Chapter Text
Lloyd always hated his father.
How could he not? The man ruined his life. He’s the reason everyday he’s berated and seen as a monster by civilians and school peers.
Not to mention his damn genetics gifted him with fangs and red eyes. At least he didn’t have four arms. That would’ve definitely stopped him from being allowed to step inside the city limit. It wasn’t like the people hadn’t petitioned for it already. He’s certain the only reason he hasn’t been kicked out is because they’re afraid to anger his father.
Newsflash people his dad forgot he even exists!
He’s sure of that by now. That guy only cares about conquering the city and controlling its citizens by their fear. Fear holds a lot of power over people. He noticed that early on, he had to be four at the time when it happened. He was playing by himself in the sand of a playground and was approached by a little girl wanting to play as well.
It was the first time he had ever been asked that, not counting his cousin who babysat him constantly. Of course he had accepted and it was fun. She was nice to him. Nice! No one was nice to him and he never understood why at that age. He thought he was unlikeable, really.
It wasn’t long till her mother came back and she panicked, shouting “Lloyd Garmadon!”
He’ll never forgot the way the little girl screamed and…attacked him, mercilessly may he add. It wasn’t till his cousin came rushing back and plucked him from the sand box that she stopped. He still remembered how Morro shouted at the girl to…well, it was a very crude response. The mother called them both monsters.
Now he knows fear does things to people. It makes them act out like wild animals, lashing out, skittering away at the sight of him, pressing themselves against the nearest corner in an attempt to hide.
It’s cruel, but he knows who caused it. Garmadon. His dad has been attacking the city ever since he was a baby. There was an elemental alliance that fought him before the secret ninja force stepped up, but they’re long retired or disappeared into the wind.
The secret ninja force is the most important thing to him, they keep that monster away, they ensure the safety of innocent civilians and they’re beloved by all of Ninjago city.
Under the mask is the only time he feels truly free when he’s not with his best friends. Then again, he’s always with his best friends since their group makes up the secret ninja force. He’s the leader, cyan is water support and his second in command, red is ground support, black is the heavy hitter, blue is air support and white is their planner and occasionally wild card depending on if he’s feeling like a wild teen or not.
They’re the most important people to him, Y’know excluding his mom, uncle and older cousin. They’ve always been there. He met black and blue in second grade. He was being picked on by Chen and his cronies when black came to his rescue and shoved Chen away with surprising strength. He can still clearly picture blue clinging to the other boy’s shirt, extremely shy and even more anxious.
Once the bullies left, Black introduced himself as Cole and blue as Jay. It was a surprisingly good day despite getting a bloody nose.
He met red and cyan in middle school. They were the popular kids, but cyan caught eyes for him. Cyan was determined to make him her little brother and no one can change her mind when she decided something.
About a week later she introduced herself as Nya and introduced her red clad twin brother as Kai. In wasn’t long until their popularity took a dive. They didn’t care though, Cole, Jay, Nya and Kai were true friends to him.
White has been the newest addition to their friend group. Lloyd met him on the last day of his first semester when someone tripped him and his books went everywhere. The kind boy had bent down and helped clean up the mess.
Right away Lloyd knew there was something special about him, even when he introduced himself as the famous Lloyd Garmadon the boy simply extended his hand and told him it was a pleasure to finally meet him, telling the green clad boy his name; Zane Julien. That was four months ago and white has been a ninja for two months, yet they trust him with their lives.
Sure, he’s strange, but Lloyd finds it endearing. Although he’s pretty convinced this kid isn’t human. Jay thinks he’s a robot, which is a little too silly for him to believe personally. Anything could happen though. Especially if there’s monsters like his dad out there.
Speaking of monsters, he’s locked in a standoff with that creep right now. Leave it to Garmadon to come out of his mech and start strutting around like he owns the place. It takes everything in his power not to blow his dad up with a missile right then and there.
He can’t though, not with that weird golden weapon in his hands and that shit eating grin on his face.
“What do you want, Garmadon?” Lloyd hisses, fangs bared behind the mask. The nerve of this guy! God, he has such a punchable face. No wonder Chen likes to beat him up if he looks even half like this asshole.
“Ah green ninja, you’re always so, so serious. You’re getting boriiiinnnngggg!” the four armed menace groans, stroking his weapon as if it were a cat. “Maybe you should spice up the dialogue. Make it interesting and not so stupid sounding!”
