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Chapter Text

When Misako first looked into her son's eyes, she knew true fear for the very first time.

Misako considered herself a brave woman, unafraid of danger, adventure and excitement. She hadn't worried over the implications of marrying and starting a family with a man who did not have an ounce of true human within him, because she was not afraid. But the eerie, unearthly glow in her newborn son's eyes scared her. It spoke of a power beyond her understanding, one which a mortal body would struggle to contain, a being with the power to re-create the world in any way he wished…

She did not know if she was scared for her child, or for her own safety in being his mother.

She told herself it was the former, but the lie ate away at her as she passed the baby to his father. Garmadon

(grinned, a predatory grin, smile splitting open too wide to show fangs dripping with blood, eyes glowing red and purple as tears of lava flowed down his cheeks, leathery wings and sharp, curved horns sprouting from his body as the world warped around him-)

smiled with pride, staring in awe at the sight of his baby son, so innocent and sweet in his arms.

Misako tried not to shudder as she turned away from the monster her husband. She pushed the image deep down inside her, ignoring it, choosing to be oblivious to the terrors that she called family.

Chapter Text

Wu had never felt fear before, and he wasn't sure if he even felt it now.

But to see his brother standing before him, golden weapons in hand and eyes glowing blood red, he thought he might know just an ounce of that odd feeling humans called fear.

Wu knew the power the brothers both held. Created from the ashes of warriors left after the Overlord was banished, their father had created them in his own image. Half Dragon, half Oni. Half Creation, half Destruction.

All limitless power, bound only by their own chains.

Each brother had leaned towards one side, if only to keep their mortal bodies intact. To harness the Balance that their father wielded would be foolish. It would destroy them.

That was why Garmadon sought the weapons of Creation. The venom in his blood begged for more power, and the golden weapons were the only way Garmadon could wield Creation alongside his own Destruction.

Wu reached for the other two weapons, and Garmadon's anger, always waiting under the surface, reached its peak. He lunged forward,

(Wings sprouting from his back, eyes glowing purple with black tears streaming, horns bursting from his head ready to spear Wu with a single hit, skin turning pitch black as he cried out, a primal, guttural scream that would have left mortal men shaking in their boots-)

swinging the Sword of Fire at him, before bringing the Nunchucks of Lightning around in a spin.

Wu reacted just in time, jumping back out of range. The two brothers lunged at each other, minds focused only on the defeat of the other.

Wu was cruelly reminded of the sparring sessions when they were young, when they fought just as fiercely, but then he had known his brother meant him no harm. Unbidden into his mind came the fatal fight, where the katana had flown out of his hand, and if he had not been so cowardly it would be him with blood red eyes and destruction in his heart.

He pulled out of his reverie in time to return Garmadon's attack, sending him flying through the wall and into the courtyard. He winced at the destruction of his father's monastery, but his heart hardened as he advanced on his brother, pointing the Scythe of Quakes at him. For a moment

(He was an avenging angel, wings glowing as they unfolded from his back, eyes glinting gold, claws wrapped around the Shuriken of Ice, each step a ringing bell and he couldn't tell if they were Garmadon's death knell or his salvation -)

he stared at his brother, wondering how it had come to this.

Then Garmadon lunged at him again, and he knew a second before what was about to happen. He yelled out, trying to warn his brother, but it was too late.

The enchantment in his robes, placed there by his father so many years ago, started to shine. He saw the realisation in his brother's eyes as the blue light glowed, and the skies opened. As storms gathered, a thunderbolt struck and Garmadon staggered back, a crack in the ground opening up behind him.

He fell.

Wu watched as his brother Garmadon fell to the Underworld,

(A thousand thrashing limbs and a million beating wings desperately trying to slow his fall-)

his skin turning black as tar as the Oni inside him tried to save him from the fatal bolt of lightning, leaving him plunging into the depths with no escape in sight.

Wu reached out

(With scaly claws and leathery wings and a golden glow, trying to find some way to bring him back because this was his brother, his opposite, his balance, but bells were still ringing in his ears and he couldn't see straight to catch him-)

to try and catch Garmadon, but his brother slipped right past his grasp, falling into the gaping maw that was the Underworld.

The earth shifted and the wound closed, healing over without a scar, and Wu was left kneeling in the place where he'd lost everything.

He moved the Golden Weapons to hidden locations, guarded by ancient creatures. He gave the only map to an old friend, an honest man with

(Fire in his eyes and in his heart, flames licking around him and bending to his will as he stood at the forge-)

a kind smile.

And he waited. For the day his brother might return, or his nephew might need him, or the world would once again be threatened by the evils of his past.

Chapter Text

When Misako heard the news, she cried. She cried normal, human tears of water. And then she heard a noise.

