"And be careful when you hit the desert, there's always a bit of a harsh wind when you get past the junkyard-"

"Cole," Vania interrupted him while reaching up to put her hands on his tense shoulders, "Chompy and I rode in here in the midst of an invasion from the embodiment of evil itself, I think we can handle a little wind."

"I know you can," Cole agreed, pulling the princess into a hug, "I just want you to be-"

"Safe? I will be," Vania insisted as she pulled away but not before she gently squeezed his tense shoulder, "but I'll send a letter as soon as we get back to Shintaro. Promise."

"Okay." Cole smiled, which was seemingly a strong enough signal for the princess to climb aboard her dragon, but before they flew away, Plunder spoke up from where he was balanced next to Adam.

"Oh, by the way, one of your friends went down the mountain this morning as I was packing up. I haven't seen him since."

"Do you know which one?" Cole's heart dropped at the idea of losing someone just as soon as they had finally reunited. 'Kai and Jay could still be coping with what happened to Nya, Zane could have turned off his emotions again, Nya's powers still aren't at full strength yet-'

"Korgran saw him too, and so did his ax that doesn't talk," Korgan's rough voice piped up, "the one that wears green. Floyd, maybe? Or is it Dyoll?..."

'Oh, First Master, there's no telling where Lloyd would have gone or what is going through his head.'

"Thank you, I'm gonna go find him now," Despite him not wanting them to leave so soon, Cole now had much more urgent things swirling through his head, "have a safe flight, guys."

He didn't even see Chompy lift off before he was running down the steps and hoping to see the dark green that didn't blend in with the plants beginning to grow around the monastery despite the catastrophic explosion.

'He could be upset about Harumi, his dad, the Overlord…and he told Nya and I that he wasn't hurt enough for a hospital, but he was still captured for days…' Cole thought as he quickly scanned every single tree for the familiar jade color of Lloyd's gi, 'he wouldn't lie to both of us…he's smart enough not to do that now.'

"Come on, Lloyd…" he muttered under his breath, "come on, where are you?"

But despite his pleading, he still couldn't see any sign of the blonde teenager which only continued to push panic to the forefront of his mind.

'Maybe he went into town, or maybe he went back to bed,' Cole considered as he neared the base of the mountain, only to stop when he saw the familiar sight of Lloyd sitting next to the cherry blossom next to the final cliff before the solid ground attached itself to the steps, his legs dangling on the edge and his chin propped up in his hands.

'Thank the master.'

Cole knew he had to approach carefully when yelling or even just sneaking up on Lloyd could freak him out and send him off the side of the cliff, but he also didn't want to cause any more emotional distress to whatever Lloyd was feeling.

"Lloyd?" Cole finally spoke up as he kneeled beside Lloyd, keeping his voice steady even when the teenager barely reacted at the sound of his voice, "Plundar and Korgran saw you leave earlier."

All he did was shrug in response, worrying Cole that Lloyd still wasn't actually speaking to him.

"I guess that I just wanted to make sure you were okay, since the last few weeks, well…the last year or so, have been really rough on all of us, but especially you," Cole stopped to breathe and gauge Lloyd's lack of a reaction, "and I'm not gonna make you talk about it, but I, all of us, we just want you to be okay."

It seemed as though letting Lloyd know that he could stay quiet, that he wasn't going to try and pry further than he needed to, was all that he needed for him to finally meet his brown eyes only for Cole to see nothing but tears in the green ones he had grown so used to.

Cold didn't even have to ask Lloyd if he wanted a hug before he was all but tackled by the green ninja and the sobs started as he curled up close to him; Cole pulled him in tighter with one arm and let his other hand go to his blonde curls as tears soaked through his gi.

"Hey, hey, hey, it's okay. It's okay, I'm here…" Cole trailed off as Lloyd's sobs grew louder against him and a brief image of an older then he should have been Lloyd curled up on his lap flashed in his mind, "it's alright, I'm here. I'm not going anywhere."

He couldn't do anything but let the teenager cry all over his golden armor; he didn't want to move him or make him cry harder and he didn't want to say anything that would have piled on the stress of whatever he was feeling.

All Cole could do was hold onto him as tight as he could and comfort him as he always had in the past.

When Lloyd wanted to talk, he would go to Kai, Master Wu or Nya. When he wanted a distraction, he would end up playing video games with Jay or helping P.I.X.A.L with her latest project along with Zane, but if he was just looking for a hug, he'd go to Cole.

