Whenever I tell people the story of fighting my father, I kinda fast forward through the Great Devourer. That's somewhat surprising, given how important it is to not only Ninjago as a whole, but a very important person later in my story. But, when I think about the battle with my father, the Great Devourer just seems more like it's not as connected as the rest of everything. It's important, just not as important as the rest.
Part of the reason is that right after the Devourer, my memory gets somewhat fuzzy. The ninja said they did something to the past that ended up changing a lot of what happened between the Devourer and the Stone Army. I remember one version of events, but those events often feel like I'm almost trying to give just the key points of what happened. How I was trained to become the Green Ninja… it confuses a lot of us. Even my dad refused to talk about it when I asked.
But before we get to that, we should get back to the Devourer. Pythor somehow recovered the blade from the volcano, somehow, and the Serpentine just vanished after it. They ninja got information from grabbing a Venomari off the streets. I wasn't involved, and I spent most of my time after my father had rescued me training on the dummies in the Bounty. Wu had reconstructed some equipment that would teach me Spinjitzu, and so I threw myself into learning it. If any of you reading this want to one day learn Spinjitzu… it takes a lot of getting knocked onto your face by spinning dummies.
Part of the reason I spent so much time training was to keep my mind off my father. My dad was still around on the Bounty, of course, but whenever I talked to him, we would never be able to do it for long before we remembered what Wu had said. We could hold small talk, but given enough time we'd both fall silent. Neither of us wanted to talk about it, especially when he had just rescued me. It seemed to seep into everything we wanted to do together, so we just ended up… not talking.
Training didn't give me time to think about that. It was easier to just, throw myself at the obstacle course and get thrown out. Each time I could make it a little further, and that gave me hope to keep moving. I think Jay actually said some video games are built that way, off you making tiny amounts of progress and you wanting to keep going as you master the parts you used to fail on. Only in video games, you don't end up with bloody noses after enough attempts.
Of course, the ninja, Wu and Nya were always busy, so I had to teach myself. I like to think now I've grown to be a decent teacher, but when teaching myself how to fight… I can see now why I wasn't ever even a threat to the ninja. Wu had told me if I could finish the course before a timer ran out, I would be able to do Spinjitzu. The best I'd gotten at my best was thirty seconds, and the timer was for seven.
When I wasn't training, Nya taught me how to fly the Bounty. It was honestly easier than it seemed. The Bounty was rigged to mainly just go up and down, so it was all about just adjusting for the wind. The computers often did that a lot, so I only had to handle just listening to them. I'm glad she did, since it meant I learned how to drive. My dad tried to show me how, but whenever he went to touch the Bounty's controls, the ninja would get him out of the room.
So, I came up with a plan to get back the Fangblades. After the ninja realized Pythor was already on his way to the last Fangblade, I suggested that we try to get back the other three by raiding the Serpentine fortress. It was a simple plan, if not somewhat ruined by the fact that the entire fortress was swarming with Serpentine. I don't know why the ninja were captured, and honestly, I still don't know. I wasn't paying attention to that.
Like I mentioned before, my dad was still living on the Bounty while all this was happening. I was making it a point to avoid him. I regret it now in hindsight, since it meant I wasn't getting to spend time with my dad when I really, really wanted to. But I couldn't look at him without my destiny coming back up in my head. I wanted to be the Green Ninja, sure, but I also wanted to have a dad. It seemed like, I couldn't have both. It hurt. It really, really hurt. I wanted to just go talk to him, but I couldn't. So, I wasn't in a good mood when I found him stealing secrets from the ninja.
It was somewhat funny that I told him he shouldn't be stealing, when literally less than a few months earlier I was demanding tribute from Jamanikai village and using Pythor for petty theft. Part of me wishes I could have gone back to that moment and said something different, but when I think about it, it ended up saving the ninja. Still, when I saw him stealing, I was upset. Not at him, but at what it meant.
