AN: I don't own Ninjago. Some of the dialogue here came from the show and I tweaked it a bit. 'Nuff said.
After asking Misako to take baby Wu to someplace safe, which ended up being Dareth's apartment, the Ninja were discussing the current situation on the Bounty. They had learned that Harumi had taken Garmadon to Kryptarium prison and freed the rest of the Sons of Garmadon.
"So now that Garmadon and Harumi have taken over the prison, what do we do?" Cole asked.
"We go Kryptarium," Lloyd answered, after a minute. He had been looking at a picture of himself and his father when he was Sensei Garmadon.
"Okay, you want us to take on Garmadon, Harumi and her entire gang, while they are fortified in an impenetrable bunker?" Jay complained. "It's not the best idea."
"I have to do something," Lloyd insisted. "He called me by a strange name," he continued, thinking back to their brief conversation. "He doesn't seem like himself."
"I don't know, Lloyd. It sounds like a bad idea," Kai told him.
"I agree," Zane put in. "It's too dangerous and that's probably exactly what they want you to do."
"Whoever this person is that was brought back, it's not the father you knew, Lloyd," Nya insisted. "Only the evil part of him was resurrected."
"We don't know that for sure," Lloyd countered. "If anyone can reach him, it would be me."
"But you shouldn't go alone, Lloyd. It's got to be trap," Cole told him.
"It may be, but this is something that I have to do alone. I don't want anyone else getting hurt in the process."
"But what about you, Lloyd?" Kai asked, feeling protective of his brother. "You could get hurt...or worse."
"Don't worry. I'll have my communicator if something goes wrong."
"It's my job to worry," The fire ninja insisted.
"I don't really have a choice," Lloyd told him. "I have to try."
"Doesn't mean I have to like it," Kai grumbled. "But if you're really going to do this, then I have a condition."
"What condition?" Lloyd asked, wondering what his friend had in mind.
Back at the prison, all the Sons of Garmadon were now dressed in what they thought were ridiculous outfits of sea creatures. Harumi somehow managed to convince Garmadon to keep her current look, as long as she wore the shark fin hat her gave her. It was cringe worthy, but she agreed.
Shortly after that, she received a notification that someone was approaching. Looking on the video screen, Harumi saw that Lloyd had arrived. He was more foolish than she thought.
"Do you want us to deal with him?" Violet asked.
"No. Just let him come. Lord Garmadon will deal with him and show him real power." Harumi smirked. Since Garmadon didn't believe that Lloyd was the Green Ninja, he would fight his son and defeat him, never learning the truth. Revenge was so sweet.
Harumi went to Garmadon. "Excuse me, my lord?"
"Did you get me that double espresso I wanted?" he asked.
"Not yet, my lord. But the Green Ninja has come to challenge you," she told him.
"Has he now? Well, let's just see about that," Garmadon answered. Harumi showed him where Lloyd was on the screen.
"Come out and face me!" Lloyd called on the screen.
"I certainly will, Green Ninja," Garmadon smirked.
Lloyd made his way to the center of the prison, where the wide, open area was. As soon as he stepped through the door, it slammed shut behind him. Harumi, Violet and Killow were all watching on the screen.
"Well, well, well. Who do we have here?" a deep voice sounded from behind Lloyd.
"Show yourself!" Lloyd shouted, forming his green power in his hands and then extinguished it. He didn't want to fight his father if he didn't have to.
"I must admit, I'm a bit surprised that you'd be foolish enough to come here, Green Ninja," Garmadon sneered as he came into view.
"You really have changed," Lloyd answered, seeing the evil version of his father up close. He didn't get that good of look before on the roof, and it had been pretty dark. Then he added, "Father."
"Well it will be your downfall-wait just a second. Father?" Garmadon asked, confused.
"Yes, you're still my father, even though you're evil now, I still remember you when you were a good person," Lloyd told him.
"Are you crazy? I'm not your father, all right?" Garmadon insisted.
Now Lloyd was the one who was confused. Did his father forget who he was now? That didn't make sense since he had recognized him at the palace where the summoning took place.
