TW for Child Abuse and Bullying.

Lloyd kicks against the soft ground, sending himself soaring into the sky on the swing, puffy white clouds at his feet. Summer is here, and Lloyd hates it except that it means he isn't stuck inside anymore, that he can run off into the woods all day if he likes because no one pays enough attention to him to care. Normally, anyway.

Because that is the exact moment the swing is caught from behind and he's shoved forward, into the ground. He twists, catching himself on his back in what barely qualifies as a decent break-fall, and growls up at his cousin's face.

"You've got mud on your shirt." Dan mocks, smirking. "Mother will kill you."

Looking down, Lloyd finds Dan's first statement to be correct.

Lloyd gets up, fists balling. Dan flaunts his status as a Nobleman's son and his envisioned superiority to Lloyd, being two years older, and despite being cousins. On technicality, Lloyd's the one with higher rank, his father being a Lord General and Dan's only being a lowly Count. But Dad isn't here, so Dan gets away with everything, Lloyd thinks darkly, But if he was….. "What do you want?" He snaps. Dan is eyeing him like he's an eagle and Lloyd's a mouse, vicious and mean and exactly like every other bully Lloyd's ever encountered in his life-which is a lot.

"Nothing." Dan grins maliciously. "Maybe you'd get left alone if you didn't insist on wearing your last name like it's a badge of honor."

"It is!" Lloyd replies, indignant as his eyes flash.

"Right, you sure we're talking about the same person? Garmadon?" Dan's eyes sparkle, clearly enjoying getting under his skin. Lloyd hates himself for letting him. "Like, the guy who's a literal demon? The man who shoved you off onto his poor in-laws, the one who went insane after killing his sister?"

"That's not what happened, He's not a demon!" He's human, just like me, But Lloyd feels sick, a terrible nausea that always comes whenever anyone mentions his father's actions prior to his disappearance.

"And then ran off to who-knows-where after trying to kill his brother too?"

"You're stupid!" Lloyd bellows, eyes flaring as his hands heat, sparking with a foreign energy.

Dan rolls his eyes. "Oh please." He scoffs, but he looks nervous, glancing at Lloyd's hands and shifting from foot to foot. But he's an idiot, so he doesn't shut up. "You're the stupid one-running around like you're something special when all you are is a half-monster freak with no parents, no home, and no legacy!"

Lloyd hisses, an airy sound that fills the space around them. "Take it back."

"What?" Dan mocks.

"I said, Take. It. Back."

Dan only laughs.

But he isn't laughing when Lloyd pounces on him, bringing him down to the hot summer mud and putting him in an Ezekiel choke. "Wanna make fun of me now?" Lloyd growls in his cousin's ear.

Dan doesn't do anything but grunt, struggling fiercely but failing to throw Lloyd away. If Lloyd's decent in anything at school, it's martial arts.

"Danuja! Lloyd Garmadon, get off this instant!"

Lloyd reluctantly complies, releasing Dan from his choke, and getting to his feet. Leiko, his aunt, is standing there, looking horrified and spitting mad. Of course, it isn't at Dan. It's at Lloyd. Leiko's precious little baby could never do anything wrong. She stalks forward and slaps Lloyd across the face.

It's not hard. Lloyd's been hit plenty harder at school. But it always stings ten times worse when his own Aunt hits him then it does when it's a Darkley's kid, because he gets why those kids hate him, but he's never understood Leiko.

"You insolent, mean, horrible child!" She begins, disgust and fury twisting her face. Lloyd doesn't flinch, only stares up at her with a bored look in his red eyes, refusing to let her see him break. "How dare you! After all we have done, after all Danuja has done, sacrificing his summer to spend it with you, you ought to be grateful!"

Impulsive, angry hatred bubbles in his stomach, but Lloyd keeps silent.

"With how we suffer from your foulness already oozing from every corner, and how much we pay for your fancy doctors and fancy school, you would think that I would get some gratitude for it! But no, you choke poor, sweet Danuja!"

"He started it!" Lloyd bursts. "He started it! He always starts it!"

Shock widens Leiko's eyes, then they narrow with absolute contempt. She snatches his arm and begins to drag him toward the manor. He should have kept his mouth shut, he realizes, berating himself for his slip of tongue. Now he'll pay.

