The scene that really struck me was the one where Master Wu fell off The Bridge of Falling Mentors (definitely called that, didn't he). Just scenes before we witnessed Jay telling Lloyd that the Ninja now hated him - and the others all agreed. In the following scenes we watched Lloyd struggle on his own as he tried to lead them on while they do nothing to help. Even as they watch Garmadon and Wu fight, they remained distant from the Green Ninja, but then it happened: Wu fell off, and they all rushed to the cliff - but Kai and Cole were visibly holding Lloyd back, restraining him and only him. These, they that had just proclaimed their hatred for him, now keep him from diving off the cliff to save (or join) his beloved uncle? What could this even mean? What does this say about Lloyd's true relationship with the others? This is my take on perhaps the deepest scene in the movie. This is definitely a little angsty, but I tried to keep it as realistic as I could and as true to my interpretation of their personalities as possible. Warnings for mentions of depression, self harm, attempted suicide, and gore. Enjoy!

Lloyd had never had friends before. Parents had always kept their children away from him, and though his mother continued to keep trying to get him to socialize, he knew it was a lost cause. In fact, he had been homeschooled up until seventh grade; it was around then that his mother had quit her longest-lasting job and gotten a new one.

He wasn't stupid. Lloyd knew that if he had a hard time being the son of Lord Garmadon, his mother had it worse; she had married the guy, after all.

Koko was always saying it wasn't so bad, that the women mostly pitied her - maybe thinking he had somehow cast a spell on her or forced her to bear his child - while the men couldn't figure out why the infamous war lord had let such a catch go. Lloyd knew better.

She'd never managed to hold down a decent job for long (except for the afore-mentioned job where she had been a janitor at one of the local elementaries), and their budget had always been tight. Christmas was a foreign concept, and "new" didn't mean as much as "second hand". That was why he decided to join public school - it was less expensive.

It was a living hell.

Lloyd Garmadon had never hated his life more than those first two years. Granted, the summer after middle school had been when his estranged uncle, Wu, showed up and recruited him to the Secret Ninja Force; this is how Lloyd met the five other members of his team, all students of Wu's for at least a year more than him. They enrolled at his school, had classes with him, trained with hm, but they were cold and distant, uncaring of the newly-made Green Ninja. Then, the summer after their freshman year, they found him in a pool of his own blood.

His mom had been in a car accident. Unavoidable - totally random chance - but she was in the hospital with a severe concussion, internal bleeding, broken ribs and a femur, and a ruptured appendix. Money had already - always - been tight, the risk of losing their small, musty apartment now an imminent threat, and Lloyd didn't have a job to speak of; no one would hire him. He was drowning in his own depression, in the blame of his father's recent attacks, and the knowledge that if he couldn't pay the hospital bills up front like they demanded the family of Garmadon do, his mother would be left to die. He would end up a homeless orphan ninja with no friends and no future - not that he'd had those anyway.

That night he called his uncle from his mother's hospital room sobbing and begging for forgiveness and went home to die. A quick slash of his wrists, tears mixed with blood, and Lloyd Garmadon prayed to any deity who would deign to listen to him that he would not be reincarnated; he just wanted it all to be over.

When he woke up (and oh, how he hated that), it was to the teary (Jay and Nya) and anxious (Cole and Zane) faces of four of his comrades-in-arms-only. The former two had broken into sobs, asking why he hadn't said anything, and Zane had only seemed perplexed, asking only why.

It made him so angry, a rage that burned hot in his gut and throat - a corrosive acid that ate him away as he bit his tongue. In a moment of rare solemnity Cole had ushered the other three out before coming back with their absent teammate.

Kai had stared at him for a solid minute before exploding into an angry rant about how selfish Lloyd was being, and couldn't he have come to them or at least acted like a ninja and -

Lloyd erupted. All the pain, all the anger, every bruise and black eye, each insult and taunt and too-tiny meal, and every taunt to kill himself came rushing out in a burst of rage like they had never seen. He screamed and wailed, demanding why they had waited this long to give a damn about him, why they waited until it affected their own easy, pathetic little lives to care about his own? His nails bit into his palms as he curled over in his bed and screeched at the top of his lungs that he was done, that it wasn't fair, and that his mom was going to leave him just like Dad and he couldn't - he couldn't -

He sobbed. Harsh, broken, rattling sobs, because he had failed, would always get beaten with the short end of the stick, and even though he had tried so damn hard it could never be enough to pay for the crimes he and his mother had never committed.