"I'm your son," the teen insisted, taking off his mask. "Don't you remember?"
"Luh-loyd?" Garmadon gasped. "Why are you dressed up in a weird costume of the Green Ninja?"
Lloyd frowned in confusion. His outfit hadn't changed that much since the last time his father saw him. "Uh, it's Lloyd. And I've been the Green Ninja for a long time, as you should know." He shuddered at hearing the strange name again.
"No. It's L-L-o-y-d. Two L's. I named you."
"It's pronounced Lloyd. The second 'L' is silent. You've never called me…" Lloyd cringed, "Luh-loyd. Are you alright?" he asked, taking a step closer to dark lord.
Harumi, Violet and Killow watched on bated breath. Anytime now...
"Of course I am," Garmadon boasted. "I think it's you who's not alright. Here you are, pretending to be the Green Ninja, and you don't even have his gi right."
"Father, this is what I wear as the Green Ninja. Anyway, I'm not pretending to be like him, I am him," Lloyd insisted. What was wrong with him?
"Look here, as your father, you should show me more respect than this. I thought you were in my fan club."
"Fan club?" Lloyd started to say. "That's not-" but he was cut off.
"There's no way you're the Green Ninja, Luh-Loyd," Garmadon narrowed his eyes for a moment before returning to normal, "because if you were, then you'd know that you're honor bound and sworn to destroy me."
What was his father talking about? "That was a long time ago. I purged the evil from you. We fought together remember? You were Sensei Garmadon and you gave your life to save me!"
Now Garmadon just looked confused. "You hit your head or something? I was never 'Sensei Garmadon' and I certainly never died."
Lloyd felt like he'd been slapped. "You- you don't remember?"
Garmadon snorted. "Of course not. It never happened."
Harumi growled. This wasn't going at all how she'd planned. They weren't getting anywhere, and more importantly, they weren't fighting each other. She stormed over to the microphone and practically yelled, "My Lord, this is your sworn enemy, the Green Ninja! If you defeat him, you'll be able to gain your true potential."
Garmadon glared up at the general direction of the speaker. "Look, lady, my son is not the Green Ninja. How many times do I have to tell you? I'm certainly not going to murder my own son!"
Lloyd's breath caught in his throat. Maybe he was finally starting to get through to his father. "Really?" he asked.
Garmadon just gave Lloyd a strange look. "Duh," he replied.
Harumi slammed her fist on the sound board. If Garmadon wouldn't listen to reason, then she'd have to take matters into her own hands. "Bring the Green Ninja to me," she hissed. "Whatever it takes."
Ultra Violet and Killow nodded and got a few more people to come with them as they made their way towards Lloyd.
The Ninja, meanwhile, were watching everything taking place with their screen on the Bounty, which was floating just above the prison, as a part of Kai's condition to let Lloyd confront his father. Kai had also taken one other precaution that Lloyd didn't know about, because in Kai's mind, you could never be too careful where Lloyd was concerned.
"Lloyd is in trouble!" Nya said, watching the Sons of Garmadon as they were almost to where Lloyd was. "We've got to help him!"
"Leave it to me, little sister," Kai said, as he fired up his power.
"Wait, Kai!" Jay cried, but it was too late. Kai blasted a hole in the ceiling of the prison. Debris fell, everywhere, making Garmadon and Lloyd look up.
"What the?" the warlord started.
The remaining roof was now on fire and smoke was pouring in.
"Way to go, Kai!" Cole shouted.
"Let's just lower the ladder and get Lloyd out," Zane told them, trying to prevent an argument.
"Come on, Lloyd," Kai urged through the radio link. "Get out of there!"
Lloyd hesitated for a moment. "Remember our agreement," Kai reminded him.
Sighing after giving his father one last look, Lloyd started climbing the ladder.
"Hey, come back!" Garmadon yelled, and then started coughing because of the smoke.
Harumi came quickly over to the warlord after telling everyone to evacuate. "My lord, we must make our escape."
