~~ Ch41:Thur3, Willful Ignorance ~~

Garmadon woke up to knocking on his door. Weird. The minions always texted, and Lloyd just barged in. Maybe Koko? Yawning, he got up, came over, and swung his door open.

Sure enough, Koko stood there, a slightly wild look in her eyes.

"He's not there!" she whispered, sounding panicked but not wanting to scream or shout. "All his friends are in there, fast asleep, but Lloyd's bed is empty!"

Garmadon shrugged. "He's fine, Kokes. He's fine. He gets up sometimes to play with his mechs and stuff. Let me just check with the LPS."

He went back to grab his phone from where it was charging on his nightstand. Sure enough, General No.1 had a Lloyd location update for him. Down in the glass tunnel, sleeping with Meowthra.

Yawning, Garmadon tapped the attached link, opening up a live feed of Lloyd sleeping against his new giant pet, who was wide awake and keeping an eye out. Good monster kitty. That's exactly why he wanted her, to protect his boy.

He yawned again and tossed his phone to Koko, who let out a sigh of relief at the view, and headed to his bathroom to get ready for the day.

Man, he needed coffee. And Lloyd would need food to get big and strong. So he'd best hurry up and get down to the kitchen.

~~ ! Go Ninja Go ! ~~

I slowly floated into wakefulness, initially feeling warm and safe and incredibly well-rested and satisfied. A pretty rare feeling for me, so I've learned to savor that almost light-headed fuzzy just all around good morning feeling.

Meowthra rumbled and licked my head, and I couldn't help the giggle that slipped out if I wanted to. Even as, unfortunately, reality began to hit.

I was the Green Ninja. I undeniably had powers. Which meant that stupid prophecy was coming true, step by step.

There was still that last secret message. Now that I had my powers, it would be easy to unlock it. But what if... what if it wasn't a good message? Wasn't what I wanted to hear? Was, like, more information on how to defeat my father or something, rather than how to save him?

Eventually, I'll have to look at it. Eventually, my dad will have to be stopped.

Images from yesterday floated to my mind, in particular those images from the news. My dad, a raging superpowered beast, purple fire blazing around him, flinging people aside like dirty laundry or something. An Oni stepping right out of a storybook, here to destroy destroy destroy. Fangs and claws and blazing eyes, a shadow come to life to haunt...

I shivered. No. No, it was still Dad.

But, to think, without me he could become, would become...

I finally had a clue what happened that night I'd been in the hospital. Why Uncle Ray and Auntie Maya had run away. Why Uncle Wu had given the others that order to cut off contact with me... so I'd never even consider leaving Dad. I'd have nowhere else to go. And it had worked.

It was... weird. The Ninja had told me how important I was to my dad. Uncle Wu had mentioned I was the one thing keeping his brother sane. Mom had sworn she'd left me with Dad for that same reason, that he needed me. Needed, not wanted, but needed.

I don't think I ever really believed that. Didn't understand really.

Now I do.

I really am Dad's one reason not to become... evil. Really, truly, murderous monster evil. And that's a lot to take in.

How am I supposed to do this? I'm supposed to save him. I will save him. Not kill him. Not destroy him. But how?

I squirmed into a seated position, still leaning against my purring kitty, and summoned my Green to my hands. As before, a cheerful buzz tickled at the edges of my mind, warm and reassuring. But I needed more than, well, the equivalent of a good sugar high. Candy didn't solve everything.

Speaking of candy... I formed a ball and tossed it upwards. As before, Meowthra snapped it up and purred even louder in pleasure. Heh, I wonder if it's like pop rocks or something? A sort of crackle, fizzle, buzz?

Out of curiosity, I let a spark hop from my hand into my own mouth. Hee! Oh, that tickles! The feeling really is sort of like a crackle, very light. No flavor though, but perhaps that should've been a given.

Hmm. I probably should get moving. Start my day. What am I even going to do?

I told Zane I could fix Echo. Not sure how I know I can, or even if the result will be exactly the same as Zane. I'm not giving him powers after all, just... connecting the dots? It's hard to explain, even to myself.

Definitely not going to school. Not after that hullabaloo my taking in Meowthra probably caused, providing school is even open. So I should just go fix Echo. Yeah, let's do that today. Shouldn't put it off.

Not because I don't want to go back to the Warehouse... Yeah, that's a lie. I don't want to risk Mom taking out that scroll and asking me to use my powers to reveal that last message. I'm sure I'll have to eventually, but it doesn't have to be now, right? I'm back. Dad's sane again. Things are good.

My friends are likely still up in my room. We probably shouldn't all go to Zane's. Don't know how Echo's gonna react. Zane warned it might be bad.

Maybe they'll go to school? Or they could just go to their own houses or the Warehouse. I doubt they'll want to hang out at our volcano, though my dad probably wouldn't mind.

Guess I'd better get going and find out.

~~ ! Go Ninja Go ! ~~

"Oh, no, the school's fine. Meowthra pretty much just hung out downtown. But we're ditching, since all our identities were completely blown yesterday," commented Nya casually, in response to Lloyd's question.

