Master Wu had always had a peaceful, friendly sort of look to him, no matter what the young ninjas got up to. Even when he randomly chucked his book at them or barked out orders during training, he'd always seemed calm, wise, just... good. There was always a bit of sparkle in his old eyes whenever the teenagers tried to pull one over on him. They could always tell he was fighting off laughter whenever they got too excited playing video games or watching TV. It was easy to trust him, to believe him, to look up to him.

They'd never dreamed he could look so unsure of himself. Doubtful. Regret weighing down on his shoulders. Guilt in his eyes.

There wasn't anywhere in the warehouse with enough seats for all the people gathered there, so they mostly stood, though a few sat on the couch. Jay, Ed and Edna, Liberty and Cliff. Cole, Lou, Sarah. Zane, Dr. Julien, Echo, Gerald. Kai and Nya, Maya and Ray. Misako and Wu. Eighteen people. Eighteen lives that would change after this conversation.

Wu took a deep breath and got started.

"As we all know, the First Spinjitzu Master spun Ninjago into existence using the five main elements that make up our world. Water, Fire, Ice, Earth, and Lightning. That is why the Masters of these elements have since ages past been the chosen protectors of Ninjago, the Ninja chosen and trained to learn the art of Spinjitzu. But there is one more element he used to create our world. The most important element, one that exists within and ties together all others. You might even call it an elemental essence. Without it, Ninjago would not exist. Without it, life would not be possible."

Every eye in the room was glued to him.

"The First Spinjitzu Master referred to this elemental essence as Green. In our modern language, the closest approximation would be Energy, but you could just as easily translate it to Life, Connection, or Power. He believed this essence was too dangerous to be passed down, and thus never selected a ninja to be its master, as he did with all other elements. It would not be passed down from parent to child. Would never be something to be planned for, expected, anticipated. But Green would not be lost forever when he died - he left a prophecy regarding its future master. The Green Ninja would one day be needed. The chosen one would appear in the hour of greatest need. They would surpass the other Ninja and become their leader against a great Evil that sought to destroy Ninjago. That is what I was instructed. That was the legend I passed down in turn."

Master Wu's hands tightened on his staff. He looked down, shielding his eyes with his hat.

"As you of the previous generation of Ninja are aware, when Lord Garmadon began his quest to conquer Ninjago, we believed him to be that Evil. Village after village fell to him. The Skulkin and Serpentine allied with him in his devastation. Whole armies were crushed before his might. We battled against him, and lost. Time and again, we were pushed back. Until he met Misako Irondragon."

Now it was Misako who looked weighed down in shame and guilt.

"Lord Garmadon fell in love. Disbanded his armies. Married. Had a lovely child with the most unusual eyes, but seemed otherwise perfectly normal, unaffected by the venom that tainted his father. Garmadon still spoke grandly about one day recreating Ninjago in his own image, and with every day that passed he seemed to crave a return to his conquest, but he seemed content. It no longer seemed he was to be this great Evil, at least not anytime soon. Until, one day, his wife had a vision."'

The previous Ninja all looked guilty and uncomfortable, eyes darting to their old friend and ally. Misako refused to look at any of them, keeping her gaze trained on her feet.

"She became convinced that her son was the foretold Green Ninja. That he would one day be forced to battle his father. Sited her child's peculiar eyes and a strange reaction between Lloyd and some ancient artifacts as evidence. She begged for help. No one believed her. Not the Ninja. Not I. Not Garmadon."

The room was dead silent.

"Misako believed the only proof to her claim would be the Scroll of the Green Ninja. The original prophecy, penned by the First Spinjitzu Master himself shortly after appointing the original Ninja Force. She left to find it. To prove her son's identity, his destiny, and thus hopefully find a way to prevent his future battle with Garmadon. She left her son behind, not just because of the dangers she was sure to face, but because she believed Garmadon's love for Lloyd would prevent him from returning to the way of the Warlord."

Everyone knew how this story ended, but you could almost hear the "no, no, no," everyone was thinking.

"She was wrong. Almost immediately after she left, Garmadon began again recruiting an army. Within a year he invaded Ninjago City itself. We have been holding him off ever since, with no end in sight."

"A week ago, Misako found the lost scroll. If the current Ninja would step forward?"

Misako opened her tube, removed an ancient, fragile looking scroll, and slowly laid it out on the table in front of the couch for all to see. She held out a hand in warning when Jay reached forward to touch, but otherwise remained silent.

They all stared at what was obviously a painting of Lloyd. Blond hair in his same hairstyle, distinctive bright green eyes, green gi. Even the expression on the figure's face and the position he was standing in were completely Lloyd.

