Chapter Text
Kai leaped out of the cockpit of his mech and hit the ground running, racing straight towards the wreckage, his heart in his throat.
He’d seen the whole thing.
One moment, Green’s dragon mech had been flying low in the distance, Green himself speaking to him over the comm, telling him he was returning… and then the next, the mech was on fire, the dragon hurtled down and into a four-story building (which had already been evacuated, thankfully), and then, on impact, it erupted in an explosion of smoke and fire, the building toppling over like a jenga tower.
Garmadon’s forces had already retreated, almost with an air of embarrassment for the uncharacteristically large amount of destruction they’d caused, and so hadn’t noticed the stray lucky shot they’d landed on the Green Ninja. The first responders and rescue workers teeming around the area were all too busy helping survivors to have been watching the skies and see the fall of the dragon mech either. So it was only Kai running desperately towards the site, yelling into his comm for the other ninja to come and help, trying not to think of the terrible but very real possibility that Green had been lost in the explosion.
When he reached the collapsed building he immediately started climbing over the rubble, eyes on the torn-apart metal plates strewn amongst the bricks that was all that was left of Green’s mech. Please, he thought, please tell me he made it, please tell me the mech was enough to shield him…!
He reached the biggest piece of metal, what he felt sure used to be the dragon’s head, and heaved it aside. He found nothing under it but more rubble… and a dusty limp hand poking out through the pile.
“Green!!”
Kai dug through the rubble and threw slabs of rock and concrete aside, unearthing Green’s head and torso. Green’s eyes were closed, his gi torn and singed in multiple places and blackened with soot. His mask had a small burn at the forehead. Exposed to the air, the burn awoke into a flame and leaped up threateningly, already eating away at the cloth. Kai yelped, grabbed the mask without thinking, and ripped it off Green’s head. He flung it away and frantically brushed his hands over Green’s dirty blonde hair, checking that it hadn’t caught.
Once he’d satisfied himself that Green’s head wasn’t on fire, he inspected the rest of him, patting his hands tentatively down his body, feeling for broken bones or wounds. His gloved fingers pressed against something sticky and wet, and when he cleared the area around Green’s stomach, he hissed at what he saw: pieces of shrapnel were poking out through the gi, blood leaking slowly around them.
“Shit!” Kai made to take the shrapnel pieces out, then hesitated. What if that made the bleeding worse? God, Green was so still, it scared him. If it hadn’t been for the infinitesimal rise and fall of his chest, Kai would have thought that he…
“Green. Buddy, can you hear me?” He carefully cupped the side of Green’s face and turned his head towards him. “Just hang in there, okay? You’ll be alright, you’re–”
Kai froze.
Green’s face, like the rest of him, was smudged and covered with soot. There was a long red scrape on his left cheek, and a small trickle of blood ran down from his forehead to his eyebrow. Even without all these obstructions, Kai doubted he would have been able to recognize that face sooner, blinded as he’d been by worry over Green’s state to pay much attention to what he looked like beneath the mask. But now, with all his focus trained on the blonde boy – someone who, in physical appearance at least, should have been a stranger – it was undeniable to Kai whose face he was looking at. Who it was wearing Green’s ninja gi, lying in the middle of the broken remains of Green’s mech. Who it was Kai had been so afraid for, just a moment ago, but now only engendered in him a cold white shock.
“Lloyd… Garmadon…?”
He pulled his hands back as though he’d just touched something hot, letting the boy’s head slump down against the rubble. Green – Lloyd – didn’t wake up.
Kai sat back and stared at him. He was at a complete loss.
Lloyd Garmadon. Lloyd Garmadon. The son of the evil villain who was the cause of all this. The most hated teenager in Ninjago. That Lloyd was the Green Ninja…
His friend Green.
“Red!”
Kai had to blink a few times and shake himself out of his reverie before he turned in the direction of the voice that had called his ninja name. Cyan – known only to Kai as Nya – was running fast towards him, her mech parked beside his a few yards away.
Kai watched as his sister climbed up the pile of rubble and knelt by Lloyd’s inert body, patting at him the way he had before.
“Is he okay? Is he breathing??”
“Yeah, he’s…” Kai trailed off, watching the look in her eyes shift from one of fear and concern to shock and horror. She pulled away from Lloyd slowly, staring at him in disbelief.