"You little wretch of a liar," She hisses. "You selfish, selfish child. Danuja never starts fights! How dare you insinuate such a thing!"

She slaps him again, this time much harder than before. Lloyd flinches. His face feels hot, traitorous tears rolling down his cheeks as he fights to retain a stoic front. Whatever. It's not like he has any dignity anyway.

"Until you apologize to my sweet boy, you and your filth will remain in your room, is that clear?"

"Yes Aunt." Lloyd mumbles. It's better than another barrage of angry words.

"And wear your contacts, you possessed wretch. No one wants to see your ugly eyes."

Lloyd blinks, the world swimming in his tears, before nodding. "Yes Aunt."

"Servant-you! Come here!" The parlor maid, Itzel, hurries over. "Take this brat up to his room, and lock him in. He's not to leave or have dinner."

Lloyd scowls. What am I, some cheap boy-version of Cinderella? Again, his dignity pretty much died the minute he stepped into this household.

"Yes Madam." Itzel replies calmly, putting a hand on Lloyd's shoulder and guiding him upstairs. Lloyd waits until they are out of his Aunt's range of hearing, and then his silence bursts like a dam.

"She blamed me again! And Dan started it! He's a-" He breaks off into a slew of words he learned at boarding school that his Aunt would slap him again for if she heard him using them.

But Itzel doesn't, however, instead replying calmly, "You'd best not use that language, Master Lloyd. It's not appropriate of an eleven-year-old boy."

"Well, according to Dan I'm half monster so…"

Itzel spins him around, hands on his shoulders. "You aren't a monster, you're a child. Remember that, Master Lloyd. Nothing that boy says will change it, and don't let it."

Lloyd grumbles about being called a child but nods. "I hate it here." He moans, kicking the ground. "It's miserable."

"Your mother felt the same way." Itzel sighs "Too restless; that was what got her. Always had to explore, discover new things."

"Yeah, that's why she ditched me." Lloyd snorts, burying the pain deep deep down, so deep down that he can grin and snark his way out of any situation that comes up.

"She didn't want you to get hurt. Your father was sick and she was trying to find a cure, or that's what she told me. She wanted to keep you safe, not everywhere she was going would be." Itzel continues

"But she hasn't sent a letter in over a year. Dad sends one every week." Lloyd whines. "What's she doing? Why's she so busy?"

"I don't know, child. She's probably somewhere where she can't send letters right now."

"There's this thing called texting too, y'know."

"Don't take that tone with me, young man. If she can't write I'm sure there isn't cell service either, or she doesn't have access to a phone. She loves you, she loves you a lot, she wouldn't go silent like this willingly."

Lloyd doesn't comment, quite content to keep the metaphorical gauze wrapped tightly around that particular wound. They reach Lloyd's room and Lloyd reluctantly goes in. "I'm hungry." He tells Itzel.

"I'll bring something up later, probably after the Missus has gone to bed. Why don't you go get started on that summer reading list?"

Lloyd snorts. "Yeah, like Darkley's will care."

"Master Lloyd…" Itzel warns.

"Fine! Fine!" Lloyd shuts the door and flops backward onto his bed, staring up at the ceiling. The fan turns lazily, the window is thrown open, a summer breeze filtering in but it's still miserably hot. The Makinos-Lloyd's Mother's family-own a massive estate in Asorayo, where Lloyd spends the summer months. It's unfortunate that his grandfather is off somewhere in the capital, Ninjago City, negotiating with a trade guild about Vengestone shipments or something of the like. If he was present, Leiko would be much kinder. His grandfather always liked Lloyd's mother more, anyways.

Lloyd hasn't seen his Mom, Misako, in almost six years. He was left with Leiko when he was five, and he still doesn't know why. Neither of his parents will tell him. He's given up asking his Dad, Garmadon, despite the frequency of there communication (To Leiko and his Grandfather's displeasure, but they know better than to mess with Garmadon). And his Mom is….well, for all he knows, dead, Really for all anyone knows. Lloyd has memories, yes, memories of light and laughter and pleasant times, but they're few and far-between and bathed in that kind of misty daze most of early childhood has. And they're nothing important, vague and distant at best. Lloyd's learned to ignore them and focus on the present.