"Yeah," continued Kai. "We all called our parents after you passed out after dinner last night. They said to go ahead and take a day off, especially since we didn't sleep much the night before. You know, with fighting Meowthra and everything."

"Wait, what do you mean your identities are completely blown? They can't possibly have any..." Lloyd trailed off at the resigned look on Cole's face.

Zane's eyes glowed for a second. "It's actually on right now," he commented, rather cheerily. He gestured at the TV and it flicked on to the morning news.

On screen, it showed all my friends, except Zane since he'd been with me, standing around in their gi, hoods down. Garmadon casually came by with juice boxes, which he handed out, patted a confused Jay on the head with an enormously proud look on his face, then wandered off.

"Darn Gayle Gossip," groaned Jay. "Anyway, we had to take our hoods down to have any sort of meaningful conversation with your dad. It was all, oh such good little minions~! Searching for your master in the midst of a warzone~!"

"Yeah," groaned Kai. "And when we tried to talk to him with our hoods on..."

As if in reply, the screen swapped to a clip of Kai running over to Garmadon with his hood up. Even without any words, Garmadon's body language and disgusted facial expression conveyed absolute dismissal. When Kai persisted, Garmadon drew out his favorite enormous broadsword, pointed it in the red ninja's direction threateningly, then stabbed it into the ground and turned his back.

Summing up their issues that day, the video stayed on a bewildered looking Fire Ninja, who, after a second's hesitance, lowered his hood and tried again.

And Garmadon once again treated him like his son's favorite minion, all smiles and open arms and clearly asking what Kai needed, whatever it was and he'd get it for him.

Lloyd groaned and buried his face in his hands. This took his dad's willful ignorance and selective understanding to an entirely new level.

"He's an idiot," choked Lloyd, unable to deny it anymore.

"Even I can't argue that," commented Zane, studying the new clips on the screen. Further exposés proving all the Ninja's identities beyond the slightest doubt, except his. "Though it is absolutely fascinating, from a psychological perspective."

"So, anyway, we can't go home just yet. Our parents warned us there's like entire mobs of fans and reporters around our homes. So we'll probably hang out at the Warehouse?"

"My dad's building is actually mostly clear," commented Zane. "Probably since I wasn't part of the battle, even if it wouldn't take much inference to conclude my identity at this point. So Lloyd and I can still work on Echo today."

"Actually, there is one more place we could hang out until the heat goes down," commented Jay, licking his lips a little nervously. "See, it hasn't gotten out yet that I'm adopted... And even if it did, they've got awesome security so..."

Everyone froze.

"Are you inviting us to THE GORDON'S MANSION?!" exploded Nya.

Jay blushed. "Yeah, Libber texted me about an hour ago. She says it's cool and we can stay as long as we like."

Lloyd looked a little put out now at having already said he was going with Zane, but his nindroid friend ruffled his hair.

"We'll come by later, if that's ok?" asked Zane.

"Of course!" cheered Jay, which instantly cheered up Lloyd in return.

~~ ! Go Ninja Go ! ~~

Author's Notes: FINALLY! I'm so sorry guys! All I could get out for weeks was just fluff, and any attempt at story was just so, so... boring. After about three rewrites, I'm finally happy with this, so here you go! And the first scene of the next chapter will be at the Julien home, hopefully with a much shorter wait time between now and then! Sorry not much happened here, but Lloyd needed some conscious introspective time before moving on.

Special thanks, as always, to Sunny Lighter! The idea that Green feels like pop rocks in your mouth was hers! As was the idea that I go ahead and start publishing my shorts for this story as a separate fic, My Dad is Bad – Bonus Scenes! If you didn't know, I also have been updating my gift-fics for her Grass is Greener series in my fic titled Greener Gift-fics. We also wrote a crossover between My Dad is Bad and her Grass is Greener series! My half is Ninjago Version 3 point 0, and hers is Triple the Ninja, Triple the Fun. Check them out if you haven't yet!

Shout-outs to Black' Victor Cachat, Carrie2sky, Bookkeeper2004, ItsYoGreenGirl, Silvermags, Silene-A, and emp23ninjagirl! Thank you seven especially for all your support and ideas for future chapters (both for this AND for other stories) that we exchanged over PM!

Also, since I haven't done this in a while, and all of you guys were SO supportive through my writer's block, thanks to ALL my other reviewers from the past couple chapters! Champion of Justice, Fiiyaaah (guest), Shiranai Atsune (guest), Fan (guest), Guest (guest), gwencarson126, samdragon57, Little-BluWhale, Pitch'snieceanddaughterofMew, RememberTSA, Tie-dyed Trickster, Lluvia-the-Wolfgirl, Harley Allison24, Evelyn Rogue, Watcher321, EMPFangirl02, Kifo Entiegon, NinjagoLloydLove, and Varon Lily-Rose! You all are AWESOME! I had TWENTY-THREE reviews on the last chapter, which honestly completely blew me away! Thank you all SO MUCH!