Lloyd grinds his teeth.
“I won’t ask again, what do you want?”
“Well, Ninjago City of course!” Garmadon spreads his lowers arms out, pointing the staff at the green ninja.
The other ninja’s mechs instantly point their weapons at him and the oni giggles maniacally, seemingly not impressed in the slightest.
“Put em down, ninja. We don’t want this to get messy.” Garmadon nods to his aquatic themed army, all of them pointing guns at the heroes from behind. “I just want you to listen to me, green ninja. Loud and clear.”
The ninja reluctantly lower their mech’s weapons, glaring fiercely at the lord of darkness.
“Fine, speak.” Lloyd replies shortly, watching him carefully. Garmadon never wants to just talk. He’s up to something and knowing him it’s pure evil. “I’m listening.”
Garmadon smiles.
“You see, I’ve been trying to finish you ninja off for two whole years, but you keep returning. You even have a new ninja as of two months ago. You can see how frustrating that is, can’t you?” he drawls on, pacing back and forth.
“I needed something to shift the balance, something to stop you from beating me again. I delved into my father’s old scrolls and found a legend about four golden weapons that were drained of their powers to defeat evil demons from another realm, but when united they become an all power wish granting staff.”
“Why are you telling us a fairytale meant for babies?” Red spits from his fire mech, abruptly pausing the story.
Garmadon growls at him, fangs bared before returning to his speech. “I thought surely, surely there’s still some power in these things. I sought each one out in secret and combined them. I now have the power to make a wish, maybe more depending on how much juice is left in it.” he finishes and stretches his fingertips. “What do you think green ninja?”
“I think you’re crazy.” Loyd deadpans, eyeing him. If there was a weapon of that power, then his uncle would’ve definitely said something by now.
“Mmm really? Well then, megaweapon,” he glances down at it, grinning like a maniac. “I call upon you for a wish. I wish for you to send this annoying little green ninja somewhere he can no longer mess with my plans.”
The staff suddenly starts to glow gold and Garmadon grips it tightly with a pained grimace, the weapon shaking.
“Ll-green!” Red exclaims, looking over to his leader in fear.
Lloyd stares at the weapon, mouth agape under the mask as he watches the weapon glow brighter and brighter. Suddenly there’s a big flash and-and nothing happens.
Garmadon stares at him as if waiting for him to poof out of existence.
Lloyd suddenly starts laughing, relief washing over him. “You actually almost had me there.” he breathes out, staring down at the oni from his dragon mech. “Now, if I were you I’d brace for impact .” he clicks a few buttons, missiles preparing to fire.
The evil lord yelps and practically springs into his shark mech, taking off at top speed, the green ninja trailing close behind and firing at him. One of the missiles hit him and the other disappears into the ocean making a very big splash.
The shark mech disappears beneath the depths and Lloyd is about to attempt to follow it when he gets hit by a dizzy spell, getting extremely lightheaded. He grips the mech’s controllers, taking deep breathes in and out. His head feels fuzzy, as if it’s filled with scratchy cotton balls.
“G…Gr..ca…can…h…r..green!”
Lloyd jumps, hearing all five of his teammates screaming through his ear piece. He gasps loudly, slowly regaining his senses.
“Green, are you okay?” Blue squeaks, voice trembling.
“I’m okay. I just felt a little lightheaded is all. Let’s return to base.” Lloyd switches off his comms immediately, piloting towards the docks. He doesn’t want his friends to worry. They do too much of that already, especially when he walks home alone. He only got stabbed in the arm one time and they never let it go.
He’s the second to land, albeit a little slowly. He still feels off. As soon as his feet drop onto the concrete, he stumbles, but manages to catch himself. Well, partially, Cole got to him just as he steadied himself.
“It’s okay, Cole. I’m fine.” Lloyd sighs, pulling off his stuffy mask.
The black ninja just scoops him up in his arms, ignoring the smaller boy’s indignant shouts. He carries him all the way to the medical bay, plopping him on a bed. “Sit. Zane is going to check you over.” he commands, crossing his arms.
Lloyd groans loudly, flattening himself on the bed. “Come on, Cole. We can’t afford to wait around. We have school, remember?” he glances up, being met with the dark haired boy’s ‘no nonsense’ stare. “Seriously?”
“Seriously.”
