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The questions ranged from general to hyper specific.

What was the weather like when your father died? Had your father any known enemies? What was the chemical makeup of the "black stuff" your father was vomiting?

"How on earth could I know that?" Lloyd was becoming increasingly incredulous, and rightfully so.

"Just answer each question to the best of your abilities."

Zane was cold, demeanor unchanging as the picture we painted over the past day became more detailed.

Garmadon left in the early morning, well before sunrise. Unlike Cole, and from what we'd heard of the other cases, he was relatively unharmed, his ailments consisting of no more than a jagged cut across the hand and minor scratches over the rest of his body. His downfall came from the illness he seemed to contract in the time until he was found, a strange illness that caused him to vomit an unidentifiable black substance.

"Is it possible that this vomit was blood?" asked Zane, his hands folded.

My brow crumpled to the point of fatigue as I wrote down what seemed important notes. So far, I'd several pages full, an amount I was willing to take pride in.

"I think we would have known if it was blood," Lloyd appeared nearly sick himself, "It looked like oil, but with less shine."

I looked to Zane, but he was just as confused as I. Eventually, we moved on.

Garmadon hardly spoke in the time since he was carried from the woods; what little he did say was muttered, slurred to the point of being unintelligible. In fact, the only words that Lloyd, or anyone, could recall were the man's last:

"It was so pretty."

"I am assuming..." all eyes were on Zane as he spoke his next words, "that this 'it' was the person who harmed him?"

"It wasn't a person."

"What makes you so sure?"

"Well," Lloyd tilted his head to the side, his eyes finding a pipe stretching across the ceiling, "Dad would never refer to a person as an 'it,' not even the people he didn't like."

Zane's only movement was in his fingers, where he turned a pencil idly through them. "What would you suggest it was instead?"

"I—I don't know," Lloyd had shrunken into himself as this meeting went on, so much so that he looked on the brink of blinking out of existence, "It would be the same thing as what got the rest of them, right?"

Zane looked at me, questions in his eyes. I looked down at the notes I'd taken, struggling to decipher my own handwriting.

"This doesn't sound like any of the other cases you talked about, Lloyd."

His shoulders tensed, and his chin set.

"But—!" I said, "We don't have much to compare it to, yet."

"Cole didn't fall ill," said Zane.

"My dad was the first one," said Lloyd, shooting Zane a look, "The first one is always different, right? Isn't that how it works?" he looked between us.

Zane shrugged, falling into a sullen silence. I chose to take the lead, instead.

"Do you know where we can find Skylor and Dareth?"

Lloyd stared at Zane a second longer, then replied, "Skylor's got a restaurant and Dareth's got a half bar, half dojo. I can take you there tomorrow after school."

"Why can't we go beforehand?" demanded Zane.

Lloyd gave a slight frown, "I want to help."

"We need to do this as soon as possible," said Zane, "People will come looking for us."

"Here?"

I began to nod, "Someone will connect the dots," I looked at Lloyd, "We'll have to try in the morning."

"I can hide you better," Lloyd offered, "You'll look more normal standing next to me. Besides, I already know Skylor and Dareth, so they'll be much more likely to answer your questions if I'm the one talking to them."

Zane pursed his lips.

"Plus," said Lloyd, "I know Ronin. He's been on most of these cases. If there's anyone who knows all the dirty details about them, it's him."

He paused there, and at our silence, he let some of his frustration show through:

"Look, you're not the only ones who've lost somebody to the woods. Whatever is in there has been around for my whole life; I knew many of the people lost to it, and I deserve to know what took them just as much as you guys do," his chair screeched as he stood up, placing his hands on his hips as he did so, "I'm going to be as much a part of this as you guys, so if you want to see Skylor or Dareth tomorrow, you'll wait for me to get back from school, alright?"

I was nodding even before Zane heaved, "I can live with that."

That earned us a whisper of a sigh, a relieved one as the tension in Lloyd's entire body deflated. Before anyone else could say anything, though, Misako's muffled voice rang throughout the house:

"Lloyd! Where are you?"

He tensed again. "I gotta go," said Lloyd. He grabbed his jacket and began hunkering up the wooden steps. He looked back as he reached the door. "Will you guys be alright tonight? I can bring you some food later."

"We will be fine," said Zane.

"You mind bringing some of those waffles you had?" I added.

Lloyd smiled for real this time, his eyes alight, "Not at all. Whatever you guys need, I'm willing to help."

He left after that, leaving us alone with each other. Again, I was surprised to find that my contempt for Lloyd and his family had all but diminished in the time since he gave me that call. I suppose it helped that he knew what we were feeling.

I looked at Cole's folder, still sitting with its front flap open. We're on our way, I thought, Just a few more steps, and we'll know what happened to you. I was certain of it now. We couldn't come all this way for nothing. There was something here, something big.

"Not a bad ally, huh?" I raised an eyebrow at Zane.

"I suppose," was all he said, refusing to take his eyes from the table.

I certainly hoped that we'd find something here. Maybe, hopefully, I could find Zane, too.

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