"Lloyd, I know you got hurt. Just let me see it."

"No, I didn't."

"All of us got hurt today. I know you don't want Sensei to know that you came with us, but if you come to dinner bleeding, he'll know," the opening of a small, metal case, "let me see it."

Cole waited until he heard the eventual sigh from the small boy who turned around, his split lip apparent in the dim light of the back room of Dareth's dojo where he had retreated to as soon as they returned from fighting the pirates.

He was careful as he gently cupped Lloyd's cheek, examining the small cut across his lip while being slow to movement in order not to startle him.

"I'm not gonna sugarcoat it, that's probably gonna leave a mark," Cole told him, reaching to get a pair of gloves as well as an antiseptic pad, "but we'll get you cleaned up and tell your uncle it was a training accident, okay?"

Lloyd nodded, still refusing to meet Cole's eyes. But the earth ninja pressed on, tearing open the paper sleeve that held the small piece of soaked gauze before gently cupping Lloyd's cheek again to bring the injury back to eye level.

"I don't like this kind of thing any more than you do, but us ninja have to stay in tip-top shape. Sharp sting." And with that, he pressed the gauze to Lloyd's face, unable to hide his wince when he heard the young boy hiss through his teeth while trying to pull away, only to back into the wall.

Luckily for everyone involved, the process was quick and the red-tinted gauze was quickly pulled away as soon as Cole was sure that it was cleaned out; after a quick once-over, he was relieved to find that the split lip was the worse of Lloyd's injuries and he held out his arm, wrapping it around Lloyd's shoulders as he spoke.

"What do you say we find out if Kai bought popsicles like he was supposed to?"

And despite having been on his very first mission and having to watch as his dad left him behind again, Cole was glad that the request made the boy giddy despite the tear stains on his face and his lip still as red as before, even if the trickle of blood had stopped by now.

"I want a cherry one."

Cole pulled him closer with a laugh, "You deserve it, kid."

…

The weeks after the battle against the Overlord were…rough to say the least.

For starters, Lloyd had seemingly refused trying to actually be on bedrest for his ankle, citing many things from "did you know that the judges of Ninjago Talent want to give me an award? I wasn't told Spinjitzu was a talent!" to "I really should be helping my dad with his monastery. He asked me to guest teach", the now golden ninja insisted on being on the move despite how injured he really was.

But the other thing was the horrific nightmares that seemingly all of them were suffering from; while Nya, Lloyd and Cole were the most affected from the battle itself, in Kai and Jay's case, it seemed to be that the culmination of the last two years were finally catching up to them now that they no longer had adrenaline as a safety net.

Despite Zane insisting that he was a Nindroid and therefore, didn't dream, Jay could have sworn that he had heard similar cries of terror as he slept after Julien passed on a few weeks after the final battle.

But right now, Jay had more pressing issues like watching over the Ultimate Spinjitzu Master as he vomited in the adjoining bathroom of their room to make sure he didn't choke.

"I-I'm okay, Jay," the boy stuttered even though his face still looked more green than his own moniker and sweat was practically pouring off of his bare chest, "just a bad dream."

"Uh-huh," Jay raised an eyebrow, waiting to see if Lloyd turned back to the toilet again, "see, we've all been having horrible nightmares lately, and even though I'm only sharing a room with you right now, no one else has rolled out of bed and nearly split their head open and I know that none of them have thrown up on themselves either."

Just the mention of the word "throw up" had Lloyd scrambling back to the open toilet from where he had been sitting on the floor which made Jay wince from both the force at which he had been throwing up but also the fact that if the vomiting was not just a side effect of both the painkillers he was taking for his leg but also the nightmares, he was going to have to wake up someone else to help him with the situation unfolding in front of him.

But, after the painful sounding round of retching, Lloyd slumped against the wall, the green tint had faded fully, replaced by small pinpricks of red on his face indicating broken blood vessels. Jay took that as his chance to get a better look at the cut on the side of Lloyd's head.

