JMJ

Chapter Fourteen

Distant Brothers

Cole woke up groggily from bed.

The motion of the airship hovering in place had some strong wind to fight against. It was downright howling outside the dorm windows.

Rolling over, he might have gone right back to sleep as the turbulence was so minimal, but there was no use fighting that he had to go to the bathroom.

"Mrph!" he grumbled.

Slowly prying himself from the warmth of his covers, he stepped out onto the cold wood floor.

The wind was so strong he felt a draft and shivered. He tiptoed quickly out into the corridor where the sound of his snoring friends left him to the full ambiance of humming airship and howling wind. Quickly, he made his way to the bathroom, did his business, and hurried back out again thinking of nothing but his nice warm bed. He might have missed the short figure in the shadows had it not shuffled just a little, and Cole looked with alarm.

Lloyd looked just as alarmed to see him, and for a moment they simply stared wide-eyed at one another. Little did Cole know that his expression displayed more critical scrutiny than he felt; and Lloyd did not quite realize just how sulky he looked, though there were still tears in the corners of his eyes.

"What're you doing?" Cole demanded, a little harsher than he had meant to in his surprise to find him skulking about.

Quickly, Lloyd wiped the tears from his face and only looked at Cole with a defiant pout.

With a shake of his head, Cole wanted to move on, but just as he was about to turn the corner, he saw that Lloyd was headed for Master Wu's door.

"He doesn't like it when people bug him in the night unless it's an emergency," Cole said suddenly.

Lloyd turned to him and frowned. "What do you care?"

Cole frowned back. "I just wanted to warn you," he retorted.

Lloyd scowled hard and then turned sharply away so that he would not have to look at Cole. He crossed his arms.

Cole sighed. "You okay?"

"It's not your business," said Lloyd quietly but firmly.

Part of Cole just wanted to march back to bed, but something continued to stop him. He almost felt a bit of himself in that look, in that tone. He was not fooled by it. He probably had looked and acted just like that to his father the couple times his father had actually tried to approach him in his weird way after his mother's death. His dad had just ended in giving up with a huff and some weird statement that Cole as a little boy had taken as cold. Cole was not about to do that same thing to Lloyd.

Of course, Cole knew what was wrong with him. The younger boy had just learned a few months ago that he was destined to kill his own father and that he had been wrong to try to be like him all at the same time, besides facing the fact that he would have to face his mother just like Cole had had to face his dad. At least Master Wu had called his sister-in-law to tell her where her son was, and Lloyd himself had talked to her once to tell her that he had to learn discipline before he could go home, but then if he truly wanted to break the barrier between him and his mom he would have to tell her that he was destined to kill her husband. That made Cole making up with his father seem pretty easy in comparison in that regard, Cole had to admit, but this was digressing.

"Lloyd," said Cole kindly.

Surprised by the tone, Lloyd turned back, and Cole recalled to mind the time when Master Wu had finally got Cole to talk about his problem…

#

In a quick flash, he was suddenly a couple months after he had become Master Wu's student himself. It would not be long before Kai and Nya would show up, but as of yet Cole was the only one.

"Do I get my weapon now?" he asked eagerly when Master Wu had suggested something would be interrupting their usual schedules of chores and balancing teacups on ropes.

"No," said Master Wu simply.

Cole made a face.

"A ninja does not slouch, when he is told to be patient," said Wu in the same simple tone as before.

"So what are we gunna do then?" asked Cole quickly straightening.

"You have been working very hard, Cole," said Wu. "And it is very impressive."

"Really? Even though, I made all those teacups crash?"

Wu winced a little, and then shook his head. "Actually, I meant with the chores. It's not every day that one sees a person under the age of eighteen clean a toilet, especially regularly. That is very impressive indeed."

He stroked his beard thoughtfully.

Cole rolled his eyes, and Wu smiled just a little beneath his beard.

"Only because we get to train too," Cole admitted.

"Oh, good. Honesty," said Wu. "That has to do with our day's mission. Come. We're having tea. You can help me brew it."

So before the irori hearth they were soon both seated comfortably. The green tea was hot and flavorful. Cole was getting quite used to the flavor. It had almost reached the point that it would be difficult to go back to hot chocolate. Ha, not really, but the bitterness on the top of the cup almost did not taste bitter to him anymore, and the sweetness on the bottom was better than before. He even felt that he had lost some extra flab and had gained some real muscle in just a short time between the training he had had and the lean, mean ninja meals. It was the first time Master Wu had admitted that he was proud of Cole with actual words; though the longer he was with him, it seemed the kinder Wu was to him and showed that he was pleased with Cole's progress without words. Not that he ever let his firmness lessen.