Glaring at the spot where his son was just at, Garmadon followed Harumi to make their way out the building.
Safely back on the Bounty, Lloyd looked down over the railing at the prison, which was completely engulfed in flames. The fire department was called, and hopefully they would arrive soon to put out the flames. Lloyd could hear Kai, Jay and Cole arguing about the damage that was done. He sighed and walked further away to tune them out. He couldn't get over the strange encounter with his father, but he found himself hoping that he made it out.
Garmadon grumbled, wiping the soot off his armor. He'd just barely made it out of that crazy, burning prison, thanks to that dumb fire ninja. When did he have powers anyway? Which also begged another question, could Luh-Loyd possibly have some small, minor connection to the Green Ninja after all? He was wearing the green gi, if a little brighter than usual… but that was impossible. His son would never take up arms against his own father. Would he?
"My Lord." Speaking of the fan club girl, bowing and scraping like she always did. Not that he minded all that much. Except for today, when his son might possibly have turned against him.
"What?" Garmadon snapped.
"My Lord, we need to relocate. Fortunately, we have another base not too far from here," she said.
"Fine, whatever, but I want to get back to my volcano soon," Garmadon answered, waving her off with one of his arms. Right now, he just needed to think.
Fan girl bowed even deeper. She decided against telling him that there weren't any volcanoes near here. "My lord, I regret to inform you that the journey is several miles from here. You'll have to ride one of our motorcycles."
This prospect cheered the warlord up a little. "Great! You know, I used to ride a motorcycle myself, back when horses went out of style. But then I got a volcano, and you can't really ride a motorcycle in a volcano," he rambled, half aware that he was distracting himself from the real issue at hand, but not really caring at the moment. "Does it have sharks on it?"
Fan girl blinked. "Uh- no, my lord. No sharks."
"That's disappointing," Garmadon answered. "You're my fanclub president, for crying out loud! How can you not have sharks? I'm going to have to make some serious changes around here."
He marched over to one of the Sons of Garmadon motorcycles, before she could answer, and mounted it with ease. He remembered wanting to ride one of these with Koko, her strong hands on his back as he raced as fast as he could go— but those days were gone. Speaking of his family though...
"I can't believe my own son would dress up like the Green Ninja," Garmadon ranted to the fan girl, who seemed to follow him everywhere. "Why would he do that?"
Fan girl shrugged. "Sometimes the people closest to you can betray you, my lord," she said, hopping on her own motorcycle.
"Yeah, but, this is Luh-Loyd, and besides, Koks raised him. She wouldn't turn my own son against me. I'm sure of it," Garmadon protested. He couldn't deny that it was the ninja who rescued his son, and that he came clad in a Green Ninja outfit, even if it wasn't the right colors, but it still didn't add up.
If Fangirl thought Garmadon's mispronunciation of Lloyd's name was strange, she didn't comment on it. She just shrugged. "All I know for certain is that that Lloyd is the Green Ninja, no matter how much you deny it."
She revved her engine and the Sons of Garmadon took off. Lord Garmadon followed them, muttering to himself. "Something isn't right here," he said, shaking his head. "There's only one explanation. Those pesky ninja brats kidnapped my son. They must be brainwashing him and so he's pretending to be the Green Ninja."
Garmadon then gunned the engine with a roar, and switched to a higher gear, racing to the head of the line, even though he had no idea where he was going. Mostly because that was half the fun of it. As he rode, he noticed that the scenery was not what he remembered. Something was really off here.
He muttered as he glanced at the road, "The countryside looks all wrong! And I should know, I've conquered most of it!"
Still, even as he urged his motorcycle even faster, despite the questionable safety hazards, he couldn't shake the disturbing image of his Luh-Loyd in a green ninja outfit and what it could possibly mean.
AN: Longer chapter as promised! I hope it didn't disappoint! Beta credit goes to Sunny Lighter-she was a such a great help to me coming up with these ideas! Check out her stories-they are awesome! EMPFangirl02 helped write some of the dialogue for this chapter. Thanks for all the reviews, favorites and follows. You all are the best!