Wednesday

On Wednesday morning, Wu and Garmadon had been scrounging for food. Part of it would be breakfast, and the rest of it would be lunch for Lloyd and Misako. Misako had started to help look for food, but then had had to get ready for work.

As Wu packed Lloyd's lunch into his backpack, he couldn't help noticing the many books and notebooks in it. Curious, he pulled one out, wanting to know what they had been teaching Lloyd. It was about Ninjago's history. He knew that the school was probably teaching history incorrectly, which is why he was glad that Misako had already taught Lloyd history. As he was about to set the book back, he paused, seeing something plastic at the bottom of the pack. Setting the book on the ground, he pulled out whatever the thing was.

Garmadon was off looking for more food, and Lloyd and Misako were having breakfast outside. It was a transparent plastic bag, and inside were two pieces of… candy? Where in the world had Lloyd gotten candy? Now suspicious, he checked the rest of the backpack, but didn't find anything else out of the ordinary. But where had Lloyd gotten candy? School, maybe? But Lloyd knew that he shouldn't accept food from strangers. At least, he thought Lloyd knew that… Wu decided that he would have to pay Lloyd a visit at school today.

Lloyd apprehensively went to school. He made sure to keep his head down and his hood pulled up. Everyone around him was talking enthusiastically about the execution yesterday, some even describing it in detail to those who could not attend. Lloyd felt sick. His stomach seemed to be doing somersaults.

As discreetly as he could, he entered his first class of the day. Kai and Cole were near the back. Lloyd hesitated for a few seconds, but he finally walked over to them, feeling almost overwhelmingly anxious. He gingerly sat down, keeping his hood over his head to cover his expression.

Kai and Cole stopped talking, turning to him.

"Hey, Lloyd," Kai greeted him casually.

"Hi…" Lloyd mumbled, not looking at him.

"Uh, what's up with you today?" Kai asked.

Lloyd shrugged, not in the mood to talk. After yesterday, he wasn't really in the mood to talk toanyhuman. They had murdered someone of his kind yesterday; Lloyd wasn't certain if the half breed had been good or evil, but it didn't really matter. No one should be executing anybody, especially without being sure if they were evil or not.

"Okay, then. Suit yourself." Kai turned back to Cole. They both started chatting again, and Lloyd couldn't help but notice that it was about the execution yesterday. Lloyd felt even worse than he had before…

At lunch, Lloyd reluctantly joined Kai, Cole, Jay, Nya, and Zane at their table.

"Aw, come on, Jay, don't be such a chicken!" Kai was saying.

"I'm not a chicken, I just don't want to hear about it!" Jay snapped.

"Sheesh!" Kai grumbled, crossing his arms sulkily.

Lloyd noticed that Zane seemed to be lost in thought again. He was staring at the wall, unblinking.

"What is up with you people today?" Kai asked grumpily. "Zane's moping or something, Jay doesn't want to hear about the execution, and Lloyd didn't even want to talk to me!"

Nya and Cole shrugged unhelpfully.

Lloyd started eating his food slowly, eyes glued to the table.

Suddenly, the alarm went off. They all stood up at once, alert.

"A hybrid attack," Zane announced, sounding monotone.

They all quickly headed for the gym. While they were walking in the crowd of people, Lloyd slipped away. He exited the school like a shadow, and then quickly pinpointed where the attack was. It was in the middle of the city, in front of Borg Tower, where the half breed had been executed. The half breeds had come to get revenge, and with a pang of regret, Lloyd knew that he had to stop them. He quickly spun into spinjitzu, changing into his Green Ninja gi, and then leaped into the action, pulling out his sword. He swiped at one half breed, and then spun around to block a blow from another. After exchanging a few more swipes, Lloyd realized that some of these people were from Bane Bete Noire. Figures. He was pretty sure that anyone from Bane Bete Noire wouldn't care who got executed, they just wanted an excuse to attack Ninjago City. As he was fighting, the Ninjago City army arrived. They quickly got to work in helping him fight the half breeds off, but as Lloyd watched them, they seemed untrained. The half breeds would have overpowered them if it weren't for their numbers. Huh, weird, Lloyd thought.

As the fight dragged on, the half breeds started to overpower the army. The army was unable to hold them back. Lloyd used his power to blast some half breeds off of one of the soldiers in the army, but Lloyd realized that he, too, was being overpowered. If he had some help (not the army's help, they seemed pretty useless), then he would be far more efficient in battle.

The Ninjago City army was soon overpowered, as there were far more half breeds attacking than usual. Lloyd wondered how the city had defended itself all this time. Soon, it was only him against the hybrids. Lloyd fought with everything he had, but he knew that he too would soon be overpowered. He needed to end this quickly.

He blasted his power at some, knocking about ten over, and then spun into spinjitzu to throw some more into some walls.

Suddenly, one of the half breeds thrust his sword at Lloyd. Lloyd had been blasting another hybrid across the street, and had not noticed the advancing enemy. Lloyd gasped in pain, a burning agony in his side, and almost collapsed to the ground. He spun around, stabbing the smirking half breed, and then used his free hand to hold his side. He could feel blood pooling through his gi, and he knew that he had to stop the bleeding.