Even that firmness and, hey, even the sarcasm for that matter, was better than dealing with his own father, Cole thought. Anything was better than living at home.

First Master Wu took a sip. Then Cole took one. They took their sips slowly and with purpose allowing the flavor to be saturated into every taste bud before the liquid slipped down with gentle grace.

But immediately after he had taken his slow swallow, Cole asked, "So what are we going to do, Sensei?"

"After many days of hard work with much trial and new experiences, you need to settle back a little. It is time for a story."

Cole made a face. "Story time?" he asked. "You mean like about ninja warriors?"

"Yes," said Master Wu.

"Really?" asked Cole brightening.

"Yes," said Wu again after another sip, "So, I will begin."

Cole and Wu took their next slow sips and then Master Wu began. "A long, long time ago, the first master of spinjitsu perfected his art."

"Was he the best ninja of all time!?" Cole gasped. "Did he fight a great battle?"

Wu held up his hand rigidly. "Don't interrupt," he said. "You will get your turn."

Cole bowed apologetically.

"Okay, so!" said Wu closing his eyes importantly. "This ninja master, after perfecting his art, married and settled down in a house in the mountains. He had two sons who he also taught spinjitsu, and his wife taught them how to make really nice clothes for themselves and how to make mochi, and all the best teas and medicines."

Cole made a face and hid it by quickly taking another sip of tea.

"Anyway. One day these two sons, when the old master and father was very, very old, were out for a walk— this meant they were training diligently. They fought some monsters here, saved a village there, but they happened on one specific village that needed their help more than all the others, because of the danger of a rising Snake coming to destroy all in its path. Of course, the two brothers stayed to help. It would do more than destroy one village, anyway, once it had passed through. They raised an army of ninja and anyone they could find."

"Against just one snake?" demanded Cole.

"When the snake is the size of a skyscraper… yes," retorted Wu in about the same tone as before with his eyes still closed.

Cole cleared his throat. "Sorry, Sensei."

Master Wu accepted the apology with a grateful nod, and Cole took another sip of tea.

"Now, the younger brother was cocky and spoke very bravely and often arrogantly. He thought he was afraid of nothing. The older was the wiser one. Although he appeared to be not quite as brave as the younger. It was only because he was not as foolishly so. He was not sure if he had it in him to lead the armies or to defeat the Snake whose very venom destroyed whole fields of crops and sizzled out rivers into fried trenches."

"So what happened!?" cried Cole forgetting again, but this time Wu made no indication that there was anything wrong with this interruption.

This made Cole feel rather sheepish, but he was distracted when he saw that Wu had opened his eyes, and he was staring very intently at the fire with a distant sort of look. Cole thought it a very mysterious and misty expression as though some scene from the past might be seen on his eyes reflecting the flames of the fire had a person been able to look at them closely enough. From his distance across from the hearth, Cole stared at him very intently, losing himself in those very old eyes, but he saw no past images reflecting off of them.

"The younger," said Wu simply after taking a sip of tea himself, "bolted ahead when he was supposed to stay in the battle lines. Then when trapped alone in the eyes of the Snake, he lost his nerve and froze, unable to fight as he knew that he could. The older found more courage than he thought he had. He nearly killed the Snake in one blow in order to save his foolish brother, but not soon enough to avoid the fangs that pierced his body."

Cole winced.

"Enraged with the Snake just as much as he was enraged with himself, the younger brother went to help along with the other ninja from the front of the battle and everyone else who was brave enough. They destroyed the Snake together then, but—"

"Did the older brother die?" asked Cole very gravely.

"No," said Wu simply. "His wounds were sealed very quickly."

"Oh. Why? Because he was such a good spinjitsu master?" asked Cole rather confused now where this all was going.

"Because the venom from the snake was so powerful that it filled in the wounds, but not with his own flesh. Very quickly after the battle and his younger brother was relieved to see him alive, the venom worked to make him not human at all. He became hot with it. His blood boiled, his eyes became hot flames and it transformed him— disfigured him into a beast. But… it was not the body transforming that was the worst part. His heart was lost to the venom. His brain was twisted by it. Some believe his very soul had been disfigured into the darkest of evil. He became a terrible warlord slaughtering all in his path with more ferocity than the Snake before him."

