HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY BEAUTIFUL GREEN BOY
Sometimes, Lloyd's life just doesn't seem to add up.
And no, he's not talking about the fact that he's both the Green Ninja and the son of Garmadon. Because it's more than that. It's the small everyday things that catch him off-guard.
Like how he winces when the wind rustles through the tree leaves. Or how he spirals his arms when he's surprised- Lloyd might say it's just a flail reaction, but it's more than that, there's an intent behind the motion, and he knows it. Or how sometimes he looks in the mirror, and for a split second, is confused by the bright-green eyes staring back.
Lloyd usually can brush those things off. Everyone has weird senses of deja-vu, right? But these little incidents are getting bigger and bigger and harder and harder to ignore.
Like this morning. He's slouching in history class, half-listening to the lesson as he doodles on his paper. He never talks here. Well, he never tends to talk in any of his classes, but the history teacher Mrs. Miller seems to have a personal vendetta against him and spends every lesson either talking bad about his family or praising the Green Ninja.
(The past Green Ninja, that is. Lloyd's not the first one to bear the title. A hundred years ago or so, a different Green Ninja stopped the Serpentine uprising and the coup led by the Jade Princess. Sometimes, when Lloyd fights his father, he wonders how someone so good, so perfect, shares the same blood as him.)
"The Green Ninja was the one to imprison the Anacondrai warriors in the Cursed Realm," drones Mrs. Miller.
"That's not right," he's saying before he realizes it. The class spins to stare at him. "Garmadon was the one to open the Cursed Realm, sacrificing his life to do it."
There are several seconds of dead silence. Lloyd is suddenly aware that he's standing up at his desk and challenging the teacher. He feels his cheeks heat and sinks back into his chair.
"Well, I don't know how you know that, Mr. Garmadon," sniffs the teacher finally. "But if you're trying to make us sympathize with your father, let me tell you, you won't succeed."
"Dude, you're gonna blow our cover like that!" Noa says as they stream out of the classroom. "I get that you love your dad, but try to keep it down here?"
"That's not what I was trying to do," mumbles Lloyd. But that does raise the question. Why does Lloyd care so much if his dad likes him? It's not like he knows him- he shouldn't even have a memory of him.
They go to the Dojo after school and train. No one else brings up his slip in class.
It's a week later and the class is on a field trip to the Ninjago Museum of History. Lloyd hangs at the edge of the crowd, already having been pulled aside and told in no uncertain terms that he had better be on his best behavior.
"And this is our Hall of Heroes," says the tour guide, leading them into the room. Lloyd lets his eyes wander around. "Dedicated to our heroes of old, the original Ninja Force!"
No one really is listening to him. They all want to go back to the entrance exhibit, the one dedicated to the current Ninja Force where you can get pictures by the life-size models of Lloyd and his friends and watch the videos of their fights against Garmadon.
Lloyd wanders away from the group. It's not like any of them will care anyway. He pauses by a case with battle-worn gis inside and tries to imagine Jay in the aggressive-looking armor. There's a picture on the wall of the original six. The Green Ninja stands at the head of the group, his bright green eyes staring out from behind his mask.
Something is behind him. Lloyd feels it, like a tingling crawl down his back. He turns around.
On the wall across of him hang four golden weapons. Lloyd walks up to them. There's a sword with a dragon crawling around it, a pair of nun-chucks with a chain that seems to spark as he looks at it, a pair of shuriken with small white stones set in them, and another large weapon with a dragon's head spitting flames across its blade.
"Ah, yes!" says the tour guide, coming up beside him. "The Golden Weapons of Creation. Used by the original four ninja before the other two members joined their team. Legend says that they respond in the presence of their true master, the Green Ninja."
Lloyd Garmadon, who fought back against the ghost possessing his body and saved the day.
Lloyd Garmadon who has nightmares of storms and still flinches at strong breezes.
Lloyd Garmadon who stopped the reign of Garmadon and brought the Princess of Ninjago to justice.
Lloyd Garmadon who freaks when he's submerged in water, who stares at his eyes and wonders why they're not red.
Lloyd Garmadon who lived almost a hundred years before and was the Green Ninja.
Lloyd Garmadon who stares up at the weapons on the wall and... is the Green Ninja.
And Lloyd remembers. He's not just named after the hero of old, the other son of Garmadon who overcame his lineage and saved the world. He is him.
"Lloyd!" Ky elbows him in the side. His voice drops to a hiss. "Bro, you're glowing."
And he is.