And right now, Lloyd hates summer vacation.

Sure, school is absolute misery but at least he doesn't have to deal with Dan or Midiri, Dan's twin sister, when he's there. And it's not like Leiko will tramp half-way across the country just to slap him every time he does something she doesn't like. Actually, Lloyd's pretty sure she forgets he exists the moment he's gone.

He rolls over, reaching out to the bedstand for a comic book. Hey, it's technically reading. It's just not Where the Red Fern Grows.

Maybe I can spend the summer hiding here, He thinks as the world dissolves into epic space battles and weird aliens. And a place where everything makes sense, and no one gets bullied by their own family.

(O)

The summer months pass, the sticky heat turning to sticky chill as autumn comes on and the leaves begin to brown and fall. Lloyd spends most of the time either outside or locked in his room, though the second one isn't usually a choice. Lekio is always finding some fault in him, an excuse to abuse him further. He manages to avoid Dan the majority of the break, and his cousin seems reluctant to instigate another fight. That doesn't stop him from finding other ways to torment Lloyd, particularly in the way of one very ugly pet snake.

Lloyd still hasn't let go of that, funny as Dan may have found it.

"Snakes suit you, don't you think? They suited your Dad pretty well."

Lloyd punched him. Hard. That time, he came away from his aunt with the entire right side of his face red and sore and a black eye swelling, and wasn't allowed to leave his room for three whole days.

It's only a few months but it feels like a century, and Lloyd finds himself so miserable he's actually looking forward to going back to school. To sitting in the dark classrooms, to homework assignments he doesn't understand, to teachers who only see the worst in him….okay, maybe he isn't that desperate.

But he's getting close to it.

The day before the bus comes for him, he still hasn't packed.

"C'mon, Master Lloyd. You need to get ready." Itzel sighs, unsuccessfully attempting to coax the boy into getting out of bed.

Lloyd groans. "It's too early!" He wails, tugging his pillow over his head, and glaring mercilessly at the alarm clock, which hadn't even rung yet and was showing that the time was somewhere in between four and five.

"No it isn't, get up. You need a new uniform, and we must go today. If you had been willing to go earlier in the week, you would not have to get up this early."

Lloyd scowls, but drags himself up.

He proceeds to grumble, moan, and complain his way through the seamstress and then through the packing process.

"I hate it!" He declares on more than one occasion. "I hate it there!"

"Oh, it isn't so bad." Itzel consoles, .

"My first day Brad put fire ants in my bed." Lloyd replies dryly, rolling his eyes. "And it's not like it's gotten better with age!"

Itzel has no reply to that.

But she can't stop Lloyd from having to go, so Lloyd must. But he climbs on the bus the next day with reluctance.

(O)

Darkley's Disciplinary School For Boys makes Lloyd sick just to look at. Part of it is the students and teachers, part of it is just how tall the building is. The school crawls up into the sky, towering high on a mountain. It rests sixty miles east of Ninjago City, the capital, and five miles north of Jamanakai, a little village even higher up in the mountains. It feels like a jail and even looks like one-with bars on the windows, locks on the doors. It has curfews and solitary confinement, and dark rooms were evil practically breeds. Half the kids come from juvie, the other half aren't smart enough to pass application tests anywhere else. Lloyd's neither of these, he's the unfortunate-but not surprising-odd ball out, left to deal with his jealous, semi-dangerous peers with little support from the teachers.

That's why Lloyd spends most of the trip hiding out in the back of the bus with his hood pulled up and his earbuds in, glad to be ignored. When they trundle to a stop, he's the last to get up and the last to step off.

"Back again, I see." The fat bus driver wheezes meanly, punctuating his remark with a hacking laugh.

"If you don't like it, take it up with my aunt." Lloyd replies shortly, snatching his backpack and jumping the last two stairs to the ground.

He looks around. It's foggy, the sky above cloud-ridden. It's still fairly warm out, for Ninjago at least, but the sun doesn't look like it's coming out again any time soon. Lloyd watches the swarming crowd of K5 to 12th grade boys, decked out in the dreary gray and white uniforms (Real cheery, Lloyd thinks, rolling his eyes, Great for inspiring change).