"Was he Lord Garmadon?"

Wu raised a brow but nodded. "You know some true ninja lore behind weird stories about the Hamburger Princess of Bovinia or whatever."

Cole shuffled a little.

"For years he laid waste to the land about Ninjago. His younger brother, fraught with anguish for the older and blaming himself for what had happened, did all in his power to bring his brother back, to cure him, to convince him, but it was no good. In the older brother's heart was only hatred for the younger…" his voice changed suddenly in a sort of mimickry that surprised Cole. "'Mom always liked you best!' 'The people always called you the cute one!' 'Girls always giggled and squeed behind your back and you just walk by like an oblivious turd.' 'You were the one who always looked more like Dad.' And lest we forget 'You were always such a butt kisser more than a butt kicker!'" Then suddenly his voice went back to that dramatic story-telling tone of voice and his face and posture smoothed out again from looking almost childish to very masterly. "In the end there was only one thing to do— to defeat him."

"Is that when they sealed him away?" asked Cole knowing just little bits of this story.

"It was," said Wu. "But he does come back, and he will continue to do so until the prophecy is fulfilled and the one destined to defeat him arises."

"Wow…" said Cole looking at Wu with sympathy. "Are… you alright, Master Wu? Did you know them?"

"Garmadon is my brother," said Wu.

Cole jumped.

Suddenly the story all made sense. Somehow, he felt that even Master Wu made more sense. To this day, did he blame himself for what had happened? To this day did he still miss him?

Cole lowered his head as he realized also that Master Wu had not had to tell anything about this to Cole, who was just some silly kid who wanted to learn how to be a ninja instead of learning music. The fact that he was now his student would not have to have changed that. He was still just a dumb kid who kept asking for his weapon and did not try to learn patience good enough. Cole could not think of any adult he had ever known who had revealed something so tender about himself, especially a teacher.

No! He took it back. There had been one adult who had confided in him in all, and he felt the tears well up at the thought that he had almost not counted her.

But he shook his head, and cleared his throat as he stared down at the tea that still remained in his cup.

"You miss him, don't you," said Cole, surprising himself at how his throat croaked.

"I do," said Master Wu with a solemn nod.

"I mean, the way he was before…"

"Yes," said Master Wu. "I knew what you meant."

Cole sighed. "I'm sorry, Sensei."

Again Wu raised a brow, but he said nothing. Cole could see a touch of sympathy behind his eyes, though.

"You said this was a lesson about honesty, didn't you?" Cole said.

Slowly Wu nodded.

"I… I understand."

Wu remained quiet but looked at Cole gently.

"I…" The tears welled up again inside. Cole felt the choke in his throat become painful. "I… I miss her too…"

The tears fell, and Cole closed his eyes and sniffled despite himself, but he was surprised suddenly by the hand on his shoulder. He blinked more huge tears as they rolled out and then down his swollen cheeks.

Then Cole did something that surprised even himself. He gave the ancient, grizzled warrior a hug. It was enough to shock the old man, unused to children, into blinking in a wide-eyed stupor before he collected himself enough to pat the child.

Cole told him everything. He told him about how much he had loved his mother. He told him about his father not acting like he cared, he told him that his overbearing nature was more overbearing than ever, that he was not even sure that his father loved him, that he did not even feel bad about lying to him about where he was until this moment, but he was afraid now to tell him in case he would be pried away from here.

Nothing about that matter would be solved today, but Wu alluded to the fact that it was very possible that his father missed his mother so much that he could not show his sorrow in front him anymore than Cole wanted to show it to his ninja master. That all the hard work he put into his music was a way to deal with the pain just as much as Cole was using his training as a ninja for the same purpose. And Cole knew that this lesson in honesty was the only true path of being a true fighter for the forces of good, but it was also the only path for one to move on…

#

Back with Lloyd in which the memory of this talk with Master Wu had only been a moment, Cole fidgeted a little.

"I know how you feel," he said.

Lloyd blinked. He frowned. Then he looked away again.

