The Dark Heirs: Ninjago

Practice

Upon arriving home from the museum, Garmadon told the twins to play outside for awhile while he did some cleaning.

Sensing something was wrong, Lloyd gave his dad another hug before following his sister to their treehouse.

Garmadon watched them climb up the ladder into the treehouse, waiting until they were busy playing to hit the wall beside the sliding door.

Rubbing his upper left hand on his face, hitting the wall with his right hands, covering his mouth with said left hand while he let his emotions loose.

Angry tears rolled down his face as he thought of the prophecy, that destiny had chosen to put one of the two -three- people he loved into that role.

Why did destiny always give him the short end of the stick? Why could nothing good in his life last?

He tried to calm down, saying to himself that it couldn't be certain unless he saw the Mega Weapon react to Lloyd's presence without his own energy interfering.

The venom hissed in his brain, "Why bother? You already know it to be true."

Trying to distract himself by dusting, he eventually called the twins back in when he felt composed enough.

"There was a prophecy told centuries ago, about who would defeat me." Garmadon said to them, "One ninja will rise above the others and become the Green Ninja, the ninja destined to defeat the Dark Lord. And, I have been told that my father believed that the Green Ninja is you, Lloyd."

"Me?" Lloyd asked, his mismatched eyes widened

Garmadon nodded, "Yes, but there is only one way to know for sure. The Golden Weapons react to the presence of the Green Ninja, and the Mega Weapon is merely the weapons combined so it should react to you as well."

He then held the Mega Weapon out towards Lloyd, watching it float and create a green mist around his son, confirming his worst fears.

Tears sprang to the chosen one's eyes, "Well destiny can kiss my butt! I'm never gonna fight you!"

"Then that can be how we win, if we can agree to never fight then we can make the prophecy void." The Dark Lord said, his voice cracking slightly as he hugged his son

Lloyd sank into his embrace, promising to never ever fight with him.

Once the two males regained their composure, Garmadon pressed a kiss to Lloyd's head before looking to Harumi, "I guess this means I know which of you is inheriting my element and which is getting my brother's. Harumi, you will be the next Master of Destruction, while Lloyd is getting the power of Creation. When you both reach the age of maturity, we will start feeling the transfer of elements which will take years -maybe even decades with how long our lives are- but for now, I will train you both the basics."

***

The Overlord was annoyed with Garmadon, he had managed to avoid destiny twice and was on the way to doing it a third time.

First, by finding his son he destroyed the original timeline and postponed the final battle by years, and was not here on the Dark Island upsetting the balance, which meant Lloyd had not been discovered to be the Green Ninja and thus the Ninja had time to clean up the Devourer's Venom which prevented the Stone Army from reawakening.

And now by not waking the army with the Mega Weapon because Misako had intervened out of the plan, the timeline's attempt to reset had failed.

How was he supposed to steal the Golden Power from Lloyd now? How was he supposed to use Garmadon's body as a host with him not here?

***

Pythor P. Chumsworth, Anocondrai General and self-proclaimed Serpentine King, found himself floating through the Endless Sea after waking up from being in the Great Devourer's stomach when he washed up on a shore.

He knew it wasn't Ninjago, everything felt slightly off like a reflection with too many teeth, even the very air was suffocating.

"Finally." An icy voice said from above him

The serpentine looked up, seeing an orange, pink and purple cloud floating above him, "Who are you?"

"I go by many names, but you may call me 'Overlord'." The spirit said

"What is this place?" Pythor asked

The Overlord floated higher, trying to lead him away, "It is the place you were always meant to find. Destiny brought you here."

"A thrilling descriptor but that does not answer my question." The Anacondrai said

"The Dark Island." The Master of Darkness said, "Follow me so we can defeat our common enemy."

***

In the backyard, Garmadon gently instructed the twins through basic stances, not pushing his ten-year-olds to learn everything at once -like Wu did, he bitterly though of how his brother treated his almost-nephew.

He praised them openly when they did it right and softly corrected them when they did something wrong, wanting to be encouraging with his teaching unlike his father, who punished him and Wu for every mistake.

Lloyd and Harumi would never fear their father's anger, unlike what he and his brother experienced; which led to him getting bitten since he had to be the one to climb the wall to prevent him from getting angry over losing a katana.

Once he deemed they had practiced long enough for their first day, having only done about two hours worth, he let the twins go play.

Walking inside, Garmadon went into the bathroom and looked at his reflection in the mirror, looking at what he had become.

Despite being only a quarter-oni, he looked fully oni now and he had not bothered to change it before.

He knew oni could shapeshift, but with how little oni blood he had he could not do so fully, only making minor adjustments to his own appearance -like how he had before being banished made himself look older so his aging had lined up with Misako's, only going back to his true appearance when without her, or how Wu made himself look ancient despite only being halfway through his lifetime.

So, if he could go into oni form, surely he could go back to a human one.

Staring at himself, he willed his skin and hair paler, for his extra arms to recede, but he had no such luck.

It seems the lightning he had been struck with had trapped him in this form.

That was unfortunate, it would be hard to get his children into a school when he looked like this. Perhaps he just needed to practice it?

Pushing the thought aside as he left the bathroom, he went to the kitchen to work on making food for the three of them...