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“We should ask permission before we just take it,” Lloyd chided, keeping a tight grip on Arin’s hand.
The garden around the gem looked a little too quiet and empty for his liking. And if he’s learned anything from his years being a ninja, it’s that not everything is as innocent as it might look.
Arin’s face dropped, eyes skimming over the land. “Ask who?”
Suddenly, the statues (that were apparently very much not statues) around them began to move, rolling around the pair giving them no space to escape. Lloyd pushed Arin behind him, pulling out his sword.
“What’s happening?” Arin whispered, looking just as confused as Lloyd was.
“I, uh, don’t really know—“
“Who goes there!”
Lloyd froze. That voice…
The statues stopped in their places, swirling out of what seemed to be a shell into their full forms. Some sort of… humanoid snail? He wasn’t too sure how to describe them, just that they had very pointy spears and looked very angry.
“Leave at once, or you will leave by force!”
Oh no.
The crowd of snail-men parted, a burly-ish, older man stepping through. He was wearing the same armor the snails wore. Lloyd barely got a glimpse of him before he whipped himself around, trying to hide his much too fast breathing from Arin, who seemed positively petrified.
He was human…?
“W-We don’t mean any harm!” Arin choked, raising his hands defensively. “We’re just here to get the Pink Dragon Core—“
“—The Dragon Core is under the protection of the Mucoid Warriors, as well as this forest. You are trespassing,” the man said, stare stone cold.
Lloyd snuck a quick glance at him. He didn’t recognize him?
“Mucoid Warriors…?” Arin questioned.
The man continued, “guardians of the forest, and gem. Now, take your companion and leave.”
Seeing as Lloyd was making no move to step in here, Arin continued. “Wait! We need the Dragon Core. We’re trying to stop the mergequakes that keep happening.”
The man and his army didn’t back down. “The Dragon Core is under our protection. Many have tried to take it for their own personal gain, how are we to know you’re any different—?”
“—because you do know me.” Lloyd stated, finally turning around to look the General right in the eyes.
Garmadon’s eyes widened. Lloyd’s began to water.
“Lloyd.”
Lloyd choked. “Dad.”
The silence was far too loud.
The three of them were in a small cottage not too far from where the Core was, Arin and Lloyd sitting across from Garmadon. A Mucoid had brought them some tea earlier, but they’d all been sitting there, staring at each other with not a word to say for so long it’d lost its steam.
Garmadon was looking at him intently. Eyes mapping out his face like he was staring at a stranger. It had been so long, Lloyd looked like a completely different person.
Lloyd was the opposite. He looked at him like a lost boy to the light. He was human. His hair was the same silver it was on Chen’s island, he wore the same dress shoes he’d last seen him with. His face bore every exact wrinkle he’d had. How long had it been since he’d seen him like this? How long had it been since he’d been normal. Not the ruthless emperor of Ninjago, not the gardener roommate of a news anchor.
Just as his dad.
“Your hair,” Garmadon finally spoke, tugging him from his thoughts. “It’s different. Longer.”
Lloyd blinked, “oh, uh, yeah.” He ruffled the tips of his hair.
The other had nothing more to say, breathing out a quiet sigh, leaning back slightly. Arin cringed, what was happening right now?
“Ahem,” he coughed, tapping his fingers on the side of his teacup. “So… you lead the Mucoid Warriors?”
“Yes, I was good friends with their former general before his passing. On his deathbed he appointed me as the next leader.” Garmadon replied.
“Oh,” he murmured. “Okay. Um, and you also used to be Emperor Garmadon?”
“Emperor?” He looked confused, brows furrowed.
Lloyd finally looked up. What.
Arin went on. “Yeah, Emperor Garmadon. You took over Ninjago City a long time back. You had this weird cult-gang that called themselves the Sons of Garmadon?”
“Sons? Cult?” Now he looked horrified.
Lloyd looked him in the eye. “You… you dont remember?” He almost looked mad.
