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“I don’t understand why I have to be the one to babysit him.” Lloyd scowled, talking to Wu as the other ninja rushed around packing bags for a mission that could take anywhere between two and seven days, “Why can’t you and Mom keep an eye on him? Or, better yet, can’t he just go stay with that Vinny guy again?”
“I cannot.” Garmadon’s voice suddenly appeared behind Lloyd, “Vinny of NCTV News is visiting his mother in Jamanakai Village this week. I frightened her when she visited him in the city and now she refuses to go anywhere near his apartment.”
“Lloyd, your mother cannot stay here with him because she has archeological work to attend to in Ninjago City,” Wu began to explain, stopping for a moment to sip his tea, “and I cannot stay with your Father as I have promised Cole that I would go to Shintaro to speak with Princess Vania in his place.”
“I could go to Shintaro.” Lloyd offered, “Then, I don’t have to babysit him, and you don’t have to travel all the way to Shintaro!”
“I would like to go to Shintaro again, Nephew.” Wu shook his head, “You will simply have to stay here with your father.” He stood and picked up his bag, “Do keep him out of trouble.”
An hour later, the monastery was quiet; save for the sound of the TV and Garmadon watching some movie. Lloyd sat on one end of the couch, as far from Garmadon as possible, scrolling on his phone. A short while passed before Garmadon cleared his voice, “Have you watched this film before?”
Lloyd looked up from his phone, glanced at the movie then at Garmadon, “Uh… No?” he answered with uncertainty, he looked again at the movie, “I don’t have a lot of time to watch movies.”
“Ah, I believe one of the other ninjas mentioned he had borrowed one of your books that it is based on; Starfarer?”
“Oh, yeah, uh; it must’ve been Jay or Kai, they’ve been borrowing my comics more lately…” He looked at the screen;
“Fritz, I am your Father.” A character in black metallic armor announced on the screen.
“No!” The second character screamed in response.
“I guess I just… Haven’t gotten to watch the movies yet.” He watched the movie for a moment, “They started coming out when the Overlord came back the first time.” There was a moment, “Did you pick it because-”
“The one named Fritz, he behaves like you.” Garmadon said, pointing at Fritz Donagan on the screen as he fought against his father, “It seems he is brave, and that he is as the red one said about you; very kind.”
Lloyd processed what was said for a moment, “When did you talk to Kai about me?”
Garmadon glanced at Lloyd as the movie continued to play; watching the protagonist attempt an escape for a moment before answering “Vinny of NCTV News suggested asking those you are close to about what you might like.” They sat in near silence again for a little while after that, before Garmadon spoke again; “The first time the Overlord returned, he attempted to capture you.”
“Yeah?” Lloyd, who had gotten back on his phone, looked at Garmadon again. There was a pause for a moment, “Sorry, I didn’t think you remembered.”
“I do not, I went through several old newspapers that Wu showed me.” He explained, “Was the reason then the same as when he returned as the Crystal King?”
“Oh, uh, no? I didn’t know about any of the Oni and Dragon stuff back then.” Garmadon made a confused face as Lloyd talked, “When I defeated him the first time my powers turned Gold, I could move mountains with just a thought; If I’d kept them I probably would have been able to create entire lands like the First Spinjitzu Master.”
“If you had kept them?”
“I gave them up; I spent most of The Overlord’s first return on the run because he wanted to use my powers to create a physical body for himself. We went to Hiroshi’s Labyrinth to keep him from capturing me and I still was hunted down.”
“We?”
“You were with me. Hiroshi’s Labyrinth was your idea; a place no one had ever returned from to hide from someone.”
“I see.”
“You were part of the reason I gave up the Golden Powers.”
Garmadon paused, he looked at Lloyd, “How?”
“You told me when we were in the Jewel of Hiroshi’s Labyrinth, that one day even my friends would covet my powers; that even those I care about, those who care about me, would one day be so power hungry that the Golden Powers would matter more to them.” Lloyd looked at his hands as he talked, “I couldn’t stand that; that idea that one day the people I trust most might think of me as nothing more than a weapon; nothing but my powers.”
“I see.” Another moment of silence as the movie’s credits began to scroll across the screen, “Was I…” Garmadon paused, “Was I a good father?”
