The next morning, Lloyd woke up thinking it must have all been just a wild dream. Or at least he did before he tried to get up and his body started hurting in places he didn't even know could hurt.
After contemplating genuinely staying in bed for the next two months, like he told his teammates, he convinced himself to actually start his morning early, despite there being no Garmadon attack.
His mother was still asleep, which didn't surprise him considering she must have been awake just as long as him, if not longer, while waiting for him. He left her a note, saying he had just gone out to run a quick errand, in case she woke up and started looking for him. He wanted to stop at the warehouse to see whether the eel mech from yesterday's fight was actually there.
He didn't really want to admit it, but that wasn't the only reason either. He had to know whether everything that happened between him and his teammates was actually real, and not just a figment of his dreams.
But sure enough, when he opened the door, mask firmly strapped over his face, he found much more than just a mech. All five of his teammates were spread out around the room, either working on the modifications to his own mech, or on the metal skeleton of something that looked like a pilot cabin with four long legs. None of them were wearing their masks.
"Lloyd!" Nya waved from the head of his new mech, which right now looked like some bizarre tadpole shedding its skin to uncover the green scales beneath. Scattered around were missiles. Lots and lost of missiles.
"Come on, take that hood off, and get over here and help us. This is your mech, you know."
"She does realise that we are working on her mech over here, right?" Cole stage whispered, earning himself a pointed glare from the water ninja. He was working on one of the giant leg's joints and gave Lloyd a friendly wink as he passed him. Jay, who was working close to Cole, waved absently at Lloyd, barely looking up from his work.
Zane was busying himself in the small kitchen in the living corner of the warehouse. Lloyd called out a greeting to him, which the boy returned while asking him what kind of refreshment he'd like. He seemed to be multitasking, with one of the kitchen counters dedicated to making drinks, and the other to his construction of a rather large ice canon.
Now an iced tea richer, Lloyd joined Nya on top of his mech and started removing the black plating. When she showed him the plans, he was pretty sure so many missiles in one mech weren't physically possible, but he loved it nonetheless.
They kept working until the sun fully rose and the warehouse door burst open, and in charged a mass of red and gold metal. Before any of them could even think about grabbing their weapons, Kai was jumping from somewhere in the middle of the mass, his gi was smeared with ash and soot and burned on ends, but the boy himself couldn't look happier as he threw back his hood and waved at them excitedly.
"Guys! Guys! Look! I found the base for my new mech!"
The other ninja stared at him.
"Kai... could you kindly explain where you found a giant robot?" Jay asked in a small voice.
"Oh, I snuck into Garmadon's lair last night and found some prototypes he never used in his raids," Kai waved dismissively, ignoring the horrified looks on their faces, "Can you believe he threw this one out because it was too red?! Now enough chatter. I want giant flamethrowers and I want them now."
Nya sighed and shook her head as Kai started digging through the piles of spare parts that were scattered around the warehouse. Still, there was a fond smile on her lips when she went to help him.
Their work resumed, enriched with Kai's occasional happy shouts whenever he found a part he needed for his flamethrowers, and the more frequent explosion when he tried to use the wrong one.
"Hello, students!"
The ninja jumped back, looking around wildly, At their questioning looks, Jay shook his head. His phone was set on silent.
Master Wu rolled his eyes.
"We'll need to increase your awareness training."
All of a sudden, he was sitting on the couch, drinking one of the iced teas Zane prepared. The ninja quickly dropped their work and converged around the old master, already used to his appearances.
"Good job on yesterday's mission. I must admit you've exceeded my expectations," Wu said calmly, taking a sip of his tea.
"We couldn't have done it without you, Master. If you hadn't gotten those hostages out of the way, we probably would have had to surrender," Lloyd remarked, and the other ninja nodded vigorously.
Master Wu hummed and took another sip, hiding his pleased smile behind the cup. It felt good to be back in action, even if only for a little while.
Then he turned serious again.
"It's good to see you're all handling the reveal well. I admit I was slightly worried how you'd all react to finding out the green ninja's identity."
The five other ninja shared a knowing look.
"Well it was a bit of a shock to be honest, so we may have reacted a bit harshly at first," Cole said, looking slightly apologetic "But we already knew Lloyd was a good kid, so after the initial surprise wore off, we immediately ran to find him. Of course by then he'd already got himself into life threatening danger."
Lloyd puffed out his cheeks.
"Well it wasn't my fault the school was collapsing," he pouted.
