TW: accidental harm, blood
When Lloyd was younger, he wanted to be just like his father.
He wanted to be like his father so much that he got into trouble with the ninja for it. He made mortal enemies with them; a group of fourteen year old, hastily trained and overpowered kids in bright-coloured suits with a destiny too big for their young shoulders.
He was only eleven himself.
The irony? Lloyd's father - the great and terrible Lord Garmadon - didn't even know that he existed for the first ten years of his life. The tyrannical man had been missing since before the kid was born, having been lost to the Underworld just a few weeks before his wife found out that she was pregnant.
Lloyd didn't know the whole story about his father. He didn't know about the agonising battle against the evil poison that had slowly been altering his DNA, one sequence at a time, since he was a child. He didn't know about his father's fear of becoming something he hated, he didn't know about his grandfather's frantic and fruitless search for a remedy, and he didn't know about his mother's steadfast will to stand by her husband, or his uncle's guilt. An entire story lay untold.
When eight-year-old Lloyd found out from his mother that his father was Lord Garmadon and wanted to take over the world, he only cared about two things;
One - he wanted to finally meet his father.
And two - he wanted to stand by his side at the top of the world.
It wasn't the power, or the four arms, or the way that people shivered in fear whenever Lord Garmadon's name was mentioned that made Lloyd want to be like him. He just thought he was cool to have as a father, and, much to his mother's diluted horror, wanted to follow exactly in his footsteps.
As soon as that idea blossomed in his head, his mother, Misako, had placed him in a boarding school while she scoured the world for something, anything to stop the impending battle that was doomed to hurt her family. Lloyd was bitter with her decision, but she knew something that even his wise, old uncle didn't;
Misako knew that Lloyd was the Green Ninja. She knew that one day, her son and her husband would have to fight.
It was foretold by prophecy, and despite the impossibility of stopping it, Misako was determined to try. Surely, there was something to turn Garmadon back? Surely, there was something to prevent such a horrific battle from happening?
While Misako scoured every museum she could get access to, Lloyd's boarding school got overtaken by the awful students that he called classmates. He tried to join in on the festivities as they paraded around the school, but they made his tummy churn with guilt.
He was kicked out by the other kids and was homeless at eleven. His mother still believed that he was in the boarding school.
He resented her for that.
And then he may have released some snakes.
And then got caught by his uncle, who'd been searching for him for weeks on end.
And then he met his father, which was more awkward than how Lloyd had imagined it over and over again when he laid in bed at night.
He imagined that his father would be overjoyed at the thought of having a son. He thought that his father would've been one of those cool dads that would visit the other kids in the boarding school - all slick and sleek and making secret handshakes with their sons. He thought that he would've brought him in for a hug and give him a noogie and then tell him all the ways to incapacitate a man.
Instead, Lord Garmadon looked sick.
It made little Lloyd panic.
Was it the red eyes? Lloyd thought that Lord Garmadon would like his red eyes - they looked just like his! Or maybe it was the small, stubby fangs that showed off when he smiled? They were hardly as sharp as his father's, sure, but they were definitely there!
But maybe he didn't like the red eyes and fangs, much like how everyone else Lloyd met didn't? When his father stared at him with a still, pale expression, Lloyd desperately mustered back his green eyes, but his fear of not being accepted by his father kept causing them to slip back into a frightened red.