Not that Cole could be upset with that, it wasn't like Lloyd was the only one who ever wanted one of his hugs; in fact, it seemed as though everyone on the team except for Jay and Nya would seek him out particularly for what had been unceremoniously dubbed by Kai as the "weighted blanket effect".

And sure enough, as Lloyd's sobs began to slow with sniffling and a couple of hiccups, there was an occasional yawn mixed in and the thought of 'how much has Lloyd been sleeping?' briefly crossed his mind.

"Alright, Green Machine," Cole finally spoke up, gently moving his hand to Lloyd's hip in order to nudge him off of his rapidly growing numb legs, "let's get you in bed."

But as he gently pushed him towards the soft grass, he heard the sound that he had briefly considered but was still dreading, which was Lloyd's all too familiar sharp inhale of breath that meant that he was injured.

"Lloyd?" Cole struggled to keep his voice steady as he stood up because while Lloyd had been aged up older then he was supposed to be, he knew better than to keep injuries from the rest of them, especially when he had been explicitly asked about it, "I thought you told Nya and I that you weren't hurt."

"No…" Lloyd finally spoke with a wince as he pulled himself to his feet, his left hand hovering over his right side, "I said that I wasn't hurt enough that I needed to go to the hospital."

"You, will be the death of me and Kai's brown hair," Cole sighed as he ran a hand over his tired face before grasping his hand around Lloyd's wrist, "come on, let's go find Zane-"

"Don't tell Kai!" Lloyd shouted as he pulled back against Cole's grip, "please, I don't want him to…I already scared him enough."

"Fine, fine, I won't tell Kai," Cole insisted, hoping that his assurance was enough to stop the resistance on his grip, "okay? I won't tell anyone but Zane, because he's gonna help me patch you up and maybe P.I.X.A.L, but that's it."

"You promise?" Lloyd demanded, his heels still planted firmly in the ground in a mix of defiance and regret.

"I promise."

And with that, the two started their ascent up the mountain with Cole's hand still around Lloyd's wrist in case he decided to go back to his tendency to bolt at the first chance he got.

He couldn't help but notice that Lloyd had grown quiet again after he had given up on fighting against getting patched up; it wasn't as concerning as if someone like Jay had stopped talking, but something about how silent the teenager stayed was still worrying.

Luckily, it didn't take long to get to the makeshift medical wing that had been constructed after the adrenaline of unlocking his Dragon Form had worn off and he could feel the concussion that had nearly gotten him and Kai caught by Pythor.

He maneuvered Lloyd onto one of the cots by the arm with a "stay awake" when he laid down before pulling his hood over his head and clicking the side of his comm set, "hey, Zane?"

"Yes, Cole?"

"Can you meet me in the medical wing? The makeshift one, across from the hangar bay." He asked while gently flicking Lloyd's arm to get him to open his eyes again, which he got in the form of a glare.

"Is it your concussion again?"

"No, I'm fine, it's just…" he trailed off, remembering Lloyd's defiance at the thought of Kai knowing that he was hurt, "I just need your help with something."

"Very well, I'll be there in a few minutes."

"Thanks, Zane." Cole said as he pulled his hood off before flicking Lloyd's arm again to be met with a glare, "I said stay awake for a reason, you could have a concussion."

"Mean," Lloyd scowled, "I don't have a concussion."

"Well, if you had been honest with Nya and I, I'd believe you," Cole snapped back before forcing himself to calm down as soon as he saw Lloyd's tired green eyes, "sorry, that was uncalled for."

"It's fine," Lloyd mumbled while blinking to keep his eyes open, "kinda used to it."

"That doesn't make it okay."

"Kai gets angry when he's stressed, and I…" Lloyd stopped to try and stop the incoming yawn with little success, "I tend to stress him out a lot, about this kind of stuff."

"You're pretty good at stressing all of us out about this kind of stuff." Cole corrected as the sound of footsteps began to grow louder towards them which finally pried his vision away from Lloyd to see Zane.

"Ah, I see," Zane spoke before Cole had a chance to explain his previous distress call and started to dig through the cardboard box of medical equipment that had been salvaged or replaced, "is it the head wound again or something else?"

"Head wound? Lloyd-"

"It's my side, where the Overlord got me."

"The Overlord? How-"

"This isn't the first time I've asked Zane to patch me up this week."

"And if he keeps it up, it won't be the last," Zane added as he stood up and put the various medical supplies on the metal cart before gesturing to Lloyd's gi, "that needs to come off."

