She knows. They know. Everyone knows.
No. They can't know. Just knowing I was in the hospital doesn't mean they'll figure out everything that happened. My secret is safe. Should be safe. I've kept it safe all these years.
Zane set his hand on my arm. I looked over at him, not quite able to focus. Not quite able to feel my feet actually.
"No-one but your mother actually saw any records," he whispered urgently.
My eyes locked on his, and I instantly felt a flood of relief. That's right. Zane knows. Zane will have figured out why, at least one big reason why, I'm so scared of people finding out too much about my night in the hospital.
Zane no doubt was remembering my confession that I should be dead at our sleepover. Remembered me showing him how quickly my body healed. How very, very much I didn't want anyone to know.
"That would've been the night..." Nya began, and trailed off, gulping. Kai wrapped her in a tight hug. Remembering their own nightmares, no doubt. Their parents, probably limping home, defeated and terrified.
I wasn't the only one that suffered that night.
The Ninja had suffered. They also must have felt like they'd failed me, and then they had to deal with the loss of Fire and Water on top of things. My friends must have suffered, watching their parents, even if they didn't know me at all. My uncle must have suffered, to the point he made that decision to order the remaining Ninja not to have anything to do with me anymore.
My dad suffered, probably more than me. He would have given anything to be in my place. I saw it every time he had hovered over me that week of recovery. Whenever he'd hugged me tight and pleaded with me to forgive him for letting this happen. No matter how many times I tried to reassure him that I was going to be ok, that none of this was at all his fault.
And now my mom was suffering. Long after the rest of us had, more or less, healed. There were scars, true, but it was so long ago. Literally years.
Why bring this up now? Why couldn't we all just pretend it never happened?
My friends must have seen me trying to shrink into denial or something, because Cole actually waved his hand in front of my face. I stumbled back and Kai caught me, setting me back on my feet.
"That explains a lot," commented Jay, holding out the bag of gifted candy in offering. No one accepted, so he went back to munching it all himself. "Lady Irondragon's like, a legend. A lot of people owe their lives or their parents' lives to her."
"I don't get it," I whispered. This was terrible. My business. My secrets. Things I didn't want anyone to know. Why, how, would, should, could this change anything?
"This is a good thing," explained Cole gently, trying to get me to look at him. "Your mom cares. Even other people can see it." He lifted his phone, still open to the ended video. "Most of the comments are people feeling sorry for her. For you. They'd never seen you as anything other than Garmadon's son before. This is new for them."
"It's a trick!" I blurted out. It had to be. That was all that made sense. "Everybody hates me!"
All my friends were staring at me now with open pity. They didn't get it. It's such a simple fact of my life. It was how I got through every day. Assume everyone hates you, and it's not a surprise, or unexpected, or even rude to get yelled at or cursed out or chased off. I just have to accept it, the price for loving my dad.
"We don't," commented Jay, looking confused. "Our parents don't. Your uncle and mom don't. Your dad certainly doesn't."
I stared at Cole's phone. That video. The supportive comments. It couldn't be real. It was all a trick or something. If not...
Maybe that was worse. If this was real. Because it was ok to attack the son of Garmadon, but not the son of Irondragon? Just because they didn't know? They'd never cared to know before. It wasn't a secret. Or do they expect me to ditch my dad and run off with my mom now?
Become the Green Ninja. Fight him. Abandon him. Leave him all alone to go crazy because no one loves him enough to stay at his side.
And my friends called this a good thing?
I don't know what look was in my eyes, but I wanted to hit something. Cole suddenly grabbed my arm, looked around, then yanked open Jay's locker and shoved me inside.
What the heck?
Then the floor opened up and I slid down with a cry.
I vaguely heard Cole order the others to go to class as he jumped in after me.
~~ ! Go Ninja Go ! ~~
My spinjitzu training ensured I landed on my feet at the end of the slide, and I quickly somersaulted out of the way to make room for Cole just behind me.
I stared at the slide in shock, then back around at the Ninja Warehouse we'd neatly landed in.
"Jay's latest pet project," explained Cole with a shrug. "He's gonna do all of our lockers. Now, let's burn off some steam."
I folded my arms stubbornly, more than a little ticked at being basically kidnapped from school. I didn't want to think about even more makeup work.
But I also knew he'd made the right decision. I didn't really feel... up... for being around all those hypocritical, lying, fake faces right now.
"Want to spar?" he asked.
"I'd hurt you," I warned Cole, not quite able to look at him. "You know I'm better than you."
It was a fact. We both knew it. He shrugged.
"I've got superstrength. I'll live."
I finally laughed. Realized I still had my backpack over a shoulder, that my hand was way too tightly gripping the strap. I took it off and tossed it on the couch.
