'Breathe in, hold, breathe out, hold. Think of it like a slow flowing stream instead of a rushing waterfall. And again, breathe in, hold, breathe out, hold. You've got it now.'

It wasn't hard for Lloyd to follow the advice that Nya had given to him on one of those stormy nights after everything happened with Morro; in fact, her advice was practically a constant in his head these days.

As soon as the monastery was reconstructed, many of the people who had stuck around to help repair it had left and while that had been expected, Lloyd would have been lying if he had said that he didn't want his dad to stay.

He knew that the others wouldn't understand and he couldn't even blame them with how much pain his father had caused all six of them since he had been brought back; at the same time, he was just now starting to see that the good in his father was returning with how much he had cared about the plant and how much he cared about…

'Harumi.'

Lloyd pushed back any thoughts of her and tried to return his focus to the task at hand; working on how to control the Oni inside of him where no one could get hurt.

But the lingering fact was still in the back of his mind about how she had saved his life that night and how he may never be able to forgive her for everything but he also couldn't stop himself from caring about her wellbeing.

He forced his short fingernails into his palms and closed his eyes as he focused on Nya's words.

'Breathe in, hold, breathe out, hold.'

"Lloyd?"

He knew that wasn't his internal voice and opened his eyes to see his uncle approaching him; even as the man was growing more weary, he still had that same youthful look in his eyes that Lloyd had seen when he had to face his father for the second time in his life.

"Hey, Master Wu." Lloyd straightened his back and tried to seem as preoccupied as possible, hoping that he wouldn't be questioned on why he was in there in the first place, but his uncle seemingly could always see right through him.

"Is there a reason you're training at," his uncle stopped to look up at the analog clock on the wall before returning his gaze back to him, "two forty-seven in the morning?"

"Couldn't sleep," Lloyd shrugged off the obvious concern and walked forward to try and send him back upstairs, "that doesn't mean you shouldn't rest though. Don't worry, I'll be up bright and early for sunrise exercise."

"I know you will, because I can't remember the last time I saw you sleep at night," his uncle offered a sad smile and Lloyd knew fully well that he had been caught, "you know that you can talk to me about it, Lloyd. After all, he is my brother."

Lloyd's stomach churned at the thought of telling his uncle everything, at the thought of telling anyone anything. His father, Harumi and the fact that he was petrified that he would hurt someone if he fought again, was his burden.

'I can't put that on anyone else. Not when they've already done so much for me when they didn't have to.'

"I understand," Lloyd nodded with a dry swallow, before forcing himself to look his uncle in the eyes before continuing, "Can you just leave me alone now, Master Wu?"

He knew that any of the others with the exception of his mom would have pressed him further, but to his surprise, his uncle just nodded with understanding etched on his face and started to walk out of the room.

But before Lloyd could get back to work, he heard the parting words that would nearly stop himself in his tracks for the night.

"Lloyd, the world rarely stops for any of us and I have a strong feeling that things are going to return to chaos very soon, so as soon as you feel ready to talk, please let one of us in."

But before he could question him about what he was seeing in his visions, the doors closed behind him and he was forced to go back to the grounding technique Nya had taught him and use it in his attempts to have control when he awoke the Oni inside of him.

'Breathe in, hold, breathe out, hold.'