is genetic," he said but was immediately hushed by the rest.

Cole could only gape at all of them.

"I am curious though," said Sensei Wu. "You say your powers have returned. Do you mean that for the rest of you as well?"

In response, Jay and Zane both raised their hands and summoned their elements. In their rush to stop the Serpentine, it had completely slipped their minds to tell their teacher this development.

Kai attempted to do the same as well but was once again only able to summon embers. Seeing this, he scowled and grumbled, "Why am I always last?"

"That's not all, Sensei," said Zane with a grin.

Jay gave a dramatic flourish in Nya's direction. "Preeeesenting, the brand new…"

Nya giggled at his dramatics and summoned a globe of water into her hands.

"WATER NINJA!" Jay shouted gleefully.

Both their teacher and their enemy stared at her in shock.

"You discovered your elemental abilities all on your own!" said Sensei Wu as he looked at the water in Nya's hands in wonder.

Nya grinned and played around with the liquid. "Not entirely on my own," she admitted. "Lloyd's the one who told me my counterpart had powers."

Her smile faded a bit, and she directed the water into Cole's bath. "Sensei," she said slowly. "Did you know I had powers?"

The wonder slid off Sensei Wu's face, and he let out a sigh. "Yes, I did," he admitted.

Nya's smile dimmed even more. "How did you know?" she asked, wanting to understand. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Sensei Wu inclined his head apologetically. "The power of the elements is passed down through bloodlines," he explained. "You and Kai both received your powers through your parents, who were the Masters of Fire and Water before you." He turned to the rest of them of the ninja and added, "You as well all inherited your powers from your ancestors. It is how I knew to choose all of you to train."

The ninja all exchanged glances at this new information. Kai and Nya were especially wide-eyed at the information about their long-missing parents.

"And as for why I did not tell you," Sensei Wu said, turning back to Nya. "I did not think you were ready, and I'm afraid I prioritized the four Elements of Creation over the Element of Water. For that, I apologize." His expression then turned fond. "This is not the first time you have proven me wrong, Nya. I'm sure you will continue to do so, but I promise will strive to do better in the future."

While disappointed to hear she had been overlooked on purpose, Nya still smiled at that. "Don't you forget it," she said.

Just then a timer went off signaling it was time for Cole to get out of the bath.

"Okay, buddy, out you go," said Jay as he and Kai helped lift him out of the tub.

Cole let out a groan of protest, and the two continued to carry him out of the room and into their cabin to rest and hopefully sleep off the worst of it. The rest of the teenagers followed offering their own support and suggestions on how to make the hero of the day more comfortable.

Once they were gone, Garmadon turned to Wu and said, "You say you will be more forthcoming, and yet you failed to mention such prevalent information."

Wu let out another sigh but said nothing.

Garmadon scowled, and he marched over to glare at him face to face. "You know as well as I that a feat such as that has never been done by any previous Master of Earth," he said. "If it is true that that boy held up the entire city on his own, then he would have to be far more powerful than any ninja that has ever come before. Not even my own son, the Green Ninja, will hold a candle to him. That shouldn't be possible!"

"I know," said Wu. "And yet I have no answers as to how such a thing could happen."

Garmadon eyed him suspiciously. "Really, Brother," he said, skepticism clear in his voice. "None at all?"

Wu slowly stroked his beard. "I admit to having… suspicions of the cause. But with no evidence, I am hesitant to speak them."

Garmadon scoffed. "Of course you do," he said. "So you really won't tell them?" he asked, indicating the door the ninja had left through.

"I feel it is not yet time," said Wu. "Though, like with Nya, I could once again be wrong. We shall see."

Garmadon sighed. Typical Wu. Always keeping quiet on the matters he should have been open about. Still, these were not his students, and it was not his place to inform them of such information. If his brother's hesitancy to share information with his pupils led to his advantage in the coming fight, all the better for him.

After fishing him out of the bath and taking him to bed, Cole had once again passed out to let his body recover.

While he slept, the Bounty flew them all back to Ed and Edna's Scrap N' Junk to finish their repairs to the carriage. Even Kai didn't complain when the Master Building trio decided to take the extra couple hours to better stabilize the carriage while in flight so it wouldn't shake as much as it had been.

Still, there was only so much time they could waste on it, and soon they were met with a difficult question that none of them wanted to voice.

Until, finally as they touched down outside the scrapyard, Kai was forced to bite the bullet. "So… how are we going to do this?" he asked.

Despite knowing what he was talking about, Zane reluctantly asked, "Do what?"

"Are we, you know, okay with leaving Cole behind?" Kai asked. "Even with Sensei's tea, I don't know if he's up for more dimensional travel. Especially if what we've already seen out there is any indication. But can we really wait long enough for him to recover?"

"Okay with it? No," said Jay, staring at the ground as he spoke. "Feel we might have to? ... Yes."

"But I thought it was a magic healing tea?" Lloyd asked, looking hopeful. "The healing tea my uncle has can work pretty fast. He'd recover from almost anything in a couple of days after drinking it."

"Could he?" asked Nya, the rest of them looking hopeful.

The ninja looked at Sensei Wu to explain it to them, and he stroked his beard thoughtfully before answering.

"The tea I gave him before is a special one that came from Mistaké," their teacher said slowly. "She is an old friend who specializes in the growing and selling of magical teas. The one I gave him will draw from his powers to heal him. In theory, it is possible that by drinking it Cole will recover enough to continue your journey, but it will take time for him to heal completely."

The teenagers all perked up at that news though most looked doubtful it would work that well, and none of them noticed Garmadon send his brother a sharp look upon hearing it.

"That sounds stronger than my uncle's tea. So then we won't have to leave him behind," said Lloyd, being one of the few that seemed to believe the good news wholeheartedly. "That's good."

"Indeed," said Sensei Wu. "Though, we will have to wait for him to awaken to be sure."

Jay let out a huge sigh of relief. "Let's hope so," he said. "It's just not an adventure without that Rockhead."

With a more positive outlook, they all began pitching in to repair the carriage, and the hours flew by with all of them waiting on pins and needles until Cole awakened, with all of the teenagers sneaking glances at the Bounty when they could manage it in hopes of seeing him emerge.

Finally, they had only a few small things left to do, and yet there was still no sign of the Master of Earth.

"Should we wait a little longer?" Lloyd finally asked, staring in the direction of the Bounty as if willing Cole to come out of it.

"We could, but that would delay the resumption of our search more than it already has been," said Zane.

"But do we really want to leave Cole?" asked Nya.

"I sure don't," said Jay pointedly.

From the looks on the rest of their faces, none of them wanted to leave without him either. They were a team, they didn't leave ninja behind.

"A couple more hours then," said Kai, sounding reluctant, but willing. "I guess we have no choice."

"Oh, you most definitely have a choice whether to wait for your friend or not, ninja," said Garmadon, making them all turn and glare at him for butting in. "However, when you do leave there is one thing you will have no say in."

"And what's that?" asked Nya.

Garmadon stood tall and stated, "I am coming with you."

That demand was not met with any enthusiasm.

"No way," Kai shot down immediately.

"Not happening," agreed Jay.

Lloyd frowned. "We really don't need evil on top of everything else."

"Did I not say before that we do not trust you," said Zane pointedly.

"Especially after what happened last time we trusted you to help us out," added Nya, pointedly looking at the Mega Weapon.

"It matters not to me if you trust me, I am going with you regardless," said Garmadon in a tone that left no room for argument. "You have wasted enough time failing to retrieve my son. This time I will come to ensure you succeed."

Seeing the ninja about to protest again, Garmadon raised the Mega Weapon for them all to see. "Rest assured," he said dangerously. "If you do not comply and leave without me, my next wish upon the Mega Weapon will be that your friend never recovers from his ordeal."

He had them there, and they knew all it.

"Perhaps it would be best if I accompanied you as well," said Sensei Wu thoughtfully. "To keep things running smoothly. With the injuries the Serpentine sustained their attempted attack today, they are unlikely to be a threat for a good few days at least."

That had the teenagers brighten a bit, and Garmadon scowled knowing he would not be able to bully them as much with his brother present.

"Very well," said Garmadon. "However, the question of when we depart is still-"

"Wait, you're coming?"

They all jumped as a new voice broke into the conversation, and all turned to see Cole entering the scrapyard slowly, rubbing his shoulder as he did so.

"COLE!" shouted everyone, and the Master of Earth quickly found himself surrounded in a massive hug, making him wince and suck in his breath in pain.

They all immediately jumped back and shouted apologies, but Cole waved them off.

"You're up!" said Nya happily as they pulled back.

"Yeah," said Cole, looking like he didn't fully believe it himself. "I woke up a minute ago and felt a lot better. Still really sore all over, but, you know, I can move."

"No way!" said Jay, turning to grin at Sensei Wu. "That tea you gave him must be good stuff."

"It'd have to be," said Zane, looking surprised but pleased. "Otherwise it would have taken weeks for you to recover."

"You feel up to keep going?" asked Lloyd.

Cole rotated his shoulders slowly, and there was no mistaking how stiff the movement was. Still, it was moving when he wanted it to, and the pain was sharp but bearable.

"I think I can handle it," he said. "I'll stay on the reserve for a while, but there's no way I'm missing out on this. Still," he added, turning to look at Garmadon, "does he really have to come?"

"Unfortunately," said Kai with a scowl, but his expression brightened quickly. "Let's finish packing up the carriage and get going then. The sooner we get Lloyd back, the sooner we can ditch him."

"Plus, we might be lucky and get to feed him to a dinosaur," Jay joked.

With that, the teens burst into a flurry of activity to finish the last-minute tasks they'd been delaying on.

As they did, Garmadon stormed over to Wu.

"What was that?" the evil lord burst out, sounding more lost than truly angry. "Mistaké's teas are potent, but not even if it drew from all the power he had left would it cause him to recover that fast. What is going on here, Brother?"

"I was testing a theory," said Wu calmly. He turned and watched his students prepare for their trip with a thoughtful expression. "I'm sure this trip will prove to be most enlightening."

Chapter Text

Movie Ninjago

Lloyd could barely contain his snickers as he and Garmadon waited for the most opportune moment to use what they'd made during their bomb-building and defusing lesson.

Actually, it looked like he wasn't containing them as much as he thought he had been, as Garmadon had to reach over with one of his lower arms and clap a hand over his mouth.

Still, the gleeful energy between the two of them was infectious, especially when a suitable pair of targets stepped into sight down the facility hallway.

Nya and Zane walked obliviously past their hiding spot chatting amiably, having no idea that they were getting closer and closer to their trap.

Finally, the two set foot in range, and with a wicked grin, Garmadon hit a big red button on an otherwise needlessly complicated remote in one of his other hands.

'BOOM!'

Nya and Zane could both only stand in shock as the closet door next to them seemed to explode open and splatter them from head to toe with neon green slime.

At the sight of their flummoxed faces, Garmadon and Lloyd burst out laughing and had to run as Nya began screaming bloody murder after them.

Just before they got out of earshot, they heard Zane remark, "Well, they sure started their relationship off with a bang." Making Nya stop ranting long enough to groan at that terrible pun.

They both snickered. It was fun to see all the creative ways you could use bombs. Slime bombs were sure becoming a favorite for both of them.

After that it was a flurry of activity in the facility that had the ninja wanting to pull their hair out, Koko and Jay, who had been left out of most of the pranks (for fear of her retaliation and out of respect for his anxiety respectively), very amused, and the scientists mostly shrugging it off as the shenanigans were still better than Garmadon focusing on their progress (the fact they were making sure not to inhibit said progress was also helpful).

Still, there was no safe space anywhere.

Every chair now had to be checked for whoopie cushions or other sabotage. Rooms had to be paid attention to for fear of things being rearranged or moved slightly to the left. Hands had to be waved through doorways to avoid honey traps. Even when there was no plastic wrap in the door, be careful opening it because you never know what could be propped over top of it. Kai found that out the hard way, and still had glitter in his hair because of it. Nya and Zane also fell for such traps, which led to the Nya being slimed once again, and Zane walking around with a bucket stuck on his head for five minutes.

With Jay no longer a target, Cole found himself at the receiving end of many a spring snake prank or other such jump-scares. However, it was becoming an exercise in futility with him, as he never reacted to any of them. Eventually, Garmadon gave up all forms of subtlety and mashed a banana cream pie in the Earth Ninja's face. He still didn't react. Just took the remains of the pie and walked away to eat it.

"You're not corrupting him, Garm, are you?" asked Koko as she watched the cream-covered Earth Ninja walk past and offer some pie to Jay.

"Ha! No way," said Garmadon proudly, ruffling Lloyd's hair. "He's the mastermind behind most of this stuff, if anything, he's re-corrupting me."

Lloyd beamed as Koko laughed at that response.

The whole experience reminded Lloyd of the time Pythor had pretended to be his friend and they'd gone on a merry chaos spree, only this time it felt far more genuine. Garmadon, while he would still have bouts of melancholy at missing his own son, seemed to really be enjoying himself when wreaking havoc with the little Green Ninja.

As it was, the two were currently finishing up the last of TPing the Bounty when Wu finally came out to find them.

The ninja master took one look at what his brother and interdimensional nephew had done, let out a long and tired sigh, and played a few bars of 'I Knew You Were Trouble' on his flute to get their attention. "You are cleaning this up," he said flatly once the melody was finished.

"NEVER!" shouted Garmadon, and he leaped from the boat to run away dramatically.

Master Wu sent Lloyd a raised eyebrow, to which the young ninja let out a guilty giggle and immediately fled as well.

Master Wu watched as they ran off into Meowthra's tunnel. "Unbelievable," he muttered, before going back to playing his song.

The two ran through the undersea tunnel laughing their heads off all the way.

But as they came up to Meowthra's bed, Lloyd's steps slowed to a halt, while Garmadon's continued on undeterred until he noticed his little accomplice was no longer at his side.

Turning back to look at him, the former warlord saw Lloyd huddled by the side of the bed and staring up at his volcano with fear in his eyes.

"Okay, I gotta ask, what have you got against my volcano?" asked Garmadon. "You've been freaked out by it since you got here? Did that general really spook you that bad?"

Lloyd silently shook his head, still staring upwards at the constant flow of lava.

As if sensing his unease, Meowthra padded over and picked Lloyd up by the collar of his gi and began padding back the way they came towards the facility in the jungle.

Seeing this, Garmadon had to hurry to follow them, grumbling curses at 'that darn cat' all the way.

Once they exited the tunnel, Meowthra set Lloyd back on the ground and knocked him over by rubbing her head against him. She then daintily made her way into the jungle to do whatever cats do in when no one is around.

Lloyd was just getting back to his feet when Garmadon finally caught up to him, gasping for breath.

"Whew," he gasped, hunching over to rest two of his arms on his legs, and a third reaching up to wipe his brow. "That cat has had it out for me since day one, I'm telling you. You, Luh-Loyd, Koko and Wu, she loves. The rest of the ninja, she likes them okay. Me, nuh-uh, sees me as more of a chew toy."

Lloyd let out a laugh at that.

"So," said Garmadon, catching his breath and straightening up. "Back to the original question. What's with you and volcanoes? Volcanoes are awesome!"

"You wouldn't think that if you were thrown into one," mumbled Lloyd, looking away.

"Uh, I nearly was actually," Garmadon admitted, making Lloyd's attention snap back to him. "Bunch'a former employees didn't like that I fired them and tried to blast me and Luh-Loyd down one, and we had to be saved by his little ninja friends."

"And you still live in one?" Lloyd burst out.

"Yup!" said Garmadon, puffing out his chest. "It reminded me of the deadly awesomeness that comes from such natural marvels."

However, the implications of what Lloyd had said finally registered to him, and he asked, "Wait, someone threw you in a volcano!?" he asked in alarm, not for the first time wondering what kind of world this kid came from.

Lloyd shuffled his feet and looked anywhere but at him.

Garmadon's expression turned to a deadly scowl. "Okay, kid. I need names," he said darkly. "That way when the nerds get that portal up and running I can hunt them down and feed them to my sharks."

"You have sharks?" Lloyd asked in surprise.

"Don't change the subject," said Garmadon. "Now, who do I have to turn into chum."

"Pythor," said Lloyd reluctantly. "But you can't turn him into chum because he was already swallowed whole by a giant snake."

Garmadon huffed at being denied prey. "Well, I sure as heck hope that was painful," he said bitterly.

He then turned back to the blond and raised an eyebrow. "Why was this Py-thetic guy trying to toss you in a volcano anyway? I thought your destiny beef was with other-me."

"It was back before we knew I was the Green Ninja," said Lloyd dully. "I was kidnapped by the Serpentine to use against the ninja, and they were trying to get this thing called a Fang Blade that was hidden in the volcano. But when it started to erupt, Pythor decided they needed to ditch the 'dead weight' and threw me over the side."

Garmadon let out a low and dangerous growl at that. "Now I really hope that jerk's death was slow and painful," he said, his expression murderous.

Despite the tone and the words, Lloyd had to smile that his father's counterpart already liked him enough to threaten such. "Don't worry," he said. "Kai saved me. He found his True Potential and flew us out of there before we both fried."

Garmadon looked slightly reassured at that, and Lloyd could have sworn he heard him mutter something about making a mental note to get the local Kai bodyguard training and his own True Potential ASAP.

"So, you had a bad experience with volcanoes," said Garmadon, focusing back on him again. "Understandable. I still think they're awesome, but, hey, when Kokes adopts you, you can just stay over at her place. Legally, I can't have full custody of kids anyway until the house arrest I constantly shirk is up."

Lloyd blinked up at him. He thought he'd made it clear that he couldn't stay the night before, but from what he'd seen of this version of his father, it was entirely possible that idea had already been forgotten. Or he was ignoring it, either was likely.

"We will need to work on helping you cope with this phobia, though, and any of that other crazy stuff you go through," said Garmadon as he began pacing thoughtfully. "HR required I have some therapists on staff, so maybe they can finally do something useful. All they do right now is sit around and listen to my employees whine all day. If they help you out they'll really earn their keep."

"Wha-why?" asked Lloyd, thrown off by the suggestion.

Garmadon shot him a look like he was wondering why he was even asking that. "Hey, I'm not an expert on kids, kid, but I sure as heck know they shouldn't go through what you did. It's not healthy for your brain, and all that junk." He then paused, before adding awkwardly, "Also, if you could ever, you know, get past that fear of volcanoes, I'd love to have you visit from time to time."

Lloyd couldn't help but get a small smile at that suggestion. "Really?" he asked.

"Sure," said Garmadon. "If you want, you could totally be one of my top generals someday when you're old enough. And… I know you've already got a great dad, from what you've said I can't compete with that, but maybe I can be a cool step-dad or uncle or something."

Lloyd's grin widened. "I'd like tha-"

"NINJA!" screamed a voice out of the blue, and both Garmadon and Lloyd turned in time to each get a water balloon straight to the face.

Lloyd barely managed to wipe the water from his eyes before more water balloons began hailing down on them.

"Aw come on! We were having a moment, here!" shouted Garmadon as he and Lloyd ran for cover.

Ducking behind a tree, Lloyd looked out to see their attackers. He really shouldn't have been surprised to see that Nya and Zane had teamed up to go after them for revenge, but he was nonetheless. Nya, he could understand, she'd been gunning for him since the shower prank, but Zane? He'd thought his pranks had mostly gone over the nindroid's head. He'd even contributed to them with his puns.

"No Mercy!" shouted Nya as she used her powers to shoot water balloons through the air like homing missiles. With her weakened powers, she could only do two at a time, but there was no place you could hide from them.

Zane, meanwhile, was practically a baseball launcher all on his own with the rapid speed he was chucking the balloons at them, and thanks to his own weakened powers, the water inside them was always just shy of freezing. "Taste my cold fury!" he called in a gleefully automated voice. "YEET!"

The hunters had become the hunted, and the water balloon wielding duo chased the two of them through the jungle with a seemingly endless supply of balloons.

Finally, the constant rain of balloons stopped, and Garmadon and Lloyd turned back to look at them. Nya and Zane stared back, their hands empty and it looked like their ammunition had finally run out.

The now thoroughly soaked pair breathed a sigh of relief.

"Okay, I admit it," said Garmadon, wringing some water out of his long blue scarf. "That was pretty good, ninja nerds. Pretty good."

Nya and Zane exchanged a matching set of evil grins that had Lloyd and Garmadon tensing at the sight.

"Oh, it's not over yet," said Nya, turning her evil grin onto them.