When my dad said that he couldn't help it, that stealing was in his blood… I snapped. I snapped because it was almost like him saying he couldn't prevent me from having to fight him. None of us knew at the time who the 'Dark Lord' was, so Wu assumed it was my dad. I believed that too, and seeing him stealing, it was like him saying that he couldn't even hold himself back. If he couldn't hold himself back from this… how could I from fighting him? I knew about why he was like this, why this was happening, but I was upset it was as though he was saying, it wouldn't work. So, I told him to leave, and he did.
I didn't think about what I'd said to him. Instead, I put on a suit far too big for me, decided to try to practice my ninja moves (to anyone wanting to do flips and kicks, don't practice them on rocks, I still have marks) as I went to rescue them. I… really don't know what my plan was. I guessed part of me had thought if I went in gungho and told them to release the ninja, they'd be so afraid of me that they'd surrender. Given that I already knew Pythor was back from what Nya said, I really should have at least taken a sword. I guess it was me being a child. It was pretty childish to roll right into the middle of all of the Serpentine and then demand that the ninja be let go. If my dad hadn't showed up at that moment, everything would have probably been lost.
Now, you can say anything you want about the Skulkin. They're silly, ineffective, powerless against big enemies… but seeing them lined up behind my dad as he claimed to have brought an army to back me up, that was cool. It doesn't matter if you have an army that were beaten by a ferris wheel, having a massive army there to back you up is awesome. And for once, they actually did something too!
Once I freed the ninja, it was all about getting the Fangblades. The battle was somewhat a blur, but I remember that I saw Kruncha and Nuckal manage to body Skales which… was oddly cathartic, all things considered. Actually, seeing my dad steal the Fangblades from Pythor was impressive. It reminded me that my dad was the son of the First Spinjitzu Master and was strong enough to take on Wu in a fight. I would see even more of this later.
We won, of course, and escaped. I believe my dad said he told the Skulkin once we were gone they could retreat when they felt like it. I'm surprised they listened, given that my dad had murdered Samukai, but I didn't think much of it. I was more interested in the fact that right after the battle, my dad said he was leaving.
Now, I was a whirlwind of emotions at this point. My dad had come back into my life after saving me, I'd nearly died after getting to hug him for the first time ever, then I'd been told before I was even given time to talk to him much that I was going to have to fight him one day, and after spending time on the Bounty simply avoiding him out of fear of that, I'd told him to leave and now he was. The fact he was going to leave right then, right after we'd gotten the Fangblades, it stung. But… after everything else, it didn't sting as much as I thought it would.
Many of you know that Garmadon was the one that defeated the Great Devourer (a fact most news outlets continually attribute all to him even), so he wasn't gone for long. But for me, at that moment, it was a final goodbye. I thought that would be the last time I saw him. I didn't know where he was going, but given that Wu had been gone for awhile to go get him just to save me, I knew it wouldn't be a place I could visit. Then, he said something that, to this day, it makes me smile even if I'm crying:
"You're a good boy. Soon, you'll be a great man. Although we're now on opposite sides, I'm still very proud of you."
I'm not going to lie and say I didn't cry. I was broken up again. My dad had just told me even if one day I had to fight him, he was proud of me. I've heard stories of people having fathers that neglected them, but my dad had basically just told me no matter what I did, he'd be proud of me. And to this day… I'm still figuring out how to be that 'great man' he said I would be. I'm still figuring out what he wanted for me. After being emotionally wrecked so many times in one day, I was just unable to do anything else but smile at him as he left.
I realize now what that leaving meant. If my dad stayed, he would do everything he could to raise me. But if he did that, he could end up messing with destiny. I think my dad, better than maybe even Wu, understood what this destiny meant for me. If he was around for me, then he would make all of this even harder for me. After all, it's easier to fight someone you only see at their worst than someone you live with at their best. Even if he stole from the ninja, he never did anything but help me. By leaving, he was saying he was a villain and would stay that way. Given what happened later, I don't know if I could have done anything that I did had he not left.
After the party to celebrate our victory and a night of doing some reflection and getting little sleep, I ended up training again. We were on our way to Torchfire mountain to destroy the Fangblades. I hadn't even gotten close to mastering Spinjitzu, and after finding bruises in places I didn't even know could get them, I had started just punching things to pass time. It was at that point Pythor revealed he'd been on the Bounty the entire time and tied me up to prevent me from interfering.
