Chapter 6: Healing

(Lloyd's perspective)

Lloyd woke up with a smile on his face. For once he had slept without having a nightmare about his father. He felt someone move next to him so he rolled over to find Kai twitching and mumbling something in his sleep.

Lloyd listened and tried to make out what Kai was saying but couldn't until Kai cried out Lloyd's name and started thrashing around. Lloyd's eyes shot open wide and he tried to wake Kai up.

Lloyd had to shake Kai's shoulder for five minutes before Kai finally woke up. Kai looked wildly around for a second until his eyes landed on Lloyd.

Lloyd felt Kai grab and hold onto him as he started crying, asking Lloyd to stay with him, saying that he wouldn't fail to protect him again, and that he was sorry.

Lloyd couldn't do anything other than rub Kai's back and whisper in his ear that he wasn't going anywhere and that he didn't have to be sorry for anything.

"Bu-ut I-I l-let you g-get hurt." Kai hiccupped and looked up at Lloyd with puffy red eyes.

Lloyd cupped Kai's face in his hands and brushed a tear away with his thumb. He then leaned down and softly kissed Kai on the lips.

"No Kai, I let myself get hurt. I made my own choices. You're not at fault for this." He murmured to Kai softly.

Lloyd hugged Kai who was still holding onto him and they stayed there like that for a while until the door to their room opened and Master Wu and the rest of the ninja walked in.

Lloyd felt Kai tighten his grip on him and he looked over to see Kai glaring at Mater Wu. Why is Kai mad at Master Wu? Lloyd thought. But he didn't get a chance to ask Kai before he was bombarded with reprimands from all the other ninja.

"What the heck were you thinking Lloyd!" Nya said

"I swear you almost gave me a heart attack when I saw you lying in all that blood!" Jay said.

"Twelve stitches! It took them twelve stitches to close that gash you made on your arm! Why in the world did you do that to yourself?" Cole said.

"Why didn't you tell us something was wrong? We could have helped." Zane said.

All of the ninja were busy reprimanding Lloyd but Master Wu just stood to the side with a sad look on his face. Lloyd noticed this and motioned to the other ninja to be quiet.

"Master, are you ok?" Lloyd asked.

"No. I failed you as your master and more importantly, your Uncle." Master Wu said with a level of sadness the ninja had never heard from him before.

"I should have known that you would have trauma from banishing your father and having Morro possess you within only a year of each other." He continued.

"Uncle, please don't beat yourself up about this too much. I should have told you, I should have told all of you." Lloyd gestured to everyone around him, "I was going to, but I understand that Kai already has."

"Master Wu made me, you know I really wanted you to be the one to tell them." Kai said with a low growl.

"Ok, Kai, what is going on with you. You keep glaring and growling at Mater Wu. What happened?" Lloyd demanded, turning to face Kai.

Kai looked down and tried to avoid Lloyd's eyes but Lloyd pulled his chin up so that Kai was forced to look straight at him.

"Kai…" Lloyd said in a warning tone, his eyes glowed green slightly.

Kai gulped and reluctantly told Lloyd, "Master Wu and I got into a fight over your condition, I almost punched him and he almost hit me with his staff."

"It's true! Cole had to hold him down while Nya, Zane, and I dragged Mater Wu out of the room." Jay cut in.

Lloyd sighed and looked down at his arm. None of this would have happened if I hadn't been so weak. He thought.

(Kai's perspective)

Kai noticed Lloyd's change in posture and saw him looking at his injured arm. Even though he didn't have mind reading powers like Neuro he still knew what Lloyd was thinking.

"Lloyd, it's not wrong to feel grief for your father, and it certainly doesn't make you weak, you're only human after all. And when Morro possessed you there wasn't anything you could have done to prevent it. If anything it's my fault, I should have gone with you to the museum that night." Kai told him, taking one of Lloyd's hands and holding it between his own.

Kai looked at Lloyd but he was still looking down, although now not at his arm but just down. Then Kai heard a sniffle and then another, then on the sheets under Lloyd two small wet dots appeared. Kai dropped Lloyd's hand and tipped his chin up. He brushed the stray hair from Lloyd's face revealing his eyes that were sparkling and shiny with unshed tears.

"Oh, hey, greenie, it's ok, just let it all out." Kai pulled Lloyd close and he grabbed onto Kai burying his face in Kai's chest as he cried.

"I-I really miss him, I w-want my d-dad back." Lloyd hiccuped out between sobs.

"I know, I know. I miss my dad too sometimes." Kai said, holding Lloyd in his arms.

"But the best thing you can do to honor his memory is to keep fighting for good, justice, and peace." Kai continued saying, "If you throw your life away with this cutting it would be dishonoring him and everything he stood for."

Lloyd looked up at Kai and then at the others around them and took a deep breath. "You're right, my father wouldn't have wanted me to end up like this, he would want me to continue being a ninja and protecting Ninjago. But I need help."

"And we will get you help." Cole said, putting a hand on Lloyd's shoulder.

"We're all here for you, and we want to help you." Nya added, putting her own hand on top of Cole's.

"We're a team, no, we're more than that, we're a family. And a family looks out for each other and helps them when they need it." Jay said, adding his hand to the pile.

"We're with you all the way Lloyd. To the end." Zane said, placing his hand on Jay's.

"To the end." The other ninja echoed Zane. Then they all turned to look at Master Wu, waiting for him.

"To the end." Master Wu said with a smile placing his hand on top of everyones.

— • — • — • — • — • — • — • — • — • — • — • — • — • — • — • — • — • — • — • — • — • — •

(Spectators perspective)

After Lloyd healed physically, he started to heal mentally. He went to see a therapist every week and his friends, no, his family, were always with him. Making sure that he never felt like he was alone or forgotten. Kai was always looking out for him, trying to find things that would show Lloyd that life was worth living.

Slowly Lloyd recovered from everything that he had gone through. He started smiling again, and actually taking an interest in things, like training, and spending time with the many fans that the ninja had begun to attract (A/N: It's gonna be interesting to see how that ends up for them… cough cough *Skybound* cough cough *Nadakhan the Djinn*). Dereth even somehow managed to get the ninja a Tv series, and Lloyd had lots of fun doing that.

Eventually Lloyd was back to his old self, he would never truly forget about the Tournament of Elements or Possession, and especially not Morro or his father. But he now knew how to cope with the pain in a safe way. And soon the nightmares that had plagued him every night started to disappear, until they stopped all together. His past no longer haunted him. He was free.

THE END