"What?" asked Lloyd, suddenly feeling nervous.

"The water balloons were so we could lead you to a trap," said Zane brightly.

Nya then pulled a machete from her belt and sliced through a hidden rope.

Lloyd and Garmadon only had enough time to look up before a large tarp hanging above them gave way and the two were completely drenched in cyan and white swirled slime.

As the two slime-covered individuals stood blinking in shock at what just happened, Nya burst into laughter at the sight of them. Zane stood next to her beaming proudly at their accomplishment. "Get dunked on," he said with a dab.

Garmadon let out a dramatic groan and began trying to wipe the slime off himself while swearing vengeance under his breath.

Lloyd meanwhile, had yet to move, and Zane was starting to grow concerned.

Approaching carefully, the nindroid asked, "Are you alright, Lil'Lloyd? Did we take things too far? If so, I apologi-"

"THAT WAS AWESOME!" Lloyd suddenly bellowed, throwing his hands into the air in delight, and making Zane stumble back in surprise.

"Really?" asked Zane hopefully.

"Yeah!" said Lloyd brightly. "You got us good."

"You bet we did," said Nya, still grinning victoriously. "It was so ninja."

Lloyd looked down at the duel colored slime coating his arm. "What's this stuff made of, anyway?"

"Not sure, Zane mixed it up in the lab," said Nya, giving credit where it was due. "To be honest, he planned out most of this."

"It is a simple slime recipe you can find on the internet," Zane chirped modestly.

Lloyd stared up at him with new respect. Who knew this world's Zane was a pranking mastermind.

"Can't say I expected it from the nindroid," said Garmadon with grudging respect. "The girl, heck yeah she's vicious, but you always seemed so straightlaced."

"How dare you," Zane intoned in mock offense. "I'm a wild teen."

They all had to laugh at that delivery.

An idea hit Lloyd, and he grinned, "You know what could make this even better?" he asked them all.

At their questioning looks, he swiped a glob of slime off himself and pelted it at Nya. "SLIME FIGHT!"

The jungle quickly devolved into chaos as the four of them threw as much of the slime at each other as possible in an all-out war.

By the time the slime was too dirty to use anymore, a timid scientist came out to inform them that Dr. Gary had finished a prototype portal for them to test.

A truce was called in light of that. None of them wanted to inadvertently mess up what they had been working towards. The distraction was fun, but more pranks would have to wait.

For now…

Chapter Text

?

To the ninja's delight and dismay, Garmadon was quick to realize why they had been having such a hard time finding Lloyd. Delight due to him getting a taste of what they'd been through in the last few days, and dismay because the day was drawing to a close and they still hadn't found the other Ninjago.

Already in the day, they'd been attacked an army of alien robots shaped like salt and pepper shakers, a group of people with animal heads, a malevolent A.I. that got salty when Cole stole cake from it, another world with ghosts that kids were fighting with cell phones (they told them about fighting them with water, but it was unclear if they were believed), an evil book that could summon monsters from its pages, and an absolutely insane clown in a purple suit with a creepy laugh.

As it was, they were once again urging the Ultra Dragon through another portal rather than have to deal with what was looking like a battle of four different armies of various races raged below them, only for them all to stop and throw every weapon they had up at them while shouting something about dragons and smog. They made it through the portal just as several giant eagles appeared on the scene.

That was the last they saw of that world as they entered a portal and were spat out in another world. Hopefully, this one would be calm enough for them to rest for the night. If not, the Ultra Dragon probably had enough strength to take them somewhere else if need be.

"Has it been like this the entire time you were gone?" asked Sensei Wu in concern as the Ultra Dragon looked for a place to land.

"More or less," said Zane with a shrug.

"I actually think it's been calmer today," added Jay. "At least nothing's tried to eat us."

"Yet," added Kai.

"We should be so lucky," grumbled Garmadon as the Ultra Dragon landed the carriage on the ground.

They cautiously stepped out of the carriage, having long learned to be wary restless natives. Fortunately for them, from the looks of things both from the air and on the ground, there didn't appear to be anyone for miles. The entire area was a massive system of canyons and quarries, and nothing around but dust and rocks and the occasional small shrub. Even if there were any people or dangerous creatures around, from the top they would see them coming from a mile away.

Well, most dangerous creatures.

Hearing a warning hiss, Cole jumped back from a bush he had been standing by and watched as an irate snake slithered out of it and into a hole in the ground.

"Snakes!" the Earth Ninja groused. "Why did it have to be snakes!"

"Guess they just like you," Jay teased.

Other than the snake (which was nonvenomous according to Zane) the place seemed safe enough. Still, they had thought places were safe before. Better to make sure while there was still daylight.

"We should split up and scout around," said Lloyd to Cole as a suggestion, rather than automatically making orders.

The Master of Earth agreed. "Everyone, pick a partner and head in a different direction," said Cole to the rest. "If there's any sign that this place is dangerous, come right back and we'll get out of here."

"I don't suppose this place looks like your Ninjago," asked Jay as he sidled over to partner with Nya.

"Doesn't look like it," said Lloyd looking around. "But, right now there's nothing distinctive to know for sure."

"Then we will be on the lookout for such clues while we search the area," Sensei Wu said as he and Zane began walking in a westward direction.

Kai and Cole went east, and Jay and Nya started heading south, leaving the north to Garmadon and (due to being one of the few who could stand the man without trying to pick a fight) Lloyd.

Needless to say, Garmadon was not happy with the idea of stopping while it was still light out, much less at all.

"We should be continuing the search," he growled as he reluctantly kept pace with Lloyd in their chosen direction. "Why are we even stopping? We will never find my son at this rate."

"We did that on the first day," Lloyd explained. "It left us with Ultra being too tired to get us away when we got in a bind with those dinosaurs Jay keeps mentioning. Plus, they'll be less likely to want to pull us if we run them into the ground."

Garmadon growled. "Then make them pull us," he snarled.

Lloyd rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I'll totally go up to a massive dragon with four sets of teeth and command of the elements and make it do what I want," he said sarcastically. He then turned to Garmadon and added in a deadpan, "You don't work with animals much do you?"

Having no answer to that, Garmadon scoffed and stormed ahead.

Not wanting to admit he's wrong, so he deflects from the argument. It was such a classic Garmadon move that Lloyd couldn't help but smile.

"What are you smirking at?" Garmadon said when he glanced back and noticed Lloyd's grin.

"Nothing," said Lloyd. "Just got a reminder you're definitely my dad's counterpart."

Garmadon paused in his stride, allowing Lloyd to catch up to him.

"By that, you imply that he and I are quite different," said Garmadon eventually. "And yet when you first arrived you were convinced we were one and the same. Tell me, why was that?"

Lloyd sighed and caught himself rubbing his arm again. Placing his arms back at his side, he replied, "Well, it wasn't clear at the start. You two look pretty much the same."

He paused and looked Garmadon up and down for a moment, then added, "Actually, I think Dad might be taller than you, but everything else is about the same. So, at first glance, it looked like you were him."

Garmadon nodded slowly, that was understandable. While a teenager, aside from some minor differences, this Lloyd looked very much like he imagined his son would in a few years.

"But then," Lloyd continued. "You started talking and denied my dad's promise. At first, that wasn't too out there. Dad can go pretty deep in denial about anything he messes up. And then you said my name and suddenly all the other differences were just so obvious."

Garmadon raised an eyebrow at the teenager. "Your name?" he asked. "How could that possibly inform you I was not your father?"

"You called me Lloyd," Lloyd replied.

"That is your name, is it not," Garmadon said, still not understanding.

"One my dad never calls me by," said Lloyd dryly.

Garmadon stared at him, his eyebrow still raised. This boy was not making any sense. "If your father does not call you by your name, what could he possibly call you?"

Lloyd grimaced. "He… calls me Luh-Loyd," he admitted reluctantly.

Garmadon could only stare at him with glowing red eyes. "What?" he asked in disbelief. "That is not how you say that name."

Lloyd straightened up, and his face shifted to look like he was correcting an ignorant child. "No, L-L-O-Y-D. I named you," he said, his tone and posture making it clear he was quoting someone else.

Garmadon could only stare at him. It was more than obvious just who he was quoting, and he didn't much like what that logic said about his counterpart's intelligence.

"Anyway, once you said my name right I started noticing things like the lack of shark men, and other stuff that made it clear you weren't really Dad," said Lloyd.

"You seemed relieved upon realizing that," said Garmadon. "I would assume it was connected to the promise you mentioned where my counterpart successfully swore off evil."

"Pretty much," said Lloyd.

Garmadon was silent for a long moment. "How was such a thing possible?" he asked so quietly that Lloyd almost didn't hear him.

Lloyd stopped, remembering what Jay had told him before about why this Garmadon was evil as opposed to his father. "Our city was attacked by a threat neither of us could defeat on our own," he replied. "We needed to work together to stop it, and along the way, I was able to change his mind."

Garmadon turned to him. "But the venom," he said. "If it runs in his veins as it does mine, he would have no choice but to act on his darkest impulses. How can he resist it?"

Lloyd sighed, knowing the massive difference between the men was about to be laid bare. "My father was evil by choice," he admitted, feeling slightly guilty. "He felt pushed into the role by his appearance and figured if everyone saw him as a monster he might as well have fun with it. It took a long time, but I was able to save him and convince him to stop."

The Green Ninja turned to face the warlord. "Our world has no Great Devourer," he said, careful to keep anything that would be interpreted as pity out of his voice. "Your circumstances in becoming evil are different, I'm sorry."

Garmadon tensed. "You are certain of this?" he asked.

Lloyd nodded solemnly. "When I asked, the others told me the Serpentine used to worship it, but from everything I know about them in my world, they worship the sun instead. And there was never any mention of something like that in history. My dad was bitten by a snake, but Uncle Wu told me that it just changed his appearance, not his personality."

Lloyd hadn't realized there was a trace of hope on Garmadon's face until it was effectively shuttered at his words. "I see," he said shortly, looking away from the ninja. "We have wasted enough time. Let us go."

With that, he turned on his heel and strode away from Lloyd, and refused to look at him for the rest of their search.

Still, Lloyd didn't miss the barest hint of a whisper from the warlord. One he was undoubtedly not meant to hear.

"It was foolish to hope. I should have known there was no cure."

Meanwhile, Zane and Sensei Wu made their way over several dusty hills in search of any signs of life or any landmark to inform them where they were.

As they went, Zane informed his sensei in full all that had happened the previous two days during their initial search.

"Curious," said Wu, stroking his beard after Zane had finished. "It seems strange that your powers have suddenly been returning. I wonder what could have triggered it."

"I have been curious about that as well," said Zane thoughtfully. "Though, I'm afraid I do not have a sure reason for it yet. I have been keeping track of each time our power returns for what they could all have in common."

"I see," said Wu, turning to his student thoughtfully. "And have you noticed any patterns?"

"Thankfully, there does seem to be a pattern," said Zane. "So far, each of our powers would return during a time of need. We were in danger, and they came to us to save our and each other's lives."

"As you said in your tale," said Wu. "Anything else?"

Zane frowned thoughtfully. "In all honesty, there is something else I've noticed. The return of our powers and the awakening of Nya's mirrors how the new Lloyd told us our counterparts achieved theirs in his world."

"Oh," said Wu in interest.

"Yes," said Zane. "Lloyd said that his friends realized that the power they held was always inside them and that believing in themselves was the key to unlocking it. His own faith in them, and us for that matter, seems to be unwavering."

"I see," said Wu again. "And do you believe that is the case here?" he asked.

Zane was silent a moment. "I'm not sure," he admitted. "While it would be nice if it were so, we all believed in ourselves and tried our hardest to continue using our powers when we first lost them, but to no avail. Something must be different this time for them to return, but the only thing that is different is our Lloyd's absence."

He paused again, and then asked, "Sensei, do you think perhaps destiny views us as having failed as protectors of the Green Ninja, and that this return of power is a means to get him back?"

Wu considered the theory. "It is difficult to say," he said. "It might be possible, but if anything I would assume my nephew's absence would only weaken you rather than make you stronger."

Zane nodded, knowing the theory was far fetched.

Seeing his lost expression, Sensei Wu gave him a smile. "Don't worry, Zane," he said. "Whatever the cause may be, I'm sure the answers will reveal themselves in time."

Zane smiled back, but before he could say anything else, a shout in the distance caught their attention.

"GUYS! GET OVER HERE! LOOK AT THIS!"

The two turned in the direction of Jay's shout and hurried towards it.

They met up with Kai and Cole and found Nya and Jay at the bottom of a ravine staring upwards.

It was easy to see what had caught their attention. Towering above them was a massive temple with its archway carved into the stone of the cliff. It was beautiful with long decorative columns in front of the door, holding up an entablature with intricate carvings set into it. More carvings of men in armor staring down at them from above and the entire place had an unearthly feel to it.

"What is this place?" asked Kai, staring up at it.

"I don't know, but it's pretty," said Nya.

"This type of architecture does not come from Ninjago," said Zane, studying it all with a critical eye. "It is very likely we are once again in the wrong world. However, I will need to ask Lloyd to be sure."

The rest of them looked around and noticed that Garmadon and Lloyd hadn't come running at the sound of the shouts.

"They went in the opposite direction of this," said Cole before turning to Jay. "I guess they're too far away to hear you. I didn't think that was possible with your mouth."

Jay sent his friend an annoyed look. "Sore muscles will not keep me from clobbering you," he said.

"It'll take way more than sore muscles to let you land a hit on me," Cole shot back with a grin.

Wu, meanwhile, was studying the temple with a keen eye. "This place…" he said slowly. "I sense there is something hidden here. Something old… and powerful." He frowned, before nodding and adding, "And heavily protected."

"So, probably not something we want to mess with?" asked Kai, now eyeing the temple warily.

"No," said Wu, shaking his head and turning away. "We have no need for whatever is within, and no way of knowing if it is dangerous or not. It would probably be best to just leave it be."

The young ninja all looked up at the temple, wondering what treasure could be inside it, but slowly followed after their teacher instead.

"It would be best we do not mention this to my brother," said Wu as they made their way back to the carriage to wait for his and Lloyd's return. "Knowing him, he would not resist temptation regardless of any danger."

"Our lips are sealed, Sensei," said Cole.

The area proved to be safe enough, and they all set up camp on a high outcrop of rocks where they would not be taken by surprise.

Things were tense whenever Garmadon was near. More so than usual. While Lloyd wouldn't say anything about it, but they could all tell something had happened to put the warlord in a dour mood.

Still, with the warlord's sour disposition to distract him, it made it easy for Jay to slip away with Lloyd to show him the temple they'd found, and confirm from the architecture that this was indeed not his Ninjago.

Eventually, watches were set and they turned in for the night, all hoping that this time they could make it through without a rude awakening.

So when a sound awoke Lloyd from his slumber, saying he was annoyed was an understatement.

He was instantly out of his shared tent and looking for any enemies that could be around, startling Kai and Nya, who were keeping watch at that time.

Seeing nothing threatening, Lloyd wondered what could have woken him up.

Until he heard the sound again. This time he recognized what it was, and turned back to his tent in shock.

Cole, Zane, and Jay were in for a rude awakening when Lloyd practically dove back into the tent to reach the source of the noise. Their cries at being woken by a blond scrambling over the top of them also awoke Wu and Garmadon from their own tent, and they all watched as the Green Ninja dug through the pile of objects he had pulled out of his gi's secret pockets to sleep more comfortably.

Lloyd paid them no mind as he finally found the source of the noise and stared at it in shock.

It was his phone! His phone was giving off cheerful pings and vibrating to let him know he had missed calls and messages.

That shouldn't be possible. His phone hadn't worked since he'd been dimensionally displaced, and this was not Ninjago.

Yet in his hand he could see notifications that he had over fifty missed calls and just as many unread messages from his worried friends and family, all asking things like 'Where are you?' 'What happened?' and 'Are you hurt?'

He could only stare at it in incomprehension as his mind tried to figure out how it was working.

Wait! Who Cares! It's Working!

The second that thought registered, Lloyd rushed to unlock the phone, hit a number on speed dial, and held it with bated breath as his ringtone played, "Jump up, kick back, whip around and spin~"

Those watching were shocked when they saw the call get answered, and Lloyd's face split into a massive grin.

"Luh-Loyd?!"

Chapter Text

Movie Ninjago

Everyone crowded in an observation room, looking over Dr. Gary and his workers wearing hazmat suits put the finishing touches on his prototype portal through the heavy glass. You know, in case the whole thing exploded.

Garmadon had not been happy that they had insisted he and the other slime-covered ninja use the facility's showers to clean up before viewing it, but when Koko (who had come straight there after work) put her foot down he complied.

Now, a freshly clean Lloyd found himself once again sitting on Kai's lap while he and the others watched the final preparations being made.

Said Fire Ninja was cuddling him like a little kid would hug a teddy bear while watching a horror movie. "Oh man," he said in both worry and anticipation as the activation grew closer. "I hope this thing works."

Jay was rapidly twisting his Rubix cube in his hands in an attempt to work off his nervous energy. "What if it doesn't?" he asked, spinning the top section with no regard for matching the colors. "What if they turn it on and nothing happens? What if it goes to the wrong world? What if it pulls our Lloyd in and he comes back inside out! What if it explodes? What if-?"

He was cut off when Garmadon reached over and slapped a hand over his mouth. "That. Isn't. Helping!" he said through clenched teeth, just as worried as the rest of them.

Jay trembled slightly under the former warlord's glare, and Cole reached over to rub his back comfortingly.

"It'll work," said Nya in confidence they all knew she didn't feel. "It has to."

"Actually," said Zane. "The odds of it working are-"

"Never tell me the odds!" Garmadon snapped, only to look chagrined when Koko sent him a sharp look for his tone. Seeing this, her expression softened, and she reached over to hold his hand in hers. He clutched it both of his right hands like a lifeline.

"Still, do remember it is a test, whether it works or not, it is just the first step in the right direction," said Master Wu, reminding them all that the odds this would get their Lloyd back to them right away were slim.

Garmadon growled at his words, but Koko squeezing his one of his hands kept him silent. For all his pushing, demands, and bluster, even he knew science took time to work, especially in new fields like this. It didn't mean he wouldn't try to hurry it along as much a possible though.

Throughout it all, Lloyd remained silent as he watched the progress of his way home.

At last, it seemed the final preparations had been made, and Dr. Gary stood nervously before the portal and turned on a microphone so they could hear him from the observing room.

"Uh," he said, looking like he wanted to give a grand speech about his creation while struck with stage fright. "Today we may make history as the first in Ninjago to successfully create-"

"GET ON WITH IT ALREADY!" Garmadon shouted through his own microphone connected to the speakers in the lab. The feedback from his shout making everyone wince and clap their hands over their ears. Down in the lab, a scientist jolted at the sound and unbeknownst to him, his movement knocked a mug of coffee off a nearby table and spilled its contents to the floor, its contents slowly leaking towards nearby wires.

Dr. Gary let out a disappointed cough, but nodded and waved for another scientist to start up the machine.

The observing ninja all sat with bated breath as a discharge of electricity shot through the machinery and the portal sparked and shook despite being bolted to the floor. Then, there was a burst of light, and a swirling blue glow appeared in the center of it.

Starting at the swirling vortex, Dr. Gary picked up the microphone again, and said, "Lord Garmadon, using comparisons of your son's DNA and his counterparts, we managed to isolate what made his unique and used that to pinpoint his location. If all has been done correctly, this opening, wherever it leads, has your son on the other side."

Garmadon stared at the vortex in awe, before asking, "Can we go through it?"

Dr. Gary nodded to another member of his team hesitantly approached the portal with a wooden broom held out in front of him.

"A broom?" Garmadon grumbled to the others. "All the funding I give them, and they're testing it with a broom?"

"Better a broom than a person," said Jay.

"It is made of organic matter," added Zane. "Damage caused to it would show if the portal is hazardous to such."

However, it looked like the broom worked just fine to test the danger, as the second the bristles touched the vortex they caught fire forcing the scientist to drop the cleaning tool and another to hurry over with a fire extinguisher.

Dr. Gary winced at the sight. "Unfortunately, my lord, it seems we will need to do further testing before anyone may pass through safely."

"Then how do we even know if it worked?" demanded Garmadon through the microphone.

On cue, a melody began playing out of Garmadon's pocket. "That's me, Double L-O-Y-D! My dad is bad, but ya we still family~"

At the ringtone, Garmadon's eyes grew wide with recognition. He never answered a call faster in his life.

