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Koko groaned softly as the mother in front of her continued speaking.
She'd been hoping to get an afternoon of peace at the park (taking care of a growing boy was not easy) but the mothers in this area just loved gossip.
“Y'know, I hope your little brat won't go near my children,” she sneered and the former warrior rolled her eyes.
“He's only five.”
“You can say that, but I have a feeling... if he knows what his father does, he'll surely take after him.”
Koko opened her mouth to retort but was interrupted by a child barreling into the mother she was talking civilly to.
“Mama!” the little girl shouted, breaths short and panicked. “There's a crab robot!”
Koko straightened immediately and rushed towards the playground, instincts taking over. She gently guided children to run further from the structure and towards safety. Her gaze flickered to the sky which was now filled with shark drones — her ex-husband never knew how to stifle his desire to be overly dramatic. After ushering a few more children and ensuring that the playground area was vacant, she remembered Lloyd. Her son was nowhere to be found—
Until she heard a petrified cry of “Momma!” She turned towards the sound and saw her little boy backing away from a crab soldier riding a set of robot crab legs. They sneered at Lloyd, scuttling closer even as the boy scrambled back, dangerously close to the edge of the structure where the fireman's pole used to be before the pole was ripped out. Koko was moving before her mind registered it but she would never have moved fast enough because Lloyd slipped , and now he was falling.
Time seemed like it was slowing down. In a split second, Koko slid across the ground and stopped just in time to catch her son and cradle him to her chest. She shot a hate-filled glare up at the crab soldier, who flinched violently and frantically scrambled away from the woman who scared even the evilest of warlords.
Allowing herself only a couple seconds of satisfaction to watch the coward scurry away, Koko reverted her attention to the boy in her arms, who had begun to cry.
“You're safe, kiddo, I got you, they won't hurt you anymore,” she reassured softly, rubbing her son's back as he clung onto her. She slowly rose from their spot on the ground, carrying Lloyd along with her. The small boy sniffled, arms wrapped around her neck and shoulder.
“C'mon, let's head home and get you fixed up, m'kay?” When Lloyd didn't reply, she dropped her voice into a stage-whisper. “I'll even make you your favorite treat!”
Lloyd leaned back and smiled, content with the promise of jiao zi and xiao long bao. Koko realized it would be very difficult to tell him about Garmadon’s... hobbies.
—
2 years later and the ground was shaking. Lloyd whimpered from his spot under the table, holding onto its leg with a grip that turned his knuckles white. When he opened his eyes just a tiny bit, he could see a great big robot shark stomping through the street, flattening various vehicles beneath its giant feet (sharks didn't have feet, Lloyd knew that for sure, but maybe robot sharks did). The shark turned and smacked the building — their building — and the glass windows shattered .
Lloyd heard screaming from his classmates around him and he felt a sharp pain on his arms as he held them up to protect his face. When he went to check, there was bright red on his skin. He bit back a cry and curled up, not daring to move in fear that he would hurt himself further.
The shark stomped away and everyone breathed a sigh of relief. They were safe, for now.
Lloyd's teacher stood up slowly from beneath her desk, her legs looking a bit wobbly.
“Alright- class is dismissed! If you need someone to contact your parents, you can ask me or go up to the office-” She was interrupted by the shouts of various students scrambling out from underneath their desks and rushing out the door.
Lloyd inched out from under his own table, attempting to avoid glass next to his classmates that were in the same predicament. When he stood up, he winced as the cuts on his arm stung. He gingerly picked up his bag and slipped it on his back before hurrying out the door.
A couple of hurried steps down the school building’s stairs and increasingly blurred vision (don’t cry now, Lloyd, you can’t cry now) later, the second grader reached the bottom floor and hurried out onto the street.
He frantically looked around, rubbing at his eyes to clear his vision in the hopes to find his mom-
“Lloyd!” he heard before being crushed into a fierce hug. Lloyd buried his face into his mother’s blouse, clinging tightly to the fabric on her back.
“You okay?” she asked worriedly, leaning back with her hands on Lloyd’s shoulders. He could see her green eyes frantically searching for injuries before finding the vibrant blood on the young boy’s arms. She swiftly held his hands up and examined the cuts before tugging him towards her car.
The car ride was quiet, save for Koko’s quiet sounds of annoyance at the heavy traffic. Lloyd noticed she was trying to drive to the hospital, but ambulances and other vehicles caused the road to back up. The debris littered over the streets did not help very much.