Surrounding Lloyd's figure were five ninjas. Going off the colors of their gi and the elements each was wielding, they represented Fire, Water, Earth, Lightning, and Ice. Looking closer, it was actually them! Ice's eyes were a startling ice blue, Fire had a scar over one eyebrow, Water had a birthmark, Lightning had freckles, and Earth, noticeably thick eyebrows.

"This is so creepy," finally said Nya. "Looking at a scroll hundreds of years old and seeing... us. It's totally us."

Misako leaned over and gently unrolled more of the scroll, revealing columns of unfamiliar characters in the script of their ancestors.

Wu leaned forward and pointed to each character as he translated. "Father. Evil. The way the characters are stacked mean that one is equivalent to or representative of the other. Same thing here with Son and Good. Then these two characters, literally End Fight, together mean war, usually referring to a final, deciding battle. Victory, Good, a symbol meaning with or alongside, Suffering or Loss, and these characters mean Death or Offering - together they refer to sacrifice. Great, or Large, with emphasis, describing that sacrifice. Rulership or Kingdom, it can refer to any type of government or leadership - this connector means of, Evil, Final or End, Eternal."

Zane's eyes flickered as he put all the pieces together and rearranged them into modern language. "A Father of Evil and Son of Good will war with each other. Good will be victorious, but only after making a great sacrifice. Evil's rule would come to an end, never to rise again."

Wu merely nodded.

"Garmadon and Lloyd are going to fight to the death?" whispered Jay in horror. "Because that's what it sounds like you're telling us."

"No!" argued Kai, getting angry. "That won't happen! You want Lloyd to be the Green Ninja to prepare him to kill his father?! Absolutely not!"

Wu silently unrolled more of the scroll. This time he translated it himself, but they recognized enough of the characters from the first passage to know he wasn't lying. "If the ultimate sacrifice is not made, Evil will win. Ninjago will be destroyed. Millions will die."

Zane reached out, hand shakily hovering over the character Wu translated as millions. Sure enough, his analysis showed the character to mean thousands times thousands. That was a lot of death. He lowered his hand. Tears spilled from his eyes. Dr. Julien reached out to pull his elder son to sit next to him, frowning slightly as he pulled out a handkerchief to gently mop the Nindroid's eyes. Such a reaction was certainly not in Zane's programming. Echo couldn't follow what was going on, but squeezed his big brother tight to try make the strange liquid stop.

"But..." Cole reached back and shakily took his own father's hand. "But that's..." He couldn't finish. His father drew him into a hug, just as shaky at this revelation. His mother lowered her mask to kiss her son's head and stroke his hair.

The thought of being forced to kill their father affected the others similarly. Jay fled to Ed and Edna, who protectively held their boy close, whispering comforts and encouragement. After a moment, Ed gestured a distraught Liberty and Cliff over, so they could also receive and give comfort.

Kai and Nya did likewise, each desperately clinging to one of their parents while reaching for the other until all four were huddled together.

"We do not know exactly what this ultimate sacrifice refers to, nor does this battle necessarily have to be a physical war," Wu tried to comfort the teenage Ninja in front of him. "It is possible that even the First Spinjitzu Master himself did not know. It is also possible that this battle between Good and Evil, Lloyd and Garmadon, might not even take place for decades yet. We just do not know."

"But we do know one thing. Lloyd must be prepared to make this sacrifice, whatever it may be. Or Ninjago is doomed."

"You lied to him!" screamed Nya, pulling away from her family to glare at Wu. "You said you didn't want him to kill his father!" She turned to stab a finger in Misako's direction. "And YOU said you wanted to save Garmadon! You're both LIARS!"

"Don't you DARE judge them, young lady!" shouted an unexpected voice, which immediately fell into terrible hacking coughs as soon as she finished. Cole tried to hush his mother, but she pushed him away and got to her feet.

"See, Wu - THIS is the problem with trying to tell a story without emotion! I know you're trying to give facts, not opinions, but the children just don't get it!"

Sarah, the previous Earth Ninja, turned to Nya. "Garmadon is Wu's brother! They love each other, no matter how they squabble, and Garmadon's actions aren't even entirely his own, since he was poisoned against his will by a beast with no right to exist! How would you feel, child, if you had to face YOUR brother, not in his right mind, across the battlefield?!"

Nya paled. Kai reached over and pulled her into a hug.