"Luh-Loyd?!" he said, desperately holding the phone up to his face as everyone else stared at him in stunned silence.

Through the video feed, he saw a familiar pair of green eyes stare back at him above a wide grin. "Dad!" his son said back.

"Luh-Loyd," Garmadon choked out again, utter relief at the sight of his son flooding through him.

At that confirmation, everyone else in the booth recovered from their shock, and the warlord found himself practically crushed between them as they all crammed themselves against him to get a look at the screen.

"Lloyd!" "Bro!" "You're okay!" "Are you hurt?" "Good to see you!" "Oh, thank goodness!" "Why is it so dark?"

"Do you mind?" growled a very smushed Garmadon, but everyone just ignored him.

Jay even snatched the microphone from him and called down into the lab, "It's Lloyd! We got through to him! You're a genius!"

Dr. Gary looked both pleased and relieved to hear that.

Through the phone, Luh-Loyd laughed and moved so that he was in a better lit area. From the looks of things, he was now sitting in front of a campfire, and in the background, they could all see their shocked counterparts struggling to look over his shoulder too, though they were more polite as not to crush him to do it. Still, they were all speaking at the same time asking basically the same questions their counterparts on this side had.

"Don't worry, I'm fine," Luh-Loyd said. "Everyone's been really helpful in trying to help me get back."

"Not if we get you back first," said Garmadon competitively.

Koko then reached over and tilted the screen so that she could see it more easily. "Lloyd, Sweetie, are you sure you're okay?"

Luh-Loyd's face softened at the sight of her. "I'm really okay, Mom," he assured her. "I'll be back soon, I promise."

It seemed whatever manners the Fire Ninja's counterpart had finally failed him as he shoved himself next to his son to see through the screen. "What about our Lloyd?" he asked, worry evident on his face. "Is he there? Is he okay?"

"No worries, other-me," said the Kai on their side of the portal brightly, lifting Lil'Loyd so he was sitting on his shoulders and had a better view. "We've got him here safe and sound."

"Kai!" said Lil'Loyd with wide eyes and a grin as he waved towards the screen like he wanted to reach right through it.

The other Kai's face melted in relief at the sight of him. "You're okay," he said like it was a huge weight off his shoulders.

"Lloyd," said a deeper voice on the other end in a desperate tone. Hearing it, Luh-Loyd handed his phone to a rather handsome devil that had eyes only for the child. "We are coming for you, son. Just wait a little longer, alright?"

Lil'Loyd absolutely lit up at the sight of his own father and he nodded his head eagerly. "I will, Dad! Hurry soon!"

Koko looked disappointed at that but kept her focus. "Where are you?" she asked. "You say you're coming, but how?"

The Other Garmadon blinked at the sight of Koko, looking surprised. Garmadon figured he was just stunned by how much more beautiful his Koko was compared to his own.

Before he could answer, Luh-Loyd took his phone back and said, "We're coming back on a-"

At that moment, there was a loud popping sound down in the lab. Several coffee-soaked cables let off angry sparks before catching fire.

The scientist with the fire extinguisher hurried to put it out, but the damage had been done.

With a loud whining sound, the portal fizzled in its ring and before vanishing completely, cutting Luh-Loyd's call off in mid-sentence.

To say Garmadon was angry to be cut off from the son he hadn't seen in three days was an understatement. He was absolutely livid!

Stomping out of the booth, he marched down to the lab and towered over all the terrified scientists. "What happened?" he growled in a dangerous tone.

The shaking scientists silently pointed to the wires that had first caught fire, and Garmadon strode over to them. The rage inside him burned brighter at what he saw. You didn't need to be a science genius to know that coffee spilled on electronics was a huge no-no.

Picking up the offending coffee mug, he held it high in the air and asked, "Whose is this?"

No one answered, but it was clear from a rapidly paling Dr. Gary just who the owner was.

Storming over to Dr. Gary he threw the mug to the ground at his feet, shattering it into pieces. "I believe this is yours!" Garmadon snarled.

"Y-yes, sir," stuttered Dr. Gary. "I-I-I'm sorry. I've been w-working on this for days, a-and I'm afraid I-I haven't slept-"

But Garmadon wasn't interested in excuses. "IS THIS SOME KIND OF A JOKE TO YOU?" he demanded furiously.

Dr. Gary shook his head so fast his glasses flew off and bounced around the inside of his hazmat helmet. "N-No, sir. Th-th-this is m-my life's work!" he stammered.

"Then ACT LIKE IT!" Garmadon snapped, looking seconds away from throttling the scientist.

"Garm!" said Koko, having run down after him and catching one of his arms. The rest of the ninja and Wu all hovered behind her, looking unsure if they needed to step in.

Pulling him gently away, Koko cupped Garmadon's cheek and turned it to face her. "It's okay," she said in a tone like she was trying to calm a savage tiger. "No one was hurt, and we know Lloyd's alright. He even said he's on his way. There's no need to get angry when we'll have our son back soon enough."

Garmadon stared down at her for a long moment before taking a deep breath and letting it and a majority of his tension out with a sigh. "You're right, Kokes," he said in a calmer tone. "He's okay." He reached down and pulled her into a hug. "He's okay," he repeated as though to reassure himself of the fact.

Koko hugged him back tightly, and Wu walked over to put a hand on his brother's shoulder reassuringly. The younger ninja all looked awkward as they watched, and most of the other scientists took the opportunity to flee.

Garmadon took another deep inhale and exhale before pulling back from his ex-wife. Seeing Wu's hand on his shoulder, he immediately shrugged it off and moved to leave the room.

"Luh-Loyd'll be back before we know it," said Garmadon, his bravado coming back before their very eyes. "And hey, if he's coming back his own way, we might not even need to bother with this portal stuff anymore."

A sharp gasp behind them reminded him of the last remaining scientist's presence and the former-warlord turned back to look at him.

Dr. Gary stood rooted to the spot, staring at Garmadon with wide eyes.

A flash of what could have been pity shot through Garmadon as for the first time he could clearly see how stressed and exhausted the scientist was. They couldn't have him collapsing on them if they wanted him to fix the portal. Even if it wasn't necessary anymore, letting them call Luh-Loyd to check his progress and see how they could help would be wonderful.

"Hey, Gary," he called, making the scientist jolt. "Take a load off. Clean up's coming so we won't need you around here. Go take care of those eye bags, okay? You look awful."

There, now Dr. Gary will go home and catch up on his sleep and be back in working order by tomorrow.

With that, he wrapped an arm around Koko's shoulder and walked out of the lab with his brother and the ninja all trailing behind them.

What they didn't see was Dr. Gary standing stock-still in the middle of the lab, his hands clenched tightly at his sides.

After discussing their brief conversation with the missing Lloyd in detail over dinner, the Ninja Force left to return home, all of them feeling more optimistic than they had in days.

Seeing that Lloyd was exhausted from the day's events, Koko decided to take Wu's suggestion and stay the night in the Bounty with him again rather than drag him all the way back to her apartment.

Garmadon had wanted to stay as well but knew he had a police officer coming the next morning to check on the status of his house arrest and escort him and some generals into the city for their community service work. He needed to at least pretend he'd never left the volcano to avoid legal trouble on top of everything else.

It had been a good day, Lloyd decided as he lay on his bed in the Bounty. He knew it was probably his counterpart's bed, but for once he didn't care. He was going to see his friends again! He was going to see his dad again! He hadn't realized how afraid he'd been of never seeing them again until it was alleviated.

And if they had a way to this world, then he wouldn't need to give up his new friends and family here. He could finally meet his counterpart who he'd heard so much about.

It was looking like he was set to have the best of both worlds. Literally!

With that happy thought, Lloyd curled up under the bed's green sheets and fell asleep.

However, a few hours later a low creaking sound pulled him from his dreams.

Sitting up in his bed, Lloyd rubbed his eyes and looked around the cabin. The creaking sound came again from outside the cabin's door.

Despite not being the same Destiny's Bounty, Lloyd had lived on a ship long enough to recognize the creaks it made. That type of creaking sound usually meant that someone was walking in the hallway outside.

Figuring it was Koko or Master Wu, Lloyd slowly climbed out of his bed and made his way over to the door. If they were up at this hour, something important must have happened.

He opened the door and looked out into the hallway. But to his confusion, there didn't appear to be anyone there.

Poking his head out, Lloyd called out, "Hello?"

The silence was his only reply.

A sinking feeling began to settle in his gut. Lloyd opened his mouth to call for Koko and Wu, but before he could, someone that had been hiding behind the door darted around it and pressed a cloth over his nose and mouth.

A strong chemical smell filled Lloyd's senses and the world went black.

Chapter Text

World ?

Lloyd could only stare at his phone in disappointment when his call got cut off. That had been far too short for his taste. Still, it had been so great to see his family, even briefly.

It seemed everyone around him agreed on both sentiments if their grumbles and relieved comments were anything to go by. Kai seemed especially disappointed as he continued leaning into Lloyd's personal space to stare at the phone.

"So, your dad calls you Luh-Loyd," said Jay, recovering first and looking amused. "That's what his pet name for you is?"

Everyone turned to stare at the Master of Lightning.

"Seriously," said Cole. "That's your take away from this?"

"Oh, like you weren't all thinking it," said Jay defensively.

"How did the call even get through?" asked Nya, staring at Lloyd's phone in wonder. "What kind of service do you have?"

"Nothing that covers dimensional conversations," said Lloyd, still looking down at his phone as if that would connect the call again. "Jay called someone over there a genius, so I'm guessing Dad had one of his scientists do something."

"Your father has scientists?" asked Sensei Wu in surprise, and Jay moved over to quietly (for Jay at least) relay what Lloyd had told him about his father's employees.

Seeing the phone remain dark, Lloyd sighed sadly and unlocked it again. If nothing else, he could at least look at their messages and hear their voice mails before going back to bed. He missed talking to them, and this brief call only strengthened his homesickness.

Kai seemed to come to the same conclusion and reluctantly pulled away. "He's okay," he muttered more to himself than anyone else, but it was clear the words were a breath of fresh air for everyone around.

"That woman," said Garmadon slowly, drawing Lloyd's attention back to him. "She was your mother?"

Lloyd put the phone down and nodded, slightly confused. "Yeah?"

"Her name, what is it?" the warlord asked.

"Misako," replied Lloyd. "But everyone calls her Koko." He then frowned in worry at the implication. "Wait, do I have a different mom in your world?"

Hearing the name, Garmadon relaxed somewhat, and slowly shook his head. "No, my wife is Misako as well. Though it seems she and your mother are more different than most counterparts."

Lloyd nodded slowly. "I kind of guessed that when you were surprised to hear she was a warrior," he admitted.

Garmadon nodded and turned to go back to his tent. Seeing this, the others slowly retired as well wanting at least one full night of sleep.

As Lloyd curled up on his sleeping bag, the last thing he heard was Kai, still on watch, asking Nya, "Was it me, or did my counterpart have glitter in his hair?"

The next morning had them packing up their camp as soon as breakfast was done. They were all raring to get going as soon as possible.

All but Kai.

"You want me to what?" asked Lloyd, looking at the Master of Fire in confusion.

"Try and call again," Kai repeated. "Just real quick before we leave. You said it might be something your dad did over there, but what if you're wrong and it's something here that let that happen."

Lloyd looked skeptical. "I've been trying since last night. If it was something about this world that let that happen, wouldn't it have worked again?"

Kai frowned thoughtfully. Having grown up in a remote village, he honestly didn't know too much about technology, Nya had had to go out of her way just to learn it, but still…

"What if we tried a different spot," he suggested. "One with better reception, or… something."

Lloyd still didn't look convinced but didn't want to argue with him. So with a quick word to the others, they made their way towards the cliffs to try and see if they could get a signal while the others finished packing up.

Soon enough, only a few small things were left to put away, and they were set to leave as soon as Kai and Lloyd came back.

"It's kind of amazing," said Jay as he tossed a sleeping bag into the storage compartment of the carriage. "Aside from the call last night, there've been no surprises. Nothing can go wrong at this point."

Cole, who was feeling even better that day, froze before he could toss in his own sleeping bag. "Please tell me you didn't just say that."

As if on cue, the roar of an engine could be heard, and three jeeps with uniformed soldiers in them came tearing over the hills followed by a tank.

"You had to say it," Cole groaned as the jeeps drew closer.

"We need to get out of here," said Zane.

"But we can't leave Kai and Lloyd!" said Nya.

"We'll get them from the air," said Sensei Wu, waving for them to pile into the carriage. "Let's-"

Before he could finish, one of the jeeps seemed to spot them, and immediately began shooting at them with rifles.

Everyone was quick to take cover within the carriage and the Ultra Dragon took to the air, climbing fast to get out of the rifles' range.

From above, they watched the procession of jeeps and the tank down below. To their surprise, someone in a fedora seemed to be racing to follow the vehicles on a swift black horse, but that wasn't as important to them as finding their friends.

"There!" called Jay, pointing towards two specks on the ground running alongside a deep crevice, one red and the other green and black.

Unfortunately, the military vehicles below were making a beeline straight for them, despite the two's clear desperate attempts to get away.

"We need to get them," said Cole, who had the reins of the Ultra Dragon, and turned them in their direction.

But before they could even get close, a shot from the tank landed far too close for comfort, and while it didn't hit them, the blast knocked the two into the crevice.

Then, to everyone's horror, another shot from the tank destabilized a cliff on the other side of the crevice, covering the opening in a pile of dirt and rocks.

Their friends were trapped!

When the blast threw Lloyd and Kai down the crevice, the Green Ninja knew it was going to be one of those days.

Having to scramble into a cave at the bottom to avoid being crushed by rocks and debris and get trapped in the dark only confirmed it.

"No, no, no, no," said Kai digging at the wall of dirt that now blocked their way out.

Lloyd, still having his miraculously undamaged phone in his right hand, was quick to turn on the flashlight feature and shine it at their surroundings.

The dirt-covered entrance they had come tumbling through would clearly take far too long to dig their way out of, and with all the fighting and gunfire that had been happening outside, they probably didn't want to go out that way anyway. They would need Cole to even try getting out, and with his remaining injuries, it was possible he wouldn't be able to even if he could get through the fight.

Turning around to see the rest of the cave revealed that it went deeper into the cliff.

"We should follow the cave," said Lloyd, peering into the darkness uneasily. "There might be another way out… hopefully."

Kai, seeing the futility, reluctantly pulled back from the blocked entrance. "Yeah, okay," he said. "It'll beat waiting around here."

Having the only light, Lloyd took the lead and began picking his way deeper into the cave with Kai trailing behind him.

The silence between the two was crushing, and it was only then that Lloyd realized this was the first time they'd been alone together since he'd been pulled from his own world. In fact, the only times they'd even interacted since this whole mess began was to further the mission and nothing else. The thought made him miss his own Kai, his best friend, all the more.

Lloyd knew it wasn't personal. This Kai's focus was entirely on saving his own Lloyd above all else. Had they met under different circumstances their interactions might have been friendlier.

Still, this had to be the longest Lloyd had ever gone without a Kai Hug™ since he was seven. He was starting to miss them. However, he doubted this Kai was willing to give one, and he wasn't about to make things awkward and ask.

"Did you get hurt in the fall?" asked Kai, startling Lloyd out of his musings.

Realizing he had been rubbing his arm again, Lloyd quickly stopped and said, "Oh, no, I'm fine. Probably have a few more bruises, but nothing I can't walk off. You?"

"Same," said Kai, rubbing his back where he landed on it. "I'll be fine, even better once we get out of here."

Lloyd nodded and glanced at his phone.

His heart sank when he caught sight of the battery life. He'd forgotten how fast the flashlight feature drained the battery. Having been wandering around a canyon trying to get a signal before this sure hadn't helped either.

Picking up speed, Lloyd began straining his senses for anything that would indicate an exit. Light coming from somewhere other than his phone, a wisp of fresh air blowing through, anything before they got lost in the dark!

Upon seeing Lloyd speed up, Kai picked up the pace too. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"The battery's about to die," Lloyd replied, still looking frantically for some sign of where they should go.

Kai let out a very Meowthra-sounding hiss as he realized what that meant, and he began looking as well.

But before either of them could find any way out, the phone died and left the two ninja in utter blackness.

"Perfect," said Kai sarcastically.

Feeling around until he found a stone wall, Lloyd began making his way along it. "Come on," he said, trying his best to keep calm. "It'll be harder, but we can still find a way out if we keep going." Whether that was true or not, he had to keep doing something or else he felt the overwhelming darkness would smother him.

Just then, a small dim light lit up behind him.

Looking back, he could see the tiny embers that Kai called when he tried to use his powers. However, they were far too small to provide any light in the pitch blackness.

Giving up the attempt a moment later, Kai threw down his arms in a frustrated sigh, putting the embers out in a rush.

"It would be a great time for my powers to come back, but no!" Kai grumbled. "That'd be way too convenient."

"I'm sure they'll come back eventually," said Lloyd in what he hoped was an optimistic voice, though he wasn't feeling it much at the moment (but at least Kai wouldn't know that). "Don't worry about it."

Kai let out a grunt that he'd heard him and they continued on, stumbling through the darkness.

Trying desperately to alleviate the tension as well as try to make the darkness less unnerving, Lloyd added, "I kinda wish I took more after my father right now."

"What?" asked Kai, sounding startled.

"Fire tears would probably give us some light in a pinch," Lloyd continued. "Enough to see where we're going or to make a torch."

"What?" asked Kai again, sounding even more confused.

Realizing that it might be another difference, Lloyd explained, "My dad, when he cries he cries tears of fire. I have no idea why, but I can't do that."

Kai was quiet for a long moment. "Your world is weird," he finally said bluntly.

"Like you can talk. Those in glass houses shouldn't throw stones," Lloyd replied, still thinking the other Ninjago was the weird one.

He was cheered somewhat to hear Kai let out an almost amused snort at that. "Touché. Fortune cookie logic really is genetic."

But whatever amusement either of them felt quickly died. Navigating a cave in pitch black darkness is way harder than it sounds (and it already sounds pretty hard). The ground was uneven, so any step could mean tripping at any moment. The walls were rough under their hands, and more than once one of them had to pull their hands away briefly when a sudden sharp edge threatened to give them a new cut. Not to mention walls or the ceiling could come out of nowhere for them to bump into, and there was a constant fear that the next step would be met with no floor beneath it. The whole process was slow and unpleasant overall.

It only got worse when they got separated.

It wasn't intentional. They'd been running their hands on opposite sides of the wall, and they hadn't noticed they'd walked down different directions of a fork in the road until they realized they could no longer hear any other breathing and footsteps aside from their own.

Being alone in an oppressive black silence was a terrifying experience that Lloyd never wanted to feel again. He couldn't see anything, couldn't tell if he was going the right way or if he was heading in the wrong direction entirely. He couldn't hear Kai or any other sign that he was nearby. For all he knew, he was about to walk right off a cliff, and never find his way out of here, and each step had to be taken carefully. He ran his hands continuously against the wall in a desperate attempt to feel if it was familiar no matter how the rough stone scraped against it.

He needed to get out of there. He just wanted to go home!

After a lot of yelling and scrambling, Lloyd finally managed to find Kai again thanks to the Master of Fire once again giving off weak sparks in his distress.

"This is all my fault," Kai said once Lloyd reached him.

Taken aback, Lloyd stopped and squinted at the dim sparks in the dark, the only thing he could see that indicated Kai's presence.

"What do you mean?" he asked. "It's not your fault."

"Yes, it is," Kai insisted, the sparks quivering in the air like his hands were shaking. "If I hadn't been so stupid and insist we try to call Lloyd again we'd be flying off on Ultra right now, and this never would have happened."

"Hey, I agreed to it. You were worried," said Lloyd in understanding, he'd wanted to connect again too. "You've been worried since the start of this mess."

Kai remained silent, but Lloyd could feel the distress coming off him in waves.

Feeling a need to fill the silence, Lloyd continued, "Honestly, it's one of the things that's helped me the most when I found myself in a weird world where so many things felt wrong."

There was still silence, but Lloyd could sense Kai was listening.

"So many things were different," Lloyd said. "Even you guys were hard to recognize at first, but after a while, I was able to see that for all your differences, at your cores you're the same."

