Chapter Text
He knew it was going to happen sooner or later. The little rays of light that remained in his life seldom shone for long before being extinguished by the sheer magnitude of darkness that surrounded him. He was foolish enough to hope that the peace would last just a little longer before he inevitably ruined it. At some point he’d have to ask himself, to wonder, if the serpent’s bite truly caused his evil, or whether it simply brought to the surface what was already there. He held up the note left on his baby son’s bed.
We can’t do this anymore, was written in Misako’s swirly handwriting. It was followed by more words, meaningless apologies that he couldn’t bring himself to read.
And Garmadon lost himself in his anger. He crumpled the paper in a fist and disintegrated it with vengeful purple flames. Misako had gone. Lloyd, their son, had gone. One lapse of madness too many perhaps. But he’d never, never, even in the darkest depths of his evil, willingly hurt his wife and child. She knew that. She had to know that, right? Or maybe after his latest fight with Wu she was no longer willing to take that chance. Bloodlust raged as the urge to paint the room in red rose. Inky, jet black darkness stretched past his wrists, clawing it’s way up his arms. Oni heritage, his father had softly explained one night, when Garmadon was still a boy. It had been hundreds of years ago now, but the ageing process for near immortals such as himself and Wu was unnecessarily complicated. Tears stung his eyes, his irises an unnerving shade of red. All of his life he had tried his best to resist the lure of the venom’s evil, what would happen if he merely allowed it to be? He had nothing to loose, he could not force Misako back – make her return Lloyd to him.
His son was gone. His child. Lloyd, the beautiful baby with dazzling ruby eyes and a mop of fluffy golden hair. The boy he’d read stories to late at night, ran around the garden with, and raised for the past three years.
He laughed bitterly, allowing himself to sink deeper into the stranglehold that the Great Devourer had coiled around his neck. This is what would become of him then, a puppet for the venom’s evil, for the oni’s destruction, for the prophecy of his demise. He could just embrace it, become the definition of evil and reshape Ninjago in his image. A thought he found disturbingly tempting.
A knock at the door dislodged him from his downward spiral. The brunet heard the sound of a key entering and twisting the lock. Footsteps echoed in his home. The only person, other than himself and Misako, who had a key to his house was Wu.
“Brother, are you home?” he asked, stopping when he saw the other man.
“Did you know?” Garmadon questioned darkly, not moving to look at his younger brother.
“...Know what, Garmadon?” Wu replied, hesitantly.
“They’re gone, Wu,” he said, brokenly. “Misako, Lloyd – they left and-”
And what more was to be said? Misako had gone, and worst of all she’d taken Lloyd with her. Through thick and thin, she had said. But Misako had lied. The love of his life, one of the few reasons he hadn’t given in completely and wholly to the evil that resided within, had left.
“Can you blame them?” Wu responded, and at that Garmadon looked towards his younger brother.
Wu’s blue eyes were shimmering with sorrow and he still looked bruised. Some sickening part of him was glad that the blond was in pain, that Wu was at least suffering a fraction of the pain he was, but Garmadon quickly stomped it down. That was his brother. Blood is thicker than water, their father had told them once, placing an end to a meaningless argument between his two young children.
“I feel like I’m being split in two,” Garmadon said, in one of the final times he would ever confide in his brother before succumbing to evil completely. “Part of me knows what is right and what is wrong, but what’s wrong just feels so right… no, I can’t blame her. Look at what’s happening to me – I’m steadily becoming a monster.”
“You’re not-”
“I am!” he yelled, gesturing to Wu with a hand. “Look at what I’ve done to you already, what I’ve done in that past with Chen – how volatile will I be in a week, in a month, a year? Wu, you can’t trust me, what I am, neither can Misako or Lloyd. They can’t afford to make that mistake.”
“I will stop you,” Wu promised, solemnly. “When you fall again I will catch you, like I have before, and bring you back.”
“I fear the next time may be the last. And I mean that in the worst possible way.”
Wu didn’t reply. The younger man couldn’t dispute the facts. The two of them had known what was coming for many years now, ever since they were boys. They had already seen it before, when he had slipped into evil for months at a time, Chen’s encouraging words more welcome than Wu’s well-meaning lectures, falling deeper and deeper into hatred while Wu watched, helpless. There was nothing the blond could do. If there was nothing that even his father, the First Spinjitsu Master, could do to cure him, then Garmadon was certain that nothing could. His brother didn’t offer any comfort, it was past the time that they could. A brother’s warm embrace meant little to either of them anymore.
“Then, when that time comes, I will place an end to your evil,” Wu said.
“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Garmadon replied, lying.
He knew what the only end to his evil would be, his demise at the hands of the Green Ninja. The Green Ninja, who Wu was decidedly not. He was glad that his brother would not be the one to witness the life die in his eyes, hatred in them till the end – no one should have to do that to their own family.
Within the next week the grief and senseless rage retreated, leaving him with only a despondent emptiness staining his soul. Draining him from the inside out. He became a shallow husk. He had no purpose – no point to his life. His family, his family who he’d promised to protect no matter what, were gone. And now, there was nobody. His brother was busy, and could never stay for long. Wu’s duty leading the Elemental Alliance took up much of his time, and Garmadon had stopped attending their meetings years ago.
He was alone, completely and utterly. It was hardly his first time alone, but it was by far the worst. He’d had but a small glimpse of true happiness just to have it torn apart.