"And as for Koko - my dear friend, our great hero - you have no right to judge! None of us do! She was RIGHT! WE were the ones that pushed her to such extremes, by not standing by her! If you blame her, child, children, you are blaming not just her, but me, Gerald, Liberty, and your own parents!"

She began coughing again, great heaving gasps and choking, and Lou and Cole rushed forward to hush her and direct her back to the couch.

Maya stepped forward. "Ray and I have much to answer for. We abandoned our mission as Ninja to protect our children. And none of our friends blamed us." She gestured to Liberty and Cliff. "Liberty chose to give up Jay so he could live a normal life, so she could fight to the fullest. She never forgave herself." Then to Sarah, Lou, and Cole. "Sarah chose to keep her family together - and agonized every day about the danger she was putting them in. Whether she would even come home after every battle, if that was fair to them." Then to Gerald. "Gerald actually decided not to get married or have children at all. But then he had to worry about Ice being lost forever."

Maya held out her arms to encompass everyone in the room. "Every adult in this room has had to make decisions I hope you children never have to. Who can say who was right, who was wrong, if there even is a right or a wrong? Maybe we all should have stayed single like Gerald - but then none of you would exist. Maybe we should have kept fighting and kept our families close like Sarah - but who's to say we'd all have been as lucky as her? And if everyone had quit, like Ray and I, Ninjago City would have fallen years ago. Which makes me wonder if Liberty and Misako had the right of it, for all their choices were the most painful for everyone involved."

Maya smiled sadly. "The only people here who bear no fault are Ed, Edna, and Dr. Julien - and I'm sure even they agonize every time they see you children go out and fight. Whether they should step in, step up, keep you children safe and find a way to stop Garmadon themselves, or maybe just leave the city to burn."

It was clear from the looks on the three civilian parents' faces that they had indeed had such thoughts, and often.

With that, Maya turned to Misako. "Koko. We're sorry. You were right, and it may seem late in the game, but we're here to help now." She pulled her old friend into her arms in a hug. After a moment, Misako returned it, her eyes watering.

Ray stepped over to Maya's side. "We screwed up, Misako. We were so worried about ourselves, our children, what was right and what was wrong and what should be or could be or might be. We should have been there for you, for Lloyd, for Garmadon."

"We can't undo the past," said Liberty, the previous Lightning Ninja, her eyes straying to her son before she tore them away to look at Misako and Wu. "But I vow to be here to help in the present. We will prepare Lloyd, not to kill his father, not to abandon him, but to bring him back to us. I miss that crazy old weirdo that sprayed everyone with soda pop at my wedding, that gifted Cliff and me a ray gun the size of a horse when Jay was born."

"There must be another interpretation to the prophecy. Something we are missing," spoke up Gerald, the elderly previous Ice Ninja. "We will find it. But, should worse come to worse, this time. This time, we stand together. Instead of denying the possibility of tragedy, or worrying constantly about it, we will be ready to support Lloyd no matter what decisions he may make - for himself."

~~ ! Go Ninja Go ! ~~

I always have this nightmare on extra bad days. Well, is it really a nightmare? Or would it be called a flashback? It happens when I'm trying to sleep, though, so I just call it my nightmare.

It was the middle of winter. There wasn't any snow yet, but the water had been freezing.

Chad and his goons had caught me again. I should've been quicker. More clever. My fault. But they'd caught me. Beat me up. Waited until the school was empty, then dumped me in the pool and ran off.

They probably hadn't meant to almost drown me. But I hadn't been able to swim properly, between the icy cold and the aching bruises. I'd certainly swallowed more chlorinated water that was safe for anyone.

So there I was. Finally having managed to cough out most of the water, flopped on the ground next to our middle school pool as I fought to calm down, to breathe properly, even as I shivered and shook and ached and hurt.

And Pythor shimmered into existence, looking down on me with a big smile.

"If it isssn't my old chum! Hello, Lloyd."

I tried to escape, flinching back and trying to scrabble to my feet. But, between the beating and the near drowning in icy water, I was too slow. His tail wound around one of my legs and lifted me up, easily about eight feet into the air. Hanging with my head down. Too weak to twist, to fight, to escape.

I should have tried harder. If I'd known what was to come, I would have.

"I haven't ssseen you in quite a while. Not sssince, ooh, sssince you sssicced your Ninja on me. I never did thank you for that, did I? Come, come, I must show my... appreciation."

I don't want to remember this. I don't want to think about this. Why was I thinking about this?

He brought me to the top of an old building, about five stories high. A gang of Serpentine were already there.

They beat me up. Again. Much worse than any stupid middle school bully. That beating alone could've killed me.