Even though Kai wouldn't be able to see him, Lloyd began waving his hands as he counted off each ninja. "No matter what world you're in, Jay is brave, Nya is daring, Zane is kind, Cole is dependable, and you, Kai," he said, turning to look back at the Master of Fire. "You're a protector. Everything you've done since I got here is to make sure your Lloyd gets home safe. It's who you are."

The quivering flames began looking like sparklers, and Lloyd knew for sure Kai was trembling at this point. "Heh, only know us for a few days, and already you've got us pegged," he said, sounding like he was forcing down his emotions.

"It's not hard," said Lloyd modestly. "Connecting to people is what I do."

Kai let out a dry laugh, then said in a quieter tone. "But what if something happens?" he asked, fears he'd been trying to keep down bubbling to the surface. "What if we reach him and it's too late? What if-?"

He was cut off as a pair of arms wrapped around him and gave him a much-needed hug. The stress slowly bleeding out of him from the warmth.

"We'll find them," said Lloyd firmly. "Ninja never quit, right?"

Kai let out a sigh and gratefully hugged him back.

They both then had to squeeze their eyes shut as the cave was suddenly filled with a bright light, and Lloyd fell backwards to the floor to get away from the sudden intense heat.

When his eyes finally adjusted, Lloyd stared up in shock.

Standing before him was Kai, only he was now wreathed in brilliant flames that danced around him and filled the entire cave with light.

Staring at his fire-wrapped hands in awe, Kai's expression went slack as something seemed to dawn on him.

Wheeling around, he looked down at Lloyd. 

"It's you!" Kai said in realization. "Our powers! They're from coming from you!"

Chapter Text

Movie Ninjago

If there was one thing every mother feared, it was going into a child's room to find the bed empty.

But that is the sight that met Koko when she went to wake Lloyd for breakfast on the Bounty that morning.

At first, she tried to stifle her instinct to worry. Kai had shown her Lloyd's training schedule and she knew he normally got up even earlier than this. He could have just woken up early to play another prank, or to do some of the said training (which he wasn't supposed to do without supervision).

However, a quick but thorough search of the Bounty revealed he was nowhere to be found, and that Wu hadn't seen him that morning either.

Koko was starting to worry. If this was a joke, it was not funny.

They searched the Bounty again from top to bottom. Then they went over the facility and searched there as well. The scientists there who were starting to repair the portal hadn't seen him either. When Koko told them what had happened, they offered to help her look (whether it was out of kindness or fear of what Garmadon would do to them if they didn't help didn't matter).

Lloyd was nowhere to be found.

They left the facility and searched the jungle outside, shouting into the trees and looking around the area where the ninja had trained.

Not a sign of him.

Koko and Wu messaged the Ninja Force and Garmadon to ask if they had heard anything from him but didn't wait for replies as they continued to look. The final place they searched was Meowthra's Tunnel. The tunnel's namesake seemed to sense what was happening and got up from her nap to nose around as well. They went as far as the giant cat bed, and some scientists went up into the volcano to check there too and inform the workers inside, despite Koko and Wu knowing he wouldn't willingly go there due to his fear.

No Lloyd.

Now Koko was really worried.

By the time the two left the tunnel, their phones had both exploded with messages from the Ninja Force and Garmadon denying having heard anything and asking what was going on.

That was the final nail in the coffin. This wasn't a joke, and there was no way Lloyd would be able to travel far enough for him not to have heard them calling for him.

He was just… gone!

The Ninja Force was already on their way in their mechs to give a wider search of the area. If by some chance he had wandered off and gotten lost in the forest, they would find him.

Garmadon, unfortunately, was unable to come due to his community service duties, but he was able to tell the officer overseeing him about the situation and get the police to be on the lookout within the city as well. Koko could tell he was barely restraining himself from ditching it all together to come look, but she convinced him that if he stayed he could pester the police for results instead. They didn't need him being chased by cops on top of looking for Lloyd.

And now Koko was once again left with a feeling she had unfortunately grown familiar with over the years and hated with a passion.

Helplessness.

She had often felt it when her son was growing up shunned by almost everyone in the city for something he couldn't help and came home with cuts, bruises, and questions about his self-worth due to bullying. She felt it whenever her ex-husband attacked the city, and she was not able to contact Lloyd on the phone due to fighting his father without her knowledge. She felt it after Garmadon revealed to her he was the Green Ninja but had no idea where he was, and he was then missing for over a day. She'd felt it only days ago when her son went missing again and they had no clues as to where he could be.

And she definitely felt it now that the new child she had chosen to love had vanished without a trace.

Koko IronDragon Garmadon hated feeling helpless.

But for now, all she could do was wait and search.

And heaven help whoever was responsible for this.

Garmadon raised his weapon high into the air and stabbed down with enough force to leave a deep crack in the pavement underneath his target.

He then lifted it up and glared daggers at it, before shoving it into his trash bag.

Man, did he wish he was stabbing whoever took Lil'Loyd instead of litter on the street.

Grumbling unintelligible curses under his breath, he moved towards the next piece of trash nearby and stabbed it with just as much force as before in hopes of somehow relieving the pent up rage he was feeling at being stuck here and useless while Koko and the ninja nerds all searched for the munchkin he'd had so much fun with yesterday. Even his butt of a brother was being more helpful than him.

Behind him, the young rookie police officer overseeing the community service group let out a nervous cough and said, "Uh, Lord Garmadon, sir, please don't damage public property."

Garmadon turned and sent the rookie a poisonous glare that had him shaking in his boots.

Well, there was at least one useful thing he could do while here.

"Have you heard anything?" Garmadon barked to the officer. "Has anyone seen Montgomery?" Koko had informed him of the alias he used the other day when she called. It was actually pretty clever of the kid to use his little known middle name.

The young officer actually snapped to attention like he's been given an order from a superior instead of a convict. "N-no, sir," he said. "We've sent out an Amber Alert with Montgomery's description and last known location. Patrols are searching for him as we speak, and if anyone reports in we'll know."

Garmadon nodded and went back to stabbing the trash with marginally less force. This time he only left a dent in the road instead of a large crack.

As he sidled over to General #7, who was doing her community service in his area too. "What about the fired generals?" he asked, knowing that particular general was still friends with the blasted group, and kept in contact with the village they'd created at the landing site. "Have they reported anything?"

"No, sir," replied General #7, checking her phone. "But they're all fond of the Green Ninja from his, Water Ninja, and Lady IronDragon's classes. They've offered to search their area too, but so far they've had no luck."

Garmadon gritted his teeth and nodded sharply. "Keep on it," he said. "I don't care what they think of me, I want to know if they find anything, got it?"

General #7 snapped a salute. "Yes, sir!" she said.

Garmadon nodded and checked his own phone, which was connected to a group chat Wu's students had created to keep in contact with the adults about what they had found, and sent them an update.

He may not be able to search, but he could at least gather as much information and network as many people as he could to help the search.

He would not be useless.

(He would not fail another son.)

Jay circled around the jungle from the air for what felt like the hundredth time, his eyes constantly shifting between his mech's scanners and looking out the window to the forest below, with the occasional glance up to make sure he wasn't about to hit a flock of birds or an obscenely tall tree.

Below him, he could see his teammates making their way through the trees to view things closer to the ground, but as the only one with a bird's eye view, he was likely to be the only one who would see anything that stood out.

The only one not out searching was Zane. His Ice Tank Mech was not suited for picking through a forest without leveling everything in its path first, and he didn't want to become a cause of deforestation. Instead, the nindroid was back at the facility scouring the internet and message boards for any clues, and theorizing and eliminating suspects to who caused this mess, because it was very clear someone or something made Lloyd disappear. He couldn't have wandered off so far out they couldn't find him on his own.

Even Meowthra was on the prowl, her massive form weaving through the trees like the sharks Garmadon was so fond of. Her sniffing always led her to the water, where she would appear confused and turn back to search again.

Though, with Meowthra always ending up by the water, Nya was especially vigilant scouring the rivers and ocean around the forest. However, they were all hoping against hope that she wouldn't find Lloyd there. Being found underwater would mean… well, Jay didn't even want to think about it.

Nya clearly didn't want to think about it either, but considering she was the one searching over there, the possibility couldn't be far from her mind.

"Alright, check-in, has anyone found anything?" asked Nya over the radio. She was already sounding tired, and it wasn't even noon yet.

"Nothing by the Fired General village," said Kai.

"Can you get them to help out?" asked Nya.

"I asked. Apparently, they've already been given the heads up, and are looking too," replied Kai. "Some still have friends that work for Garmadon."

"I'm at the remains of the old Garmadon house, nothing here either," said Cole. "I'll keep looking. Unless you want me to check somewhere else?"

"Yeah, you do that. I'm under the Bridge of Falling Mentors, but there's no sign of anyone here," said Nya, sounding like she didn't know if she should be disappointed or relieved to find that.

"I've been circling the entire jungle," said Jay into the radio. "Nothing stands out, but I can't see anything through the trees. From what I can see of her, Meowthra looks confused, too."

"How about you, Zane?" asked Nya.

"I've eliminated the Skulkin and Sons of Garmadon as suspects," said Zane. "From what I've found, the skeletons have yet to reassemble Samukai after our last battle with them, and they would not make a move without his orders."

"And the SoG?" asked Cole.

"Since Garmadon is in a public area, his distress over these events has been made quite evident," explained Zane. "Considering pleasing Lord Garmadon is paramount to them, Quiet1 has sent out a very threatening post of exactly what members of the group will do if Lil'Loyd is not returned, regardless if he was taken by a member or otherwise. There is even a reward for any member who finds him, and garners favor from Garmadon for the group because of it."

"He might actually throw them a bone if they pull that off," said Kai. "But it'll be better for everyone if we find Lil'Loyd first."

"I guess it wouldn't be too awful if they found him," said Jay thoughtfully. "So long as they gave him back safe and sound… They'd do that, right? They wouldn't try to, I don't know, brainwash him to their cause, or use him as a bargaining chip?"

There was a beat of silence over the radio.

"My bro's right," said Nya, sounding more strained than before. "We should definitely find him first."

"Agree!" said Jay and everyone else.

"But, Nya," said Jay. "Should I circle the forest again? I feel useless up here, and my scanners are picking up zip."

"Maybe Jay and I should head to the city to search there, the generals have it pretty much covered here too," suggested Kai slowly.

"I… Let me think," said Nya. "Are you sure you checked everywhere?"

"I'm sure," said Jay

"Same here. And anywhere I missed, the generals will get," said Kai. He then hesitantly added, "I really think we should try somewhere else."

"I said let me think!" Nya snapped.

Jay winced as her sharp retort came over the radio.

If there was one thing that had been made clear by their leader's absence, it's that while Nya excelled at being a second in command, and was a great strategist in her own right, making snap decisions as acting leader was a lot more pressure than she'd been prepared for. She was handling the position better than he thought any of them could have, but… it was clearly taking its toll on her, and making her testy whenever one of them tried to help.

"Sorry," Kai muttered, backing down so as not to stress his sister out anymore and willing to follow her lead.

Nya sighed, clearly regretting her snap, and said, "No, it's fine. You and Jay go do a patrol around the city and get in contact with the police. Maybe they've heard something that they haven't told Garmadon yet."

Jay and Kai both said their confirmations and the Lightning Ninja turned his plane to fly towards the city.

He could only hope he had more luck in his search in the concrete jungle as opposed to the actual one.

As far as kidnappings go, Lloyd has had worse.

Okay, a lot worse.

Still, being tied to a chair with Vengestone chains in what appeared to be a giant storage room full of discarded machines was not exactly his idea of a good time. It was better than when he was abducted by the Serpentine, and more on par with when he'd been captured by his former schoolmates.

Only his classmates had been a lot more threatening.

Dr. Gary paced in front of him and muttered under his breath about ways to get out of this mess he'd gotten himself in. He would come up with a possible idea, and then immediately dismiss it, and his 'solutions' were growing more and more ludicrous with each one he made, making him even more agitated.

It seemed kidnapping Lloyd had been a spur of the moment break in sanity due to lack of sleep, stress, and the misguided belief that Garmadon was going to shut down his dream project. He also hadn't believed Lloyd when he told him that wasn't the case, thinking he was just trying to con him into letting him go.

Just looking at him made it clear Dr. Gary was teetering more on the side of a mad scientist as opposed to the overzealous but eager know-it-all Lloyd had seen his first day in this world. His hair was a mess, and constantly growing worse with how many times he ran his hand through it while thinking of ideas. His lab coat was covered in coffee stains, and he smelled like he hadn't showered or changed clothes in a couple of days. The bags under his eyes that Garmadon had mentioned were now even more pronounced, and from the crazed glint in his eyes, he looked one wrong move away from collapsing in a screaming fit.

In short, his captor was an utter mess. Lloyd couldn't help but think that if the scientist hadn't, you know, kidnapped him, he'd actually feel really sorry for the guy.

Unfortunately, kidnapping puts a strain on any relationship, so at the moment the amount of pity Lloyd felt for him was tempered by how uncomfortable this chair was, and how he hadn't eaten since dinner last night.

Also, listening to the nutcase's ramblings for hours on end got old real fast.

"Just let me go," Lloyd told Dr. Gary for what felt like the hundredth time, and his patience was wearing thin. "I won't tell anyone what happened, you can get some sleep, and we can work out the portal thing with Uncle Garm in, like, twelve hours after you stop looking like a basket case."

Dr. Gary stopped his mutterings and turned to stare at him with his crazy eyes. "Wow," he breathed in a tone that almost sounded sane. "Counterpart or not, you are definitely Lord Garmadon's son."

However, he immediately went back to his mutterings, and otherwise paid absolutely no attention to Lloyd's suggestion, and instead pondered the possibility of somehow building something that would turn them both into sea slugs, and then dropping into the ocean never to be seen again.

Lloyd was getting really tired of nutcase ramblings. Especially since this was the third time he'd come up with that solution in the last hour.

Trying to distract himself, Lloyd glanced around the room they were in and tried to make out the machines surrounding them in the dim light.

"What is this place anyway?" he asked.

Dr. Gary paused and glanced over at him with an air like he wasn't really seeing him.

"This is a storage room," he said like it should be obvious. "It's where Lord Garmadon put all his awesome weapons of mass destruction after he gave up evil."

Lloyd blinked and stared around at the hulking hunks of metal with more trepidation. Suddenly this room took a much more sinister edge.

The scientist, however, was now looking at the machines like he saw an opportunity. "Weapons of mass destruction," he muttered thoughtfully. "That's it!" He ran to a nearby computer desk and began typing on it rapidly.

Lloyd definitely did not like that gleam in his eyes. Whatever he was planning, it would not be good. He opened his mouth to try and reason with him, but before he could, Dr. Gary added, "Now, the simple matter of adding another code to get them out of the volcano. Hmm, perhaps…"

Lloyd's stomach dropped at those words. He hadn't realized…

"WE'RE IN THE VOLCANO!" he shouted at the top of his lungs, fear gripping him instantly.

He was trapped with a crazy guy in the one type of place he never wanted to go again, could you really blame him?

Dr. Gary jumped at Lloyd's shout, and upon seeing the little Green Ninja began struggling against his bonds with renewed fervor while still yelling and making a scene, some sense finally seemed to return to him, and he waved his hands to try and shut him up.

"Shhh, shhh! Keep it down!" he hissed, glancing behind him in what Lloyd assumed was the direction of the door. "Someone might hear you!"

Considering the situation, that was exactly what Lloyd wanted, and he began screaming even louder for someone to, "GET ME OUT OF HERE!"

Dr. Gary wrung his hands and grabbed a roll of duct tape off a nearby desk, then moved to use it to cover Lloyd's mouth.

Seeing that only increased Lloyd's volume even more as he strained to keep his face and mouth away.

Then, a door burst open, and a guard in a crab helmet stared into the storeroom in shock at the crazed scientist who stood tape in hand and looming over the frightened kid they'd been searching for all day.

The crab man immediately pointed his weapon at the scientist with one hand and radioed for back up with the other. "I found the kid!" he shouted into it. "He's in Storage Room EVL! Some kook's got him hostage!"

At those words, something in Dr. Gary's face shifted, and Lloyd didn't like the look of it at all.

The radio instantly exploded with chatter after people heard that, and Dr. Gary took the distraction it caused to drop the tape, bolt to the computer he'd been typing on a minute ago and hit a few more buttons.

The crab man didn't like that.

"Alright," he said, pointing what looked like a bazooka loaded with crabs at the scientist. "Step away from the computer or-"

But whatever he was about to say was cut off when the machine resting closest to him suddenly came to life and rammed into the crab man, and send him flying back out of the room.

Lloyd could only stare around with wide eyes as the rest of the machines slowly began moving as well, and loomed over him menacingly.

And from the way Dr. Gary was giggling madly at the computer desk, he was undoubtedly the one in control.

"Let's see them call me a kook now," he said with a manic grin, sending in another command that opened several large gates around the room and sent the machines swarming out, and from the sound of things, attacking anyone who tried to get close.

Lloyd shrank in his chair as the madman's giggling increased in volume to full-blown maniacal laughter.

Suddenly his classmates were looking a lot less threatening.

Chapter Text

?

Lloyd could only stare up at Kai.

"What are you talking about?" he asked in bewilderment, scrambling to stand back up. How could he possibly have anything to do with their powers?

"You!" said Kai with an expression like he'd just solved a complicated riddle. "Our powers were gone! Nothing we did could bring them back, and then you showed up and suddenly…" He held up his hands and summoned fireball the size of his own head between them.

"But…" Lloyd said, looking utterly lost. "I don't… I don't have any powers."

"Don't you?" said Kai, raising an eyebrow. "You said your special ability was making your friends a stronger team."

"Yeah, through teamwork!" said Lloyd. "Keeping the peace, being a good listener, just talking to people about their problems so we all understand each other. I'm good at it, but it's something anyone could do if they tried."

Kai held up his still flaming hands. "I'm getting the sense it's more literal than that."

Lloyd looked like he was considering it, then he rapidly shook his head. "No way, It can't be. If it was, why did it take so long for you to get your powers back? For any of you to get your powers back? If it was me doing… whatever it is, they should have come back the second I got here."

"You said it yourself. You connect with people," said Kai, determined to get through Lloyd's thick layer of denial to see the truth. "Even with us being counterparts of your friends, you're not connected to a bunch of strangers you just met. You had to get to know us first."

Lloyd blinked in the firelight as his own words were thrown back at him. "But…" he tried to protest.

"And look at the order too," said Kai, not giving him a chance at to deny it further. "Jay was the first one to get his powers back, and who approached you that first night to talk to you?"

"... Jay," Lloyd admitted quietly, remembering the friendly way the talkative ninja had come up to him that night on the Bounty when he'd been feeling the most lost and confused. It had been a comfort to make a new friend right away.

"Next, Nya suddenly gets powers, and that was after you two had a blast building the carriage and talking about mechs for hours," said Kai. "Powers she didn't even know she had before meeting you and is already using them a lot better than the rest of us did when we first got ours."

Lloyd was silent, as he couldn't deny that.

"And then Zane and Cole got their powers back not long after getting all buddy-buddy on your fishing trip," said Kai, hammering the point home. "To say nothing of the fact Cole's even stronger than he was before. I'd bet the same would go for Jay and Zane if we ever bothered to test it."

He then pointed at himself. "And then there's me," Kai said. "Let's face it, I haven't been the friendliest to you since you got here."

Lloyd partially jolted out of his stupor to try and protest, but Kai waved it off. "I know, I know, you understand that I'm worried about our Lloyd, but that doesn't change the fact this is the first time we've had a real conversation since the start of this mess. And then, the first time we finally bond…" The Master of Fire looked down and tossed the fireball between his hands, no more words needed to be said.

When he looked up, he was greeted by the sight of the Green Ninja staring at him utterly speechless.

"Face it, Lloyd. Being friends with you has literally made us stronger," said Kai bluntly. "In your own words, you've got the power."

The penny finally dropped, and Lloyd had to sit back down as the realization washed over him. He stared down at his own hands in fascination, wondering how he had never noticed this before. "I've got the power," he said in a hushed whisper, finally believing it.

At those words, the flames in Kai's hand flared even brighter without the Master of Fire needing to do anything.

"Case and point," said Kai as he shrank the flames so they were sitting in just one palm. Big enough to provide them with light, but not so big as to set any surroundings on fire. He then offered his non-flaming hand out to help Lloyd back up.

Lloyd let out a breathless laugh at that and accepted the help up. "I'll be more careful when I say it then," he said, beaming from ear to ear.

