Chapter Text
SLAM
Sora hurried down the hall to find Arin with his back to the door and shoulders heaving, “What happened?” she asked
Arin said Nothing
“ARIN what’s wrong???”
Arin snapped out of it and whispered to her all at once, “I thought opening the door last time was above my pay grade- you DO NOT wanna see what's on the other side this time.”
Wyldfyre leaned around the corner. “What?”
Mr Frohiky and Frak stepped in as a voice came from the other side of the door
“Hello??”
Sora stiffened. “Ok. Step aside.”
Mr. Frohiky waved a hand for her to let him take the door. He swallowed and opened it.
SLAM!!
“OH GREAT HEAVENS!” Mr. Frohiky yelped, fastening himself against the door
“PIXAL PIXAL! SOMEONE GET PIXAL!” Frak shouted.
“I’m so scared I can't move.” Frohiky hushed urgently.
Wyldfre waved her hands. “It’s ok! You can be the door stop!”
Pixal sped in to find the students barricading the door and clutching each other in various stages of panic and terror.
There was another knock. “I will be here when you are ready!”
Pixal froze at the voice. She knew it.
“Everyone behind me,” she ordered calmly.
They all bolted away behind a wall and peeked over the corner.
“Its garmadon! I saw him!” Arin whispered. “How did you survive??” Frak whisped back amazed.
Pixal approached the door but didn't open it.
“State who you are and why you are here…even though I have a good guess.”
“It is Garmadon,” he replied, trying to sound calm. “I’ve come to see Lloyd.”
“Lloyd isn't here.”
Garmadon exhaled sharply. Of course they were already hiding him. “I just need to speak with him.”
“Why?” Pixal pressed.
“I…would like to make peace.”
Behind the wall the students looked at each other. “What?” Sora mouthed.
“...Why?” Pixal asked again. She had to get to the root of this.
“CAN I NOT HAVE-” he coughed abruptly. “Sorry-” he breathed. “Can I not have a change of heart?”
“...the chances are…perceivably low,” Pixal responded. Calculating now.
“Especially considering he doesn't have a heart.” Wyldfyre hissed.
“And yet,” Garmadon went on “there is a cameraman downtown who would not give up on me for the past several years, and he won't like to hear that his efforts were wasted when I came here for nothing, so please let me speak to my son.”
“Garmadon knows the word please?” Arin blinked.
“I was not lying when I said your son isn't here.” Pixal reliped. Somehow wishing Lloyd was here. For garmadons sake? No. Maybe. It didn't matter he wasn't here.
There was another pause. Longer. He was thinking.
“...Can I…” he clenched his fists and forced the words out, “please…come inside?”
Pixal looked back to the students. Her priority was to protect them. But they no longer looked scared. A bit weary yes. But they did not look vulnerable. Frohiky however- no, he certainly required shielding.
And there was such a quiet desperation she could feel on the other side that somehow compelled her to want to turn the handle.
“Do it!” Wyldfyre nodded, readying her fists
Frak shook his head and pulled her hands down “Are you crazy?! Its a trick!”
“Children perhaps we should seek shelter in the saferoom.” Frohiky suggested.
“...He sounds sad,” Arin muttered.
Sora scoffed, “He doesn't get sad!...but you’re kinda right.”
Pixal still couldn't choose. Following the previous pattern, her answer should be a straight, easy no. Easy. This should be easy. But if Garmadon truly wanted to make peace with Lloyd…this was worth it. But if he was going to get upset when he found out that Lloyd wasn’t here, she couldn't risk it. And if he was lying, which felt the most probable …she couldn't tell Garmadon where Lloyd was either.
“Have you come alone?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“What do you have with you?”
“A sandwich…in my pocket.”
“What kind of sandwich?” Pixal squinted.
“... Peanut butter and jelly. Vinny wrapped it up before I left.”
“Hm…and that is all?”
“Pretty much.”
Pixal tilted her head. “Now when you say pretty much do you mean that sarcastically, as in there is also a grenade in the other pocket, or the rest is just average miscellaneous items?”
“Second one,” he sighed.
By now, the students and even Frohicky had inched out from behind the wall.
They looked to Pixal.
She shook her head. “Assume more defensive positions,” she whispered, “as precaution.”
