A/N: *Wrestles self out from mountains of work* I'm alive, I promise! (Mostly! Kind of! Depends on your definition of 'alive'!) To make up for the absence, please enjoy this slightly longer than usual chapter and my (rather useless, at this point) word that I'm trying to find time to write.

Also, three reviews?! I can definitely assure you that there was absolutely no excited noises whatsoever that escaped my lips while reading them. Absolutely none.

Review Replies:

xxXTryMeXxx: Don't worry too much about Lloyd, he's been through worse than a little confusion. And yes, those are Darkly's kids, feel free to take some guesses at what they wanted with Lloyd. Also the snake isn't Skales per se... (Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter!)

NinjagoGeek4EVER: Yeah, don't worry, though, Lloyd gets to have a nice day for once. :)

GermanShepherdDogGSD: I'm glad you like this so far! (And welcome to the Cursed Concept AU!) Hopefully you like this one too!

Wu crept around the mostly-vacant houses, he was fairly certain that his ninja could handle whatever was going on in the center stadium of Ouroborus, and he was worried about his nephew. He hadn't seen Lloyd in the brief glance he gave towards the stadium, and it appeared that the serpentine women and children were in the houses around Ouroborus, so Lloyd was logically stuck in one of them with the pink lady.

Peeking in numerous houses, he finally located the one containing his nephew. He was in one of the bigger houses, in what appeared to be some kind of serpentine living room. Lloyd's back was to him, facing the pink snake from the security camera footage and a tiny gold and white accented hypnobrai infant. Just as he was about to burst in and rescue the poor human kid who had already been through too much, Lloyd turned enough for him to be able to see his face.

Lloyd was smiling. A wide grin that went from ear to ear.

He hadn't seen that expression on his nephew's face - admittedly he hadn't even seen his nephew very much - since the boy had been 18 months. Even the past couple days he'd spent with the kid he hadn't seen so much as a half-smile on the boy's face.

It quickly became clear they were trying to show the baby snake how to walk, with plenty of laughter erupting from each of the three.

None of the three noticed as Wu perched outside the window, watching, listening.

None of the three noticed the sad smile that crossed an uncle's face as he realized he couldn't truly protect the nephew he'd just started to meet, not as well as strangers could. (It reminded him all too much of another young boy he'd failed, another boy he'd taken in.)

None of the three noticed as he turned and walked away.

*To the Bounty, somewhere in the middle of the desert but not as close to Ouroborus as the ninja would have liked.*

When the ninja finally returned Wu was waiting up on deck, a suitcase in front of him and a cup of tea in his hand.

"Did- did you find Lloyd?" Kai's nervous tone betrayed his semi-confident stance.

"I did."

"Oh," all four ninja visibly relaxed, although Kai was still the only one to speak. "Cool, so he's here?"

"No."

The four ninja glanced at each other. "Does this have something to do with... that-" Cole gestured to the suitcase - "Sensei?"

"Somewhat. I will have to be leaving for awhile, and you four have proven poor babysitters."

"You only tested Kai!" Jay protested.

"Regardless, I have chosen to leave Lloyd with someone else. Somewhere he will hopefully be safer."

"Where are you going?"

"I am going to find my brother. He and I have many things we need to discuss."

Wu stood as his students broke into protests, lightly whacking Kai one last time with his staff before striding off the edge of the - currently grounded - boat.

"He can't be serious, right?" Jay glanced back, but none of his fellow ninja would even meet his eyes.

*Meanwhile, in Ouroborus…*

"You're back! How wasss it?"

Skales eagerly hugged his wife, ecstatic to inform her of his accomplishment. "I'm sssecond in command, Ssselma, the tribesss have been united." He let go and smiled down at her. "How'sss our little Junior doing?"

She beamed at him. "Him and Lloyd are getting along well."

A frown crossed his face. Right, the human his wife had dragged home with her - despite his protests - the second she'd seen him again. "You can't ssstill be consssidering adopting the human."

"If I wanted to take in a young Fangpyre that'sss clearly traumatized, with no one to take care of them, would you let me?"

"Of courssse!" He didn't even have to think about it.

"Then what'sss ssso different when it'sss a human? Why isss he, a child, sssuddenly ssso sssussspiciousss?"

Well, when she put it like that it sounded like he was racist or something.

When he didn't respond, Selma continued. "Ssskales, you are going to ssspend sssome time with that boy until you get sssome sssort of underssstanding of him, and then we can have thisss conversssation." She turned away, giving a soft wave of her hand. "Maybe you can ssstart by sshhowing him his room."

Skales silently cursed under his breath for letting Selma set up a 'guest' room; it probably wouldn't have changed anything if he hadn't, but she might have at least hesitated if they didn't already have a spare room. It was like she'd planned this.

With a sigh, he slithered into the next room to find the two young boys playing the typical human game 'peek-a-boo.' Much as he hated that the two had been left alone - even if it had been briefly - it warmed his heart just a little to hear Skales Jr.'s giggles as he copied the human.

"Lloyd." The boy jumped so hard Skales almost expected his skin to fly off, frightened eyes turning towards him but not meeting his own.