“Kai…” she breathed.
There wasn’t much more that could be said.
The heavy sounds of mechs thudding to a stop on the ground alerted them to the arrival of the remaining three ninja. White, Black, and Blue all soon joined them at the top of the pile, gathering around Green with their own worried questions about his safety. Both Kai and Nya backed up a bit to let them get closer and see for themselves, too stunned to say anything.
“Green!” Blue called, tapping Lloyd’s face sharply to wake him up. “Come on man, don’t do this. Don’t…”
There was a beat of silence while Black helped White remove the smaller bits of shrapnel from Lloyd’s side, White pressing his hand against the wound to slow the bleeding. When they were done they both looked up at Blue to see why he’d stopped talking.
“Blue?” said Black. “Is he–?”
“What is this?” Blue whipped his head sharply at first Kai then Nya, demanding an explanation, before looking around at the debris around him. “Where’s Green?”
“What are you talking about?” Both Black and White sat up and craned their necks to look at Green’s face. Twin looks of confusion turned amazement flashed across theirs.
“Is… Is that…?”
“Where’s Green?” said Blue again, a note of anger in his voice.
“It would appear Lloyd Garmadon is Green,” confirmed White quietly. He didn’t release the pressure on Lloyd’s wound.
“No.” Blue backed away from Lloyd, shaking his head and pointing at him accusingly. “No, he must have just been walking by and got caught in the explosion. Green has to be buried somewhere else!”
“Blue,” said Kai. “He was wearing his mask.” He didn’t point out the obvious that Lloyd was also wearing Green’s gi. He knew Blue knew already. He just didn’t want to believe it. Kai didn’t want to believe it either.
After looking at each of the others and seeing that none of them were going to deny the facts, Blue dropped down to his knees. “Holy shit… The whole time? The whole time?”
“No wonder he was always so uptight about keeping his identity secret,” said Black bitterly. “I can’t believe it… He’s been playing us for chumps!”
“Guys, can we talk about it later?” said Nya, kneeling beside White and wincing at Lloyd’s injury. “Right now he’s bleeding out! We need to call a medic.”
“Do we?” scoffed Blue. “Someone’ll find him eventually. We can just leave.”
The callousness of the statement made Kai stare at him in disbelief.
“Yeah,” said Black, standing up too. “We’ll just pretend we never saw him.”
“Hang on,” Kai found himself saying, also getting to his feet. “Are you… seriously suggesting we just leave him here to die?”
At that, Black hunched up guiltily and avoided his gaze. “Come on, he’s not dying,” he mumbled.
“We wouldn’t have even known he was here if he hadn’t been pretending to be Green,” Jay countered. “There’s probably plenty of other people we missed, people who aren’t evil, no one would blame us if we–”
“He’s a kid.”
“Yeah, but he’s–!”
“No matter who he is, we can’t just–!”
“Red…” rasped a different voice.
All three boys froze and looked down. Lloyd’s eyes were still closed, but his mouth was open, his chest heaving as he worked up the effort to speak again.
“Red… S’that you…?”
Kai hesitated only a moment before squatting down beside him. “Y-Yeah,” he said. “Yeah, I’m here. I’m here, Green.”
As soon as he said that, Lloyd stopped straining himself and relaxed, letting his head and shoulders rest flat. “Oh, good…” he sighed. Then he was still again, slipping back into unconsciousness.
Something clasped around Kai’s heart and squeezed it painfully. He was sure Lloyd hadn’t realized his mask was off. But even so, the way he had been reassured as soon as he’d heard that ‘Red’ was there…
An almost tangible feeling of shame hung in the air. Blue shuffled his feet uncomfortably.
White cleared his throat. “He needs medical attention now,” he said pointedly. “Cyan, call an ambulance.”
Nya pulled out a burner phone from her utility belt with obvious relief. Neither Black nor Blue objected, looking anywhere but at Lloyd.
Kai dropped his own gaze down at the injured boy, and a sudden lance of panic shot through him as he pictured the paramedics coming to take him away. “Wait,” he said. “Don’t!”
“Red, we can’t keep changing our minds like this!” said Nya impatiently.
