A/N: Hey Y'all! Sorry for getting this out A MONTH later than I said it would. Reviews, comments, and/or questions really help the creative juices flow in my brain so if you want more chapters, reviews would be great. Special thanks to ITSYOGREENGIRL for giving me the motivation to write this. Anyway, enough of this. Enjoy!

Previously:

But before he completely went under, he heard one small word that made no sense to him as he only had only one person that called him that and she was not there.

"Dad?"

Lloyd had seen strange things before. Things such as walking talking snakes and squabbling skeletons. He had done some pretty mind-boggling things like riding on a four headed dragon as well as having experienced things no one else had. (Ghost possession. That was not fun.) But the past five minutes really took the cake as one of the most outrageous things that had ever occurred to him. When the man cried out and slumped unconscious, Lloyd's heart jumped and the next moment he was kneeling beside the man and shouting at Cole to get the stretcher from the Bounty. "I have a pulse." He called to the others. "But its frantic. We got to get him on the Bounty and fast."

"I'll go help Cole." Said Kai. Pixal followed him up to the Bounty.

"Lloyd? Is that definitely who we think he is? And how is this even possible?" Nya asked gently and she helped him check the man over for more serious injuries. Slight bruising on the throat and side but other than the irregular pulse nothing life threatening.

He'll just be a little achy when he wakes up. Yeah, but what then? Lloyd darkly thought to himself as he sat back on his haunches. "Did you see the way he look at me, Nya? It was like he didn't even recognized me." He gazed into the man's face, forlorn. "What in Ninjago happened to him?"

It was dark, but a strange dark. Voices filled that dark, both unfamiliar and painfully the opposite as well. Then the voices turned into images fleeing past his vision. At least he thought he was a he. He really didn't remember for sure, but there were two things that he could remember, and their importance was just out of reach. They were names but most names are just words that you say or think about. These were names that he felt. They both felt similar, making he feel at home, complete and anxious at the same time. They were far away and he need to be closer to them. He needed them and they need him. This relationship was familiar to him but he couldn't place a name to it. Everything has a name. He must find his and their name.

As the other ninja were coming back with a stretcher, Lloyd and Nya's ears perked up, hearing the roaring of engines nearby. Through the treeline, a truck burst through and raced to them, stopping a few hundred meters away. Two more trucks in suit and stopped right before the first one which had a door open and a small girl pop out.

"Gwen!" A woman shouted from the driver's seat as the little one ran up to the Ninja. She stopped in front of Lloyd who had stepped back from the unconscious man he had been tending to, to meet her.

"Hi ninja. Have you seen my Daddy? A bad man was chasing him and we came to find him."

Lloyd looked at her funny and glanced at Nya who had joined his side. "Well, what's your daddy's name, um, Gwen?"

"My daddy's name is Mont-gom-ery." She said, pronouncing her daddy's named with difficulty. "Have you seen him?"

Lloyd's confusion grew. What if that man sleeping behind him wasn't his father? He had a daughter right in front of Lloyd and didn't know who Lloyd was. But why did he look exactly like Garmadon?

The little girl glanced around and past Lloyd and Nya to see… "Daddy!"

The images slowed so he could actually see what was going on in them. There was two boys,(There! That was a name!) with two katanas play fighting and laughing. More names. One of the boys had knocked the other's katana out of reach, over a nearby wall. Then the scene changed, flickering into something darker. There were two men facing off with glowing weapons. They were brothers, another name. Then there was a small child, wrapped in a small blanket with a woman and man hovering over the little boy. The little boy had one of the names he was looking for. Lloyd. That name washed over him like a warm waterfall. The name unleashed more and more memories(He had found that name as well and it suited the things he was experiencing) both pleasant and grief invoking. He had also found a name that he once called his own, a life he once called his own, a partner once called him her own, but something was attach to that name of his. Garmadon and something, someone else, along with another name for him. He ventured forth to seek the answer.

The little girl pushed past the other towering ninja to the sleeping body of her eyes' desire. "Daddy? Why are you sleeping? Why are you sleeping, Daddy?"

As she tried to shake him awake, the woman from the truck came over and at the sight of Gwen's father, she gasped and said, "Is… Is he?"

"No Ma'am. He's simply unconscious." Nya said, reassuring the woman before her and Lloyd. "Please tell your companions to keep a safe distance while we transport him to our medical facilitates."

The little girl looked up from her father. "Are you taking my daddy to a doctor?"

Lloyd nodded and knelt down to have eye level with her. "Yes, my uncle is a healer among others things. He will take good care of your," He choked out the last word. "Daddy."