Lloyd looked at Garmadon, hesitating for a moment; “I think… I think you could have been. Had you gotten more time.” Lloyd answered, trying to word his thoughts, “You cared, I mean; when I got captured by the Serpentine, Uncle Wu went to get you from the Realm of Madness. He said you tried to kill him on sight, but the moment he told you I was in danger you stopped.” He fidgeted with his phone, popping part of the case off and back on while talking, “You were banished to the Underworld before I was born, I could never blame you for not being there. I idolized you when I was a kid; wanted to be just like you.” The credits on the TV screen ended, “Then we found out I was, am, the Green Ninja and I had to grow up. You didn’t get a real chance to be my dad until I stopped The Overlord the first time, and even then I was off being given awards, or we were on the run, or mourning, or fighting in a stupid tournament that ended with you sacrificing yourself.” Tears threatened to fall as Lloyd spoke, “I mourned you. I isolated myself for months and it still didn’t feel like it was long enough.” He looked up at the ceiling, “We’ve all been through so much; I’ve been through so much, so much that I just… I just needed you there, but you were gone, and Mom’s got her job half the time, and I know I’ve got Uncle Wu but it’s hard to talk to him sometimes because it’s just cryptic and riddles when I just need someone to tell me it’ll be okay.” He looked over at Garmadon, “But I guess your responses were riddles sometimes too; and I could just talk to the others but they have their own baggage to deal with and I don’t want to be a burden.”
Garmadon nodded silently and stood. He cautiously walked just a few paces before sitting back down next to Lloyd. Hesitantly, he patted Lloyd’s shoulder. Lloyd tensed at the action, Garmadon stopped; “It will be okay.” He said after a moment, slowly with uncertainty. “I cannot promise that I can be as you remember me to be; nor can I promise with all certainty that ‘it,’ whatever ‘it’ may be, will be ‘okay,’ but I can say that if that is what is needed.” After a few moments, Garmadon stood again and walked out of the room; all was quiet in the monastery and Lloyd retreated to his room for the night.
When morning came, the sunrise streamed through the half-closed curtains of the window in Lloyd’s room. The monastery was quiet, save for a few birds singing outside the window, “One good thing about babysitting Garmadon,” He muttered to himself as he got out of bed, “it’s a day off from training.” He opened the curtains the rest of the way, letting the sunlight dance across the room as he stretched a little before changing and heading out into the Monastery Courtyard. Out of habit he went to grab a watering can for the small garden that had accrued around a familiar fern which he referred to with disdain as The Plant.
He should not have been surprised when the watering can was not in its place, to find Garmadon watering the small garden; “Christofern seems to be growing well.”
Lloyd looked at the plant, then at Garmadon, “Yeah.” He muttered, his morning chore taken for the day, and walked toward the kitchen to find some breakfast. He found breakfast indeed, in the form of burnt pancakes and fruit; he also found a large pile of dishes in the sink, all with pancake batter on them, and a scorch mark on the wall from where a pancake had clearly caught fire on the stove. He stood there for a moment, staring at the mess, before Garmadon came into the kitchen.
“The one who wears white-”
“Zane.”
“-left a recipe and had suggested, when your friends left, that I make it…” He looked at the mess he had made, “I did not expect it to be as difficult as it was.” He picked up an empty plate and held it out for Lloyd to take.
“Did… Did the pan catch fire?” He glanced at the three pans that sat in the sink, “Or one of the pans?”
“Yes. Only for a moment, it was quickly put out.” He put the plate in Lloyd’s hands, “Pancakes, and the one that wears blue-”
“Which one?”
“-told me that you enjoy plums and berries, however the one that wears black-”
“Cole.”
“-hid all the knives before all your friends left, so I was unable to cut the plums into slices because he also hid all the swords… I believe he hid everything that is sharp.” Lloyd looked at the plate in his hands, then at the burnt pancakes, then at Garmadon. He thought for a moment; poison in a pancake is not something he could assume Garmadon would try, a passive means of murder is not what a warlord uses.
“Thank you.” Lloyd said quietly as he took a pancake, a plum, and a few berries, and he sat at the table.
