Cole desperately wanted to go to bed and try to get some much-needed sleep.
This was the first time in weeks that he actually had access to a bed, thanks to his father letting them stay in his home, while construction finished on the monastery which they learned was something that Nya had arranged before they got mixed up with the Sons of Garmadon.
But despite the fact that he was tempted by the promise of sleep, he couldn't lay down or relax; not after Lloyd had dipped almost as soon as they arrived at the house and hadn't been seen in hours.
Staying up and waiting on Lloyd was usually something Kai would do, but between Skylor still recovering from using Garmadon's powers and Nya's dislocated shoulder, the fire ninja was preoccupied.
After all, he probably was just getting fresh air and taking a break from being the green ninja; that wasn't something anyone would blame him for after the hell he had been through, but something in Cole's gut kept him awake and watched as the analog clock that he grew up watching ticked closer and closer toward morning.
In fact, by the time the hands of the clock inched towards four in the morning, that was when he heard the creaky front door open which signaled the return of the youngest ninja from…wherever he had gone.
However, the last thing Cole expected when he walked toward the front door was to see red blood dripping down through the tears of Lloyd's black gloves onto the hardwood floor; the red of the drips contrasted harshly against the paleness of his face as their eyes met, the water instantly filling the teen's softly glowing green eyes.
"Lloyd?," Cole approached slowly with his hand outstretched toward him, trying to keep him calm and swallowing down his thoughts of how much he could see his younger self in those green eyes, "can I help you get cleaned up?"
He wasn't shocked when all Lloyd did was nod, allowing Cole to put his hand on his upper back and lead him toward the bathroom; in fact, as the earth ninja turned on the lights and guided Lloyd to sit down on the closed toilet seat before rummaging through the medicine cabinet for the first aid kit, Lloyd didn't make a single noise despite the tears running down his face.
Cole knew better than to pry; when he would find himself in similar situations where he would shut down as his palms continued to ooze bright red blood from the abrasions that occurred as he climbed mountains, he always hated when someone would ask the dreaded questions of "why did you do this?" and "we can get you help".
Not from the fact that doctors, nurses, and even Master Wu cared, but the implications of what they thought was going on and the fact that despite everyone else's concern, he could never get that one specific person to care.
When he finally found the first aid kit and slowly maneuvered the tattered gloves off of Lloyd's mangled hands, he was admittedly relieved that the markings were indeed those that he recognized from moving stone and not ones that he would have to discuss with the others in private.
"Lloyd?" Cole asked after dousing a gauze pad in antiseptic and waiting until the still teary eyes looked up at him with a look that he couldn't describe as anything other than distant, "Do you have anything in the wounds? Like glass?"
It was then when Lloyd spoke for the first time that night, but it wasn't the answer Cole had been seeking at that moment, rather, it filled in the gap of just where Lloyd had been when this had happened.
"I-I couldn't save her," his voice came out eerily quiet, with a hollow sound to it, and it was only then that Cole noticed the blood streaks in his bright blonde hair as well as on his pale face, "s-she was right there a-and I…I was powerless."
"Hand," Cole spoke first, waiting until he was able to start wiping down Lloyd's hand before responding, "I know that any of what I say isn't going to fix it. I'm not going to pretend I know what you're going through either because I don't know."
Cole finished wiping down his left hand and moved onto his right, watching as he looked at him with confusion as well as zero signs of flinching from the sting of the antiseptic.
"What I am going to say is this. I could see how much she meant to you, even after she betrayed you in Prime Evil's Eye," Cole stopped to throw away the blood-stained gauze pad and moved on to wrapping up Lloyd's hand, "I wasn't here to help with the resistance, but from what PIXAL was telling Zane and I, she didn't do anything to give you a reason to think she had changed."
"I saw her face…" Lloyd swallowed harshly, "She was s-scared, her p-parents died the same way when the Great Devourer-"
"Lloyd, what is this really about to you?" Cole questioned as he finished wrapping his hands and moved on to try and get some of the grime and dried blood, "you cared for Harumi, but after what she did-"
"I don't know much of Ninjago is dead because of me!" Lloyd shouted with a force that made Cole take a step back from him before reaching under the sink to grab a hand towel and regret just how much he was pushing, "The Devourer, the Overlord, Morro…and now this," Lloyd's voice was shaky as he was hit with a violent shudder, "I-I wanted to prove her wrong, okay?"
Cole swallowed as he turned on the cold water and let the fabric absorb the water, but he knew that he couldn't stop talking now, not when he was so close to finally learning what caused him to be in a bathroom at what was now for sure four-thirty in the morning. "Prove her wrong?"
"S-she said that I was naive. That I was f-foolish to believe that no one died that day, that no one h-has died because of me," Lloyd explained, which brought Cole back to the brief flash of being sixteen and watching helplessly as the city was destroyed all because of a freakishly large purple snake.
He remembered when he and the others would indeed blame Lloyd for their troubles with the Serpentine until that fateful day when he was swung over Jay's shoulder and brought aboard The Bounty.
"I-if I could h-have saved her," Lloyd's shaky voice brought Cole's mind back to the present which meant he was turning off the cold water and wringing out the excess before pressing it to Lloyd's cheek and starting to try and gently wipe away the blood and dust, "t-then she'd be living proof that n-not everyone dies."
Cole swallowed as he tried to find the words to slow the tears that spilled down onto the washcloth; they had all experienced survivor's guilt at some point, he had been the same age as Lloyd when they found out Zane was still alive and all he remembered before that was just how much of a spiral he had found himself and the others in.
Kai had nearly drunk himself into an addiction that was only stopped by his addiction to fighting and while he hadn't been talking to Jay at the time, he could tell based on the glimpses of the shiny game show that he hadn't been coping well either just based on his mannerisms on stage.
In fact, it had been Lloyd who pulled them out of their individual unhealthy coping mechanisms. It had been Lloyd who wanted to bring the others back together, to try and revive their team without Zane. In a weird way, Cole had been somewhat thankful that Chen's henchmen had pointed them in the direction of bringing him home.
He finished wiping Lloyd's face, having removed enough of the blood and grime that it wouldn't transfer on the pillows as he slept, and started to put the first aid kit away.
"It's hard to focus on the good when you lose someone who was important to you," Cole started, his voice threatening to waver as a brief flash of his mother appeared in his mind, "but, you stopped your father. The colossus was destroyed. And we evacuated the majority of the city in time. So, that has to mean something."
"I just wish I could have…" Lloyd's voice was still shaky, but the flow of tears had definitely settled, at least for now, which was as good of a signal as any.
"Come on, punk," Cole spoke softly, offering his hand for Lloyd to pull himself onto his feet, "let's get you in bed. After all, someone who shall remain nameless," he stopped to give Lloyd a pointed look, "told the commissioner that we'd help clean up tomorrow."
"We did break it." He shrugged while taking Cole's outstretched hand, allowing him to lead Lloyd toward the air mattress in the main room where he had told everyone that he was fine with sleeping on.
"You're right," Cole surrendered, waiting to watch Lloyd get comfortable before pulling the throw blanket over him and gently resting a hand on his shoulder to assure him that he was indeed safe and it was finally over, "but, we're going to help rebuild it."