“I’m not. We’ll help him. But…”
In the split second before Nya had opened her phone, a memory had flashed through Kai’s mind; an afternoon when he and Green had hung out together in the ninja's secret base after training. Kai had gotten to talking about his mundane civilian life, and how much fun being a ninja was to him in comparison. He hadn’t exactly pushed Green to share details about his own life in return, but he’d be lying if he said he hadn’t hoped to prompt that kind of response; even if he had promised not to try and find out Green’s real identity, he was still curious about him.
Green had gone quiet and somber, and Kai had almost told him he didn’t have to say anything. But then Green had slowly, cautiously, admitted that he felt the same way, that being a ninja was the most fun he’d ever had in his life, the only thing he ever looked forward to now during his ‘real’ life. ‘I used to hate every single day,’ he’d said, with a heaviness that testified no exaggeration or melodrama in the statement. ‘Honestly I can’t even remember the last time I was really happy before I… before I met all of you. Knowing I get to be in this team and see you all everyday… It’s made my normal life more bearable. I can handle everything so much better now that I have this ninja half of my life.’
He’d given Kai a very grave look then. ‘That’s why I’m always so scared about my secret getting out, Red. If people knew… If my ‘normal’ life ever bled into my ninja life too… it’d ruin everything. It’s my greatest nightmare. I… I don’t think I’d be able to handle it if anyone ever found out. Least of all you.’
At the time, Kai had sympathized but had also burned with curiosity all the more. Now it all made sense. The Green Ninja was as opposite to Lloyd Garmadon as it was possible to be – loved by all, a beacon of good and hope, hero of the city, charismatic, selfless, dependable, while Lloyd was alone and friendless, hated, cursed, evil, and a constant blight on the city reminding everyone of why they couldn’t know a moment of peace. If it ever did come to light that the two were one and the same, Lloyd’s life as a hero would be over. No one would ever trust the Green Ninja again.
Including his own team. Look how quickly Blue and Black had been ready to abandon him!
And Kai… Even Kai found the idea of Lloyd Garmadon being the one he’d been taking orders from all this time, playing ninja and helping trick the whole city into thinking he was some kind of hero, sickening and enraging.
But… the other side of finding out that Green had been Lloyd Garmadon all along was finding out that Lloyd Garmadon had been Green for just as long.
Green, who always prioritized saving everyone they could over beating back the bad guys.
Green, who was serious to a fault about his ninja training and often had to be physically dragged to the couch for a break.
Green who liked sweets but forgot to eat real food half the time.
Green who got excited about new installments of his favorite comic book series like a child.
Green who smiled and laughed just watching the other ninja goofing around with one another but became bashful when they pulled him in to join.
Green who was his best friend, who had gotten him out of a jam more times than he could count, who always listened to him when he complained about school or his parents or any number of dumb things that, in hindsight, probably paled in comparison to what Green went through every day.
It was that Green who would be thrown to the wolves if anyone discovered that he was actually Lloyd Garmadon. And Kai couldn’t let that happen.
“If he’s seen like this,” Kai explained now, gesturing at Lloyd’s green gi, “then everyone will know. Everyone.”
Blue crossed his arms. “Does it matter?” he grumbled.
“I promised I’d never try to expose him–”
“You promised Green. You don’t owe anything to Lloyd Garmadon! He tricked us, he used us!”
“To fight back against his own dad, Blue! He’s always fought harder than any of us, doesn’t that count for something?”
That stopped Blue for a moment, but Kai could see he still didn’t like the idea of keeping Lloyd’s secret.
“Um, friends,” said White, who’d been checking Lloyd’s pulse, “his blood pressure is dropping.”
Kai darted forward and fiddled at the knot of Lloyd’s obi, loosening it. Then he lifted Lloyd up into a half sitting position, and started pulling the sleeve of his gi off his arm.
“What are you doing?” said Blue.
“I’m getting this gi off him so it doesn’t give him away. You guys can either help or just sit back and watch!”