She jumped up and grabbed onto Lloyd's leg. "Let me come! Oh, please let me come too! I wanna see my daddy get better!"

"I wish to come as well." Said the woman, stepping forward. "I am a family friend and will watch over Gwen, so you don't have to."

Lloyd glanced between the two newcomers. "Alright. You both can come but no one else. Please tell your friends with the swords and axes over there that."

The woman nodded and proceed to converse with her companions while 'Gwen' scooted to her father's side and whispered rather loudly, "Don't worry Daddy. The Green Ninja's uncle will make you all better! Then we can go back to Jeanie's birthday party!"

But something told Lloyd that this little girl's normal life was over.

He walked forward, through the stream of memories flashing by to something always ahead but never coming closer. It vibrated, it glowed, it pulsed but no matter he much progress he made through his memories, it was always distant. He was overcome with a sense of wariness concerning the object he was pursuing, but he somehow knew that the other name he saught was on the other side of it. His resolve to push through, doubled and finally he reached it and stretched out to touch it. It shattered into a thousand sharp memory fragments, piercing him with painfully vivid imagery of monstrous voices mixing with youthful plees to stop the destruction. Some were from far in the past, others…. weren't. Those memories hurt the most; seeing a monster with his voice do the most unspeakable things in his name. He never wanted his name to be one spoken in fear, uttered in hatred or fawned over in sick admiration. He never wanted to be anything more than want his father asked him to be. A protector; first of his brother, second of his family and then of his students. That is all he wanted of his life. He found the second name. Gwen.

Gwen almost never left her father's side, nor did Lloyd. Gabby, Lloyd learned her name from Gwen, was taking a break from watching Gwen and Lloyd had volunteered to watch her instead. They had laid him in a bunk aboard the Bounty and Gwen sat on the floor near her father's head, humming. "There once was a baby dragon, and her papa loved her very much, They flew around one day and had a big lunch! Then a grundle came along and bite her on the toe, She cried out and said 'Oh No! Daddy dragon went and bopped the grundle on the head, Then he turned around, kissed her boo-boo and said,"

"Little one, I know it hurts, and it throbs, But I won't ever let you get hurt again, and she nods. Then they wrap each other in their wings, never to worry about other things." Lloyd finished, smiling down at a surprised Gwen.

"You know 'The Baby Dragon and the Grundle?' " She asked curiously.

Lloyd nodded. "My father taught that to me when I was younger." 'Well older depending on your view of Tomorrow's Tea.' He thought as he looked at the sleeping man, that he was now more certain that he was his father.

Jay popped his head out from behind the door. "We're almost to the monastery, Lloyd."

Gwen's head snapped up. "Thank you Lightning Ninja!"

Jay smiled. "Jay's just fine, Sliver Ninja!" He jumped, striking a ninja pose. "Hiya!"

Gwen giggled. "If you're Jay, then I'm Gwen!"

Jay bowed and chuckled. "Of course, Gwen."

Lloyd laughed at the exchange. "When did you two get so friendly?"

"Oh me and this little charmer? She's got everyone tied around her finger. She even got Cole to sing a duet of 'Glow little glow worm' with her! Hence the 'Silver' tongue of the Silver Ninja. I got it on camera too!" Jay grinned and winked at Gwen.

She giggled again behind her hand. " He saw that I was sad about my daddy and he wanted to help me be happy again. Me and Lloyd just sang a song too! It was a song that his daddy sang to him when he was little like me! 'The Baby Dragon and The Grundle!' "

Jay glanced at Lloyd then smiled sadly. "I knew Lloyd's daddy too."

Gwen's eyes brighten. "Really? Cool! Lloyd's daddy sounds almost as cool as my daddy!"

Jay and Lloyd laughed at the irony of that statement. "Yeah, he was pretty cool." Said Jay as he sat down in-between Lloyd and Gwen. "Did you know that he used to be my sensei? Yes, he was. And he was a pretty good one too."

"What's a sensei?" Gwen asked tilting her head in curiosity.

"A sensei is a teacher, like the ones you have at school, but they teach you a lot of things other than math and science. They teach you about being a good person and defending the weak from those who would want to hurt them or use them. Lloyd's daddy helped me and my best friend stop being mad at each other." Jay glanced at Lloyd before continuing. "He also saved us all by making a sacrifice and leaving us for a time."

Gwen stayed silent for a moment. "Is that why Lloyd looks sad when he looks at my daddy? His daddy is gone?" She looked like she was about to cry as she suddenly gave Lloyd a big hug and sobbed into his shoulder. "I'm so sorry Lloyd! I can't imagine not having a daddy anymore! Is there anything I can do to help you feel better?"