Kai had to smile himself at the blond's enthusiasm, before taking the lead himself. "Alright, we have light. Let's get out of here."

Lloyd nodded, and they once again were making their way through the cavern at a brisk pace.

Things were looking up, but they had only been walking a few minutes longer before the entire cave system started shaking above their heads.

"Earthquake?" asked Kai as he and Lloyd ducked for cover under a sturdier section of rock.

"I don't know," said Lloyd. "Only the rocks overhead are shaking. Nothing below us."

Kai looked down and saw that he was right. While the earth above them trembled and roared, the ground below their feet remained solid.

Then, to their surprise, the cave ceiling not far from them split open and light began pouring in from it.

Both ninja were then horrified to hear a loud feminine scream come from the opening, and a woman came crashing to the ground, cutting the scream off with a sickening crack.

Lloyd didn't hesitate to run to her, despite Kai's warnings it wasn't safe, barely dodging more falling rocks and debris as he did so.

The Green Ninja crouched by the woman and winced at the sight of her. She was beautiful despite the injuries she'd received from the fall, with blonde hair that had been shaken loose from an updo, and dressed in pants and a loose white shirt that was slowly getting stained with blood.

Was she dead?

As if to answer that question, the woman gave a choked gasp and tried to move, only to whimper in pain the moment she did.

"Hey, hey, don't move," said Lloyd in a soft calming tone.

The woman jerked in surprise at the sound of his voice and looked up at him with bleary eyes. "Indy?" she asked in an accented voice.

"No, sorry," said Lloyd, assuming that was someone's name. "But I'm here to help. My name is Lloyd and that's my friend Kai, what's yours?"

"Elsa," said the woman with a harsh cough (that wasn't a good sign). "The-the grail? Where is the-"

Kai, who had been making his way over to them, yelped as something small fell out of the opening and hit him on the head. A moment later, a large rock from above covered the opening and left them in darkness once again.

Seeing that there was no more danger of getting crushed by debris, Kai immediately lit his hand on fire again and reached down to pick up the thing that had hit him. It was a small and dusty ceramic cup that was remarkably unbroken despite what the same fall had done to Elsa.

At the sight of it, the woman jolted upright despite her horrible injuries, and Lloyd had to gently but firmly stop her from moving any more.

"Hey, stop," Lloyd said, gripping the least injured part of her arms. "You've had a bad fall, and probably have internal injuries. Moving will only make it worse."

But Elsa continued to struggle, reaching for the cup in Kai's hand desperately. "The grail!" she said, struggling to get the words out. "It is the Holy Grail of legend! Water drunk from that chalice will cure anything! Give-give it to me, I-!"

She then let out a heavy cough that spat up blood and practically collapsed in Lloyd's arms.

Kai carefully made his way over as Lloyd did his best with the first aid knowledge he knew to help her. "She's delusional. That's really not good," he said, holding his hand so that the light would better help Lloyd see.

"There's nothing I can do for her," said Lloyd desperately. "Everything I know says I should keep her from moving and wait for an ambulance, but there's no way we can even call one."

Elsa, who was barely holding on to consciousness, once again reached out a desperate hand for the cup as she struggled to breathe.

Lloyd and Kai looked at the cup and exchanged glances. Was it really a delusion that the cup was a supposed cure-all, or did she really mean it?

Then, like a bolt of lightning, Kai remembered what Sensei Wu had said yesterday about something being hidden in the temple. Something old and powerful. The cup certainly didn't look the part, but if they happened to be under the temple now, then it was possible…

"We should try it," he said, turning to Lloyd. "There's nothing else we can do to help, and if she's right…"

Lloyd nodded and reached into his gi for a flask of water.

Kai handed over the cup with a weak mutter of, "Geeze, you're prepared for everything."

Lloyd didn't pay his words any mind and poured water into the cup and gently tilted Elsa's head up so she could take a drink.

With the last of her strength, Elsa eagerly drank from the cup, before passing out in Lloyd's arms. Some of the water spilled out of the corners of her mouth and onto her injuries, and to both boys' surprise, the trails of drops seemed to wipe away any wounds in their path.

Sharing another glance, this time in wonder, Lloyd quickly poured the rest of the water on any injuries he could find and watched in awe as they fizzled and vanished at the liquid's touch.

"Amazing," said Lloyd as Elsa began to look good as new.

"This must be what Sensei Wu was talking about," said Kai in wonder. "It's what was hidden in that temple we found yesterday."

Lloyd held the cup up to the light and examined it. "The Holy Grail of legend is what she called it," he said. "Sure lives up to the name."

They waited a few more minutes for Elsa to wake up, but she continued to slumber on. Still, all her visible injuries were now gone, and from the healthy color of her face, she'd drunk enough to fix what was hurt inside as well.

However, after ten minutes with no sign of her waking, Kai said, "We need to keep moving. We can't stay down here, and you just used up the last of our water. With any luck, all that shaking knocked open a way out."

Lloyd nodded and handed the chalice over to Kai so he could carefully lift Elsa to carry her piggyback.

Then, with the grail in one hand, and a fist full of fire in the other, Kai led on through the cavern to continue the search for a way out.

However, the process was hampered by the constant bouts of running. No matter how far they went, the entire cave would start rumbling at random intervals, and they had to hurry to keep from becoming crushed by debris. It almost felt like something was trying to keep them from getting out.

"Two cave-ins in as many days," Kai grumbled as the ground finally stopped shaking again. "Has to be some kind of record."

"Not really one I like having," Lloyd agreed, shifting Elsa on his back to make sure she wouldn't fall off. "We must be on a fault or something."

At the movement, Elsa stirred and slowly opened her eyes.

Seeing this, Lloyd glanced over his shoulder and sent her a friendly smile. "Hey, you're awake," he said. "Do you think you can walk, or do you want me to keep carrying you?"

Elsa stared at him in confusion for a moment, before seeming to remember what had happened. She began looking around frantically for something.

Seeing this, Kai held out the cup, and said, "Looking for this?" he asked, "It saved your life back there. He-"

But before he could offer it back to her, Elsa jerked her legs free and reached with lightning speed to pull a pistol from her belt that neither had seen in the darkness. She then wrapped her other arm around Lloyd's throat and pointed her gun at his temple.

"Give me the grail!" she demanded, the desperate look still in her eyes, but this time with a far more crazed glint.

The sight of Lloyd being held at gunpoint had the flames in Kai's hand flare up in rage, making Elsa wince as she finally noticed they weren't attached to a candle or torch.

"Give me the grail, Feuerbestie," she demanded again, very deliberately clicking the safety off the trigger.

Seeing this Kai held his hands up in surrender, and started to move towards her. But as he did, he met Lloyd's eyes, and the Green Ninja made a subtle throwing motion with his hand.

Kai gave a minute nod and threw the grail into the air.

With her eyes fixed on the chalice, Elsa let go of Lloyd and reached up to catch it.

But having the gun away from his head was all Lloyd needed, and he burst into his spinjitzu tornado and sent Elsa flying.

The gun flew from her hand and she crashed into a wall, unconscious once more.

Lloyd, meanwhile, came out of his tornado in time to catch the grail, and the two looked down at their attacker.

"You know, I was going to give her back the cup if she hadn't gone all crazy," said Kai dryly.

Lloyd nodded in agreement and pocketed the cup. Untying one of the sashes from his uniform, Lloyd tied Elsa's hands behind her back and hefted her over his shoulder. "Crazy or not, we can't just leave her here," he said to Kai's bewildered look. "We'll dump her at the cave entrance when we find it."

Kai sighed. "If we find it," he muttered.

At that moment, the earth began rumbling again, but it was different this time.

The two turned to stare in shock as once again the ceiling opened up above them, but this time several friendly faces (and one scowling enemy) looked down at them from it.

"Finally!" said Cole, wiping sweat from his brow and looking triumphant. "Thought we'd never get to you."

"Guys!" said Lloyd in delight, staring up at their rescuers. "How'd you find us?"

"Ultra Dragon," said Jay with a grin. "Four heads mean four strong noses. They tracked you down once the crazy people stopped shooting things."

"Then Rocky helped me open the ground up," added Cole.

Nya, however, blinked in surprise when she noticed the unconscious Elsa draped over Lloyd's shoulder. "Wait, who's that?"

"Oh," said Lloyd. "This is Elsa. She tried to kill us."

"And you're still carrying her, why?" asked Garmadon, glaring down at the woman.

"Can't just leave her here," Lloyd said again.

Sensei Wu chuckled at that, and Garmadon shook his head and grumbled about foolhardy heroes.

Zane's eyes widened when he took in the sight of Kai's still flaming fist. "Your powers are back!"

Kai grinned and made the flames grow brighter and dance around him. "Sure did," he said. "And I've figured out the cause! Get us out of here so I can tell you!"

The others' eyes widened, and they left the side of the hole in a mad scramble to get a rope to pull them up.

As he watched Garmadon pull away from the hole, a thought occurred to Lloyd, and he pulled the Holy Grail back out to examine it.

"Kai," he said slowly, drawing the Fire Ninja's attention. "What did Elsa say about the cup? That it cures anything? Do you think she meant anything-anything? Even things with no cure?"

Kai stared at him puzzled before he realized what Lloyd was getting at, and his eyes widened. He looked up out of the hole and then back at the cup. "He'd never be able to accept it if we offered," he said, not dismissing the idea, but recognizing problems with it. "And he'd never let us get close enough to try."

Lloyd frowned thoughtfully, before pocketing the cup once again. "I can think of someone who might."

Chapter Text

Movie Ninjago

The citizens of Ninjago City were startled from their daily lives when an old but familiar siren began blaring through the streets and filled them with confusion.

It wasn't the standard siren for whatever new bad guy decided to try their hand against the Ninja Force, but one they hoped to never hear again.

The Garmadon Attack Siren. The one that warned them all to duck and cover because the warlord was launching another attack on the city.

And no one was more surprised to hear it than Garmadon himself.

"What the heck?" he asked, storming over to the rookie officer overseeing the community service crew as the siren continued. "How can I be attacking the city? I'm right here!" He waved his four arms in the officer's face. "Not conquering anything except litter."

The officer stared up at him in bewilderment. "Er, I'm not sure, sir," he said. He then reached for his radio, and said, "Uh, why is the siren going off, Lord Garmadon is right next to me."

Whatever the rookie heard in response had him frown, and he reached over and pinched one of Garmadon's many arms.

"YEE-OUCH!" Garmadon yelped, jumping away from him, rubbing the forming bruise and glaring.

"Yes, sir, it's the real Garmadon, not a robot double. He claims to have no idea what is going on either," said the rookie, still sending a suspicious look at the former warlord.

"That's because I don't!" Garmadon insisted. "I already have enough problems with the kid missing. Not to mention, if I went back on my word, my ex and son would kill me." He shuddered at the very thought and stepped back a bit. "You know what, I'm going to call my ex-wife and make sure she knows this isn't me."

He pulled out his phone and called. He then had to hold the device as far from his ear as possible as worried shouts began blaring out of it, and were only quieted when Garmadon protested his innocence and showed through the video he was still clearing trash by the road.

Now convinced, the rookie officer seemed more sympathetic, but said, "Well, if it's not you causing this, than who is?"

General #7 came rushing over at that moment. "Sir!" she said. "They've found the kid! The kook that nabbed him holed up in the old vehicle storage room, and now has hacked every mech in the volcano!"

"So he's the one attacking?" asked the officer.

"Looks like it," the general replied.

"Kook?" Garmadon asked with a frown, his mind racing. His eyes then widened in realization. "Gary!"

"I have to say, I did not miss these things!" Jay called over the radio as he began blasting Garmadon's old attack planes out of the air.

It hadn't been long after the alarm had started sounding that several unmanned planes and mechs started spilling out of the volcano. Most continued hovering around the lava-spewing mountain to guard it, while the rest started swarming towards the city and causing a panic.

"Same here," Kai replied as he turned his mech's flamethrowers at the nearest crab crawler mech, only for it to scuttle out of the way at the last second. "How is it they're actually harder to smash when they don't even have pilots?"

"It's like playing a video game against a computer," Jay replied. "Or playing chess against Zane. It's always harder than beating someone else."

"Good point," Kai said. "At least it's not like playing chess against Lloyd, that'd be impossible. Still, we could really use some back up here, sis."

"We're on our way," said Nya in reply. "We'll there in just a minute. Just hold them off as best you can."

"It's not like we have a choice," said Jay in reply, zapping more planes out of the air.

Kai mumbled a confirmation but kept his focus on the task at hand. Now he was really grateful he and Jay had decided to try patrolling the city. If they'd still been way out in the jungle when this happened things would be a lot worse.

"Does Garmadon have any way to shut those things down?" asked Cole, who was the farthest out, and would likely be the last to get there, something he was clearly not happy about from his tone.

"I asked if his equipment has an override code, but he says they do not," replied Zane. "He was not even aware they could operate without pilots."

"What about Lil'Loyd?" asked Nya, worry evident in her voice. "Has anyone heard about him."

"Just that Dr. Gary has him tied up, and they're both locked deep in the volcano," said Zane. "Garmadon's forces inside it have been trying to reach him, but are overwhelmed by the mechanical army."

"Poor kid," said Kai, wincing in sympathy. "He hates volcanos."

"Here's hoping he doesn't realize where he is yet," said Jay.

"Yeah right, he has the same luck as Lloyd," said Cole bluntly. "And we all know his luck is the worst around."

Kai winced again even as he set a crab mech on fire. None of them could argue with that. "We need to get him out of there," he added as he made sure the flailing, flaming mech didn't hurt anybody as it fried.

"That should be our priority, however, there are some problems that may make it impossible," said Zane.

"Like what?" asked Nya, sounding like she really didn't want to hear the answer.

"So long as Dr. Gary keeps himself and Lil'Loyd within the volcano, it will be impossible for Kai, Cole or myself to reach him. Only Jay and Nya's mechs are suitable for crossing the ocean to reach it, and doubling back to travel through Meowthra's tunnel will leave the city too unguarded," said Zane matter of factly. "Not to mention, Master Wu says the way into the tunnel has now been completely blocked by mechs."

Cole let out a frustrated sigh. "It's the reason we never took the fight to the volcano back when we were fighting Garmadon. It would split our team too much, and we didn't have our powers yet."

"We don't even have our power now!" Jay protested.

"There has to be some other way to get you guys to the volcano," said Nya. "Couldn't Zane make an ice bridge across the ocean."

"Theoretically, I could, but with the mechs and planes around, any road I make would be targeted, and if they destroy our path, we'd sink to the bottom of the ocean," Zane replied.

"Too risky," Kai agreed. "What about the Bounty, couldn't we fly over on that?"

"The Bounty is not big enough to carry our mechs, and would not be able to withstand the army on its own," replied Zane.

"And if we just go ourselves, we'd still have our power issues," grumbled Cole. "We can't beat that many mechs by ourselves with low powers."

"But Nya and I can't take on all the ones around the volcano on our own!" Jay cried over the radio. "That's where most of them are!"

Nya was silent for a long moment, and Kai didn't need twin telepathy to know his sister was trying desperately to come up with a plan.

"We have to try," she said finally. "We'll need some kind of distraction so Jay and I can try and get over to the volcano."

"Okay, distraction," said Kai, not liking how much risk this put his sister and friend in, but not knowing any other possibility. "What did you have in mind."

Before Nya could answer, Zane piped up, "I just explained our problem to the group chat. Garmadon says to leave the distraction to him."

There was a beat of silence as everyone absorbed that.

"This won't end well," said Jay, summing up what they were all thinking.

Lord Garmadon had never thought he'd actually have to face off against his own mechs.

And yet here he was, giant sword in hand, cutting through one of his old machines like butter.

The rookie officer was staring at the sword with trepidation as the former warlord pulled it out of the downed mech. It was honestly the biggest blade he had ever seen. "Where were you even keeping that?" he asked.

"Can't tell you, ninja secret," said Garmadon with a grin as he used it to take down another one. Not far away, General #7 was using a harpoon she'd had hidden to fight off the robots as well.

"You shouldn't have brought that with you," the officer protested weakly. "It goes against-"

"Look," said Garmadon, spinning around to look at him. "You brought me out here to do community service. Is this…" he cleaved through a third machine without even looking at it, "... not a service to the community?"

The officer stared at him open-mouthed for a long moment, before shutting it and saying, "Carry on."

Garmadon nodded and went back to hacking at rogue robots. He'd been making good headway when his phone let him know of an update to the group chat. His eyes narrowed at what he read and quickly fired back a response before making a beeline for the TV station, leaving a trail of busted robot parts in his wake.

Confused, General #7 and the rookie exchanged glances before hurrying after him, taking down as many robots as they could as they did.

It didn't take Garmadon long to spot what he was searching for. Standing outside a building was a reporter and camera crew reporting live on all that was happening.

Perfect.

He promptly stormed over to them, snatched the microphone from the reporter's hand, and shoved her out of the way of the camera so that he was front and center.

Fixing the camera with his meanest glare, he snarled, "Gary! You lousy boneheaded kook! Stop this right now and let the kid go, or so help me, I will blast you out of the volcano so hard you'll end up on the moon!"

There was a moment of stunned silence as everyone stared at him gobsmacked.

The reporter recovered her wits first, and quickly scrambled back to her feet to stand next to him. "Lord Garmadon, I'm Gayle Gossip," she said, her cameraman handing her a spare microphone. "Are you saying you are not behind this attack?"

"NO! I'm NOT!" Garmadon snapped through gritted teeth. "One of my crazy, soon to be former, scientists has gone off his nut, stolen the kid my ex wants to adopt, and caused this whole mess when he got caught doing it!" he said, waving at the riderless vehicles around them.

He then turned his glare back at the camera, making the man behind it struggle to hold it straight for all his trembling. "Well, I've got something to say to you, Gary! So you better listen good!"

"Uh, boss," said General #7. "How do you even know he's listening?"

But even as she said that the mechs attacking the city started slowly turning and facing the direction Garmadon was standing.

Seeing this, the four-armed man grinned viciously. "Oh, he's listening," he said maliciously. He then paused and glanced down Gayle beside him, and added, "General #7, please take the camera from the man so that the officer can escort him and the nice lady to safety. This is about to get good."

The general quickly complied and the cameraman bolted, but Gayle Gossip was undeterred. "Are you kidding?" she asked. "Reporting on this will make my career! I'm not going anywhere!"

Garmadon eyed her with a raised eyebrow, and said, "I knew I liked your broadcasts for a reason. Better get your censor beeper ready, 'cause I'm using all the four-letter words!"

The rookie officer sighed, knowing he couldn't leave the woman on her own with two former bad guys, one of whom seemed to be set on baiting the mad scientist attacking them. He readied his taser rod in resignation and prepared for whatever came next.

As the robots began paying more and more attention to them, Garmadon turned back to the camera and said, "Now, as I was saying…"

Nya had to switch Garmadon's broadcast off after the first minute and shuddered. That had been something she would never unhear.

To distract herself, she turned her attention to making sure her mech continued its path smoothly and silently beneath the waves. So far, it seemed Garmadon's distraction had worked. All her teammates were reporting that the machines were now far easier to attack from how distracted Dr. Gary must be, allowing her and Jay to attempt to sneak past them from beneath the sea and above the clouds.

Finally, something was going as planned!

Nya quickly shook the thought away as quickly as it appeared in her head. She did not want to jinx this. Both the city and the life of a child depends on this. It had to work!

Until it didn't.

"Wait! What!?" came a surprised shout from her brother.

"Not that thing again!" said Cole.

"Do not let it past!" said Zane, and there was the sound of them blasting whatever they were so distressed about.

Nya started to ask what was going on, but then things got even worse.

"I've been spotted!" Jay called over the radio even though they were both only halfway to the volcano.

Nya opened her mouth to try and tell him to pull back and let her handle this, but several pairs of glowing red eyes caught her attention out her windshield, and she looked out to see several barracuda shaped submarines circling her in the water.

"I've been spotted too!" she said. "Prepare for combat!"

She grabbed her controls and got ready to fight, but like the fish they were based on, the barracuda submarines shot through the water at lightning-fast speed, and slammed into her mech, jostling her from the pilot seat, and knocked her against the controls.

Immediately, the sound of Garmadon's broadcast started up again, only this time, instead of yelling obscenities, he was demanding whatever mech had grabbed him to let him go. It was clear from the way his shouts faded away that he had been captured and was being taken to the volcano.

