Chapter Text
Lloyd hadn't felt like himself.
Correction. Lloyd hadn't felt like himself for a long while. He had no idea what was the natural thought, to be feeling like one-self, but as he'd strolled past the Monastery corridors time and time again, what remained was not the hope he had once been stuck to. He began to relish the feeling of nothing new, the same day after the next, but as it did, he also grew wary. Haunted by the fact that most things lurked into the shadows, that most things would not dwell in positivity. After all, that was the entire idea of balance, was it not?
Every time he thought to think of what had been happening in those pasts few months, his vision became clouded, his mind torn down. It would ruin his mood, his day even. So much so, even Nya had to stop the others from bringing up past situations, the colossus, the oni, his father, ... Harumi. Maybe her the most of all. Lloyd started to wonder if he'd ever get what had happened between him and the Jade Princess, how he hated himself for caring so much for someone who so obviously did not harbor anything but resentment for him.
She had haunted him more than anything in retrospect. Even so much so, that it began to pass his thoughts of his father. He had grown to accept that fate did not have anything positive for him and his family, and the wise decision was to ignore it. Perhaps it wasn't the best idea to ignore it, he knew that if he had confided in Wu his thoughts and feelings, his uncle would just respond that tossing those thoughts in the wind, would find a way to bite back. At this point, Lloyd didn't care.
Or he did care. Perhaps too much even.
His dreams were wasted away by the thoughts of how much he cared. Whether it be seeing her, or remembering the faint depth of misery from his struggling breaths atop the hills near Kryptarium Prison, his teary eyes watching as a picture of him, and who once beared the title of a parent, being swept away from his grasp. When he had thought his own brother, Cole, had been destroyed by the Oni cloud, how nobody even answered his question?
"THERE'S MORE TO LIFE THAN SURVIVING!"
And that anger he felt towards this person who did not remember him, this person who in their power had tried with their very best effort to destroy him and nearly succeeded. The person who'd been his father, had been his rock, had been there for him, that person was gone. And the new one in it's place tormented him, to know that he was a mere shell of evil, a mere shell of what he had once been. He wondered if he had not destroyed the preeminent, and cursed his father to the departed realm for all eternity, would things have been different. Could he of taken his place? Could he of reinstated the balance of Ninjago?
It was foolish to think into things like that.
"Lloyd, I must warn you that time spent in this library should be somewhat limited." said a wise voice from behind him. "One should not dwell in the reading of scrolls, and lose sight of the present."
Before he turned, he heard footsteps from what he assumed was behind his uncle. His mother's voice spoke. "Son, I've been worried too."
Lloyd turned his head away from a long silver book, his fingers grazing the linen colored pages with a rueful feeling. He bit his lip, then forced his expression to a half smile. "I've.. I've just been studying.. guys.. I'm alright." He looked at the book, closing it, he tried to grin again. "I'm fine."
Misako plainly shook her head, her arms crossed. In the depths of his Uncle's face he could also se a glistening worry that reflected in his calm eyes. One he knew, his Uncle would dare not pass. If anything had stuck out to him since the fall of the Oni, it could be the solemn-ness that resumed in that man's heart. As time passed slowly, Master Wu did not reinstate or teach them like he had once done so before, leaving Lloyd to equip himself and the team in the courtyard. But even so, things were not the same as they were once, and it wasn't only in Wu's teaching had this come forth to him, in more ways than one.
He knew he had died.
Or nearly died, to that amplitude.
It had been ever so different than what had happened in Kryptarium, which he'd remembered in bits and pieces. He remembered his own elemental power, how it had been a lifeline deep within him, a driving force that kept him off the brink of death as in unspeakable pain, he lay still in the sand surrounding the prison. Like a voice simply telling him to go on, to stay with them, as he heard his own heartbeat come slower, and slower --
But the Tornado of Creation was nothing like that at all. As much as he tried to think about what had landed him in such the unfortunate predicament, his thoughts tried to run away from him. His memory was ever so foggy, trying to think of the weeks that followed in which his mother and Nya had urged him to keep checking in with P.I.X.A.L. at the MedBay. It had taken him even a while to find out that he had collapsed, and went into cardiac arrest following the explosion. But a thing that bothered him more than anything, is how it had taken him overhearing his mother and Wu talking to have found out what happened to him.
He looked into his mother's eyes, as she nodded affirmingly. As though respecting Lloyd's decision, but behind her bespectacled eyes he could see that something was wrong. The words he wanted to say made way into his throat, but it's as though he couldn't speak them. They were null, they were void.
It was like they didn't trust him.
Wu looked at him again, his voice somber. "Lloyd?"
Lloyd's green eyes had drifted off into the sight behind the two adults standing forth in front of him. He glanced back quickly. Wu's eyebrows in a peering disfigurement. Even so, his mother had remained in her crossed-arms, her stern state, something he hadn't seen her do often, or at least since what had happened to him.
He looked at Wu, then placed the silver book on the table.
