A/N: *excited screech* This is it! The penultimate chapter, the piece de resistance! The end before the encore! I'm so excited. Lloyd's "slip up" at the end of this conversation was the idea of echojulien on tumblr, who gave me permission to use it here. ;-)
Lloyd was almost out of breath from dancing when he collapsed next to Dr. Julien, laughing his head off. The doc had been sitting in a cushioned porch chair by Lou's house and sketching something for the past half hour, and he looked up and grinned when Lloyd appeared.
"Why—why did you make him do that?" Lloyd wheezed.
There was a mischievous glint in the doc's glasses. "Do what?"
"Dance! He almost died of embarrassment!" Lloyd laughed harder and rolled, holding his sides, and almost fell off the chair.
Dr. Julien started chuckling himself. "Well, I did it because someone said he wanted to spend more time with you!"
Lloyd's laughter went quiet. He sat up straighter and looked at Julien, a little unsure. "He said that?"
"Why, not in so many words, I suppose," Julien answered, "but...yes."
Lloyd tried to smile. "Oh. That's nice."
Julien's blue eyes narrowed. He seemed to be trying to read Lloyd's expression—and unlike Garmadon, having a hard time of it. "Something the matter?"
"No!" blurted Lloyd. "I—well—" He didn't feel good lying to Julien, so he just let out a huff, crossed his arms, and said, "He fought with my mom earlier."
Julien stiffened in surprise. "Oh, dear. I'm sorry."
"It's not your fault." Lloyd pulled his heels up onto the edge of the seat and wrapped his arms around his knees. Behind that protective wall, he could peer out and watch everyone else at the party, talking and laughing and enjoying the snacks and music without him.
Julien looked the same way. He was quiet for a little while. "You know...they're celebrating you," he said softly.
Lloyd shook his head. He knew better than that. "No. They're celebrating the victory of good over evil."
He looked over at the older boys trying to douse each other in punch—they'd risked their lives to get him up the Overlord's tower. And Dareth, who gestured grandly in the air as he told some elaborate story—he'd redirected the Stone Army for the forces of good just by putting on the helmet.
"I had my part to play, but I wasn't the only one," said Lloyd. "It's just as much their victory as it's mine."
Julien was smiling at him. "As I said. You're very wise."
Lloyd smiled back.
Something about him just made Lloyd feel safe.
Lloyd scooted in his chair to look over the doc's shoulder. On the sketchpad in front of him was an almost lifelike portrait of some spiky-looking flowers.
Lloyd blinked. "Wow. That's really good." He didn't think a mechanics nerd could be that good at drawing.
"Thank you kindly," replied Julien. "I saw them growing wild on the walk here. It's been so long since I've been able to sketch wildlife. Nothing much grew in the birchwood forest, and the island was all rocks..."
Lloyd noticed that he avoided calling it 'the prison', but he didn't bring it up.
"And I just didn't have the time on the Dark Island," the doc went on.
Lloyd nodded. "Cole is pretty good at drawing too," he said, swinging his feet. "I dunno about plants, though. I've only seen him draw people and the golden weapons."
"Really?" The doc pushed his glasses up his nose. "I guess I'll have to trade notes with him sometime."
They didn't say anything else for a while, and Lloyd just settled in to watch Dr. Julien draw. He was starting to feel a little tired from the day's events.
The doc's hand slowed down for a moment, and then he grinned sheepishly and turned to Lloyd. "You'll have to forgive me. Cole is...?"
Lloyd blinked. "The earth ninja," he said.
"Right. The one who wears—?"
Julien asked, "Black?" at the same time Lloyd said, "Black."
"Ah! Good!" exclaimed the doc.
Lloyd started to snicker.
Julien laughed a little himself and tapped his temple. "See, I need a young mind like yours to keep all these names straight."
"I guess we need each other," Lloyd said lightly. And as soon as it was out of his mouth, his grin dropped and turned sad.
The doc had gone back to sketching. Lloyd pulled his knees up to his chest again. "Can I tell you a secret?" he mumbled into his knees.
The doc looked up a little, a question behind his glasses. "If you'd like."
Lloyd slumped down further. "I don't know if my dad needs me," he whispered.
Julien's pencil stopped scratching. He looked up at Lloyd, white eyebrows scrunched together. "Now why in Ninjago would you think that?" he asked quietly.
"I-I know he likes to have me around!" Lloyd stuttered, trying to backtrack. "I know he cares about me. But before, all we had in common was that we didn't want to fight each other, and...and we did, so now what?"
Lloyd looked the other way and went on, "He's got issues with Mom, and I don't know how to help with that. I don't know how to help with anything." Slumping a little lower, he muttered, "Besides, they both managed just fine without me before."
Julien wore a look of surprise and some other emotion that Lloyd couldn't read. "I beg your pardon?" he asked. "I was under the impression that your mother cared for you while your father was in exile."
Lloyd shook his head and shrugged. "I kind of just met her a few weeks ago too. I grew up at Darkley's School for Bad Boys."
The doc was giving him that unreadable look again, the one that made Lloyd uncomfortable. He looked away and kept going.
"Anyway. I just don't really know how to talk to my dad. I've tried, but it's hard. I mean, he's the son of the First Spinjitsu Master. He even looks scary!" he cried, waving his arms in the air. "What am I supposed to do with that? What if I just get in the way? What if I only remind him of when he was evil and we had to fight all the time? What if Mom and Dad keep fighting and what if it hurts and—"
He buried his face in his arms and shut up.
Julien was absolutely silent beside him.
Lloyd felt the most scared and un-brave he ever had since becoming a ninja. "Don't tell anybody I said that," he muttered.