"I mean!" said Cole, and he sighed. "I just want you to know that I'm sorry about giving you a hard time, and that now that even though it's taking a while for everyone to forgive you all the way that you are our brother now, and everyone here is here because of some bad that happened, and we're all here for you. Okay, so it's not that we all have an evil, crazy dad, but…"

"I understand," Lloyd said sadly. "I know about some of the things that happened to you guys already, anyway…"

Despite the fact that he was alluding to how he spied on everyone, Cole put his hand on his shoulder. "You want me to go wake up Master Wu for you?"

Lloyd smiled a tad wryly and shook his head. "No. I can do it myself. He's my uncle, after all."

"Right."

So Cole turned to leave, but before he got too far, Lloyd whispered, "I'm glad we're brothers, Cole."

Cole turned back, and he nodded.

Lloyd gave him a hug. It was so sudden that the seemingly tough preteen was shocked to having his eyes bulging and not knowing how to respond. Then he simply smiled and patted Lloyd gently in a return hug.

"Maybe I'll just go back to bed with you," said Lloyd breaking away again.

"Are you sure?" asked Cole.

"Uh huh."

Cole could just picture Master Wu on the other side of his door smiling with a shake of his head. If it was morning they might have heard the faint flute variation of "We are a Family", echoing from his room, but as it was, they simply when back the students' sleeping quarters with the sound of the wind and the humming ship.

#

Cole moaned as something brushed up against him. He fluttered his eyes open and cringed as a snake slithered past. Pressing himself up against the wall, he saw quick enough that it was an ordinary snake and not poisonous either. He sighed with relief; though he frowned at himself as he caught himself thinking that even a snake might make a good bite to eat.

Lloyd moaned and muttered something unintelligible in his sleep from being moved. He had been sleeping all the while unmoved on Cole's shoulder… however long it had been. Cole glanced at Lloyd, but it was too dark to see if he was any worse along his way to becoming a banana tree.

Very slowly, Cole slipped away and set Lloyd's head gently upon the floor of the cave. Instinctively, Lloyd curled up a little and put his arms around his head for support. Holding his breath, Cole waited, but soft snores erupted from him as before and he was sound asleep. Kai was snoring too and rather loudly, he noticed. But he was not going to stop him. His goal was to get some breakfast somehow before the sun came up, but as he took a step out of the cave, he saw that he did not have much time. The cave exit faced west, but the faint glow of dawn was beginning from behind it.

Quietly, ninja-style, Cole reached the top of the cave. Sure enough, he saw that dawn was already breaking and quickly throwing pale morning beams through the trees. Cole had to blink them away from being so used to the darkness in the cave.

Lloyd would probably be up any moment with the glow this morning. He wished he could have gotten up earlier, but how would he find edible plants in the dark when he could not find them during the day without Zane there to say what everything was, and how could he hunt an animal that could see him far better than he could see it without a weapon as he realized that his hammer was still back at Kinkomi's? He rolled his eyes at the idea of rumbling up the whole jungle with his feet and fists to knock over some animal long enough to attack it.

"Cole?" a voice croaked behind him.

Cole jumped and turned in surprise to see Lloyd just inches behind him looking still a little sleepy. The plant thing so far seemed to make him better equipped to be a ninja instead of less, but Cole quickly clamped his gaping mouth shut and then said, "I think we should go get something to eat."

Lloyd winced, and then nodded, already looking more awake as he bathed in the nearest golden beam. It was not taking long to rejuvenate him either. The leaves on his head already looked less droopy, and those little stalks were looking more and more like tiny green bananas.

"I'll go get something," Lloyd offered. "Someone should stay with Kai."

Cole shook his head. "If you're going, I'm going."

"Why?"

"Because I'm afraid to leave you by yourself to get rooted somewhere," Cole said before he could think of what he was saying.

There was an awkward pause.

Cole had forgotten about the truth serum thing. It had not worn off. He bit his lip. Lloyd studied him.

"I think Kai will be alright if he just stays in the cave, which… unfortunately, I don't think he's going anywhere from the way he was last night," Cole said.

Lloyd nodded slowly and rather suspiciously.

"Okay," he said. "But we can't be gone long."

NOTE: For Master Wu's story my sister and I were greatly inspired by the deleted scene from the alternate version of the Ninjago Movie. I love the images they shared with us for a completely different story which to me seems like it would have been a bit more Kung Fu Panda-like. As fun as the way the movie is, this alternate version is very inspiring and in our head-canon we decided that something visually similar did happen in movie-verse only without Lloyd and them going to the past to see it for themselves.