When I finally could no longer move, no longer groaned or twitched or flinched at every vicious slam and kick and punch, Pythor shooed them away and took out a vial.

I can still hear his voice, as clear as if he's standing right behind me. Those smooth, rich tones and that clever phrasing that had so enchanted me when we first met. The rich vowels, clipped consonants, sibilant s's. Taunting me until the day I die.

"Do you know what happensss if a human ingessstsss Venomari poissson, Lloyd? It'sss a quite fassscinating process. But let me sssum it up for you. You'll be dead in eight hoursss - and you'll be grateful when it comesss."

I couldn't even resist at that point. He poured the vial right down my throat.

And then he chucked me off the roof.

I should have died. I should have died four or five times that night. The drowning, the beating, the venom, falling over fifty feet and crashing into the unforgiving sidewalk.

How the fall didn't kill me, I have no idea. Nothing broke my fall, no lucky trees or bushes. I vaguely remember seeing lights or sparks or something, but it must have been my eyes playing tricks on me. I wasn't exactly in my right mind.

I laid there for hours, just suffering and staring at the stars. I would have died, I'm sure of it, but a Serpentine rescued me.

She didn't really want to, granted. She had a look of disgust on her face the entire time, grumbling about pathetic humans, can't even handle a little fall. A baby Serpentine clung to her back. It was clear she didn't follow Pythor.

"Hey, look at me human. Yesss, you. I'm going to give you the antivenin and drag your sssorry little human butt to a hossspital. But there'sss one condition. You tell no one what happened. I can do without your insssane father exssterminating my people. There'sss few enough of usss as it isss. Deal?"

I couldn't exactly agree, but I guess she saw something in my face or eyes. Though I think I was just staring in shock at her baby the whole time. I'd never even realized Serpentine had babies, though obviously they must. Babies, families, children. They were people, too.

She was right. My dad would commit genocide if he found out about this. He'd make it a mission to wipe out every Serpentine in existence. Even the babies.

"Deal," she hissed to herself, and leaned over to pull my shirt up. And she bit me. Deep, deep, deep, right in my side above my left hip. Only with one fang though. The doctors later assumed I'd either been stabbed or struck something when I fell.

It must have finally been too much. Because, next thing I know, I'm in a hospital room with alarms shrieking and doctors and nurses panicking.

They knew I'd nearly drowned. They knew I'd been poisoned, though they had no idea with what. They knew about the 'stab wound' in my side, and they knew I'd fallen - though they seemed to think it was only about one story, maybe down a flight of stairs.

They were sure I was going to die.

It was terrifying. I don't think they knew I was partly conscious, that I could hear them and see them through my blurry, unfocused eyes.

My dad came and left. I heard screaming and shouting, thumps and slams and pounding. Someone crying out, "This is a hospital! Please!"

The Ninja visited in secret. Crying and cursing and vowing to bring my attackers to justice. They also thought I was dying - though by this point I actually was pretty sure I'd get through this. I could actually feel the antivenin at work.

It was the last time I would see the Ninja all together like that. For me. I wish it hadn't been with me only half-conscious on what they assumed was my deathbed. I wish I'd been able to reassure them, to thank them, to warn them how badly my dad was taking all of this.

I woke the next morning, feeling much better. The antivenin from the lady Serpentine had saved me, I knew. It hadn't been a dream. I still had the wound from her one-fanged bite.

Dad was acting weird. But I was too happy to see him to care. Happy to be alive, to be able to hug him. He insisted I be released, that he had a more than adequate medical team back at the volcano. The hospital workers were more than happy to release the child of the monster - though whether out of being freaked out about my miraculous survival or just wanting to get rid of my dad ASAP, I'm not sure.

"What happened, son?" Dad asked shakily, cradling me in his arms. Being cradled in four arms is awesome.

I remembered Chad and his goons. Pythor and his followers. A lady Serpentine and her innocent baby.

"Don't remember," I mumbled, snuggling closer.

He never asked again.

I try never to think about it. But every now and then, on particularly bad days, my nightmares remind me of what if feels like to be dying. To be surrounded by helpless people that have given up hope. To realize maybe I'm not quite human after all - because, even with the antivenin, I know I shouldn't have survived. Maybe everything else I could argue, but not that fall. I should've been crippled, at the least. But I was walking again in a week.

No. Just a nightmare. Not thinking about this. I'm human. My dad's human. People are just mean and jump to stupid conclusions and give up too quick. I don't actually know what happened that night. It must have been a dream. I hit my head in the pool and everything else was imagined.

I still have a scar above my left hip.

And now I can't get back to sleep.