He reached over and shut the toilet before flushing it and then he held out his hands for Lloyd to take, muttering as he maneuvered the boy from the floor to the closed toilet seat, unable to ignore how shaky he was, "easy, easy, don't put weight on your right foot, there you go."

As soon as Lloyd was sitting still, Jay gently pushed away his still sweaty blonde wisps of hair in order to get a good look at where the trickle of blood was coming from; calling it anything other than a graze was generous, since the blood was only coming from a small scratch of open skin near the hairline.

'One less thing.' Jay thought to himself with relief over the fact that the chance of needing to wake the others was much smaller now while he carefully wiped the wound with a cold, wet cloth.

"How'd you guys learn to do this stuff?" Lloyd asked as he stayed perfectly still while Jay disinfected the wound, even though the blue ninja could see the younger boy clench his fists with pain.

"Sensei wanted to make sure that we knew how to handle every aspect of battle," Jay shrugged as he grabbed a large band-aid, making sure to hold Lloyd's hair out of the way while placing it in order to prevent him pulling out the strands later on, "not just punching our enemies or witty quips."

Jay couldn't help but smile when Lloyd did, even if it was fleeting due to his worry, "I'm pretty sure my uncle didn't count on witty quips when training you four."

"Well, given that he recruited me," Jay stopped to loop his left arm around Lloyd so there was zero pressure being put on his injured ankle in order to lead him back to bed, "he should have counted on it. Let's find you a clean shirt."

…

Kai cursed under his breath as he looked through the tiny first aid kit that was aboard the ship; he had worked with less then this before, but given that the boat was moving so slow and Lloyd only was continuing to deteriorate as the adrenaline ebbed away from him, he was really hoping for a more extensive amount of supplies.

But,he had to use what was on hand, so he clasped the kit closed, taking it with him to the small room below deck where the captain had shown them too after Lloyd had started to sway and would have fully collapsed on the desk if he hadn't been paying attention and looped the boy's arm around his shoulders.

Sure enough, Lloyd was sitting on one of the bottom bunks where Kai had left him, holding a bloody handful of tissues to his bleeding nose; the bright red brought out the paleness of his skin in a way that made Kai's stomach churn with both worry and guilt over ever letting him out of his sight.

"Has it stopped?" Kai asked, setting the first aid kit on the small nightstand at the end of the bunk bed and finding an antiseptic pad to wipe down his more than likely dirty hands while desperately trying to focus solely on getting Lloyd taken care of instead of pulling him into a tight hug.

"Don't know," Lloyd admitted, his voice nasally, "didn't want to pull away the tissues in case it wasn't."

Considering the bright spots of blood covering the robes that once belonged to Garmadon, Kai had a feeling that his caution was from learning that it was a bad idea instead of a guess.

"Alright, let me see," Kai insisted after putting on a pair of gloves, watching as Lloyd's shaking hand pulled away from his nose which had thankfully stopped bleeding, but the bruising was indicative of a break, "when did you hit your face?"

"Probably while portal jumping," Lloyd shrugged, his voice void of any emotion which only made Kai's heart twist harder in his chest, "my powers will fix it, you don't have to."

"If you want it to heal crooked, maybe," Kai shrugged, gently pressing his fingers on the bridge of Lloyd's nose, "it's probably going to bleed again once I set it, so-"

"Be ready," Lloyd finished, lifting the blood-stained tissues up with one hand while gripping the edge of the mattress, "just do it. Please."

"Okay," Kai nodded, before moving the bone to its correct position, blocking out the gasp of agony that escaped Lloyd's lips despite his attempts to be stoic and still, "all done."

Sure enough, blood once again started to run down Lloyd's face even when he pressed the tissues to it again, dripping onto the front of the robes and while he wanted to talk to him, Kai knew that Lloyd was too closed off and on edge to do so, so he settled for grabbing some gauze out of the first-aid kit to press to Lloyd's nose.

As he placed bandage after bandage on his skin and looked over the bones that were starting to show through due to not being fed, all Kai could do was hope that he would be able to repair the mental wounds when that time came.

…

"Nya, we don't have time for this!"