Garmadon sat with his own plate of burnt pancakes after a minute; in silence they ate, until Garmadon spoke again, “You have nightmares.”
Lloyd froze, fork halfway to his mouth, chocolate syrup having been used to drench the pancakes dripped onto the table as he tried to figure out an explanation, “Uh… Yeah… that’s what happens when someone’s gone through… y’know…” He gestured vaguely, “all that stuff the others ‘n I have gone through.” He shrugged, “Did I wake you up?”
“No, I did not sleep.” Garmadon answered, “You were screaming however, using your powers in your sleep.” Lloyd blinked a few times, he had thought seeing Garmadon in his doorway had been a trick of the dark of midnight, his mind trying to compensate for the void created by his family’s current lack of presence, “What was it… about?” Garmadon asked hesitantly.
“Oh, uh… I doubt you’ll know about him, even if you did remember before, all that happened after everything with Chen…”
“I did not ask if I would know about whoever it was, I asked what it was about.”
“It… It’s too early to talk about it.” He didn’t quite feel like crying, or trying to explain his tears to a man who had yet to fully relearn how to feel anything but anger; “I’ll tell you later.” He said quietly, hoping he wouldn’t be held to that statement.
“I see.” They finished eating in silence; once done Lloyd began to try to get the scorch marks off the wall, after about half an hour of trying he sighed and decided to ask Zane to help him deal with it once everyone returned. He moved on to dealing with the overwhelming pile of dishes in the sink, after all what did he know in life other than cleaning up his father’s (or his uncle’s, or his own) messes?
He found Garmadon in the courtyard when he finally finished the dishes; Garmadon was meditating next to the small garden that Christofern grew in. Lloyd hesitated for a moment, standing awkwardly in the doorway between the kitchen and the courtyard, before walking over quietly and sitting next to Garmadon. He closed his eyes to meditate, listening to the songbirds singing and the sound of leaves brushing against one of the walls of the monastery. A bee buzzed through the little garden, the hum of a hummingbird flicking through the courtyard, then the meows of one of the stray cats that Lloyd had made a habit of feeding. Lloyd opened his eyes and stood; he glanced at Garmadon, who was still meditating, as he moved to grab a can of tuna for the cat. He found the cat outside the front gate; a little black and grey ball of fluff with one eye, “Hi, Earl Grey.” He smiled, setting the can in front of the cat and sitting on the step. A cheerful meow was given in response before the cat began to eat the canned tuna; “You didn’t get in another fight did you?” Lloyd questioned, spotting a newly formed scab on Earl Grey’s ear, “I hope it wasn’t Oolong or Chamomile.”
“You named multiple stray cats after teas?”
Lloyd jumped slightly, turning quickly he found Garmadon standing behind him as more meows came from further down the path, “Yes?” He looked at Earl Grey before spotting Oolong (a tortoise shell short hair) and Chamomile (a calico with heterochromia) running up the path toward the can of tuna, “I was planning on talking to Uncle Wu about taking them in so they don’t have to be strays, but I haven’t gotten the chance yet.”
“Why did you name them after teas?”
“I was hoping that Uncle Wu would like the names as well as the cats and that naming them like that would help convince him to let me keep them…” Garmadon sat on the step next to Lloyd and watched the cats for a moment. He put a hand out slowly, sitting with his hand out for a moment before Chamomile sniffed him and headbutted his hand, purring before he jumped into Garmadon’s lap, “He likes you.” Lloyd smiled as Garmadon looked at the cat with surprise.
“He is vibrating.”
“He’s purring. He’s happy.”
“Why did he headbutt my hand?”
“Cats do that when they like someone.”
“Why is he digging his claws into my leg?”
Lloyd stifled a laugh, “He’s kneading, again, it’s a sign that he likes you.” He looked at Chamomile for a moment, “It’s funny, I don’t think he’s done that for anyone other than Nya and me yet.”
“The other ninjas know about these cats but Wu does not?”
“Uncle Wu knows they keep showing up, just not that I’ve been feeding them…” He glanced at Oolong, “But something tells me I’m not the only one feeding Oolong.”
“That one is very round.”