Cole tossed his own next to mine and went over to the mats. Without looking at me, he began the warmup routine I'd actually showed them a couple days ago.
I joined him. Once we were both good and loose, he turned and appraised me. Discerning I had calmed enough to not have to worry about accidentally like, ripping his arm off or something, he gestured for me to come at him.
It was a fairer fight than I expected, between his superstrength and my skill. Perhaps because we stuck to mostly grappling, which limited my speed and moves. We didn't throw any punches or kicks - him because he could apparently lift a school bus, let alone snap me in half, and me because my knowledge of pressure points was a little too good to use against a friend.
A couple hours later, Cole tapped out. We were both laying on our backs, staring up at the ceiling and dripping in sweat. Our clothes kind of ruined - probably should've changed into training clothes before fighting. We both definitely needed showers, water, and food.
"Feel better?" asked Cole.
"Less like I want to hurt someone? Yeah. Thanks," I murmured in reply.
"Want to talk?"
"No. Really. No."
"Totally fine, green bean." And he hefted himself upright, then held out his hand to help me up.
"Electrolytes, carbs, and protein," commented my Uncle Wu, totally out of nowhere. He was sitting on the couch, drinking tea and looking like he'd been there for quite a while.
Ninjas. Heh. I smiled.
"Hey, Uncle Wu."
Cole bowed slightly in greeting, mopping up his face and neck with a towel. He tossed a clean one my way.
"You know the rules about cleaning up after yourselves, Cole. Be sure to wipe down the mats if you're done. Only after you both hydrate and replenish."
Not one word about skipping school. Again. I guess attendance is a bit of a joke for a Ninja?
Uncle Wu made a face and waved his hand in front of his nose. "And shower and change clothes. The mats can definitely wait while you shower and change."
Cole and I exchanged glances at each other, the disgusting sweat stains and admittedly rank BO, and started cracking up. What is it about being stink that's just so darn funny?
~~ ! Go Ninja Go ! ~~
It didn't add up. Lloyd should be dead.
Koko frowned at the paperwork in front of her. Tapped her pen against the notebook she was using to organize the data. Looked again at the piles she'd been trying to sort the information from the hospital and the volcano's clinic into.
She frowned. Garmadon and Wu were exceptionally sturdy people, she knew from experience. She'd personally seen them walking away from things that would have crippled herself or the other Ninja. Seriously, Garmadon had once had a building collapse on him and had managed to crawl out with just a concussion and a broken arm.
She'd never met their father - he'd died well before she'd been born - but she saw no reason not to believe that he truly was the First Spinjitzu Master. Nothing else explained Wu and Garmadon's powers, so unlike any of the other Elemental Masters. Their lifespans, already over double a healthy person's and neither looking anywhere close to their deathbed. The fact they'd had knowledge of and access to artifacts, temples, and ancient sites unknown to almost anyone else.
She'd long since accepted that half of her husband wasn't quite human, and she was totally fine with it. It might even have something to do with his transformation after being bitten - she'd seen pictures of him from before. She had a hunch anyone else would have just died.
So it made sense that Lloyd was, shall we say, a little extra healthy. A little extra strong, fast, durable. It had always been a possibility, even a likelihood. She'd seen it as a wonderful plus when she'd realized she was pregnant. With how dangerous their lives could be, an extra sturdy child was a precious gift.
But this type and amount of damage would have killed even Garmadon.
Maybe she'd seen Garmadon walk away (well, crawl away) from a collapsed building, but she'd also seen him needing emergency medical attention after getting shot with an arrow. She'd seen Wu stop a missile with his bare hands, but she'd also seen him wearing bandages for over a month after a nasty fight with a fire breathing menace. They were extra durable, but they healed no faster than a normal human, once someone or something actually managed to hurt them.
If these numbers were right, Lloyd was completely different. Miracle, indeed, and the hospital didn't know the half of it. The half she only knew about because of the records from the volcano's clinic.
His lungs were already fully healed from any water inhalation by the time he got home to the volcano. And there wasn't the slightest trace of any poison, not even any antibodies of any sort in his bloodstream.
His bruises were gone within another couple days, and his bones healed within a few more. Scans showed a full recovery of all internal organs by the end of the week. His stab wound was reduced to nothing more than a scar in the same length of time.
How could anyone recover from such a thing in just a week? Within two, there was no sign other than the scar from the stab wound to show something had even happened. Not even any loss of strength or flexibility. He was back to 100%. Hadn't even lost any weight.
If the hospital had seen the files from the volcano on Lloyd's recovery, they probably would've begged, even fought, to run tests on him. Honestly, it was amazing that the doctors at Garmadon's clinic had never questioned Lloyd's recovery - but then, they'd never seen the hospital's record of how Lloyd came in to them. (Plus Garm has probably hovered over them constantly.) This type of recovery truly was a miracle. How was such a healing ability possible?