“Sorry, kiddo, I’ll have to patch you up at home,” Koko said, meeting Lloyd’s eyes in the rearview mirror. “We’ll be there soon, I promise, just hold on.” Lloyd nodded as Koko returned her gaze to the road and changed their route.
Five minutes later, the car rumbled to a stop and Koko opened her car door. Lloyd gingerly unbuckled his seatbelt, trying not to get blood everywhere. His mother opened his door and he gratefully took her hand as they walked to the apartment building.
As soon as they got to their home, Koko ushered her son over onto one of the kitchen stools before grabbing gauze and the antibacterial foam from a nearby cabinet.
“Hold still,” she instructed, grabbing a wet towel and wiping off the grime and blood from his arms, revealing the wounds beneath.
Koko inhaled sharply and Lloyd looked nervously down at what she saw and- well. Some of the cuts still had shards of glass sticking out of them and Lloyd made a wobbly sound at the sight of them.
Koko noticed her son’s distress. “Hey, it’s gonna be okay, I’m just going to have to take them out like a splinter and then I can disinfect and wrap you up, yeah?”
Lloyd nodded, biting his trembling lower lip as his mother got up to find and clean some tweezers. She returned in less than 15 seconds (yes, Lloyd counted to try and keep himself from crying) and took one of his arms in her hands, her touch gentle.
“This might hurt a little, but you’re my strong little dragon, I know you’re gonna be okay.” She bumped her forehead with Lloyd’s and he offered a small smile.
Koko smiled back before raising her tweezers and getting to work.
The first shard hurt the most. A noise of discomfort escaped his lips as the sting shot up his arm, but his mom was right there to calm him down, promising that it would be over soon.
As Koko was plucking out the bits of glass, Lloyd felt the urge to tell her what was on his mind — he knew that his mom could have the answers to his questions and would surely understand why he worried so much.
“There we go! One arm done, you’re doing great!” Koko smiled warmly as she began to disinfect the cuts and wrap them in the bandages. Lloyd relished her gentle touch, his momma always knew how to comfort him.
As she started on the second arm, Lloyd spoke up.
“Mom?”
“Yes?”
“Why does dad go around attacking the city? Is he... is he trying to hurt us?”
“Oh, honey... He doesn’t want to hurt you, he loves you. But his goal to take over Ninjago overpowers him, clouds his thoughts. That’s why we split... because I didn’t want that kind of life for you.”
Koko’s smile looked a little sad so Lloyd bumped his forehead against hers.
“I’m sorry...”
“There’s nothing you have to apologize for, little dragon. It was my choice. I just wish he wouldn’t put you in danger every time he comes back. I will have a talk with him, I can assure you that.”
Lloyd giggled and Koko’s smile turned happier and lighter. She finished wrapping up his arm and ruffled the boy’s light blonde hair.
“Time for bed, you little Oni.” Koko reached out and picked him up off the stool when Lloyd refused to move, causing him to screech in surprise as she carried him to the bathroom. “I want to see you bathed, brushed and washed by the time I open this door, yeah?”
“Yes, Momma!” Lloyd squealed and laughed as Koko ruffled his hair again and closed the door.
Later that night, after Lloyd had been tucked in, the former ninja warrior marched up to Garmadon’s volcano and taught her ex-husband a lesson. Garmadon rubbed his sore cheek and remembered exactly why Koko was the Lady Iron Dragon.
—
Lloyd whooped loudly as his jade dragon mech soared into the air, hearing equal sounds of joy through his comms from his teammates.
“Alright, guys! First mission against Garmadon! We’ve been preparing for this so let’s not screw up!” the high school freshman instructed.
“Glad to know you have so much faith in us,” Kai drawled sarcastically, his fire mech blasting a group of Garmadon’s soldiers heading towards the stock market to crash it. Again. Cole paired it with a ground-shaking slam, throwing various ocean-creature-themed warriors off balance and keeping them from terrorizing citizens.
Jay yelled from above as his jet spins and turns a whole loop, now behind the horde of drones tailing him. The blue ninja took the opportunity and zapped the flying vehicles before zooming forward and crashing through their ranks. “Ha, take that!” he shouts gleefully.
Nya tided off the forces streaming from the volcano and across the water, her mech graceful and swift against the ocean waves.
Zane helped the citizens by blocking off soldiers’ paths and allowing various people to run to safety, ice blaster effective and tank treads agile for climbing over debris.
Lloyd smiled proudly at his team before directing his own mech towards his father’s newest invention: a remote-controlled shark robot. Garmadon lounged on a bent-back beach chair, sipping a cold drink and fiddling around with the controls, not a care in the world for how precariously balanced he was atop the mechanical sea creature.