"Yeah, yeah," Lloyd muttered, his eyes scrunching up with a wince as his hands went to the tie, "Cole? You don't have to stay, I know this kinda thing freaks you out."

And it did; the smell of antiseptic was enough to make Cole feel like he was twelve again and watching as his mother became bedridden at home when she wasn't in the hospital but, he also knew that he would feel guilty if he left Lloyd like this even if it was in Zane's capable hands.

"Cole, I'm serious," Lloyd insisted as he let the jade green gi fall to the floor, "patient knows best, right?"

"No, that would be customer knows best," Zane insisted from where he was washing his hands, "and given how many times I've cleaned your wounds, I will assume that you do not know best-"

"This isn't about me! Okay, it is, but that's not," Lloyd stopped speaking to let out a frustrated breath, "Cole, just…you look kinda sick."

"Fine," Cole swallowed back his guilt so the claustrophobic trauma would eb away, "fine, I'll head out. But I am running your laundry while you're here."

And he did exactly that after walking out of the hangar bay; in fact, he also made sure to start running a load of dishes in their recently-installed dishwasher before Jay had the chance to dismantle it and tidy up the floor of Lloyd's bedroom, not that he had been given the chance to dirty it up very much.

But doing household chores kept him focused on the task rather than what he was avoiding, which had been a perk back when he was a young teenager as well as right now when even dirty dishes were better than thinking of his pseudo brother in pain.

And by the time he finished tucking the worn, green quilt over the edge of the mattress, Lloyd was sitting down on the bed while putting down a white pill bottle on the nightstand, the label long since faded.

"What is that?"

"Tylenol. Because when you get a stun gun to the head, fall into a river from five hundred feet up and get electrocuted multiple times by the physical embodiment of evil, the strongest drug you can have is," he stopped to shake the pill bottle for emphasis, "Tylenol."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"The drugs?" Lloyd raised a confused eyebrow as he reclined onto the pillows at the head of his bed.

"No, what upset you earlier," Cole said, watching as any signs of joking were wiped off of his face, "I'm not gonna make you, but-"

"I'm fine, I just…" Lloyd trailed off, looking down at his palms, "dad stuff, you know?"

"Yeah, I know," Cole said, running his hand over the upper half of his arm, "my dad and I are a lot better now, but…well, I was a few years younger then you are now when everything kinda fell apart."

"I just…I want to forgive him, but then I remember everything he's done and it's…" Cole could hear the sniffles starting to build up into sobs but for whatever reason, Lloyd kept the tears in this time, "I don't know, I'm probably just too tired."

"Do you remember the last time you slept all night?"

He stayed quiet as Cole stood up to reach into the bottom drawer of his dresser where Lloyd tended to keep all of the clothes he stole from the others; sure enough, he was met with multiple pairs of Jay's sweatpants

'That's a lot of Jay's pants.' Cole thought to himself as he pushed past Nya's massive red hoodie that had been passed down from both Kai and her dad to reveal his target.

The orange blanket he had taken with him when he had been sent to the Marty Openhiemer, with black embroidered mountains on the corners; his mother had started making it when she first got sick, but Cole had finished it after he had run away.

But after everything that happened in Shintaro, he found himself being able to part with it and had offered it to Lloyd.

He knew that Lloyd had run away from Darkley's with nothing but the clothes on his back and that he had nothing to his name; even as the troublesome boy aged into a well-meaning young adult, he still didn't have many personal belongings but Cole had so many.

He had a feeling that his mom would have understood that, if she…no matter how many years continued to pass, thinking about her if she was still around made his heart sink.

"I mean, I guess it was after we returned from The Island."

"FSM, Lloyd," Cole sighed as he coaxed him to lay down fully so he could drape the blanket over his bruised shoulders, "I know it's been hard, but for the love of me not getting my ass kicked by your uncle, go to sleep."

"He won't do that, he doesn't even try to make us go to bed any more."

"Touche," Cole chuckled before walking over to the light switch, but unable to bring his hand down over it until he asked, "lights on or off?"

"Off is fine."

"Okay," Cole nodded before engulfing the room in darkness, "do you need me to stay?"

"Nah, just…" he heard the boy swallow nervously before adding, "leave the door open? Just a crack?"

"No sweat. Get some rest, Lloyd."

And with that, Cole walked out of the room while leaving the door open enough to let a steady stream of light hit the floor, but he didn't have the chance to even take a full breath, to let himself calm down from the hectic morning when he heard Jay's yell echo throughout the half-finished walls.

"Where are my sweatpants?!"