"I'm just studying.." his eyes became more determined than ever as he looked into his Uncle's eyes. "You never know when.." Lloyd opened the book, glancing at the words before him, "A sphinx may come in handy.." He said, his loftily fake smile creeping onto his face.
Wu looked at him again, as Misako thought it time to leave. He saw her walk out from behind Wu, as though to give the both of them their space. But honestly, Lloyd did not need to talk to Wu, it was something he felt harrow-some about. It was like when he was back at Darkley's, and had been sent to the principle's office, a dark corner in a creepy hallway, in which the Skulk-in generals would scorn him for not being.. evil enough.
Lloyd closed the book again with his fingers, as he began to walk towards the door. His thoughts raced.
"And you call yourself a Garmadon." laughed the echo of one of the cloaked teachers in the corner of the room. "What a nasty surprise."
Two Skulkin, and a woman it seemed, her dark hair down, hiding her face, which was never viewed by the naked eye. The boy had always wondered what she had looked like under there, but her hands, or did they look more like claws, made him fear this situation rather than seek it. He could hear the pacing of someone behind him.
"The Garmadon boy, you say." said the woman's voice.
"Nin" said the Skulkin from behind the boy. "He refuses to even hurt a fly."
The boy, who had his legs pulled up to his chest darted his eyes fastly. "I can hurt a fly!" He kicked the floor with his legs. "I can hurt.. lot's of flies -- just watch -- me."
The woman laughed, sending chills down the boy's spine. He turned, looking up at the source of the callous laughter. She stood up from her desk, the two skeletons bracing their hands around the child's weak and frail shoulders. She turned to the window of the dark office. He could see the shadow of her reveal itself in the distance. The boy watched scared. "Let him plead his case."
The child felt his shoulders shake, as he could hear one of the Skulkin fight in response. "But Nin--"
"Enough of that blasphemy, Gral." said the woman who was turned away. "How many counts on the boy's record."
The boy fought the grasp of the two skeletons. "Just twice! I couldn't -- I couldn't do it! But I'll -- I'll do it - Next time. Please."
"Five." said the resulting voice.
She laughed. "That's our maximum." She ran her fingers to the windowsill, scratching it with what looked like claws. The boy watched in horror. "But if he can be so like his father and convince me otherwise, I could make an exception." Her voice curled. "For the Dark Lord's son."
The young voice croaked. "You knew my.. my dad?"
"I know everyone, Lloyd Garmadon. I have nine lives." She turned back, her face still cloaked by the dark cloak. The boy tried to peer upwards into it, but a voice in his head told him it was wise not to. "Now, now. If you are to fail in this endeavor. I see you no longer fit for this establishment."
"But! I -- I have no place to go-- Darkley's is my .. home!" his voice called out, the scaly and bony fingers on his shoulder tighter than ever.
"Then it is important that you take this with the utmost respect, Garmadon." She pointed to the two people behind him, ushering them to back up, and the boy felt them unclench his shouder. He watched, trepidly, as her hands went back to her side.
"I see you have been too much involved in your 'studying' to actually mind what I've heard by some of your team." pondered the Wise man, as Lloyd was bracing to walk past him. He stopped, ever so slightly. "They've been much more mindful of your whereabouts since what has happened, and they tell me that --"
Lloyd grimaced. "Then, I wish they'd tell me that themselves." He looked to Wu's peering eyes, which looked evermore worried. "I'm sorry -- I mean I just --"
Wu nodded. "I understand."
There was a brisk silence between the two. It was an odd one too, in fact. The former master, the master in training (forced master), for over the last year, and then back to master in training. Time was a price, and one that everyone had to pay for in the result of the blades and what Krux and Acronix had done. He had wondered if Harumi wouldn't of been able to bring back Garmadon if Wu was still master, if he'd hadn't been stuck in that time-stream. But to blame himself for what had happened, that was an awful thought to think. He shook his head.
There was a kind of feeling in the air that made Lloyd feel as though Wu saw him as a remnant of his father. Like a worry that dwelled even in the worst of times, and more so now, following all that had happened with the Sons of Garmadon, the Oni. And to be honest, he felt it useless to confide his actual reason to be in the library, because he knew that no matter what he did, or what he said, Lloyd would always remind Wu of what his father had become.
Maybe it was a blessing, a sign of the good that had been in Garmadon before the Devourer had took it's toll. But he knew by the worried and tired eyes of his Uncle, that this was not the case, that perhaps he feared something. That perhaps would never happen. It wasn't just him either, Lloyd had thought to his time when he had set the Serpentine tombs free, and open, and had sworn to a life of evil in Darkley's. This was a dormant part of him, but a part of him that sulked in the shadows nonetheless.
Nothing bothered him more than the fact that he had the power to be just like the Oni monster that Garmadon had been.
"I.." said Lloyd. "I have to go and train.. Master Wu."
And the man nodded, the two saying nothing more to eachother.