"I won't say a word." The doc's voice was quiet. Lloyd felt his thin arm drape over his shoulders. "But...may I offer you my thoughts?"
Lloyd didn't say anything, but he lifted his head so that his ears weren't covered by his arms.
Slowly, Julien said, "A wise young man once told me not to focus on the 'what if's, but on what's real."
Lloyd's mind went blank in surprise, and then filled in with a little warmth in his chest. He lifted his head, just enough to see out above his arms.
"What's real is that your father cares about you, Lloyd." Julien smoothed Lloyd's hair away from his eyes. "What's real is that he does need you—now more than ever."
Lloyd frowned. He did want to trust Julien, but... "How would you know?"
"Well, first of all, because I just spoke with him."
Lloyd blinked. "Oh. You did?"
"Yes," answered Julien. "He's very fond of you."
Lloyd felt his face heat up, and he looked away, fidgeting with his green sleeves.
"But I would have been able to tell you anyway," said Julien, pressing a hand to his chest, "because I'm a father. No matter how difficult things are—and how much my son and I have grown differently in our time apart—I'd want to have him close to me."
Lloyd frowned at his feet. "But...it's different, isn't it?"
"I don't think so."
Lloyd gave him a look.
Julien put his hands in the air, the left still holding the pencil. "I'll be honest—I don't know much about evil overlords or this saving the world business. But I know something about families, and I know something about people.
"I know that families don't just separate because it's inconvenient to be together." With a deep, solemn frown, Julien added, "I know it isn't easy to go from being evil to being good again." He put his hand on Lloyd's shoulder and squeezed. "You need to stick together, and your father needs someone good like you to believe in him."
At that, Lloyd straightened up in his chair, a bit of a panic crashing onto him. "But—but I was evil too!" he blurted. He realized too late how loud that was and dropped his voice before the others could hear.
"I was the worst kid at Darkley's," he went on, leaning closer to Julien, "and I released the Serpentine, and they released the Great Devourer. I wanted to be evil, I hurt so many people, I even hurt my dad, I—I did some really awful things, Julien."
He nearly collapsed into the man, gripping the front of his lab coat. Lloyd could feel hot tears pooling in his shut eyes.
For one terrifying second, nothing happened. And then, Julien pushed him upright again, until they were face to face and the blue eyes behind the glasses were just inches from Lloyd's own.
"Then he needs you to believe in him all the more," Julien said firmly, tapping Lloyd's chest over his heart with one finger. "Because you are his son, the closest one to him, and you know what it feels like to change."
Lloyd felt his eyes go wide and his mind go blank. Julien pulled his sketchbook into his lap again and fingered the edge of the paper.
"You all offered forgiveness to me," Julien said, "when I thought I never could have deserved it." He looked up, a gentle smile on his face, and yet there was a sadness there too. "It changed my life. If your father has your forgiveness...he needs to know, as much as I did."
Lloyd was quiet, thinking it over. "How do I do that?"
"Do what, now?"
"Get him to know that...I forgive him," said Lloyd. He wrapped his arms around his knees again, but this time less to hide and more for comfort. "And I wanna be with him, and whatever happens...I still believe in him."
Julien thought about this for a little while. Then his smile brightened. "Why, you talk." And then he went back to sketching.
While Lloyd's mind was still whirling, Julien added, "And work on your dancing, by the way. Cole's father—what's his name?"
"Lou," Lloyd said.
"Lou. Right. Lou says it's terrible."
Lloyd gave a small huff of a laugh. "Cole says that he calls all dancing terrible." He looked up to see his dad standing off to one side alone, more or less left out of the small talk of the rest of the parents.
Lloyd knew what he had to do, even if it wouldn't be easy. Then again, he thought, what thing worth doing is ever easy?
Hey, he was the Gold Ninja. He could do this.
Lloyd smiled and leaned over to give Julien a quick hug. "Thanks, Dad."
It wasn't until he'd hopped out of his chair that he realized his mistake, and then he choked on air and his face caught fire.
"Uh—Doc!" he cried, spinning around and waving his hands in apology. "I meant 'doc'!"
Dr. Julien was just staring up at him with a blank look.
Lloyd felt a sudden urge to pull the hoodie strings closed around his face—until he realized that he wasn't wearing a hoodie. "Sorry." He grinned sheepishly and rubbed the back of his neck.
Julien's awkward grin matched his. "No harm done," he said with a chuckle, but then he suddenly turned serious. "Go do what you need to, Lloyd. Ninja never quit." And with a wink, he went back to sketching.
Lloyd grinned. "Thanks. You're the best." He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, stood up straight and tall, and ran over to Garmadon.
His smile when Lloyd grabbed his arm told him that Julien had been exactly right.
And that was that. Lloyd never saw much of Julien after that day, between the press tours and ninja training. He fell somewhere between friend, favorite adult, and back-up dad, but Lloyd kept the last one for protest when Julien made a terrible joke or bossed him around a little.
Lloyd was happy to hear that Julien and Zane settled down together in the schoolhouse as Zane took up a teaching job under Wu.
He was a little bit confused when he heard about this "Borg" person, but he figured that if the doc was that excited about partnering with other inventors, he could be happy for him.
He was over the moon when Julien was accepted as a speaker in Ninjago's most prestigious universities.
He was a little bit frightened when he heard that Julien had to go to the hospital.
He canceled all his press meetings, curled up on the edge of his hotel bed, and cried, when he heard that Julien passed away.
The kind old inventor was a good man. Lloyd was happy to have known him, and he'd miss him.
Lloyd came back home to be there for Zane and to say goodbye.
After all, Dr. Julien had been family.
The End
A/N: Stick around for the epilogue, friends.
Reviews are memories.