The other half breeds, realizing that he was injured now, advanced greedily, wanting to take him out. Lloyd was not going to let that happen. One hand on his wound, the other clutching his sword, he swung wildly at them. The half breeds leaped back, but started to surround him on all sides. Lloyd, panting in exhaustion, spun into spinjitzu. He whipped through a bunch of them, sending them flying. He stopped, getting his bearings, and then did it again. The half breeds were starting to look confused, and their looks of triumph had vanished. Lloyd's energy was quickly being drained as he kept up the spinjitzu. He felt ready to pass out. Thankfully though, Lloyd realized that he was winning. The half breeds were backing off now, and some of them fled into alleyways. Soon, Lloyd had won the battle and had chased the half breeds back into the Outcast.

Satisfied that his work was done, he hurried back to the school, spinning into spinjitzu to change back to his normal clothes along the way. He hurried to the bathroom first though, and using the medical supplies in his pack, he quickly patched himself up. It looked bad, though. It hurt like crazy, and he had lost a lot of blood. He had wrapped it up the best he could, but Lloyd knew that he needed stitches. After washing as much blood as he could from his gi, he quickly checked to see if his normal clothes had blood on them. He really should have changed into them after he had stopped the bleeding. His shirt was soaked with blood, and so he rinsed it out as best he could. His sweater, thankfully, was fine. He wore his sweater over his shirt anyway, and so no one would notice the blood on it. After he had packed his gi and sword and medical supplies up, he hurried to the gym.

Everyone was just leaving it, and he quietly snuck into the flow of students. His side was burning, and he involuntarily winced every so often. It hurt to walk, but Lloyd had had worse. He knew that he would be fine, eventually.

Kai, Cole, Jay, Nya, and Zane came up to him just then.

"Hey Lloyd, where've you been?" Kai asked, looking suspicious.

"Yeah, you weren't in the gym this whole time," Jay said, looking worried.

"Um, I was…in the bathroom," Lloyd lied. He knew that no one could know that he was the Green Ninja. If anyone found out, it would put him in the spotlight, and that was what he was trying to avoid.

"Uh huh…" Kai raised an eyebrow disbelievingly. "Kind of a poor time for that, don't you think?"

Lloyd shrugged, trying to act nonchalant, and then turned to go. His friends followed him.

"Hey Lloyd, wanna go to an arcade after school?" Jay asked, sounding excited.

Lloyd was about to ask what an "arcade" was, but he stopped himself. If he kept on saying that he didn't know what things were, they would only get even more suspicious. "Um, sure…"

"Great!"

"The rest of us are coming too," Kai said, walking next to him. He tried elbowing him playfully, saying, "Of course—" But, it just so happened to be Lloyd's stab wound.

Lloyd gasped in shock, feeling pain flare up in his side, and he quickly put a hand to it, trying not to whimper. He edged a bit away from Kai, who now looked worried and confused.

"Are you okay?" Kai asked.

Lloyd nodded mutely, feeling as if his voice wouldn't work.

His friends all shared a worried glance with each other.

"Are you hurt?" Cole asked.

"No." Lloyd walked a little ways ahead, not feeling like getting interrogated again, and reluctantly took his hand off his side.

His friends quickened their pace, catching up to him.

"Then why did you gasp in pain?" Kai asked with narrowed eyes.

Lloyd gritted his teeth in irritation. Last time, when his ankle had been hurt, they had left him alone. Apparently, they were more concerned now than then.

"How did you get hurt in the first place?" Nya asked skeptically.

"I'm not hurt! I'm fine!" Lloyd snapped.

They all shared another look.

Finally, Cole sighed. "Alright. But if you're hurt, we're not gonna judge you for it. We just want to help."

You would judge me if you knew what I was… Lloyd thought bitterly. "I'm fine," he repeated.

"Okay, then," Nya said. "If you ever want help, all you have to do is ask."

Lloyd nodded, not intending to do that.

"Um, anyway, are you still coming to the arcade, then?" Jay asked.

Lloyd nodded again. His side still burned, but he couldn't resist a chance to be able to explore Ninjago City some more.

"Alright, then, we'll meet after school in the back, okay?"

"Yup," Lloyd agreed.

Wu and Garmadon were at their small home, taking a break from scrounging for food. Misako and Lloyd were still in the city. Wu had debated telling Misako and Garmadon about what he had found, but had decided against it. He wanted to investigate for himself first. The hard part would be convincing Garmadon to let him go somewhere for a few hours, by himself.

"Garmadon," Wu started, trying to collect his thoughts on what he would say, "we haven't scouted out this area yet."

Garmadon nodded thoughtfully, so far not suspicious. "We probably should do that…"

"Yes. I'm going to scout out the area. I'll probably be gone a few hours."

Garmadon looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "Oh really? By yourself?"
"Yes."

"Um, you do realize that we're in the Outcast, right? You can't just go off by yourself!"

"I'll be fine. Besides, someone should stay and guard the camp."

Garmadon huffed. "I'm not letting you go off into the Outcast alone."

Wu grabbed a katana from their meager weapons pile, and then grabbed two shurikans, tucking them into his belt. He turned back to Garmadon. "I'll be back in about three hours."

Garmadon leaped to his feet. "Excuse me?!"

Wu left the shelter and turned right. He would head north for now, in case Garmadon attempted to follow him, and then he would head for the city.

As expected, his brother followed him out. "You're really just going to go off by yourself?!"

"Yes."

"Why not later, when Lloyd and Misako return? Then we'd have someone to guard the camp, and we could both have a look around."

"No. I'll be back in a few hours."

"I'm coming with you."

"No. You need to stay here."

"Wu! You can't just go gallivanting off!"

Wu ignored him, knowing that whatever he said wouldn't change anything. A few minutes later, Wu didn't hear Garmadon following him anymore. Good, he thought. After a few more minutes, he turned left, heading for the city.