I believe Wu called it 'hubris' that we decided to wait to go and destroy the Fangblades. We don't know when Pythor got on board, but if we hadn't taken the time to celebrate, maybe we would have destroyed them faster. Maybe Pythor would never have gotten them back, maybe the Devourer would never have awoken and… what came later would never have happened. I really don't know.
After I managed to stall Pythor for time after I got free, and even more satisfyingly kick him in the face, Pythor managed to get away with the Fangblades. After he did, I stayed behind on the Bounty while the ninja pursued them. From here on out, most of these events are ones that many of you have heard, so I won't dwell too long on them.
The ninja failed to get the blades in time and Pythor awoke the Devourer. I didn't see the snake emerge, but when the ninja came running as fast as they could towards the Bounty, I knew it was a threat. When I first saw the thing, it was like looking at a monster from an old movie come to life; I mean, I hadn't watched those old movies, but it felt like watching something unreal become real and try to eat you. We raced our way through the canyon as fast as we could, ditching things to go faster, but in the end the Devourer managed to destroy the ship and slink off to Ninjago City.
Seeing the Bounty bitten in half was heartbreaking, but it was also terrifying. While the ninja looked like they'd been punched in the gut, I was terrified about the fact we had just been on that ship a minute ago. It was horrifying to watch the sheer strength of a beast that had tried to eat us a minute ago. I was more afraid that I wouldn't see tomorrow rather than the fact I didn't have a home anymore. It was a different type of terror than when I was in the volcano; that was being in the moment of thinking I was about to die. Escaping death by the skin of your teeth is more like being completely stunned. You forget to do everything but breathe, and even then as the thoughts keep coming back of what just happened you can forget to breath too. Honestly, when Jay said we should go live in the Serpentine Tombs from now on, it wasn't half bad.
Given how terrified I was, I was somewhat spaced out for the rest of the events. Our plan was simple: use Kai's sudden stroke of genius -something which seems to be getting rarer now that I think about it- to build something to stand up to the creature. I watched the Ultra Sonic Raider battle that thing, and it ended up failing. Honestly using the sacred flute recording was smart. Seeing Zane with half his face gone was kinda freaky. It was that moment we learned of the weak spot we used to defeat it.
We split up, with Nya and I going to get the Mech to try to delay the beast, while the ninja fought it from the ground. We almost ended up getting swallowed trying. By that point I was so terrified of everything happening it wasn't that much more terrifying than what had happened already. The Ultra Dragon saved Nya and I from getting eaten, then was struck down from the sky like it was nothing. We were out of options, and Nya and I weren't going to be able to continue the fight. That was when he came back.
I know I fast-forwarded through some of this, but it's because of everything that happened, that was the moment that stuck with me the most. It's probably obvious, given that all of Ninjago remembers it, but for me it was another sign that my father cared about me. My dad was willing to come back, even if it was so quickly after leaving, to rescue me. The ninja insist that it was more his hatred of the Devourer, but to me, it was a sign that my dad was willing to work with the ninja. That, at least to me, was awesome.
That's not even mentioning what he actually did either. Nya had long since insisted that I start to watch everything from far, far away. My dad knows how to make an impression on people. I still wish that someone would teach me how to make the sky turn black like that, just so I could turn it green and use it for some big grand entrance. As terrifying as the darkness was, to see my dad holding the literal Golden Weapons, all of them, the things that were used to create the entire world all at once, was awe inspiring. He did something that day only he could do, and that, that was amazing.
Watching him fall towards the Devourer, gaining speed just so he could hit the Devourer even harder, I won't lie and say that I haven't tried to pull that off before. There's a reason now that I have forced myself to get better control on my dragon. I didn't hear when he hit it, but I heard the beast scream. Watching something so terrifying burst out into pieces, finally taken down, it was almost poetic. The beast that had turned my father into what he was today, my dad finally had his revenge on.