Strong arms wrapped around his shuddering form, holding him as if to keep him together, from flying apart at the seams. He felt tears soak his head where soft, brown hair met corn-silk gold.

"I'm sorry," Kai whispered, and together they cried for the lives ruined by one black-hearted criminal, lives that could never be saved or mended.

Cole sat beside them once they pulled apart, a hand on each of their shoulders and a sad smile stretching his lips and hollowing his eyes. "We thought you hated us," he admitted, shrugged it off like a bad joke. Then, "Kai is the one who found you."

Lloyd cringed, starting to draw away, but Cole held him firm, and Kai took his hand, tangling their fingers in a silent promise of forgiveness and apology.

"Sensei Wu was worried," Cole continued as if nothing had happened, "so he sent Jay, Nya, and Zane to the hospital to see what had happened and Kai and I here just in case you'd already left. It took some quick work, but…" Cole hesitated, "you aren't the first whose wrists I've patched." Kai and he shared a look that spoke volumes to the Green Ninja. Oh. Oh.

Kai lifted his free hand and slid it past damp cheeks and through limp hair to grasp Lloyd's neck and lean their foreheads together. "You're our little brother," he said in a hoarse whisper, "and maybe a pain in the ass," Lloyd couldn't help a stuffy snort, "but you're ours."

Deep brown met emerald green and held him there; even when Kai pulled back and dropped his hand, their gazed held.

"You're our little brother, and you are not alone." A promise, a guarantee - a brother's oath.

But weren't promises made to be broken? That's why Lloyd was here, wasn't it? Following his sensei on a most-likely-lethal mission to find the only thing capable of cleaning up the mess he'd made?

He ached where his heart had been before his friends had all claimed they hated him. Lloyd was alone again, and he wasn't sure what to do.

After that night, Wu and the others had pitched in to his mother's hospital bill, and they had actually paid attention to him, inviting him to join in with their laughter and friendship - their family. Once school started again they didn't stop either, becoming a shield from the world that tortured him with every breath. It had taken a while, but he'd been doing better; he had friends, good grades, a house to live in, food to eat, and an uncle who seemed less distant and crazy (okay, maybe not quite). His mother didn't know, and as long as the Green Ninja showed up to fight Garmadon, neither did the rest of Ninjago.

However.

Now he was watching his father and uncle fight, a psychosomatic weight where his heart used to be, the heart his "friends" had just ripped out and stomped on without care. They hate me. All he had left was Wu and his mom, and Wu -

Was falling to the river below, captive to its currents. The familiar cracks of Lloyd's fractured soul grated and tore at his chest as he surged forward, desperate.

Not Wu, not Wu, not Wu, pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease -

To his surprise, strong hands gripped his arm and the back of his gi, holding him back from the edge he almost dove off of (to save Wu or join him, it didn't matter). Those same hands that had held him before now gripped him like a lifeline - like they were his lifeline - and he was sure they could feel his soul finally shatter because their grasp went from holding back to holding on, and all he could feel was lost.

Dimly he felt the hands tighten marginally, pulling him him ever-so-slightly farther from the edge. His self-proclaimed haters, and they still kept him back from what he was positive the rest of Ninjago would not. Even in their own grief and anger, it was his life they were saving.

"You're our little brother, and maybe a pain in the ass, but you're ours."

He remembered all the times he'd fought his father, loving him for some reason and still hating him for the pain he'd caused, and just like that it clicked: they were family.

"You're our little brother, and you are not alone."

As Lloyd watched his apparently-not-dead uncle get swept away, he felt rage bubble up from the ashes, the fire igniting in its wake. Garmadon, the bastard, had hurt Lloyd's family again - and he was done.

"You ruined my life!"

"What? How could I ruin it? I wasn't even in it!"

Lloyd shook off Cole's and Kai's hands and stood, turning to glare at Lord Garmadon; he was done suffering at the hands of this cretin.

Garmadon was going to pay.