The man wandered the hallways of his empty home, ghostlike, an inherent hollowness to his gait. Vacant ruby spheres would stare blankly into the mirror. There were large bags beneath his sunken eyes, his unkept hair had grown longer than he’d ever allowed it before, his face had become narrow and gaunt. Dark whispers raged within his head. He tried his best not to listen to the alluring call of evil.
He barely kept track of time, it no longer mattered. It was day when it was day, and night at night. He barely ate – that no longer mattered either. Nothing mattered, nothing except the… no. Garmadon would not betray his brother and everything their family stood for. But the venom’s thoughts began to meld with his own, intertwining so carefully that he struggled differentiating between which ones were truly his.
It all came to ahead when Garmadon found himself walking to his brother’s monastery – the golden weapons the only thing on his mind. He might as well embrace his fate, shoulder destiny’s cruel gaze.
How he would grow to despise destiny.
Lloyd hated Darkley’s School for Bad Boys. He hated the other kids, the teachers, the food. He hated that the other boys got to go home, got presents on their birthdays, went on trips into the city, permission slips all neatly signed. He had been there since he was three. He had hated it when he arrived, and he hated it now. He hated how his mother had left him, how he’d sobbed when watching her descend down the stairs and out of his life. He hated his mother, the woman whose face he could hardly remember yet despised so much. Lloyd hated himself, because he didn’t know what he’d done to make her leave. What had disgusted Misako so much that she had abandoned him for it?
Lloyd did not hate his father, surprisingly. Lord Garmadon’s reputation had saved his skin on many occasions. And while he could hardly remember a time before Darkley’s, he did remember dark hair, protective red eyes, and warm cuddles. Lloyd had seen what happened to the others without an ‘evil’ enough rep. Luke’s head being smashed into a metal locker, Yukio’s broken nose, Soren being thrown out of the window. The teachers hardly cared about the endless bullying. Lord Garmadon had saved him from that, for the most part. At least now he was no longer there. At twelve and a half years old, Lloyd had ran away. About time. Hopefully his dad would take him in, if not he wasn’t really sure what he was going to do. But Lloyd could be evil enough! He was worthy enough to be his father’s son! Surely Garmadon wouldn’t leave him like her. He just needed to find the man… somehow. Make him notice that Lloyd was a good enough son.
Make him notice! Lloyd would just have to accomplish something truly evil to get his father to see. But Lloyd had nothing but the clothes on his back and the money he’d stolen from the other boys. The boy would have to kill to get enough attention… but Lloyd didn’t want to kill, not really. Besides, it didn’t take away how awesome of a villain he could be if he didn’t kill. There were other ways to gain attention than death.
He groaned in irritation. How could he be an evil mastermind if he couldn’t mastermind any dastardly plots to mastermind over!
Lloyd had escaped to Jamanakai Village. He had seen an advertisement for the Inn on the side of a bus he had sneaked on back in the city. With nobody to tell him what to do, he might as well explore Ninjago and scope out possible locations for an evil lair.
He stared in awe at the stalls of sweets for sale. He’d never seen so many in his life! The boy’s mouth watered at the sight. Sighing sadly, he glanced to his small bag of stolen money. He needed it for the Inn. He was Lloyd Garmadon, son of none other than Lord Garmadon, there was no way he would sleep on the streets like- like a nobody peasant! He supposed his evil debut would have to be in the pursuit of sweets and chocolates. Not the worst thing in the world, he guessed. And certainly yummy! Worth it.
Lloyd shrouded himself in the shadows, almost comforted by their presence. He always been able to melt into dark spaces, to camouflage into the darkness. Lloyd liked to think of it as his dad watching over him. His red eyes always unnerved people. That worked for him. Lloyd liked his red eyes. It scared the villagers as he enlarged the shadows around him. However, the fear didn’t last long.
Four ninja, who were under his uncle’s tutelage, arrived. Sensei Wu, his uncle, a man who he knew existed, but remembered even less than his parents. The villagers booed and jeered as the boy was hung by his hoodie from the corner of a shop sign.
“Lloyd Garmadon?” one of them had complained. “I thought we were going to fight Lord Garmadon!”
Lloyd glared, cursing them out as he was sure his father would’ve done.
“Mark my words!” he screamed, squirming as the collar of his hoodie strangled his neck. “You’ve made a dangerous enemy today, ninja! I will get even!”
He was ignored. Next time he would do something much worse than steal delicious confectioneries. Then they would see just who they were messing with! He would become a villain worthy of history books – though Lloyd had always paid little attention to history. The boy squealed in shock as old fruit peelings were thrown at him by irritated villagers.
It was late at night when he’d managed to wiggle his way off the shop sign, hurting his leg as he dropped to the ground. He rubbed at his sore neck, making his way to the Inn. He knew that villains weren’t loved by the do-gooder public, but to be mocked in the way he was however was completely mortifying. It wouldn’t be like that forever though, he vowed to himself as he was kicked out of the Inn before he could even ask for a room. One day Lloyd Garmadon would be a name to be feared.
The small boy resigned himself to a cold night on the streets, but he refused to sleep. No, he would not stoop so low as to have to sleep outside. He was better than that! He was merely wandering the land late at night, gaining inspiration for his evil plans. So he left, let them think they’d gotten off lightly, scared him away. He would return, and when he did, they’d rue the day that they crossed Lloyd Garmadon! It was his destiny!
How he would grow to despise destiny.