Ability. It had to be another power. An element... or essence.
Green. Energy. Life.
It hit her. Oh! That makes perfect, if terrifying, sense. She'd never even considered that Green could be used in such a way. Lloyd might not even know, if his body had just used it instinctively to save his life.
Which led her to an even more terrifying question. Not just who had tortured and tried to kill Lloyd... but why. By now they must know he survived, so why had they never tried again? Did they know about Green, or accredit Lloyd's survival to Garmadon's genetics? Would they come after him again in the future? Would they tell anyone about how he'd survived?
If Lloyd's healing ability came out, she shuddered to think what ideas that might give some people. She knew very well that monsters existed, many of them masquerading as normal people.
And if he could use Green to heal others? He would never have a peaceful life. People would drain him dry begging for cures and blame him for any and every death in the city.
Green was legendary, true, but Lloyd's body was not without limits. Fire masters could still be burned, water masters drowned, ice masters frozen. There were weights earth masters could not budge, and lightning masters could even be electrocuted if the voltage was high enough. Green had to have a limit, a price, most likely Lloyd's own energy.
She flipped through the volcano clinic's data, and sure enough, Lloyd spent most of that week asleep. Not in a coma or anything, but definitely drained. And whenever he'd been awake, he'd been starving and had devoured everything he'd been given.
And apparently painkillers were almost entirely ineffective. The volcano's doctors credited it casually to an unusually high metabolism. Another price she hadn't even thought of. And that made her, once again, fight back the urge to be sick as her head went light and her stomach twisted.
Those injuries. No painkillers.
At least he'd spent most of that week unconscious, but still...
She shakily lowered herself to the ground and put her head between her knees until the room stopped spinning.
Who else knew? As a mother, she had to at least try to silence them. The Ninjas' identities were secret for a reason. Many reasons. All the more so, the Green Ninja would have to be protected.
Lloyd needed to be protected.
Plus, yeah, she wanted revenge.
First step, she climbed back into her chair and reached for the first page of the hospital's documentation. Listing all the locks and seals on Lloyd's file. Her eyes fell on the code that a Ninja would have had to place on the file to lock it. And quickly, before the doctors realized just what they had. Before they tried to reference it again for any studies or to use in any research.
Wu was no good at computers. He'd never even think to lock the files.
Maya and Ray had quit. Whoever had locked the file had to have done so in person, at the hospital itself.
Liberty would never have been able to keep this a secret. Would never have thought it should be a secret.
Sarah was a possibility. But more likely it was...
Gerald. The previous elemental master of ice.
~~ ! Go Ninja Go ! ~~
Author's Notes: Hope everyone enjoyed! Did anyone see Cole having to live up to his promise quite that fast? And poor Koko, she just can't catch a break! Most of you already figured out about Green, but I hope the reveal and explanation was still interesting!
Please note that I have started naming chapters, mainly for navigational purposes, so please don't expect anything particularly clever. I was beginning to have a hard time finding things myself, and I'm quite surprised that I've gotten to the point that it's actually a hassle to have to click through so many chapters to find what I'm looking for! I've never had a story this long (let alone this popular!) before, so please be patient with me!
Also, I do seem to be getting a lot of questions on when certain upcoming events will be. I AM NOT COMPLAINING! I LOVE CHATTING WITH YOU GUYS! I just wanted to give you guys the titles of the chapters I have rough drafts of so far, as a bit of a hint about what's to come. Titles may change between now and when I post.
Ch28, You Choose Your Destiny
Ch29, Mom
Ch30, Backflips
Ch31, Hope
Ch32, Golf Tournament!
Ch33, Kidnapped (Again)
Future chapters/arcs, Ice, Green, Meowthra, Pythor, Kidnapped (AGAIN!), The Great Devourer, Destruction, Copy the Mirror, Anything is Possible, The Green Ninja.
Updates should continue to be once a week on Fridays. Please see my profile for more details.
A great huge shout-out to Sunny Lighter for beta-reading this chapter! For this chapter especially our discussions about Cole and Koko were extremely useful! Also our many discussions about Lloyd's unique heritage and powers!
Special thanks also to EMPFangirl02 for sharing her adorable and amazing fanart, featuring the Ninja in cat ears! See my profile for instructions on how to view them!
Lastly, thanks to everyone who reviewed last chapter: MasterOfMusic139, Hypothetical Alien17, Queen of Camouflage, Watcher321, Pitch'snieceanddaughterofMew, Kifo Entiegon, Silvermags, EMPFangirl02, Sunny Lighter, Carrie2sky, Bookkeeper2004, Beaner97, Lea1985, and Dyphen. As a reminder, I cannot send you a personal thank you unless you have PMs enabled!