Lloyd still has his sweatshirt pulled over his uniform, but he'll have to get rid of it soon to be in dress code. It doesn't help when the kids call him emo or goth, since it's black and has got rib bones screen printed on the front of it, but it's comforting. It reminds Lloyd in a weird way of his Dad, though he's not really sure why. He wears it whenever he can, and never seems to grow out of it. He got it when he was like, eight, and even though he's eleven now it's still too big. Lloyd kinda gets where the other kids are coming from, at least with this. Ninety-five percent of the clothing Lloyd owns is black or gray, and that plus the tattoos he has all over his left arm make him look emo on the best of days. (The tattoos have been there since he was a little kid, he's not one hundred percent on where they came from, but they look Serpentinian)

Lloyd returns his attention to the crowd around him. Some of the students look moderately happy, most look unhappy, but relatively few look as miserable as Lloyd feels.

At Darkley's, if you keep to yourself, keep your mouth shut, and don't get into trouble then the other kids and the teachers ignore you. But if you're different, happen to stick out a little more, or are a trouble magnet, then you're toast.

And Lloyd, unfortunately, happens to be all three of those things.

"Hey Gene, look who's back, demon brat."

Lloyd grits his teeth. The boy, Manji, is referring, mainly, to Lloyd's impossibly red eyes. It's a feature he inherited from his father, but it isn't the only one. Lloyd's paper-pale skin, moderate fangs, and unusually tough skin can all be attributed to his father. He's not one for complaining about the tough skin, makes it harder for the boys to beat him up.

Manji's said something else while Lloyd's been thinking, but Lloyd didn't hear.

So, of course, that warrants the blow Manji attempts to land on him.

Also typical; Manji's sloppy punches. Lloyd has no idea why they insist on picking on one of the top sparrers in their grade, probably because Lloyd gets blamed for the fights regardless of who started them.

He blocks Manji's punch and half-heartedly attempts a right hook, but of course that's the moment the Headmistress decides to click-clack her way down the front steps in heels to glare disapprovingly at the pair of them.

"Boys, boys," She tuts, shaking her head, though her narrow gaze is directed at Lloyd.

He bristles. "He started it." He snaps.

"Yes, but you continued it." Headmistress replies, raising her eyebrows at the perceived back-talk. "Must we always do this, Garmadon?" Lloyd rolls his eyes, glaring angrily at his feet, but keeps his mouth shut. Headmistress snaps her fingers. "Detention, boy, a full week. And don't let me catch you fighting again."

Manji shoves past Lloyd with a laugh, leaving Lloyd seething.

(O)

Lloyd serves his time, and manages to avoid Gene and Manji and their posse for the whole first week. School is, unsurprisingly, a dumpster fire mixture of

Especially when the teachers turn a blind eye and his one maybe-friend, Brad, (Yes the same kid that put fire ants in his bed-he's over that now. Look, you've got two options at Darkley's, the kids that prank you or the kids that pull a knife on you) looks away. And Lloyd doesn't blame him, because who wants to be friends with the school punching bag anyways? But some days he still wants to scream and yell until someone pays attention to him and notices how much it hurts, how close he is to snapping, how deep the cuts go and how far the pain stretches.

And then it all comes to a head.

(O)

Lloyd wakes one morning feeling hot and miserable. Oh no, He thinks, I forgot again. Lloyd himself isn't sure how he manages it, forgetting he has a chronic disease that could kill him if he doesn't stick a needle in his arm every four or five days. It's a pain (quite literally) but it's something Lloyd's used to-and he's used to the other kids taunts about it.

"DBD? Demon Blood Disease? What, does that mean you suck blood or something?" Gene had mocked upon first seeing Lloyd give himself the shot at lunch several years before.

Lloyd had made a point never to let the other kids see him use his pen kit again, and as long as he kept the black case out of sight most didn't even realize he had DBD.

But Gene knew. And that was enough. So when Lloyd woke to discover that his blood levels were rising at a not rapid but still concerning rate, he went searching for his pen kit to prevent an early death.

It was gone. It was missing. Lloyd's eyes widen. When things go missing at Darkely's, nine times out of ten it's thievery. He's had stuff stolen before, usually stupid things, things that aren't expensive but inconvenient. This isn't inconvenient, this is more. He whirls on the other boys in the room. "Give. It. Now." He growls. He's putting himself in danger, stepping forward like this.