Jr. glanced up as well. "Da!" he cried, reaching out two tiny hands towards his father.

"Hey, buddy." He couldn't help how his face softened, bending down to scoop up his little boy. "It'sss getting rather clossse to your bedtime, isssn't it?"

The snakelet just let out a happy hiss, wiggling in his father's arms.

Hesitantly, he glanced at the other boy in the room. "I sssuppossse you sshhould come along, too. I sshhould sshhow you your room before sssupper."

Lloyd blinked at him, eyes widening in surprise.

"Yesss, I'm not going to kick you out again. But that doesssn't mean I'm not going to keep an eye on you while you're here, alright?"

The kid looked hesitant, but nodded and followed Skales as he dropped off Junior in Selma's arms before leading him to the plain room that had a curtain for a door and contained nothing but a small cot in the corner. Lloyd gave him a wary smile before stepping inside and glancing around with wide eyes.

Skales remained awkwardly in the doorway, watching as the boy explored the small room. There wasn't much to explore, really, but the boy seemed to almost make a point of inspecting each corner and staring out the window for what felt like ages; his back facing Skales the entire time but stiff posture making it clear he was aware of his presence.

It was more than the little rat deserved, anyway. Any second now Lloyd would start complaining like any other human.

Slowly, Lloyd turned to him, eyes still wide with something inside that Skales wasn't much paying attention to. "This is... my room?"

Yup, just like all the others. Skales nodded.

The little light inside Lloyd's eyes instantly grew brighter, and the boy whirled back around to face the room. "It's huge! And- and there's a window and everything!" He let his fingers trace the edge of the windowsill before turning back to Skales with a bright smile covering the layers of wary fear. "Thank you."

Skales just stared at the kid before nodding and slithering away.

Maybe there was some truth to Selma's words. After all, Lloyd seemed a little young to be this good of an actor. The kid was committed.

*A little boy, after supper.*

Lloyd plopped himself down on the cot, warm bubbles rising in his chest. While the feeling was strange it was kinda... nice. Like everything else here.

Selma, for one, was incredible, not only had she saved him, but she'd taken him in and stopped Skales from throwing him back out, and had given him a gigantic room and food before sending him to bed. Little Junior was absolutely adorable, and he couldn't help but get attached to the little snake (the kid reminded him a bit of Gren, they were both so sweet and innocent.) Even Skales wasn't too bad; in fact, it seemed like it was Skales that was scared of him.

He looked around the room - his room - and he couldn't help the desire to share this moment with his friend.

...Although, there was really no reason he couldn't be here now. Lloyd was alone, and he doubted anyone would be checking in on him for a while.

After looking around one last time, Lloyd summoned his friend.

Gren immediately lept onto his shoulders, squeaking softly as he glanced around the room.

Lloyd smiled softly, "Yeah, we've been getting a few scenery changes lately. Hopefully this is the last one."

The dragon gave an inquisitive chirp, climbing half onto his head before peering down to look him in the eye. He could feel the confusion radiating off the creature.

"All the snakes are nice - except for Pythor and maybe Skales, and even Pythor is nowhere near as bad. And they've all got their own abilities they've been cursed with! I mean, obviously I'm not stupid enough to just tell them about you and everything else, but it's nice to know they're probably not going to care that much, y'know?" While speaking, he gently pulled Gren from his head and set the dragon on the floor.

Gren nodded, as if he genuinely understood Lloyd's words and not just the emotions.

"Alright, that's enough talking. C'mon, let's play with the time we have!"

An excited chirp reached his ears as he examined the room. The only thing that could make a decent toy would be the pillow, and the thing looked a bit more worn and fragile than the ones the ninja had had so there was a chance that it might break when Gren touched it. So not that, then.

Well, he had a few other options, so it didn't matter much - even though he'd much rather use something he could find around the room.

He allowed a small ball of green to form between his hands, wincing at the soft glow. Gren whined and bumped his head against Lloyd's leg.

"Fine," He hesitated, he'd only used this a couple times, for fear of it being discovered, but maybe it would work out. "Hope you like ice."

The other aspects of his power were much more difficult to control, and specks of frost swirled away from him as he formed a simple, lumpy ball of ice. He really needed more practice with this.

He handed the ball to Gren, who eagerly launched himself to the other side of the room before 'throwing' (which was really just him tossing it into the air before hitting it with his tail to launch it properly) back to Lloyd. They tossed it back and forth for a while, Lloyd suppressing his giggles for fear of being heard. The game ended when Lloyd started to get a bit tired, as Gren immediately picked up on it and dropped the ice ball in favor of dragging Lloyd onto the cot.

"Oh, c'mon, Gren, I'm barely tired!"

The dragon settled himself on his chest, letting out a chastising chirp.

Lloyd huffed. "Fine, but you have to go before I fall asleep, okay?"

Gren nuzzled his cheek in response, chirping softly.

As Lloyd pulled Gren a little closer a voice interrupted the two of them.

"Who are you talking to?"

A/N: GREN HAS RETURNED! :D

Sorry about the cliffhanger, although I've already got half of the next chapter prepared and I have a bit off of school so I should be able to get it out by Thursday.

If you have the time, please let me know your thoughts!