They cracked their knuckles, stretched their arms, and braced themselves. Mr. Frohiky took several steps back.
Pixal opened the door.
She expected to see a violent bent oni she’d have to defend the monastery from. But instead, what she saw was a forlorn father resigned to aggression. A tremble in his gaze she’d only ever seen in the faces of weaker men.
Of all the names one could come up with to label Lord Garmadon, pitiful was never in a million years what would come to anyone's mind.
And yet here he stood in a tie with a PB & J in his pocket.
“Come in.”
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After calming down about the fact that the lord of destruction had just come to their door, and he accepted that the main group of ninja in this monastery was once again a bunch of kids, it was time to discuss why this was the situation.
“Lloyd, Zane, Cole, Kai, Nya, and Jay will be travelling to Solaria for the next few days,”
Pixal explained.
Garmadon rubbed his chin, "Solaria you say?...”
Pixal nodded, “Yes, they left this morning.”
“How come?”
“A messenger was sent from the kingdom to bring them back and resolve an issue caused by the merge.”
“Back to Solaria..”
“Correct.”
“That's a name I haven't heard in a long time."
“You know of it?”
“...Yes,” Garmadon muttered, walking in the direction of the library.
“Um- excuse me-” Pixal hesitated and looked back to the students who were curiously walking behind her. She followed him.
Garmadon waved her away her concern. “I know my way around-”
“What are you looking for?” Arin asked as Garmadon started sifting through the scrolls.
Garmadon cleared his throat but did not take his eyes off his task. “Many years ago, when I was the kind of little monster who would ask for bedtime stories, my father often told my brother and I about the many lands he traveled to and all the realms he visited…”
The students and Pixal followed quietly, and he moved to searching the next shelf.
Garmadon blew some dust away from the ledge, and Mr. Frohicky coughed, “hey I organized those!”
Garmadon ignored him and rummaged through another section of tightly packed papers “Of course, I had bigger problems once the venom overtook me, but my favourite of those long forgotten stories were the ones about... ”
He picked out the scroll he was looking for and held it close with both hands. “Solaria.”
The students leaned in wanting to get a look at the scroll but Garmadon waved it in the air as he started speaking again.
“Wu, that ever-easily impressed fool, always went on and on about how Shintaro must be the most perfect, beautiful kingdom. As he heard it from my father, he was convinced. But to me, it sounded cold, pointy and restrictive. I hated the idea from the start and by now I've been in far too many places fitting that description.”
He continued using the scroll as a multipurpose prop in addition to his gestures.
“Solaria on the other hand sounded open and warm and full of life- a perfect balance between excitement and…” He looked out the window and then down at the paper, “peace.”
Garmadion tightened the scroll in his lower hands and shrugged with the top.
“So, naturally, I had pushed such a thing out of my mind.”
He smacked his lips.
“But now!” Everyone stepped back, caught off guard by the unsettling sudden enthusiasm.
“I know exactly where we need to go!” He continued sounding…cheerful?
The students looked to Pixal. “We?” they all mouthed.
Garmadon was also trying to get Pixals attention again, “Tell me the issue- it must have to do with the tree, yes?”
Pixal looked between the students and Garmadon. “Yes- But- we’re not going anywhere with you…”
Garmadon stood straighter and held his scroll like a staph while he addressed this new gen of ninja. “Well, this technically may not be my circus, and you certainly may not be my monkeys. But today” he closed his eyes and nodded. “I take my place as ringmaster.”
The group's gazes searched each other's faces simultaneously; each reading a slightly different way, but in the end, all were thinking, “What is this clown going on about??”
Garmadon stared at them all. “Well, what are you waiting for? Time to get this show on the road!”
Pixal stepped ahead. “Excuse me, this is extremely unclear- why do you even want us to come?”
“Did you not just hear my incredible and very motivating speech on assuming wholesome leadership as a pivotal step in my character development?”
“That's what that was?” Sora whispered to Wyldfrye, bewildered.
Mr. Frohiky crossed his arms but pointed to the scroll, “That's not even a map to Solaria! Where exactly do you plan on going??”
Garmadon carefully unrolled it and went back to a more serious but calm tone.
"The temple of light."