It only took a second for the others to see he was serious. The next second, each of them was tackling a different limb; Nya and White unwound the leg wraps around Lloyd’s ankles and pulled off his tabi boots, Black removed the wraps and glove of his right hand while Blue removed the ones on his left, and Kai freed Lloyd’s shoulders and arms from the outer robe. When he’d pulled it off him he bundled it up and handed it to Black, telling him and the others to take all the articles of Lloyd’s ninja outfit with them back to their mechs. Lloyd now lay in just his black undershirt and green pants, which, without the rest of the gi, looked innocuous enough to pass for regular loose-fitting ones.
Finally Kai scrambled to where he’d thrown Lloyd’s half-burned mask – the small fire had gone out – and stuffed it into the pocket of his own gi. “Okay. Now he’s just Lloyd Garmadon.”
“What about his shoes?” asked Blue, pointing at Lloyd’s bare feet. “Would the paramedics really buy that they just fell off him??”
“Let’s hope they’ll be too busy trying to save his life to care,” said Black, casting a grim look at Lloyd’s face, which was now worryingly ashen.
“Okay, I’m calling them already,” said Nya.
Kai took the burner phone from her. “I’ll do it. I’ll stay with him until he reaches the hospital. You guys scatter, it’ll look suspicious if we’re all here.”
The ninja exchanged uncertain glances, but Kai was already dialing emergency. He waved them off as he lifted the phone to his ear. “Go on. See if there’s anyone else that needs help, we’ll be fine here.”
“If you say so…” said Blue. He turned and leaped down the pile of rubble, and the others soon followed after. White took Kai’s free hand and guided it to take his place putting pressure on Lloyd’s stomach, then stood up and left as well.
Kai watched each of them climb into their mechs as he relayed the street and building number to the voice on the phone. When he’d hung up they were all gone without a trace.
Lloyd wheezed feebly through his mouth.
“Green?” Kai murmured. “Stay with me, bud. I… I promise you’ll be okay.” Tentatively he brushed Lloyd’s hair out of his eyes. “I promise, Lloyd.”
It didn’t take too long for an ambulance to arrive. Kai guessed it was one of the ones that had already been in the area, a suspicion confirmed by the dirt-streaked knees of the paramedics that came rushing out towards him. Kai quickly explained that one of Garmadon’s thugs had downed the Green Ninja’s mech – there wouldn’t have been any hiding the great green bits of metal everywhere – and that, while the Green Ninja had ejected himself in time and was now riding with one of the others, Kai had found Lloyd Garmadon among the wreckage while checking for any casualties.
As cover stories went, it was probably a very flimsy one. But Kai was banking on the idea that Lloyd Garmadon turning out to be the same person leading the resistance against Lord Garmadon’s tyranny this whole time was a far less believable scenario to anyone not in the know.
After all, it had taken him pulling Green’s mask off himself to even fathom the possibility.
If the paramedics had any sort of qualms about their patient being Lloyd Garmadon, they didn’t show it, simply getting right to work checking Lloyd’s injury and loading him onto a stretcher. Kai followed them as they carried him to the ambulance. “Is it alright if I go with him?” he asked. “Just to, uh… Just to protect him until he gets there. Like a kind of, hero, whaddayacallit… escort!”
The paramedic raised an eyebrow at that, but nodded, and Kai got into the back. As soon as the doors were closed, the ambulance moved. Kai sat and anxiously watched as Lloyd’s shirt was cut away and his wound treated. A breathing mask was fitted over Lloyd’s mouth and nose, and Kai was relieved to see the inside of it fog up slightly as Lloyd exhaled.
At some point, Kai saw Lloyd’s eyes open a crack, and they rolled around until his pupils landed on Kai. As soon as they did, Lloyd closed his eyes again. Not as though he couldn’t keep them open any longer, but like he'd found what he was looking for and now wanted to return to sleep.
He trusts me, Kai realized. He’s not worried because I’m here…
But how? How could he trust Kai so much like that? He didn’t even know who he was!
Then it hit Kai that Lloyd hadn’t ever trusted him, or any of the others. And it wasn’t personal either, because while he trusted Red, Cyan, Black, Blue, and White, he also trusted that no matter how close they’d become to the Green Ninja, anyone under those masks would have turned on him if they’d known who he really was.
Because it was just a fact of life that no one would ever willingly want to be friends with Lloyd Garmadon.
Well, thought Kai, clasping his hands together tightly, if Green really is still in there somewhere… maybe it's time that changed.