“We’re not sure if she just uses her size to her advantage and eats most of the food or if she’s got kittens on the way.” He shrugged, “I’ve been meaning to ask Zane to take a look at her to see which it is. I think she’s just being fed by multiple people though; I saw Jay out here the other day with an entire boiled chicken and only Oolong.” The wind blew a bit harder than the gentle breeze that had been blowing through the first half of the day. Lloyd froze for a moment, more alert; his heart beating faster for a moment as the wind whipped his hair into his face.
Garmadon cleared his throat after a moment, “You said this morning was too early for talking about the nightmares.” He placed a hand on Lloyd’s shoulder, tapping it a few times with one finger, something Wu and Misako had done hundreds of times when Lloyd zoned out; disassociated at the reminders of the worst that he had been through, “Would it be late enough now?”
“I uh…” Lloyd blinked a few times, “I guess. Yeah.” There was a moment before Lloyd spoke again, thinking of how to explain; “There was this ghost, Morro.” He began, unsure of how to explain the nightmare without explaining the source, “He was Uncle Wu’s first student, who was accidentally convinced he was supposed to be The Green Ninja.” Lloyd glanced at Garmadon for a split second before staring at Earl Grey as he continued to explain, “He possessed me; blamed me for his misbelief. I was… my age is weird, I’m not sure how old I was; 14-ish I think? He… I… He attacked everyone, I had to watch myself attack everyone I cared about while they tried to save me. I’ve never felt more helpless and weak.”
“The nightmare was about him?”
“Him, Pythor…” He looked at his hands, “Harumi.”
Garmadon paused for a moment, “Did you not forgive Harumi?”
“I did. I forgave Morro too. That doesn’t erase what they did.” Early Grey meowed at Lloyd and jumped into his lap as he talked, “All three of them used me.” He grumbled, not entirely certain he wanted to tell Garmadon this, “Morro to get a destiny he wanted, Pythor to get the Map of Dens and free the Devorer, and Harumi…” He looked at Garmadon, “To get the last Oni mask and bring you back to kill me.”
“You forgave them?”
“Not Pythor.” Lloyd said quickly; “He took advantage of me being alone and young to get the locations of the Serpentine Tombs and has continued to hurt me and those I care about to this day.”
“So you do not always forgive those you have fought?”
“No, if we forgive those who refuse to change; it would only lead to hopes getting crushed. We’ve forgiven plenty of people; Skylor went against her father and helped us save Ninjago. Harumi hurt us but she turned against the Overlord in the end; even so she is still working to repair the damage she did to Ninjago through community service and has been going to therapy.”
“And the ghost? Morro?”
“He helped us on the Day of The Departed; he apologized to Uncle Wu.”
“Not to you?”
“His anger was primarily towards Uncle Wu,” Lloyd explained, quietly with a practiced patience and certainty, “I was just the means for his revenge.”
“Wu was not possessed.”
“No, he wasn’t.” Lloyd looked at Earl Grey in his lap for a moment, “I saw a grown man crumble after just a few minutes of being possessed; I couldn’t eat for weeks after it was all over, couldn’t sleep.” Earl Grey hopped down and started running down the path of the mountain, “But I was not who he wanted revenge on; I was hurt to hurt Uncle Wu.”
Chamomile and Oolong went running after Earl Grey after a moment, leaving Garmadon and Lloyd sitting on the step of the monastery, “I am sorry.”
“What?” Lloyd whispered, genuinely confused as he looked at Garmadon.
“I am sorry.” Garmadon repeated, clearly trying not to sound like he was lying or suspicious, “For hurting you.”
“Is… Are you… is this a genuine apology or something someone told you you should do?”
“Can it not be both?”
Lloyd looked at Garmadon, this man that had been trying to get better; who had raised a plant to relearn how to care, who couldn’t make pancakes without burning the wall, who was taking advice from Lloyd’s family to build a relationship with him despite the one they’d once had now being impossible; “You… You’re not going to leave again?” Lloyd questioned, tired, scared, genuine.
“I do not plan to.” Genuine, uncertain.
“You can’t promise.” He knew that much was true; no one could ever really promise that to him.
“I wish I could.”
“I’m more important than The Plant?”
Garmadon nodded, quickly; without hesitation.
And then, for the first time in years: Lloyd hugged his father.