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As soon as he woke up, Lloyd had a feeling that something big was about to happen today.
Even though he didn’t have to wake up at 5 in the morning anymore like he did back in the (compared to now) good old days when he was training to defeat his father, he still kept up the habit, because as master-in-training it was probably good that he stayed disciplined.
That’s probably what Wu would say to him too. If he was still here.
He shook off the glum feeling that came with thinking about his Sensei and uncle. They’ll find him soon. Hopefully.
That feeling that something big was about to happen was confirmed when right after he’d stepped out of the shower and fixed himself some breakfast, he got a call from Pixal.
“Hey Pix! What’s up?” He greeted through a mouthful of sugary cereal. (What? Yeah he needed to be disciplined, but how could he deny his sweet tooth?)
“Please do not talk with your mouth full. You will choke and maybe die. And I’m calling to let you know that I’ve received intel about a criminal gang that is planning to steal something valuable from Borg Tower tonight. The Oni Mask of Vengeance.”
Lloyd swallowed his mouthful. “A mask huh? Ominous name too. Who would want something like that?”
“Um…” Pixal hesitated. Which was weird, she never hesitates.
“Pixal?” Lloyd was getting nervous now. “What aren’t you telling me?”
He heard his friend take a deep breath. And then…
“They call themselves… the Sons of Garmadon.”
And that was how Lloyd ended up with a mess of soggy cereal straight from his mouth to the tabletop. Gross.
But also–
“ The Sons of Garmadon? Are you serious ?”
Lloyd was feeling a whole mix of emotions that were way too much to get into this early. Confused, worried, scared, and angry. How dare this gang commit crimes under his father’s name when he died protecting Ninjago. But also, he was a little offended too. There was only one son of Garmadon, and that was him , thank you very much.
“I am afraid so, Lloyd. They are planning to rob Borg Tower during the New Year’s festival tonight, under the cover of darkness and celebration.”
And wow, Lloyd hadn’t even realised that it was almost the new year already today. That meant that it had been about a year since Wu was lost to time too.
Ninja never quit, he knew that. But it was hard, not to lose hope when the likelihood of finding him grew smaller and smaller each day.
“I’ll be sure to be there. Thanks Pix. And happy new year’s eve.”
“Happy new year’s eve to you too, Master Lloyd.” And that was the end of their call.
Lloyd cleaned up the spilt cereal and tried his best to finish whatever was remaining in his bowl, all while lost in his thoughts.
Who was this mysterious gang, really? And why the interest in his father, of all people? He assumed that his father the Sensei wasn’t so much their inspiration as his father the Dark Lord that wanted to conquer all of Ninjago. And that brought back his anger again. Sure, his father had done some really bad things before, but in his eyes he’s more than made up for it by sacrificing himself to the Cursed Realm forever.
And apparently, these people didn’t care that gave his life to protect everyone. Didn’t care that he left behind his family who were just starting to come together after the evil that ran through him was gone. Didn’t care that his real son, not these wannabes, still missed him, even after all this time, and was training every day to be a man he could be proud of.
His spoon hit the bottom of the now empty bowl with a soft clink. He let out a sigh.
This is why he shouldn’t be alone with his thoughts.
Well, since the other ninja should be up by now, he could video call them today, see how their new year days were going so far.
He preferred video over audio calls now, because with that it was easier to pretend the other ninja were here with him, spending their mornings in the newly rebuilt monastery with him.
He sighed again. There was no one around to hear it.
He missed his family.
After his daily patrol around the city, both for criminal activity and any clues about Wu’s wearabouts, Lloyd made a beeline for Chen’s Noodle House to grab some of Skylor’s delicious beef noodle soup before the mission tonight. Usually the place would be packed, but he was lucky tonight that most of Ninjago City’s residents would either be at home viewing the parade and celebrations on their TVs or downtown watching it live.
He got settled into a corner booth which came with a window and a red lantern placed on the windowsill so he wouldn’t disturb and be disturbed by the few people still in the restaurant, and sent out an invitation for a group video call on his phone. While he waited for the others to respond, he propped his phone up against the rack where the sauces were kept at his table, and dug into his dinner.
Nya was the first of the other Ninja to pick up the call, the sounds of a big crowd from out of view joining in. She was dressed in a Tangzhuang and was holding up a lantern.
“Nya!” Was what Lloyd tried to say, but with his mouth crammed full of hot noodles, only a muffled sound came out instead.