Garmadon looked at him, mouth agape. “I… I don’t know.”
A tear slid down Lloyd’s cheek. He tried to wipe it away as quickly as possible. “How… what is the last thing you remember?! Before the merge.”
Garmadon sighed, clutching his forehead. “The Merge is one of the only things I remember. Before that, it was you, in the Cursed Realm.”
“When I was fighting Morro,” Lloyd finished. He nodded.
When he was fighting Morro. The final heart to heart they had before it all went to hell. He’d remembered every word, kept it in his mind every time they fought a new foe.
He kept those words with him until the fight at Kryptarium. Where the father who would supposedly ‘always be with him’ disowned him, beat him, chose so many others over him, made it so that the mere thought of him only brought resentment.
And now he just didn’t remember?
“Lloyd,” Arin called softly. “You’re crying.”
Lloyd’s hands flew to his face, speedily swiping at his eyes. His throat closed, eyes burned, lip wobbled. It didn’t take long for him to break out in full on sobs, body heaving with each one. The others clambered over him, speaking words that drowned out in his cries.
He threw himself onto his father, wrapping his arms tightly around him, wailing into his chest. Surprised, Garmadon carefully placed his hands on his back, rubbing soft circles onto his spine.
“Dad…”
Arin was so confused. And kinda felt like an outsider now.
Lloyd had finally stopped crying, and finally got to explaining everything that had happened in the gaps of Garmadon’s memory. Safe to say, ‘horrified’ was the mildest way to describe how he felt.
“Sons of Garmadon? Harumi? What sort of nonsense is this?!”
Some more sobbing later, they’d both finally calmed down enough to hold a more practical conversation.
“When I first awoke the merge was reaching its end. I don’t know if I had fallen or what, but my body burned.” He explained, rolling up a sleeve to show the veins in his arm now stained black.
“I’d stumbled around the lands before coming across the Mucoid Warriors. Their former general, upon seeing how out of sorts I was, welcomed me to their tribe with open arms.”
Lloyd nodded, a hand tapping at his chin, confused. “That doesn’t explain why you look different, though. Or the memory loss.”
Arin piped up, “maybe it has to do with the mergequakes!”
“That’s a good theory,” he agreed. “We don’t fully know what exactly the quakes are capable of either, maybe this is something it is.”
“Yes, speaking of mergequakes,” Garmadon looked at Arin. “you mentioned that was why you came for the Dragon Core.”
“Yeah, they’ve been happening way more often recently. The Dragon Cores are the only hope we got left to stop them permanently.”
“I see…”
“Zane, Nya, and Kai are out looking for the others,” Lloyd informed.
“You’ve found everyone?”
“Not everyone,” he sighed. “We’re still missing Cole, Pixal, and Jay. And we only just found them, I can’t imagine how much longer it’ll take to find the rest.”
Garmadon laid a caring hand on his shoulder. “Never lose hope, son. Where one comes the others will follow.”
Lloyd smiled. “Thanks dad.”
“…So, does this mean we can have the Dragon Core…?” Arin questioned, an awkward smile on his face.
“Right,”Garmadon straightened up. “I will allow it, with supervision.”
Lloyd perked up,” does that mean…”
“You’re gonna come with us!” Arin squealed excitedly. “S-Sorry, it’s just really cool to actually get to go on a road trip with the Garmadon.”
The Garmadons both smiled. “That would be amazing, dad. The others are gonna be so happy.”
Garmadon smiled and stood up, “then I’ll inform the others.”
A brief conference with the rest of the warriors later, the trio set off, now packed with fresh food and sharpened spears to go. The Core was packed safely with the rest of Garmadon’s minimal items.
“You said that you hadn’t found everyone yet,” he suddenly asked, stopping for a moment to look at Lloyd. “What about Wu?”
At that, Lloyd froze, Arin sucking in a sharp breath. “Right, um…”
“There’s something I should tell you…”