I wrote an entire 3000 word chapter for Ed only to decide that I hated it and deleted the entire thing. Shorter chapter today.
This takes place a full week after the events of season nine.
Tw for implications of PTSD and language
Misako wasn't a good mother.
She admits that. She knows. She wasn't a good mother to her son, and would spend the rest of her life making up for her mistakes. She still makes them, despite how hard she tries not to. This recent one felt like her biggest failure to date.
What a bad mother.
He was fine. Well, as fine as a boy in his condition could be. Lloyd was watching the police car with his- that thing rolling away. He glanced over his shoulder and sent her a smile. She smiled back at him. His lips were so chapped, his eyes so sunken. He looked like a reanimated skeleton... Then his eyes rolled back and he dropped like a fly.
Misako couldn't remember the flight to the hospital, a thousand thoughts running through her mind at a thousand miles. The dragons seemingly erratic behavior, sensing the emotions of the mother, and their own nature worrying for the pup with oni and human in his hybrid blood. Wu also seemed back in his 300's, which was certainly something to Misako. She'd ask later. The doctors running around her made no sense to her scrambled state. Something about malnutrition? Dehydration? Broken bones, internal bleeding, gods know what else. Her skeleton was on a gurney, dead to the world, with a faraway, panicked look. He was crying too. When was she crying?
Lloyd started reaching for her, confused himself. Something about surgery. Misako lunged, but she was far too slow. The last thing she was able to remember was her own screaming.
Misako couldn't bother keeping track of all of her son's injuries, she wished the reporters would stop asking her. The nurses had told her, when she had finally calmed down and was at her son's side again, that there would be a few surgeries to come. He couldn't heal on his own this time. They'd be feeding him medications for the next how ever long, till he was back in shape. He needed two (or three? She couldn't remember) more surgeries from the first to put humpty-dumpty back together again. That's what Lloyd told her in a giggle after his second. The times after were the most peaceful, he was checked out of reality as he came off the anesthesia. Other times...
"Mom? Harumi's.. gone right?"
The slurred question woke her up. Not that she wasn't awake anyway. She hadn't been sleeping lately.
"Of course, darling," Misako shushed, "They found her body in the wreckage of the Ivory Suite Apartment Complex." She quoted the news. He wasn't watching the news lately, he'd sob when he saw certain things.
Misako slumped back in her chair, pulling the blanket tighter around her body. Lights from the city outside poured into the room through the slits of the blinds. Though even in his hurt he begged to not be given a nice room, save it for someone more deserving- they gave him a nice one with a view, anyway. A, less destroyed view. Balloons, cards, flowers and drawings were pinned all around her son, from the grateful people of Ninjago. Get wells for everyone's favorite green ninja. They got mail frequently.
"Are you sure?"
"Lloyd-" Misako was about to reprimand him, but her stern "go to sleep" died in her throat. The blue city light highlighted his face, his eyes. So sunken, and so haunted. Those were the eyes of a boy in fear for his life. She blinked.
"Yes, dear," she stood up. As if it would make up for the childhood she was gone, Misako fluffed his pillow and tucked him in. She even kissed his forehead for good measure. "I'm sure. Go to bed."
He did not fall asleep.
"Llo-oyd, I'm back!" Misako tapped on the door that was left slightly open. The woman had taken a moment to check on the other ninja. Though she wasn't a mother to them, she always felt responsible for those kids as well. Their own parents trusted her and Wu enough to let them supervise. Misako wanted to be certain their trust was warranted. It wasn't recently.
She heard the shower running, and paused slightly. A satisfied smile slowly but surely crept on her face. This was the first shower Lloyd's taken in, what has it been, several weeks? After the initial take over of Ninjago City, bathing wasn't their first priority. Understandable, but still smelly. Then this week's aftermath had been just as hectic as the event that caused it all to happen.
"Jay's doing better, practically back to his old self. And Cole and Nya were told they could even go home in the next day or so," she listed the condition of his friends, that always got his lips to quirk up in the smile she fell in love with. "Isn't that great-?"
A strangled sob cut her off.
Before Misako could even string together a coherent thought, she was in the bathroom. Pale feet struck out from behind, where erratic crying and gasping was heard just on the other side. She dropped to his side, peeling back the plastic wall and shutting off the water. His eyes were so far away, he wasn't by her side anymore, he was back in the horror.
He went in for a hit when she tried to touch him- and she's thanking the brothers for teaching her ninjitzu when she asked. "Lloyd- Lloyd, honey, it's me. It's mom."
".. Mom.?"
Lloyd lowered his glowing fists, coming back into focus. Suddenly he was back. Misako handed him a towel from the rack to her right, wrapping him up. "What happened?" she asked, as if that was even a question.
Silence.
"You can tell me."
He frowned, and turned his cheek away.
"Llo-"
"I see them everywhere."
Now it was Misako's turn to be the silent one.
"Harmui.. D- dad." Lloyd whispered the last name. "In the corner of my eyes, in my dreams. They just stand there, staring at me as if willing me to crumble an- and die on the spot. Even when I close my eyes, there they are," he began to cry again, slipping back into his hysteria. "I can't sleep, can't eat, they're always there!"
"I'm scared, Mom."
The rest of the afternoon was a blur. Lloyd was in for his final surgery, a simple one to fix a simple injury, she guessed, and she was left alone to sit and stew. Wu, now young thanks to the Time Twins incident a year and some change ago, was eerily silent. Misako bounced her knee. Thoughts raced around in her head, mostly going back to her son, and the incident earlier that day. She hadn't seen him cry like that since.. since she left him at Darkley's.