It only takes a few minutes and the rest of the ninja are crowding into the room, all wanting to check on the young teen. It’s honestly a little overwhelming, but it happens more often than not with his best friends. Especially with Nya and Kai, his certified big siblings. Although Morro always makes faces when he calls them that, but he chalks that up to his cousin being overprotective.
“Let me through.” Zane pushes the twins aside and gets to work, making the green ninja wait patiently. He does several scans with different machines and even stares at him an unnaturally long time as if he can just sense what’s wrong with him with a glance.
Maybe, Jay’s theory about him being a robot wasn’t that crazy after all.
“I can’t find anything amiss.” Zane finally concludes, tapping his clipboard. “He appears to be in perfect health. The most logical reasoning is that it was purely a rush of adrenaline that caused the dizziness.”
“Are you absolutely sure?” Kai asks, peeking his head over the white haired boy’s shoulder.
“Of course.”
“Perfect. We can go back to school.” Lloyd murmurs, clambering out of the bed. “I left my bag there.”
“According to the news report the school has closed early. You would not be able to get in at this time.”
Well, frick.
How did Zane even have time to check the news while doing all those tests?
Jay lets out a eep, jumping in place. “Igottagohomesorryguysparentstuff-“ he shrieks, taking off nearly as fast as his jet.
“I’ll make sure he changes into his civilian clothes.” Cole mutters, racing after the shortest teen.
“I’m going home and no, you can’t walk me.” Lloyd sighs, getting ready to leave. He quickly changes into his normal hoodie and jeans, heading home. There’s many pissed off stares directed at him and he speeds up, trying to ignore them.
This happens every time there’s a new Garmadon attack. Everyone wants someone to blame and hey, he’s the son of that guy, making him an easy target. There’s only a few people with enough balls to make a move on Lloyd Garmadon.
Not like he would ever fight someone, only if he was in danger of dying and even then he would probably hesitate before throwing a punch.
His phone jingles and he looks down, smiling. He presses the green button and puts it up to his ear. “Hey, ghost boy.”
An annoyed groan comes from the other side of the phone line. “Stop calling me that. It’s obnoxious.” Morro grumbles.
“Mhm. Then, why are you calling me if you find me so obnoxious, ghost boy?” Lloyd chuckles, grinning. a woman stares at him in extreme, unbridled terror and he quickly closes his mouth, hiding his fangs from sight.
“I just wanted to make sure my favorite legendary hero the green ninja is okay and well. You know, since I’m such a fanboy.”
“I’m fine, thank you for asking. How are you? Ghostly as ever?”
“I’m alive and breathing. Unfortunately.”
Lloyd lets out a snicker, that sounds more like an evil giggle to his absolute dismay. Curse his dad for giving him that horrid laugh. “Is college still beating your ass?”
“You bet. I’m playing a gig with my band in a couple days though, so hopefully it’ll be a welcome distraction.” Morro hums. “You headed home?”
“Yep.”
“You have one of your little bodyguards with you, right?”
“Nope.”
The older boy groans loudly, followed by another very dramatic noise. “Cuz, you gotta stay protected. There’s probably at least six hundred new people who want to stab you now. You can’t just walk home alone.”
“Relax. I’m already here.” Lloyd sighs, clambering up the apartment stairs. He types in the combination code and walks inside the complex. Yawning, he makes his way to the staircase since he was barred from going into the elevator. “I’ll call you later, okay? I’m gonna take a nap.”
“Okay, but make sure to lock the doors.”
“You got it.”
“And windows.”
“Way ahead of you.”
“Don’t let anybody inside unless you know they won’t try to stab you.”
“Morro. I’m not a baby.” Lloyd sighs, taking the stairs two at a time. “I’ll be super duper ultra careful, promise.” he swings open the third floor door, making his way down to the hallway and to his house door. “Later, ghost boy.”
“Goodnight, baby cousin.”
Lloyd mutters something under his breath and hangs up. He unlocks the door and goes inside, locking it up tightly behind him. Sighing heavily, he walks to his room, feet dragging. He sluggishly takes out his contact lenses and lays down on his bed.
As soon as he hits the pillow he’s out, sleeping peacefully for what feels like the first time in ages.
*****
When Lloyd wakes up he feels weird. He blinks his eyes a few times and cricks his back with a long groan. God, he feels strange. Maybe he should’ve drank more water earlier.
Getting to his feet, he stretches and walks over to his mirror. Before he can even reach for his brush, his eyes connect with the reflective glass and he screams.