Chapter Text
I, kai, lay in bed holing a picture of me and Lloyd a few years ago. This picture was taken before the tomorrow tea and is some of the last evidence of the real Lloyd.
His little goat ears that twitch, The fluff on tail. AHHHHHHH I miss my baby brother ! I used to make little horns on my head with my fingers in photos to imitate his.
Lloyd used to show off his dragoni features with confidence but now he always is using his shapshifting ability to make himself look fully human ! There's nothing wrong with that exactly but it just feels uncanny to see him so self-contentious and obsessive about not looking drangoni . Honestly, the most uncomfortable thing about the shape shifting is that it makes it so your eyes can't reflect.
It's also just really getting on my nerves lately. He has shape shifting powers, why doesn't he use them more ?!
For example, a couple days ago the whole team was out because we heard about some dragons swarming an area and wanted to investigate.
" Grrr !" Wildfire growls as she pulls a large chunk of meat off of a large meaty drumstick.
We had been called in by an restaurant owner who complained about dragons scaring away costumers and Lloyd had said something about getting a vision of something happening soon, I wouldn't be surprised if that involved dragons in some way. The town was on large mountains that attracted mostly honey moons and vacations, which made the perfect spot for a delicious shop. His shop was closer to the end of the town, where the forest is.
We stopped by the man's shop first and got some food as he told us what was happening and eventually leaving us to finish before exploring. We ate around a large table with the only lighting being from the sun. Cool drinks with good food on a hot day.
" Do you think dragon ninja's are there ?" Wildfire asks through a mouth of food.
" Nuh nah those don't exist. Those dragon's were just talking" Sora replies .
" Well…" zana intervenes all the attention turned to him. He take's a second to think about his next words carefully and eyeing Lloyd before continuing.
" We used to know a ninja that was part dragon, ¼ i think. He would help us fight sometime but not enough where he was in any recordings.
He's also simply an amazing person. Sadly, ninjago, even though is said to be the future, has a big speciesism issue. Even me and the other ninja's have been blinded by our youth and made ignorant as teens. We grew out of it though"
" yeah I mean I get that for some species but others..." Before I or anyone else could ask frak to elaborate Lloyd stands up. " We should get going. "
I grab frak's shoulder as we start leaving " We aren't done talking about this " he hums in response.
Now we are walking through thick forest with basically no aim, just where we think we saw the most dragons and vibes, with Lloyd leading us obviously. Slicing through green after green his green kinda burs with that kinda green.
Soon he slices through a weaker patch that leads to an open field with an glowing orb in the center, just flouting there.
Before we could get close to it, a large dragon flies down harshly in front of us. We all take a step back simultaneously. We raise our hands to say ' we bring peace' but the dragon roar's loudly at us and starts running towards us aggressively. " Run !!" Jay screams.
We let the leafs and branches hit and scrap our faces as we try to out run a fucking dragon. And soon, we're backup to an edge of the mountain and the dragon starts slowly walking closer while growling loudly. Wyldfire tries talking to them but the dragon doesn't listen.
We can't fight the dragon because if we fight one all the other's will fly down and fight us and the 10 of us(zana, Lloyd, nya, kai, jay, cole, arin, sora, wyldfyre, and frak) can't fight all of them.
This is where I get angry, Lloyd could easily turn into a dragon and fly us to safely. But, to no surprise, he doesn't. Instead nya shout's that she can sense water below and that we should jump, so we took a leap of faith.
Luckily, there was a large, deep, body of water below.
But the fact still stands, Lloyd would rather have us die then be seen as anything other then human.
But on the other hand Sometimes, and I would never say this out loud and barley admit this to myself, I wish the little dragoni that he showed was hidden.
The oni war was in it's peak.We we're on the Destiny's Bounty barely able to fly due to us having to never land, if we land we die to the oni.
We had no food and no water, we all we're starving. It made us angry and weak.
We we're snapping at each other over small things.
" That's my blanket COLE " Jay tugged one side of the light, fluffy, purple, folded, banket with both his hands. Jay was tried and untamed with large eye bags from lack of sleep and he yelled like a scared dog.
" It's a blanket, you don't own it we all share it JAY " Cole held the other side of the same blanket with both his hands. Cole was apoplectic; he was overcome with anger and it manifested and came out physically.
" Stop arguing over little things! One of you get another blanket " Zane separated the two
One day, after our daily argument, we we're all on look out when an oni snuck on the Bounty. They attacked us but lost before they could get a hit in. We beat the thing up and all I could think was how tender it's meat must be due to it.
We all ate that oni, including the dragoni hybrid. Lloyd knew he was part oni, we all knew he was. But, that didn't stop him from eating animalistic way, that's because oni are animals, and cannibals too apparently.