She turned to find her son, lying in his cradle, only a few months old. Giggling. Laughing, almost maniacally, like she'd heard her husband do so many times before.

She stood, and went over to where Lloyd sat, and she looked into his eyes.

Fear flooded her heart.

For a moment, Lloyd's eyes shone with an unearthly glow, and

(A too many toothed smile split his face, fangs dripping with blood and dark ink, his fingers lengthening into claws, wicked, warped horns bursting from his head, wings sprouting from his back, dark and leathery but also feathered and coloured with every colour in the spectrum and so many more that she could never describe, his eyes glistening, changing from red to gold and purple and green and sparkling like every star in the night sky all at once -)

he smiled a toothless smile, a little too predatory for her liking.

She no longer had her husband to protect her from this... creature she had brought into the world. She no longer needed her son to protect her from the monster man she had married.

She loved Lloyd dearly. But she was afraid.

Perhaps she could stop the inevitable clash of her family. Perhaps she could prevent her son from ever carrying the burden of so much power in his tiny hands. Deep down, she knew she never could. She would try.

So she left. She went to the only place that could possibly deal with a being such as her son. She could only hope they did not break his spirit. Something told her that Lloyd was impossible to break.

Misako only glanced back once, as she left a four year old child (so much more than that) with a harsh boarding school. When she did, she only saw the glow of his eyes, as red as blood

(And gold and purple and bright, luminescent green, a hurricane of colours flashing menacingly at her as she abandoned him and left him and he didn't know why-)

just like his father's had been.

Chapter Text

On his first day at Darkley's, a child named Brad put fire-ants in his bed.

He wanted to rage, scream at him,

(Make him feel sorry for what he had done, claw at him with talons and rip him to shreds with fangs that would drip with his blood and make him feel terror and fear for the last time-)

but Lloyd's father had always told him to control that side of him, when giving himself away would not give him the advantage. The element of surprise was a valuable one. So he didn't. Later, Brad pulled him aside and explained his good intentions, and Lloyd thanked his grandfather for the sense not to destroy this child. Brad extended the hand of guidance, and he was the first to ever call the being known as Lloyd a friend.

Lloyd hated Darkley's.

It wasn't, however, because the other kids bullied him. No, he was Lloyd Garmadon, son of evil Lord Garmadon, (and something more) and bullies could not hurt him.

It was the fact that he had to hide.

He knew he could not show then who he was. The power he wielded was hidden from even him, yet to be unlocked as he had no chance to do so.

So he left.

He had escaped before, merely to see what was out there. But this time, he ran and he never looked back.

He tried to scare the townspeople into giving him food, but he failed. If he showed them his true self, they would run in terror, cast him out and he would lose everything. But his child body wasn't intimidating.

So he wandered through the streets, stealing to eat and living to survive. And out there, in the world, he felt lights switch on. Like a minor earthquake. The strike of lightning. The shatter of an icicle. A flame igniting. Waves lapping gently, waiting for the wind to pick up.

He headed to the town square. And waited.

Chapter Text

When Cole first met Master Wu, the old man asked him a question.

He asked "Why do you climb the mountain?", and Cole told him about his struggles, because he knew somehow that this man would not judge him, and could help. But Cole thinks this was the wrong question.

If Master Wu had asked him "Why do you climb this mountain?", Cole would have answered differently.

He would have said, "To see the light shining from the top."

When he had set out that morning, the peak of one mountain had been glowing. So he climbed it, out of sheer curiosity to see what was causing such an unearthly glow.

And when he reached the summit, for one single second he had seen

(A blinding, shining light, a clawed creature with dragon wings but he was not afraid for this being would not hurt him, it's smile was benevolent though it still held the power to wipe him out of existence-)

a faint glow, but then he blinked and an old man sat atop the mountain, sipping tea.

At times, Wu scared him.

His inexplicable ability to just- appear out of nowhere, his odd wisdom that would prove useful just hours later,

(his razor sharp claws and his shining wings, the golden yellow glow in his eyes and the way bells seemed to chime with every step he took-)

and his very excessive obsession with tea.

But Wu was kind, and wise, and took him in when his father clearly didn't want him. Cole trusted Wu, and Wu had taught him many things. Wu had also given him friends.

It wasn't long after he had first climbed the mountain that Jay showed up.

Jay was bubbly, funny, and an incredibly cheerful person. Though he had grown up in a junkyard, he was perfectly polite and friendly to Cole, and Cole was surprised to find that they got along so well, despite their opposing personalities. Perhaps it was because of Jay being... odd.

Jay was weird, there was no doubt about it, but that was normal weirdness. There was something else about him, though, something Cole only noticed out of the corners of his eyes. The way

(His skin crackled and writhed with electricity, energy bubbling up inside him just waiting to be let out in a clap of thunder-)

he spoke at lightning speed, or always seemed to have boundless energy. Something just a little off.