“Don’t talk with your mouth full, Lloyd. You’ll choke and die and then Kai will have to direct all of his big sibling teasing to me alone.”
Lloyd rolled his eyes at the second nagging he got on this in less than 24 hours, but he listened anyway because if he didn’t, he was pretty sure Nya would find a way to make her hand come out of his screen and choke him herself.
“You know, that’s exactly what Pixal said to me this morning, but never mind that! Happy new year’s eve Nya!”
Nya raised an unimpressed eyebrow at the diversion of Lloyd’s horrible table manners, but it quickly melted away into a soft smile. “Happy new year’s eve, Lloyd. You at Skylor’s?
“Yep, the usual amazing beef noodles.”
“Oh yum . I just had some noodles, spring rolls and dumplings from the village-wide dinner earlier.”
“Sounds delicious.”
“Oh it was, especially since my mom made the dumplings for everyone. Now everyone’s lighting up the lanterns, firecrackers, sparklers, you name it.”
The view from Nya’s camera suddenly changed, with her no longer being in view and fully focusing on the crowd of happy villagers in a big field, adults drinking and laughing with each other while kids ran around holding sparklers and lanterns.
A tone resounded from Lloyd’s phone, indicating that someone else had joined the call. Sure enough, it was from Jay, and his and Cole’s smiling faces joined Nya’s and Lloyd’s on the screen. Like Lloyd, they were seated at a table with hot food and drink, but they were decked out in snow gear despite appearing to be indoors.
“Hey you two!” Cole beamed at them through the screen. “Happy new year’s eve!”
“Happy new year’s eve you two! What’re you having right now?” Nya asked.
Jay perked up at the sound of his girlfriend’s voice. “Bak kut teh and ginger tea! Dare I say it’s almost as good as when Zane makes it.”
“Well that’s a pretty high compliment,” Lloyd chuckled. At the end of the day it still seems like no one in Ninjago can match Zane’s culinary skills. “Is the cold worth the trip there?”
“Well, the place and food are good, but Jay here can barely handle the cold–”
“Hey! Like you’re that much better off.”
“Well I currently don’t look like a clown with a red nose. At least you’re somewhat of a good sport about it, but you just know Kai is gonna complain the whole way here.”
And at that moment, Zane had entered the group call, his figure alongside Kai’s appearing on the screen with the rest.
“Hello friends!” Zane grinned. “Kai and I hope you all had a happy new year’s eve!”
“Happy new year’s eve! And I definitely can’t complain here, mom made dumplings for the village dinner.”
“Mom made her dumplings and I missed it?!” Kai exclaimed. “Nya, please tell me you saved some for your favourite big brother.”
“Sorry, favourite big brother,” Nya grinned cheekily. “You want em? You’re gonna have to come visit mom and dad sometime.”
“ Nooooooo ” Kai dramatically sighed and slumped against Zane’s side. “Whatever, at least I’ve got Zane and his insane cooking skills.”
“And insane in this case is a good thing?” Zane asked.
“That’s right dude.”
“I see. Well then, thank you!” he grinned.
“Have you two eaten dinner yet?” Cole asked Kai and Zane.
“Not yet, we just came back from stopping a robbery at a jewelry store. As usual, the thugs were no match for this dynamic duo, and we crushed it.” Kai raised his hand towards Zane for a fist bump which Zane returned.
“Speaking of thugs… how’s your eye now Kai?” Lloyd cautiously asked as he felt his mouth twist at the memory of the day of his injury.
A few weeks ago, Kai and Zane were trying to stop a group of armed robbers at a bank. It was going relatively smoothly until one of them got lucky and slashed his knife across half of Kai’s face. Zane froze the robbers for the police to deal with while he drove Kai to the hospital. When the other Ninja heard the news, they insisted on putting their missions on hold to visit but both Zane and Kai insisted there was no need, since it turns out Kai was lucky enough that the injury didn’t cause any lasting damage to his eye but it did mean he had to be benched while he recovered, which he was not pleased about.
“All good now, green bean.” Kai’s voice brought him back to the present. “Well, I am still getting a little bit of a throbbing ache around the area but Zane here says that should clear up in a couple days. But more importantly, check this out!”
Kai brought his face very close to the camera to show off his new facial features: a scar that started from his forehead and cut into his right eyebrow and another that was below and pointed to his right eye.