She'd jinxed it after all.

Nya gritted her teeth and grabbed her controls to fight against the submarines.

She was not going to give up without a fight!

After trying furiously to get free, Garmadon could only scowl with his all his arms crossed as he was carried clenched in a giant fist back towards his volcano.

Between him, General #7 and the police officer they'd managed to fend off any machines that came their way while Garmadon ranted his fury into the camera, fueled by questions from Gayle.

But then the jerk sent out the big guns.

His last Shark Mech. The one he'd used that was so strong it forced his son to use the Ultimate Weapon just to try and defeat him, but Meowthra had never gone after that particular mech. Him, his back up, and even the little ninja nerds had been no match for it.

Awesome as it is, he was starting to regret having his scientists make it so strong.

With a sigh, he uncrossed one set of his arms and looked down at his cell phone. From the looks of things, three of the ninja were trapped on land, Koko and Wu were on their way on the Destiny's Bounty, but for as awesome as Koko was, he didn't know what she could do at this point, and the two who had been trying to sneak by were stuck in fights both above and below him. It looked like if the two sneaks could just break through their battles they might get somewhere but as it was, and he was in no position to help either of them.

Garmadon sighed and leaned his elbow against the side of the fist he was trapped in. "We're going to need a better distraction," he grumbled to himself.

At that exact moment, a glowing circle appeared in the air in front of them, and a GIANT FOUR-HEADED DRAGON shot through it.

Garmadon stared at it slack-jawed before his face split into a grin. "That'll work!"

Chapter Text

Indiana Jones' World

Dr. Indiana Jones could only stare at the sight before him.

Tied up in a rope and propped against the side of a cliff was the very woman he'd seen fall to her death earlier that day.

Only now, here she was, perfectly fine aside from being unconscious and wrapped from head to toe in rope.

Belatedly, he remembered that the Holy Grail had fallen in after her, and that would explain her survival, but still, this was not what he'd been expecting when he and his companions saw a flare signaling for help.

Seeing a note pinned to the front of Elsa's bindings, Indiana reached down to pull it free and had to laugh at its contents.

'Crazy lady, proceed with caution!'

He then frowned and searched for a signature, but found none. Just little doodles in the shape of five dragon heads and one phoenix.

Still, it got his mind wondering. Who could possibly have done this?

... And where was the grail?

Lloyd fidgeted under the weight of the sheer amount of gazes he was under.

"Wait! So our powers returning came from you!" Jay shouted after he'd heard the explanation

Lloyd let out a soft chuckle and rubbed his arm sheepishly. "It looks like it," he admitted.

Everyone stared at him flummoxed at this new information with the exceptions of Kai, who told the story, and Sensei Wu. "I was starting to suspect as much," the teacher admitted. "But I was not sure."

"That is so COOL!" Jay cheered, never one to be quiet for long.

Zane cupped his chin thoughtfully and said, "Thinking back, it seems so obvious in retrospect. Each of our powers returned after a sufficient amount of bonding took place between us. I simply never suspected you were the cause due to your insistence of being powerless."

"I swear I had no idea before now," Lloyd said, hoping they didn't think he'd been lying. "I was so sure I didn't have any powers. My team all got their powers at the same time after we'd been friends for years, so we never noticed anything like this happening before."

"I can see how it would be easily overlooked," said Zane, sending him a reassuring smile. "But I am grateful for it nonetheless."

"He's right," piped up Nya. "We would have been toast so many times if it weren't for you here. You've indirectly saved our lives so many times this whole mess."

Lloyd blushed and looked away, feeling embarrassed and pleased.

"This just explains so much!" said Cole, looking relieved the mystery was finally solved. "I knew there was no way I could lift the city on my own." He glanced over at Lloyd and grinned. "Whatever friendship juice you've been giving us, it's really strong."

That pulled Lloyd from his embarrassment. "Friendship juice?" he had to ask incredulously.

Kai laughed at the look on his face. Slapping Lloyd on the shoulder he said, "Face it, kid, you're the literal embodiment of 'The Power of Friendship'. They should make a kids show about you."

Lloyd grimaced at that, both for how cheesy it was and at the fact that several producers had, in fact, approached him to make TV shows about his life. He's turned them all down hard, his fans were crazy enough as it is.

As the teenagers continued to talk about their new discovery, Garmadon scowled at them from the outside of their group. He finally had the answers he'd wanted, and he did not like what they implied for him.

If this Lloyd could truly boost the powers of all the ninja to the level that Cole had displayed, then it would only spell trouble for him in the future.

He tightened his grip on his Mega Weapon as he eyed the Green Ninja with a newfound weariness. It seemed his attempts at sabotage would now have to extend to him as well as his son to ensure the final battle never came to pass.

Sensei Wu saw his brother sulking, but made no comment for fear of spoiling the good mood they were all in, and silently vowed to keep a closer eye on him.

Lloyd finally shook off their praise and ducked into the carriage plug his phone into the carriage to recharge it.

Only for the entire carriage to shake and make him miss the plug.

Lloyd frowned slightly. Plugging in his cell phone to recharge should have been an easy thing, but with the way, the carriage kept rocking from the Ultra Dragon's movements, getting the cord plugged into the tiny socket on his phone was harder than it needed to be. Finally, he got it in, and the screen lit up to show it was charging.

Stepping back out of the carriage, he looked over at the dragon in question. Unlike the previous times, they'd set the Ultra Dragon to travel worlds, this time the four-headed dragon seemed a lot more eager to get going and was making impatient growls and constantly shuffling their feet.

"They've been like this all day," said Nya, seeing his questioning gaze.

"Yeah, you're lucky they like you so much, otherwise they might have just flown off without you," added Jay.

"I think they smell something," said Cole, moving over to pet the earth head of the dragon. "Rocky's got that look on his face from when he smells something good."

Lloyd walked over to pet another head in hopes of calming them down. "But what could they smell?" he asked. "Do you think there's something around here they want to eat?"

"I doubt it," said Zane. "I just fed them a large lunch, and they haven't opened any portals yet to work up an appetite."

The Ultra Dragon chose that moment to let out a very impatient roar that startled all of them. They then promptly began nudging everyone within reach of their heads towards the carriage.

"Perhaps he is simply more eager to find my son than you are since you all seem content in wasting time," said Garmadon dryly from where he was already seated in the carriage ready to go.

Exchanging a look and shrugging, the young ninja and their sensei climbed inside and Lloyd had barely touched the reins before Ultra had taken off.

They were through a portal before you could say 'Ninjago.'

Which is exactly where they ended up when they exited the portal.

"It's home!" Lloyd shouted as he stared out the window at the familiar cityscape by the sea.

Only to immediately become alarmed when he realized the air and sea were swarming with his dad's old mech, and from the looks of things they were active in the city as well.

What could have happened since last night to cause this? Despite the evidence to the contrary, Lloyd couldn't help but doubt his father was behind this. Not with how chummy he'd been with his friends the night before. Him missing or not, they wouldn't work with him if he were about to turn evil again. It couldn't be him doing this.

Could it?

Despite his doubts, that piercing fear he'd felt when he'd first set eyes on his father's counterpart began to resurface.

"I'm guessing this isn't a good thing," said Jay, staring out at the fleet of planes.

"Gee, ya think?" asked Cole sarcastically.

"I don't understand," said Lloyd, still staring out the window with a lost expression. "Things were fine last night, what could have…"

His eyes then widened. "Jay!" he said.

Jay turned around to look at him confused. "What?" he asked.

"Not you, JAY!" Lloyd said, pointing out the window.

They all looked out to see a blue jet shoot past them as it was chased by enemy planes in hot pursuit.

Strangely enough, all of the planes appeared to be empty.

"Ultra! Fry them!" Lloyd called, and the dragon quickly complied and shot down the aircrafts chasing his friend.

Jay doubled back to give them a friendly wave of thanks, only for his arm to go slack and stare wide-eyed when he realized who was driving the carriage.

Lloyd beamed back, and adjusted the carriage's radio to connect with his teams'. "Hey, guys! Miss me?"

"LLOYD!"

The radio immediately exploded into distracted but delighted chatter.

"YOU'RE BACK!" "BRO, IS THAT A DRAGON!?" "SO NINJA!" "JUST IN TIME!" "THANKS SO MUCH!"

Despite the situation, Lloyd couldn't help but grin at the sound of his friends 'voices. "I missed you guys too, but what's going on? Why is this happening?"

"Bro, your dad had this scientist trying to build us a way to get to you, but he's gone completely loco," said Kai.

"He's currently within the volcano controlling Garmadon's old forces remotely from their storage room to attack the city," added Zane.

"And they've got your dad," said Cole. "He's being held by his old Shark Mech, and being taken to the volcano as we speak."

"He's also, kiiiinda kidnapped your counterpart and is holding him hostage in there," said Jay.

"WHAT!" yelled everyone else in the carriage aside from Lloyd, and the Green Ninja had to cover the microphone to avoid deafening his friends.

"Jay and I were trying to sneak over to get him while Garmadon made a distraction, but… we got caught, sorry," said Nya, sounding ashamed.

Lloyd frowned as he took in this information, and took charge. "Don't worry, we can work with this. We'll help you take the volcano."

"We?" asked Zane.

"He means us," said Kai coming up so his voice could be picked up by the microphone.

"Is that...?" asked the Kai of that world.

"I didn't come alone," Lloyd said. "We'll use the Ultra Dragon to cause a distraction and free my father. Then, you two get to the volcano, and we'll be right behind you."

"Can do!" "You've got it!" called the Lightning and Water Ninja respectively.

"Master Wu will be here soon," added Kai. "We'll finish clearing out the city by then and hitch a ride on the Bounty to back you up."

"Sounds great," said Lloyd with a grin. "Let's do this! Ninjaaaa!"

"GO!" shouted the rest of his team over the comms.

However, at that exact moment, the enemy got in some lucky shots, and the Ultra Dragon was hit in the wing and the carriage rocked violently when it was hit as well.

With a pained roar, the dragon began veered away from the ocean and began plummeting towards shallow waters.

"LLOYD!" shouted his friends over the radio again, but this time in a panic instead of delight.

Lloyd didn't have time to reassure them. "Deploy parachutes," he ordered the Jay and Nya beside him. "We need to slow down!"

"They're not responding!" said Nya as she desperately tried to do so. "They got damaged in the hit!"

"WE'RE GONNA CRASH!" yelled Jay.

"Mrrrow!"

The ninja inside the carriage only had enough time to see a massive gray striped blur jump up beside them when the carriage suddenly stopped falling.

Looking out the window, they could only see a wall of gray fur, but for some reason, Lloyd was grinning like a lunatic and that world's ninja were once again cheering over the radio.

Whatever the gray wall was, it carefully waded through the shallow water and gently set them down on the beach.

Lloyd was out the door in an instant, and the others followed him out to see THE BIGGEST CAT THEY HAD EVER SEEN!

The biggest cat they had ever seen which was currently licking, rubbing and purring all over Lloyd, and he was cooing right back at it and hugging and petting as much of the cat as he could reach. "Good kitty! Best kitty! Who's the most ninja kitty in the world! You are! You are!"

Glancing back at them, he waved a hand at the mass of fluff. "Guys, meet my cat, Meowthra," he said with the biggest grin on his face.

They gaped up at her.

"Big difference," said Cole weakly. "I get it now."

Meowthra only purred even louder before turning her eyes towards the Ultra Dragon. Leaning down to sniff the downed beast, the cat slowly crept closer to it.

The Ultra Dragon eyed her suspiciously, but after seeing Lloyd greet her so fondly, they didn't do much more than blow smoke.

Seeing the injury, Meowthra lay down and curled up around the dragon and began licking at the wound. It was not deep enough to need a bandage and just needed to be cleaned and let the bleeding stop.

"It thinks the Ultra Dragon is a kitten," said Zane in surprise.

Lloyd, seeing that the dragon was well in hand, hurried back over to the carriage and hit the buttons to detach the Ultra Dragon and eject Nya's Samurai X Mech.

"What are you doing?" asked Nya, hurrying over to stand by her mech.

"Reworking the plan so it'll still work," he replied. Lloyd then glanced over at her and Jay and said, "Remember that possible build we talked about?"

Jay's eyes widened in delight, and the two burst into spinjitzu tornados to surround the carriage, changing it once again. Nya, who realized what was happening, grinned giddily as well while the rest watched in puzzlement.

All but one.

"If you would stop wasting time, we need to rescue my son," growled Garmadon impatiently as the tornados began to die down. "So hurry up and…"

He trailed off when he saw what they'd built, and the other ninja began grinning in anticipation.

It was a mech twice the size of Nya's and looked, much like all Lloyd's builds, like a dragon. Like the Ultra Dragon to be exact, complete with four seats on each head from which to pilot.

"I said we'd provide cover," said Lloyd. "To do that, you'll need a ride."

"I've got the blue head!" Jay called as he jumped into the pilot seat on the mech.

"Obviously, no one else wants your color, Jay," said Kai as he hurried to the red-colored head.

The other two went to their respective seats, but then Cole looked back at Lloyd and asked, "What about you?"

Lloyd grinned and held up his phone, which was just charged enough for his needs. "I have my own ride," he said, activating an app on it.

A roar was heard in the distance, and a moment later the Green Dragon Mech flew down to land beside him.

Jay let out a wolf whistle at the sight of it.

Hopping on board, Lloyd turned to Garmadon and Wu and said, "Head for the docks. My uncle will pick you up there in the Bounty."

"Actually…" said Nya as she climbed into her Samurai X mech. She pressed a button and an extra seat popped out. "Sensei Wu can ride with me."

Garmadon looked outraged as Wu climbed into the offered seat with a chuckle, and they all took off without another word.

They had a kid and a city to save.

Chapter Text

Movie Ninjago

Entering the battle, Lloyd and Samurai X Nya started decimating the riderless vehicles left and right. The other four were a little clumsier as they got used to their new mech's controls, but soon they were taking out planes and submarines as well.

But even with their assistance, both the Jay and Nya of that world had already seemed to be turning the fight around. Lightning was crackling through the sky with precise bolts to hit the enemy ships, and the water churned beneath them in a destructive whirlpool. Their powers were back at full strength, and they were in business.

Even so, it still wasn't enough.

"Where are all these things coming from?" asked the Cole on the Ultra Dragon mech.

"Back in the day we'd destroy so many that Dad mass-produced them," Lloyd replied as he had his mech make a beeline for the Shark Mech still wading through the ocean. "He always has more."

Weaving through the mass of airplanes, Lloyd circled around the Shark Mech and saw his father light up at the sight of him. "Luh-Loyd!" he called, waving all four of his hands in the air excitedly.

"Hang on, Dad!" said Lloyd as he continued circling the mech and acting more like a shark than it currently was. "I'll get you out of there!"

"Great!" said Garmadon. "I was starting to worry I'd need to be saved by Wu." He made a disgusted face at the thought.

Lloyd rolled his eyes at that. Same old dad.

However, the first few shots he took at the mech reminded him why he'd tried using the Ultimate Weapon the first time around.

"This thing wouldn't happen to have any weaknesses you didn't want to tell us about, does it?" Lloyd called.

"Well," said Garmadon, thinking hard, "It's exhausting to drive it. A real workout. Honestly, I must have lost, like, ten pounds just getting that thing to the Mayor's office."

"That doesn't help!" Lloyd called back. "No one's driving it!"

"Oh, right," Garmadon mumbled, thinking harder. "When the science nerds gave it to me they mentioned something about the joints. Too much pressure on them could pop them out of place. Hey! Kinda like your arm!"

"Did not need that reminder, thanks," Lloyd called back dryly, before focusing his attention on the various joints of the mech. Ideally, taking out the legs would have it crashing down into Nya's undertow, but since he didn't want to drown his father, he'd have to focus on freeing him first.

Fixing his strongest missiles at the elbow joint of the arm holding him, Lloyd called, "Get ready!"

Garmadon, realizing what he was fixing to do, tensed as though he didn't know whether to hold on or be ready to jump. "Wait, let's not be too hasty! Maybe we should think this-!"

Lloyd fired his missiles.

"THROOOOOUGH!" Garmadon yelled the mech lost its grip and he started falling through the air. The damage to the limb wasn't strong enough to take it completely off, it was enough to cut all power to the arm, making it fall limp to the mech's sides.

Fortunately for him, Lloyd was ready for that, and his father didn't fall far before Lloyd swooped under and caught him on the Green Dragon Mech.

Lloyd whooped as he pulled out of his dive, and turned back to look at his new passenger. "You okay, Dad?" he called.

Lord Garmadon was currently clinging to the mech for dear life. "No!" he groaned. "I think I'm gonna throw up!"

Lloyd laughed in relief. "If you do, watch the paint job," he teased.

He turned back to focus on flying but was surprised when four arms came up from behind him to encircle him in a hug. "Dad?" he asked, glancing back over his shoulder.

"Don't you ever disappear on us like that again!" Garmadon demanded, burying his head into Lloyd's shoulder.

Lloyd smiled fondly and patted at his father's arms with a free hand. "I didn't mean to this time, but I promise I'll try my best."

Garmadon reluctantly pulled back and tried to hide his flaming tears. "You better," he said, turning away in hopes Lloyd wouldn't see.

"Heads up!" called Jay over the radio.

Lloyd had no time to decipher which Jay had spoken, as he had to jerk his mech into a spiral to avoid being blasted out of the sky for the second time that day. Behind him, Garmadon yelped and held onto him again, this time to avoid flying off.

Rounding back on the Shark Mech, Lloyd began weaving around the volleys of sharks it kept shooting at him to attack the knee joints that were partially submerged in the sea. A quick word to the Nya below the water had her attacking there as well. Before long, the Shark Mech's legs gave out beneath it and it went toppling into the ocean below.

Garmadon let out a sigh, sad to see it go. "I'm gonna miss that thing," he said wistfully. "I finally conquered Ninjago with that mech."

Lloyd rolled his eyes. "I'll build you a new one," he said, making his father immediately perk up behind him.

However, even with that mech down, there was still a sky full of them to fight.

"This is going to take forever!" said the Samurai X Nya as she flew past with more planes hot on her tail, and Sensei Wu clinging to his seat in a white-knuckled grip.

"We need to take these things out at the source," said the Cole in the air.

"Yeah, but how?" asked the Cole in the city.

"The best odds of success required entrance into the volcano," said the Zane in the tank mech.

"But there is no way past these things to any of the openings," replied the Zane on the dragon mech.

It was quickly occurring to Lloyd that after this battle, they would need to work out some sort of nickname system to keep all the counterparts straight. Trying to put voices to the right counterpart was getting very confusing.

"There's gotta be some other opening, right?" asked the Kai with his own fire mech.

"I'm not seeing anything down here," replied the Nya underwater. "They're all sealed shut."

"I'm not seeing any either," said the Kai sharing the dragon mech. "Unless you want to try jumping down the volcano."

Lloyd's eyes lit up when he heard that. "Kai, you're a genius!"

"I am?" asked both Kais.

The question fell on deaf ears, as Lloyd was already turning his mech so that it shot over the top of the volcano to give them a view of the magma pooled in its crater.

"When you used to fire your staff, where did they come out of?" Lloyd asked his father as they looked down.

"Over there," said Garmadon, pointing at a small chute in the middle of the bubbling liquid rock. His eyes then widened as he realized what Lloyd was implying. "Wait, you're not going to-!"

But Lloyd had already pulled his mech as close as he could. "Take the controls!" was all he said as he leaped over the side and made a swan dive straight down the chute.

"He is," Garmadon grumbled as he took control of the Green Dragon with some difficulty.

At that exact moment, the Destiny's Bounty arrived on the scene where Koko, decked in full armor, stood staring wide-eyed over the railing alongside a nearly identical Garmadon, the remaining ninja nerds, and Wu.

"Was that Lloyd? Did he just-?" Koko asked, looking horrified.

"He did," said Garmadon pulling away from the lava to fly alongside her. "I have no idea where he gets that reckless streak from. Is it from your side of the family? He made it if that's any help."

Koko let out a choked laugh at his words and looked torn between relieved and terrified for their son. She knew full well he got his reckless streak from both of them.

"We're not seriously letting him go in there alone, are we?" Jay asked as he flew past in his jet.

As the Ultra Dragon Mech flew over the volcano, the Kai aboard it said, "Don't worry, I've got him." Then before anyone could stop him, he dove after Lloyd down the chute and into the volcano.