"Oh, yes we do," Nya scowled as she grabbed onto his arm and pulled him back toward her, having to ignore his hiss of pain as he jostled his very dislocated shoulder, "if you think you can lead the resistance like this…well, I'm not sure I want to know what would stop you."

"Our resources should go toward the others-"

"Don't even start with that bullshit," Nya continued to glare at him so her point would indeed get through to him, no matter how much she hated it when she had to treat him this roughly in order to get through the stubbornness that had been instilled in him. "Your shoulder is out of its socket, and with how bad it looks, you're lucky you didn't lose your entire arm."

Lloyd continued to look at her with a mix of annoyance and what she assumed was guilt, but he didn't retaliate, so she continued to speak as she maneuvered his tattered gi off of his mangled body.

"I know you miss them. I miss them too," she stopped, forcing herself to take a deep breath while forcing away the thoughts of the fact that she had lost her brother, her boyfriend, her teacher and two of her best friends she had ever known, "but they would want you to get taken care of. They were your protectors."

"Can you just fix it?" Lloyd demanded as his face shifted from near tears to neutral, "before anyone else gets hurt?"

"It's going to hurt a lot, but Darreth is working on getting more food and painkillers-"

"I don't need them," Lloyd cut her off, scooting slightly toward her where he was sitting on a few wooden boxes in the large warehouse they were currently hiding in, "I just need my arm back in place."

Nya pressed her lips together tightly, placing one hand on the top of his shoulder socket and wrapped the other one just under the curve of his arm; as soon as she was sure that her hands were in the place that she had been taught to put them for this very scenario, she forced herself to keep her eyes open as the bones snapped into place.

Lloyd's swearing as his head hit the wall, trying to pull away from her until the final snap, proved to her that his hard exterior was just that, a shell to protect himself in the case that he lost anyone else, it wasn't like she could blame him.

After all, he had lost everyone who had been fundamental in raising him aside from herself; the only other people he had let his heart open up to had either become the problem or he just was unable to get as close to them like he had with the ninja and his uncle.

But she refused to let herself harden up and shut everyone else, even if it was just to show him that he didn't need to sacrifice his own needs for the others, despite losing everything.

"When Darreth gets back, you will eat and take some medication, even if I have to shove it down your throat," Nya insisted as she helped him down from the boxes, "until then, let's go make a plan to take our city back."

She wasn't surprised that he didn't respond and if she was being completely honest, she was just glad that he didn't fight her on the instructions she was giving him.

'The last thing we need to be doing right now is fighting each other.'

…

"I know what I saw, Zane," Lloyd insisted, "I saw my grandfather and he was on the golden dragon, the one I learned how to conjure."

"Lloyd, seeing The First Spinjitzu Master is impossible," Zane told him as he rested his hand on Lloyd's wrist in order to get an accurate pulse reading to assure him that yes, Lloyd was alive and well, "we've all seen his tomb."

"I know that, but…he wanted me to go with him."

"My guess is that your subconscious was trying to make a decision and used your grandfather as a tool for you to comprehend what was happening," Zane explained as he moved his hand to Lloyd's back to get a clear reading on his breathing while knowing that it would more than likely be unusual, "I had a similar experience with my own father while I was fighting the Digital Overlord, you know."

"You did?"

"I did, and I don't regret my choice," Zane nodded, gently pressing on Lloyd's upper torso so he was laying down in order to examine where the door had been pressing on his chest, "but I guess I should ask if you regret yours."

"I don't think so," Lloyd said slowly, wincing whenever his chest was pressed on which was not unusual for Zane to see, given the bruising that covered his chest, "I mean, one of my options was to keep doing what I have been doing, keep being the green ninja, but…"

"Something is troubling you."

"What do you think would have happened if I went with him? If I…"

"Lloyd, like I previously expressed, if you had done what you believed was to go with your grandfather, the probability of you returning to us is non-existent," Zane explained while determining that he was not suffering from any sort of lung injury and placed his focus on wrapping his ribs tightly to avoid further injury, "but if you feel like you shouldn't have returned-"

"No, that's not what I'm saying," Lloyd insisted, although given the circumstances of the last few years, Zane couldn't help but wonder if he was lying to him in order to stop his worrying, "I just hate feeling like I could have made the wrong decision."

