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Living on the streets was harder then it sounds. Every kid has probably fantasized about running away, living off of movie knowledge and so on. Lloyd knows he sure has, even before getting kicked out of Darkley's Boarding School.
He used to lay in bed deep into the night and imagine a world where he could just run away, leaving his awful life behind. He'd pick a new name, go somewhere remote, and try not to interact with anyone in fear of them recognizing him as Garmadon's spawn. It was always a gamble whether or not people would. Sometimes its people who were too young to have remembered the wars, the battles caused by his father. Others lost loved ones in those battles, so if they couldn’t have the real thing, they could always settle for his son.
It wasn't very hard to look onto Lloyd and see Lord Garmadon. Sure, Lloyd didn't have four arms or shadowed skin, but the red eyes and sharp canines and claws that kept growing even when he cut them with stolen pliers or pointed ears and First master why was everything about him so sharp-
A loud crunch had broken Lloyd's train of spiraling thoughts. He warily gazed down to the animal carcass in his hands, a small bird with brown feathers and a black beak. Drips of the animals blood fell onto the ground from where he sat, along with the blood on his face from the small body.
Normally the child would eat scraps from trashcans or steal food from open kitchen windows, but today he woke up soaked from the previous nights rain and sore all over from running around all around town trying to escape whoever he pissed off.
He had stumbled into an alley and saw a lone bird in the far corner pecking at a rotten sandwich (which Lloyd swiped as well, never knew when he would be able to eat next). It was tedious and was hard to be quiet with the splashes of water in the lingering puddles, but he'd managed to grab the creature and kill it by bashing its head on the cobblestone ground. Guilt flooded his senses but his hunger prevailed over it. Yes he felt really bad but Lloyd was just so hungry.
Not a day goes by since he was born where Lloyd wasn't starving. Hungry for attention, hungry for love. Hungry enough to eat a raw bird corpse that probably has a hundred different diseases in it but he doesn't really care at the moment. Always hungry for something out of reach.
The body was limp in his hands, his face and hands splattered in its blood like he was in some bad slasher film he sometimes saw commercials for whenever he went to the bigger cities. Its eyes rolled up and glazed over, yet still seemed like it was staring at him. Not in fear or anger for its death, but acceptance that this is its end. By the hands of a monster with a pit in its stomach, never to be quenched.
He ran his tongue over his teeth, wiping some of the crimson off before taking another bite, careful not to bite into bone this time and risk cracking a tooth. Infection was one of the things Lloyd was sure would kill him one day if someone else didn't get to it first. It was just so easy to get. The slightest cut could get contaminated and there goes his short, miserable life. He thinks he would rather die by someone else's hands then experience that. At least you're not alone when you're murdered, and Lloyd's so sick of being alone.
Disgusting sounds of tearing flesh filled the alley. It almost made him throw up just by the sheer noise of it but then he remembered he couldn't afford to throw up and lose the rare meal he attained. Sucks for him, he guesses.
After a while, he ate as much as he could and dropped the remains into the side dumpster. He didn't think he was ready to eat something bones and all. That seemed too final, like he was condemning himself and cementing the idea that he really was some monster that ate things whole. Curling into the same corner he found his food in, he wondered if someone would stumble through into the alley and gobble him up just like he did the bird. It would serve him right, at least.
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The ninja were weird. That’s one of the first things Lloyd came to think of when referring to the group of brightly colored teens. Yes, he could admit they're kinda cool and that their fighting moves are sick as heck when they do them right, but overall they're weird and frustrating. Especially after they took him in.
At first, it was what he expected. They didn't like him and he didn't like them back. It felt like Lloyd was one more poorly-timed prank before one of them threw him of the Bounty. But they never did. Not when Lloyd stole Jay's mechanical tools from his box or tore Zane's cooking apron to shreds. Not when he replaced the sugar for salt when Cole tried to bake one of his cakes, or left open food in Nya's room with her window open so birds could fly in and reck the place. Not even Kai was that angry, and Lloyd was sure the red ninja hated him the most!
Maybe it had something to do with them not wanting to upset uncle Wu, but still. He barely got yelled at here! It just seemed too good to be true. And in the mist of Lloyd's confusion, if there's one thing he knew wasn't good it was the warm feeling that enclosed him whenever the ninja were particularly nice to him. Getting attached meant becoming weak, and if he wanted to be like his father, he couldn't be weak.
Lloyd felt sorta (very) bad about releasing the Serpentine though. The ninja looked more and more tired everyday, and apparently there's a possibility of his dad coming back?
He just hoped nothing too bad happened any time soon.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Finally in the safety of their shared room, Lloyd could properly panic.
When the golden weapons reacted to his presence and he felt a swell of something enrapture him like he was on fire, he didn't quite understand it yet. When his uncle and father shared a look with each other that Lloyd could describe as nothing short of quiet terror, he didn't understand yet. Even when the ninja glanced at Lloyd like they were seeing him for the first time, and he somehow knew that they felt the same feeling of warmth that he did in the moment, he didn't understand.
Only when his father took him aside and explained it to him with a look of shaky acceptance, did he finally start to get the picture.
What do you mean he's the Green Ninja? That he needs to kill his father and save Ninjago? He just got him back!
Why should he need to forget everything he's been taught about becoming evil so he could become the savior of the lands? What has this world done for him? Nothing more than misery and pain on cold nights, that's what! He managed to hold in his anxiety until he was alone, and even then he couldn't let it out entirely because what kind of leader shows that sort of panic? If he was to be the greatest ninja of all time, he was meant to be strong and courageous. But how could he be those things if he felt like he was going to explode for First Master's sake! He's nine years old, why should he have to save the world?
FSM, what was Lloyd going to do?
.
.
.
Seriously, couldn't his life be just a little bit easier?