“I got some sick new scars! And I just know that everyone in Ninjago’s gonna be falling head over heels for the Master of Fiyah .”
Nya rolled her eyes and fake-gagged, causing everyone else to snicker.
“Watch the attitude, sis. As soon as we're all back together you’re getting the noogie of a lifetime.”
“Not if I noogie you first.” The Smith siblings then ended that line of conversation via sticking out their tongues.
“I’m glad that all of you are okay, but…” Lloyd bit his lip anxiously. “Has anyone found anything on Master Wu?”
The cheery mood quickly zapped away, and Lloyd wanted to kick himself for being the cause of it, and on New Year’s Eve too.
“Sorry Lloyd, but no clues here in Ignacia.” Nya sighed. “I’m leaving tomorrow to go to Tanima No Mura to see if there’s anything there.”
“No updates to report from us either.” Zane said. “We plan to be staying nearby Ninjago Harbour for the next week or two to see if we can discover anything.”
“We do have one lead,” Cole’s lips curled upwards. “We’ve heard a rumour about a mysterious old man with no memory arriving one day at Shānsì and is now living with the monks there, so Jay and I are gonna be taking the climb up there tomorrow to see how that pans out.”
“And he better be there, or else what’s the point in getting all of my beautiful fingers and toes frozen off.” Jay quipped.
“Your beautiful fingers and toes?” Kai snorted.
“Hey, I’ll have you know I take great pride in all parts of my body.”
“As you should.” Nya winked at him.
This time it was Kai’s turn to fake gag.
“Oh can it, single pringle.”
“Cole, Jay, that sounds as close to Master Wu as we’ll get, keep us updated on that. And if that doesn’t pan out, then…”
The leader of the Ninja took a deep breath. “I’ve been thinking that since it’s been about a year with us being nowhere near finding Master Wu… maybe you guys could come back home to the monastery soon?”
“Oh yeah?” Nya quirked an eyebrow. “Any reason why?”
“It’s just… we’ve been doing it on our own for a while now, but we’ve never searched together. Maybe that could work instead?”
And while that was in fact true, he didn’t know why he just couldn’t say that he missed them and that he was lonely. Or why he didn’t tell them about the Sons of Garmadon and the pit of dread he felt in his stomach just thinking about them and what might happen tonight should things go wrong, and that he didn’t want to face that alone either.
But it was like the others could see right through him (of course they could, they were family, after all), because all five of them had the gentlest smiles on their faces.
“I missed you guys too. Tell you what, I’ll be coming back as soon as I check out this next village.” Nya said.
“I suppose Kai and I can cut down our stay at the harbour to a week, and after that we will join you.”
“And if this lead doesn’t work out,” Cole paused to knock on the wooden table. “We’ll be coming straight back home.”
Lloyd’s smile turned wobbly. “Thanks you guys.” he said with a shaky voice. “I have to go now, I’ve got a mission to get to, but I’ll see you all soon?”
“Our little gremlin baby brother’s going on his own solo missions now.” Jay sniffled as he pretended to wipe away a tear. “I’m so proud.”
“I am not a gremlin.”
“Our gremboy is now a grem man .” Kai fake-sobbed. “They grow up so fast.”
“O- kay , I’m hanging up now.”
There was a chorus of “bye Lloyd!”, “take care!” and “see you soon!” that was abruptly cut off as he hung up the call. He sighed affectionately as he returned to his meal.
Now it was just a matter of weeks until they were all back together again, and the thought of that made something light bloom in his chest.
He tried to use that energy to think positive thoughts on the mission. Maybe the Sons of Garmadon won’t be such a big threat after all, and if Lloyd can quash what they’re up to tonight, for once maybe the Ninja can relax and be a normal family without another world-ending threat hanging over their heads.
Maybe everything will be fine.
Everything may not be fine.
As the clock struck midnight and fireworks burst across the sky ringing in the new year, the mysterious thief escaped with the Oni Mask. But that wasn’t the part of tonight that he couldn’t get out of his head.
No, what he couldn’t get out of his head was that the thief escaped in a parachute with the Sons of Garmadon logo on it, the angry face of his father, of Lord Garmadon, not Sensei Garmadon, staring back at him.
“Master Lloyd, are you alright? Are you there?” Pixal’s worried voice coming through his comm pulled him out of his spiralling thoughts.
“Yeah, I'm here. It's time to get the team back.”