He was so young, why must bad things happen to the young ones.
Her thoughts diverged to her husband. He was once so kind, so joyful. Misako used to look forward to seeing his handsome face, now all those uniquely red eyes did was make her sick. They filled her with rage too. The hands she used to hold were used to throw her child through a concrete wall. The lips' whose smile used to make her flutter used to hurl insults and threats at her baby. The man she used to love, used to kill her son.
Misako shot to her feet, kicking the chair back. The other loved ones all stared. She stormed out, thunderclouds gathered around her head. "Misako!" Wu's cry was drowned by the lightning in her ears.
She marched through the streets. Silent and powerful, rage swelling in her chest. He had to pay. Had to pay.
How she got to Kryptarium Prison was lost on her. "Ma'am, you can't-!" she stormed right past the guards, who stared at each other and the unstoppable woman with flabbergasted expressions. Misako shoved open the doors. The object of her mission quickly stood, from where he sat on the floor. His wide, and confused, eyes turned smug. Malicious. Whether this was a front to hide the fear was up to the onlookers opinion. "Finally come to-?"
Misako pounded her fist on the thick glass, shutting him up. "You don't get to talk! You get to sit there, and listen!"
"Are you aware of what you've done to our son? Your son!"
"You've broken him. He stopped sleeping all together! Stopped eating, I'd be lucky if I even saw him take a single bite of whatever garbage food they serve!"
She ranted to him, spitting venom. "His heart nearly stopped so many times! So- so many-! My baby boy, and it's all your fault!" She pounded her fist again.
"You don't get to be at fault anymore, don't get to hurt him anymore."
Her rage was still present, but now she was calm. Eerily. "Lloyd is clearly dead to you, and you are dead to him. If, by First Spinjitzu Master if, you touch him again. If you ever utter his name, or even think about him in any light- I'll kill you."
"Now, you get to sit in this glass box, prowling like some caged animal, and rot." She growled, staring daggers. "I know you live longer than most, so you get to suffer longer. And that is just fine with me. If the Cursed Realm were still around, I'd send your ass off with champagne. I would send you now, really, if I could." The guards stared at the green ninja's mother, voices dead.
Misako turned, beginning to walk away. Then that vile thing spoke. "Ninja don't kill," his lips curled in an evil grin,
"I'm no ninja."
She paused again at the doors. "Next time I come here," she turned and gestured to the fortifications of the room, "All of this- won't stop me."
"Sorry for the interruption, boys," she apologized to the guards, once the door was closed and locked tight. With her rage subsided, her worry was brought forth. Her gray hair was turning even lighter, white strands scattered. Bags hung from her eyes, worry lines across her forehead. "I'll- I'll be going now."
"We'll keep him locked up, Mrs. Garmadon," one man patted her shoulder hesitantly.
As she left the prison, a small, older man stopped her by the door.
"Your son saved my daughter's life, thank you," he patted her hands, grateful, "Thank him for me."
She couldn't bother to look at his face, but nodded along anyway. Her son. The hero.
Misako couldn't help but smile at the sight. The door was wide open, as it was when she arrived. Lloyd was picking at the new bandages on his chest, grinning as he dodged Wu's hands from smacking his fingers away. Clearly, this was out of spite.
"Mom!" he suddenly shouted, spotting his mother in the door. Wu glanced her way, eyes clouded. "Guess who's all clear to go," the blonde jutted two thumbs to himself. Making the gesture was hard with his left, still in a cast.
"Not all clear, you still need to stay for observation, young nephew."
"We're like.. the same age, now."
"What's that?" Lloyd ignored his uncle, gesturing to the plush bundle tucked under her arm.
"A congratulations, on the final surgery," Misako smiled. A cheap excuse for not being here, by your side. "I spotted it in the little shop in the lobby," she dropped a plush green dragon into his sluggish, strong arms. The blonde boy laughed, examining the stuffed animal with amusement. Dots for eyes, little wings with crinkly, iridescent fabric. A full sized candy bar in its jaws. Lloyd was in love again. "This is the best present I have ever received," he laughed, "Beats Uncle's by a long shot."
"You said you liked the flowers I picked up."
"I was lying!"
"Well I have had enough bullying, I'm off to check on the others," Wu stood, smoothing the front of his sweatshirt with his fingers. Those tattered clothes he was given in the First Realm were destroyed in the battle, and his pupils were quick to offer the clothes of their back.
"Misako, may I speak with you in the hall?"
The fear that briefly flashed in those green eyes would have been missed, if the mother were not looking. "I'll be here!" his front was so thin, that smile so wobbly.
"What is it Wu-?"
"You went to see him. Why? Why Misako?" Wu pressed, the newly younger man grabbing her arm. He knew if he did not this conversation would end sooner.
Misako stared at him hard, her face set into that of a calm one. The only feature that betrayed was her furrowed brows, and stormy eyes. "Just a talk."
"A talk?"
"He needed to know what he had done," her words stung like venomari venom. The brother actually stumbled back at the furry pent up in this woman. She took a step back, running a barely steady hand through her braided hair. The style hand begun to undo. "I could not stop this from happening to him- but I'm stopping everything else."
Wu stared. "You are going to single handedly shield Lloyd from the world? Misako you can't-"
"Can't I?" That smile she had on made Wu's heart sink, unreadable emotions clouding those brown eyes. Misako turned back to her son's room, ignoring all other pleas and words from her brother-in-law, not that he dare utter anything else. "What else is a mother for, after all?"
Next time there is a scene between Misako and Garmadon I want her to throttle him with her bare hands because that's what she deserves.