I rushed down towards where my dad had landed as fast as my legs could carry me, I even remember tripping over the sidewalk twice. But he wasn't there when I got there. The ninja were terrified that their weapons were gone, but I was almost hurt about the fact he left again. After two times of him leaving me in the span of a few days, you'd think that I'd be a little less hurt after the third, but I was a kid and had just watched my dad explode a giant snake. That sort of thing sticks with you, and makes you want to ask him a million questions.
Wu survived, somehow. As we later learned, Pythor had somehow been inside the snake longer, or at least deeper inside, despite having been eaten at the same time as Wu. Why Wu was the only one that didn't suffer any side effects was weird, but seeing him again was that breath we all needed. Knowing that he was safe, knowing we had all lived and that everything was going to be okay… you truly can't appreciate the fact of how terrified you are until you realize that you almost died multiple times and finally, it's all over. Our victory shout, in my eyes at least, was well deserved.
That, however, was the last time I truly was able to take my mind off my father. The ninja helped alleviate my post-adrenaline high by promising they'd train me and make me the strongest ninja they ever knew, even if it meant that I would have to fight my father. It was nice at the time, but I was left thinking later that night, the day after, and the coming week that now that Pythor was gone, the only threat we had to worry about was my father. Everything was going to come down to him.
From that moment on, I was no longer going to be just Lloyd. The time between the change was over. The change had begun, and I had officially begun my path to become none other than Lloyd Garmadon, the Green Ninja. The path to the final battle had begun.
"Did you plan those last few lines?" Zane asked with a snarky smile as Lloyd gave his wave to show he was finished.
"I uh, a little," Lloyd rubbed his neck, "I tried to do this one on my own but it didn't end up working out well. I kept going over parts and forgetting things. I mean, you'd think that having a giant snake literally try to eat you would make you remember things more!"
"This was a time directly between a revelation that changed your world view, and an acceleration of events that led directly into the Final Battle," Zane reminded Lloyd, "To refer to this as the 'time between the change' is more accurate than any other title I could write."
"Thanks, Zane," Lloyd stretched, "I think I wanna hammer out the next chapter tonight too. Maybe after dinner?"
"The next chapter… yes," Zane paused, "You are certain the words, 'Mega Weapon' mean nothing to you, yes, Lloyd?"
"Nope, like I said yesterday and the day before that, I've never heard of that or ever seen it before," Lloyd shook his head, "Why do you keep bringing it up?"
"Do you remember how you said your memory at this time was… fuzzy?" Zane grimaced, "A temporal anomaly during that time occured in with events were rewritten in a context that both relied upon and rejected the events that led up to it. Thus, I would suspect that while you may recall wider events, nuance may be lost upon you. Do you recall how it was that Captain Soto was revived?"
"Uh… no?" Lloyd paused, "It was… the venom, right..?"
"As far the rewritten timeline would suggest, yes," Zane paused, "What about your visit back to Darkley's Board School?"
"We were there for… something?" Lloyd rubbed his head, "I know you guys were fighting, something weird."
"That lapse in memory will make for an interesting recollection," Zane crossed his arms in his lap, "If you do have questions, do not be afraid to ask them."
"Uh… yeah, whatever you say, Zane," Lloyd shrugged, standing up and making his way out towards the door, "Oh, and Zane, do you think people are going to, like, hearing about all this?"
"Hrm…" Zane closed his eyes, "I believe they will be intrigued to learn more about you. You have become something of a paragon for Ninjago, to be shown that you have struggles that are on the levels of everyone else may cause people to reject some of this text. However, it is important that it be shown to them, if not for their sake, then for your own. I have already assessed your stress levels have begun to equate more with each of our sessions. I believe this is good for you, Lloyd."
"Thanks, Zane!" Lloyd pulled his hood up, "I'm going to go get some more training in before dinner, tell the others if they wanna join, they're free to!"
"If I see them, I will," Zane stood up, "I might join you later."
Lloyd smiled and rushed off towards the training equipment. Zane logged the latest entry and sent it to a backup server before walking after him, closing the door to yet another one of Lloyd's chapters.