Lloyd was surprised at her embrace, but welcomed it, hugging her back. "This hug is already making me feel better. Thank you Gwen."

Lloyd. Gwen. It was like two keys fitting in two locks unlocking the rest of his memories which came like a flood. From a little boy to a full grown man in a seemingly spanless frame of time, his son, and Gwen, she was more recent. She was a little girl who he found in the woods, or in his eyes, she was the one who found him. That was about two years ago, when…. When the monster that stained his name was resurrected. They traveled together and she soon came to call him daddy. She was barely five years old when they found each other and now they were father and daughter. He was Montgomery to her, while he was Garmadon to Lloyd. He remembered the mountains that he and Lloyd passed to reach Hiroshi's labyrinth. He remembered the games of 'I spy' with Gwen. He remembered the lesson in the monastery with Lloyd. He remembered the first time he walked with Gwen over the threshold of their new house. He remembered that he was a father and a husband, first and foremost. He remembered Misako holding their child for the first time and her tired but overjoyed smile. He remembered the first time he saw his wife in all her beauty and intelligence. He fell in love with her at first glance, but she only saw him as a friend at first when they were children. But that changed when they were adults and a few months later, were married in happy bliss. He saw his brother there too. Wu, was his best friend and his companion in all things, good and mischievous.(Where else would Lloyd get the pranking gene?) The only person other than Misako that could understand him and care for him in the same magnitude as he did them. His family; By his father's name, he remembered his family.

They had moved Gwen's father to a spare room in the monastery and all stood around while Sensei Wu administered to the man that was the spitting image of his brother. Sensei Wu was obviously shocked to see the Ninja bring him there, so was Misako. But they quickly mastered themselves and directed them to the room where they were now in. Misako, who was standing next to Lloyd, leaned over and whispered, "And where did you said you found him?"

"Being chased in the woods deep in Ninjago by… you know who." He replied, suddenly conscious of a certain little girl clinging to his leg.

"Lloyd… I've consulted every resource I know of about other realms and transport between them. The Realm crystal was the primary way to travel from our world to all others, but its is destroyed now, and even before then, there was no activity that could suggest a portal opening from anywhere. And with the Oni masks gone and Clouse's spell book is in ashes; Bottom line Lloyd, he shouldn't be here. It is physically impossible for him to even try to come here."

"But he is. Can't we just accept that and move on?" Asked Lloyd.

"I know. I want to believe that he's really here and that he's going to stay, but whenever something like this happens, a disaster follows and if I'm honest, son, I'm scared of getting my heart broken again. I thought we'd have to turn him again, but when he's like this and practically handed to us on a silver platter, I can't help but be very suspicious."

Lloyd took his mother in his arms. "No matter what happens Mom, both of us will always love you, in one realm or another."

A little voice spoke up. "Are you Lloyd's mommy?"

Misako broke off from her son's embrace to look down at Gwen. "Yes, I'm his mommy. Is your mommy here?"

Gwen shook her head. "I don't have a mommy. I only have a daddy." She thought for a while, then her face brightened and her smile grew. "Hey Lloyd! Since I have a daddy and you have a mommy, what if they got married and you could have a daddy again! And I could have a mommy!"

Lloyd and his mother smirked at each other. "Thank you for the idea Gwen. Maybe your daddy and my mommy could talk about it when he wakes up."

"I think he's coming around!" Exclaimed Sensei Wu as he witnessed Gwen's father's hand twitched and his facial features tensed up. The others crowded around the bed, with Gwen and Lloyd the closest to Sensei Wu. They watched as the person of interest started to finally wake up.

Those names gave him such peace, but in a flash such worry and anxiety. He remembered that he died. He had memories of the Realm crystal being destroyed, but how was he here? And why were his memories gone for the past two years? There was also the matter of the elemental powers that someone had awaken in the monster of him which had somehow passed to him now, but there in lies the question. Why now? If the times are correct, he had been back in Ninjago for about two years. Why did the powers pass to him now and not before and how? There's something or someone behind all this and is extremely powerful. But what or who? So many questions and they could only be answered when he abandoned this dream realm and faced to real world. He felt himself rising and leaving this dark, warm and strange place. He had saw his old selves, both Garmadon and Montgomery and the ways of life each of them. He knew that he was neither and yet both of them at the same time. Finally, after a long while, he knew who he was. Perhaps he's always known. A Protector.

He opened his eyes.