It wasn't the fact that he ate an oni when he was one himself, it was the question of limits and moral's. If a human snuck onto the Bounty would he was ate them, can that oni, biological, cannibalism leak into his humanity?
It's different from us, I know I don't have the stomach to do that, I could barely eat that oni, and can't even image eating another human. Maybe it was because Lloyd was raised to see oni as evil and object's of evil like I was and maybe if I was him I would have done the same thing.
But when he cried to me later that night about eating that oni, I didn't hug him as hard as I did before, because a part of me was disgusted by him.
And I hate myself for that.
The next day Jay played no children by the mountain goats harmonica when I asked him why he said
" because it's the only song I know " He chuckled.
That caused the first laugh's I've heard In weeks.
—
Now , year's later, he's gone missing.
That flouting ball that the dragon's were attacked to ? It was a ball of the same material that made the merge. But this one knocked Lloyd out for a second, when he woke up he was confused and avoided of us. He ran away, we didn't follow him because we didn't know what was happening and thought he needed space and would show up eventually.
It's been 6 month's.
Now we're traveling the land's going to the most resent spotting of the merge ball. Hoping that it will lead to Lloyd or at least the way to him.
The Bounty is parked by our set up, we're taking a moment to let the engine cool and sleep for the night. We're in the middle of a large, thick, forest. The same green Lloyd used to always wear. A spot where you can see the star's.
The deeper I look into the stars, the more they start to numb me. Letting me leave the camp and sink further into my mind.
I couldn't stop thinking about everything bad that could be happening with my brother. A tight feeling in my chest is strong, intimating, every time I close my eyes i see Lloyd be hurt, SA'd, killed. I try to think of anything else but I can't help it, my greatest fear, not being able to protect my love ones and the unknown are right in my face and are sinking into my skin.
I snapped my head and broke from my thoughts when I heard something other then Cole's snoring, foot steps and metal clacking.
A dark figure with a tail and horns, like a devil, grabbing our golden weapons. The figure turns it's head towards me and hold's eye contact with me for a second, nether of us move for that second, not till he run's.
" HEY ! " I jump up after him, waking up the other's in my pursuit.
He jump's into the tree's and run's fastly from branch to branch. The dude's fast and twisty, its hard to keep track of.
And the fact that the outfit hes wearing is various shade's of green and a mask makes it worse.
" Kai ! " Nya shouts from behind me.
I turn my head slightly to be meet with the other's running beside me.
" What's happening ?" Arin asks.
" our tools got stolen from that dude" I point at the swift figure in the tree's
" Dude's fast, Geez" cole adds on.
" Should we surround them ? " sora asks.
She gets answered with a crowed of yes and 'good idea's.
We spread out and soon have them corned. And soon we start slowly closing in on them.
Zane jump's down in front of them, when they turn to the right wyldfyre lands with a growl, they look around for a moment and fully embrace that they are trapped. They think about their options and sighs.
" Fine have you stuff back" They drop the weapons and take off the mask they were wearing.
A familiar blond hair and soft face looks at me like a stranger.
He wear's a large green poncho and baggy yellow-greenish pants paired with a baggy green shirt that stops at his elbows. He has radiant green horns and scaly tail with blond hair trailing on it with a large poof on the end that has the same color. Any part of his arm that you can see is covered in dark, like dark-dark almost black, purple fur. The back of his neck is covered in the same fur but that's a lot harder to see due to his hair.
(if you want a visual go to twing-springs on tumbler, that's where I got the inspo from, not the outfit tho just the character itself)
" Lloyd "
He looks up at me.
" Uh, how do you know my name, eh doesn't matter I got things to do, good bye" He jumps back into the trees.
" what, LLOYD ! "
I chase after him alone, I think it's a mix of shock and the fact he's showing his dragoni features. The kids have never seen or even knew Lloyd's heritage. And everyone else hasn't seen it in years. I've seen snippet of it through out the year due to me being the person he's closest to.
" Hmm yeah " He doesn't look at me just keeps walking in the tree's.
" What are you doing "
" I'm going home, duh, I'm tired "
" then come back to the monastery "
Lloyd let's out an airy laugh " The what ?"
He doesn't remember, does he.
" what do you remember about your past ?"
He stops and turns to me. Many emotions cycle through his face till he reaches remembrance and anger.
" You-" He takes a step forward" -Your the one who made me lose my memories !" he finishes.
" WHAT"
" Yeah, I remember , I remember how you and your circus had some weird flouting thing-y and tried to attack me ! " He walks closer.
" What are you talking about dude ?"
" Ah naw, I don't fuck with that. Y'all leave me alone" He pushes me off the tree's and run's.
I try to run after him but Zane stops me. " let's re-group in the morning "
I look up at the green tree's where Lloyd just was.
He hate's me but I would take his hate over is death any day.