"True, yet you refused to look upwards and acknowledge the concrete ceiling that was about to crush you," Zane remarked cheerfully.
Wu watched the bickering teens with sparkling eyes.
"Then I can count on you to keep an eye on my nephew?"
The five exchanged another look, this time of determination.
"Don't worry, Master. Unless Lloyd summons some giant cat demon onto the city, we're always going to protect him," Kai joked, ruffling the green ninja's hair.
"The possibility of that is higher than you might think," Zane noted, but no one heard him.
"It's a good thing the school allowed you the day off, before starting your online learning while your school is being rebuilt," Wu muttered, eyeing the clock.
The ninja froze as their eyes also settled on the clock.
"How is it eight already?!" Jay shrieked, setting of a commotion of confused yelling and a desperate search for their bags and clothes. One by one the ninja bolted out of the warehouse, shouting hurried goodbyes towards their Master.
Wu watched them go with a fond smile before moving the clock back to the correct time.
"Have a good day, students," he hummed before going to check out the progress they'd made on their mechs.
It took nearly six months before the students of Ninjago High could physically come to school, and summer was almost upon them. By then most of the damage done in the battle with Garmadon had been fixed, although a lab in the back of the school was still barred off from the student body. There were rumours it had allegedly been set on fire and exploded multiple times, while also bearing signs of being briefly filled with ice.
The ninja took the somewhat free time during the repairs to get better acquainted with the concept of being a team without masks.
Kai and Nya didn't seem to have any problems adapting, and while Cole was a bit closed off at first, it didn't take long for him to accept his other four teammates into his family. Jay and Zane took a bit longer to adjust, but even they were quickly pulled in by the Smith siblings' warmth and love.
Lloyd unsurprisingly took the longest. He was struggling with the bare concept of having people accept him as Lloyd Garmadon, much less with actually having friends as someone else than Green. It took a while for him just to stop flinching when they ran towards him or moved too abruptly. Luckily, the other ninja were willing to give him as much time and support as he needed.
He could see the pain and hate in their faces when he eventually shared some of what had been happening to him over the years, and what led to him being this way. That compassion helped him slowly open up more, and just like they promised, his friends were there for him every step of the way.
Lloyd found his once dark and lonely world was suddenly filled with light and love.
The ninja force started spending more and more time in the warehouse, training and working on their mechs, and eventually they even set up a computer rig and wifi, so they could take their online classes there.
It went so far that Koko jokingly told Lloyd that if he was going to spend every waking minute with his friends, he should start sleeping over too. He was pretty sure she at least partially regretted saying it when they actually started having occasional sleepovers in the warehouse.
Even Garmadon had to take some time to salvage his forces, so it had been relatively peaceful. There had been an attack some four months after the reveal, but it was small and quickly dealt with, and merely provided the ninja with an opportunity to test out their new mechs. Needless to say, the city adored it. Garmadon less so.
Days flew by and Lloyd was once again standing in front of the building he'd nearly died in.
He'd almost forgotten what it felt like when he got off the bus and everything stopped. He'd almost forgotten the searing feeling in his stomach those looks gave him.
He looked pointedly to the brand new pathway and quickly made his way towards the door.
His friends however, were having none of it.
He didn't even notice when they moved in to shield him from the hateful glares, they were just suddenly there, greeting him and asking about his weekend, as if they hadn't seen each other just a few hours before. They ignored the surprised looks, the whispers branding them as new traitors to the city, and just continued chatting and goofing around as if they were in their warehouse.
And Lloyd was suddenly in the middle of the conversation, laughing and joking along with them. And somehow, he no longer felt the stares, no longer heard the whispers.
"Hey, everyone, look! Garmadork has a new dork squad."
Ok, that he heard.
He turned with a sigh to look at Chen and his cheering squad, snickering at what their leader just said. The boy's smirk faltered a bit when Lloyd's five companions fixed him with cold stares.
"What do you want, Chen?" Lloyd asked, his voice a mix of disinterest and annoyance. He didn't even remember when he stopped being afraid of Chen.
Chen, momentarily stunned by Lloyd's sudden confidence, hurried to regain his posture.
"O-oh, I want a lot of things. But for starters, you could get out of our city. There's no place here for people like you," he sneered.
"Oh yeah? People like who?" Cole asked coolly as he once again placed himself between the two groups, hands crossed on his chest. Kai and Nya joined him from both sides, the former cracking his knuckles. Jay and Zane gravitated towards Lloyd, eyeing the students surrounding them suspiciously.