"Well, I speak for all of us when I say this," Zane said, placing his hand on Lloyd's shoulder to bring his attention forward after he finished wrapping his torso, "we all love you very much, and we all believe that coming back to us was the right decision and that if you feel like maybe that it wasn't, we all are willing to speak to you so we can try to understand why you may feel that way."

Zane had to admit that the tight hug he was pulled into that made his gears squeak with retaliation was something he only partially expected, but that didn't stop him from holding tightly onto the boy that he had seen grow up before his eyes.

"Thank you, Zane." Lloyd choked out.

Zane didn't add any of his own words and instead, wrapped his arms around Lloyd and held him while tears dampened his shoulder.

…

Lloyd sighed as he put the gloves on; he was glad that his suggestion for a small medical area when they rebuilt the place was granted by his uncle, and given just how clumsy Arin was, he should have known that it was some sort of guess he had made about his future students at the time.

"I should be training, master Lloyd!"

"No, what you should be doing is holding still while I stitch up your arm," Lloyd retorted while setting out the supplies he would need, making sure to meet Arin's eye in order to distract him from the panic that was surely setting in by now that he mentioned the need for stitches, "what were you doing this time anyways?"

"Oh, you know…just the training course."

"You sure that's really what happened?"

"It happened to you last week! Kai even had to give you stitches!"

"I'm aware what happened last week," Lloyd insisted as the still healing wound across the back of his head throbbed as a reminder of the incident while he started to disinfect the gash on the boy's arm, "but what happened to you?"

"Okay, I was hanging out with Sora and I may have distracted her while she was inventing and she may have hit my arm with a power saw."

"What?!" Lloyd shouted, nearly dropping the sterilized needle on the floor, only for Arin to wave his arms, resulting in blood droplets splattering on the wall of the monastery.

"It wasn't on!"

'No kidding,' Lloyd thought as he grabbed Arin's arm to hold him steady while he finished cleaning out the wound, 'otherwise we'd be dealing with an amputation.'

"Besides, it really is just a scratch," Arin continued, slowly trying to pull his arm away from him, but Lloyd had a really firm grip that he had perfected over the years thanks to the many times he had almost fallen from a large height, "so this whole needle thing is really unnecessary-"

"Arin?" Lloyd raised an eyebrow, waiting until his student stopped speaking, "the longer you stall, the longer you have to sit here and look at the needle."

That short sentence was enough to cease his rambling and allow Lloyd to start pulling the skin back together. Even with the small winces that were coming from Arin, the wound only needed four stitches, so almost as quickly as he pushed the needle in for the first time, he was pulling it out for the last and wrapping his wrist in a bandage.

"That actually didn't hurt that bad," Arin admired to which Lloyd shrugged until he asked, "how'd you do that?"

"Just a little trick Jay taught me, putting a numbing agent on the antiseptic cloth. It's really nothing-"

"No, I mean, how'd you stitch me up? Last time I checked, none of you have MDs."

"Yeah, you are right about that," Lloyd couldn't help but laugh at the thought of any of the others having the time or the money to go to college, "but, my uncle taught us that not all lessons are about fighting."

"Because just fighting doesn't make you a good ninja?"

"Exactly. But specifically, Cole taught me how to do stitches. I already had taught myself how to sew, but he taught me the differences between sewing fabric and, well, sewing skin."

"Do you think you can teach me?"

"I was already planning on teaching you and Sora," Lloyd explained as he stood up to clean up the medical supplies, snapping off the gloves last, "but only if you promise me that you aren't going to pass out when I give you a needle."

"I'll do my best."

"I suppose that's all I can ask for," Lloyd shrugged before helping Arin to his feet, "but first, we should get your blood sugar back up and in my personal experience, nothing does that quite like Zane's brownies."