And Gene of course, with Manji standing near, is the one to speak up. "Find it, demon boy." And he's laughing. Lloyd's done some mean things to the other boys before, usually to Gene or Manji (He pushed Gene in a lake, once, and another time left Manji to wander alone on a hiking trip) but those things were generally just humiliating or scary, not dangerous.

"I'll tell the nurse!" He snaps, immediately going for the threat of talking to an authority.

"What? And you think she'll care?" Manji snorts. "She'd be glad to be free of you, just like the rest of us. Not even a school for bad boys wants a monster like you inside the walls."

The words sting. They sting a lot, in fact.

"Who'd even come to your funeral?"

A shiver runs down Lloyd's spine, and he freezes in fight or flight mode.

"Not that many, I guess." Gene smirks. "Your Dad has better things to do than bother with you and your Mom…who was she again? Some rando off the streets?"

And that's the breaking point. Lloyd is the first to act, knocking Gene to the ground, and screaming like a banshee. Insult him all he wants, Gene isn't going to get away with mocking Lloyd's family. He's just not. He won't. Lloyd won't let him. It all sputters into a mad blur, a blur of emotion and anger and that tingling feeling he gets in his hands that he hates. And all he knows is that he's angry and he just wants someone to pay and Gene has been sitting there asking for it for years.

And it's only when someone slaps him that he's drawn out of his fury. He looks up into the face of the Headmistress. His hands feel hot and when he looks down, they sizzle with energy, white, glowing streaks bubbling around his fingers. He's on top of Gene, and Gene looks absolutely terrified. Lloyd's vision clears and he finally realizes the damage he's done. Gene has a black eye and a blistering, stippled burn mark curling around the side of his mouth, red and raw and hideous. Not only that, but there's glittering bits of something sharp scattered around them. Gene has cuts on his face from this, Lloyd has cuts on his arms. He looks around, and then up-the ceiling fan, every lightbulb is shattered, glass that rained without him realizing. How did this go so wrong?

Horror rises in Lloyd's gut-sharp shock that he did this. But then there's the boiling anger that justifies and justifies and justifies, because Gene was wrong and Lloyd at least knows that.

But how-how did I do that? He wonders. I never touched the lightbulbs. The Energy thing-I mean yeah, That's happened before, but it's never done that.

He has bigger problems than that, though, right now. Headmistress grips him by the arm, pulling him up and out of the room. Lloyd hangs his head. He's been in fights before-but none like this.

None like this.

(O)

"What in the sixteen realms has gotten into you?!" Headmistress roars, any semblance of calm gone the moment they enter her office. "Do you know what you could have done? Do you?!"

Lloyd's lips tremble and his hands fidget as he shakes his head.

"What possesses the Makinos to send you here every year I have no idea, but I can say for certain you will not be staying past this year! Even the government cannot ignore this-attacking another child!"

"He stole my meds!" Lloyd bursts, swallowing hot tears and shame. "He hid it and wouldn't give it back!"

"And I will take that into account, Garmadon." Headmistress replies. "But that does not condone your actions! How foolish must you be? Do you not know your own limits? Has no one ever taught you discipline? No! We have, or tried; but no matter what I do you are unruly and impossible, reckless and wild. A product of your father and his insanity, and I cannot teach someone who does not wish to learn nor even attempt to try!"

Lloyd swallows, nodding. "I understand." But Headmistress isn't done ranting.

"The moment you set foot in here I knew; I knew you could never be taught, never understand, you half-human wretch, a red-eyed pale-skinned waif with no home or hope." Headmistress shakes her head. "And I have tried, Garmadon, for the sake of your mother's family and for your own good, but you cannot be taught. Someone has laid a curse on you and that is not something I can remove!"

"Yes ma'am." Lloyd responds, not bothering to lift a hand to wipe the tears. Cursed. I'm cursed. Just like my father. It's what he's always been told, after all, he looks like his father, doesn't he? Everyone says so; says that he is the spitting image, only with golden locks instead of brown. And maybe he bears his father's burdens too, and that's where the curse comes from.

