AN: Hi, everyone. :3 It's been, uh… it's been a minute. Darn that 5-year-long writer's block, amirite? I was on a roll, but this one section I couldn't for the life of me seem to write derailed the whole story. I never forgot about it, though, and rewatching the original two seasons (and then watching 3-10 for the first time) gave my desire to finish this story the kick in the pants it needed.

I have edited the original eight chapters (and removed the ones I have not yet edited to my satisfaction), changed some things, and realized that some of what I wrote was inaccurate to the show (some I fixed, some I decided to leave as canon for my story). This update is to publish the edited chapters 1 & 2.

If you've already read this story, I hope you'll bear with me as I repost the edited 8 chapters and be open to rereading them. They're slightly different and, I believe, VASTLY superior to the originals.

As already stated, this takes place after S2 Ep5 (Child's Play) and diverges in plot from there. If you'll take a trip back to the early days of the show with me, I would, with tremendous excitement and gratitude, love to share my story with you. I'm more proud of this work than anything else I've ever written.

To everyone who didn't give up on this story, welcome back! And to those reading this for the first time, welcome!

Without further ado, please enjoy We Will Walk In Shadows.

Chapter 1: Beginning Anew

In front of a mirror on the Destiny's Bounty, Lloyd inspected his older self. His hair was longer, as were his arms, legs and torso, and his hands and feet were bigger. He turned his head right, then left, then let out a long "aaaahh" to listen to his deepened voice. It was bizarre. He didn't even really know how old he was now - if he was the same age as the other ninja or if he was still younger than them.

But, he supposed, it didn't really matter anyway. All it meant to be older was that he was that much closer to facing his father. His stomach twisted at the thought, and he watched in the mirror as his mouth turned down. He wasn't sure he was ready, physically or mentally, for what was to come. He wasn't even used to his new body yet. Somehow, he was a worse ninja now than he had been as a kid. In the two weeks since his sudden aging up in the comic book shop, Lloyd had been causing accidents all over the ship doing everyday things. He'd whacked his head on the shorter door frames of the ship countless times. He'd knocked things over as he reached for them, being unused to his longer arm length, and he'd been hurting the other ninja in training whenever he hit or kicked out at them for the same reason, reaching too far with and putting too much of his new strength behind his limbs as he struck out.

Not to mention he hadn't been able to successfully do Spinjitzu yet. His balance was off, and his extra strength meant that he usually destroyed something before he fell on his butt out of an unsuccessful Spin. Though he often heard the ninja grumbling about his inadvertent destructiveness, it was only after he'd somehow managed to go flying through the window into the bridge that Nya had forbidden him from trying to Spin on the ship, annoyed that he'd broken not only the window itself, but also some of the ship's equipment, which she herself had to repair.

That was a week ago, and they'd settled down in an open field of sand in the desert outside of Ninjago City. Since then, he'd just been making dust storms trying unsuccessfully to Spin, winding up on his behind in the middle of a sand tornado that left him and the other ninja coughing the rest of the day. With all these accidents, and the ninja constantly groaning in pain after training him, Sensei Wu had told him to take the rest of the day off, and that tomorrow he would restart his training from square one. While Lloyd wasn't exactly sure what that meant, he was pretty sure he'd be going back to something like "Learning to Balance 101", which, he had to admit with embarrassment, was probably where he needed to restart training anyway.

Despite his slow adaptation to his new body, he at least took comfort in the fact that he still had his power. As if to prove it to himself, he cupped his hands around the empty air in front of his chest and focused, his green energy beginning to glow between them. He pulled his hands apart to expand the energy ball, but it exploded outward. Lloyd flinched away from the huge flash of light. He heard the mirror shatter as his power expanded to fill the small bathroom, blowing his hair back and passing over him like a warm breeze, and then disappeared. He squinted an eye open and sighed when he saw shards of the mirror on the counter and scattered on the ground at his feet. Yet another thing destroyed thanks to him and his new body. He caught a glimpse of his reflection in a mirror shard. His hair stood on end, looking like he'd just been electrocuted.

Sensei had said that his aging up meant the final battle was drawing nearer, but Lloyd couldn't help but wonder if the balance hadn't been tipped in his father's favor.