Chen expected the new 'dork squad' to try protecting the hated son of Garmadon, but he definitely didn't expect them to be this devoted. But he sure as hell wouldn't be the one walking away defeated again.
"Like you don't know, music boy. He's a monster! Who knows when he's going to turn on us and join his father. He shouldn't even be allowed to go to school with normal people like-"
*Crash!*
Without any warning, a fist collided with the boy's face, sending him skidding across the dirt. All eyes turned from the boy, groaning weekly on the ground, to the furious looking Kai, who was standing over him, chest heaving, fist still raised.
"Say that again, I dare you!" he hissed through clenched teeth.
Stunned silence filled the hallway as Chen groaned and sat up, his hand flying up to his bruised nose. It came away bloody.
"Y-you hit me? You dare to hit me?!"
"Oh I dare. And I'm going to do it again if you say another word about Lloyd," Kai seethed, taking a step forward.
Lloyd, sensing an impending disaster, quickly pushed past Cole and Nya to stop Kai from advancing further.
"Re-Kai, don't do it, it's not worth it. Remember, we have to protect the weak not beat them senseless."
Chen stopped cowering and just stared for a few seconds.
"Did... did you just call me weak?"
Lloyd looked down with an expression of pity and disgust.
"I was merely reminding Kai of his principles. Unlike you, we're not bullies who pick on weaker students. Now if you'll excuse us, we have more important things to do."
And for the first time since middle school, Lloyd was the one to walk away, leaving a stunned Chen behind him. The other five ninja watched him with various expression.
Nya was the first to move.
"Well what do you know," she muttered with a smile and went after Lloyd. Cole wordlessly followed her with Jay close behind.
Kai started to leave too, but then turned around, fixed Chen with a glare, and pointed to his eyes and then to him, mouthing I'm watching you. Then he followed his teammates.
Just as Chen released the breath he was holding, he was met with a pair of glowing blue eyes, way too close to his own.
"Hello, fellow teenager. I am but a normal student, however I must warn you, should you cause any trouble for my friends, I will make your life a living hell," the strange white-haired teen announced with an almost maniacal smile.
"Now then, have a good day," he waved before speeding after the others. Chen could have sworn he wasn't moving his legs.
The ninja regrouped in their shared class. Due to the shortage of teachers after the mass quitting that followed the attack six months ago, many of their classes had newly been merged into one.
Lloyd was ready to put the event with Chen behind him, but his friends had other ideas.
"Lloyd, you did it! You just totally stood up to Chen!" Kai squealed and all but crushed Lloyd in a hug.
"Our Greenbean is finally sprouting some thorns," Nya said proudly as the rest of the team crowded around Lloyd's desk.
"That Chen guy though, he really makes me want to punch stuff," Cole growled in a rare show of anger. Kai, Nya, and Jay nodded, while Zane just continued smiling innocently.
The class began and the five ninja took their seats surrounding Lloyd. A few minutes in and Lloyd was pretty sure none of them were listening to the lecture. His leg felt like it was vibrating on its own from all the messages that were arriving on their group chat.
Later, when he read through them basically plotting mass murder, he felt like everything was how it was supposed to be. He never would have guessed a single Garmadon attack could have changed things for the better.
And sure, the city still hated Lloyd Garmadon's guts, but he didn't mind it nearly as much as before. No longer did he only have companions as Green, now his friends were with him pretty much everywhere. They walked him home, always found him during lunch and recess, one or more were even in most of his classes. Things were perfect.
As he opened his eyes to the ringing of his phone on the morning of his sixteenth birthday, his only wish was for things to stay like that.
Oh wow, my first finished fic... I honestly have no idea what to say.If you had told me a month before I'm writing this that WOWTM would not only be much MUCH longer than the oneshot I intended it to be, but that it would even become my very first completed multi-chapter fic, I would probably laugh at you and now be searching for you to ask how you know time travel.
I'm honestly really happy with how it turned out, and it amazes me every time to see just how many people took the time to read it and liked it too.Your reviews were what I looked forward to most every time I updated. It always brightened my day to read about what you liked in the chapter, and the hilarious ways some of you conveyed it (Looking at you JinkeMitch, I'm still coming for ya, buddy, and our battle shall be legendary). I wish I could thank every one of you individually for staying with me through this roller coaster of a fic, especially since I couldn't reply to all the amazing reviews on FFN, but that would be way too long to put here, and I would quickly start repeating myself.
So, in conclusion, thank you so much for making this story what it is, and making my time writing it so great.
And as always
See ya in the next one ;)