"You will be sent home." Headmistress begins after a moment, voice slightly calmer, not so frantic. "You won't stay here; I will not allow it. Yes, yes. Go pack your things, boy, and don't speak or talk or even look at the others. Simply remove your belongings and leave; you will sleep in the medical ward until you can be taken back. Whatever the government decides to do with you, I hope it is kinder than this place."

Lloyd nods numbly, and his tears have stopped. After all, what good will it do, to cry over something that he can't change?

He's the villain here; not the savior. And he never will be anything more than that.

(O)

Lloyd sits in the medical ward, chill seeping through his bones as the vent above pumps freezing air in. The mattress he is on is covered in cold sheets, and though Lloyd's finally been able to take his injection, he's still exhausted. Bone-tired in the way he often is after Karate class, but at least that kind of tired is punctuated by the adrenaline rush. Blood-spike tired just leaves him drained.

Out the window, leaves jerk from the trees at the slightest breeze, and the gray clouds swirl unappetizingly above. Lloyd likes storms, but these clouds won't produce anything more than a chilly drizzle that dampens the air and soaks into the ground, making it squelch grossly whenever Lloyd steps outside.

Lloyd curls up, head on his knees, and tugs his hood over his head. At least he still has his sweatshirt.

There is a rapping against the window. Looking up, he finds a sparrow tapping at the door. Hanging from its beak is a small tube encircled with the emblem of a dragon. Brightening suddenly, Lloyd jumps up, on top of the bed. He just barely reaches the handle to open the window, but once he manages the bird flies into the room, fluttering to a rest on the footboard of his bed.

"Dad sent you!" Lloyd exclaims, grinning brightly. The sparrow cocks its head, as if confused, then flutters its wings. Lloyd reaches forward, gently plucking the container from around the bird's neck.

He pops the top off, and shakes the curled sheet of parchment out. Inside, he reads his father's slanting print. Lloyd finds it funny how his Dad is still insistent on old-school things, like letter writing. He says it's good practice for Lloyd, and Lloyd's just happy to have one parent willing to communicate with him.

(O)

Dear Lloyd,

I know that school is a trial, and if I were there, I would put a very quick stop to your Headmistress' behavior. It is wrong-remember that Lloyd, what they are doing, what they are saying, it is wrong. And it is a lie. Be proud of your blood, Be proud of who you are. It gives you power. Still, focus on your studies. You are intelligent; use that. Build up your mind and do everything you can to prepare yourself for the tasks ahead of you. Someday you will inherit the title of Lord, and you must be well prepared for that day. I will come to you eventually; never fear. But I have plans and things to do now, so you must be patient, hard as that is. You are strong and brave, and you come from a good line. Remember that. I know this letter is short, and I fear it will be the last for a long while. Like I said, I have work I must attend to, tasks that must be completed. But no matter what happens, I will always be your father.

Lord Garmadon

(O)

The last few words blur, and Lloyd lets out a sob. Oh, his Dad is going to be so mad when he finds out Lloyd's been expelled. What was Lloyd thinking? Fighting with Gene, burning him nonetheless. How stupid is he? Evidently pretty dumb, if he would make such a mindless mistake.

But maybe….

Lloyd looks up at the window, where the sparrow is still waiting, head cocked, as if saying, Well, what are you waiting for? Lloyd glances at his suitcase. He debates. Then he pulls it open and drags out his backpack, stuffing it with an extra set of clothes that isn't his school uniform and the box of granola bars Itzel had sent with him, and, finally, his pen kit. Then he reaches up, fingers just barely closing around the latch to open the window. He yanks it, hard, and the window screeches open, blown wide by the wind. He teeters as he struggles to climb, cursing his height, but he makes it. The sparrow chirps triumphantly, before streaking off into the sky. Lloyd's feet hit the ground, and he doesn't look back as he dashes off into the nearby forest.

"Sorry, Dad." He whispers. "I'll make it up."

He wonders how long it will be before anyone notices he's gone.

Probably not long, but if he can stay out of trouble and keep his head low, they'll quit looking for him in a couple of weeks. It's like Gene said, no one wanted him there anyways.

The tiny mountain village of Jamanakai is near, Lloyd can make it by morning.