“Garmadon!” Lloyd shouted, landing his dragon on the roof of a nearby building.
“Huh-?! Do I know you? Who even are you?” the warlord sputtered, nearly knocking over the glass sitting next to him.
“I’m... the Green Ninja! And this is my team!” Right on cue, his friends slid in with their mechs, a little clumsy but pretty intimidating if you asked him.
“...Riiiight.” Garmadon sipped his drink, appearing unfazed. “Well, if that’s all-”
“We’re here to stop you! From taking over Ninjago!” Jay piped up, hovering next to Lloyd.
“Yeah, this is our home and we’re tired of seeing you destroy it every week!” Kai looked positively livid beneath his hood.
“What are you- a buncha kids? Where are your parents? Aren’t you supposed to be supervised?” Garmadon chortled at his own joke and his little henchmen laughed along.
“We don’t need supervision! Well, besides our Master Wu over there.” Nya gestured behind her in the general direction of the docks.
“Pf- my brother ?” Garmadon looked like he’d swallowed something sour. Maybe it was the lemon pulp in his almost-empty beverage.
“Yeah! So we’re professionals and we ask you to leave. Or else...” Lloyd ended ominously.
“‘Or else...’ HAHA- did you hear that, nerds?! They think they’re oh-so-scary with their big robots, but they’re not the only ones!” Garmadon pressed a button on his remote and the shark opened its mouth, revealing a mouth full of sharp teeth and relatively anatomically accurate, surprisingly. “You’re ninjas, right? So you must be able to dodge sharp objects!”
A volley of shark teeth flung themselves into the air and towards the stunned ninja. Kai, with quick thinking, blasted a column of fire in front of his teammates, incinerating most of the sharp projectiles.
Zane reacted as well and blasted an ice wall just in time to block the next wave of teeth.
“Kai! I need you to melt part of the wall so I can shoot him from here!” Lloyd instructed, his teammate complying almost immediately. The green ninja took careful aim at his father, who was distracted by the remote that must’ve stopped cooperating, but he hesitated. Did he really want to harm Garmadon? The missile he was about to launch could seriously injure the warlord and they only wanted to put him out of commission.
Lloyd switched his target and slammed the “FIRE” button on his console just as Garmadon figured out what was wrong with his control and launched another row of shark teeth. The teeth that got through the gap in the ice wall bounced harmlessly off of the mechs (Lloyd smirked proudly at that), but one jagged bone grazed the blonde’s arm, cutting easily through the gi and drawing blood. Lloyd bit his tongue as sharp pain shot up into his shoulder, determined not to let his pain show and give their enemy any satisfaction.
On the bright side, the missile sailed true to its target, destroying the legs of the robot and causing the whole synthetic creature to buckle and crash. Garmadon yelped and hopped onto a nearby drone, shoving aside its rider and taking the controls.
“Aw, come on! The ner- I spent years working on that thing! I can’t believe I have to start from scratch,” the four-armed man whined, directing the drones and his army back to the volcano. “I’ll be baaaack!”
The teenage ninjas cheered into their comms and Lloyd launched into the air, whooping and grinning as he spun through the air and back to the warehouse, his teammates equally ecstatic about their successful first mission.
The ninja rested their mechs in their respective places and Lloyd planned to look over the damages with Jay and Kai later, but for now, they would celebrate.
“Great job, guys, I think we did pretty good!” The team leader wore a smile that was so wide it made his cheeks a bit sore.
“What do you mean-? That was like- one of the most terrifying moments of my life!” Jay whined, but his expression betrayed him.
“Nah, that was super fun,” Nya exclaimed, her normally smooth attitude a bit undermined by the thrill of the battle.
“I certainly hope it was not ‘super fun.’” Master Wu appeared among their ranks where they’d gathered near the center of the warehouse, always the party pooper. “Being a ninja is not just some fun recreational activity. Soon, you will have to manage both your warrior lives and your normal lives.”
Wu’s students collectively sigh.
“Un- Master Wu. I know that this is something that we have to treat seriously, but wouldn’t it be good to appreciate our victory? We’ve worked so hard to convince you to let us fight Garmadon, it’d be kind of... disappointing if we didn’t get to celebrate just a bit.” Lloyd nervously glanced at his uncle along with all his friends.
Wu thought for a bit before sighing. “Alright, alright, I suppose you’ve earned it. Great job, students.”
They cheered happily and Lloyd swore he saw Wu smile underneath his ivory beard.