The remaining three ninja on the Ultra Dragon Mech all shouted after him in alarm as they once again had to figure out how to control the mech with one rider missing, and the ninja on the Bounty had to tackle their own Kai to stop him from following after the other two.

Still, the continued fight didn't allow them to be distracted for long, and they could only hope the two of them could make it through.

The chute was dusty with soot and disuse, but Lloyd was able to slide down it without too much issue. It ended up letting him out in his father's Fire Room, where he still would take people to fire them, even if he no longer blasted them out of the volcano afterward. It was a tradition.

He'd just crept to peer out the doorway when he heard a sound behind him. Jumping into a fighting position, Lloyd prepared for whatever would come next.

Only to be surprised when he saw Kai come tumbling down the same chute.

"Couldn't let me have all the fun, could you," said Lloyd softly as he moved to help him up.

"Heck no," said Kai as he brushed some soot out of his hair. "This is a volcano. My playing field." His expression turned serious. "And besides, my Lloyd's in here somewhere. We've gotta get him out.

Lloyd nodded. "Let's keep the element of surprise as long as we can," he said. "Zane said they were in the old mech storage room, come on, I know where that is."

Kai glanced past him into the complex system of hallways that made up the volcano's interior. "Right," he said, not even knowing what direction to start in. "Lead the way."

The hallways of the volcano were crawling with smaller machines. The scientists and guards who had been working in the volcano at the time the invasion started seemed to be fine but were locked into rooms where they couldn't fight back or undo Dr. Gary's hack. They considered freeing them but knew it would draw too much attention, especially with the younger Lloyd still as a hostage. They'd be alright where they were until they could shut the operation down.

After more than a few close shaves (Lloyd was more than grateful his uncle had stepped up their stealth training after the Meowthra incident), they managed to slip past all the guard bots and to the open roof of the storeroom where the planes had come out of.

Peering down into it, Lloyd saw a younger version of himself tied in chains to a chair while an unkempt man in a lab coat poured over a computer and muttered to himself.

He then had to reach out and snatch the back of Kai's gi to keep him from diving straight into the room fists blazing.

Kai scowled at him furiously. "What are you doing?" he hissed. "We need to get him!"

"We will," Lloyd said softly. "But we can't give the doctor a chance to use him as a hostage. I'll distract him while you get the kid."

Kai scowled but nodded, and Lloyd watched as he slipped silently into the room through the opening while Lloyd walked around to where he would make an entrance.

With the daggers Kai was no doubt glaring at him from the shadows, the scientist was getting jumpy. He looked up from the computer to glance around the room frantically, trying to find the source, but Kai was too well hidden for him to spot.

Lloyd waited until the scientist's eyes landed on him before jumping down into the room to stand before him.

"The Green Ninja!" the scientist exclaimed, backing away from the computer in panic. "No, no, no, you can't be here! You're lost in another dimension."

"I found my way home," said Lloyd, slowly walking towards him. With each step he took the scientist backed up farther from the computer, and hopefully, less of a threat.

A spark lit up in the scientist's eyes hearing that. "Really? How? What mode of transport did you use? Are they more technically advanced where you went? What was-?" he cut himself off and shook his head. "No, this is bad. If you're here, Garmadon will surely cancel my project now!"

He broke into another mumbling storm and didn't even seem aware that either Lloyd was there.

Seeing he was distracted, the teenaged Lloyd glanced over at his tied up counterpart. "You doing okay?" he asked as Kai crept out of the shadows to untie him from behind.

The Smaller Lloyd sniffled and said, "I don't really like volcanos, but I've had worse kidnappings." He glanced at the scientist and added, "It doesn't help that Dr. Gary's kind of pathetic."

The older Lloyd couldn't help the amused snort that bubbled out of him at those words.

Mistaking the amusement for disbelief, Little Lloyd huffed and said, "It's true! The only reason he's doing this is because he's been working too hard on no sleep and Uncle Garm was kinda mean to him."

Older Lloyd snorted again. "This is my dad we're talking about, kid," he said. "Knowing him, there was no 'kinda' about it."

Little Lloyd looked like he wanted to retort, but at that moment Kai reached him, making him jolt in surprise. His eyes lit up in delight at the ninja in red, but a quick hand gesture kept him silent as Kai pulled him farther away from their enemy to release him.

However, before Kai could go far, he tripped over something in the darkened warehouse, and clatter echoed through the room.

The sound was enough to pull Dr. Gary from his rambling daze, and he looked startled to realize he'd now lost his hostage. Unfortunately, Older Lloyd hadn't managed to back him far enough away from the computer, and an instant later, he was back in front of it, his hands flying across the keyboard.

"D-don't come any closer!" he said when Older Lloyd tried to get closer and stop him. "I-I have the access codes to turn off the defenses that keep the lava out. I'll f-flood the place."

Everyone froze and stared at him in alarm.

"I-I'll do it!" Dr. Gary, sounding more like he was trying to convince himself than anyone else. "I will! We'll all be swimming in lava!"

"Why?" asked Older Lloyd.

That gave him pause. "What?" he asked.

"Why?" Older Lloyd said again, trying to reason with him. "Doing that won't solve anything. Why are you doing this?"

Dr. Gary looked thrown off by the question. "I…" He glanced down at the computer as if wondering that question himself.

Seeing this, Older Lloyd held up his hands in a nonthreatening way and carefully took a step closer. "You don't have to do it," he said calmly. "It's not too late to stop this. If you just call off the robots now, we can work this out and I can probably get my dad to apologize for whatever he did."

Dr. Gary slumped over, looking defeated but still having his hand on the computer. "It's no use," he said miserably. "Discovering the secrets of the multiverse was my life's work, but there's no way Garmadon will let me continue the project now. He was shutting it down anyway, and now that you're back he'll never consider going forward with it. It's hopeless."

"He wasn't shutting it down!" called Little Lloyd in exasperation as Kai worked to untangle him from his chains. "That's what I've been trying to tell you all day! He wasn't shutting you down, he was telling you to get some sleep 'cause you've been awake for four days straight!"

Kai paused in his untangling and stared back and forth between the child and the doctor. "Four days?" he asked incredulously. No wonder this guy was acting like a loony. Staying awake that long would make anyone lose it.

"Five now," Little Lloyd corrected. "Plus a ton of stress because Uncle Garm wanted the portal to bring other-me back."

Older Lloyd sighed. "And knowing my dad, he was really cracking the whip to get results, wasn't he?"

Little Lloyd's grimace was answer enough, and both Kai and Older Lloyd winced in pity.

"You see!" Dr. Gary said desperately, waving in Little Lloyd's direction. "I'm ruined! There's no coming back from this! So what's the point?"

"There can still be," Older Lloyd insisted, he glanced over at his counterpart. "Could you forgive him for this?"

Little Lloyd raised an eyebrow, and shrugged as best he could despite the chains. "Probably eventually," he admitted. "I'd prank the heck out of him first, but like I said, he's kind of pathetic."

Dr. Gary looked like he didn't know what to do with that statement.

"See!" said Older Lloyd, drawing his attention back to him. "You haven't done anything that can't be fixed, but that'll only happen if you stop now."

"I attacked the city," Dr. Gary whimpered as if just realizing what he had done.

"Dad used to do that all the time. There were consequences, but we'll work it out," said Older Lloyd.

"But your father-" Dr. Gary started to say.

"I'll handle him," said Older Lloyd earnestly, cutting him off. "You don't have to be the bad guy here. You can still do the right thing and stop this."

He looked the scientist in the eyes so he'd know he was serious, and said, "I'll make sure you get your project back. I can't stop my dad from being angry, but I can keep him from firing you for going nuts from overwork."

Kai and Little Lloyd stared at him in surprise, but Older Lloyd's eyes remained firmly on Dr. Gary. This was his choice. If he chose to unleash the lava, he was ready to get them to the exit, but he hoped it wouldn't come to that.

Dr. Gary's lip trembled as he made his decision. He reached out and shut everything down and almost immediately fell into a dead faint as the weight of stress was finally lifted from his shoulders.

Little Lloyd looked over at his older counterpart, impressed. He had just talked his enemy into submission. "I'm starting to see why everyone here thinks you're so great," he said.

As he said that, Kai finally untangled the chains and set him free. He jumped from the chair and into the Master of Fire's protective hug. Older Lloyd, meanwhile, flushed at the praise.

A minute or so of hugging later, Little Lloyd said, "You can let go now." Though, he didn't sound like he really wanted to.

"Not a chance," said Kai. If anything, he hugged tighter.

Older Lloyd snickered at the sight, knowing full well how it felt to be on the receiving end of one of those hugs. In fact, he was probably going to be getting one any moment now when everyone both of this dimension and beyond showed up.

At that thought, Older Lloyd jolted as he remembered what he and Kai had discussed earlier. Reaching into the pocket of his gi, he walked over to Little Lloyd and Kai.

At his approach, both gave him questioning glances, but Kai's eyes widened as he saw what was in his hand.

"Lloyd," said Lloyd to his younger counterpart. "Do you want to fight your father?"

Little Lloyd's face fell at the question. He glanced up at Kai, knowing his answer would probably disappoint him, but destiny or not, he had only one reply to that. "No," he said honestly. "I really, really don't. I know I'm supposed to, but he's my Dad. Even if he's evil because of that stupid venom, he's still…"

He trailed off. For all Koko had said about him having a choice, it really didn't feel like he was being given one.

Until he was.

His older counterpart held out the object in his hands. A small, dusty ceramic cup.

"This is the Holy Grail," Older Lloyd said, offering it to him. "We got it trying to find our way here. It's a magic cup that can cure anything."

Little Lloyd stared at him and the cup in incomprehension.

Then his eyes widened.

Chapter Text

Movie Ninjago

After Lloyd and Kai had gone into the volcano the battle outside had continued, all of them fighting to try and find a less risky way in to join them.

Imagine their surprise when the machines all suddenly died in mid-flight and started falling into the ocean.

The Lord Garmadon still on the Green Dragon Mech let out a loud groan. "I know what my community service for the next month is going to be," he said, knowing the city wouldn't stand for the mechs clogging up the sea for long. Not that he wouldn't be cleaning them out of the ocean anyway. It was a waste to leave them there, and the pollution would hurt his shark population.

The rest of them didn't pay him any attention and hurried to land at the docking station of the volcano so they could find out what happened. Despite that, they still had to wait for that Garmadon to figure out how to land the Green Dragon because he was the only one who actually knew which way to go.

He led them through the halls, freeing guards and scientists as they went. When they got to the room where this mess had come from, they thought they were ready for anything they would find beyond it.

They were wrong.

The assembled ninja, guards and scientists could only stare at the sight when they burst in.

The teenage Lloyd was shifting an unconscious Dr. Gary into a rolling chair so that he could sleep more comfortably. Meanwhile, Kai and the younger Lloyd were still hugging off to the side, the child looking none the worse for wear after the ordeal. However, the little ninja's face seemed lost in a contemplative haze that didn't seem to notice them.

Seeing their Kai hugging the daylights out of their Lloyd, Jay muttered, "Huh, maybe he is a hugger after all." Hearing that, Kai shot him a glare but didn't let go of the kid.

Seeing them, the older Lloyd held up his hand and said, "Shhhh. Don't wake him up."

Completely thrown off by this, the Cole without a topknot said, "But… isn't he the bad guy?"

Older Lloyd shook his head. "Temporary insanity due to being awake five days and a stressful work environment." He sent a disapproving look at his father as he said that, and many of the gathered scientists all nodded and muttered about how unsurprising that was. Even the Secret Ninja Force had to admit that with what they had seen, they couldn't really blame him for snapping.

The Garmadon who owned the volcano scowled and opened his mouth to retort, but Lloyd continued before he could speak, "Also, to keep him from taking a lava bath, I told him that he could keep working on his project and that you wouldn't fire him on it, Dad," said Lloyd pointedly.

His father still looked like he wanted to protest, but one stern look from his son, plus all the disapproving looks of his son's team, ex-wife, and employees made him cave. "Fine," he grumbled sourly. "But I still get to punish him." At more stern glares, he clarified, "A fair punishment that Koko approves of, sheesh."

If anyone bothered to look at Koko's expression just then, they might realize 'fair' wasn't really what she had in mind from how she was glaring at the man.

Satisfied, most of the guards and scientists cleared out, with one rolling Dr. Gary out on his chair to somewhere quieter.

That was all the local ninja needed, and the Older Lloyd immediately found himself tackled into the center of a massive group hug as his teammates and family rushed over to him and practically crushed him between them. The second set of ninja also crowded around their own teammates to give a big embrace, but only one from their world hung back.

The Garmadon not of this world had slowly been making his way forward, having held back from the initial group hug. "Son," he called.

It was only then that Little Lloyd came out of his daze, and looked startled at the sight of them. The surprise quickly melted into delight as he recognized who was there. Especially, one in particular.

"DAD!" he shouted happily as he squirmed to be put down.

Kai obliged, and the little Green Ninja bolted across the warehouse towards his father.

Seeing this, Garmadon crouched down and opened up his arms, expecting a hug of his own.

'SPLASH!'

The evil warlord sputtered as he received a face full of water from a cup his son had apparently been hiding behind his back. Some of it even got into his mouth, and he swallowed it without thinking and dropping the Mega Weapon as he did so.

"Oh snap," said the Zane with blue eyes.

"I did not see that coming," said both of the Jays.

Sensei Wu looked at his nephew in surprise. "Lloyd, why did you…?" he started to ask, but trailed off as he saw both Lloyds and his Kai watching the now wet Garmadon with bated breath, and glancing at his brother, he began to see why.

Everywhere the water had landed was starting to hiss and let off steam, but from Lord Garmadon's expression of awe, it was apparent that the reaction wasn't painful. It looked like the opposite, in fact.

Finally, the steam became so thick they couldn't even see him, just a small cloud the size and shape of a person stood in the middle of the storeroom.

Finally, the hissing stopped, and the steam slowly began to fade.

Little Lloyd stepped forward with hesitant steps. "Dad?" he called, worry evident in his voice as he clutched the cup in his hands like a lifeline.

The steam cleared, and everyone in the room could only stare in amazement.

Where a fierce four-armed warlord once stood was a man with gray hair, fair skin, and wrinkles staring down at his two arms in wonder.

"Dad?" Lloyd asked again, barely recognizing him as an older version of the man from his uncle's old photos.

The man finally looked up at his hands and stared at his son. "Lloyd," he said. "How did you-?"

Before he could even finish the question, Lloyd dropped the cup and launched himself into his father's arms with a shout of, "DAD!"

The others continued to stare gobsmacked at the sight. "The venom," said Sensei Wu, finding his voice and slowly walking closer. "It's… gone?"

Koko pulled out of the group hug around her son and walked over to cup Little Lloyd's cheek over his father's shoulder. "Is this what you chose?" she asked softly, looking disappointed.

Little Lloyd nodded looking apologetic despite being so happy. "You can still be my mom if you want," he whispered. With a small smile, Koko nodded back, accepting his choice.

Still, in a daze, Garmadon hugged his son tightly, clearly trying to wrap his head around what was happening. "I feel… good," he said, unable to believe it. "It's been so long." He pulled back from the hug to look at his son, "Lloyd, how…?"

"That's what I want to know!" demanded his counterpart where he was still one part hugging his own son and one part hiding behind him. "What the heck happened to you, and is it contagious?"

The teenage Lloyd laughed and disentangled himself from the hug to walk over and pick up the discarded cup.

"Kai and I found this when we were trapped underground in that last world," he said holding it up.

"We think it's what was being kept inside that temple we found," added the Kai he was talking about. "That powerful artifact you were able to sense, sensei."

"Elsa told us it was called the Holy Grail," continued Lloyd, turning the cup over in his hands. "She said it could cure anything."

"Including the Great Devourer's Venom," said Sensei Wu in realization, moving over to embrace his brother too.

"The Great What-now?" asked the other Kai in confusion both at the words, and at the fact that the strange Garmadon and Wu were now hugging.

"That sounds scary," added the Jay with freckles.

"It's a very long story," said the Zane with dark eyes.

"As are all the ones worth telling," said Master Wu sagely, but it was obvious he too was curious.

The Kai not from that world looked over at the still four-armed Garmadon. "You know, you could take it too," he offered.

Lord Garmadon stared blankly at him for a long moment, then said, "Psh, and give up these good looks, no way." Though, even as he said that he looked slightly self-conscious.

Koko let out a chuckled at his protest. "They are the looks I fell in love with," she said airily

"EW, MOM!" groaned both Lloyds at the same time, causing them to pause and stare at each other. The Garmadon holding his young son looked like he didn't even know how to respond to that.

Lord Garmadon's expression, however, brightened instantly at her words. "Right?" he said with more confidence. "Not to mention, he just lost two whole arms thanks to that cup. Do you know how useful these things are?" he asked, waving them to emphasize his point. "Now he can't even do this!" He promptly began his 'I'm-making-out-with-two-people-at-once' routine.

The dimensional visitors could only stare as if the very sight of him was breaking their brains.

"It's official. We have now entered Weirdsville," said the Jay with a nicked eyebrow.

"Wait, is that why that Elsa lady tried to kill you?" asked the Samurai Nya, tearing her eyes away to change the subject. "You stole her magic cup?"

"Hey, we saved her life, and she repaid us by holding a gun to Lloyd's head," said her brother, looking unapologetic. "We only stole the cup after that."

"WHAT!" shrieked Koko, and the teenage Lloyd found himself once again trapped in the middle of a tight hug.

"I'm fine," he wheezed while being crushed between them. "We knocked her out and left her for the authorities to find."

Master Wu let out a sigh. "It sounds like you have quite a tale to tell yourself, nephew."

"You as well, Lloyd," said Sensei Wu to his own nephew. "Perhaps we should go someplace more comfortable to tell it."

"Fine by me," said Little Lloyd. "Can we please get out of this volcano now?"

They all laughed and obliged.

Chapter Text

Movie 

They flew away from the volcano on the Bounty and each group told their entire story after finding themselves with the wrong Lloyd.

After telling everything, Koko asked the adults to step outside with her leaving a room full of teenagers and one seven-year-old to chatter away.

However, one problem kept cropping up.

"Okay, we need nicknames because this is getting ridiculous!" the Jay with the nicked eyebrow practically shouted. As nice as it was to interact with their counterparts now that they weren't facing a robot apocalypse, even having a simple conversation was quickly getting confusing.

Despite the dramatics of his declaration, no one disagreed.

"Well, most of us do," said the Nya in cyan with a grin. "The Lloyds already have their nicknames."

Luh-Loyd and Lil'Loyd both groaned, neither of them particularly liking the nicknames forced on them by Luh-Loyd's Garmadon, but knowing full well that they were long since stuck with them.

"I've actually been thinking about that for a while," admitted Luh-Loyd. "And I have thought of a few at least."

"Me too," said Lil'Loyd brightly.

Everyone turned their attention to them in interest.

"All right, bros, let's hear it," said the Kai from Luh-Loyd's world.

Luh-Loyd waved for his counterpart to go first.

"Well, my first one should be kind of obvious," Lil'Loyd said, pointing over at the two Jays. "Freckles Jay and Nick Jay. I figured we could use just the first word as a nickname to tell you apart."

The two Lightning Ninja reached up to touch the differences he had pointed out. It was just like a kid to use their physical appearance to make a nickname.

Seeing the looks he was getting, Lil'Loyd huffed. "It's one of the biggest differences between them," he said to defend himself. "Unless you want to call them Motormouth Jay and Anxiety Jay."

Lil'Loyd's Cole smirked at those alternatives. "I don't know, that first one sounded pretty accurate," he said and got swatted in retaliation by said Jay.

"It's up to you if we use them or not," Luh-Loyd assured them, also looking amused at Lil'Loyd's naming choice.

Nick Jay rubbed his hand over his nicked eyebrow and shrugged, not looking too bothered. "Eh, I don't mind much. Nick's pretty much a name in itself, and a cool one at that, so I could get used to it."

"Freckles isn't," Freckles Jay muttered self-consciously, trying to cover up his cheeks.

"I think it sounds pretty cute," said the Nya from his world, and her counterpart nodded in agreement.

Freckles flushed at her words, and quickly changed his tune. "Freckles it is, then," he said.

Seeing that was decided on, Lil'Loyd turned to the Nyas next. "Another one I was thinking of is Red Nya and Blue Nya for you two since you don't wear the same colors."

Both Nyas exchanged amused glances and nodded. "I can work with that," said Red Nya.