Cole had always been off. He remembers the double takes people sometimes gave him. He knows there's something weird when

(He looks at himself and catches his skin hardening to stone, his fists glow and his strength multiplies tenfold and he could crush the world if he could just get hold of it-)

he grips something too tightly, or can't tell his own strength when he throws a punch.

So he'll allow Jay his moments of oddness. He ignores it when Jay's

(steps crackle with thunder, movements so quick that it seems as though he disappears and reappears in a flash of light-)

reflexes are just a little too fast, and just smiles.

Zane is the next to arrive.

He is weird, and it's normal weird while being very confusing. He seems to have no knowledge of social cues, or jokes, or how things are supposed to work. But he's incredibly intelligent, and insightful, and he's innocent and kind and he's their friend.

Only once Cole accepts Zane's quirks does he really notice. The sense of him being just a little off.

His skin is as cold as ice, he seems to melt into shadows so easily,

(His eyes sparkle like icicles, when he's emotional his touch feels like frostbite, his presence makes the room temperature drop to a cooling breeze, but Cole knows he could freeze them solid if he ever became angry-)

and they see snow in his hair when he comes back inside, even in the summer heat.

Jay makes a joke about dandruff, and then proceeds to explain the entire concept of haircare to Zane. Zane listens attentively, drinking in the new information coming from his new friends.

Cole watches, interrupting to voice his own opinion on the best way to style hair and grinning when Jay looks horrified at his choice of conditioner.

The final addition to their group is an unscheduled one.

Cole resents Kai at first. He's barging in on their friendship, being forced into their brotherly bond. And while Zane was shy, and kind, Kai doesn't care. He's focused, too focused. His mind is set on the rescue of his sister, which is a noble cause, but he ignores the others. He puts up a front of sarcasm and impatience.

It isn't until when they are camping together in the forest that he really notices. Remembers how warm Kai's skin was when he tried to hold him back from being reckless, how his temper flares like oil tossed into a roaring fire,

(How his eyes burn like glowing embers, his heart filled with flame, fiery temper bursting out with an explosion that could set the world alight-)

how he brings a certain warmth to the team, a glow of passion and adventure that they had been missing.

He thinks Jay and Zane notice it too. They start treating Kai like one of their own from then on, and to their pleasant surprise he is kind in return.

They return to the monastery, brothers in all but blood.

Chapter Text

When Jay heard that Kai had a sister, his first response was childish.

"We're saving a girl? Is she hot?" He asked, and Cole scolded him while Kai gave him a death glare.

He then backtracked to save himself (he could already tell that Kai's temper would be explosive), but couldn't help adding a final thought, just for the sake of comedy.

"Does she like blue?"

Jay imagined any sister of Kai to be like him, fiery, hot-headed and tough. He was right, in a way, but when he saw her for the first time, he immediately thought himself completely wrong.

Nya was… perfect.

She was calm and collected in the face of danger. She sparkled like sunlight on a lake. She was beautiful and sweet and yet Jay could tell he had been right - she was fierce, strong and unyielding, sitting on the back of a dragon with nothing but determination and fearlessness in her eyes.

Jay would fall in love with her over time, he knew it. But for the moment, he was in awe of her beauty,

(Her eyes flashing deep blue like the dark moonlit ocean, her hair cascading like a waterfall, moving so delicately and gracefully but with a fierce temper raging like rapids tearing through even the strongest stone-)

as she made her way through life like a river winding its way towards the sea.

He shook his head, like he was clearing water from his ears. The others had noticed it too. He tried to speak, but he had been hit in the chest earlier and the words wouldn't come clearly, so Zane (his best friend in that moment) translated.

"He cannot talk, but he wants to know if you like blue." Zane said, and Nya's face lit up.

"It's my favourite colour!" She replied.

Jay is smart. His mind moves as fast as lightning, and he can see this is a lie. Her clothes are red, and it seems like an outfit she wears a lot, judging by the creasing. It's not even a red that matches with any shade of blue, and he knows that well having worn varying shades of blue for the majority of his life.

His insides come alive with electricity as he realises she must have lied to make him like her more! At least he hopes…

Either way, he spends the rest of the day with a big grin on his face. It's probably obvious, since Kai is glaring at him.

But none of them forget how Nya is just like them, just a little off and it makes so much sense, she has the braincell and the sense of the team, because of course she is a part of the team as well, why wouldn’t she be?

Wu must notice this, because he sets aside the apparent sexism that he'd been holding onto and Nya joins their training when they return.

And they are a family - almost complete.

(Except Jay doesn't think of Nya like that yet. He's aiming for a very different way of being her family, but that will have to wait for a while.)