“That’s awesome!” Kai grinned, dragging them towards the couch that they’d pulled over to the warehouse as a part of their training.
Lloyd took his favorite spot on the armrest and settled down. He moved his arm to pull out his phone and text his mom but elicited a sharp hiss when the motion aggravated the cut on his skin.
“Lloyd!” Kai exclaimed, nearest to the son of Garmadon. “You okay, buddy?”
“Yeah- I’m fine- ow -”
“Allow me to assist you!” Everyone looked over at Zane. “I am CPR, First Aid, and AED certified,” the white ninja explained.
“You too? That’s awesome- ow ow ow-”
“Hold still, I will need to examine the injury.”
Everyone watched nervously as Zane gingerly rolled up Lloyd’s sleeve, the latter squeezing his eyes shut in pain.
“It appears that the tooth that grazed you had a jagged edge,” Zane evaluated. “While the wound is shallow, it tore rather than cut. That explains why it causes you so much pain.”
Lloyd nodded, cracking an eye open in curiosity before quickly closing it as another wave of pain spiked up his shoulder.
“I’m going to have to disinfect and wrap your arm, it should not take very long,” Zane assured as he magically conjured up disinfectant foam and clean bandages.
Lloyd couldn’t hear anything besides his heavy breaths as he let Zane treat his injury, his thoughts crowding him in his brain. Was his dad really meaning to hurt him? If he’d known that it was his son under the mask... would he still have attacked them? Did he even care about him, or had he forgotten about him? Forgotten that he’d still lived in the city, forgotten that with every attack that he sent, he was putting his son closer and closer to danger? What kind of dad would do that? Lloyd felt a bit nauseous and his hand shot up to his mouth as a sob threatened to break free.
Distantly, he realized that Zane had finished wrapping his wound, and that everyone was looking worriedly at him. Their concerned expressions only caused his distress to increase and suddenly the dam broke and the reservoir roared open.
“Whoa-!” Kai and Nya were quick to shoot up and gather their friend in a tight hug, the rest not far behind. In just a couple seconds, Lloyd was squeezed into the center of the couch, friends on both sides even as he cried his heart out, near choking on his tears.
"It's okay, buddy, we got you, you're safe now," Kai murmured, always the older brother, always the comforter, always there to hold him steady with an arm slung around his shoulders. Nya, although not one with words, felt just as safe to be with, a constant anchor in a raging hurricane. The others, well, Lloyd wasn’t as close to them but he trusted them with more than his life and it was clear they returned the sentiment.
The high schoolers huddled on the couch, squashed and squeezed and sandwiched together in a way they might have complained about out loud but appreciated and enjoyed deep deep down.
“Alright- that’s enough emotions for today, don’t you think?” Kai said, reaching for the remote control for the TV and four video game controllers. “Who’s ready for some-”
“Ooh ooh pick me!” Jay snatched one game controller just as Kai nabbed another, both followed closely behind by Nya and Cole. Zane smiled fondly from his perch on the armrest and Lloyd let out a watery giggle at his team’s stupid antics.
“We should totally play Mario Kart!” Jay suggested, his controller on and hovering over said game.
“Not fair!” Kai whined. “You only pick that because you’d absolutely destroy us-”
“Oh- nononono Jay-!” Nya attempted to swat the controller out of Jay’s hand but the damage had already been done. The other three groaned as the Mario Kart title screen flashed on the TV.
"Only chance we have against Jay is to team up against him," Kai reasoned. "Nya, Cole, you with me?"
"Oh, you're on," Nya growled with a wicked grin.
"Sorry, Jay, but the prospect of you maybe finally losing at Mario Kart exceeds maintaining our allyship," Cole smirked, Jay's confident demeanor faltering just slightly.
"It's okay, Jay, you have my moral support!" Lloyd encouraged, his previous breakdown forgotten in favor of a heated video game match.
"Aw, thanks, Lloyd, I appreciate it." Jay pressed the start button. "You guys are going down ."
Off to the side, their ninja master had his phone out, tapping on its screen with a speed unlikely for someone over a hundred years old. He smiled fondly at his students, remembering that they were still teenagers under those masks. He glanced down at his phone, seeing that he'd received a reply.
KOKO: hey, Wu, Lloyd hasn’t come home after the attack, is he with you?
WU: Yes, he is, do not worry. He is hanging out with his friends, they might be here for a while. They are all safe and sound.
KOKO: thank fsm, thanks for watching over him for me ❤️ tell him to come back before sundown
WU: Of course.
Koko sighed in relief on the other side.