"One small change for mine," said her counterpart. "Blue is Jay's color. Mine's Cyan, so call me Cyan Nya instead. Besides, it's almost an anagram of my name."

Freckles looked a little disappointed at the change, but everyone else committed the new nicknames to memory.

"And… that's all I could think of," Lil'Loyd said sheepishly. "I mean, I do have a few others, but they're not any good."

Sensing it was his turn, Luh-Loyd said, "I admit, I kind of thought of nicknames similar to his, but it's based more on personality or interest."

They looked at him expectantly, and he gestured over to the Kais, "I was thinking Buddy and Spike," he said pointing at his Kai for the former and Lil'Loyd's Kai for the latter.

The two Fire Ninja exchanged looks, they both had equally spiky hair and wondered what was the difference.

But the rest of Lil'Loyd's team got it. "For their first impressions," said the Cole from that team with a laugh.

"Yeah," said Nick snickering, pointing at his own Kai to explain to the Ninja Force. "This guy has a prickly personality and it took him forever to warm up to us, while you," he pointed over to the other Kai, "have been super nice since we got here. Plus, Luh-Loyd said you're the friendliest guy he knows."

Buddy Kai looked pleased to hear that, but Spike Kai huffed and shot his friends an annoyed glare.

Seeing this, Luh-Loyd sent him an apologetic glance. "You don't need to use it if you don't want to," he said.

Spike rolled his eyes. "Nah, it's fine. Besides, no way they'll let that one go," he said waving his hand at his still snickering friends.

Luh-Loyd still looked apologetic but turned back to the rest. "I was thinking DJ Cole for you," he said to his Cole. "I don't really know what to call you yet though," he said to his counterpart with a shrug.

DJ Cole grinned and nodded to show his approval. Not yet nicknamed Cole looked confused. "DJ?" he asked. "You do music?"

"It's my thing," DJ said simply, pulling out a record to spin on his hand. "You?"

"Oh," said Cole replied. "No, not really."

"He hasn't done anything musical since he left the Marty Oppenheimer School of Performing Arts," his Zane added.

DJ Cole's eyes widened, and the others on his team all looked impressed.

"Woah," said Buddy. "You got in?"

"No way, that's great!" exclaimed Luh-Loyd.

"Awesome," agreed Cyan.

"So Ninja," said Freckles in awe.

"How very nice for you," said the blue-eyed Zane.

Cole looked even more bewildered. "What? No, I hated it there. I don't like dancing, so I ran away to go mountain climbing." He turned to his counterpart. "You want to go?"

DJ glanced away. "Not for dancing. Their DJing and music programs are the best in Ninjago," he said simply. "But I could never apply because it would mess with my ninja duties."

"But if he could, Cole would kill to go there," Freckles pipped up. "Well, maybe not kill, but anything short of that he'd totally do."

DJ Cole didn't deny it.

Cole winced as he realized he'd thrown away an opportunity his counterpart would love to have. Now he felt bad about not giving it more of a chance, even if leaving did lead to him becoming a ninja. Sensei Wu would have probably found him anyway.

"You said you ditched it to go mountain climbing?" DJ asked, pulling him from his guilt.

"Yeah," said Cole, not really understanding where he was going with this.

DJ looked him up and down before nodding. "Cliff Cole," he said like the matter was decided.

Well, Cliff Cole had no complaints about that, so in a way, it was.

They all then turned to look at the two nindroids, the only ones left without nicknames.

"Did either of you come up with nicknames for us?" asked dark-eyed Zane in interest.

"Oh boy," said blue-eyed Zane's cheerfully automated voice. "I have always wanted a nickname."

"I do have some, but it's okay if you don't like them," said Luh-Loyd. He pointed at his own Zane then at the other one. "Pep Zane and Zen Zane," he said. "Because my Zane is more excitable, while the other is usually calmer."

"Hurray! My first nickname," cheered Pep Zane, only proving Luh-Loyd's point. "Thanks, I love it."

Zen Zane chuckled softly at his enthusiasm but nodded as well. "I am flattered you see me as such. It will do well for a nickname."

"What about the adults?" asked Red Nya. "Like Sensei Wu?"

"Sounds like that's already been taken care of, actually," said Buddy Kai. "Ours goes by Master Wu. We do call him sensei sometimes, but for the most part, we say master."

"Any reason why?" asked Nick Jay.

"It's a Kung Fu thing, I think," said Cyan Nya. "He's a master of that along with ninjutsu and spinjitzu, and he taught us all three."

"As for my dad," Lil'Loyd said. "He told me he's giving up his title of Lord, so you guys can just call him Garmadon, I guess."

"Aw, we can't just leave it at that," groaned Nick.

"Eh, there's no time limit on this, so we can just come up with one later," said Cliff. "Unless your dad plans to give up his title too," he added to Luh-Loyd.

Luh-Loyd snorted. "Like my dad will ever give up his lordship, yeah, no, that's staying." He glanced at his counterpart and said, "Though I heard you take a leaf out of Mom's book and call him Uncle Garm."

Lil'Loyd shrugged. "He said I could 'cause we're family."

"Fair enough," said Luh-Loyd with a grin.

He hadn't been lying before when he said he'd wanted a little brother. It was nice to see that he may have actually got one.

The discussion with the adults was less cheerful in nature.

More specifically, there was a heavy tension between Koko and now de-evilized Garmadon that could not be cut with even the sharpest of knives. While neither was glaring at the other, their expressions were both regal and stern as they stared each other down.

Both Wus seemed content to calmly share a pot of tea and wait patiently for one of them to speak up while Garm stood behind his ex-wife in obvious support, despite clearly having no idea what was going on.

Finally, the other Garmadon broke the silence first. "You know," he said calmly, "in my world, your son approached me in regards to a truce. In order to ensure my cooperation, he threatened me that if I did not comply he would keep my son in this world rather than allow him to return."

Koko took a sip of her own cup of tea. "It was hardly a threat, it was nearly a reality," she said in an equally calm tone. "When I heard what his life was like in your world, what he had to go through, what he's still going through, and what he believes he will one day have to do, I wanted to keep him here as well."

Behind her, her ex-husband snorted. "No kidding, one of the first things out of your mouth after we found the kid was declaring that we were adopting him."

Garmadon tensed at her words but forced himself to remain cordial. Thankfully for him, his brother spoke up on his behalf.

"It is true, my nephew has gone through hardships no child should endure," Sensei Wu said. "However, it is not my brother's fault he endured them alone. I'm afraid it was me that trapped Garmadon in the Underworld, barring him from having more influence on Lloyd's childhood. And, I'm sorry to say, I was unaware he had been left at that wretched school until my ninja found him in Jamanakai village."

"I failed to be part of his younger years," admitted Garmadon. "And I understand the evil within me made me far too unsafe for Wu to allow him near me until recently, but now…" he looked down at his hands, clearly still amazed at the transformation he'd undergone. "Now I have a chance to do right by my son. To be the man I've always desired to be. To be the father Lloyd deserves to have." He looked Koko dead in the eye. "Nothing will stop me from being there for my son. Nothing."

Koko held his gaze for a long moment, and he stared back unflinching. Seeming to find something in his gaze she approved of, she nodded and lowered her cup back its saucer. "You don't have to worry about me taking him," she said in an even tone, though it was still laced with disappointment. "When he asked me about my adoption plans, I made it clear to him that whatever happened would be his choice." She looked back up at him. "He chose you, and I will respect that."

Almost immediately, a majority of the tension vanished from the room, and Garmadon let out an audible sigh of relief. It was more than obvious his son had developed a fondness for the people he'd met in this world, especially this woman in particular, and he didn't want to sour his second chance by fighting with some of them.

"However," Koko said slowly. "I hope… you can allow me to still be part of his life. I know I've only known him for a few days, but he's already as precious to me as my own Lloyd."

"He's already quite adored by all of us," agreed Master Wu "I know my students would all be quite disappointed if they were unable to see him again." He chuckled. "And despite his TPing my ship, I will admit to missing him too." To emphasize his point, he played a few bars of 'You'll Be in My Heart' on his flute.

"Heck yeah!" agreed Garm. "The kid's loads of fun to have around. Plus, I'm actually agreeing with this butt, so you know it's serious," he added, waving a hand at his brother. Said brother stopped playing his flute to use it to smack the offending hand out of his face, and the two shared a quick glare.

Sensei Wu chuckled at their antics. "My ninja too would be most disappointed if they never got to see your son again, especially after they have all become such good friends. It was never our intention to keep separate after this adventure, and now that the Ultra Dragon knows the way, visiting should be a simple matter."

Koko, Garm and Master Wu all grinned appreciatively.

"One more thing," Garmadon said, looking troubled and slightly awkward. "Lloyd, my Lloyd that is-"

"Just call him Lil'Loyd," cut in his counterpart, rolling his eyes. "It's easier to keep track that way."

"Lil'Loyd," continued Garmadon slowly, clearly thinking the nickname was ridiculous. "He called you 'Mom' earlier."

Koko smiled fondly. "I didn't ask him to do that," she admitted. "He started calling me that on his own, but I'm happy he does."

"Yes, well," Garmadon said, looking more awkward now, but trying very hard not to show it. "He already has a mother, and I'm not sure… It is strange."

Koko's expression grew colder, and her ex-husband scoffed. "You sure about that? 'Cause Lil'Loyd's pretty dang sure she dumped him when he was a toddler," he said bluntly.

"He told us he has not seen her in years, not since she left him at that school," Master Wu confirmed.

"What?" said Garmadon looking alarmed. He turned to his brother. "Wu, what do they mean? What has happened to Misako?"

Sensei Wu sighed. "I do not know," he said regretfully. "I have not seen her since I told her you were banished to the Underworld, hence why I did not know Lloyd's fate. I had always feared she stayed away because she blamed me for your imprisonment."

Now Garmadon looked worried. "We must find her, then," he said. "Something must have happened to her. I'm sure she wouldn't leave Lloyd without a good reason."

"For her sake, I hope so," muttered Koko too softly to hear.

"We will, brother," Sensei Wu assured him. "We have time now. We will find her."

"And as for Lil'Loyd referring to Koko as his mother," said Master Wu. "For a boy who has been without a family for most of his life, who are we to deny him more of one when he finds it."

Garmadon slowly nodded. "Yes, you're right, Wu. Both of you."

Master Wu looked flummoxed at the idea of any version of his brother actually listening to him, while Sensei Wu just smiled, glad to finally have his brother back.

No matter how things went from here. They would figure it out together.

Chapter Text

Movie Ninjago

Lil'Loyd's team spent the night in Luh-Loyd's Ninjago before departing back to their world the next day.

But when it came time to leave, almost none of them wanted to go just yet.

"You're not just going to leave and forget about us, are you?" asked Freckles Jay as he nervously picked at his scarf. "You're going to visit, right?"

"Of course we will," said Nick Jay clapping his counterpart on the shoulder.

"Can't get rid of us that easily," agreed Spike Kai with a grin. And he meant it too, spending the night with his counterpart's parents… Yeah, he wasn't about to give that up anytime soon, nor any of the new friendships he'd made.

"The Ultra Dragon knows the way here now," said Zen Zane. "And with Ninjago being one less evil lord safer, It would be a simple matter to visit, say, every weekend or so."

"Yes!" Lil'Loyd cheered from where he was being given a goodbye hug by Koko, having been in this world the longest and would miss them the most.

"Plus, now that we know Dr. Gary's portal works, we can contact each other any time it's on," added Pep Zane.

Lord Garmadon growled at the mention of the scientist, who, after sleeping for nearly a day, had woken up suitably horrified at what he'd done and hadn't stopped apologizing since. The former-warlord hadn't forgiven him (and likely never would), but he'd honor his son's promise to not take him off the project. He was, however, being heavily punished, and had definitely lost his espresso machine.

"Building a phone or something that can call them without the portal could be part of his punishment," Koko suggested, trying to soothe her irate ex.

Lord Garmadon snorted. "Not as a punishment, he'd probably enjoy that too much. But he's definitely building some eventually."

"Just don't stress the poor guy out again," said Cliff Cole.

Lord Garmadon huffed but made no promises.

"We'll help him out," promised Cyan Nya, waving to herself and Freckles.

"I downloaded his notes, and we can work on it on our end too," said Red Nya. "Between both worlds, we'll be in full contact in no time."

With a final round of goodbye hugs and farewells, they pried the Ultra Dragon away from Meowthra (who had all but adopted the dragon as her own), waved goodbye to the Secret Ninja Force, and boarded the carriage to fly away through a portal.

A moment later, they were still in Ninjago, but the one far more familiar to them.

Coming to a stop outside Ed & Edna's Scrap N Junk where the Bounty was still parked, Jay asked a question that had been on his mind for a while.

"Sooooo," he said as they all stepped out of the carriage, "What are you going to do with that thing?"

They all looked to see what he was talking about and saw him gesturing to the Mega Weapon, which Garmadon was still somehow able to carry despite no longer being four-armed or evil.

Garmadon eyed the weapon that had caused this entire mess thoughtfully. "In all honesty, I do not believe I will keep it," he said. "Even if my wish inadvertently led to my being cured, after so much time under the venom's influence, I find it, and any weapon for that matter, distasteful."

"Well, we can't just leave it lying around," said Cole. "It's too dangerous if it falls into the wrong hands."

"Or if some unlucky person happens across it and gets vaporized," added Zane.

"Agreed," said Garmadon. "In that case, I believe it best I use one last wish to send it someplace it will do no harm."

Everyone braced themselves as Garmadon held the staff into the air for one last time. "Mega Weapon," he said as it began glowing a brilliant gold. "I wish that the ninja's powers were released from the Golden Weapons and that this staff was somewhere far away, where no man can reach it."

The Mega Weapon sent out a pulse of light, and its glow surrounded the four ninja whose weapons had made it, before rocketing out of Garmadon's hands and up into the sky. They all watched it fly up, up, up, until it vanished from sight in a final burst of golden light.

"Space, huh," said Kai. "Well, no one's going to find it there."

"At least not until Starfarer becomes a thing outside of comic books," said Lloyd.

"How do you guys feel?" asked Nya, looking concerned at how the last wish would have affected them.

Jay held up his hands, and a crackle of electricity danced across them. It wasn't as powerful as when Luh-Loyd had been boosting him, but it was definitely more than he'd been able to do since losing the Nunchucks of Lightning.

"I think we're back in business," he said with a wide grin, and the other ninja all tested their powers as well.

"I'll say," said Kai, more than happy to have his flames again.

"Even with my brother no longer being evil, Ninjago will still likely need protecting," said Sensei Wu.

"And we will be there to do it," said Zane, the others all nodding in agreement.

"You guys are still gonna train me to be the Green Ninja too, right?" Lloyd asked, looking slightly worried. The old fear of being left behind once he wasn't needed rising again.

It was quickly abated when Garmadon let out a soft chuckle and ruffled his son's hair. "Yes, son, your training will continue if you wish it to."

"Though, maybe at a less extreme pace now that you've already 'defeated' your greatest enemy," said Cole with a chuckle.

"The great Lord Garmadon, beaten in a splash fight," added Jay with a snicker.

They all had a laugh at how ridiculous their situation was. All that worrying about some great final battle, only for it all to be circumvented by one small ceramic cup that was now locked up safe in the other Ninjago.

As they left the carriage to be greeted by Ed and Edna rushing out to meet them, the future for them looked bright.

Epilogue 1: Show Ninjago

"... And that's why we haven't been able to come help you out sooner," Cole said as he and the other ninja finally finished telling Dareth all that had happened over the week.

It had occurred to them shortly after they had gotten back that they should probably go help out the poor dojo owner. It was his place of business that had nearly been burned down, and Garmadon wanted to apologize for his past transgressions (which Dareth had accepted, though it was clear he was still wary of the former evildoer). This ended up with them all pitching in to help repair the damage done.

"Wow," was Dareth's response as he processed the story he'd just been told. "If I hadn't seen that other Lloyd, I'd send you all to the hospital for taking crazy juice. But I did see that guy, so all I can say is… wow." His expression then brightened. "Hey, what do you think I'm like in the other Ninjago?"

The ninja all exchanged glances at his question.

"Don't know," said Kai as he helped Jay carry some boards to repair the holes in the wall. "We didn't get a chance to meet him, and the other us's didn't mention him."

Dareth slumped in disappointment.

"We can ask next time we visit," offered Zane, making him brighten again.

"Awesome," said the dojo owner. He then hesitated, and asked, "Uh, any chance I could come with you sometime? A whole 'nother world would be a sight to see, even if it is just like this one."

"It's not just like this one," pipped up Lloyd from where he was using a broom to sweep up ash and dust. "It's similar, but it's not the same. The people there are pretty different, but from what I've seen they're nice if a little nosey."

"Also, we don't have a giant cat wandering around," Jay joked.

"Like a dragon's so much better," Kai retorted.

"It is better," said Cole, quick to defend their dragon. "Without Ultra we wouldn't have been able to switch the Lloyds back.

"Meowthra's pretty great too," Lloyd muttered more to himself than anyone else, but they all heard him anyway.

"She did save us when we nearly crashed," Garmadon agreed from where he was working to help repair the damage he'd caused, privately wondering to himself if he should get his son a cat, he discarded the thought as Lloyd already had a dragon to care for.

"Though I do believe the Ultra Dragon didn't like her much," added Zane

"Aw, they're just not used to being mothered," said Nya as she walked by carrying a box of burned things to be thrown out. "I thought Meowthra taking care of them was cute."

"Definitely not something you see every day," agreed her brother.

"We will see it again soon enough," said Sensei Wu, who was taking a tea break from helping. "We did, after all, plan to visit."

"But only if we go to them. I wish that they could visit us too," said Lloyd, wanting to spend more time with his newly expanded family.

At that exact moment, there was a loud 'THUMP!' which shook the earth. From outside the holes in Dareth's walls, they could hear the Ultra Dragon letting out a distressed roar, and people shrieking in fear.

They rushed outside and stopped dead at what they saw.

The Ultra Dragon lay pinned on the street with a disgruntled look on their faces. All around them, people on the street were freaking out and running away as fast as they could.

And the reason for the chaos just sat purring as she began licking the Ultra Dragon clean.

"MEOWTHRA!" shouted Lloyd in delight as he caught sight of the giant cat.

At his shout, the cat purred louder but continued her task of cleaning the dragon beneath her.

But as she did so, a green figured caught their eye from up on her back.

Staring down at them with wide-eyes was Luh-Loyd, who had been riding on Meowthra and was looking just as surprised to be there as they were to see him.

As they stared at each other, it finally clicked what had happened.

"Ask and ye shall receive," said Garmadon with a chuckle as Luh-Loyd slid down Meowthra's back to the ground and his son let out a cheer and ran over to meet him.

Looks like traveling between worlds just became that much easier.

Epilogue 2: Cloud Kingdom

The Cloud Kingdom was in chaos!

Centuries of prophecy, preparation, and planning had gone down the drain with one magic splash of water.

This had never happened before and was not even supposed to be possible.

The Destinies of those on Ninjago had been written in stone since its creation, only now that destiny had been crumbled, beaten and then thrown down a volcano for good measure.

The monks of the Cloud Kingdom were all running around like chickens with their heads cut off, trying to do something, to fix this, but it would do no good. All of the futures they had written across multiple realms had hinged on the Prophecy of the Green Ninja, but with that fate so subverted, suddenly every destiny scroll in the entire kingdom was useless. No matter what they tried to write, none of it would come to pass unless the person they were writing about chose to do so.

For the first time ever, the monks had no idea what would happen next.

And that thought terrified them.

"What should we do, sir," said one monk to the head monk, Fenwick.

Fenwick, who had been doing a very good imitation of a statue frozen in horror since the entire mess started, managed to choke out, "I-I don't know!"

And considering that until recently he'd known just about everything, this was a massive upset.

Another monk named Nobu offered a solution instead, "If we can no longer write the future, then what we can do now is chronicle this new future being created. The people's destinies are now what they themselves make of it, so all we can do is watch it unfold."

Fenwick gave a stilted nod at Nobu's words, grasping onto some form of purpose now that his own had been subverted. "Yes… Yes, we'll do that," he said, though clearly still in shock from what had happened. He then turned and began walking towards his quarters. "If you'll excuse me, I… need to lie down."

Hidden behind a pillar, the monk who had ignored the scroll forewarning that this would happen, trembled in his robes.

He hoped to everything no one would ever find out who caused this mess.